Liverpool have 2nd sewn up - EPL 2018/19

Excellent.

poch at end of season is i suppose a slim possibility

poch now is none

Steve Bruce and Mark Hughes are available, both real football men who understand the club from top to bottom.

this feels right

Was it @ketaminedrams who predicted Mourinho to lead Qatar in 2022

— WELCOME CAMORANESI (@LowQualityRegen) December 18, 2018

mou
goes to real madrid and wins european cup

Think Poch would rather go to Madrid at the end of the season tbf

In my wildest dreams he goes to Real and runs them into the ground too

^^ all i want for xmas really

Was it @ketaminedrams who predicted Mourinho to lead Qatar in 2022

Not sure the Qataris will be ready for such a joylessly oppressive regime.

hiyoooo

zidane til summer intrigues me

it'll probably be Blanc

someone's definitely put a tenner on Blanc, he just went odds on in one refresh.

zidane would be good for the announcement video retweets and merchandise and prob a total disaster in the job. which seems in keeping with the decisions being made there.

the bookies have him as absolutely red hot favourite.

Do United have even a single defender who's at the level they require? I haven't seen enough of Luke Shaw this season to really comment but there isn't a single other option in either CB or fullback options that inspires confidence. Bailly looked good for a while but I guess he's thoroughly broken now.

every one of them could be coached into a system im pretty sure pretty much every professional manager still attempting to prove themselves in football now admits they should at least pretend to try this

Zidane is totally drifting out in the market now (on a swan gondola enigmatically smoking a fag) - 6/1.

Dalot looks promising. Shaw is...fine

the best CB at the club is probably playing for Villa

That caretaker role will last until the end of the season but this will not be Carrick, Nicky Butt or anyone from within the club. Instead, following a thorough and extensive process will have Mourinho’s permanent successor in place for next season.

says the guardian.

already seems in the realms of strange and stupid. appointing an external caretaker, presumably a biggish name, then finding a replacement immediately. why create such confusion?

not least when the likes of nicky butt is ready and waiting to prove he is not the leftover stain of the class of 92.

I feel like there has been such a depression all around the club that it’s hard to say how good most of the players really are. Ken Early the other day suggesting that the United squad is no worse than Liverpool’s - it’s just that Liverpool have had 3 years of very focussed development toward a particular style, from a coach who clearly engenders a good feeling amongst his players, and United... haven’t.

xxp yeah what darragh said

The Liverpool squad have mostly all been signed by the same people with Klopp's football in mind. United's squad is the residue of like four different managerial regimes and there's no coherence in how those attacking players might fit together.

It's like you look at the Arsenal team and it feels like none of them were even there a year and a half ago but they're clearly clicking. United have cycled through more starting players than anyone else this season without once finding an XI that looked like a particularly coherent team.

it's having a system as well - a clear identity and a clear system makes every player look better, not least when someone has to come in and replace an injured player or whatever. if it's a case of 'this is how we play' and that's working you're so far ahead. i agree fully man u's squad is as good as liverpool, give or take. or at the very least you could come in and form an attacking identity built around it. second captains used the example of luke shaw v andy robertson to good effect.

always struck by how di maria went to shit at united and has been fine since

Yeah, there's definitely talent there if utilised properly

These all need to go though:

Matic, Fellaini, Lukaku, Jones, Valencia, Young, Rojo, McTominay

Oh come on, putting Lukaku in that list is ridiculous.

still lots of love for rojo here

Good on his day, never good enough for a club with aspirations of winning trophies. There are just too many limitations in his game

This season's version is the worst striker I've ever seen play for Utd

blinding fury is my fav utd trait, i see you have already forgotten macheda, smith, falcao, bellion, obertan, depay and... alexis

Alexis is the worst major EPL signing in years and may turn out to be one of the worst ever, especially given that even Mkhitaryan, who was thrown in as a makeweight, has outperformed him this year.

Oumar Niasse and Lewis Dunk have as many goals in that time.

Alexis actually did better than Lukaku in his two games up front this season

Smith was alright til he became a midfielder. Macheda played about five games. Bellion, Obertan, Depay not strikers

Falcao was never actually at the club imo

multi xps - not to mention later years rooney

seen to remember rvp going to shit after a great world cup, dunno if it's fatigue or what

I agree Alexis is in contention for worst signing ever, although Lukaku will end up running him close. Think we'll get anyone else to pay 75m for him?

current Lukaku is absolutely worse than Rooney even at his lowest ebb

rom has scored more goals than a few strikers who are having nominally good seasons like jimenez and arnautovic, he's definitely in a slump but surely that's relatable. loads of clubs wld take him, he's a v complete striker, it's just hard to tell peering through the utd miasma

Complete is the opposite of what he is. In fact he's a very specific type of striker that Jose has admittedly been using all wrong

Clubs will definitely take him, but it certainly won't be at a profit

I'd be happy to have him as a back-up, but no club in the world has a 75m bench striker

Five Live just did this weirdly measured coverage of the sacking, managed to avoid interviewing any fan who was unreservedly tap-dancing and swilling champagne

Also Lukaku should be at his peak right now, was fantastic in the World Cup and was a proven Premier League goalscorer over multiple seasons at Everton. The blame for this has to come with Mourinho and his special ability to suck the life out of talented attacking players.

There doesn't appear to be a reliable #10 to play behind him (Mata is probably on the wane) and there are too many good players being rotated in the wide forward positions. Playing Pogba further forward in midfield might help in the longer run anyway but there's still a player missing there I think.

lukaku can run in behind, drop deep, turn defenders, make space, he's good in the air, has a good eye for a pass, his movement's intelligent, he's pretty quick, and he's a good finisher; he's just in a hopelessly negative team. he cld play deeper and work with runners like kane does w/ son and lucas. fans being similarly lukewarm on pogba and martial is similarly wild; it's such a delusional, hateful club

united fans love martial on the whole; pogba is very frustrating but i don't think anyone in the united camp will be happier than he is today

I don't think anyone can judge a player at their mourinho level, and thats both the max and the min with that statement

he shouldnt be allowed near players under 24 though

everyone can enjoy a pet hate or two, a nourishing grumble, but united crowds are like two ninety minute hates.

what percentage of strikers who will finish above utd in the league will utd fans deem 'not good enough' for their club. 80%?

imagining kane the debutant progressing under mourinho

eesh

if poch did go to utd he'd love fellaini

I readily admit that it's difficult to judge any player in this set up but I'd still quibble with a lot of your list ogmor

He's not really good in the air. In fact, he's pretty clearly a player who never had to develop aerial skills because of his size. He's...ok with headers in the box. Only ok
though, and his ability to deal with aerial balls with his back to goal is horrific

He's not really that quick anymore due to the excessive bulk he's carrying, and his movement is appalling. Spends most of his time strolling around and pointing

He's also extremely weak

Not comparable at all to Pogba and Martial who are natural talents and have been unfairly marginalised

CFs aren't everything, Chelsea are currently 11pts clear of United with Morata and Giroud as their only options in that position. Yeah yeah Hazard obviously but the gap between him and Sanchez is not as huge as that gulf suggests.

rom is no fellaini in the air it's true. it's true he's slowed down somewhat and become a beefboy now but any lack of strength or questionable positioning surely a question of deteriorating will which stems from the enervation of playing mouball, we've seen it time & again

a friend on the beat has been chatting to a woman in asda who demands 'hughesy' is given the job, says she's tired of "foreigners coming in with their crazy ideas. stop signing foreign players as well." winter is coming.

none of the top sides have a striker like lukaku, who prob fits all those sorts of 'old-fashioned' descriptions

and yet someone like firmino is prob p comfortably a better target man than lukaku. the phrase 'striker' doesn't even seem to accurately describe anyone at liverpool, for example.

My view is they need someone who meets the three key principles of that football club - the promotion of youth, entertaining football and to win football matches.

this is why gary neville should be director of football. "to win football matches" is a key principle for any successful team!