OneMoSalah

Torres-esque there Easier to score than miss but he somehow misses.

No way we will get Lukaku. Why leave Inter where your number 1 and playing under a manager who tried to sign you before and them again pushed to sign you? Not a chance. Also for me, the summer window will make or break Tuchel here. If we dont go for players he wants then he will undoubtedly call people out on it and we will have a bad season like we did with Conte. The club has to commit to him or at least some signings he wants to compromise or it will be another messy season.

If Dortmund will take him in any deal for Haaland, just do it. Beyond caring now he seems to miss more often than do anything good for club or country. Really hope Tuchel doesn’t rely on him next season and gets another striker in at least if he keeps going this way and we don’t, he will cost us big time. And cost the manager. Not quite Torres though so always a plus but not looking exactly promising that Werner will be a huge hit here.

So whats your opinion on us in 2003-2007 then? We spent almost £400 million in that period alone, in a time where British teams and the majority of big European ones didnt spent huge money. City are just doing what we did and taking into account market inflation, obviously they’ve spent more but I find it odd when people slag them off for not following FFP or whatever. People tend to forget when people complained about us spending by the bucketload. You dont win any points for being respected by teams your competing against in the transfer market. Hence why all the good teams are ruthless in recruiting. Community Shield maybe glorified friendlies but its the same as the Italian Supercoppa or DFL Supercup or whatever. Same with UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup, maybe glorified exhibition games but people still count them. Winning cups on penalties is still winning them? Lets not pretend as if it matters how you win a trophy.... if we had won the one on pens under Sarri it wouldn’t be an issue. And getting an easy draw is part and parcel of cup competitions, particularly FA Cup because theirs always big teams put out by a smaller ones, which is what makes the FA cup exciting. When they get the 3rd, that will be 3 PLs in 5 seasons. Best rate out of current managers in the PL. In which people say is the most competitive league in the world because of the money other teams have to spend, its difficult to retain a title now. Who was last team to retain a PL title? I have a feeling it was a Fergue team back before 2010. Again with FFP, 2003-07 what do you think of us spending large sums then. Clubs calling us big spenders and people wanting wage caps etc because we were blowing them out the water. Taking into account market inflation since then, its not as if we are innocent in this regard and should complain, it would be like Real Madrid fans complaining. Also rumours we will try take advantage of the loosening of FFP this summer so be interesting to see peoples stance if we do. Yes those 2 individual titles hold more merit but overall if City win everything it will go down as the best season for a club in modern day PL history since United won the treble I would think because no one will do it again. In fact I doubt City might even do it but if they do, nobody is topping that or doing it again. Its basically impossible but we are 2 months from the season finishing and they are in good shape for it. Even a treble of league and either 2 domestic cups/1 and a CL and that is better than most teams will ever achieve in one PL season. Bayern only didnt win the DFK Pokal your talking about because a very talented manager and Borussia Dortmund squad knocked them out on their way to winning it... Winning the CL is the most difficult trophy to win obviously but I do find it odd he never had more success particularly with Bayern and City in that regard. Dont get me wrong, it doesn’t take away from what hes achieved since coming onto the scene and yes there was that horrendous refereeing performance by he who wont be named against us but its almost as if your forgetting everything else Guardiola achieved in the CL with those Barca teams. And the manner they won those games. Its very strange for a manager to win 1 CL within their careers in modern day football, yet alone 2. Ancelotti, Jose, Fergie, Zidane, Heynckes also multiple CL winners. Not exactly a huge list is it? Palace is a bad example. Remember they went and appointed Frank de Boer to try play a more possession based style? They desperately needed to invest in players to suit it. The point isn’t exactly invalid but top managers tend to buy top players to suit their football and push them on to win trophies. We’ve seen it here and at various other clubs. Not just Pep. Klopp needed van Dijk and Alisson before winning anything at Liverpool. We needed Costa, Fabregas and Courtois back under Jose to win the league. United needed van Persie under Fergie to take the title back off City before he retired. Basically the better players you have now a days the more likely you are to win, whether or not it makes you an amazing coach or not, it’s debatable but 75% of top managers now are closer to chequebook manages than anything else. How many actually coach players and take them on to a higher level to win titles? Pochettino is a good example of this, amazing coach, great progress with certain players at Spurs but more importantly what managers are remembered for, 0 trophies. Nagglesmann also. Even Tuchel didnt win a huge deal before spending money at PSG.

And they’ve won 8 trophies in the most demanding league in the world. Whilst potentially being one of the top 3 teams in the continent for prolonged periods. As well as having the chance to win a quadruple this year, which if done, will probably be the greatest achievement in the modern day history of English football. Can say its going amok or whatever, but its quite simply being ruthless and thats why City probably have the strongest squad in Europe without a shadow of a doubt. Pep couldn’t get success with the fullbacks they had so changed them. Couldn’t find success with Claudio Bravo, so changed him. Has signed the likes of Laporte, Stones, Dias, Ake to completely overhaul his defence. Id like to see what your opinion would be if we had done this. Plus if you aren’t proactive or aren’t signing the top level players as we have seen with Jose and Conte, you very easily fall behind the next season because everyone else is buying. The PL as a whole has developed the culture and the economics where teams can afford to spend so much money and still be stable and in modern day football it is much easier to buy a top player than develop one through the academies.

I think those comments were very much tongue in cheek though because lets be honest what manager hasn’t been successful without spending large sums of money? Sir Alex Ferguson did it depsite claims United would never spend what we did or what City did. Mourinho did it here first time around then again at Real Madrid and at United. Mancini did it at City. Pellegrini done it at City. Pep has done it at City. Klopp has done it at Liverpool. Conte did it here also. Not many managers now are successful without spending any money.

I think he wanted him. Although he was declining, Ancelotti talked about us needing a freshness to try revive our title defence which is why I think he pushed for him and David Luiz because they were younger and different to what we had. Plus you look at the squad then, it was needing more players with different attributes to offer and younger more importantly. We had also made bids for them both in the summer that were rejected also. Which Ancelotti also thinks didnt help Torres.

I agree with the point to a degree, he was a good player here but lets be honest he was so irrelevant in that second PL title win with Conte, as soon as we swapped to a back 3 he was out in the cold and played 4 times since September before he left, after originally playing the first 5 games with Conte in a 433. And when Conte challenged him to stay and fight for his place instead of going to China, he left. The deal was excellent for the club and player yes but we got the much better end of it. Undoubtedly. Getting rid of a player who looked like he may have truely struggled to fulfil his potential, who didnt play in the starting 11 every week, for 60m... only one winner there.

Having a reasonably good season for Juventus despite their struggles under Pirlo. Scored 7 goals and has 8 assists in 17 starts and 5 sub appearances in the league. Plus has scored another 9 goals and 1 assist across 12 appearances in the CL and other 2 domestic cups. Wasnt great v Georgia though by all accounts for Spain.

Gareth Southgate hit the nail on the head. “I was saying in the autumn that he is a very good player. I suppose now Thomas Tuchel picks him, everybody will agree,’ Southgate told a press conference. ‘When it was Frank Lampard, it didn’t count for some reason. ‘He’s an exceptional player. He finds space intelligently, he manipulates the ball very well, creates chances, scores goals. ‘I thought his performance was excellent tonight.’

Most fouls yes he got that quite a lot. But doesnt mean every foul was a horrendous tackle. Or explain the muscle injuries. For me its an excuse to cover the fact hes always been a poor trainer (look who has all said it about him, Mourinho, Mikel, JT) and what has happened to him at Real would of happened here so in hindsight getting rid of him was the right move. Plus he lacks the mentality to play for a Real or a Barcelona, have always felt that, just isnt ruthless enough. They want to be the very best (maybe just now isnt best time to make this comparison but still) which is why guys like Ronaldo, Messi, Bale, Suarez, Neymar have all been hugely successful there. Because mentally they wanted to be the best players in the world or better than player X, Y or Z. I think it would of happened here in all honesty. So that deal we sold him for looks better and better every time I see hes out injured or that Zidane can’t explain what is wrong with him. The thing is, average players or not, he played his best football of his career here and when he retires he will probably acknowledge that himself. Everyone always said he needed better players etc but his performances for Belgium (look at their squad) also havent trumped some of the performances he put in here with less talented players. But nobody mentions that either. Realistically hes 30, he probably has 3 or 4 more years in him at a higher level before he will fade off but even then I think hes pretty much done in terms of the level of player he was here. He will never be mentioned as a top 10 player in the world unless he does something huge.

I agree to a degree, if he can keep us playing well and rotating every now and then whilst he does so then it adds some unpredictability to the team from an opposition point of view ie: who will play/shape etc. but again, I dont think hes hugely rotated the 11 that badly since coming in but its better to have a settled 11. I would say having a system and structure in place where you can change 3 or 4 players most weeks and still deliver good performances and results is also impressive and not to be seen as a bad thing. I think he will make some moves in the summer though and put his own stamp on the squad. I would think he will want a CF, CB and maybe look for another midfielder? But again Kovacic-Jorginho have been picked pretty consistently. So have Azpi and Rudiger. Then Werner and Mount too. Plus throw in the GK and Alonso. He has only really changed the RWB between James and CHO and then who else makes up the front three.

He made a point of pulling Kova, Ngolo and Jorginho about this in his first training session apparently and said they would be key to him but also he would be rotating between them depending on the opposition, game plan and fitness also.

And water is wet. Still think a lot of the big clubs wont want to deal with the financial incentives his agent will get on top of the huge fee and wages this summer and that can only be good for us and other clubs. I think we, Real Madrid, PSG or Man City might be more inclined to just go for him regardless of his agents demands etc. Although 180m is madness, no way anyone will pay that and I dont think Haaland is the shy sort of character either to sit on his hands and wait for a club to meet Dortmund’s valuation. Hes a top top player and you can tell he knows it so if he was to ask to leave, that would force Dortmund’s hand as they would still likely get more than his reported release clause in 2022 which is €75/£64 million it they sold him this summer.

Ing’s isn’t good enough to be a top clubs starting CF. I don’t buy the City links to him either. Not one bit. Seens a lot like the British media putting 1 and 1 together and getting 3 because Aguero is older with question marks about his future and Ing’s is coming up to having 1 year left on his deal after a season where he scored career high goals. City would of tried to sign him in the summer just gone if they wanted him because it would be fair to assume Gabriel Jesus has hardly convinced regularly in Aguero’s absence although for me, he is proper a better all round player than Ings. Plus City arent short of 30-35m or whatever it would take to sign Ings who would of had 2 years left on his deal and cost Southampton around 20m initially. Would buy the links to Spur’s more as a back up to Kane/to play in tandem with Kane because he suits their sort of recruitment model under Levy more as we have seen with the likes of Rodon, Hojbjerg, Doherty, Sissoko, Alderwereild, Ben Davies, Dele Alli, guys who had some experience playing in English leagues. If we don’t get a top CF and buy Ings I would be bitterly disappointed to be very honest. I could see him as a rotation player or a back up. He maybe offers more than Abraham perhaps but he doesnt strike me as the sort of guy to elevate the team any higher than it already is.

More because we only had Caballero as an alternative I would imagine. Cant see the hee haw now for playing Mendy, who is a better goalkeeper, in a semi final.

Yeah that is true. I think as well whilst City are playing well they have a lot of games still like us and have to play 5 times in 2 weeks basically as we do. They also have Leicester, Leeds, Dortmund twice in 4 of those games and also a cup final a week after they play us, so undoubtedly they will utilise their squad at times (we all know its strong but there’s definitely some players I would rather see not start, ie. Aguero, De Bruyne, Joao Cancelo and Phil Foden - although probably end up starting all four v us 🤣). They’ve definitely got a tougher run in than we do in those fixtures prior to the cup but I hope those 4 games throw up a few issues for them.

Slightly concerning but at the same time, I think if we can put in a performance like we did v Liverpool or in the Atletico games, we have every chance. I mean United managed to beat them and comfortably also. Records are there to be broken and I would hope this may give him extra motivation also. Although I dont know if coaches are hugely bothered about their head to head records v certain managers as opposed to their teams standings. Also re Kepa; I would be surprised if he plays in the cup semi or final if we get there. Even though Kepa has to play sometimes to try drum up some potential interest and for Tuchel, to manage the squad well I do think we will see Mendy if hes fit and available. Although, who knows, maybe he will stick with him for the cups? I think it would be a second sink or swim moment though for Kepa, if he got that opportunity he would have to play well. If he cost us in another big game in front of a hugely improved defence, there will be more serious questions. Saying that today he did his job well. Long way to convince people obviously and understandably so but easy to ignore praise where its due.

Probably because he was a big part of that run they went on alongside the more obvious candidates Fernandes and Rashford. Hes not flashy or particularly outstanding in the more creative aspects so its easy to see why people dont value that sort of player but hes the sort of player thats handy to have around and for United, who lacked that more defensively minded midfielder it made sense. McTominay has made him more redundant to them now though as has Fred’s improvement so I think he will be gone in the summer if they can move him. If we didnt have Ngolo Kante or signed Bakayoko he would of remained here as Antonio Conte initially wanted, although even with Bakayoko’s arrival he still wanted to keep him, which I think based on how well he and Kante played the previous season, it was a move that although it turned out well in terms of him not replicating those levels for United that season, wasnt exactly a huge win for us either as Drinkwater and Bakayoko were terrible buys. United dont have a similar approach to renewing older players like as we do. In fact not a lot do. We are one of a few who are extremely strict with regards to this although we renewed David Luiz for 2 seasons and offered Willian 2.

No but again, your half missing the point. Good strikers/attackers can take half chances or limited service or next to nothing and do something to affect the game. I am not expecting him to recreate that Costa goal or a goal like Morata’s third in that hattrick v Stoke, I have no doubts that he isn’t particularly capable of those sort of goals but the opportunities he has had that he hasn't really taken advantage of, where he finds himself in scenarios which if he was more decisive or confident or generally better technically at times, he should be doing much better. I agree our chance creation rate isn’t amazing leaving a lot to he desired and that he is perhaps a volume shooter but a lot of teams also create scenarios in which the goalscorers individual quality makes more of the difference than the actual approach play. Liverpool with Mane and Salah at times are key examples of this also, a lot of Salah’s goals involve him fashioning a shooting chance himself. They get the space also but they still have to actually fashion the chance or do something to create the space/opportunity to shoot. I dont see how he can have gone from being so clinical in Germany to being what he is now. He is 25 years old so saying hopefully he can develop his composure with experience is simply something I don’t think should he applied to him, in fact I think if he lacked composure he wouldn’t have reached the goal total he did last season because some of them were tough finishes in which hes found himself in similar situations this season but its just not worked out be it through being inefficient infront of goal, getting his positioning wrong or just suffering from a huge confidence dip. He’s been around for long enough and scored enough goals where we should be able to expect more. If he was 20, 21 I could see the point.

Ziyech top finish. Not the best performance but with us playing poorly and still winning after a big midweek game plus making several changes, its not the end of the world. Results are more important in this stage of the cup. We are in the last 4 now, lets see what the draw holds.

Wow what a miss as well. Even Timo, Torres, Falcao and Pato would of scored that fucking hell, lucky as fuck.

What are those subs about? 2 defenders on? Very strange.

Its not but thats were good players are able to fashion out chances from those positions. Werner is clearly a good player who can do better in this aspect particularly on the right side at times. For example, Costa v West Brom from that near impossible angle few seasons ago where he managed to hit the top corner highlights how good players are capable of creating goals/chances out of very little. Or his goal in the cup final v Spurs, its not exactly a hugely promising position but he managed to set himself to shoot and although it was deflected, he had made the chance to shoot. Harry Kane is another who has managed to score a number of goals from more difficult positions. Jamie Vardy also over the seasons. Werner has got the pedigree and has the ability to be more proficient in these areas, if he can only score goals on one side or relies on balls that get him in only from one side then he’s not going to have much chance of being a top top player is he? Or score as many goals as we would want him to... Other players are spurring chances, is correct but Werner scored 30+ goals last season. You would think he would be more proficient or able to get more goals from the positions he gets in but for various reasons he isnt. Thats the point and the general concern, we are not talking about Mount or Havertz etc, although Havertz could have scored v Leeds easily. No point in deflecting away from this every time its mentioned and saying what about player X or Y when Havertz, Pulisic, Mount are as you said yourself, are different types of players. Werner may be a different type of player but thats not going to save him or give him luxuries of playing every week because he is different to Callum or Christian, particularly under Tuchel who is notoriously demanding and has shown before he isn’t exactly afraid to turn around and change his 11 or change his system. The position Morata arrived from isn’t particularly vital, the point is more how he is able to set himself and buys himself an extra second to set himself with that touch because if he lets it run to his left the ball is a bit wider out and it also might have given the defender more of a chance to get back. Its the same with players receiving the ball on the half turn or how they position their bodies so they dont need to take extra touches and can play quicker, it seems a basic skill but its also hugely effective and thats why people are so focused on how players position themselves to get onto passes/create shooting positions etc. City’s forwards are a massive example of this.

Personally, for me, having watched a few highlight reels of games with Tuchel, Timo has found himself in good positions sometimes in the channel but he doesn’t always seem to know how to position his body or take the right touch in which it takes the ball across defenders/be in a position where he can set himself to shoot better. A good example of what I am talking about is Morata’s first goal v Stoke in our 4-0 win with Conte. He takes what would be seen as a more difficult touch from Azpi’s ball in behind as opposed to controlling it with his left foot which means he has bought himself extra time to set himself and shoot on his best side. If he lets it slide across to his left and he controls it he doesn’t have as much time to set himself and gives the defender a better opportunity to get back. Jason, what is the point here? Lets be real, he is not going to get them put on a plate to the point where he doesn’t have to do anything bar tap them in every week, is he? No striker is going to consistently get every through ball played only from central areas over the course of a season. Thats why attackers have the hardest positions in football, because some days you get good service some days you don’t but at the end of the day their job is for them to score/assist/affect the game in a positive manner. He's had a collection of moments where he’s ended up in some okay positions but just hasn’t been making the most of them for various reasons and as mentioned above, its probably something that isn’t necessarily a huge issue in terms of him not being a good player but its also something that is frustrating because we know he is a good player and has good pedigree. Even the times the ball gets trapped under his feet etc, which happens a lot, these aren’t necessarily complex things in the grand scale of it, its more the basics. This may also stem from his confidence in this period though which I wouldn’t be surprised with but some of it undoubtedly also comes from his attributes as a footballer. Sometimes he might only end up getting one or two half chances in a game. Sometimes he will get five or six. Either way, he has to become more efficient in every aspect, from taking the ball/controlling it to setting himself to shoot. Its getting to the point where the rest of the team are playing at a high level and making half chances so sooner or later he has to put them away or we will look for other solutions. Which is why I think Havertz as a false 9 is going to be more of a reoccurring theme towards the end of the season. The luxury he has right now is that perhaps Pulisic hasn’t really arrived this season due to a reoccurrence of injuries which has hampered him playing 4 or 5 weeks from the beginning in a row to get some match rhythm but he has to be wary because Hudson Odoi is more than capable of being a prominent feature in that front 3. Mount will also continue to be prominent.