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2019/2020 Soccer Thread

Transfer News @TransfersLlVE 5m

Lukaku had received an email from Man Utd demanding his return to training. He has ignored the request and will receive a £400,000 fine. The Belgian has also had a big bust up with Pogba. Lukaku has gone AWOL in protest at Woodward’s refusal to drop demands below £75m.

Also apparently he is mad about Ole glowing talk about Greenwood
 
jhstew1 said:
Transfer News @TransfersLlVE 5m

Lukaku had received an email from Man Utd demanding his return to training. He has ignored the request and will receive a £400,000 fine. The Belgian has also had a big bust up with Pogba. Lukaku has gone AWOL in protest at Woodward’s refusal to drop demands below £75m.

Also apparently he is mad about Ole glowing talk about Greenwood
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Poor fellow. He has such a hard life. Nobody could possibly expect him to actually show up and do his job under conditions like that. Imagine your manager starting a younger player over an experienced one AND not letting a $100 million player walk away for half that much a couple years later.

I think he ought to just stay in Belgium and keep sending them checks for 400K until they give and let him walk. That'll show 'em!
 
Oh how far Man U has fallen.
 
IceyShanks said:
Oh how far Man U has fallen.
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I've only been following the Premier League for a few years and at some point, it started seeming like everyone was just having me on about what a great team Man Utd is (or used to be). I almost wonder if Ferguson isn't like Santa Claus, just a cool story you tell your kids.
 
"I almost wonder if Ferguson isn't like Santa Claus, just a cool story you tell your kids."

This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.

13 Premiere League Titles
2 Champions League Titles
5 FA Cup Titles

Man United could stay down for another 10 years and the rest of the league would still be looking up.

In the Premier League Era:

United : 13 Titles
Rest of the League: 14 Titles (Chelsea 5, Man City 4, Arsenal 3, Blackburn 1, Leicester 1)
 
Yeah, I know the history. Just kidding.

But coming to the game recently, it all seems like you're talking about a different century or something ;-)

Makes you wonder how a team less than a decade removed from that sort of pinnacle could end up wandering in the wilderness year after year as they are now.
 
wandering in the wilderness might be a stretch, they were second in the league year before last behind city.

If you look at the ownership it shouldn't come as a surprise. Take this transfer window for example, good momentum with 2 key signings in AWB and Maguire and are only a midfielder or two away from closing the gap. Instead of making the moves they are going to go into the season with a top 4 backline, top 4 attack, and a mid-table midfield. The team with this midfield is a pogba injury away from finishing 10th.

Look at City when they made their big jump two years ago, they had a 250 million+ summer, Liverpool last year had a big summer similar to what United needed. After the eventual sale of Lukaku United will be under 100Million net spend, which is less than newly promoted Aston Villa. In today's game that's not good enough when you are trying to catch the scousers and city.
 
usaf_giles said:
wandering in the wilderness might be a stretch, they were second in the league year before last behind city.

If you look at the ownership it shouldn't come as a surprise. Take this transfer window for example, good momentum with 2 key signings in AWB and Maguire and are only a midfielder or two away from closing the gap. Instead of making the moves they are going to go into the season with a top 4 backline, top 4 attack, and a mid-table midfield. The team with this midfield is a pogba injury away from finishing 10th.

Look at City when they made their big jump two years ago, they had a 250 million+ summer, Liverpool last year had a big summer similar to what United needed. After the eventual sale of Lukaku United will be under 100Million net spend, which is less than newly promoted Aston Villa. In today's game that's not good enough when you are trying to catch the scousers and city.
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ManU had 2 big issues when trying to get players, no Champions League & "rebuild" which are 2 thing's players do not like. Another quality Mid-Fielder is needed, but the deadline is fast approaching & Woodward does not seem to get anything done quickly. Looks like they are banking on the youngsters (Chong, Greenwood & Gomes) having breakthrough years.
 
jhstew1 said:
ManU had 2 big issues when trying to get players, no Champions League & "rebuild" which are 2 thing's players do not like. Another quality Mid-Fielder is needed, but the deadline is fast approaching & Woodward does not seem to get anything done quickly. Looks like they are banking on the youngsters (Chong, Greenwood & Gomes) having breakthrough years.
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I guess they really need three things. A couple of the kids come up big (and I include young Daniel James in that), Pogba decides to give a full season of playing instead of moping and David de Gea returns to form now that he has a functional defense fronting him. Or at least they should form a functional defense once they get a few games under their belt, playing as a unit together.

If they get those improvements, they ought to be able to go toe to toe with Chelsea and Arsenal this season. Which as a neutral who pays a good bit of attention to Man Utd, would make for excellent entertainment value!

The story I'll be interested in is what exactly happens with Spurs this year, now that Daniel Levy is finally cracking open his wallet a little instead of expecting Poch to simply squeeze another season of miracles out of the same players.
 
jhstew1 said:
ManU had 2 big issues when trying to get players, no Champions League & "rebuild" which are 2 thing's players do not like. Another quality Mid-Fielder is needed, but the deadline is fast approaching & Woodward does not seem to get anything done quickly. Looks like they are banking on the youngsters (Chong, Greenwood & Gomes) having breakthrough years.
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Those "issues" are no excuse for not signing bruno whose agent was practically begging for a move to england. That signing would have probably turned around the entire window/season. It is embarrassing that a club the size of United, coming off a season where they finished sixth are going to end up with a net spend of around 50 million or less.
 
usaf_giles said:
Those "issues" are no excuse for not signing bruno whose agent was practically begging for a move to england. That signing would have probably turned around the entire window/season. It is embarrassing that a club the size of United, coming off a season where they finished sixth are going to end up with a net spend of around 50 million or less.
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I wonder what OGS's backup plan is if Pogba pulls another Pogba and only shows up for about every third or fourth game. Maybe a midfield of McTominay, Mata and the zombie hulk of Nemanja Matic with Fred coming in off the bench?

I also wonder if Jesse Lingard could learn to do the Ander Herrera enforcer/marker/assassin thing instead of playing as an auxiliary option up front?
 
There is no backup plan without pogba, not a serious one that is.

I think Fred has more of the sh!thouse mentality to play that enforcer role, but he is too careless at times.

I honestly have zero expectations for the season now. If Ole pulls a top-4 finish with this squad it will be as big of an accomplishment as the 99' treble.
 
usaf_giles said:
There is no backup plan without pogba, not a serious one that is.

I think Fred has more of the sh!thouse mentality to play that enforcer role, but he is too careless at times.

I honestly have zero expectations for the season now. If Ole pulls a top-4 finish with this squad it will be as big of an accomplishment as the 99' treble.
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I think unlike last year's squad, if there were a repeat of both Arsenal and Chelsea spitting the bit over the last half-dozen games then Utd probably could find a way to steal that 4th spot. But I don't think that's a very likely scenario. Usually at least two of the three among Chelsea/Tottenham/Arsenal produce decent results over a full season. And I don't see Liverpool or City having any huge falloffs this year.
 
1 day later and Arsenal are expected to negotiate personal terms and have a medical for David Luiz(8mil) and Kieran Tierney(25mil).

Sure Arsenal could've gotten better options for defense but at least they addressed the area of weakness. It's still weak but better than yesterday.
 
CobraX51 said:
1 day later and Arsenal are expected to negotiate personal terms and have a medical for David Luiz(8mil) and Kieran Tierney(25mil).

Sure Arsenal could've gotten better options for defense but at least they addressed the area of weakness. It's still weak but better than yesterday.
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Arsenal has been after Tierney all summer, Luiz...um, okay. Questionable signing, but at least he was cheap.
 
Lukaku is out at United.
 
Roadrunner said:
Arsenal has been after Tierney all summer, Luiz...um, okay. Questionable signing, but at least he was cheap.
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It's a fine move. Luiz isn't great anymore (was he ever). But he is another experienced body that can fill the void left after Koscielny was sold to Bordeaux. Just swapping one old center back for another. Luiz was cheap. That's the biggest thing.
 
had the first touch of donkey, and didn't fit the system at all. especially after his lack of professionalism over the past three months I couldn't wait for him to get out of the club.
 
usaf_giles said:
had the first touch of donkey, and didn't fit the system at all. especially after his lack of professionalism over the past three months I couldn't wait for him to get out of the club.
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I’m certainly not going to be upset if rashford becomes the top guy.
 
Lukaku seems like he'd be the front man to build around if you were a second-tier team planning on just hoofing the ball downfield as often as possible and letting the big guy try to muscle past the defenders and get a cheap goal once in a while. I remember that game against Liverpool when he just schooled Lovren for about 60 minutes and let Jose bypass the aggressive press that his squad didn't have the technical quality to handle.

Or something like that, as I say I am a newcomer to the game and don't always interpret tactics correctly.
 
cbaker2882 said:
I’m certainly not going to be upset if rashford becomes the top guy.
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So how does the Utd attack work with the personnel they have now? I know Rashford is up top, do they use the James kid and Martial on either side of Rashford or something like that?

I'd like to see James and Rashford on the field together every weekend, as a fairly unsophisticated viewer I can always appreciate just outrunning the defense and getting two guys barreling down on the keeper quick as you like.
 
He is technical in the box, it's his movement outside without the ball. His first touch was so bad you never knew whether he is going take a pass into feet or send into the crowd. because of this his hold up play is garbage who was only useful against teams out of the top six.
 
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