Manchester United 2019-2020: You'll never win anything with kids

Zomp

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So Ole has the full time gig, and training and preseason were focused on the teams fitness levels. United are finally implementing a press defensively after Van Gaal and Mourinho methods of sitting back.

Incomings at the beginning of the transfer window were great, with AWB and Dan James coming in and getting a full preseason under their belt. Slabhead arrived right before the window closed and hopefully United turns a weakness into a strength. I do hope Lindelof and Maguire can be a great pair of centerbacks, while AWB is young enough to continue to mature into a well rounded fullback. If Luke Shaw can put his injuries behind him he's a top 6 level fullback and the club has been super patient with him.

I'm not too fussed about losing Lukaku to Inter but it is a bit worrying that we're relying on 18 year old Mason Greenwood to back up Martial and Rashford. He has talent for days but thats a big ask.

The biggest loss of the off season was Ander Herrera to PSG. We are painfully thing at midfield. So much so that aside from Pogba, Mctominay (who I like more than most), Matic, and the underwhelming Fred we have nobody who can step into the double pivot in Ole's 4-2-3-1. I was honestly shocked they didn't bring in another midfielder but the club's transfer dealings have deeper problems than that, with Ed Woodward still in charge of transfers. Some articles recently have stated that the sole focus of the club over the next few months is hiring a Director Of Football, but the rumored names have left me skeptical. What do Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, or anyone else that comes from the club know about player recruitment? One of the biggest clubs in the world should be able to get nearly anyone they want for the role. They need to grab someone with experience who can set a vision. The one name I wouldn't mind who is a former player is Edwin Van Der Sar, who has helped build the current Ajax squad as their chief executive.


Yesterday's 4-0 win papered over some cracks. Chelsea were unlucky not to be ahead, nevermind behind, but whatever Ole said at halftime worked because they looked like a completely different team. At Wolves on Monday should offer a better test and give us a glimpse into what to expect.

In the end, I think 5th is the most likely table position. Which is fine for rebuilding, but it likely means that Pogba (by far our best player) will leave and we'll be another midfielder short.
 

67YAZ

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They need to grab someone with experience who can set a vision. The one name I wouldn't mind who is a former player is Edwin Van Der Sar, who has helped build the current Ajax squad as their chief executive.
Van Der Sar came up into that role through the business side of the club, was the marketing director before becoming general director. Overmars is man with the technical vision. Arsenal reportedly made a run at him, but couldn't pry him away. Not sure either he or ManU would want to cross the classic rivalry, though he'd be great for the job.

I also read some place that ManU took a shot at Atletico's Andrea Berta last year, but he turned them down.

Fredi Bobic from Frankfurt would be a very intriguing target. He took over in 2016, and the club has made improvement each season playing a fluid, attacking style. They have also adopted a cutting edge fitness program that seems to have worked well; the extra games and travel of Europa League will test that this season. The past few years of player recruitment paid off massively this past summer. Of course, how the squad bounces back after so many losses and the addition of European football will be a good measure of Bobic's work.
 

teddykgb

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I think those names may be off the mark. I don’t think United want to be swimming in the same pond as those teams who need to find sell on value to fuel growth. They’re trying to be at a level where unearthing talents is great but landing big fish is the name of the game.

Modern FFP management is more about the unofficial relationships with super agents and boxing off targets so you don’t end up in bidding wars. City have obviously done this to great effect getting players like De Bruyne and Bernardo for fees which seems laughable but a club like Bayern, Madrid, Barca all employ more or less the same tactic. They get the player to more or less rule out all suitors and have some type of standard wage structure that the players fit into to keep costs from spiraling. Every once in a while a player like Neymar shakes free and you end up having to give raises to everyone but in general there’s a type of cost certainty. I’m not saying that talent identification isn’t an important skill but United should have the money to employ a scouting network to identify talents, it’s landing those talents without being taken behind the woodshed they need to improve on
 

coremiller

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United's revenue is so high though that from an FFP perspective it's not such a big problem if they get taken behind the woodshed so long as they are overpaying for the right players. United's problem has been finding the right players to overpay, at which they have mostly failed miserably. They have wasted big sums over the past five windows on Fred (50m), Alexis (31m), Lukaku (76m), Matic (40m), Linedelof (32m), Mkhtaryan (38m), Bailly (34m), Schneiderlin (32m), Depay (30m). That's a combined 363m spent on players who all now have basically zero value or have already been sold at a loss. Some of these have been unfortunate (Bailly has been perpetually injured but has looked pretty good when he's played, for example), but many of these made little sense at the time. Prior to this window, their only big signings (>20m) over the last four years that have worked out are Pogba and Martial, and even those aren't unqualified successes.
 

67YAZ

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I think the Glazers are more interested in operating like the most successful clubs a financial tier below Barca/Real/City/Bayern to maintain annual dividends. I’d put in this group Atlético (whose sporting director ManU already went after), Liverpool, Spurs, and Arsenal (post-Wenger). These clubs have a clear technical philosophy shared throughout the organization; they seek to develop youth for the first team; they purchase young or prime-aged players for good value in the market and will walk away when things get too high; seek competitive edges in data use, training, fitness, and scouting that will cost far less than a single world class player.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Mar 24, 2008
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ManU failed to register a single shot on goal today against whoever the hell AZ Alkmaar is.

Solksjaer is clearly not working out, but at this point what should United do? They can't keep sacking managers. They won't get relegated, so perhaps the best option is to actually complete a season when they'll have the most options with the off-season market.
 

SocrManiac

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Allegri, maybe?

I genuinely have no idea. It’s so weird to have Arsenal and United in this position. Neither side has the talent to be at the top, but they aren’t as bad as they’ve been playing, either.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Allegri, maybe?

I genuinely have no idea. It’s so weird to have Arsenal and United in this position. Neither side has the talent to be at the top, but they aren’t as bad as they’ve been playing, either.
By top, do you mean compete for the league or top 4?
 

Tuff Ghost

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Ed Woodward and the Glazers have been facing a lot of animosity lately and last night a group of "supporters" took it to some disturbing extremes:

Cheshire Police are investigating after a group of a dozen United supporters dressed in black turned up at Woodward’s home at around 10.45pm on Tuesday, rang the intercom and then threw flares and fireworks over the gate when there was no answer. Woodward lives at the property with his wife and young twin daughters, but nobody was in.
Mino Raiola, of all people, who was recently very critical of United, came to Woodward's defense:
“If anyone has used me as a reason to create any anger towards Ed, they are totally in the wrong because my relationship with Ed is good, it is professional, and we don’t always need to agree but that’s normal. What happened last night is not normal. It is violence and I condemn any type of violence. These guys are morons and this is criminal behaviour.

“These people need to be locked up and re-educated. This cannot be part of sport. This is sport — S P O R T. This is not a question of life and death. It is EN-TER-TAIN-MENT."
-The Athletic