Checking in.

Attack = 100%!

Some curious points from the loss.

Why the heck does Maguire, the Captain, leave the sole big striker Demba Ba to his young partner and leave himself as the free man?
Take some responsibility. He's done this from time to time. Vidic would've been all over Ba. Tuanzebe got himself done with a yellow and that was it.

Ole. Oh ho ho. Why does our manager substitute our best player on the night with 30 minutes to go?
Do you not want to win? Or does Ole really hate VDB? Did VDB break into Ole's home or something? At this rate, Ole is gonna sack himself with these tactics.

First off, yes I have some sympahy for Ole in the tactics he is using.

Yes, this is all a direct consequence of Woodward completely failing to capture any of the summer transfer targets.
Even VDB was not an Ole target, which is probably why he is being used so sparingly. Woodward has been shit. This is known, now let's get on.

Without the right reinforcements, Ole has realized his preferred setup is left heavy without a RW and AWB cannot cross the ball. That makes it easy to defend against as opponents tend to flood their right defence. And he feels he is best served by the midfield diamond to negate overloading the LW and overcoming the RW problem. So far so good.

What I then struggle to understand is that if you are going to commit players into a midfield diamond, why are you not using the player most comfortable in a diamond? In world football, if you are talking about a diamond formation, you cannot get away from Ajax and the Dutch. Cryuff literally played his entire career in a diamond. VDB is so effective in a midfield diamond and yet he can barely start a game. And even when VDB does and becomes MotM, he still gets subbed after 60 minutes. It is almost like the point of having a midfield diamond isn't to get the best out of the team but to ensure Ole's favourite midfield players get to play. Our main problem remains in midfield, even though we are packed with midfielders. And the defence is now making it worse.

I can't fault Cavani or Martial even though they tend to become invisible in matches. It's because our strikers are feeding off scraps. Cavani probably gets 5 chances at PSG, at United he barely gets one clear cut chance.

And the Glazers too dammit. Parasites.
If we need an American to own the club, right now I'd rather vote Donald Trump in.

Vidic doesn't defend by pace.
Vidic defends by being all over and manhandling the striker. Which is what Maguire should be doing.

If you get the ball and Vidic is nearby, expect pain.

Bersangka baik.

Maybe it is Ole playing Total Football or a variation of it. DF can become ST, ST can become MF and MF become RB.

Source?

I would not pin that on Lindelof.
I would pin that on the defensive assignment, Ole has to take that. Lindelof should absolutely not be assigned to mark Calvert-Lewin, it should have been Maguire.

Maguire is always the spare defender. It is always his junior partner that has to mark the striker.
When the opponent has a big striker up front, it would be logical to put our biggest guy (Maguire) on him and totally negate the aerial threat while his younger partner who has more pace can play the spare. But no, we keep putting the other defenders to mark the striker and it's causing problems for us defensively. See Tuanzebe in one of the previous match, and Lindelof here.

And how Mata starts over VDB is absolutely beyond me. Mata's done at this level, he doesn't have the engine to track. Digne was having a field day down the right totally unmarked.

Scott Parker.
Name is familiar. Was he the Charlton midfield talisman who moved to Chelsea?

Maybe Kayu's brilliant strategy.
Make all transfers fail, and use the money saved to give Pogba a new contract with more money.

We will need to be creating clear cut chances for our forwards if Cavani is going to have an impact. To be fair to Martial, the team hasn't exactly been blessed with chances to put away. It looks like Ole is using him more for off the ball movements to pull defenders than actually being on the end of chances.

Whoa. Poch knocking on the door?

Edited, don't want to get your friend in trouble.

This post has been edited by statikinetic: Nov 9 2020, 03:37 PM

Maybe the Glazers will decide they have had enough.

They'll have to take a cut if they do.
At this point, they're definitely going to bleed until the entire pandemic blows over. And even if it does, there is a chance it may never be the same. And all the loans loaded onto the club will continue to bleed their pockets.

So really the only people I see buying into the Club are the typical Arab owners who then pump money. You probably won't be able to extract more money out of the club than the Glazers already are.

Lukaku is doing pretty okay.

Ronaldo, on the pitch contribution wise, would definitely be a point of debate.
Off the pitch and that mentality on the dressing room, will be invaluable.

I can already see him calling out players if they start to slack off. And what better role model for Rashford and Greenwood than the GOAT who has done it all at Old Trafford.

Later it is a curveball none of us saw.

Ronaldo comes....as replacement for Ole.
On his resume as boss : Portugal's win in the Euros.

Mata over VDB again, exposing our right flank.
With deep seated defences, Mata was unable to pick the lock and Bruno was mostly performing that role. Fernandes needs more people making those runs, and he tended to favour passing to the left flank due to the concentration of runners. It makes us easier to defend against.

Ole really taking the piss out of VDB.

VDB finally, and looking really good.

VDB is phenomenal in that midfield.
Doesn't need to do the Hollywood passes or showboating. Just efficient, comfortable with the one touch and keeps everyone around him ticking.