Manchester United (Part 2)

Yeah - can't read that much into the game. Perth tried to play out from the back which meant we won the ball within 10 yards of their penalty area... and 11 of them had already parked up behind the ball. On top of that United had trained in the morning. So eh.

Always find it interesting... having played against A-League/reserve level players before... how fudgeing fast they are and how ahead of the game they are... then they go face up against an EPL side and they look like slow amateurs. Just reminds you how good these guys actually are.

Greenwood has had the best season a young player could ask for. His finishing is normally superb, and he can hit 35 yard free kicks on either foot.

Gomes has the potential to be something else. I think if anything will be his downfall it's that he's a little slow. Otherwise, his dribbling is a sight to behold. Some confidence and some fortune and this guy could be a generational talent.

Leeds U v ManU is on ManU TV tonight

Nottingham Forests John Robertson was slower than a wet week but one of the best wingers around in his time. I know I have had to trawl back 40 years for an example but hopefully the lack of pace might not be a problem.....

The thing that bothers me the most is the inability to offload players, we have  enough center backs for a complete starting 11.  Im not really a huge fan of football365 but this article was one to think about.  

https://www.football365.com/news/f365-says-solskjaer-cant-chop-deadwood-with-hands-tied

Just poor management from the board, Woodward and Ole.

Not sure how that's Ole's fault, not like he was there when those contracts were signed.

Smalling renewed his contract on the 16th December and Ole took over on the 19th. Can't believe he did not know. Phil Jones resigned on the 8th February this year, so in my book he is as much to blame.

bit late now, but is anyone in Perth? I’m over here, had a great week. Off to Adelaide tomorrow to see some family before heading back to New Zealand on Sunday.

Hey guys, any of you keen on joining the picks this season? 

It will not be Arsenal-centric this time... 

If we can get at least two of you, then we can have a leaderboard for team fans against each other which might be pretty fun... 

Traditionally we have not had any prizes, we just do it for fun, but if that is a prerequisite for you we could see if everyone wanted to chip in a cupla bucks. 

Anyone keen?

Leggy? You are a frequent visitor, I'm sure we can get along well enough to get through a season of picks... 20 Legend, Blew, Nelfoos, you guys are fairly frequent visitors, whaddaya reckon? You can always start and see if you like it... also i will try and post pick weeks quite decently in advance so you could pick a whole lot at once and leave it for a while... happy to do anything to help accommodate... 

Not much of a sales pitch but go on, you won't regret it... or maybe you will... 

Don't have the time anymore to follow closely enough, hope others can get on board tohugh.

I'll get involved - Man Yoo fans, sure you don't want to take on this 'Pool fan?

Intriguing, what are we doing? Put me down for it and fill me in with the details, either through here or PM. :)

Here's the thread: 

https://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/english-and-other-british-lower-league-football-discussion/topics/yellow-fever-english-football-picks-2019-20

And here's last season's thread, to give you some idea:

https://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/english-and-other-british-lower-league-football-discussion/topics

So basically, every week we pick the scores of the games involving our teams (Arsenal, Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea), and also select a cupla players in each game. There is a scoring system for picking correct results/scores, and bonus points for your players for scoring goals, making assists, and clean sheet points for defenders/keepers. 

We run a leaderboard for individuals, but this season we'll also run a "team fans leaderboard", where the team gets an average score from the supporter's scores, if that makes sense. All will be outlined in that thread over the next week (I am assuming you are a ManU fan at this point, correct me if wrong!). 

We also run a bit list of pre-season picks list that you have a stab at, at the beginning of the season. That's picking the top 6, relegation teams, highest scorers/assist makers/clean sheets for the season and more. 

I will also post lists of match rounds ahead of time, so that if you're worried about missing weeks, you can make picks in advance.

It sounds like a lot but shouldn't be much work for players... I post regularly with what you need to do etc. Will keep a tight ship. 

Keep an eye on the thread, I expect to have the preseason picks list and all the rules up within the next week.

Deadlines for you are:

- First game of season (so need to make first match picks by then) is on the morning of August 10

- Deadline for the full preseason pick lists will be Sept 2

FYI, we also may play for cash, will gauge interest in the thread, and perhaps we can chip in something each. 

Not long finished, but a nice, and somewhat intense (for a pre-season game anyway) 2-1 victory over Tottenham as things really start to ramp up in preparation for the Premier League in a few weeks time.

Unfortunately though, Bailly looks to have sustained another serious knee injury, so it's really putting the pressure on now to get a deal done for Maguire or other targets before the 8th of August...

Have to say, the youngsters & new signings have really taken their chances on tour; 

Wan-Bissaka has been tenacious at the back, good speed doubling back and getting stuck in. Think he has looked a little bit jaded, but am going to put that down to his U21 commitments with England a month or so back, so maybe not as fresh as some of the other lad's.

James has been finding a lot space and making some excellent runs, both in behind defences, but also in between the lines, providing good support going forward. He is going to be an absolute nightmare to teams this season. Still a bit raw, but my god it's heartening to see a pacy winger who's willing to take people on. As seen in the Tottenham match though, he is absolutely going to have the legs kicked out from underneath him over and over this season. I'm sure he's up for the challenge.

Really impressed with the showing's from Gomes and Greenwood too. Bright, breezy & confident young footballers, it's good to see them progressing through the ranks at the club. They'll definitely get their chances in and around the first team setup this season which is so very pleasing to see.

Next up - Kristiansund & AC Milan before Chelsea on the 12th.

I've seen it all now, Twitter users arguing over whether Bruno Fernandes was crying or wiping sweat from his eyes, in order to deduce whether or not he is signing for United.

I think it's a massive loss if we fail to sign Fernandes, I genuinely think he could add such an extra dimension to our midfield, it's been years since we've had a technically gifted player in there.

Say what you want about attitude, but I think I'd class Pogba as "technically gifted", if nothing else.

You're definitely right, but I kind of treat Pogba as his own case hah. So being we're playing three in the middle would it be Matic/McTominay as the holding midfielder then Bruno/Pogba in front of that? 

I'm thinking we'll play something 4-2-3-1 looking, with Pogba and McTominay/Matic as the double pivot, with a Mata or Lingard in front. If we don't sign another CM I think Fred will see a good amount of minutes in the 2 as well.

Yeah I think you're right, although I feel just having one holding midfielder suits us better as it frees up Pogba to play out towards the left where is seems to perform better.

I really worry with any of our current combination and it showed last year that we just lack somebody with a bit of dynamism and energy in the middle, somebody willing to get all over the field and just inject some drive and hunger in there. 

I don't see Matic playing over McTominay by choice. And I don't see Fred starting over Pereira.

With a bit of preseason left, my current guess for Chelsea would be:

De Gea
AWB - Smalling - Lindelof - Shaw
McTominay
Pereria - Pogba
Rashford - Martial - James

With basically Rashford and Martial swapping throughout the game.

That said, my dark horse guess would be that Pogba doesn't start vs Chelsea. Reason being his lack of pressing has been an obvious weakness against all our opposition.

Yeah from what I've seen I'd say Pereira has almost played his way into a starting birth in midfield for Chelsea. Think it'll be him or McTominay. Matic looks so slow and laboured and doesn't fit our system at all.

Wouldn't shock me either if Greenwood started over James. On the evidence of the Spurs game, I'd play Martial through the middle.

Obviously as an Arsenal fan I'm shocked, but also delighted, at how far Sanchez has actually fallen, that he no longer even enters a discussion to be a starter. It's astonishing really.

What are you guys going to do with him? Isn't he actually a hindrance to be sitting in that dressing room right now?

What has he been doing in preseason, or has he just been playing for Chile?

If Sanchez plays a minute this season I'll be disappointed. He's actually that bad.

Think he did pick up an injury while playing for Chile, don't recall if it was serious or not.

As for what are we going to do with him? Well, hopefully in the wake of Gareth Bale's scuppered move to China, perhaps a wealthy Chinese football team owner will look to make a particular Chilean his club's big name signing...

Hasn't been involved in pre-season yet so won't be starting against Chelsea regardless.

Happy Campers in short supply for ManuTV

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Personally I'm hoping for Beijing Guoan to come in with a big bid for world renowned German world cup winning winger Shkodran Mustafi

Anyone see the Kristiansund game? Sounds like we were a little bit scratchy but I'm not overly concerned. The players have a week and a half to settle back into the UK now before the Chelsea match. I'd expect the lineup for the Milan friendly to be pretty much what we see against Chelsea.

Ole said we were tired from travelling. I can understand that. Feels like this whole match was a little surplus to requirements.

This Dybala business seems to have completely ramped up out of no where. The BBC is reporting Dybala's manager is currently in England to discuss.

If we can somehow manage to swap Lukaku for Dybala then I'll be absolutely stoked. I'd also be very concerned if I were a Juve fan.

Sky Sports News saying a deal has been reached between United and Juve. Now up to United to reach agreement with Dybala. 

This one both excites me and worries me. This is the type of signing we were said to be moving away from. I'm not convinced he really wants to come to United. If we sign him, I'm a little worried we could have another Falcao/di Maria/Sanchez situation. But I'll admit the upside is really exciting.

I've always rated Dybala... a good signing if he's motivated, which seems like he might not be - apparently he wants to stay at Juve?

Not sure it's much of a concern for Juventus, their squad is absolutely stacked, he's far from a guaranteed starter.

They are trying to offload some pretty high quality players at the moment.

Dybala strikes me as a luxury player - much in the same way Ozil is. Doesn't quite fit in the modern game.

Fair points. For me, he's going to be an upgrade from Lukaku. If we can make sure we keep his wages in check then we shouldn't fall into the same situation as he'll be a lot easier to to offload and won't piss everyone in the squad off.

I don't understand why Juve and Sarri would want Lukaku at all. My best theory right now is that this is all an elaborate 3-way trade where Lukaku goes to Inter, Icardi goes to Juve, and Dybala goes to United.

What do you mean by "luxury player" and "doesnt quite fit in the modern game"?

Not trying to be an arse here, genuinely interested, its always been a baffling idea to me

I think Valeo's assessment is spot on.

Today's game means unless you're Messi-level good, there's no excuses for not picking up your slack going forwards and going backward, and also positionally. I think this is why we've seen the decline of the #10 / Ozil / Oscar / Mata styled role in favour of 3 midfielders who can do everything.

This is basically the reason he hasn't made it at Juve. Ronaldo is their luxury player (and Sarri has since said as much).

In the EPL, there's not many places for players who don't press well, who don't track back and basically just wander around the pitch until the ball comes to them - no matter how good they are. Ozil is an amazing player on the ball, but you've seen the struggles Arsenal have had trying to fit him in. We just get overrun.

Dybala strikes me as similar. He's an amazing player technically - but off the ball; he's quite sharke.

I just think the game has changed over the last 5 years or so - you need the physicality to go along with the technical skill. 

Does this mean he won't do well at Utd if he ends up there? No, I just think that Lukaku fits the EPL better than Dybala ever will.

I've just been having a bit of a moan on Twitter about Untied's complete lack of ability to close a deal. City/Chelsea/Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool would have had these respective Maguire and Bruno Fernandes deals wrapped up weeks ago.

If Spurs finish the window with Ndombele and Fernandes I may well cry as those were the two I wanted for United. How's everyone else feeling? Still a week to go!

Not really sure why we are busting our balls (apparently) to sign Fernandes - he may very well be a fantastic player, but he plays in a position that doesn't need urgent attention. Jesse Lingard, Angel Gomes, Andreas, Juan Mata can all play there. Even Rashford if he pushed into a no. 10 role.

We need a new DM and CB, most urgently.

I'd wheelborrow over a shark ton of money to Leicester, walk past Maguire, and pick up Wilfried Ndidi - he looks like an asskicker in midfield. And why have the Alderweireld links gone quiet??