Bale Out and Other Summer Transfers

[EIM]

On "defenders he trusts", we watched him at Inter with Lucio and Walter Samuel in the middle and Cordoba and Zanetti as fullbacks.

And it was still Defence First. As Sam says, it's his core principle.

I think that'll always be the case in big games. But his Chelsea team used to go at the smaller teams. They scored loads. I'm not expecting him to start attacking City like a Klopp disciple, but it'd be nice to think he'd start letting us have a go at teams we used to paddle for fun.

Seville at home was case in point. Didn't trust the defence not to concede an away goal so didn't attack. Then because of his conservative tactics we lost.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

No, if you're not good enough on the ball, then you're not good enough to be back up. It's also really obvious from an early stage. And he wasn't just back up, he started most games he was fit for. I also don't understand the point of calling van gaal a pissed lunatic. Your footballing-brexit-Trump tendencies are showing. The point still remains that a manager who wanted to play possession football out from the back was happy with him, and a fucking lying shitbag, who orders his players not to play out from the back, is simply finding fault and undermining another one of his players in public, in order to shift blame from him to the players.

And as for "fine", in this context fine just means able to do the job asked of him consistently. You do know that man utd only let in 28 goals last season.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I think that'll always be the case in big games. But his Chelsea team used to go at the smaller teams. They scored loads. I'm not expecting him to start attacking City like a Klopp disciple, but it'd be nice to think he'd start letting us have a go at teams we used to paddle for fun.

Seville at home was case in point. Didn't trust the defence not to concede an away goal so didn't attack. Then because of his conservative tactics we lost.

Oh for god's sake. it's the same tactics in all the games. what changes is the ability of the other team to withstand it, and the bounce of the ball. It's always been exactly the same. Try and score the first goal from a set piece, or a low risk, low probability attack. Then sit deep and hit on the counter. That works better against some teams than others. It worked in the first half of this season, with man utd scoring an early goal and picking off the opposition as they pushed up the pitch. They scored 4 goals in this fashion against West Ham, Swansea, Everton, Crystal palace, and then newcastle and watford. Take out those 6 games where the master plan worked, and man utd average 1.3 goals per game. Which is exactly where man utd were in 2015-16.

It was the same at Chelsea, as it was at Inter, as it was at real madrid, as it was at Chelsea. Its just burnley with better players, but without the organization or sophistication, and it relies on narrative management, with most football fans not really understanding very much about football, or remembering anything other than the last week, and only really wanting the giddy thrill of seeing their team smash the shit out of some minnows.

And what the fucking fuck is this "Didn't trust the defence not to concede an away goal". He Dropped Paul Pogba and replaced him with marouane Fucking fellaini, because his efforts to shift the blame for man utd's shit football on Paul Pogba were more important than doing well against Sevilla. The man is a fucking cancer. He should just fuck off and concentrate on his midlife crisis. I feel the football may be getting in the way.

[EIM]

No, if you're not good enough on the ball, then you're not good enough to be back up. It's also really obvious from an early stage. And he wasn't just back up, he started most games he was fit for. I also don't understand the point of calling van gaal a pissed lunatic. Your footballing-brexit-Trump tendencies are showing. The point still remains that a manager who wanted to play possession football out from the back was happy with him, and a fucking lying shitbag, who orders his players not to play out from the back, is simply finding fault and undermining another one of his players in public, in order to shift blame from him to the players.

And as for "fine", in this context fine just means able to do the job asked of him consistently. You do know that man utd only let in 28 goals last season.

Oh turn it in. This Brexit-Trump thing is bullshit. I'm not a particular fan of Mourinho or his football. He can fuck off whenever he wants which will be some time this season I reckon. My point is it's better under Mourinho than under Van Gaal. The only person on this board who isn't open to reason or argument concerning Mourinho is you. You're blind with hate. Which is fine, go for it, just don't throw that Trump shite my way when you're the fanatic.

Even Southgate said Smalling wasn't as good at passing the ball out of defence as his other options, hence why he didn't make the squad. Other options also didn't rugby tackle someone on the halfway line in the FA Cup final to get a red card. He's an idiot and makes the same mistakes season after season.

I mean, this isn't just me saying this. It's my mates, the lads off the coach I go in, people in the pub... Granted we don't watch as much Smalling on telly as you do, but most of them are season ticket holders so they see a fair amount.

[jwdd27]

Talking of van Gaal... Cameron Borthwick-Jackson has joined Scunny on a season-long.

He certainly made an impression on Leeds fans, with "pathetic", "spineless" and "waste" being the biggest words in the cloud following his loan spell there.

He replaces Conor Townsend who is going to West Brom apparently.

[That Night In Barcelona]

I always find it slightly staggering just how virulent Berbaslug becomes on pretty much any topic where he disagrees with another poster. It's particularly galling when you consider that his entire experience of Man Utd is passively observing a restricted view on a screen.

Perhaps take a few breaths before posting next time and accept that not everyone agrees that Van Gaal was one Luke Shaw injury away from creating a free flowing, successful Total Football team.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I did a bit of back of beermat totting up at lunch and came across an interesting discovery. The two summers Mourinho had at Chelsea where he spent significantly less than in previous seasons (2007 and 2015) he was sacked by Christmas. At Man United he spent his first two summers spending over €160m each time; this year so far just €80m or so. So what will it be? Another couple of big signings, or Jose out before the tree goes up?

[Lang Spoon]

The obsession with Mourinho’s marriage is what I find the most interesting. Don’t see how it’s any more relevant to football than St Brendan of The Smiles running off with a young wan.

[Ek weet nie]

Ah Eamon, you can’t say that.

[loose cannon]

In another team and under another club manager Martial would have been competing with Mbappe for a place on the pitch in Russia

He has to get out as fast as possible

Pogba is stranded by his price tag and will be coming down from a cosmic celestial high to mono-cellular primeval mud when he returns to MU
The poor guy will need months of therapy

[hobbes]

Liverpool have just done a very limp Man Utd 4-1 in a pre-season friendly. The score rather flatters the Mancs.
It's a pre-season friendly, obviously, so you know.

[ursus arctos]

Sweet bicycle kick from Shaqiri nevertheless.

And a crowd of over 100,000 at the Big House.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I very much look forward to Liverpool losing 1-0 at Old Trafford after a second minute goal by Smalling.

Because that is exactly what will happen.

There's no such thing as a friendly, anyway.

[EIM]

In another team and under another club manager Martial would have been competing with Mbappe for a place on the pitch in Russia

He has to get out as fast as possible

Agreed. I'll book him an Uber.

[EIM]

Liverpool have just done a very limp Man Utd 4-1 in a pre-season friendly. The score rather flatters the Mancs.
It's a pre-season friendly, obviously, so you know.

Yeah. Liverpool will walk the U23 league on that performance.

[Toby Gymshorts]

What's the point of getting animated about any of this?

[EIM]

The only thing worth getting animated about was Shaqiri's goal. Absolutely stunning. The rest was a complete waste of time. (We had it on in the pub, and even then I missed most of it re-watching The Sopranos. That Christopher Moltisanti, eh? When will he grow up?)

[Toby Gymshorts]

He'll never live up to it.

[ursus arctos]

He will always have Ann Arbor

https://twitter.com/LFCZac/status/1023342012257525761

[EIM]

Shaqiri is a weird, weird shape. It must be a nightmare buying a suit off the peg.

[EIM]

In my day Mr Strong was a square. I guess in the age of PEDs he's lost a bit of weight.

[Toby Gymshorts]

PEDs?

[ursus arctos]

Nothing to see here, certainly

[EIM]

PEDs?

Performance enhancing drugs. Ped Guardiola and all that.

[EIM]

Nothing to see here, certainly

I love this