₦airaland Forum

ChristineC:
we had nine changes from the last league game and the team was decent, and still didn't involve Juan Mata or Dan James or Jesse Lingard. I see no reason why any competition should be of lower priority. Ole needs a trophy, United need a trophy like right now.

I not saying we shoukd ditch any competition, but we need to use our best players in the league more. Our 2nd Eleven, which is decent can take us to the Semis at least of these competitions.

Even Jones and Rojo can be reintegrated into the squad to see out easy games to give key players rest. SAF does this a lot.

KingAlabi:
We are not titles challengers this season no matter how you view it
Don't start this expectation and den start casting the team and manager when it doesn't materialize

How do you mean we are not title challengers? We should be pushing for the title with this squad. Even chelsea are meant to challenge this season, are they better than us. Look at our squad and that of Liverpool and City we are not miles off. Why are you lowering standards. SAF will be turning in his retirement home "grave" (he is not dieng any time soon) if he listens to this your timid talk

KingAlabi:
United use zonal marking
Not man marking

Whatever marking pattern we are using is not working. We most of the goals we concede are from corners and free kicks

KingAlabi:
Not all players obey instructions Sha

Lol

patrickmuf:
Bailly or Tuanzebe should start ahead of Lindelof as they'll deal with the threat of Vardy better...

Sadly Ole will definitely start Lindelof exvept if he is not fit

KingAlabi:
Bros wetin you expect from united this season ??

No dey do if and if statement

A TITLE CHALLENGE

-I am ready to sacrifice Europa. just play the 2nd team there until Semis/Final and see how it goes.

- if the draws are kind have a proper go at FA Cup too. With our 2nd team until Semis/Final.


But in summary i will Zero in everything for a title challenge

Panther7:
I would have believed but nobody was assigned to man mark DCL during set pieces there was a time Shaw was marking DCL.
Most times we don't assign Maguire to mark opposition players who are dangerous from set pieces I don't know why? Maybe it's a strategy.

Who is even our defenssive coach? The person must be terrible. The amount of goals we concede from setpeices is mind blowing and still we dont want to address that.

airmark:

Chelshit fan, you were meant to be topping EPL by now winning every body by 5-0. After Marina "Spent Wisely" in the summer. Fat Frank is still 5th, having played more games than most of his rivals.

Panther7:
You are over analysing this thing Amaka doesn't even think that deep The only reason Tuan played was because Williams was sick.

You might be right, But Ole might still start Tuanzebe even if Williams is fit. Ole is not that dumb na. Lol. DCL and Richarlison are big aerial threat, Mina also in set piece situations so it wise to play a taller person, its mo rocket science

MRTA7:
I think our squad on a whole is good but I still think it lacks balance and that's where it can fall short as a title challenger.

They say defense wins titles but can you honestly say you're confident in our defence keeping cleansheets?
We still dont have a proper solution for the right side of the team.
And then of course you have Ole who is like his team, inconsistent. Has some great results with some woeful ones.

The main reason I see us in a title challenge is because no one else is that good, apart from Liverpool.

We conceded lots of goals last season in the first half of the season and conceded less in the 2nd half. If we can tighten our defence we should be good

patrickmuf:

I don't think Rodgers will sit back at home, he'll want to dominate the play.

Ndidi vs Bruno, whoever wins that battle might just determine who wins the game...

i dont think ole will not allow Ndidi to be on Bruno, Mctoms if he fit enough will engage Ndidi. My fear is our shaky defence

ChristineC:
I think Tuanzebe played ahead of Williams for his height because Everton has scored the most from corners so far. the guy is no wingback and is match rusty.

You are correct

afrodoc2:
It is good enough but our manager is suspect. The only reason many people are not confident we would mount a challenge is our manager. The squad itself is the best we have had in close to a decade.

Now i am not saying we are going to win or indeed that we must win. However we should be able to push on and at least give the eventual winners a fight for their money.

And for Ole. I have been very critical of him and i still think he is not good enough. But a slight stroke of luck in terms of getting the right balance with the squad could just push him over the line. Just like post lockdown.

For the past 5 seasons or so title winners used basically same structure and first XI throughout the season. With little tweaking here and there as injuries and suspensions permits.

Chelsea 2015: courtois, Ivanovic, Azpi, Terry, Cahill, Matic, Fab, Oscar, Hazard, Costa, Willian/Schurle.

Leicester 2016: Schmeichel, Simpson, Huth,Morgan,Fuchs,Kante, Drinkwater,Albrighton,Okazaki,Mahrez,vardy.

Chelsea 2017: Courtois,Azpi,luiz,moses,cahill,alonso,matic, kante,Hazard, willian/Pedro, Costa.

City 2018-2019: Ederson, walker,Laporte/Otamendi,Kompany, Delph/Zinchenko/Danilo,Fernandinho,KDB,Silva, Sane, Sterling, Aguero.

Liverpool 2020: Allison,TAA,Robertson,VVD,Gomez,Henderson, Fabinho,Wijnaldum,Firminho,Salah,Mane.

I dont know if our coaching team have strategists at all, Fergie used to have people like that.

afrodoc2:
It is good enough but our manager is suspect. The only reason many people are not confident we would mount a challenge is our manager. The squad itself is the best we have had in close to a decade.

Now i am not saying we are going to win or indeed that we must win. However we should be able to push on and at least give the eventual winners a fight for their money.

Very good. I am surprised that people are saying we can't challenge for the title. That Mourinho's team of 17/18 would have edged it had it not been for the 100 points city, so why not this team?
We made 9 changes last night and beat Everton first team away. If you compare our squad now with that of City, we are not miles off. Even Liverpool that a lot of people are tipping for the tilte are not miles ahead of us quality wise.

A very nice run of results of say 10 wins in 12, starting from our fixture with Liverpool on 16th of Jan, then maintaining a reasonable form afterwards will do it. And just like you said, if we can give the winners a run for thier money that will boost the team to mount a proper title bid next season. That doesnt even mean we can't win it this season.

Fergie won a couple of titles with 75-79 points. Leicester won it with 81 points, infact we even won it in 2003 with 83 points with 2 games to spare. This season is looking very similar to those types of season. Liverpool for example have lost 11 points already this season with barely 1/3 of yhe season gone.

Botfuss:
Isn’t Mctominay injured?

Slight knock

But Doc. Isn't this our squad good enough for a title challenge? For me 85ish points this season my be enough. Fergie, even with an average squad will be licking his lips with this kind of season.

afrodoc2

Trevor012:
Fred vs Mctominay vs Pogba


Big dilemma for Ole against Leicester. Pogba needs to start in my opinion because leicester will set up like Everton did Yesterday and I enjoyed how we dominated them.

This is the only reasonable thing you have said in this board. Long may this continue.

afrodoc2:
What some people don’t realise is that not everybody has the gift of self-motivation. Martial and Shaw are prime examples.

Very correct. These kind of players needs to be reminded of things to do.

CrystalTiger:
Martial is having a very weird season..Making better contributions but scoring less..I think he's won at least 5 penalties this season though..

May Ole continue to dey whine us Oleout gang..GGMU..

Martial will be back. I always knew that, the key to him playing well will be to put his body in and be more aggressive and incisive.

That's why its always good to heavily criticise some players like Martial to rev him up. Constant praises and excuses will do them no good, i am sure he must have told himself that no one is ready to condone poor performances and laziness. Look at Pogba, he knows that any poor performance from him and he will be bombed by fans, he is playing very very well now.

Leyqute:
LooL. I don’t know how the other guy would watch the match and made that statement.

Tuanzebe gave the ball away dangerously in at least 2 occasions. And it’s not as if his attacking play is miles ahead of AWB’s. Make we look another place for solution abeg

AWB is far better than Tuenzebe in terms of attack sef. Tuenzebe performance last night was rubbish, he was disaster waiting to happen, he killed attack and slowed forward movements.

engrelvis:
Dnt know y ole is nt always featuring Tuanzebe.Saw his constant runs upfront yesterday. Things AWB dnt normally do.

AWB is far better than Tuanzebe even with his forward runs. Tuenzebe is very static and misplaced a lot if passes. He is only good in the middle either as CB or CDM.

afrodoc2:
I watched only the first half but that was a quietly dominant display. The advantages of playing a quick CB were also obvious. Ole has to chose between Maguire and Lindelof to be the partner of a quick CB.

How to solve our problem is very straight forward and easy, if we can find a realiable quick centre half and and all action CDM who is good on the ball, there is no way we are not going to challenge for the title. We can go further to said find an attacking RB to use against teams that sits back at home. The Defence of Maguire and Lindelof is very shaky and we should find a way of merging the Mctoms/Fred role into one, in order to play CDM-Pogba-Bruno in our Midfield.

Make I no lie,
this RB no fit Tuanzebe at all

Why is Bruno starting this hame for God sake. I prefer we win Leicester game more than this. I just hope Ole knows what he is doing

BlueMann:
And you're playing Leicester.

Lol. One thing must kill a man. We will still meet them one way or the other

rationalmind:
Maybe you're not as smart as you think

No wahala. We Move!
Next match. Chelsea vs Arsenal.
Any way it goes, I will be fine, its either Arsenal enter into deeper relegation troubles or Chelsea lose and continue sliding down the table. Either way I will be happy. Lol

Smellymouth:
They need ten bottles of Chelsea dry gin if they think lampard can outwit moyes.

Lampard beating moyes will be a miracle..

Them no know. Its an easy prediction.

Any smart punter should know that this game have West Ham win/draw written all over it

afrodoc2:
Chelshitters doing permutation and combination on how to avoid 11th place.

Lol.

Arsenal (A), Villa (H), City (A), Fuham(A), Leicester (A), Wolves(H),

By the time they are done with this fixture list ar January ending, na dem and their london Rival Arsenal de drag from bottom

macjireh:
athletico are arguably d 3rd best team in Spain and they are equivalent to Chelsea not spurs...would have given it to manure (post SAF era) but manure have been averaging 6th position for quite a while while Chelsea have averaged 3rd position more than d manu of post SAF

Man u has been averaging 6th position? In the past 3 season Man U finished 2nd, 6th, 3rd and are Currently 3rd with a game in hand. How is that an average of 6th

patrickmuf:
You're right on point, Leeds and Bielsa need to be more pragmatic if they're going to stay up which I think they will because not every team will be able to pick them apart like we did...

I think Leeds and Bielsa will do just enough to stay up. Even with their careless gong ho style, they still pick up wins and points here and there. They trashed Newcastle 5-3 just few days ago, they will gather enough wins like that to stay up. They suffered against us becuase they left vast amount of space against an AM like Bruno who is unforgiving and he tore them apart, only few EPL teams have such quality. Arsenal for eg are using Nketiah in that role.

Another thing is Sheffield United, Fulham and Wes Brom will not finish above them this season and erremmmm.. A.r..nal

afrodoc2:
I like McTominay but it was a match tailor made for him. If Pogba had played yesterday instead of McTominay it might have ended 10-5 cos they are the only midfielders we have that Yaya Toure bull dozing running ability from midfield. Pogba just has extra quality on the ball in addition.

Ole actually applied good tactics yesterday. McTom running ahead of Bruno into the box was not accidental. That tactic worked because the other midfielders push way ahead of Phillips, which leaves him isolated in wide open space against multiple runners whenever they lose the ball.

Correct Ole got his taxtics well, you mentioned before the game that Phillips needs to be kept silent and as if ole was listening and stiffled him. Bielsa removed him later and started attacking from the flanks which actually worked well for them, the got glorious chances.

I was expecting ole to bring in Pogba when he pulled out Bruno, he would have pulled them apart.