The United board and the owners are a bigger issue for the club than Greenwood.

At no other club does the Board interfere with the footballing squad matters more than United.

Really doesn't matter who the manager is if this model persists. The Board is the real manager at the club.

When Rangnick took over, United were 7th and almost half the squad wanted to leave. Things have improved, but further improvement required the Board backing the manager.

It is no secret Rangnick wanted a midfielder in Jan, with the club in for Zakaria. The club failed.
When rivals strengthened, the club made zero acquisitions in Jan while weakening the team. Yet want to project that we are serious in pushing for Top 4.
Players who Rangnick cleared to leave were blocked by the Board. Lingard and Henderson.

This Board is already guilty of meddling on footballing matters. Further compounded by not backing the manager. The Board and the owners are the main problem at the club. They are the one constant in the past 10 years of consistent failures.

Who had a better transfer window than Manchester United?

Put it this way. The current evidence on social media is enough for his teammates to take their respective actions towards him. Go figure for the rest of us.

Due process takes time. That is probably why the club is waiting to see investigation results, and suspending Greenwood till then.

The evidence being circulated is damming though. Enough for his own teammates to take action. Greenwood is currently out on bail.

Next game Boro. Second string lineup?

Hard for me to blame him completely though. If I were 20 with a shit load of money as a footballer, I'd probably be much worse. Which is why men of focus like Ronaldo are such exceptions. The real GOAT.

Rooney had his granny hooker phase.
Ronaldo still gold standard.

It is the other way around.

I followed Ronaldo's case closely. The woman engineered her way into the bedroom, then executed the legal actions. Took the money because Ronaldo didn't want the case to drag on and signed an NDA. Spent all the money and came back asking for more. Bona-fide gold digger.

Greenwood's case looks like first hand abuse from the evidence made public. It is enough for the club, teammates and sponsors to take action.

Why can't it be the players? They have been everything wrong at United.

What's gone on with Lingard is similar to what's gone on with Martial. Two players who are nowhere near the starting 11 itching for a way out of the club. Lingard just had the club slam the door on his exit and is unhappy. The bickering back and forth would have seen someone at the club offer him a few days off to clear his head and the payer took it.

RR being the typical German called it out directly that the player was unavailable.

The players then realised the optics of the situation wasn't good and put out a press statement. Lingard can say someone at the club offered him the leave and he didn't ask for it. Who offered it is immaterial. What is material is that he is on leave and won't be available for the manager.

This is the type of nonsense United players have been up to for far too long. Making demands behind the scenes and then using media PR. I don't envy RR's position and he hasn't done anything wrong. He's just being openly direct about it which I can respect. Martial wants to go, he's gone. Lingard wants to go and he's probably gone as well. The English core in defence (Maguire, Shaw, AWB) has been dropped and have to up their performances to get back in the starting 11. We all knew the dressing room was rotten and needed fixing. And it is being fixed.

Do I trust an experienced German manager, or do I trust the Instagram bunch in the dressing room?
That's clear to me where my support as a fan lies right now.

71% possession.
30 shots. 9 on target.
One goal.
Loss.

One of those nights.
We had enough chances to comfortably win the game.

What are the odds we didn't score from here? That's why we didn't win.

Harry Maguire's decision making was costly in conceding the goal. With the ball that high up the pitch and McTominay backtracking, no reason to engage. But engage he did and got turned.

Another game where we see possession and more chance creation but finishing let us down. VAR and defensive lapses have been annoying lately.

There is a better structure in the team now but the familiar MF weakness is still there. McTominay is not a DM and his positioning can be wonky at times.

You are absolutely spot on. The one big symptom that shows McTominay isn't a DM is that he does not take the ball of the back 4. So we continue to see the CB trying to lob passes forward without any sort of midfield connection.
McT is too easily taken out of the buildup by the opposition team as he sits in the cover shadow.

To help see what distribution attributes a proper DM has, this is Busquets in training.
This is distribution and press resistance.

I would like to chime in on one thing that irks me a bit and that is fans going in on Rangnick.
There are things that belong to the manager. There are things that belong to the players. And there are things that are sort of balanced between the two. As a fan, I do not consider myself a Rangnick supporter. But I am backing Rangnick because every new manager deserves an opportunity and I feel he is taking his and delivering. I will not touch club management which is another story. Will not touch the Board which is a nightmare in itself. Will only approach this from the tactical aspect.

Let's be objective about this.

6 months to a year ago, how did United play? Our midfield routinely gets ripped to shreds even by bottom of the table teams. We lose the midfield. We defend deep. McFred sits just above the penalty box in front of the defence as a Back 6. The front 4 gets no service and is disconnected from the game. Hopefully our defence holds and a bit of individual magic means we sneak a goal. Familiar?

We have been hearing a lot of criticism the last 3 games so lets examine them.

Burnley, Boro, West Ham. Did we lose the midfield and go back to a Back 6? No. We had the majority of possession in each of these games.
Are we waiting for individual briliance to sneak a goal? It wouldn't hurt but the system Rangnick put out not just took possession but generated a fair amount of shots on goal.

18 shots vs West Ham. 1 goal.
30 shots vs Boro. 1 goal.
22 shots vs Burnley. 1 goal.

That is improvement. With the chance creation, the players have to shoulder some of the responsibility. And the goals we concede? I certainly don't have to point out if we conceded because of a system issue or individual error.


Expectations at the start

I had posted before when Rangnick first joined that we would need to wait until at least March to see some notable improvements. If not the end of the season.
Because problems take time to fix. Our biggest failure was a lack of tactics and players not knowing what they should do. Roughly speaking, the process is like the below :

1. Assess the players.
2. Find a formation that gets the best out of the players.
3. Drill into them a style of play that defends well and creates chances.
4. Get results with the style of play with man management in the squad.

RR has obviously done (1). He's tried the 4-2-2-2 which didn't work and is going with a more stable 4-2-3-1. So that's step (2) done.
We are now in stage (3). We are not shipping 4 goals a game. In fact, we are defending rather well minus the silly individual errors. Plus we are creating a fair amount of chances but players aren't converting. What's not clicked is that the players are still getting used to it and sustaining the setup/momentum is still a challenge. The team can look disjointed over long periods and that will come down as the players adjust to what RR wants. The players have to own it now. Ridiculous VAR decisions. Bruno missing an open goal. Ronaldo missing a penalty. Maguire being Maguire. These are temporary things that'll blow over if they stick to the plan.

That is good improvement in the past 4 months which is why I'm happy to back RR.

RR has gotten this improvement with a weaker squad than Ole. The Board has screwed him by blocking players, weakening the team and not bringing anyone in. Murtough screwed the manager by apparently giving players leave without informing. RR is like the only sane teacher in a playground run by kindergarten kids. Plus, he speaks frankly which is a breath of fresh air after Vibes FC.

Compare this with the news today that United players wants Poch.
Wonder if this is another part of player driven media to even influence manager appointments.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/manchester-unit...manager-sources

For Maguire, fans need to realize we need to also look at it from a corporate perspective as Manchester United are a corporate business first and foremost. Not a football club. We are a brand.

Maguire is a 80M investment. If the new managers comes in and doesn't play Maguire for whatever reason, it is likely to be a Boardroom level issue at the club. No business people wants their 80M investment to further depreciate in value because of lack of playing this. Plus he is the captain. Not playing the captain is bad for the brand. Even if Rangnick wanted to drop him permanently, the decision is not his to make as interim manager. He already dropped Maguire to the bench for a couple of games and I am afraid that is the extent of what Rangnick will be allowed to do.

The Board gave Phil Jones a 5 year contract renewal when he was spending half his time in the treatment room.
What do you think the Board will do with Maguire who can stay injury free and has the captaincy?

#EnglishPassport

That's the answer I believe. It's because Pogba is on the pitch and plays the role of deeper creator. So Bruno will make those runs to create a passing option for Pogba.
We already saw it before. Remember the Leeds game at the start of the season where Fernandes played almost as a shadow striker? He scored a hattrick as Pogba's passes kept finding him. Pogba got 4 assists that day if I recall correctly.

This time there were chances but everyone's finishing masuk longkang.


This post has been edited by statikinetic: Feb 10 2022, 01:34 PM

Majority of the squad aren't good enough and should be managed out.