How do you solve a problem like United?

Morning all,

With Manchester United lurching from one embarrassment to another this season how to they turn the ship around?

For me who ever takes over has to try to create the club an identity. This team doesn't know what it wants to be and the players don't know what their roles are. It's time to stop giving managers a giant war chest to buy players that don't fit the mould. I'd rather see the money spent on the infrastructure of the club and let a manger wheel and deal for players with proven premiership experience. Even if they are not of the very highest quality, players that can play as part of a team.

Thoughts?

Totally agree with you in regards to the infrastructure etc, youth wise City have been blowing Utd out of the water of late with how they've developed their system. Utd though currently are stuck in a hard place, fans are short term thinkers, Utd fans like to think they're something different due the length of service that Fergie had but the fans were baying for his blood long before the Mark Robins goal.
A splurge of cash in the summer on a few well known names is a quick fix that gets the fans onside, Moyes came in and that first summer he only bought Fellaini, already the fans were against him. When LVG came in he got Shaw, Herrera, Di Maria, Falcao and Blind, immediately he got the fans on his side with that level of investment.
Players are like presents from the workplace to the fans, you can s**t on them all year round but if you buy them a shiney gift at Christmas then they're happy for a while.

To some extent Van Gaal has taken responsibility of the future with Man United. For all the complaints, the majority of his signings could be there for a long stretch of time. Blind, Shaw, Memphis and Martial will grow with the team. 

That needs to carry on, the buying with foresight, but the game has changed and if United want to go for quick returns then they also need to buy the best quality available.

However, you're also correct in that there is no point buying gift wrapped players to tickle the fancy if they don't fit the side. It's a task any manager of Manchester United should be good enough to do, so I will not say it's a hard one.

The manager doesn't seem to know what he wants and is hold back what is a talented group of players, we play well for a couple of games and he'll then make needless changes.

I don't like to blame the manager but Herrera, Darmian, Rojo, Shaw, Blind, Smalling, De Gea, Mata, Martial, Carrick, Schneiderlin, Depay and Rooney are all good players capable of playing for the club. Each and every one of them has had a spell in the team when they've looked up to it but then they'll be dropped from the team and the cycle begins again. Herrera is indicative of that, was superb this time last year when given an extended run in the team but was then inexplicably dropped for and I quote 'running too much'.

You then have a decent bunch of youngsters coming through; Mcnair, Rashford, Varela and the best of them Borthwick-Jackson; for young players just breaking through too much has been pushed on to them and it stumps their growth.

What all these players have in common is a desire to play fast attacking flair football but the system in place doesn't allow them to do instead we're left with a pedestrian team who are easy to defend against, any team can be confident that a solitary goal is all they need.

You look at the pool of players currently at Utd and it's really not a bad set at all so the issue is very much with how they're managed and Herrera is a prime example, once he's in the team for a couple of game he's marshalling it, LVG then stick the big clot Fellaini back in the team.

Last night on the podcast we briefly touched upon the shift in power in recent years between the North & South in the Premier League, when the Premier League began then regularly half of the league was made up of Northern clubs, the average since it began is 9.
This season though sees a drop to it's lowest ever number of 6, next year it's look to be the same with potentially Newcastle & Sunderland dropping but with Burnley and Middlesbrough coming up.
It's not though the glamour of London to which the shift has occured, they're remained a constant 6 teams for most of the Premier League.

Hero wrote:You look at the pool of players currently at Utd and it's really not a bad set at all so the issue is very much with how they're managed and Herrera is a prime example, once he's in the team for a couple of game he's marshalling it, LVG then stick the big clot Fellaini back in the team.

^^^^This!!

Herrera is one example, another is Memphis, recently played the best 2 games in a row for the first time (arguably not great opposition, but realistically neither is 50% of the PL!) then only to be dropped by Louis Van TurketNeck! Attacking players are getting a hard time from the fans, but are being shackled by the idiot in the dugout!

im not one to want a merry-go-round of managers, but at the very least the next manager needs to have an attacking nature!

Managemen team with a plan and decent players.

Unfortunately moyes obliterated years of work when he gutted the backroom staff.

Lvg looked alright at times but the last 4 months have been pathetic.

Playing staff wise we have de gea as a world class player.

Smalling, schneiderlin, Rooney as competent pl level players and a few youngsters (inc martial).

Squad needs gutted again and some top players brought in, winners who can guide a young dressing room.

Just a few questions about something I was talking about with a friend of mine.

How do think United would be doing right now if at the beginning of the season Ferguson had stepped back into his old managerial role at United?

Does anyone think that with Ferguson they'd be challenging for the title with the squad that they currently have?

With Ferguson, would they be dead certs for one of the top four places?

I think they'd be very close to top if Ferguson was still there. It's not actually a bad squad given the weakness of the rest of the division.

Feels to me like they need to sign Premiership players - Stones, Lukaku, Payet and Mahrez added to the squad for c. £150 million?

If Ferguson was managing this season I genuinely think that man utd would be challenging for the title. The squad is not world class (with a few notable exceptions) but they don't need to be this year given the poor standard of the premier league. For me the biggest problem is tactical. To give an example, as a Liverpool fan i was happy when we got utd in the europa league because given their lack of fast attacking football i could see Liverpool winning. Southampton showed yesterday the value of fast attacking football against a poor Liverpool defence. Ferguson would not have allowed utd to play so passively in the first leg at anfield.

Ujited had won the previous 4 encounters with Liverpool.

That shopping list is an awful waste of money.

Hero wrote:Totally agree with you in regards to the infrastructure etc, youth wise City have been blowing Utd out of the water of late with how they've developed their system. Utd though currently are stuck in a hard place, fans are short term thinkers, Utd fans like to think they're something different due the length of service that Fergie had but the fans were baying for his blood long before the Mark Robins goal.
A splurge of cash in the summer on a few well known names is a quick fix that gets the fans onside, Moyes came in and that first summer he only bought Fellaini, already the fans were against him. When LVG came in he got Shaw, Herrera, Di Maria, Falcao and Blind, immediately he got the fans on his side with that level of investment.
Players are like presents from the workplace to the fans, you can s**t on them all year round but if you buy them a shiney gift at Christmas then they're happy for a while.

eh? our under 21's have consistently out performed city