Liverpool have 2nd sewn up - EPL 2018/19

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!

Mourinho won’t be sacked any time soonhttps://t.co/IpzEiGNnbu

— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) December 17, 2018

United will only sack Mourinho when CL next season impossible, and all logic suggests PSG will hasten that. But logic doesn’t always dictate in the CL? What it... no?

Can Jose use it to save so much?https://t.co/aelpfI7I98

— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) December 17, 2018

What it...no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvmytj56Tck

i think kane is similar to lukaku, a bit slower and a bit better at passing into the bottom corner. lukaku doesn't have an alli or an eriksen tho

wat if mouriehno modarn day

solsjkaer in, lol please do that.

i was thinking that was part of the old Skybet game and not a serious prospect at all, but you never know!

lol, just heard solsjkaer "meets all the criteria" without a laughing track.

the baby-faced caretaker

the super-sub(standard) one.

OMG with Mike Phelan as his assistant!

There were a couple of early performances from Lukaku (admittedly on a US tour) where he looked quick and strong on the shoulder of the last man and it looked like he was going to develop into something. He's since had the life sucked out of him by the general gloom over Utd.

It does seem to be structural. Like, the same sluggish, sludgy football whoever the manager, the sense of fear on the pitch, the lack of direction in the boardroom. This is a stretch but it's either a) someone needs to come in and exorcise the ghost up in the stands (it's Hamlet's dad, essentially) or ii) it's a bit like Paul Gilroy's concept of post-colonial melancholia. They need a war.

well, the optimism lasted almost an entire work day

its managerial, completely and utterly

There doesn't seem to be anyone above the level of the manager who knows anything about football, so they've had three dour negative appointments in a row, even though it's the last thing the fans want. The overall level of squad-building is incoherent, they have like six very good wide forwards, they've made one super-expensive marquee signing a year with minimal attention to less glamorous positions on the pitch. I think that stuff precedes Mourinho but he's made the absolute worst of a bad job. Maybe Fergie just ran the club from top to bottom and no one else has a clue, but there isn't really a reason why a better manager with a different philosophy couldn't be getting a lot more from even the existing squad.

yup to all that

lol to phelan and ole. wtf. fc united fans would prob raise eyebrows at that.

?

i just mean it would be a p underwhelming appointment even as caretakers.

Phelan is pretty much the definition of underwhelming, I’d agree. I’d be fairly happy with Solskjaer, though, as a temporary thing. There’s not really much to lose at this point: finishing top four would be a miracle and there’s next to no chance of getting relegated.

i guess even compared to carrick it seems a risk

maybe not i suppose - i dunno, the whole idea of end of season caretaker is odd in itself.

out of season caretaker obv a risky bet also

some truly brutal pens in the Carabao

bring back stands

amused that in some circles Solskjaer is seen as a less risible possibility than Bruce or Hughes

aye, Hughes would let the sunshine in again alright

i can barely remember if Solksjaer has a managerial style. i'm obv not saying Hughes or Bruce are remotely likely, but it's not like their managerial chops are any more questionable than Solskjaer's

yeah but they're both cunts

I'm not turning cartwheels about this appointment but I would have been happy enough with Carrick and McKenna til the end of the season tbh (considering it's almost a total write-off at this point). Getting in a dour PL journeyman would be a horrible move. At least this is somewhat left field. I mean, fuck it

nah i agree with all that, i was just listening to former professionals laughing at the notion of Bruce/Hughes (obviously correctly) but then getting all up in Solskjaer's rear

at least Carrick/McKenna would have some logic of potential continuity to it, this is like a post-shark jump sitcom bringing in a very special guest who turns out to be not so very special

baby faced shark jumping do do do do do do

Hey Manchester United, I’m available

— Alan Curbishley (@AlansAvailable) December 18, 2018

I presume the thinking here is that it would essentially be impossible for the Utd fans to turn on wee Ole

let's find out

yeah i agree with nv. i think there's a hint of politics about this - real pragmatism would have been carrick who is already working there. this feels like hunting some cheap soft power.

xpost that's definitely it, which to me coming from woodward and co seems cynical.

trying to think of any united players that went on to become decent managers, help me out here

Phil Neville seems to be doing ok