Personally, I think the biggest issue facing the team right now, regarding performances is motivation. They have nothing left to play for and are playing for a manager who has been confirmed as a temporary manager, rendering him a lame duck.

I agree that having no Europe is good to allow the team to rebuild and focus on the league.

But not having Europe has bigger repercussions than just smaller income. Very few class players would be willing to go to a team with no European football next season. That would seriously hamper rebuilding. That is my major concern.

Unless it is confirmed that United can still get the players they want without European football, I think it is better for United to be in Europe.

I gotta agree that a United core is essential. They make good support as squad players. What the team really needs is a rebuilding of the spine of the team. Half the spine is gone. Vidic, Ferdinand, Scholes, Carrick (getting old). Also, we need to start a transition plan to replace Evra.

Yeah. I'd rather not get too excited. It ain't over till the player is wearing the jersey, signed the contract, presented in a press conference and officially training with the club.

Too many disappointments. No harm in making wish lists though, as long as we can accept that our wishes will most likely not be granted.

If they're lacking motivation, then it's an attitude problem or a man-management problem. Before the Sunderland loss, winning all our remaining games would have given us a decent shot at qualifying for the Europa league. Not the CL, but still European football.

As for class players, on one hand it would be sweet to get a couple of big names (Fabregas, Kroos, Cavani) in to have as a spine for the next few years. On the other hand, even with CL football this season no big names made the move last summer. One thing I gotta, say, for all our FM2014 ideas and signing hopes, how often have United ever signed big name European players in the past 10-15 years? The only one that immediately comes to mind is Veron. Our transfer market style has been more along the lines of signing solid/promising continental players (Ronaldo, Hargreaves, Nani, etc) and trying to get the most out of them. If we nicked big names, it's often been EPL big names (Cole, Yorke, Ferdinand, Berbatov, RVP, etc) instead of continental big names.

LVG *might* change this, since his name has continental weight and his style for signings is less clear than SAF. On the other hand, he is also rumored to be the sort that would rather focus on player development instead of big name signings.

United need to a construction in the centre of the midfield..no one is good anymore in CM!! Fletcher okla..

How about this for match against Hull?

GK:DDG
RB:Saidy Janko
CBs:Phil Jones,Nemanja Vidic
LB:Alexander Buttner
CMs:Darren Fletcher,Tom Cleverley (No other options in the centre,United need to buy 2-3 good CMs.. )
RM:Adnan Januzaj
LM:Andreas Pereira
CFs:Robin van Persie,James Wilson

Give the young lad in the CF position a chance yo!

Knowing Giggs, it will be

DDG,
Phil Jones
Rio, Nemanja
Evra
Valencia, Carrick, Cleverley, Young
Rvp, Rooney

Manchester United's way,but he ain't SAF..since SAF knows how to play even with the line-up above..

GIGGS!If you see this,give Andreas Pereira and Adnan Januzaj the start.Tq.

^ giggs chance seeing ur post is slimmer than me winning the poll above.

Will Manchester United be the next Leeds United?

Sounds like you're almost ready to call him David Moyes

That loss against Sunderland, if it had been DM still in charge then we would have seen more comments like:
1) Another record breaking achievement, home loss against Sunderland for the first time in DECADES. WTF IS DIS?!
2) Another home loss, omgwtfbbq
3) Young AGAIN. Mata out?! Nani out?! Welbeck playing?! No Kagawa?!?!
4) Players playing like shit!! Manager motivation skills mana?! Selection sucks! Tactics not working! Cannot even score goal?! How many shots on target?! Home game FFS!
5) #MANAGEROUT

Instead since it's Giggs, he of epic vote tally leading here, things are much less explosive. Someone even said at least morale is better now

The only positive thing I can take from the Sunderland loss is at least the media and bandwagon to have Giggs made manager is slowed/halted. He and Scholes as manager(s) would be nice, when they have gained enough experience as managers to make them ready to take the gig. Not this season, or anytime in the next 2-3 years from the looks of it. Not when we need a ruthless manager to knock everyone into place and kick out the rubbish performances.

at least giggs tactic is more attacking n fluid than moyes...also he is better in press conference...

instead going for overprice defender

there's 1 i would go for .... Steven Caulker

cardiff dah relegate...so maybe we can try

Apparently he didn't do too well in the defeat against Newcastle.

speaking bout cardiff...wilfred zaha didnt really perform in cardiff....not sure if he ready for 1st team football at MU or need to loaned out again for next season..

overrated.

Basically this season, I feel only Jones, De Gea, Januzaj have done well.

I think if LvG come, only De Gea, Jones, Januzaj, RvP are safe.

Then again, I really hope Kagawa will flourish under LvG next season... go go Kagawa!

This post has been edited by hocksoo: May 5 2014, 04:11 PM

I generally agree with you on both counts. That said, it's Giggs 2nd game in charge and after his first loss his reaction to the loss already included the nightmare line "I honestly don't know". If DM had said that he would have been flayed (like he was when he said something similar after the loss to Stoke). Giggs post-Sunderland loss comments. Replace "Giggs" with "Moyes" for that whole article and how different would the reaction have been?

I forgot a few more lines we have seen a lot this season. "Champions by 11 points to THIS?!" "WTF same mistakes again and again, when will he ever LEARN?" A lot of times we have seen fans saying the team is as good or some even claimed BETTER this season in terms of personnel compared to last season.

If the problems this season were 100% due to the manager alone, then how do we explain the Sunderland game? Giggs has been in the coaching staff and the first team all season, how do we explain him:
- Choosing to start/play Young (something that makes so many of us groan)?
- Or that when Young was not doing enough to stay on the RW he was not subbed out but instead moved to the LW (where he has been doing sweet f*** all for most of the season, barring a couple of games where he scored)?
- How do we explain Kagawa not even being on the bench? Or Welbeck coming on when we needed goals?
- So many changes in the lineup compared to the previous game vs Norwich (DM got a lot of flak for "excessive tinkering, changing the team all the time").

These are the exact same things DM got nuked for. Giggs has seen it all and from the inside as a coach and a player this season. So doesn't this make his choice to REPEAT these decisions which have (rightly or wrongly) been labelled mistakes even WORSE?

Or maybe the players are just pulling the same stunt they tried under DM, because nobody (DM, Giggs) is SAF. Look OK in training, then slouch off on game day. Maybe being manager of United is tougher than we gave credit for. Maybe the team DOES need massive rebuilding and isn't fine or better than last season.

I gotta say I'm not wishing DM was back, nor am I defending his mistakes (he definitely made mistakes). Just saying DM has been a scapegoat and focus of blame all season for the poor performances. Now that he is not even in the same country/continent as the team turning out this kind of performance, maybe we can look past blaming the manager and look at the team itself.

Why? Because whoever the next manager of United is, it is not impossible he will also struggle next season. Even Mourinho "going home to Chelsea" is having some bad results this season (losing at home to Sunderland, the CL 2nd leg performance/result, a draw to Norwich, his press conferences have become more negative as the season passes, etc).

Hopefully next season we won't repeat the "WTF la this guy should not be United manager, it should have been [insert alternative name]" cycle quite as quickly or brutally if results and performances don't meet our hopes and expectations. Something tells me it's going to be awhile before we can regularly be happy with the team and results.

Hard to say. Rumor is he is lacking the discipline or confidence to perform well enough, hence his being benched a lot even at Cardiff. Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be another Ravel Morrison (talented but mentality and attitude not up to scratch).

Erm.. no continental defenders who can do a better job?

i rather promote michael keane to 1st team..

I second this.

Sokong!