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United fans too gracious

It’s one thing for Manchester United not to be winning matches. It’s another to do so while scoring 15 goals in 17 matches or whatever it is now. (I don’t even want to check how many were from open play) It’s the lack of goals and the lack of *expectation* of goals, as a fan, against mid table teams from The Netherlands, Kazakhstan and League One that should be unforgivable for most.

Of course there’s huge problems at United beyond the manager’s office but some fans seem to think the position is irrelevant now and that also somehow justifies keeping OGS in the job. Ed’s not setting the shooting drills. None of the Glazers are setting a route to goal for the forwards. The players are going to perform the same no matter who’s in charge, seems to be the argument. Give *me* the job then. I’ll happily take millions of pounds to tell the players to ‘go out there and enjoy themselves’ and not much else. Then I’ll leak loads of stories to the press about how I told those lazy millennials that they’re letting us hard working real United fans down when my complete lack of direction leads to them running around like headless chickens.

Say what you will about entitled Madrid fans but a big reason they’re always in the mix is because their fans refuse to accept anything but being number one. It’s like French farmers keeping their government in check by bringing down the country. United fans need to be a bit less ‘gracious’ about all this. It’s their money being wasted on crap players and being siphoned off into the bank accounts of incompetent executives.

All I want is to believe they might actually score when United move the ball up the field. I can wait for consistent wins and trophies. This website used to say, paraphrasing, that it was ok when Ferguson messed up because Ferguson was there to fix it. What can you point to, to give you optimism that things will come good under Solksjaer? What has he done? It can only be blind faith now. It makes absolutely no sense to keep him. If they really are sticking with him, then things are only going to get worse from here.

Eamonn, Dublin (How’ve you not got fantasy content yet?)

…Supporters of Manchester United all still love Ole, however we also realise that is is now probably time to call this to an end.

Ole will always remain a United legend, and gave me and many others one of the best moments of our footballing lives. Thinking of his goal in the Champions League final still gives me goosebumps to this day, but unfortunately he is not the manager to take us forwards.

Whilst I understand some want a “Manchester United person” to take us forwards as they understand the club and what it means to represent this great team, however I have to disagree and say that someone with no previous affiliation to the club is a better prospect- we can’t try and do things the way Sir Alex did, because only Sir Alex could do that.

The reset button needs to be pushed once and for all, we can’t keep talking about history and heritage when we are so bad in the present day. The most painful thing with being a Manchester United fan nowadays is my lack of care towards results, and not being bothered about watching games because they are so boring to watch. I accept we are going to lose, and I have no problem watching a game in which we do lose, but we never seem to play with the intention of going out and taking the game by the scruff of the neck and winning by playing aggressive, attacking football.

I remember watching Manchester United all through my youth and teams would be half beaten before they even stepped out on to the pitch, just looking at the opposing players in the tunnel was enough for some, a real “fear” factor, an aura, an edge. Now there is nothing, every team comes to Old Trafford and really fancies themselves, and rightly so.

We all know it will be years before we challenge again, I just want to at least be able to enjoy watching my team play, win lose or draw.

Steve, Oxford

…The issue with the team right now simply arises out of the style of play and the demands placed on moving the ball forward. I think the gameplans used for each and every game have been right but the problem is because as a squad utd are not yet ready to play possession based football which top clubs like city play. It will take some time for perfecting it as it won’t be perfected atleast as soon as possible. If results are really important for solskjaer then he should be reverting to a counter attacking style/pressing style. The thing is people inside the club might have accepted that this season their predicament would be early on.

They were not able to get the likes of dybala and erikson for complicated reasons and their complacency has left united in the position that they are. Due to these reasons Ole thinks he has time to build on his style with the sqaud obviously lacking depth. So from inside i don’t think he has any pressure not even from the senior players like de gea etc. This will definitely enrage others because as a man utd team they have to get the results and perform really well. Unfortunately utd as of now lack the quality to do that. So Ole thinks he has time.

If he does get sacked he’s the 4th manager we are sacking while going against a plan. Would ed Woodward do that again? It would seem like repeating a mistake which never seems to leave utd since fergie left. They don’t have a DoF to help them with recruitment and again woodward has to find a different big name manager. So until december the situation at united will be bad as never seen before. Hopefully, utd get back their injured players on form which is their only saving grace.

Important players are underperforming and it is no suprise when the club haven’t recruited well since fergie left. They were not supposed to be the main players. Yet, ole does have to take blame for the results and his style of play as it is not helping his situation. It is not like he has no pressure because he still has to make the top 4

LJ

On the Marsch

In partial rebuttal to Matt Stead’s piece on Liverpool’s win v Red Bull Salzburg (or FC Salzburg, for the purposes of the Champions’ League), I’d like to call a little attention to Salzburg’s American manager, Jesse Marsch.

Marsch was an All-American* midfielder at Princeton who was claimed by DC United — my local club — in the initial MLS draft. He played sporadically during two championship-winning seasons, then was traded to Chicago Fire, where he won another championship as a regular. He also won three US Open Cups (the US’s version of the FA Cup) at Chicago. In 2005, he was traded to Chivas USA and played the remainder of his career under future US manager Bob Bradley, whom he followed into the USA coaching setup upon retirement. Bradley, as it happens, is also a Princeton graduate; perhaps this is an example of benevolent nepotism. After Bradley was sacked, Marsch coached a couple of MLS clubs, one of them in Canada. In 2018, he was hired as an assistant by RB Leipzig’s Ralf Rangnick and finished 3rd in the Bundesliga. For this season, Marsch was transferred to Red Bull’s Austrian “junior” club, Red Bull Salzburg (which, as it happens, has met and beaten Leipzig twice in Europe). Screw Peter Crouch and his “the coach got carried away” (but bless him all the same, the magnificent doofus), how can you not enjoy Jesse Marsch celebrating his team’s equalizer?

Jesse Marsch running to the corner to celebrate with his players in front of the away end at Anfield, after Salzburg had temporarily equalized. No matter the final result, an awesome moment for the first American manager in the Champions League.#LFCFCS #UCL #RBSalzburg 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/e2UpZzhUcV — Joga Bonito (@Jasoninho10) October 2, 2019

The answer to the long-standing riddle of “why isn’t the US better at football” is Coaching. For decades, most of our best coaches at the grass-roots level tend to be European and Latin American immigrants, much as Jill Ellis and Bora Milutinovic are among the best at the senior level. But even with our immigrant population, there are never enough good coaches for the number of kids who play the game. I don’t know what Marsch’s early coaches were like, but for him to be competing at this level is an almost inexpressibly big victory for American coaching. Liverpool’s first three goals all showed clear superiority. Saleh’s was practically an afterthought, as he himself seemed to acknowledge. But Salzburg absolutely earned their goals, and they reflected periods of dominance. Surely that has something to do with Marsch’s coaching. I’m pleased as punch for him, despite the stick I gave him as a DC United player.

* University sports being a big deal over here, it’s traditional for various press outlets and other groups to release a yearly “best team” (in the case of soccer, an eleven) for every practiced sport for both genders. Marsch’s was the most prestigious version.

Chris Crenshaw, Toon Army DC

Chuffed for Tammy

I know that we are all supposed to be angry all the time, it solves or causes global climate change or something like that. But there is some in football at the moment that just makes me happy, and that is Tammy Abraham.

I don’t support Chelsea, or particularly care either way about them, but when I see he has scored or played well I feel all warm inside, maybe it is due to the ridiculous nonsense after he missed the pen in the European Charity Shield, or because most thought he wouldn’t be able to step up to prem, or that he seems like a nice bloke, but his personal success makes me happy.

On a different note I am bringing my kids to see WBA v Cardiff on Saturday, cheapest place I could fly to was Birmingham and 3 match tickets cost €50 (fair play WBA). Don’t support either but really buzzed for it.

Mel – Berlin, Dublin, Athlone Town, HaHoHe

Ps, either me or fat man scouse are getting old cause his mails are getting better

Europa rules

To all those Champions League snobs that say the Europa League is a joke, I just watched a team called Young Boys, sponsored by “Shoppyland”, win a game at the Wankdorf Stadium.

So there you go. Take that.

Johnno

The Foden conundrum

I have heard and read ex players editors contributors bloggers punters fellow blues demand he plays more games.

On one side you have Pep who has and wants to win everything. In Phil”s position he has KDB one of the best ten players in world football. Now Pep has nurtured players who were at their peak for about a decade not a couple of games then internationally mediocrity. . Players such as Pique Xavi Iniesta Busquets etc didn’t peak they were at the top for ten plus years Pep will know like he did with them and players such as Kimmich and Sterling when Phil is ready.

On the other side they reckon he should do a Sancho move and play every week I wonder if Sancho will reach Phil’s trophy tally to date by the end of his career I’m unsure. Others say he should be playing every week for City like the three best players of the past thirty years Gascoigne Owen and Rooney who when younger.played twice. A week. Now these three players reached their peaks internationally in 90, 98 and 2002 and it was downhill at the highest level thereafter. Alternatively they reckon go on loan to the championship but he could be targeted like others before him.

So I’m sorry to the others my faith is in Pep and have confidence Phils peak will last between 2020 to 2030 and not a couple of games in a single distant tournament.

Keep up the sterling work

Paul (MCFC) Carroll

Fight, fight, fight

Auba’s reply to Watzke has gotta sting! Though a tad too harsh, but uncovering an ugly truth in football. Clubs and fans like to brand players as money-grabbing with no loyalty to the club, but will turn around and sell them for the right price. I guess a player demanding for higher wages is no different than a club holding out for a higher transfer bid. At the end of the day, everyone has a price.

Coming to other strikers, I was disappointed that Haaland wasn’t starting against Pool due to injury, but boy does this kid feel like a big deal now. Scored within minutes of coming on at Anfield! Can imagine the media going into overdrive with the Old Trafford links now. Excited to see more of him

Yash, MUFC