I remember us being in this very position last seaons, I have sympathy for the fans TBH, they dont deserve their team being run into the ground. Is it the owners' fault, the manager? or the players?
To be fair this is a tad worse than we were last season. We lost away to Brentford 2-0, then Chelsea and Man City. Losing to Brighton at home then Brentford 4-0 is different gravy. Liverpool next, sheesh Gotta give the new Manager time but the manner of that defeat was not great
I wonder if ten Hag could endure what Arteta endured. Arteta was very familiar with the league and the situation Arsenal were in. He also had connections with City which must have been reassuring and have come in very very handy. Ten Haag looked devastated on Saturday. He is still saddled with Ronaldo undermining everything he does by his continued against his will presence. He doesn’t have a midfield or a striker. I’ve heard mumbling about Fernandes being a good player in a freer role that he had in the counter attacking days, but not able to cope well with tactical restriction. His semi-reliable players are out of form. Who can he count on? Seems like he thought Christian Eriksen.
He has players who don’t want to move to United and he has the players that do able to extract a United fee higher than their genuine worth.
I also wondered how much of Ole’s successes had in part some Mickey Phelan’s planning or work.
Anyway ten Haag must be facing one of his worst case scenarios right now and we’ll see how he can come back.
The football is so bad I'll have to resort to some non footy points to note this week: - United are top of the league (yay!) in cheapest beer prices at £3 / pint whilst West Ham are bottom at £7.30 / pint (& have apparantly threatened to sue to the London Stadium unless prices are reduced!)
- Elon Musk tweets today he "is buying Manchester United".
Whilst its not unusual for him to make "joke" tweets about Bitcoin or Dogecoin or market sensative info on Tesla which likely have the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) antennas pricked, the "unusual coincidence" here is that 2 days ago there was a 3500% increase in volume in Man Utd Call Options (for those unaware Call Options give the "Right to Buy" Stock/Future etc sat a specified price within a specified time). Highly dubious & sure all part of Elon's fun n games but If only this were true I'd happily see Fred on the first manned trip to Mars!
He's in so much trouble with the twitter lawsuit and his stupid idea of buying it at an inflated rate (because 420 is funny) and wave due diligence, that it would be beyond reckless for him to buy Man U. He needs all the cash he can get in case the Delaware court forces him to spend $44billion to buy twitter.
Twitters current market cap has dived to $33 billion and none of the banks that Musk had arranged to back him buying it before want to touch it with a ten foot pole now that all this shark has happened. He's going to have to raise money at really unafordable terms and load twitter with debt and he's going to have to make up the shortfall by liquidating Tesla stock (which he has been doing, despite promising to never sell Tesla stock a few years back).
Apparently Ratcliffe is a "lifelong United fan." Interestingly he was also a Chelsea fan and season ticket holder when he tried to buy them the other week. In any case, it must be welcome news to his employees that the money is there after crying poverty to them.
Chelsea sold for $5.2bn in a fire sale. United's revenue is about 40% higher than Chelsea so a 35% increase in the valuation doesn't seem unreasonable.
Won’t pretend to be a Casemiro expert but if we are going to waste stupid money (which we are because we are a farce) then I’d rather waste it on someone like Casemiro who might add some resilience in midfield.
It has shades of Bastian Schweinsteiger about it given his age...20 Legend
Won’t pretend to be a Casemiro expert but if we are going to waste stupid money (which we are because we are a farce) then I’d rather waste it on someone like Casemiro who might add some resilience in midfield.
That second goal though. VAR seemed to make a pretty quick decision yet to our group watching the replay, we all thought he was offside. ferg.000.jpg32.89 KB
That second goal though. VAR seemed to make a pretty quick decision yet to our group watching the replay, we all thought he was offside. ferg.000.jpg32.89 KB
Usual disclaimer its only 1 game, but....No better opposition to get a much needed result against
- Good workrate/effort/tenacity/mentality etc - but these should be the standards every week & not questioned as has been case previously - Team selection was good. Maguire & Fred starting in their best positions :-)
Erik ten Hag reminds me of the dad off the Umbrella Academy.
The giants are stirring!
Amazed and happy to see the starting line up. No dying wondering. Elanga, Sancho and Rashford all start. Add in two creative midfielders in Fernandes and Eriksen.
To be fair it's impossible to call anything offside based on TV reviews, you get maybe 1m width of the field that is perfectly square with the cameras, the rest of it is always on an angle making it nigh on impossible to judge with the naked eye. Just have to trust the lines.
Where I get my knickers in a twist is more around how far ahead does it have to be? If the attackers toe is 1 pixel ahead is he offside? If his arm is forward does that count for offside?Gooner 4 Life
That second goal though. VAR seemed to make a pretty quick decision yet to our group watching the replay, we all thought he was offside. ferg.000.jpg32.89 KB
It was hard to tell if you guys were that much more up for it, if Liverpool just didn't show up, or both. 2-1 definitely felt flattering to Liverpool. Credit to ETH for having the balls to drop Ronaldo and the skipper.
Well here I am in Manchester two days later… my first game at Old Trafford and I’m still buzzing.
Pre-game in the city really didn’t match the cynicism of the internet. There was a quiet belief that Liverpool have been struggling and that we’d be up for it. When Martinez clanged Salah 30 seconds in, you knew we were up for it. Then Malacia got stuck in for the next 90 minutes and honestly forgot he was playing.
Couldn’t believe how loud it was.
Some of my more cynical Liverpool opinions starting to come true… can’t play high energy with the same XI for years without injuries, VVD doesn’t defend or tackle, he just shepherds until someone else does it, Trent absolutely cannot defend to save his life and Elanga was all over him.
How did you even get tickets for that? Bang on with VVD. Look at that first goal. It's easy to maintain that never been dribbled past or lost a duel in the PL (or whatever the stat they keep trotting out is) when you stand back and don't actually go to the ball to get into a challenge.
@paulm - yep! Had to bear the better half of a week with Liverpool fans in the build up, but the group chat was banging after the game.
@ajc - a little bit of hard work and good timing. Originally the game was scheduled for Saturday and I had a wedding that evening. They moved it to Monday for TV, so after the announcement at like 2am NZT I went looking for tickets and found some hospitality passes that had come available. I would've much preferred being in the Stretford End but honestly given the atmosphere on Monday I'd have been happy sitting in the concourse.
Oh no, not another tourist fan!! ;) You know I am kidding. You couldn't have timed it better really. Having watched the game Unit did really look better, although I am surprised they persist with Fred. I noticed there was much stronger leadership on the field. Maguire should feel quite nervous.
Pretty scrappy game to be honest, but it is encouraging to see two wins on the bounce for the first time in how long. Casemiro is a must for the next game, didn't seem to be able to retain the ball at all in the last 30 minutes
Wow you got lucky, first game at OT and you got that??? Fantastic, hope you thoroughly enjoyed it.
Yep, pretty hard to beat that for atmosphere and something you'll remember for the rest of your life. Always good to get the result as well which would've made the day and the rest of the evening even better.
Oh no, not another tourist fan!! ;) You know I am kidding. You couldn't have timed it better really. Having watched the game Unit did really look better, although I am surprised they persist with Fred. I noticed there was much stronger leadership on the field. Maguire should feel quite nervous.
If you want tourist fans look no further than PSG! Went to their game last night, granted I was predominantly there to see Messi before retirement but...
Other than the Paris Ultras (who were bonkers) the other 40,000 fans were only interested if one of Messi/Neymar/Mbappe had the ball. When it happened they all (literally everyone) grabbed their phones and started recording. When they lost the ball it was heads down and straight back to facebook. I get it, but at least pretend to be slightly interested in your team's result...
Totally soulless club though. Players barely broke a sweat while they were a goal down. Fans didn't give a damn about the result. I'd advise against it.
Bonus: we were sitting about four rows from the corner flag. While watching something else I blinked and saw none other than Thierry Henry walk in front of me. That was pretty cool.
been a super messy transfer window again but at least can see some type of process. buy a top young player and a real madrid legend while adding a few key players in other positions. hopefuly can grab a RB next summer and make a push for sportsbetting3.com. still a long way to go but starting to make some sense.
Martinez seems to like to make sure that the biggest pisstaker in the opposition gets a good kicking early on. Warming up to him. Who knew this modern Dutch style football was so analytical, technical and subtle. Grand old United play!
Your goal was excellent, but the one chalked out is tough to stomach. For me that Odegaard tackle is exactly the kind of play on moment you are demanding of referees this year. How then can VAR go back and look at it? Super soft.