Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 60

United definitely need another CM on the pitch here. Fred or Andreas would make a huge difference. Just can't win or keep the ball.

 

Won't make the blindest bit of difference unless they start putting pressure on the ball. It's all delay and contain right now. The fact that they're not even tracking runs from midfield is making it worse.

30% possession, 1 shot. At home. Glad I'm not a United fan.

 

To the surprise of absolutely no one we're still shite

 

This represents all that's wrong with modern football.

 

It's almost as if having one midfielder playing that actually gives a damn about defensive duty is harming our ability to track runners and win the ball back. Mata is really struggling to get on the ball, and offers very little in terms of tracking back. He's pressuring the ball and doing the job that he did at the weekend, but it's not being effective tonight. Another midfielder would help us track those runs.

I won't argue that United are playing well, or that we're in good form, or any of that. But c'mon, this isn't the worst performance by an English team in Europe against (arguably) the competition favourites. Juve are one of the best teams in the world. United aren't.

 

I remember being upset when he left us. No doubt he'll score at the weekend now.

 

I didn't watch the match today but crazy that Jose used no subs.

 

I wasn't making out like it was the worst performance ever. Just pointing out the lack of ambition in a home European tie with talented attacking players in your side.

And one player wouldn't have meant the whole team would have started pressuring the ball, especially because containing was clearly Mourinho's idea. It wouldn't have helped them track Cancelo on the right, or blocked Dybala and Ronaldo checking to the ball. It takes actual intent and working as a team to press and Mourinho clearly had no intention of doing that. Maybe you'd have had one more more player to track Dybala but then there would just have been more space for Bentancur and Pjanic to dominate and Lukaku would have been more isolated.

 

Don't know what's happened Lukaku this year, absolute shadow of the player we had last year.

 

Probably isn't a lot of fun playing in such a negative environment. I'm amazed Jose has kept his job so far.

 

Saw this on twitter last night lmao:

Him and Morata have the exact same problem, they've lost all confidence and they don't seem to be getting the support they need from those around them at their clubs, whether that be fans, the manager or even the other players. Would hate to be in the position they are in.

 

The biggest problem with Lukaku in our side is we're using him as a Drogba lite. When he is involved it's passing to him with his back to goal or a long ball up to him, which aren't his game. If we had quicker passing movement and more balls in behind for him to run on to it would be easier for him.

Right now our game plan that involves him, is pass to Lukaku, hold the ball up and pass it wide. It doesn't suit any part of his game. Ideally the only time he should be touching the ball is when a chance opens up or he gets behind a defender. He's not the type of striker to have the ball 30 yards out. But that's how we're playing.

The best part of his game the last few months is actually when we play a ball to the channel and he can use his pace and strength to get there and feed the ball back into the box. If we could do that, but more centrally he'll start being able to eek out chances and grow his confidence.

Apart from Lukaku, there's been a lot of good talk coming out of the club. Martial wanting to sign a new contract, Pogba saying he's home etc. Even Mourinho looks different. But I still think there's something rotten there, waiting to boil over.

 

The biggest question mark against Mourinho in my mind is that he's still trying to do what he did over a decade ago. Trying to shoehorn a quality striker like Lukaku into a Drogba mould that he doesn't suit makes no sense and isn't utilising what ability he has. He does the same with other players. It's that commitment to 'his way of doing things' that mean that people are questioning him, despite his history of success.

If results pick up, I'm sure he'll be fine like last season. If displays remain boring and results continue to dwindle, the questions will remain and, as you say, it could boil over. We shall see!

One thing I will say about Lukaku is that he does seem to go through patches of not scoring. He definitely had those spells at Everton. But then he'll come back and begin to hit them regularly again. I guess it's more noticeable when you're the leading striker at United and the team is going through a period of collectively underperforming, but it seems like a normal dip for him.

 

It's just nuts to me how Roberto Martinez is able to get more out of Lukaku than one of the greatest managers ever. The current set-up is doing nothing for RL, so why does Mourinho stubbornly persist with a) the current tactics, where the problems extend beyond just the ST position, and b) Lukaku himself, instead of switching him out for Rashford or Martial?

Admittedly I don't watch too much football any more, but to me RL seems like he could be a Diego Costa type rather than a Drogba type, for the reasons you explained above - Why doesn't Mourinho set United up similar to how CFC were back when they last won the title? He has similar players IMO:

Lukaku = Costa
Sanchez = Hazard
Mata = Oscar
Pogba = Fabregas
Matic = Matic (lol)
Herrera/Fred = Ramires/Mikel maybe?

I know Sanchez is tanking hard right now but he is creative, athletic and a goalscorer, plus is a harder worker than Hazard so he is much more of a Mourinho "type" player! IDK how players on the United side of that list couldn't theoretically play how those on the CFC side did, but I guess that is not factoring in any of the 1000 variables that can affect team performance lol.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with this. His overall performance over a season tends to be pretty great, but he can definitely go through isolated patches where he does sod all.

 

What the hell was that offside call???

 

One of the worst disallowed goal calls I've seen

 

1-1 at the break but Spurs have looked very solid (outside of Toby's horrendous mistake leading to the goal). I think we can break this open and win 3-1 or 4-1. With that said we probably lose 3-2.

 

Unrelated but this is great...

 

Omg Hugo

 

I’m ready to move on from Hugo. He makes some great saves but god damn does he make some awful mistakes. Then his dui, then his comments this week saying “my careeer isn’t tied to Mauricio” when asked about his future. Just sell him please.

 

This ref has been utter shit

 

i wasn't watching the game, but this seems like one of those back to back "life comes at your fast" moments if you read the first one as reaction to a great save and that's my truth

 

Haha well they were both regarding his red

 

One of our best performances of the season until our wonderful captain got sent off and ruined the game