Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

Rafas everton vs jols everton is an interesting thought experiment

incredible xpost to the everton stuff.

He didn't fail to get QPR relegated.

oops yep, failed to stop qpr getting relegated.

Everyone in the world knew that Fergie had identified Moyes as his heir apparent, although the retirement probably came as a surprise. Guess Kenwright just got complacent with contracts and expected Moyes to hang around forever.

Do we really think Moyes will bring the likes of Baines, Fellaini, Osman with him?

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67490000/jpg/_67490370_mmftbfocuspunditsonmoyes.jpg

yeah i definitely want to click on this video

Osman will likely see his career out at Goodison. The other two, yeah, they'll probably go.

Be a very bad sign if those two are his big signings

Thought Shearer was James Richardson for a second then

Fellaini wd improve United, Baines & Osman good but not necessary signings.

Fellaini wd be a good replacement for Rooney qua midfielder

Utd don't need someone to play as a second striker, which is where Fellaini's shown his best form by a long way

if Fellaini came in and Kagawa continued to be marginalised i'd just despair

phil jones will be like a pig in shit next season. probably literally

didn't know shearer was now a jailer in a charles dickens novel

fellaini is trash

let the record show, i give my guarantee that moyes won't sign fellaini. he got the most out of him by partly building a system around him that he'd have no intention of replicating at utd. also he is a petulant, stroppy type who can disappear when he is not feeling like it, which is a bad look for a guy that size with big hair.

fellaini up top with rvp and chicarito on the wings, welcome to moyesball

it seems likely that Moyes will be alert enough to the tenuousness of his new job to not do anything obvious as bring in players from his last club but I still think Fellaini's strength and directness wd suit this incarnation of United

yes but you think he is a midfielder too

i did specifically say Rooney-esque

there he is, alan shearer, the master of bad punditry. needs a cat on his lap imo.

shearer seems to be on the verge of laughter all the time, like he's in on the joke and can't believe that anyone gives a shit about the drivel he is pulling out of his backside.

this is another excellent instance of where a manager should have the confidence not to rely on overpaying for past favourites (joe allen and borini etc)

also he is a petulant, stroppy type who can disappear when he is not feeling like it

― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 9 May 2013 12:47 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

the theatre of bullshit will glow warmly as ynahtid scheherazades sagely intone tales of cantona

if he wants actual fitba players who can also provide power in midfield then he has the means to buy strootman or capoué or kondogbia or whoever

Fellaini does tend to go missing a lot and playing him behind the striker for United would be ridiculous but United have needed a defensive midfielder who can actually tackle for years. There are better ones than Fellaini out there but I'm pretty sure he was linked to United earlier in the season anyway?

They'd do better with someone like Bender or Sandro really. (xpost)

Strootman has been the most heavily linked not that that means anything. Nothing means anything anymore

as far as transfer policy goes, i think my favourite outcome would be that he sells a key player over the summer and then does nothing else until an hour before the transfer deadline when he signs someone from belgium no one has heard of. or wherever the new belgium is now that place is getting overexposed, slovenia maybe.

I think Moyes will attempt to sign whoever Fergie's targets were, unless Fergie retired because he was told he couldn't get them.

United have needed a defensive midfielder who can actually tackle for years.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 9 May 2013 12:56 (2 minutes ago)

this is one of those talksport truisms but one of ferguson's best insights in recent years was buying carrick instead of a makelélé type in 2006b back when they were all the rage, then initiating his best ever team with a midfield of scholes/carrick

could kinda see him going for james mccarthy

yeah that seems plausible

which one is his best ever team? xposts

bebe needs some support too, maybe get bryan oviedo in

the best team was 07/08 by which time they were 433 and did use more orthodox dmids more often (hargreaves, fletcher, anderson even played there)

still, 06/07 was beautiful

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/alex-ferguson-retirement-day-hairdryer-1877262#.UYuBc7dmfpg.twitter

lovely memories

Somewhere in the years after the treble lurks the best mix

this is one of those talksport truisms but one of ferguson's best insights in recent years was buying carrick instead of a makelélé type in 2006b back when they were all the rage, then initiating his best ever team with a midfield of scholes/carrick

Nonsense, they had Darren Fletcher to complement Scholes and Carrick at that time, he bought Owen Hargeaves and Anderson a year later. Carrick's been a misunderstood player for years, but his best role is really as a playmaker at the base of midfield. The lack of a great defensive midfielder over the last few seasons hasn't been down to some great insight on Fergie's part, it's been down to a string of unfortunate incidents, coupled with Anderson being a busted flush.

The midfield as it stands is fine against most PL opposition, especially with a strike force that good, but tends to come up short in Europe.

(That was an xpost obv)

yeah you obviously didn't notice but their best xi that season was rougly 4231 scholes/carrick behind twp/cr7/giggs then saha, fletcher was a squad player and even played on the right wing sometimes

j spark and fletcher were there to play in the "big games"

ferguson's insight was that carrick IS a defensive midfielder, even if he isn't particularly aggressive

since 2009 or so their midfield has been dreadful for a team of their stature but it's lacked skill even more than tenacity

1.44pm BST

"Jacob, you're right," says James Galloway, who's a man I'd like to be friends with. "PHILanthropist. PHILharmonic. PHILibuster. The cream always rises to the top... he's nailed on for the job isn't he? Though I suppose there's always PHIListine for those naysayers amongst us."

1.35pm BST

Just thinking about Phil Brown. It can't be a coincidence it's called PHILosophy, can it?

1.19pm BST

"In the picture at the top of the page, exactly what is everyone finding so amusing about the act of taking David Moyes’ pulse?" says Joseph Orchard, who just made me LOL out loud.

this sardonic shit is as bad as the bbc liveblogs in its own way

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/09/manchester-united-sir-alex-ferguson-successor1

In the first Carrick season it was mostly Carrick/Scholes, yeah, but as you've said he subsequently brought more traditional DMs into the team and they improved after 2006. Even in that season Fletcher still played in central midfield when required, which was quite a bit iirc.

That post-Keane, pre-Carrick midfield was shocking though, especially with Scholes' injury, fudging it with Alan Smith and Giggs in central MF. Anyone would have looked like a genius after that.

Wayne Rooney removes 'Manchester United player' from his Twitter page
• Unhappy striker now terms himself 'NikeUK athlete'

they need for more defensive cover in midfield came once ronaldo had almost no defensive capabilities, hence the change in formation, but it was mostly ronaldo's improvement (along with tevez) that was the source of the team's improvement

i think united could use a powerful stupid central midfielder, but really they could use any good midfielder

the last thing they need is a dumb card collecter tho, the best dmid now (apart from busquets maybe but barcelona is a special case) is javi martinez who is not like that at all

oh jesus that post is so badly composed

news just in Wayne Rooney has driven his car down to London to Loftus Road

silly fucker, cooke's pie and mash do online delivery now