Pizy

I'm just glad to get Old Toilet out of the way so early, win or lose. Better now than in the run in at the end of the season when there are loads of fixtures.

Yeah, this preseason has been a big reminder for me about Zouma's shortcomings. His concentration/focus isn't great (which the espn commentator mentioned seemingly a dozen times yesterday) and his ability on the ball is very subpar. He almost never made forward passes this summer that were more than a few yards. He always plays the safe sideways or backwards pass. I think Zouma will be fine this season against certain teams but I 100% would not play him against super quick, highly technical teams like City/Liverpool/Arse. Luckily, it seems like Rüdiger isn't far away. Hopefully back to his 18/19 form.

It is, indeed. Live by the Luiz, die by the Luiz. Hope like hell that Kante is ready by next weekend. Rasford, Martial, etc running at our defense doesn't exactly sound exciting after what we've witnessed in preseason, does it? 😅

Think he'll 100% go with Zouma and Luiz until Rüdi gets back.

Nah, Jorginho's skill set is just much greater than Kova's. He offers way more. All of those long balls into channels that he loves to play should be much more dangerous with Pulisic, Mount, and hopefully soon CHO getting on the end of. Kovacic offers literally zero offensive output and is also suspect as hell defensively.

Do think we will have to accept that as long as Jorginho is in the team we must take the good with the bad. He's great on the ball and as an outlet for Kepa and the CB's when they're being pressed. But he's a big Achilles heel in quick turnover situations. Opponents will continue to target his area and he will certainly struggle against athletic midfields. With Luiz behind him....yikes. Kante hopefully moving back to his natural position will improve things. God, I hope so. I could see us really struggling this season defensively if he doesn't.

I want an update on Batshuayi. He may be our best option up top. Not convinced by Tammy and Giroud is no more than a bench option. At least Bats has the talent and shows flashes of being top class. He should probably be our #1 striker.

Completely one sided second half after a terrible first half. Should've scored 4-5. Clearly going to take quite a while for Frank to sort out our biggest problem which is transition defending. Same as it was under Sarri. When we lose the ball in the center of the park or a team plays a piercing ball between the lines we are absolutely dead. Like, every time we get killed that way. Hopefully Kante getting up to speed makes a huge difference.

Mount again! He's so good!

Mount has been our best and most dangerous player today. Excellent runs off the ball and good pressing.

Clinical striker on any of these Tammy chances today and we'd be on the board.

Jesus, man. We should have 3 goals here...

Desperately need Kante and Rüdiger back. Our two best defensive players.

Just awful. Without Kante we're being ripped apart through midfield with ease. Kovacic has zero defensive awareness.

It's pretty embarrassing how poor we are on the ball. Can't handle being pressured at all. Also can't pass accurately when we have it in midfield. Very concerning.

As with just about every goal we've conceded in preseason, it comes from a dreadful giveaway from us. And that challenge by Kovacic. Kante wouldn't have allowed it.

AC and Zouma together should be really interesting. Neither is a leader/organizer who is assertive. Both have always had that sort of CB paired with them.

Hmm. I thought it would be nailed on that Michy would start this one. Not even in the squad. Has to be an injury, right? Talk about terrible timing if so.

I'm actually kind of excited to see how we do with zero expectations this season. No one is going to pick us to finish top 4 or win any titles. We're kind of the dark horse. Anyways, just looked at the trends on Twitter and the hashtag #FreeZouma is trending worldwide. 😂 Everton are desperate for him to come back.

Smalling, Jones, Rojo, and Bailey aren't starting caliber CB's for a top team but as depth that's pretty damn good. Left back is thin so they will need the injury prone Shaw to stay fit, though. Will be interesting to see what sort of XI they'll go with if they pull off the Dybala and Fernandes signings. Having a midfield 2 consisting of Pogba and Fernandes will be fantastic going forward but very suspect defensively. And replacing a classic #9 with Dybala who doesn't really have a set position seems super risky. Not at all convinced he'd be this superstar signing for them. Has Di Maria written all over him. A South American player who reluctantly joins United when he would've clearly preffered to stay at his previous club. But this potential XI: ----------Martial---------Dybala-----------Rashford -------------------Fernandes-----Pogba------------------ Shaw----------Maguire-----------Lindelof------------AWB ---------------------------DDG---------------------------- Looks pretty damn strong. Certainly MUCH better than what they've had in recent years.

I mean, they do on paper anyways. Massive upgrades at CB and RB. Shaw seems good now and apparently what's-his-face from Sweden improved greatly under Solskjaer. And now DDG won't have to work miracles to win them points so he'll probably return to his best.

£80-85m for Maguire who would cost literally half that if wasn't English. More than DOUBLE what we paid for Rüdiger, a full fledged German international who regularly starts and plays for them. One of our best players last season. He is very good, though. United now have probably the best back 4 in the league or at least right there with Liverpool. If they make another signing or two I think they'll challenge for the title.

It's Arsenal. They'll either make a really good start to the season or have a great patch at some point where everyone thinks they've finally turned a corner. Then they'll callapse near the end when all the fixtures pile up. They're definitely a dangerous side, but I don't think they'll be title challengers or even a top 4 lock.

And so many of those shots and dangerous scenarios came from us being terrible and irresponsible on the ball. Schoolboy stuff at times.

Some big time positives (Pulisic, Barkley, Emerson) but also some big time concerns. As great as we looked on the break, we looked really poor with the ball in possession. Just constantly playing sloppy passes and giving the ball away. We also really struggled against their high energy pressing. That for me is the biggest concern. Loads and loads of teams all over Europe play that way now, even the smaller sides. Luiz was probably our worst player. He looked like the Sideshow Bob version of Luiz that other fans make fun of him for. Really poor decision making. I just have to assume our defending will improve drastically with Kante back in. I hope so, anyways.