Football (Soccer)

[Iceman]

Manchester United to stick with Erik ten Hag for Porto and Aston Villa matches

Erik ten Hag will remain in charge for Manchester United's fixtures against Porto and Aston Villa this week.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Iceman]

Our next fixtures are Porto (away), Aston Villa (away) and then Brentford (home). Does anyone feel confident we'll get a 3 pointer from any of those? Sure it's not impossible but two very hard away fixtures and then Brentford who - for all their faults will come in and give it 100% effort, and they tend to score the 1-0 goal after 30 seconds (3 games in a row now) so I can just imagine how bad that will be if they get an early lead at Old Trafford.

Could be a long way from any of the Euro positions after those, never mind top 4.

 

[Iceman]

If I were the Manchester United board, I'd be drawing up a list of names for potential replacements. If we roll out with a few more abysmal performances like that, particularly in the next few games with an international break coming up, that could push the board over the edge.

The biggest worry is, even if we were truly potent going forward, it wouldn't be good enough because we just look all over the place defensively to the point that every time we lose the ball, in any area of the pitch, all it takes is a single player to take it upon themselves to surge with the ball & gallop into the open space & we're immediately caught floundering. The problem is even with this seemingly unusual system EtH is trying to implement is we simply don't score enough.. or at all, to justify being so incredibly & constantly open.

Should EtH be sacked, I'd give Ruud the job, at least short term anyway & see how things develop. Regardless of results I wouldn't appoint anyone fully until the end of the season at the earliest. I'm hoping EtH can turn things around & get a few results to ease some pressure, but based on what we've seen he's either hard headed & won't change his ways, or he just isn't learning & adapting quick enough.

I didn't realise Ruud was assistant manager at Utd. I'd love if he turned out to be a good manager.

 

[BlackFox]

Bournemouth beat Southampton 3-1 in the South West derby to move them up the table a bit and leave Saints in a lot of problems at the bottom of the table down with Wolves, long season ahead it seems for them.

 

[B]

I didn't realise Ruud was assistant manager at Utd. I'd love if he turned out to be a good manager.

He apparently did quite well at PSV before resigning, I don't follow the Eredivisie with any great detail other than occasionally catching highlights of games on Eurosport so I couldn't tell you how he had them playing, but I do recall reading a few times that he had them well organised.

Probably wouldn't be experienced enough or ready to take the job full-time, but should EtH depart, I'd honestly rather give it to Ruud than Southgate or Potter, which is something I think the media is salivating over & almost trying to speak into existence.

 

[MarvelFan]

The captain! 🤗

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Hunter Rider]

It's like the FA realised the best way to punish us was to overturn the ban so he can stink the place up for the next 3 games!

 

[Hunter Rider]

ETH looks like he's coming to the end of the line (probably should have gone in summer). As ever, tons of issues at Utd. At least (as you mention), De Ligt and Mazroui have settled quite quickly. De Ligt might become an important player as the seasons roll on.

Yes, very happy with that. We still have some fight and quality despite no squad strengthening and a poor recent result. And good for the league that City haven't looked invincible in the last 2 games. I don't like to see injuries play a part, but that said City losing Rodri is a huge blow. The most structurally important player for them.

The FA Cup win and lack if options saved Ten Hag in the summer, if Nagelsnann hadn't extended his Germany contract I think he'd be United manager now. De Ligt could well be the future Captain I feel, but overall we've not progressed at all from last seasons disasterclass.

Howe has basically done the opposite of Ten Hag, he's maximised what he has, making the overall team overcome the limitations of some of the individuals. Agreed, it's opened the title race up, and it's not just Arsenal, I'd say Liverpool and Chelsea are looking ominous.

He is lucky to be still the manager of United but it looks highly unlikely that he will be able to keep his job till the end of this season.

I actually think Ruud will be interim manager by Christmas, it's unsalvageable for Ten Hag at this point.

 

[Iceman]

The FA Cup win and lack if options saved Ten Hag in the summer, if Nagelsnann hadn't extended his Germany contract I think he'd be United manager now. De Ligt could well be the future Captain I feel, but overall we've not progressed at all from last seasons disasterclass.

Howe has basically done the opposite of Ten Hag, he's maximised what he has, making the overall team overcome the limitations of some of the individuals. Agreed, it's opened the title race up, and it's not just Arsenal, I'd say Liverpool and Chelsea are looking ominous.



I actually think Ruud will be interim manager by Christmas, it's unsalvageable for Ten Hag at this point.

Yep, no FA Cup win and Nagelsmann being available would have sealed it.

Agreed on Howe, and it’s why I really want the club to get whatever success it’s aiming for while he’s here rather than with a new manager.

If Cole Palmer stays fit all season his goals and assists and aggressive/intelligent play will mean that Chelsea have enough going forward to be up there. Even more so if Sancho has a good season in a new environment. Will have to see how their defence holds out. Liverpool are definitely up there with Arsenal as the challengers if City have any further issues after losing Rodri.

 

[B]

It's like the FA realised the best way to punish us was to overturn the ban so he can stink the place up for the next 3 games!

I love the way the FA nonchalantly & quietly overturns the red/suspension.

Doesn't exactly help give us back the 55 odd minutes we'd to play with 10v11, fair enough we played like **** even with him on the pitch & likely would have lost anyway given how we were playing, but playing 10v11 didn't exactly help our cause.

It's a shame there isn't some sort of system in place in which a few people away from the heat of the players/crowd could rewatch the camera footage in a variety of angles, use some common sense & then report to the referee that he had made an error, you know, when the game was happening....

 

[Iceman]

I love the way the FA nonchalantly & quietly overturns the red/suspension.

Doesn't exactly help give us back the 55 odd minutes we'd to play with 10v11, fair enough we played like **** even with him on the pitch & likely would have lost anyway given how we were playing, but playing 10v11 didn't exactly help our cause.

It's a shame there isn't some sort of system in place in which a few people away from the heat of the players/crowd could rewatch the camera footage in a variety of angles, use some common sense & then report to the referee that he had made an error, you know, when the game was happening....

In a knockout cup game one unresolved mistake can knock out a team (a team that might have won the whole thing). In the league any points unfairly lost can affect titles, CL/Euro places/relegation. I wish in 2024 we’d sorted this **** out by now.

 

[Iceman]

A couple of big results in the CL last night. Villa beat Bayern 1-0 and Lille beat Real 1-0. Massive results for both teams against European heavyweights!

 

[BlackFox]

Great result for Villa last night, beating Bayern is never easy in Europe so well done to them. This whole table thing looks mad though still. Anyway they have two wins now so must stand a good chance of making it through the league stage as I doubt they will have a game as hard as Bayern again? But trying to look up fixtures and standings is a bit of a mess with this format.

 

[blue scholar]

Great result for Villa last night, beating Bayern is never easy in Europe so well done to them. This whole table thing looks mad though still. Anyway they have two wins now so must stand a good chance of making it through the league stage as I doubt they will have a game as hard as Bayern again? But trying to look up fixtures and standings is a bit of a mess with this format.

I actually like how chaotic the whole thing feels. I mean, Brest as the 2nd best team in the tournament is something no one could have really thought of before

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Iceman]

Bruno sent off again but a late Maguire header salvaged an away point for Utd against Porto.

 

[Iceman]

I didn’t realise that crazy league system for the CL was also in place for both the EL and the ECL. So messy trying to make sense of all this lol.

 

[BlackFox]

Yeah we are smashing it in Europe with him in the sticks.

Literally punched a ball to a striker last night for their first goal and was going to completely change our passing when he signed but is not better than De Gea at even that, ok.

Man, these stats are so meaningless they come up with today.

 

[BlackFox]

Bruno sent off again but a late Maguire header salvaged an away point for Utd against Porto.

Somehow snatched a draw from the jaws of a defeat, from the jaws of a win.

Literally handed a 2 goal lead thanks to their keeper but of course our defense and keeper couldnt defend a picnic from an angry wasp so let them score 3. We snatached something at the end but two draws in two games is pretty poor in itself and this team just looks like its lost its way and has no real faith in anything yet again.

Villa should stuff us at the weekend.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Iceman]

Somehow snatched a draw from the jaws of a defeat, from the jaws of a win.

Literally handed a 2 goal lead thanks to their keeper but of course our defense and keeper couldnt defend a picnic from an angry wasp so let them score 3. We snatached something at the end but two draws in two games is pretty poor in itself and this team just looks like its lost its way and has no real faith in anything yet again.

Villa should stuff us at the weekend.

Porto away isn’t the simplest fixture but 2 points from 2 Europa League games isn’t great. All the other PL teams are doing better and some have also come across big teams.

 

[B]

That game last night sums up everything we are as a team. We would play reasonably well for 10-15 minutes & then the script would completely flip to the complete opposite & we'd be floundering looking like we'd never seen a football before or ever played with any of our teammates for the next 10-15.

When we get into those sort of situations when we get a couple of goals up, on the rare occasions it does happen, we lack the mentality to get a couple of composed players to just try to take the sting out of the game, keep the ball, slow things down just to fend off that initial reactions. Instead we continue to let the game play out, which despite being 2-0 it was very much a 50/50, end to end game & as a result they get end up getting a goal back which completely drains any momentum we had, they go on to quickly follow that up with an equaliser, in for a break at half time, then back out & almost immediately take the lead.

The Bruno red card, I mean, another absolute piss take & poor use of VAR. Is his foot high? Yes. Does it look like a genuine attempt to play the ball? Yes & lastly, but most importantly, does he make any contact, at all, with the Porto defenders face? No.
He doesn't even make any contact with the Porto defender, who goes down clutching his face, at least in any replay I've seen.
Complete lack of any common sense, once again, from the VAR official. Should have taken a look at that, saw there was no contact & gave Fernandes, a warning for the high foot. Then should have called the defender over, gave him an even sterner warning or yellow card for feigning injury.

Thankfully, we managed to equalise even after this & claim a point, which over the course of the whole game, was a fair result I thought.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[BlackFox]

Injured in April and out for 30 months incoming.