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Just had a feeling we might struggle today. I think we can see why Nunez hasn’t generally been starting games. I think he’s a better impact player when a game has loosened up a bit. I think Salah has been too wide and he’s a bit wasted there. We sort of saw that last season for me and we became disjointed up top.
And then Nunez balloons it over. Him in a nut shell that.
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Embarrassing press conference from Arteta for me. Whinging about that decision like it was the end of the world. I would have fired back and asked, well why couldn’t you score a goal?
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Arsenal still lacking a top draw attacker.
Newcastle on the comeback now after having a difficult set of fixtures at the start of the season. Eddie Howe really doing a great job.
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I mean a top man manager CM, someone who can instil a spirit in the team and someone whom the players love playing under first and foremost. Rather than pursuing this pipe dream of coaching total football.
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I don’t think Man Utd were as good as people think last season. Bizarrely the one player who helped paper over the cracks last season was De Gea, and he was offloaded in the summer after going out of contract. Man Utd need a top man manager, even as an interim, even if that manager isn’t top level. They need someone to get them enjoying their football again. I can’t see how that happens under the present management.
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QF Draw
Everton vs Fulham
Chelsea vs Newcastle
Port Vale vs Middlesbrough
Liverpool vs West Ham_____________________________
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I dont think Ten Hag is turning this around.
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It should ultimately go to the player who best influenced his team. To be fair, Messi did have a very significant influence on that Argentina team that won the WC and I suspect that was what got him the gong. Was that unfair when someone like KDB was influencing City week in week out over a season to win the treble? Maybe. But then City were a team with quite a few superstars. Argentina less so. So I can see both sides.
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That’s exactly it nil. To sustain the situation at Spurs they need more signings to strengthen it. Otherwise all the pressure goes on to the manager to keep trying to squeeze everything he can out of the group, which will only drain out the players and manager eventually. Even just one good signing can lift the place.
Without wanting to keep going back to Ten Hag, if some of their signings had worked out better at Utd, that would have taken a lot of pressure of him. Indeed you look at how important even just Mané was when he came to Liverpool early in Klopp’s tenure at Liverpool. He took us up a level and it took the pressure off Klopp as it helped sustain the performances on the pitch. Then Salah came and it just got better and better.
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Alas Ed, most people wouldn’t have turned to someone like Ange, so it maybe was luck that they plumped for him. But that doesn’t mean other more experienced heads wouldn’t have appointed him. As for the overhyping of his first 10 games, I think we should bear in mind that Spurs haven’t had the best of squads and they then lost their talisman in the summer. And Ange has completely changed the way they play and the players have immediately bought into it, which as I say strikes me as him having good managerial qualities. Whilst it would be daft to claim they’ll win the league now, I also can’t see them falling off a cliff. There’ll be bumps in the road no doubt, but I think they’ll still have a good season.
It’s maybe a bit like looking at someone like Guus Hiddink. Its not a perfect analogy but you look at his CV and again he’s well travelled but has generally managed more at country international levels. But imo he’s clearly got good attributes as a manager, particularly man management ones in terms of developing the spirit of a team. Someone like Ancelotti has that in spades.
Ten Hag I’m sure is still a very good coach but I think he perhaps needed a few stepping stone jobs to make him a more rounded manager.
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Just a quick reply on Ange. I’m not suddenly saying he’s the best manager in the world. I was just pointing out that I think he strikes me as being a very good man manager and communicator. I think at a big football club, that attribute is one of the most important you can have.
Yes of course player recruitment is important and as I said, that’s the other half of Utd’s problem. They need to be signing top players close to their peaks and for the now, but obviously also players with the right hunger and desire. But again I think when a club brings in the right manager it helps to sharpen minds off the pitch to get the best players on it. Was it really a coincidence that Liverpool’s transfer strategy suddenly improved when Klopp walked through the door for example?
I don’t doubt Utd’s problems are many but I just think that a big part of it is down to them not acting like a big club and bringing in the managers and players they need to make things happen. You can sort of see this mismatch happening in them wanting to play the long game bringing in young players but then at the same time still bringing in the odd statement signing or big player past their peak because they’ve remembered they’re still a big club.
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I think that’s harsh on Klopp in Germany. If he failed at Mainz why did Dortmund appoint him as their manager? I don’t think they regretted it. As I say Bayern pretty much copied them and took some of their best players.
I’m not saying Ten Hag is a bad manager but I think his more limited experiences are making life more difficult for him at such a big club as Utd and I think he’s partly having to learn on the job which isn’t ideal.
Ange has worked around the world in different cultures and succeeded. Even if the standard wasn’t as high as here, that proves his credentials as a good communicator and man manager. I put wealth of different experiences very highly. And he’s now top of one of the most competitive leagues in the world, after 10 games. He’s clearly got something about him even if they don’t finish there. Anyway, I’ll leave it there.
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As for Ange, yes it’s still early, but I think in his two previous jobs he succeeded in two very different countries and cultures. And after 10 games, he’s top of the Premier league. Squad depth and energy may catch up with them, but there’s clearly a good manager there with that recent history.
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CM, there was a deeper experience with Klopp in Germany. He took Mainz to the top league in Germany on a small budget and then proved his credentials at a bigger club at Dortmund winning the double. He innovated things to the point where Bayern actually copied him. He was clearly a top communicator and had top man management skills by the bucket load. As for his poor last season, there were circumstances and in any case, he more than proved his credentials at the clubs he managed.
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Ed, I completely accept there’s no obvious outstanding candidate I can see who could replace Ten Hag. I’m just exploring the history of why it keeps going wrong. As for Ange, I raise it more to demonstrate how a manager can change things both on and off the pitch, which in turn sharpens minds and raises the level of all the other staff at the club – just like when a club signs a top player – it makes the other players around them better. At the same time though, Ange has managed at clubs around the world and successfully – that carries more weight for me than Ten Hag who’s pretty much only managed in one league. It clearly makes you a more robust character, adds to your experience and proves your man management credentials. Ange just needed someone to take a chance on him, be it by luck or bravery.
To summarise my post, Utd keep bringing in either long term managers with limited experiences or established ones past their peak. I think this also mirrors the player recruitment issues. Change that, and you’ll change the direction of the club.
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CM, that’s obviously a problem if true, but has that culture not changed a bit now? Ten Hag actually looks like he’s got too much influence now given the players he’s signed.
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Ole & Ten Hag had honeymoon periods, not much more than that for me. They aren’t capable of galvanising a big club forwards imo. And regardless, the club keeps buying players either for the long term, or ones past their peak.
I do wonder if FFP is making teams increasingly play safe by trying to play the longer term game. You look at the teams that win the league and they are the teams that buy players for the now. And it’s not just about money, you can find top players out there that don’t cost the earth. For me, like most things in life, there are very few people out there with the guts to make bold brave decisions to get things done. And now we increasingly have a culture with FFP arguably tending teams to play it “safer” financially by trying to unearth gems for the future.
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Thing is, given where Man Utd are at, they need a manager to lift the whole club. I’ve little doubt that if all the structures were healthy at the club, Ten Hag could do a reasonable job of holding the reigns at the club. But they need far more than that from where they are. They need a real charismatic figure to lift things. You look for example at what Ange has done in a very short space of time at Spurs.
Man Utd have just made poor managerial appointments – either hopeful long term figures who have little to no experience of big clubs or safe pairs of hands in established managers who were arguably past their peak.
Now you can ultimately blame the owners for that as they ultimately run the club and appoint all the figures at the club or the figures that make the decisions. But I’m not sure how much of that is a factor, rather I think its the culture at the club which seems to want to do things “the right way” and find another Ferguson for the long term. To me Liverpool seemed to spend an awful long time of keeping the boot room structure at the club or appointing former players before they finally changed and turned to Houllier & Benitez and started winning bigger trophies again. And I think the same is sort of true for Man Utd. They are too set in their ways for me and thinking too much of another long term fairy tale with another Fergie – and I think this is also applying to their recruitment in signing younger, less proven players when they need players for the now. Indeed reading an article about what happened with Emery at Arsenal – he wanted players for the now but was told they were looking more to the future. Now you might say the club was now right but I actually think Arsenal are still lacking top quality players to truly compete for the title.
So I think Arsenal & Man Utd are still living in the shadows of their previous managers – even if Arsenal are doing better, they still haven’t won the league for nearly 20 years.
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Another long season for Utd.
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Probably a mentality thing raising their game vs a bigger club in Arsenal last week. We’ve all seen what Brentford can do vs the bigger sides.
Also whilst Chelsea have been better they’re still not right yet.
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