If Man Utd are serious about a rebuild, then their supposed captain Bruno Fernandes needs to go. Yes, we are still talking Man Utd.
You can send mails on any subject to theeditor@football365.com – try watching the Champions League, maybe.
Man Utd are a dumpster fire
Whilst I’m sure they were trolling our glorious leader, Lee obviously has a point. It really doesn’t matter for Amorim’s career if United are sh*t and he is sacked. He’ll be an even richer man and probably get a job at a better run club and be more for successful. And at this point, if he leaves United with a trophy then I’ll take that because United will be back in the Europa League or Champions League next season. Possibly from the Championship though.
(This is) Manchester United Football Club (we’re talking about) is a complete dumpster fire of a sporting entity. The roof of the stadium is leaking. Our co owner doesn’t care about the women’s team, Christmas parties or CEOs having any autonomy. Our fans are forced to endure utter dross for increasing costs due to ten years plus of mismanagement at the club. Our poster boy academy player appears to have completely given up.
We have the worst assembled, most expensive squad of footballers I’ve ever seen in the Premier League. We don’t have a left back, we don’t have any forwards who can score goals. Our goalkeeper keeps giving away goals. We have one midfielder who is capable of tackling. We have lots of expensive old players. We have lots of developing young players. We have no money to improve the squad. We don’t have enough to remove the deadwood. We have Antony.
On top of all that, unfortunately, this is still Manchester United Football Club we’re talking about so every team raises their game against us. For evidence of that look no further than Southampton who were 10 minutes away from a famous win which would’ve been their second of the season (in January!) And Brighton, who had a run of one win in nine – including a draw with Southampton – turned up at United and rolled us again. Admittedly, you probably don’t need to up your game to beat United these days but it doesn’t help when we’d just like scratch a couple of dodgy victories in a row.
And then we have to question the mentality of United players as well, able to play so well against Arsenal and Liverpool AWAY yet unable to get up for any home game. An element of that is obviously tactical – the only thing you can say the squad has been built for is transitional football – but the heart and desire in those games has been sorely missing throughout the rest of the season. It feels like our players are stealing a living.
Amorim could be sacked and leave with his reputation barely scathed. All of the above was true before he signed EXCEPT we used to lose to the big clubs regularly. If we signed him thinking this squad was capable of immediate improvement under his system then Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada need to be removed. (If they sack Amorim it will confirm that particular theory). I’m hoping they had an inkling that the squad were going to struggle (maybe not this much) but that they wanted the change as part of the implementation of the much vaunted “game model” and were prepared to take the necessary steps and deal with the inevitable pain.
Like many I’m more than happy to go through shit if we come out the other side, Andy Dufresne style. Unfortunately, given the state of the squad, it’ll be years before we know whether it was all worth it so I suspect we’re doomed to cycle through managers looking for a quick fix.
I will choose to be realistically optimistic from this point. I can think of at least two examples of managers who haven’t achieved a great deal early doors but eventually shown themselves to be good managers. One, particularly close to home, we need not remind of ourselves as his shadow looms large. The other started by taking over a side who stayed up by 5 points and changing them from a strictly counter attacking team to one who are comfortable in possession (sound familiar?). They led their team to a whopping one win in their first 11 games, with that one win coming against Burnley. Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth are now flying and a prime example of patience being a virtue.
Fingers crossed Amorim can make us half as successful in the next four months.
PS the only reason these pundits are upset about Amorim calling us “the worst United” is because he’s stolen their fun. They’ve literally said it every week since Fergie left. But notice how all these pundits are talking about the fact that he said it and not that the players are absolute shite. A classic case of manager deflecting criticism from his players. Though perhaps not so classic in that he did so by criticising them. An intriguing twist… but I have to say I avoid all punditry from Sky (especially Carragher) and Talksport. It’s all complete nonsense.
Ashmundo (14 more points is the first target)
Give me Man Utd relegation; it was fun last time
It is pretty clear that United won’t be relegated this season, or at least it would be a major surprise, but it is an interesting line of thought.
I was a teenager in 1974 when we were relegated, but the rampaging Tommy Docherty inspired team at the time made it one of my fondest periods of following the Reds. I was lucky enough to have seen Best and Charlton (but sadly not Denis The King) playing during the astonishingly short 6-year period from European Cup winners to relegation, but that Second Division period and the changing of the old guard more than made up for the departure of our much-loved icons.
They were dangerous times, for sure, but being part of the Doc’s Red and White army rampaging across the country with that huge following, at the time felt free and cathartic.
Times are very different now, and relegation brings with it all the commercial self-interests of the Premier League, so it wouldn’t be like in the old days. But, in my idealistic daydreams the thought of the Glazers selling off because their off-field income was drying up, with no far east noodle partners to help line their pockets, while the diehard fans are paying reasonable ticket prices to watch a team shorn of prima donna, overpaid pantomime horses, warms my tired old heart!
Hopefully Ruben Amorim would be our new Tommy Doc and help rebuild United from the bottom up. In short, at this point I’m with the new manager – we’ve had a succession of good managers that have simply wilted, this time we need support him, and remind him (and the outside world) that Manchester United are more than just a commercial juggernaut that throws (the fans’) money at a wall hoping that some of it sticks and bumps up the share prices.
ET King (MUFC)
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Stop blaming Man Utd managers
As a life long Man Utd fan along with rest of family. I am constantly dismayed by the criticism of successive managers regarding the performance of the team. While I appreciate it is there job to come up with tactics and methods to beat whoever they are playing, it is the responsibility of the players to take this on board and play as asked. Our current coach, Amorim, has come to a club that has been in crisis for years. Poor signings, over paying for mediocre players and ridiculous wages has contributed.
In my opinion we have a Championship team at best. There are no world-class players in the squad, though some are paid as if they are, only in their own mind I add. If I had to select my two top Man Utd teams of all time, I would not select any player, since the Ferguson years to appear. That says it all.
Managers are constantly blamed for poor results. You cannot blame Amorim or those before for this totally and keep sacking them. Where is the player responsibility in this. There’s none! In fact I agree with the likes of Gary Neville when they say there’s no pride or passion. There’s no fight. We remember the teams under Ferguson, where old Trafford was a fortress, that’s gone. When teams played for 90 minutes plus Fergie time. When the Stratford end would chant attack, attack, attack.
The current crop of players have no idea what playing for Utd means, and are not a team. There’s no cohesion. Money grabbing pre Madonna’s. They get their pay regardless of performance. In the real world this would not be tolerated, and you’d be sacked, moved sideways. The players know this will not happen, they have too much power. If you don’t perform in training, don’t expect to play, and have wages cut!. Give them move more motivation to do their job. It’s a privilege not an expectation to play for us at Utd.
So don’t blame Amorim or other coaches, players, look in the mirror, and ask yourself, am I giving my best. I would suggest that answer would be NO. I have faith in the new owners and manager, I believe that a real shake up needs to take place. This will be painful to watch at present but given time I believe this backroom team will bring us back to where we should be. We are far far from that point, but we will return.
Let’s be pragmatic and accept at present things may not change for a couple more seasons, until we have the players who want but moreover deserve to wear the shirt and represent Manchester United.
Graham Sacre
Where does the Man Utd rebuild begin?
In response to Matt’s article on Amorim’s recent comments in the media, I agree with the general gist about this potentially signalling the beginning of the much famed “open heart surgery”. But the proof will be in the pudding, and that involves shifting out some of Utd’s sacred cows.
The club’s willingness to offload Marcus Rashford is a huge step in the right direction. But it doesn’t go far enough. If we cast our minds back to Arsenal’s similarly-sized rebuild during the early stages of Arteta’s tenure, the club didn’t really start to move in the right direction until they bit the bullet and offloaded Aubameyang and Ozil. There were others like Pepe and Luiz, but Auba and Ozil were the big statement departures. Those two were the face of the club, the players with the big followings and the big goals/assists numbers. But they were also a poor example to the rest of the dressing room, and their playing style was at odds with what Arteta was trying to create, which was a modern, mobile and hard working style of football.
If Marcus Rashford is Man Utd’s Aubameyang, you may ask who is their Mesut Ozil? The answer is Bruno Fernandes. The player whom Utd’s team has been built around during Utd’s entire era of failure from OGS onwards. The supposed leader who is repeatedly on the receiving end of ridiculously careless red cards. The supposed playmaker who is so careless in possession he starts more counter attacks for the opposition than any of their own players. The supposed captain who spends the entire 90 minutes whinging at both the officials and his own teammates. He is also entirely unsuited to Amorim’s 343, with both the wide 10 and central midfield positions providing an awkward compromise of which he doesn’t really suit either. The comparisons with Mesut Ozil really aren’t so far fetched.
In Utd’s attempt to break away from their horrendous recent past, they have identified their Aubameyang. They now need to be brave and move on their Ozil.
Keith B
Groundhog Day
It’s clear that the Squad can’t play in Amorim’s preferred formation. The Board will recruit to suit the Manager and then when other teams exploit the gaps behind the wing backs he will be sacked leaving a set of players who can’t play in any other formation. It’s groundhog day in Salford.
Glyn Owen
Referee did Man Utd v Brighton
Hello F365 world, thought I would pop in to give you my take on the current bin fire at United.
Okay the Brighton game although United were awful the fact of the matter is if the referee actually did his job United would probably win quite comfortably being as they should have been playing 9 men. The first red for the from behind scissor tackle on Dalot which unbelievably wasn’t even given as a free kick let alone the actual foul and red it should have been, the second would have been for the penalty as the defender made no attempt to play the ball, WWE’d Zirkzee to the ground and if you watch the ref is actually reluctant to give a bloody penalty.
Now I’m not saying United deserved to win anything but United deserved the officials to be competent at their jobs and not the sh*tshow we have had countless times this season. Going back to the Brighton game it actually could have been eight men if the ref had sent off the Brighton defender for grabbing Garnacho by the throat right in front of him, what did the ref do? Grab the defender’s hand and take it off Garnacho’s throat, the total lack of consistency is what grinds my gears.
I trust Amorim and what he is doing and I would take relegation if it means getting rid of the toxic element in the team, ultimately though we need rid of the Glazers, the parasites who have taken out a billion quid for themselves and saddled us with millions in debt, unless they are gotten rid of then not a lot is going to change at United.
Incidentally the management team is currently trying its best to alienate the core United support putting up ticket prices, trying their level best to get in rich football tourists in their stead. A quick story from OT this week a United Season Ticket holder for 45 years with dementia who used his paper ticket rather than the electronic barcode, the reader wasn’t working so for a good few weeks the stewards let the old fella in, at the Brighton game his season ticket had been sold on by the club because he wasn’t registered as checking in for the last few games, they have also sacked all the stewards (local lads) who have worked OT for years and brought in a contract company who are causing near riots telling fans to sit down or they will be banned for life and their season ticket sold.
It all seems like a concerted effort to get rid of (what they call) legacy fans for cash rich tourists so they can boost the bank balance. United at the moment is rancid from the top down and until the head of the snake is cut off then it will continue in it’s downward spiral.
Paul Murphy, Manchester
MORE ON MAN UTD FROM F365…
👉 Was appointing Amorim ‘stupidest’ move or relegation plan genius from Ratcliffe?
👉 Scholes tells Man Utd they must sell eight players in £372m transfer clearout
👉 Man Utd transfer disaster exposed by wing-back perfect for Ruben Amorim in crazy Barcelona win
Arsenal reasons to be cheerful
With apologies that this is yet another Arsenal mail to a no doubt weary Mailbox, I think a summary of reasons (I think) to be cheerful as an Arsenal fan more generally might go so way to a) explaining why Arteta is still by in large supported and b) things really aren’t that bad outside the microcosm of a ropey January.
1) We’re not that bad – Arsenal aren’t where we’d like them to be this season and whilst many of us would point to bad luck as part of the mitigation, it’s clear there is a regression from the last season and a half.
But, it’s still not that bad. We’re 2nd in the league, 2nd in the xG table (even with key attackers missing this season and ‘Stoke on Thames’ ringing in our ears) and half a year removed from the best scoring Arsenal 6 months of the last 20 years.
Even better, despite the phenomenal chop and changing this season, we still have the structure and capacity of a title winning defense – offering so little in terms of chance to opposition that we end up situations where all goals conceded come from crazy high difficulty levels.
2) Easy to see how we could improve – Obviously the old adage, all we need is a striker, etc etc. Key point, there is complete confidence this will happen, if not in January (and please god it does), then in the summer. Also in the summer, a lot of deadwood on very high wages (or worse, in the case of a certain player virtually the whole fan base wants gone with good reason) will be out the door and budget (because yes, we’ve spent a ton, but we’re not taking the piss like Chelsea or United have, we’re doing this by the PSR book) can go on those few positions we need a clear upgrade on, and more on younger squad players to add depth/potential.
3) Huge Potential – separated from above, so much of Arsenal’s squad is still entering their prime/could improve further and we have some exceptionally talented youngsters who will push further for inclusion. What’s more, there’s no guarantee of City’s revival being assured (more recent transfer moves from them haven’t been that great), Liverpool are really relying on two players having exceptional Indian summers (who may not even be around next year) to be a level above us right now, still unconvinced with Chelsea manager/project and United are in complete teardown. So we should be title challenging (and maybe getting a few more breaks) for several seasons to come.
4) Arteta is really good – Okay, clearly at this point trying to convince anyone in the Mailbox Arteta isn’t that bad a bloke is futile – his genuine nature plus I believe heavy media legwork to vilify him for ‘the narrative’ has done the job. But within the game, everyone who works with him or plays for him really likes him and thinks he’s exceptional, he is the reason players sign for us and he is as forward thinking and dynamic manager as there is (bringing in data, innovating with coaches and tactics etc).
Is he a bit conservative/control-oriented in his tactical outlook by nature? Possibly, but I don’t know right now there is as good on the fundamentals that make our floor so high and also has more attacking flair. Again, we are just 6 months removed from an Arsenal team that went 16-1-1 scoring 54 goals in the process. 13 league losses in 2 and 1/2 seasons – the same as we had in 2021-22 alone (and only one more than Spurs have had this season SO FAR). This squad has the players to create and score in exceptional qualities if they are all fit and that is before we spend proper money on a good centre forward.
So yeh, there is so much to be positive about even if this season doesn’t end as we want (and it’s still going, not over until fat lady sings etc; we could have most of our team back and fit + a new forward at the business end of season which means CL success is as likely as it has ever been).
This is why trying to blow it all up and take a punt on someone else is clear madness (and again, who? Who makes Arsenal better? Who can guarantee a better position finish than 2nd?). As is asking questions like ‘Is this Arteta’s ceiling?’. How about we wait to see how this season pans out? And what he does to rectify any failings.
Tom, (Clearly people’s minds re. what fans should expect from a great team have been slightly melted by City’s corrupt dominance and (to a lesser extend) an astonishing Liverpool team that married unmatched fortune and quality in the transfer market between 2013-2018 with an all-time great coach) Leyton
