Bailly is a simply cut. He doesn't learn from his mistakes. He'll never get any better.

Everyone makes mistakes, it's natural. Even Van Dijk does that. Bailly gets a lot of (red) cards for doing the exact same mistakes. His inability to change that is what makes him a liability.

We're fortuneate to have loyal soldiers like Smalling (and Jones) and previously Evans, who are by no means spectacular but plays well above their pay.

I was watching an Ivory Coast match at the African Cup a couple days ago, and Bially totally flubbed a ball back to him. Totally scuffed it, opposing forward went in on a break. He sucks.

Let's hope he does well. This could be the start of something great. I'm trying to contain my optimism and see how things could turn out to be less good than they've looked so far, but I have faith.

Man Utd is a "romantic club" and a vast majority of the fans (myself included) support the decision to give Ole the job.

The Board's decision of Mourinho sacking and Ole coming as interim manager had a perfect timing, as the schedule was not very difficult, so Ole could hit the ground running.
However, I am sure that they didn't expect him to do THAT well.
I think their plan was definitely not to go with Ole long time, but his results simply forced them to give him the job. It also went well for them financially, as his contract will surely cost much less compared to any of the names they might have brought instead.

Apart from the great atmosphere that Ole brought and excellent results, we started playing with more freedom and flair, which was welcomed by the fans, previously bored to death by LVG and Mourinho.

Now...there is a lot of work to be done and the hard part is ahead of OGS.

Until now, under Ole the team has definitely had an over-achievement. The results were somewhat above the quality of our game, so it is yet to be seen whether a kind of regression will follow. I think it's almost inevitable and we shouldn't be surprised if some of the next results are not as good as in the first weeks of Ole's management.

We must be aware that it is very much possible that United will NOT finish in the top 4 this season and that we will also be eliminated from CL soon.

While I am happy with Ole getting the job and Man Utd seemingly going back to the roots, I try to keep my expectations low, or at least on a realistic level.

Improvements that I would like to see from Ole are related especially to the possibility of making those game-changing substitutions or tactical tweaks and reactions when we are not playing well.

Ole's lack of experience and maturity can be well compensated by Mickey Phelan.
Said that, I am still not completely sure who is the "main man" between those two. I'd say they are leading the team together, with a combination of Ole's freshness and positivity and Phelan's experience and personality.

OK, the first step has been made by giving Ole the job, but now the Glazers and Woodward must follow-up with the crucial part - appointing the director of football and giving Ole all possible means for the transfer market. Without these steps, all of recent good work might be in vain.

The rumours about transfers recently have looked much better than anything in previous years. If our main targets this summer are Sancho and Wan-Bissaka, then I'm happy! Right profiles of players.

As I said here previously, Wan-Bissaka would be an improvement on the RB position and that would be a typical Man Utd move, getting one of the best young players in his position in EPL.

Sancho would also be a great addition and improvement, hopefully for years to come.

Declan Rice is also a possible addition, according to the media. I didn't like him as a central defender, but he is playing very well in midfield. I am yet to be convinced that he will become a player of Man Utd calibre, but surely there is a huge potential and I wouldn't mind if we brought him.

All of these targets are brilliant domestic young players, but I'd also like to see an important addition in central defence, whether it is Varane, Koulibaly, De Ligt or maybe Giménez.

It goes without saying that we also need to sell, but we've elaborated this earlier, so I won't repeat the names etc.

Declan Rice is also a possible addition, according to the media. I didn't like him as a central defender, but he is playing very well in midfield. I am yet to be convinced that he will become a player of Man Utd calibre, but surely there is a huge potential and I wouldn't mind if we brought him.

I can't see him being good enough. He is young and English and gets hyped a bit too much. I don't think he is anywhere near the level of a top class DM nor is he anywhere near a top class ball playing midfielder. Thus I hope we aren't too serious about him.

As I said here previously, Wan-Bissaka would be an improvement on the RB position and that would be a typical Man Utd move, getting one of the best young players in his position in EPL.

The only question about that deal would be whether we need a RB? We already have a player of a similar profile in Dalot and we also have Tuanzebe and Fosu-Mensah, who could either or both be backups there.

I mean - what message does it send to Dalot if we replace him? Or.. are we just writing Dalot off already? He's barely played for us and hasn't been bad.

My gut feeling says that waiting for a season to see if/how much Dalot improves and whether the young boys can compete before buying a RB.

And to be precise, I'd very much prefer Achraf Hakimi if we were spending big on a right back. I just think he is better than Wan-Bissaka for a club like United. I'm not totally convinced that Wan-Bissaka can offer enough offensively while Hakimi does that. It just feels like he could be available from Real, even though I think it would be stupid of them to sell him. But that's Real, so...

All of these targets are brilliant domestic young players, but I'd also like to see an important addition in central defence, whether it is Varane, Koulibaly, De Ligt or maybe Giménez.

Of them I feel that Varane is impossible(or Real want 100m+, Koulibaly is 28 in the summer, so IMO too old and probably costs like 70m or smth. De Ligt would be the right profile. Gimenez.. well, he is good, but as Atletico have already sold Lucas Hernandez for an insane 80m to Bayern(I think), then is it realistic that they'd sell him for anything other than crazy money, especially as he is under contract until 2023.

From a footballing perspective they'd improve our team, but only De Ligt would be a good deal.

Declan Rice is Irish.

He's exactly the kind of guy I'd take a gamble on if the price was right. Rumor has it, that Hammers have turned down €40m flat out though, so I think we should just leave it be, unless we believe he's THAT much better than McTominay, who has really grown on me.

We NEED someone to be ready to step in after Matic is done - and I think that's sooner rather than later and we need someone else who can step in as a defensively oriented midfielder.

We need a right back, but it's mostly a "bridge" player. Relying solely on a talent like Dalot as right back is risky at best. Valencia and Young are too old and getting too slow - and are really retrained wingers. I don't see this situation as a good long term solution. Rather get in someone in their mid/late 20's, even if it's not a big name.

I hear that we are lokking for WAN Bissaka on right back.

Declan Rice just played for England NT. In his youth he played for Ireland, but he is an England international.

But I wouldn't take a gamble on him. I just don't see him offering anything special. I see more potential in McTominay anyway.

I agree that we need someone to replace Matic, sooner rather than later. He feels like he is just barely mobile enough to make sure things work.

But for that DM role we need someone like Matic, who isn't just about defending, but who is also very good at playing the ball forward. Not taking risks like Pogba, but just trying to pass to our attackers or wingers feet and progressing the ball.

As for the right back - relying on Dalot has it's risks, but if they believe in him, then they should risk it. That's the United way. If it all goes tits up, then Smalling or Jones can be a stopgap solution there until another transfer window comes along.
The thing is that I'm not entirely convinced that Wan-Bissaka is a big upgrade to Dalot. Dalot had one or two poor games, but generally hasn't been bad IMO. Wan-Bissaka has been good, but he is in a poor team that defends a lot and if you see the highlights it's easy to see him in a good light. The (smaller) mistakes he makes aren't put under scrutiny in MOTD and we just don't see them. I might be wrong about him, a few of his games have impressed me as well, but generally about his defensive work - nowadays I think it's important that the full backs offer significantly in attack as well. Which is not to say Wan-Bissaka couldn't improve in that department if he needs to.

It just feels like it might not be a significant upgrade and at the same time it would be a show of no confidence to Dalot. Thankfully we have another two months when Dalot might be given chances to show himself and perhaps make sure this discussion is moot :).

Buy Declan and and Sancho and play then in over time. We need a big squad. But Gnabry as a first Choice on wright wing.

Why is everyone so hyped about Declan Rice? He's a meh.. kind of a player.

As for Gnabry vs Sancho. Two things are in favor of Sancho. He is four years younger and thus has a LOT more room to improve and if he does well, we'd have him for four more years. He is English, so that helps with the homegrown rules.

But also - Sancho plays for a worse team so getting those stats is more impressive. Also Bayern is a bigger/richer club, so the price could be higher for Gnabry.

i'm not hyped, think he is a really good number16-18 in the squad, but he can be good.

I agree Declan Rice is over-hyped now, as it happens often with British players.

Right now, he is nothing special, but we should consider his years.

As I said, I'm not sure he will grow to be a player of Man Utd level, but I could understand there is potential.

If the people at Old Trafford believe in him and if the price is right, then I wouldn't be against such move, but I doubt he will cost less than 50mil, which is too much.

About Wan-Bissaka, I think he would be an upgrade, especially the defensive part, but also physically. He would be a good competition for Dalot and I think both would find the space to play in a very long season. Then, the one who proves to be better player and in better form would have a place in the starting 11 more often.

Sancho is also a bit over-hyped right now, as he still has a lot to prove, in order to be worth 80mil or more. He surely is a great talent, but it doesn't mean he's worth that kind of money.

We don't need to buy someone who can be a backup. We need to buy players who are going to be influential for us. I don't see him becoming one of the best 5 midfielders in the world. He can become a good midfielder, but that's not enough. IMO Schneiderlin is a good analogy here. He was a good player, but didn't really do anything special at Southampton. At the time it felt we needed ANYONE in midfield, but he wasn't a real upgrade and in the end he was a poor transfer. He was also not someone who could become one of the greats.

I'm really sad we didn't try to get Frenkie from Ajax. I know of the Ajax-Barcelona connection and it was always likely he'd go there, but that was a missed opportunity. We have van der Sar in there to put in a good word for United.

There are some that we could look at - NDombele, Rabiot, Aouar, Barella are the types of players that would get me excited. None are really DMs, but I don't think we need a designated DM. If we have New CM, Herrera and Pogba as our midfield three, then we should be fine if the two behind Pogba are CMs, not CM and DM.

Sancho is also a bit over-hyped right now, as he still has a lot to prove, in order to be worth 80mil or more. He surely is a great talent, but it doesn't mean he's worth that kind of money.

The reason why I think he is worth that much is because he could be one of players of his generation. Now he is more talent than actual production, but at age 19(well, he was 18 until a few days ago) he already produces as much as Martial for example. And he is a right winger, exactly what we need.

It's also his age - at 19 players are going to improve immensely in terms of their physique, decision making and.. well in every aspect.

The fact that at that age he has 20 goals+assists in the Bundesliga already this season shows his ability. And also last season in his limited minutes he produced goals and assists at a similar rate as well.

A good way to determine a price of someone like Sancho: (https://statsbomb.com/2017/05/valuing-kylian-mb...)
While Mbappe is better than Sancho, I think most of those things apply for him as well.

*Produces about 0,5 goals per game - that's worth ~50m, at least at such an age as he'd do that for a decade or could be sold for a lot.
*Has the ability to dribble past his man - that's special and worth a lot.
*Has the ability to pick out his teammates regularly, creating assists.
*Can be one of the greats of his generation - once Real/Barca/City/Juve/Bayern buy him, it's impossible or insanely hard to buy him. The Ronaldos and Neymars and Messis don't get transferred regularly. And if he is one of the greats, then it might be Real that comes for him and pays 200m or something. Not bad either.


Therefore I think 70-80 million would not be a bad price. Especially considering that Dortmund already sold Pulisic to Chelsea for a similar amount.

We will never know whether Dalot is good enough, if Young is the starter in most of the games :(

Yeah. That has been strange. Young hasn't been too bad, but hasn't shined either.

I think the problem with Dalot is, that he's a Joao Cancelo clone. He's called a back, but really he's like a winger who can't dribble too much.

Aka: Lacks defensive capabilities but can run for days and do a decent cross.

young has been weak today

작성자 chuksi :

Yeah. That has been strange. Young hasn't been too bad, but hasn't shined either.

I think Young was pretty poor today. Too many mistakes on both side of the pitch.
Now that he's lost some of his speed and agility, there's not much left, as all the rest is average or below.

Either Ole, Phelan and the staff rate Young too high, or they rate Dalot too low.
I don't know what else to think, because if Dalot is behind a 34 years old Young, then they don't have much faith in him. That would be strange, as when he plays he usually does well.

Apart from Young, we didn't play well as a team today. It is unacceptable to give Watford so much space, so many shots on goal, so much ball possession.

Our team today looked very much like the one under Mourinho.

I also don't understand why did Ole pull Pogba back, practically to the same position he played under Mourinho. He should have played on Mata's position imo, as that's where he gives most for the team.

Good for the 3 points, but this game should be a signal for Ole to make some changes, as we're not going to win games like this very often.

On the positive side, Shaw was great today, as well as Smalling and Jones.

I generally agree.

Today the whole team was poor. We seemed too slow for most things - the intensity was not there. Thankfully we managed to score a few and defend just about well enough. The good thing about this team is that even when we don't have the ball and defend with our backs against the wall, we can still be dangerous. Under the previous managers the focus has been too much on other things that we forgot to attack on the break and that meant we had to break teams down with slow attacks and that didn't happen anywhere near enough. Now we at least tried to counter.

But the way we played on the ball was still pretty poor. The passing wasn't sharp, the movement wasn't good enough. In the attacking third there were a few combinations, but there wasn't any consistency in what we did. Mata in the whole worked until Watford figured out how to nullify him. Martial and Rashford didn't impose themselves on the game, neither did Pogba, who seems to struggle if someone pays special attention to him. Matic was overwhelmed when pressured and didn't handle things well at all. Maybe we missed Lindelöf a bit - his passing from the back is quite important getting our attacks going. I don't know if he would've improved us a lot, but he would've created some space in midfield because Watford couldn't have let him have time on the ball. Today they just stepped off Jones and Smalling as they were not a threat to anyone.

I agree on Jones, Smalling and Shaw. They were very good. Especially Shaw. I feel it's not too long until he is considered the best in the league or even the world. Jones and Smalling were good defensively, but I feel that on the ball our buildup lacked composure and the ability to play the ball out from the back because we had them there. Maybe I'm being harsh on them and Watford pressed well and our midfielders and attackers didn't do enough, but I feel like we should expect more from our CBs.

As for bringing Pogba back - I think it was a choice of introducing Fred as a CM or Lingard as AM. I'd guess that Ole wanted us to continue countering and seeing how Pogba didn't do THAT much when he played ahead of Matic and Herrera while still seeing that he could play the pass to create our winning goal, it made sense. In the end I think Pogba wouldn't have been influential either way. In the number 10 role he would not have got the ball often enough, in the number 6/8 role he was far from goal.

I think it would've been a good game for McTominay. Slightly surprised he wasn't on the bench.

We must improve from this and just.. do the simple things better.