Manchester United

I'm so sick of Mourinho blithering on about how bad everything is......how about coaching the players and making them better? Or by actually using our greatly improving academy - thanks Nicky Butt - instead of giving some of them one game two seasons ago, and giving them false hope by taking them on pre-season......what's the point of the Academy if we don't actually give the kids opportunities? Or by buying in players who are actually an improvement on who we have?

How about getting rid of the deadwood instead of giving them new contracts??? Valencia, Rojo, Smalling, Young, Fellaini, even Sergio Romero......I look at Spurs and Liverpool and others, and we aren't going to finish anywhere near them. 

HOW ABOUT SHUTTING THE FUCK UP AND MANAGE THE FUCKING CLUB?!?!?!!?!?!

I'd rather have pretty much anyone at OT than Mourinho and his 'woe is me' act and his petty spitefulness to some players (Bailly, Shaw, and others)

I see he's already complaining about the fixture list, saying none of his players who were invoilved in the world cup will be available for the first game. 

Mourinho just seems like a very tiring individual. I don't even 'hate' him. Just everything he does seems pointless and insincere. 

I see United fans are getting ripped off by Adidas and the club. 192 pounds ($370 NZD) for a kit - Shirt, socks and shorts. What a con. Even though I am not a united fan, I do feel for the supporters being treated like overflowing ATM machines by the two aforementioned parties.

Completely valid, but is that price for the regular kit or the 'player' version that also gets sold? Quite often disreputable newspapers will cherry-pick the most expensive one available as it makes for a better shouty headline. Still expensive either way but I think the price difference between the regular and player versions amounts to something like 45 pounds.

A certain sportshop in Upper Hutt were selling kids football kits for $49NZD - Brazil, Portugal. The England kit was $39NZD. Might get one for the boy.

What do people think of the new strip? I quite like it, I especially like the black shorts. There's been social media outcry, so take that for what it's worth, about the black shorts but I'm sure we used to wear black shorts at home for a couple of games in the Fergie years (I think in the latter part of Solskjaer's time with us) and it looked great.

The shirt doesn't strike me as an homage to Newton Heath though - it's pretty tenuous to say that black horizontal lines evoke images of railway tracks. I think having a black and red halved shirt would look mint and be more of a link to Newton Heath.

Socks are a bit unusual, but don't hate them either. I only hate Mourinho.

Go to http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Manchester_United/Manchester_United.htm for a cool site on all our old uniforms. 

The kit is one of the ugliest I have ever seen in the PL. The only one that I can think of that is uglier was Liverpool's when they decided to put flames on it.

Good to see Chong have a great game. No doubt he will carry that form into his first couple of first team opportunities until he is hit with the manager's negativity stick and bottoms out to mediocrity.

The youth academy year on year pumps out players who are fearless and efficient. Yet we haven't seen an ounce of that mentality in the first team for 5 years.

I realise we've literally had only one run out this year. But every time a CA player touched the ball even with 7 United defenders around him we felt under pressure. Contrast every time one of our forwards are within 1 metre of a CA defender, they lost the ball. It's so unusual.

And this would be considered horrific at a Awakairangi Park 14th grade game:

Man United in 1975/76 Used to wear red shirts,White shorts but sometimes black shorts and for that particular season was what I consider to be their best kit with the white collar and cuffs. Black socks with a red top and white hoop in the middle of it.

From the same era as these wonderful tracksuits - bring these bad boys back!

The problem with still photos like this as an example of some sort of bad team effort are that they dont indicate any context or whats just happened, its like arguing that teams are all compressed in the middle of the park by using a still photo of a goal kick.

0-0 at HT against San Jose and another pretty uninspiring performance so far by all accounts.

I see this being a really tough season. Far too much reliance on Lukaku and square pegs in round holes.The strength of the signings Liverpool have made seriously scares me.
 

Mourinho also needs to find a way to get the best out of Pogba every week. You're not a mug if you're man of the match in the WC final. 

That's valid, but I'm posting this image under the impression that others may have watched the game. If you watched the game, you'd know this was trend of ours.

God knows how Pogba got that award. A jammy goal from a second attempt and annonymous for most of the game/tournament.

 Sorry, to be fair I do get it. 

I never wanted Mourinho because his football is always so dull. I remember when there was speculation he was possibly going to get the job a big majority of Utd fans were pretty keen on him.  Its taken a little while but there has been a bit of a swing in opinion and he really has to either produce more exciting football or win the EPL to win back some of his lost support. He has proved to be only slightly more entertaining in football terms than LVG who was for me absolutely the worst manager Utd have ever had in terms of football style. Both Mourinho and LVG make Dave Sexton football look like  gung ho, cavalier stuff.

However in defence of Mourinho in that game its preseason and he might just be preparing for the first few games without some key players by making sure Utd are well drilled defensively. 

thats a big IF....

...Did you watch the tournament? Pogba was everywhere and was hugely influential on France. Arguably the best player on the title winning side.

Huh? Was one of the players of the tournament, and stepped up in the final when guys like Kante did not.

Agree with the sentiment but of those players you list I would only be eager to get Rojo and Smalling out the door.  Valencia and Young are still two of the better EPL fullbacks, Fellaini is a very useful game winner and Romero is about as good as it gets amongst top level number 2 goalkeepers IMO

It has been widely reported that Kante was sick during the final

http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/football/france-cr...

The French midfielder came out in the 55th minute of play after an average performance. He suffered from gastroenteritis.

His worst shot Sunday, in the final after a tournament of very high level, surprised more than one. N'Golo Kanté was actually sick in the historic final of the football World Cup between France and Croatia .

According to our information, the metronome of the French game was suffering from gastroenteritis. This probably explains much of the decision of Didier Deschamps to release it in the 55th minute of play. A surprising choice a priori, but which finally paid off in view of the very solid entry into play of Steven Nzonzi.

Until then, the shy midfielder of the Blues had not had his usual performance, also because of a constant Croatian dry cleaning. Quickly warned, he was even surprised in the wake of the hook of Perisic at the time of the equalizer .

Makes sense, was completely out of character for the little fella.

Early booking he picked up wouldn't have helped either, he wasn't his usual tenacious self.

Mourinho: “They have the majority of their players, the totality of their squad with their best players. They’re working for a few weeks and have played a few matches and have more potential and more quality and more players than us so I expect them to be good.”

This was BEFORE kick-off in today's match v Milan. Anyone else starting to get really sick of Mourinho's ready made excuses? He's already put excuses out there for United's first two Prem games as well. Not good management. At all.

Edit: have just re-read the previous page of thread and see that the topic was exactly this!

Honestly it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Its a classic deflection tactic to put pressure on the other team and doesn't reflect his true feelings about our squad or affect how he manages the team.

Let him say whatever he wants off the pitch, its all for show anyway.

Not excuses. Just facts. 90% of the first side is not there.

Can anyone recall whether Jose has said those in the England/Belgium/French WC squads are available to play the opener against Leicester? Asking for a mate who has Lukaku in his fantasy team. 

I'm fairly certain i read somewhere he said that no player involved with the world cup would be available for the first game.

He had started his passive aggressive complaining weeks out from the season even beginning. 

I'm pretty sure somewhere he whinged about everyone being injured or unprepared for the first 2 games, I'm sure he said those players wouldn't be available. He basically wrote those first two league games off in classic mourinho style. He has a fear of failure (not necessarily a bad thing) so tends to do that to try and overshadow things if they do indeed lose. And if they win, then he can claim it as some amazing victory against all odds. I was about to say he's the master of mindgames but I guess when everyone sees right through it he's not really a master any longer. 

This is what I was trying to get at with my post yesterday. Never in a million years would Ferguson have made such comments and effectively give his players a get out of jail free card. In his time we would be expected to beat the likes of Leicester (especially at home) and Brighton even with our second XI. Granted the league has evened out a little bit in recent times, but that would have been, and should still be, the Manchester United mindset.

I see Mourinho was unhappy that Martial was away at the birth of his child.

That's nice of him.

Wasn't unhappy that he returned to Paris for the birth, he was unhappy that he didn't return to the US after the birth.

Still, publicly shaming your players for prioritising children over their work.

How embarrassing. Mourinho is just building a case so that he has an excuse when Martial leaves. Instead of blaming it on his soulless football he can blame Martial's attitude.

Mourinho's biggest priority is Mourinho. And Mourinho is more concerned about looking after his post Manchester United career oppurtunities.

Rich man's Hudson.

The Madrid match has just kicked off and the stadium is half empty. Can't blame the fans either with both teams missing a host of players. Was only a year or two ago we got 90k ish at a game in Pasadena.

I don't like Mourinho, but I also think Martial hasn't really performed to the best of his ability when given chances either.

Should check you facts. It was a record crowd.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/m...

If and when Martial leaves it will be his own fault. Poor performances last season when he played. Wandered around looking sorry for himself.Lets face it, his form has dropped ever since he had an affair and his wife left him. If your not happy at home it is unlikely you will care that much about anything else. He returned to Paris to be at the birth of his baby, but should he have not returned to his employer who is paying his wages?   If he is not happy and willing to fight for his place then I hope he goes. He is gutless.

Um...that photo is from a game in Michigan 4 years ago. They played in Miami today in front of 64,141 at Hard Rock stadium.

It was dated the 31st July so I reasonably thought that it was accurate.

Wow only 64000. What a piss poor crowd...........................

That's pretty much the capacity of that stadium.