30 Aug 2024 15:26:45
Well, sad to say for all parties, Sancho looks like he's staying. No other team considered him worth the price. With that reality now upon him, perhaps he will buckle down and actually become an asset on the field. He's done very well in Europe so maybe that's where he will be used most often. If he has half a mind to work as hard as he did last year he will see plenty game time and enjoy some success. If he can accomplish that, with his book value down to around £15m, a good deal for him can surely be reached next summer.
I can see why United were disinclined to move him on if they were left having to cover 1/ 2 or more of his annual cost of £25m or thereabouts, and his departure would have required a replacement that cost more. All parties may now be in the frame of mind to make this relationship work. I'm sure ETH will have been instructed to give it an honest whirl. Let's hope so.
30 Aug 2024 16:03:08
Ornstein seems pretty confident that he’s Chelsea bound, but I suspect it will just be a loan with no obligation. If that’s the case, I’d rather we keep him for another season, as it’s too late in the day to bring in a replacement and knowing our luck he’d excel at Chelsea and end up making us look like mugs again. Then again, I suppose you could argue that paying him hundreds of thousands of pounds a week to not turn up makes us look even more foolish, so with Juve out of the picture, it’s a lose-lose situation for us.
30 Aug 2024 16:25:24
Sorry to say, but we all know forced truces just don’t work. It’s obvious with his body language and everything else, that Jadon still has an issue with ETH. I’d get rid at any reasonable cost tbh. His sulky demeanour could derail the whole season if we aren’t careful.
30 Aug 2024 17:00:24
Ed002 told us before we signed him that he wanted to go to Chelsea, he’s managed to act so badly and play so badly in the time he’s been with us that he’s made himself a perfect Chelsea signing. Good riddance.
30 Aug 2024 17:01:47
Why do we need a Sancho replacement? He doesn't look likely to be involved so we don't need to sign a player to replace a guy who isn't going to make the squad.
30 Aug 2024 17:17:17
I think it's a case of eth has a problem with sancho.
It's personal I don't have any doubt about that.
He needs to move for his own sake and get away from eth and united.
Chelsea is a good option for him.
30 Aug 2024 18:16:50
Sancho doesn't need replacing.
Last season he played 115 minutes for us across four sub appearances.
In the three years he has been a United player he has scored 11 goals and got 6 assists.
He got 3 goals and 3 assists in his first season across 37 appearances.
In his second season he managed 7 goals and 3 assists across 38 appearances.
And zero goals and assists last season across 4 appearances.
At his best he's been distinctly average, at his worst he has brought the club into disrepute.
What is there to replace? Amad has more starts and goals than Sancho last season after 2 games this season. I wouldn't be surprised to see him comfortably beat Sancho's season best 10 goals and assists for United across all competitions.
30 Aug 2024 18:29:06
My heart brleeds for him. The least we can expect is he outs in a shift, the fact he has never done that bin a United shirt is shameful.
30 Aug 2024 20:47:22
We have four senior wingers at the club who only contributed 16 league goals and 9 assists between them last season. Antony and Ahmad got one goal and one assist each, and they’re our only options on the right once Sancho leaves.
A reminder that we finished the season in eighth and with a negative goal difference. We absolutely need to replace Sancho and Greenwood, just as we needed to replace them last season.
This “we were bad last season so it’s okay if we’re bad again this season” logic is pretty strange even for you, Shappy.
30 Aug 2024 21:12:21
redseven
Amad was out first half of the season, antony was out for a while with his personal issues.
We were disjoined and wrecked with injuries and never got a settled first 17 forget about first 11, your assessment of our wingers is just pure rubbish and just a strange how low you hold so many players.
31 Aug 2024 01:23:51
I’m merely pointing out that for whatever reason, the four senior wingers were going to be relying on for goal contributions this season provided very few between them in this season just gone. Injuries and personal issues are going to happen in football (this season looks to be a case of more of the same on that front), so shipping out a player who could have helped lighten the load without replacing them seems somewhat foolish, especially when doing so strengthens a team that we may be competing for top four with (I say “may” because I think Chelsea will probably end the season closer to City and Arsenal than us) .
As for the way I talk about our players, last time I checked, Sancho was (and technically still is) one of our players. Dgmw, I think shipping him out is the right decision, but going into another season relying on players like Rashford and Antony to deliver is a risky strategy, especially when you consider that players like Palmer, Foden, and Salah got more goal contributions in the league last season than all of our wide players combined.
31 Aug 2024 10:46:07
Redseven, you are perfectly correct.
They have a lot to prove and improve upon.
Ignore the double standards.
Last time I checked casimero was not heavily complemented by ahmad nor was sancho or Anthony they are or were our players.
We have scored very few goals as a team over the last couple of seasons. Minus goal difference last year. We have not scored enough goals zirkzee is the man eth had chosen to solve that and amad as they were not there at all or much last season.
Garnacho is the only one of our 4 wide men that I have any faith in and the only consistent one but he still has a lot to improve.
Maybe zirkzee is the missing piece that's what eth thinks so I hope he is right.
31 Aug 2024 16:50:39
Redseven, it's a little unfair to fully judge them on last season. The whole team was wrecked by injuries and devoid of any sort of consistency.
Forward players need the defence and the midfield behind them to play well to give them the platform and ammunition to score goals.
Our options are:
Rashford, a player who has proven when he is in form he can score 20-30 goals a season.
Antony I agree doesn't look up for it in the EPL, but has a respectable goal return in other leagues.
Garnacho had a breakout season last year, he is definitely capable of scoring 10-15 goals this season.
The same for Amad, he showed can be a regular goalscorer getting 14 goals for Sunderland in the last injury free season he played.
We also have Højlund, a player who had one of the best conversion rates in Europe last season, but was starved of chances. If we can create 3-4 decent chances a game for him then he should be able to get 20-30 goals a season.
Zirkzee has joined and while not a prolific goalscorer, he does create great chances for his teammates while often scoring important goals.
Bruno is often forgotten about, yet we know he is capable of scoring 15-20 goals a season.
Mount is one of 4 midfielders currently playing in the EPL who has managed double figures in both goals and assists. While he joins Bruno and KDB as the only three to do so in back to back seasons.
Mainoo has also shown himself to be pretty deadly when he gets forward as well.
If we add those up:
Rashford 15-25
Antony 5
Amad 10-15
Garnacho 10-15
Højlund 18-25
Zirkzee 10-15
Bruno 10-15
Mount 10-15
Mainoo 5-10
If all of them manage the minimum number that's 93 goals, if they all manage the higher number that's 140 goals.
The reality is that not all of them will get near the higher estimates, yet all of them individually are capable of scoring that number of goals.
Add a few goals from defenders and other players (MdL, Casemiro, Dalot, Maguire, Eriksen have all been known to grab a few goals each a season) .
I firmly believe there are goals in this team, personally I'm less convinced by our ability to keep clean sheets then I am by our ability to score goals.
We need our forwards to find form, and to do that they need the team to play well around them to give them the quality chances they need to score.