OneMoSalah

Love this van Dijk will be equipped to stop Lukaku narrative Sky are running, even funnier considering Barnes and Wood won plenty of individual duals against him at the weekend. Hes not fully up to speed granted but I don’t think he was any better than Matip was or even that good. If Burnley had better quality and better players they could have caused more harm that they did.

New contract please

Big balls to drop Werner (although the writing was on the wall) v Arsenal as I expected many felt he would play off Lukaku but again, like most things Tuchel has done here it was the right call. It showed that we can be a pretty good attacking team without Werner using Lukaku, Mount, Havertz and the wingbacks, despite the fact many people believed he wouldn’t leave Werner out at all because he is a “key part of the team” or offers pace and movement. Honestly, whilst its only one game, I really get the impression Tuchel will use Werner like he does rotating between Kante, Kovacic and Jorginho depending on the opposition. Or if he ups his game something huge. The games v City and Liverpool for instance, or bigger European games where we might be a bit more pragmatic or play more on transitions, I would expect Werner to be used then. Against majority of the teams in the leagues I would expect 2 from Mount, Pulisic, Ziyech and Havertz playing off of Rom. We have a lot of flexibility though in attack now with Lukaku. We can play into his feet, he’s able to roll people, he will run the channels and ultimately in the box his movement is sharp. I know its 2 games in but I think now we will be definitely competing for the title, that has to be the goal. All of TT’s interviews talking about wanting more and not looking back on the CL is very promising and the sign of a winner also.

Stepped in and done well, again, a good squad player to have. Maybe not amazing or not likely to be first choice but you can see a huge difference of him this season in these 3 games than his spell under Tuchel last season. He looks fitter and sharper.

Open play assist for James goal, @NikkiCFC where you at? Red Cafe talking about Pogba? Bar a Leno save from Lukaku and Havertz mistiming his jump from another good cross, could have easily got 3 assists today with better finishing/luck…… So for a bad game by sounds of reactions on here, 1 assist on top of considering that most days he probably would of gotten at least one more (Leno save top drawer tbf) and perhaps a third, not bad…

Lukaku, Havertz, Mount from now on please. Werner has it all to do to get in the team although he will definitely play a part.

UEFA voting is based on the CL performances though no? So why would he best 3 players who made the final and 2 who won it for UEFA awards? Where as Ballon d’Or is based off the whole year for individual players. So there is Only one clear winner. Messi. If it is any of Kante or Jorginho fair play but I still imagine the usuals will be in the running and will make up the top 3.

Either way it has to be Tuchel or Mancini. I think winning an international tournament is bigger though, just because they are less frequent so may swing it Mancini’s way.

They are probably 3 of their best players though. Throw in Tierney too hes one of their best. I would much rather Willian, Lacazete and Aubamayang played in their front 3 than Martinelli, ESR and Saka. If we get Lukaku in and about Ben White it will be goals galore, he was horrendous v Brentford.

I think Mancini should get it. Whilst Tuchel did a great great job, Mancini has overseen Italy winning the Euros when no one expected them to at all after previous shambles of not qualifying for the world cup, as well as masterminding something like a nearly 40 unbeaten run over the last few years, including that run being part of winning a major tournament. I get its manager of the year, so the 40 games run isnt exactly relevant but I do think Mancini’s achievements with Italy will still be hugely underrated and probably difficult to replicate.

Are people forgetting Ballon d’Or is an individual award? Messi, the best players in the world, still, single handedly carried one of the worst Barcelona teams in recent seasons under an average manager. As well as carrying Argentina basically. It is his to lose. Whilst both impressed and played huge roles under Tuchel to think they will win Ballon d’Or is incredibly optimistic. It would be like saying Mikel or Drogba should of won Ballon d’Or in 2012. The obsession with stats - particularly goals and assists - in world football at present and considering the fact nobody has even mentioned Lewandowski who again, had another outstanding year or Cristiano Ronaldo, who also got 30+ goals again for Juventus, make it very improbable that either will win it. ”Messi had terrible season” what sort of class A drugs are you on? Jesus. Stopped reading after that. When is 38 goals and 14 assists in 47 games at club level a terrible season? When its an individualist award too? Dont be so silly.

I think he suits RCB pretty well based on what we have seen so far including pre-srason. His athleticism and use of/comfort on the ball is good for that position but still it’s different playing on the right side of a 3 as opposed to in central midfield in a 2 or a 3 so can understand why Tuchel maybe has his doubts or wants to see him kick on a bit before trying him there.

If Burnley had a few better quality players in attack this game would be different. Barnes and Wood do the basics right but missing that little bit extra and McNeil cannot provide a spark for them every attack. Personally think the van Dijk love in after today is going to be OTT, the Burnley pair have won a fair amount of duels against him and Matip. Just lacking final bit of quality to punish them though.

Pretty sure you still have to do 10 days isolation even if double vaccinated for testing positive. Can still transmit it to others. Or is that out the window?

Nobody has renewed Drinkwaters contract?? Nor has there ever been any reports regarding it. It wont happen. He signed in 2017 through to 2022….. if he doesn’t leave before then he won’t get another contract 100%.

Away and talk shite. You may not have said “a word about Mount” but you 100% shared that stats for a specific reason or why the fuck else would you have? I mean cmon, do you think we are all stupid 🤣? Also considering the amount of posts you have done complaining about Mount and open play assists since he started playing under Frank, turning around and saying that posting that stat was only a “interesting observation” just makes you look very stupid. Unless your a United fan who loves Pogba and on the wrong forum?

Someone said get Werner out of the club at the open session today, they had a microphone. Lets be honest though, its not as if people haven’t been coming on here or social media and posting get player X, Y or Z out of the club (I am sure Ziyech was the most recent one on here after Hakimi went to PSG because Ziyech apparently told him he didnt like it here - which wasn’t even an actual rumour just arms and legs added onto the fact he was unsure if he was part of Tuchel’s plans) or events like the opinions of a percentage of fans that Eden, Cesc, Costa got Jose sacked back in that piss poor season where we had a title defence. Or similarly, fans booing Jorginho because he was “Sarri’s son”. Or chanting Sarri doesnt know what hes doing. Or people going mad demanding Sarri is sacked because he isnt playing RLC or CHO. Unfortunately these things happen regularly in one form or another. Werners an elite sportsmans though, whilst it’s questionable if it should happen at an open session, I am sure it wont affect him. If he gets affected by one idiot with a microphone at an open session when hes played infront of biggish crowds and at high level games for the best part of his career, I would be concerned about him.

Probably missed it.

Talk about nitpicking 😂 I mean firstly who cares, he’s still homegrown and still counts as an academy player… regardless of if he was here since age 8 or age 15. I mean we picked JT up from West Ham when he was 14 or 15 so does that mean there is also a difference for him? Or anyone else?

Fucking hell here we go again with the stupid comparisons, someone who doesn’t even play the same position or hasn’t done majority of his career (like Grealish again) but ok I will play. Firstly Pogba isn’t a number 10/attacking midfielder. Hes an 8 or has played off the lefthand side in big games because he cannot be trusted in the middle of the pitch. Secondly Pogba has scored 28 goals and made 33 assists in 5 full PL seasons and the game v Leeds this weekend past, playing virtually every week most seasons and one game this season….. averaging 4.6 goals and 5.5 assists per season over his time in England. Hardly that impressive for a near £100m player who was/still is hailed as world class/a top top player (which lets be honest can be as good as you want once every while but being world class means you do it every week)…. even worse bar one season - 2018/19 - where he scored 13 PL goals 9 assists he has never scored more than 6 in a season in the PL for United bar that year. He got 3 goals 3 assists last season, 1 goal 3 assists the season before, 6 goals 10 assists in 2017/18 and then 5 goals 4 assists in 2016/17…. Mount has got 13 goals and 10 assists in 2 full seasons of PL football basically having never played bar at Derby and Vitesse. Also Mount 21 big chances created in 2 seasons more or less, Pogba 26 in 5 seasons more or less. So its a bit of a idiotic comparison to make, even more so on one game where he’s got 4 assists. I mean when United play next week and he gets 0 assists and lets say Mount gets a few will you be posting in here? I don’t think so because you seem to be very selective in when to post stupid shit re Mount in here 😂 Also more importantly how many CL final goals has Pogba ever assisted? Or how many big games at club level has he actually done anything in?

All different scenarios though for those 3 though. I don’t see Lukaku struggling with the pressure at all. In fact I think it will be the opposite, I think he will thrive because he knows outsiders will have doubts about him or that he isn’t maybe as well rated as he perhaps should be based on what he’s done in the last 12 years of his career. I mean even the price, going for £70+ million 3 times in your career in your last 3 moves, your going to feel the pressure of that price tag the first time surely? Not the second or the third around. I don’t think it was ever a guarantee that Shevchenko could have suited PL football though or Mourinho’s team at the time but either way he was also 30 years old when we signed him. He also only managed to score 52 goals in 160 games from when he signed for us in 2006 (22 here, 2 at Milan and 28 for Dinamo Kiev) until he retired in 2012 so its not as if he did it elsewhere after leaving here either. And Torres was finished before we signed him. And always was an ill fit, we should have signed Dzeko for instance who went to City as he was the mould of what we had or even tried for Suarez who was rounded and able to play off the sides as well. Whatever Torres did to get to that 2010 world cup fucked him as a top footballer, I mean Jamie Carragher said he knew that he was already finished when they sold him to us. Morata was a mystery as he looked like he had all the ability to be a top top player. Just obviously has confidence or mentality issues which he still has based on the games he played for Spain in the last year and how the fans were on his back.

They couldn’t keep Messi and register all the players they’d signed as it was financially impossible by the sounds of it due to the wage/salary limit set by La Liga. I mean Messi was reportedly on close to or over £1m a week depending which sources you believe (although they’ve reported he is making that at Paris actually so maybe he was on even more) so they’ve probably free’d up close to at least £55-65m a season in wages now (or more if he was on more). Not to mention Pique taking a paycut also as well as I think they’d asked others but they didn’t accept by sounds of it.

I’ll be honest for someone who has played at Manchester United, Inter Milan as well as for the best Belgian national team on top of making 3 £70m+ moves in the space of the last 5 or 6 seasons, if he struggles with pressure it would be insane.

Regarding the runs, lets agree to disagree. Its not as if every footballer in the world will get passed to for every run that they make as there are 10 other players on the pitch but he still receives passes for an amount of these movements and still needs to do more at times to affect the game in other ways. At a top team, you cannot just be the guy who can only run in behind to affect the game. Even more so if you’re not playing as a number 9 but more as an attacking midfielder/wide forward/wide 10/second striker or whatever you want to call those positions depending on who’s in them between (Mount, Kai, Hakim, Timo, CHO), you want goals, assists (granted he did get a lot last season), chances created and generally an influence on the games in some way. It goes for all of them but I just don’t see Timo being that on a consistent basis and I do think once Hakim comes back if in the same sort of level he was pre-season, he and Lukaku will probably play very often together leaving one space in the 3 for Mount/Timo/Havertz and perhaps CHO. I think Ziyech is going to be huge for us if he keeps fit and kicks on.

Suppose it depends how fit Chilwell is though. If he’s not at the pace, it would be safer to continue with Marcos who so far hasn’t really put a foot wrong in the last 2 games. If he is fit enough though then aye bringing him in isn’t as big a risk. Its same for Reece on the right. Its just a weird and tough pre-season as Tuchel said in numerous interviews.