22 Sep 2024 09:02:08
Liverpool - Defeat
Brighton - Defeat
Palace - Draw
Southampton - Win
Barnsley - Win
The table never lies. Defines the pedigree of ETH quite nicely.
22 Sep 2024 09:52:31
BRD,
You throwing your toys out of your pram.
22 Sep 2024 13:33:49
BRD, the table never lies only when all the games have been played.
As always you like to remove any and all context to support your rhetoric.
The Liverpool game is the only game where we played badly. We started well and were the better side for the first 15 minutes or so. But then Liverpool slowly got a hold of the game, scored a quick souple of goals and our confidence crumbled. That was poor and no one is saying any differently.
We should have beaten Fulham far more comfortably than we did, wasting 2 or 3 really good chances.
The game against Brighton we were sucker punched, we had the better of the chances and shaded them in terms of performance. But got caught in extra time. That was unlucky.
We were far and away the better team against Palace, but came up against a man of the match performance from our former academy keeper Dean Henderson, while we should have done better with a couple of the chances we had.
This season in the EPL we are currently:
4th for touches of the ball.
3rd for number of passes.
6th for possession.
5th for number of shots.
1st for number of "big chances" missed.
Joint 2nd for number of times we've hit the woodwork.
Joint 2nd with Arsenal for clean sheets.
Onana has gone from 2nd most saves made in the league last season to currently 16th. Due to being much better defensively.
We are 2nd in the league for expected goals (xG), if you understand that stat.
Yet despite all those stats highlighting where we rank in terms of many different performance based metrics we are 11th in the table.
I assure you at this stage of the season the table very much lies.
The managers job is to come up with tactics, game plan and team selection to support the team performance. Yet results often depend on individual performance and not the team performance.
For us so far this season we have been let down by individual players finishing. Players presented with good opportunities but they fail to capitalise on them.
The team have played well, or at least well enough in all the matches, bar the Liverpool game, to win all of them.
Based on performances this season we deserved to beat Palace, get a bare minimum of a draw with Brighton, possibly a win. We should have also got an extra goal or two against Fulham to improve that goal difference.
That would give us a minimum of an extra 3 points and put us on par with Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle (4th, 5th and 6th), or maybe an extra 5 points and put us level with Liverpool, City and Villa (1st, 2nd and 3rd) .
But we aren't there, and that is down to players not taking good chances created for them. That is down to individual players and not the manager.
22 Sep 2024 14:01:06
If you don't see or recognize a major positive change in terms of everything we are doing and patterns of play, you are blinded by your personal bias towards the manager.
22 Sep 2024 14:22:28
saves, shots xG etc does not cut it Shappy, we do not have an out and out goal scorer. There are only 4 teams who have scored fewer goals than us this season and three other teams tied with us on 5 apiece.
ETH will be gone soon enough, as we do not score anywhere near enough goals, our goal difference is 0, probably only as we have strengthened the defence, and are not as open in midfield.
If you do not score goals yon cannot win games, no matter what the stats say, end of really. We have not really addressed the goal scoring situation in the past 3 - 5 years. Zirkzee is another hopeful to go alongside Hojlund, he is 23 and should be ripping it up by now.
It is just not good enough, we need and should have several proven goal scorers, we are Man Utd, renowned for entertaining football. Fergie always had options upfront, at this present moment in time we do not.
22 Sep 2024 14:31:02
I will skweem, and skweeem, and skweem. (stamps feet loudly)
22 Sep 2024 15:12:17
Jrred, only Liverpool have created more chances to score than us so far this season.
Let that sink in for a minute.
We have created more chances than Arsenal, City, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle and Villa.
All teams that have been praised this season for their good play and form, and rightly so for the most of it.
Yes we could do with a world class striker. Ashworth should have popped down to the local ASDA where they have shelves and shelves of them.
Seriously the 36m we spent on Zirkzee was all we had to spend on a striker this summer. The only way to spend more would have been to not buy one of MdL or Ugarte. Both of which were needed.
So which world class strikers do you think we could have signed this summer?
The reality is there are very few top end strikers available, we were not the only team looking for one this summer, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, and AC Milan were all looking for a new striker, and none of them signed one better than Zirkzee or at all in most cases.
If there was a top class striker available this summer all those clubs would have likely been ahead of us in the queue for them as well.
Your suggestion that EtH should be sacked because the players he has aren't good enough seems an odd one.
Surely if we don't have good enough players that is on the club and not the manager.
The manager has devised a system, tactics and a game plan that is consistently producing good chances for our forwards. He has done everything he can to support the players, but he can't kick the ball for them.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and likewise we cannot rebuild the squad in one summer. No matter who the club signed this summer there was going to be holes in the squad and areas of clear weakness. In light of so few good options up front they have chosen to rebuild other areas of the squad where they could bring in quality players.
Maybe next summer a top class striker is available and we can move for them, or maybe there won't be and we will need to continue developing the players we have.
Still no point crying over things that cannot be changed.
{Ed001's Note - Gyokeres was available in the summer.}
22 Sep 2024 15:30:47
Ed001, so was Santiago Gimenez, yet no one was prepared to pay what it would have cost to get them.
United definitely didn't have the funds without making concessions elsewhere.
For United to sign Gyokeres it would have meant not signing both of Zirkzee and Yoro and use those funds on Gyokeres instead.
In the short term maybe that would have been a good idea, but long term I think United made the right choice with Yoro and Zirkzee.
{Ed001's Note - not a chance, you are deluded if you think that. I like Zirkzee but you needed Gyokeres not him and he would have made much more difference to you. He is a goalscorer.
Not sure what Giminez has to do with anything, other than you trying to pull meaningless names out of a hat to prove some non-existent point.}
22 Sep 2024 16:06:47
We have had trouble converting big chances for a number of seasons, not sure why it still hasn't been solved.
My personal bug bear however is the lack of movement off the ball when in possession, it is far too static.
22 Sep 2024 17:39:22
I'm not going to paste a pre-copied list of strikers here, but I'm sure if a few months ago we were asked to come up with handful of options to spend £40m I'm sure Joshua Zirkzee wouldn't have been on anyone's list. It feels like nothing more than a Dutch connection to me. We are not feared with this selection of attacking players. Maybe that will change if we can continue with this better run and confidence grows. As long as we don't see that ridiculous Mount/ Fernandes pairing again maybe there's a glint of light at the end of the tunnel.
22 Sep 2024 18:02:44
Rhetoric. Get a grip Shappy. It’s my opinion driven by the facts of our season so far. Deluded belief based on victories against Barnsley and Southampton.
Then ETH drops the only in-form goal scorer we have. Then what happens? 0-0. Absolute shambles of a manager.
22 Sep 2024 18:09:17
I did expect Rashy to start based on the Barnsley game but to be fair Garnacho also played well in that game, and we've all been crying out for Diallo to start more, so something had to give.
22 Sep 2024 18:37:47
Sounds like a wake here. We drew and played really well. on another day we win 3-0. we are creating chances with a team that has quite a few new players in it that just getting their feet wet. Take stock after 10 games and midway through the season imo. until then let it develop.
I am very optimistic goals will come, these players are too good to keep missing. Making life difficult for ourselves atm but like a lot of things I am seeing.
22 Sep 2024 18:47:37
So our top goalscorer Spenno?
The team needed a victory. A decent one, not just the should-easily-be-beaten if we think we’re as good as we believe we are.
ETH talked about rotating players. For what exactly? Twente? Give me a break. Palace was the much bigger game and our inability to score cost us again. Maybe though ETH knows he won’t get top-4 so prioritising Europa?
Rashford should have played and then rested in the week ready for Spurs.
Like many I’m frustrated by Rashford. But. He was the most in-form fit striker we had. ETH instead (having spent months trying to get the guy in form) tries to be cute. He benches him. Yet again he derails any chance of progress with his selections.
Really don’t care what jibes are thrown my way. ETH is not a top-tier manager and never will be.
{Ed077's Note - in reference to the discussion on strikers above, We didn't fail to score against Palace because our Striker was poorin fact Zirkzee helped create chances and should have had an assist or 2 but our other players failed to score from the chances he, and others, had created.
22 Sep 2024 20:21:58
Now they all want rashy to start lol. if he starts they all complain because amad or garna get dropped. Honestly can't make this stuff up.
22 Sep 2024 21:40:34
If it don’t go in the net it ain’t a goal!
Quote stats all you like but the one that counts is goals. Simple fact.
23 Sep 2024 08:22:13
KEEFYT7143, that is what I was saying above, you can use all the stats you want but if you do not score a goal you ain't going to win, simples!
Shappy thanks for the quote of 'only Liverpool have created more chances to score than us so far this season', that is exactly my point, stats are meaningless, basically created and promoted by marketing gurus of TV and betting companies.
23 Sep 2024 09:26:31
Amen to that jrred.