13 Mar 2024 10:17:31
Shappy has written an article entitled, Does The Manchester United Squad Size Matter?
13 Mar 2024 11:51:09
It’s absolutely a problem. Every three years we have a new manager coming in, deeming some of the players surplus and wanting to bring in their own players. However, because the club vastly overpaid for the players now deemed surplus and they’re on massive wages, the club struggles to sell them. That leaves the club with a lot of players that know they’re not wanted in the squad. Hardly conducive to a good atmosphere and easy to see how different cliques have formed. Added to that no clear leader in the dressing room, plus the amount of injuries, and boom you have this mishmash of players out in the pitch.
But it’s hard to see a way out of it. FFP constraints mean the club needs to sell to buy. Yet, they value players way above their market price and, as we have seen with Martial, players are reluctant to move if it means a massive reduction in salary. It hammers home precisely why a club needs directors that shape the long term direction of the club, rather than relying on managers who could be sacked if results turn.
13 Mar 2024 15:27:04
I find the mentality issue odd. What kind of business people invest millions of pounds in an 'asset' without carrying out the necessary due diligence?
The Glazers are obviously not idiots so why would they approve of so much of their (sorry Redman) money being spent without the most basic of checks?
Like you say Shappy a massive part of whether a player is any good is their mentality. It seems obvious to even those of us who are inexperienced in business that you thoroughly investigate the mentality of a player before buying them.
To keep repeating the same mistake over and over and over again to the tune of a billion pounds seems beyond the realms of possibility.
13 Mar 2024 16:05:57
Shappy, what I am not sure of is who the 36 players you are referring to are, if it is as listed on our official website, then 8 are on loan not 5. Out of the remaining 27, 3 are Kambwala (promoted to 1st team in Dec 2023 as a necessity), Forson and Shoretire (dont remember him playing any minutes this season) . The reason i bring up the these three is who in City's 24 man squad can equate to these three academy promoted lads? Without them we will be at par with city's 24. One less than Arsenal's 25.
13 Mar 2024 19:10:02
The Glazers do/ did not run the club on a day to basis. They rely/ relied on the executives hired to do so. They don't know anything about football, and unfortunately the people they hired to run the club haven't known much either. Woodward, in particular, was a disaster from a football point of view. He even echoed the idea that winning the title wasn't important. After a decade of utter incompetence they've finally given the responsibility for gathering a competent team to run the club over to SJR. Let's hope he can make a difference.
13 Mar 2024 21:59:02
mbd,
Bayindir, Heaton, Onana, Lindelof, Maguire, Martinez, Malacia, Varane, Dalot, Shaw, AWB, Williams, Evans, Alvaro Fernandez, Kambwala, Amrabat, Mount, Bruno, Eriksen, Amad, Casemiro, Pellistri, Donny, Mainoo, McTominay, Gore, Hannibal, Forson, Martial, Rashford, Hojlund, Garnacho, Antony, Sancho, Shoretire, Greenwood.
While 8 are now on loan, of those 8 only Fernandez, Williams and Greenwood were on loan before January. Giving us a 33 man squad for the first half of the season.
City have a first team squad of 27 players in total (including young academy players Rico Lewis, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Oscar Bobb, James McAtee and Perrone) . Three of which are out on loan along with Cancelo and Phillips meaning they have a first team squad of 22 players right now. Of which include Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb. As well as the young Serio Gomez. By the time you take out those three who play very limited minutes, as well as Carson and Ortega as the back up keepers, then you are left with a core squad of 17 players who play regularly.
They have 12 players in their squad with more than 1000 league minutes this season, meaning 10 players aren't getting regular minutes.
United until January had 33 players in our squad with only 13 players with more than 1000 league minutes. Meaning 20 players have not been getting regular minutes.
You can't create a tight knit group when you have approaching 40 players.
Until January our squad was 50% bigger than Man City's (33 to 22).
The difference is the vast majority of Man City's second 11 would get into our first 11. Whereas we might be lucky to get 4 players from our entire 36 man squad that would have a chance of getting into City's second 11.
We need a core of around 18 top quality outfield players who can all perform at a high level and where the drop off in team performance is minimal regardless of which of the 18 are playing. That leaves space for 3 keepers and the cream of the academy to be pushing to fill out the last few spaces in the squad.