roy11

enjoyed hearing Daisy/Goody praise his resilience for being able to reset and comeback on. Lots of warriors bagging Petty on social media for being soft, bunch of absolute pelicans

seems like the barometer gave them the team talk, what a bunch of feisty fellas

And then got frustrated and gave away a few silly free kicks

The early whisper is it might be Varane and Martinez this week. So we’ll see what happens with him. Expect city to be business as usual until there is some fixture congestion, unsure how that will work this year with the WC break though.

Went standard shipping and they sent it express, good lads. Got the 90s style AFL logo on cuff of the jacket too

@layzieIt's a tough one, I feel sorry for Harry as he wasn't the one who decided he was an 80 million pound defender. That is some big Manchester United/English player tax. He hasn't been helped by a few things at United; Overall turmoil of the club Not having an adequate midfield in front screening the backline Inconsistent fullbacks Inconsistent CB pairings Having to play as a LCB when he's right footed. If we look at his positive performances for England they often come when he's in system with 3CBs. When he was at Leicester they also predominantly deployed a back 5 in a relatively defensive compact unit. The price was a lot to pay for a player who seemingly excels the most in a 3 CB system, for that price you expect a complete CB. A lot of his good games for England came when he was playing behind a good DM in either Rice and sometimes Rice and Phillips, so he is a lot more protected than he is at club level. I think he can exceed in a possession based team; he is actually a good passer of the ball. He doesn't have the long range ability of VVD but can spread it around, was very impressive in pre-season, especially his delivery from RCB to the left wing. I think a key issue here is the midfield not presenting for options and making clever runs. The Brighton game for example, we started with Maguire and Martinez, who are both decent ball playing defenders but they both got caught on the ball a few times because there was no one presenting for a pass. He does have other positive attributes such as ball recoveries and aerial battles but his mistakes and $ take attention away from that. For me his biggest flaw is his positional awareness and he is too prone to making mistakes as a result. I am uncertain if his positional issues stem from the dot point issues i listed above or if these can be fixed. One issue is that United often come up against teams who sit very deep and a result our defenders plays with a high line, he does not have the pace or awareness for that - very easy to run in behind as Welbeck was doing in GW1. Didn't help Fred was pressing at inopportune times which exacerbated the situation and highlighted some of his weaknesses (Pace and positional awareness) As I briefly touched on before, Leicester were a compact team when he was there, easy to head the ball away in those situations, much different ball game trying to play a high line further up the pitch. Would like to be able to judge Maguire after a season with the following; A manager who can bring the players he wants and has a clear style A solid CB pairing playing with good fullbacks A well functioning midfield Sadly, not sure if we ever will see this. So in a flawed side he will continue to make mistakes, so you'd have to question whether he should be starting. Think he's destined to be remembered as a expensive meme footballer. Sorry for turning into Binman, still not sure if i've answered your query that well, given him some praise but torched him for other things.

De Gea is a marvelous shot stopper, has tremendous reflexes etc. But when you have dross and chaos in front of him, his weaknesses are much more evident. His distribution is poor, which is problematic given the way EtH wants to play. (See 2nd goal conceded this weekend). I know it is easy to judge from a keyboard, but if you've watched him a lot, you'll see he is a bit of a coward - Stays on his line too long, doesn't come out for crosses, too reliant making saves with his feet when he could be more aggressive and dive and doesn't sweeper/keep (essential in modern game) etc. An interesting stat for you, Dean Henderson who was sent on loan this season has 5 High Ball Claims so far this season from 2 games, last season De Gea had a total of 8. Again, i repeat he is a marvelous shot stopper, but there is a reason he is no longer picked for Spain, their manager recently said "A goalkeeper should start the play and generate the first superiority, they must dominate the aerial play." - As I said above, those are his his biggest weaknesses, modern football requires more than shot-stopping. Technically speaking his contract expires at the end of this season, but there is an option for an extra year renewal. Given his wage and the above deficiencies, i hope it is not extended as a proper clean out is required. Thank him for all he has done, but time to go.

Consider this panic bought!

Squiggle likes to mix things up, done it a few times today and it's had us finishing 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th.

Speaking of negativity, I'm starting to feel a bit negative about my bet of BBB to win the Coleman

Mods - please lock the thread until United are good again

There’s accentuating contact when you’re being infringed, which is pretty common and there’s the McGovern incident aha

MFC admin must be a huge Hunty fan, including him in the Team Selection Photo when people are calling for his head aha

Not that outrageous I guess, should have won last week - this lot should get the job done this week. Had a look at the facebook comments, saw negative comments about the following being named Hunt, JJ, Pig, Milkshake, Brown, Nibbler, ANB, Spargo. People are angry, it has been too long since our last flag!

Leaving the G last week, still hearing COLLINGWOOD chants in the carpark and along Bridge Road added to my irritation/hatred

Offered my Carlton mate a free ticket and he declined, said the season was over after the loss to the crows.

Seems I have a few GA passes left on my membership, i'm going this week with a mate in the MCC so these will go to waste unless anyone has interest in them. Chuck a DM if interested

Trade Hogan for Picks, trade one of the picks for Steven May, use the other on Tom Sparrow. Go on to win the flag and then maybe bring Hogan back, this would be some real 4d Chess.

Ultimately, I don't think much changes at United until there is an ownership change, might get a cup win along the way and some good victories but seem very far from the title race at present.

Mata, pogba and lingard still had a combined 60 appearances last season. Fred/Mctominay can still play a role but need a proper #6 next to them and definitely not playing with each other. I’ve spent the last 2 years calling Rabiot a plumber and now we’re linked with him. Never thought it would be mufc out of all my teams that would be the death of me aha.

Who comes to mind?

Enjoyable thread and enjoyable characters involved, would have given 2 laughing emojis if possible

This will be a transitional season with many bumps in the road but an average performance to begin with. EtH wants the fullbacks to push up and become inverted to add to the midfield but the issue then Fred/McTominay need to cover space and screen the Centre backs. Fred/McTominay are box to box midfielders - so neither can really pass the ball that well or screen the area appropriately. On several occasions Fred pressed when he shouldnt have which created far too much space that Brighton manipulated. Additionally, with the lack of passing attributes they failed to link playing out from the back to the more attacking players which meant we were easily countered and the forwards didnt get involved.

Around late July last year I wasn't sure if we'd finish in the top 4, at that stage we could have finished anywhere between 1st and 5th depending on how things played out. At the end of the day a kick after the siren in our last game cemented top spot. Sometimes everything goes right but my brain is once again doing the computations and uncertain where we'll finish this year - will be a bit of a bumpy 2 weeks for all clubs involved.

The man is a machine but does break down from time to time. Meanwhile my bunch, end of the season it was clear what was needed, haven't signed players for those positions, serve up more dross. Fantastic! aha