Fulham.

[mightyez]

I don't watch much of the under 21's but for those that do, is Hughill not ready for first team football?
Genuinely when Martial is on song he is a lovely player and would trouble any defence but I think mentally he is just not ready to go through the paces and risk another layoff, that of course does not help us and we need a striker between now and January possibly Summer.

[viking22]

There is quite a bit of talk of going for Gabriel Barbosa (Gabigol) of Flamengo in January. Contract expires summer 2024 and we are apparently considering using Antony on loan as a sweetener and might be able to get him for £20m.

Of course not exactly thrilling that we are going for a long term West Ham target who failed to make the grade in Italy so at 27 is plying his trade in the Brazilian league. But if Antony goes on loan the other way he'd probably be an upgrade especially as he's been prolific in Brazil and can play out wide as well as up top and he has something to prove returning to Europe later in his career. As for Antony he's stinking the place up so maybe dropping a few levels would do him some good especially while he is dealing with all the abuse allegations and if his loan move is successful we might be able to flog him to someone else and recoup some of our outlay. 

[Kojak]

Nov 6, 2023 10:32:26 GMT Chris said:

Nov 6, 2023 10:24:32 GMT alwaysUnited said:

Embarrassing if true. Imagine Real Madrid players going out and celebrating beating Granada or some random spanish club in a regular league match.

ETH also talked about stopping Fulham from playing from the back as if that is some sort of achievement. 

I don't think it's that deep really. I get both points, however this team seems so divided and the more time they can spend bonding the better.

Can’t believe how much energy people are wasting on this shit.

How often do you reckon this happens and we don’t hear about it? Literally every other time any team has ever done it.

Genuinely expecting people to have a joyless existence because of their job. Probably more normal to have a drink after a shit day at work if anything.

[viking22]

Interesting from Marcel Sabitzer:

"Casemiro, Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez – they are leaders that provide structure and stability to the team. Erik ten Hag comes with up very specific match plans and patterns of play. But if you have too many important players missing and too many changes as a result, things get lost between the tactics board and the pitch. The rhythm of players coming isn’t right, processes aren’t right. In the Premier League and Champions League, you need your best players available. Everything feels a little laboured and uncertain now. They need their big guys to show up and change the course of the season, but I believe things can change quickly once they get important players back.”

So seems to be a combination of
-Lack of leadership with Shaw and Martinez missing and Casemiro no longer leading by example
-Match plans and patterns of play not being reflected on the pitch because we cannot field a consistent first XI with all the injuries

We do not have the luxury of waiting for everyone to return to fitness and injuries are unfortunately part of modern football especially with all the fixture congestion and added time.

So some solutions could be for
-Other players to step up, show some leadership skills, and provide structure and stability in Shaw, Casemiro and Martinez' absence
-Erik to consider watering down his match plans and patterns and take a more pragmatic approach until we get on top of the injury situation
-Look into the injury crisis and figure out the root cause. Is it overtraining? Are our medical staff shit? Etc.

[Karma]

Nov 7, 2023 9:32:01 GMT viking22 said:

Interesting from Marcel Sabitzer:

"Casemiro, Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez – they are leaders that provide structure and stability to the team. Erik ten Hag comes with up very specific match plans and patterns of play. But if you have too many important players missing and too many changes as a result, things get lost between the tactics board and the pitch. The rhythm of players coming isn’t right, processes aren’t right. In the Premier League and Champions League, you need your best players available. Everything feels a little laboured and uncertain now. They need their big guys to show up and change the course of the season, but I believe things can change quickly once they get important players back.”

So seems to be a combination of
-Lack of leadership with Shaw and Martinez missing and Casemiro no longer leading by example
-Match plans and patterns of play not being reflected on the pitch because we cannot field a consistent first XI with all the injuries

We do not have the luxury of waiting for everyone to return to fitness and injuries are unfortunately part of modern football especially with all the fixture congestion and added time.

So some solutions could be for
-Other players to step up, show some leadership skills, and provide structure and stability in Shaw, Casemiro and Martinez' absence
-Erik to consider watering down his match plans and patterns and take a more pragmatic approach until we get on top of the injury situation
-Look into the injury crisis and figure out the root cause. Is it overtraining? Are our medical staff shit? Etc.

Probably should have taken another punt on him really.

[viking22]

He certainly had leadership qualities and was underutilized by Erik as he favoured the Fred-Casemiro partnership in Eriksen's absence. But he was also very injury prone. So can understand why we swerved.

But unfortunately there is a lack of continuity with a lot of new signings who haven't properly been bedded into the team for various reasons (injured when we signed them (Hojlund, Amrabat), injured soon after the season started (Mount), pre-season the usual waste of time, signed late in the window (Hojlund, Amrabat).

Erik was also a bit premature in my opinion in trying to change our style of play playing more from the back and pressing more from the front. That also contributed to the lack of continuity from last season.

What he should be doing is keeping things simple tactically and focusing more on getting the players to fight as a team and back each other. I remember shortly after he joined our defence started giving each other high fives. We need more of that.

[GeniusCantona]

Nov 7, 2023 9:32:01 GMT viking22 said:

Interesting from Marcel Sabitzer:

"Casemiro, Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez – they are leaders that provide structure and stability to the team. Erik ten Hag comes with up very specific match plans and patterns of play. But if you have too many important players missing and too many changes as a result, things get lost between the tactics board and the pitch. The rhythm of players coming isn’t right, processes aren’t right. In the Premier League and Champions League, you need your best players available. Everything feels a little laboured and uncertain now. They need their big guys to show up and change the course of the season, but I believe things can change quickly once they get important players back.”

So seems to be a combination of
-Lack of leadership with Shaw and Martinez missing and Casemiro no longer leading by example
-Match plans and patterns of play not being reflected on the pitch because we cannot field a consistent first XI with all the injuries

We do not have the luxury of waiting for everyone to return to fitness and injuries are unfortunately part of modern football especially with all the fixture congestion and added time.

So some solutions could be for
-Other players to step up, show some leadership skills, and provide structure and stability in Shaw, Casemiro and Martinez' absence
-Erik to consider watering down his match plans and patterns and take a more pragmatic approach until we get on top of the injury situation
-Look into the injury crisis and figure out the root cause. Is it overtraining? Are our medical staff shit? Etc.

I wish we had kept Sabitzer. He looked more settled in our squad than Amrabat has shown so far.

Regarding Luke Shaw, he has struck me as captain material the last few years. Longest serving first team player and has had to overcome a lot of adversity. Should’ve been named captain over Bruno.

[unitedsotex]

Nov 7, 2023 14:27:12 GMT GeniusCantona said:

Nov 7, 2023 9:32:01 GMT viking22 said:

Interesting from Marcel Sabitzer:

"Casemiro, Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez – they are leaders that provide structure and stability to the team. Erik ten Hag comes with up very specific match plans and patterns of play. But if you have too many important players missing and too many changes as a result, things get lost between the tactics board and the pitch. The rhythm of players coming isn’t right, processes aren’t right. In the Premier League and Champions League, you need your best players available. Everything feels a little laboured and uncertain now. They need their big guys to show up and change the course of the season, but I believe things can change quickly once they get important players back.”

So seems to be a combination of
-Lack of leadership with Shaw and Martinez missing and Casemiro no longer leading by example
-Match plans and patterns of play not being reflected on the pitch because we cannot field a consistent first XI with all the injuries

We do not have the luxury of waiting for everyone to return to fitness and injuries are unfortunately part of modern football especially with all the fixture congestion and added time.

So some solutions could be for
-Other players to step up, show some leadership skills, and provide structure and stability in Shaw, Casemiro and Martinez' absence
-Erik to consider watering down his match plans and patterns and take a more pragmatic approach until we get on top of the injury situation
-Look into the injury crisis and figure out the root cause. Is it overtraining? Are our medical staff shit? Etc.

I wish we had kept Sabitzer. He looked more settled in our squad than Amrabat has shown so far.

Regarding Luke Shaw, he has struck me as captain material the last few years. Longest serving first team player and has had to overcome a lot of adversity. Should’ve been named captain over Bruno.

Bruno would have been the Captain anyway... Shaw's been injured majority of the season

[Kojak]

Sabitzer looked another nothing player for me. Never showed any real attributes. I mean, he’s better than nowt so if that’s the benchmark then we could’ve looked at him. But he was injured several times and never particularly asserted himself when he played beyond the couple of goals against whoever it was.