Assessing our squad

[Felwin]

Think you're being a bit too nice there, Joel.

Yoro could take a while to find form and I get what you're saying about Maguire but wait while we have 1-2 injuries and see how dodgy it all looks...

Mazza will end up out left so we have zero depth at wing back. Big question marks there whilst Malacia and Shaw remain perma-injured. Unless Amad/Garna come in as wing backs against poorer opposition.

Honestly still think those 10s will be problematic. Bruno will give his all but not sure about Amad so far in field, I like him out wide skinning players. Reckon we'll see Eriksen and Mount in these positions. Eriksen has had a decent start but we can't play him every week.

We're placing a lot of hope on Hojlund suddenly turning into Alan Shearer and banging them in from all angles. Zirkzee isn't an option here at all. Maybe Rashford but I don't think he has the upper body strength to battle with CB's.

Time for Amorim to prove me wrong. Probably because we've been burnt so many times, but I'm with you, he has to tear everything up and start again.

[dozer]

We need 2 left backs. Dalot isn't good enough although I don't mind him as a backup to Mazaroui.
If we're playing 3 at the back we need 2 more defenders.
We need a striker and a number 10. Bruno must start every game and he will so it's the other number 10 spot that's open. Mount, Amad, Eriksen, Zirkzee etc won't be able to fill that role. Amad may be able to step up to that role but I'm not very sure.

[JoelfuckingGlazer]

Think you're being a bit too nice there, Joel.

Yoro could take a while to find form and I get what you're saying about Maguire but wait while we have 1-2 injuries and see how dodgy it all looks...

Mazza will end up out left so we have zero depth at wing back. Big question marks there whilst Malacia and Shaw remain perma-injured. Unless Amad/Garna come in as wing backs against poorer opposition.

Honestly still think those 10s will be problematic. Bruno will give his all but not sure about Amad so far in field, I like him out wide skinning players. Reckon we'll see Eriksen and Mount in these positions. Eriksen has had a decent start but we can't play him every week.

We're placing a lot of hope on Hojlund suddenly turning into Alan Shearer and banging them in from all angles. Zirkzee isn't an option here at all. Maybe Rashford but I don't think he has the upper body strength to battle with CB's.

Time for Amorim to prove me wrong. Probably because we've been burnt so many times, but I'm with you, he has to tear everything up and start again.

Yeah, it was a glass half full view. There's a lot to do, I guess my point is that there are some genuine green shoots and positives for him to build on.

[Fuck the Glazers]

Tyrell Malacia ended 17 months of injury woe as he returned to action in Manchester United Under-21 side’s EFL Trophy tie with Huddersfield Town.

Turns out he's still alive

[Felwin]

Tyrell Malacia ended 17 months of injury woe as he returned to action in Manchester United Under-21 side’s EFL Trophy tie with Huddersfield Town.

Turns out he's still alive

Back from the dead. Will he be any good? Long time out and he was fairly average before the injury...

[Felwin]

Didn't want to stuff up Martinez's thread with squad talk so I'll stick it here. IMO his injury has killed any chance of us being able to progress from deep effectively, so the way I see it Amorim has 2 choices:

1) Go all-in on playing technical players at the back, who are fast (relatively) on the turn meaning Shaw/Heaven-De Ligt-Mazraoui/Dalot
2) Turn us into a negative, piss-on-your-chips team with a back 5, CBs being Shaw/Yoro-Maguire-De Ligt (maybe Casemiro)

He'll probably try and stick the landing and go for something in-between, but at the very least he has to stop picking Maguire in home games/against opponents we want to dominate. Once we're up the pitch, he's a massive weakness. If we're playing a tough team, late in a game, or it's a cup game, fair enough, wheel out Harry to head the ball out of our box for an hour, but otherwise he's the backup option. Not even saying the other options are miles better but we know Maguire's weaknesses, Ole and Ten Hag exacerbated them by playing a high line, Amorim can't make that mistake too.

[JoelfuckingGlazer]

Isn't 2 what we are though? With Dalot and Maz as WBs, it's a back 5.

This squad is so far off being top 4, let alone title challenging.

I think we'll remain a bottom half side at best, for at least 2 years. The whole things fucked. I actually we're best off being relegated, force the Glazers out, start again. Seriously.

The cancer at the heart of the club remains stuck in situ.

Purely on the playing front, we have 3 or 4 young players who could develop into top players in the right environment. But that ain't here. There's no leadership. No quality. No winning mentality. There's a chronic lack of quality in the 24-28 year old bracket.

If any of the class of 92 had come through at Liverpool at the time, or Spurs, they don't fulfil their potential.

There isn't a single position I look at and think, yeah we're filing that with top class. Maybe Bruno, but even he's having to flit between a 10 and a 6, so it's not nailed down. Every other position either has someone not good enough or still developing. Every one.

[Felwin]

Isn't 2 what we are though? With Dalot and Maz as WBs, it's a back 5.

Not the last couple of games as we've actually been able to work it up the pitch and get at the very least Martinez into midfield.

This squad is so far off being top 4, let alone title challenging.

I think we'll remain a bottom half side at best, for at least 2 years. The whole things fucked. I actually we're best off being relegated, force the Glazers out, start again. Seriously.

The cancer at the heart of the club remains stuck in situ.

Purely on the playing front, we have 3 or 4 young players who could develop into top players in the right environment. But that ain't here. There's no leadership. No quality. No winning mentality. There's a chronic lack of quality in the 24-28 year old bracket.

If any of the class of 92 had come through at Liverpool at the time, or Spurs, they don't fulfil their potential.

There isn't a single position I look at and think, yeah we're filing that with top class. Maybe Bruno, but even he's having to flit between a 10 and a 6, so it's not nailed down. Every other position either has someone not good enough or still developing. Every one.

Broadly agree. I just think this is last chance saloon now. We have to stick with Amorim for at the very least a season and a half, no matter how bad it gets. Personally I'd only start considering his position at the end of the 26/27 season but Ineos have that whole "Project 2028" thing which might mean they act sooner. If it's still this bad by November, sack-the-manager logic might come into play and he's off.

This summer will be Ineos' second, but still Amorim's first. Still very early days when you take into account the rot took over two decades to drag us down to this point. There should/will be fat-trimming and opportunistic squad signings. The squad won't be as Frankenstein this time next year, I feel fairly secure saying that... but as you say, will we have quality? Remains to be seen. Relies on so many factors.

The only green shoots I see is that Amorim cut his teeth by getting a core of young, hungry players believing in him and his methods - and so far our best stuff has been coming from the few young, hungry players we have in the squad. I know many of us aren't fans of this system and can't see anything good about it, but there's something there IMO. When those WBs are right up the pitch, we've got the front three interchanging and 1 or both outside CB's stepping up, the opposition look fucked, we're overloading them everywhere but not trusting ourselves to play the quick ball. The best teams are able to speed it up and slow it down, we either play one way or the other. That takes time on the training ground, time together in the same positions and quality players. 3 things Amorim has little of.

Still don't think you can write us off winning the FA Cup or Europa this season, there just seems to be this demon hanging over us at OT. We need to get it off our backs, but the problem is every opponent fancies it now and we don't fancy ourselves. If we sit back against a better team at OT, we get pounded until they score (and rightly pounded by the fans), step up against a shit team and we get done on the break, set-pieces are a disaster... lots to fix, but we could still be talking in a month about how we're in two quarter finals despite being 15th in the league. And honestly, I'd be ok with that. These are the times that have been threatening to come since the Glazers first came in. No easy fix. No easy road back. Just endure and hope... fuck me I've depressed myself now.

[JoelfuckingGlazer]

Luke Shaw has suffered a 4 week injury setback.

In other news, water is wet.

[Fuck the Glazers]

Luke Shaw has suffered a 4 week injury setback.

In other news, water is wet.

I just googled how long Shaw has been injured for and saw this:

"Transfermarkt details that Shaw has suffered 29 injuries during his time at United, resulting in an astonishing 1,606 days out injured."

That's over 4 years out injured. He's missed 221 United games. He's only played 278.

We should have got rid fucking ages ago. I'd be surpsied if he plays more than 20 games between now and 2027 when his contract is up. He's turned into one of the worst buys post-Fergie.