₦airaland Forum

lekkie073:
the one that brought trophies, some of una still castigated his style of football. So?

We have seen teams win trophies whilst playing well so, is not out of place to demand such from a coach. It's not like we are asking them to win trophies with 9 men against 11, simply win while playing well...

Nezzjnr:
Really bro??

Leave the guy...He wants to get at me but not today...

lekkie073:
is united the first club that will spend 400m in three seasons and not win the league?

Every big club goes through a hiatus, a period when they will find it difficult to get it right. It might be a result of increased competition, money, fatigue or any other factor. The fact remains, a big club cannot remain competitive for ever except when there is no competition from its rivals. Fergie kept Liverpool in hiatus for decades. That coincided with the emergence of new football powerhouses like Chelsea and Mancity.
Now manutd has been in a hiatus since Fergie left (this is normal) and you expect one manager to come and fill his vacuum perfectly.
Fergie, as a personality won United at least 10 points per season. That's why some rival fans ascribe him the position of epl influencer. That is gone with him, more clubs are grooming themselves to be more competitive. In the midst of these, some manutd fans still fantasize about overnight success. Hmmmmm

You know why Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern, Man City, PSG, Real Madrid and the likes don't settle for less? Because they spend a whole lot in transfer fees and wages hence expect good football and trophies...If Klopp leaves Liverpool today, the next manager will be under intense pressure to deliver trophies too, no one will remember that it took Klopp 4 seasons to finally deliver the UCL because they believe they have gotten back to that stage where they shouldn't go a maximum of 2 seasons trophy less...Even Klopp will come under fire should Liverpool fail to win any trophy this season because the excuse of injuries to key defenders is now a thing of the past...

I can't be hating on Ole yet I want him to use the squad well to avoid the burnout that was evident last season...

CapitalCee:
They make it sound as if anybody is wishing Ole to fail, go and look at how happy and bustling most of us were when Utd win matches. Every body is praying fervently for the team to win, and they could win, but when glaring deficiencies exist, shouldn't it be discussed or is a particular manager immune to criticism?

I watch almost all Manchester United games and that of other teams especially during weekends...How someone will sit down in his room and suggest that I want Manchester United to fail just to spite Ole is beyond me...

Hopefully we will beat Sutton today...

KingAlabi:
What you don't get is while we have replacements, city have better replacements, that's not to say we need to go out and buy another Bruno, but just a fact about city, forget the managers in this convo.

My guy, we have looked at both teams. The only area where they edge us is in the midfield and that's because VDB has got going yet. In AM, Sancho and Pogba can step in there and do a good job. I am of the opinion that Sancho or Pogba as our attacking midfielder will best any option from City not named KDB over the course of a season. I hope Ole sticks with McTom and Matic as his DM options while Fred and VDB should ay as CMs that they are.

City are better at LB...

We are better at RCB

We are on par at LCB

We are better at LB

They edge it in the DM position

In CM and AM we are as good as them.

In the wings, there's nothing to separate the both team. In fact, if Sancho reach the heights expected of him and Rashford comes back better we will ahead of them.

At CF, we are better and have the better options...

CapitalCee:
You can have your opinion nobody is denying you that doc. However you are clearly wrong to say that the base of the argument is "NOT" whether we lack quality or not. Its either you did not see that or you decided to ignore it.

The genesis of the argument was where i made a comment of how pep made a lot of changes. Which could give him advantage at the long run ahead of others, meaning his co-contenders like Liverpool, Utd and Chelsea. Someone immediately retorted with a tired moaning of how Glazers do not back Ole, how we lack depth etc. My comment was crystal clear, it was never to undermine anyone rather to point out where Pep could have an advantage.

If you watch carefully i agreed with a number of people that Rodri was better than Mctoms in DM, and thats not the problem, I never even said Overall City do not have a better depth. My point has remained that Ole has the required depth to challenge. I went ahead to make my own recommendations in good faith. Whatever argument you are having with anybody regarding Rodri/Mctoms is clearly not the issue.

There was never an emotional comment i made here, I only pointed out Peps good usage of his squad. Can you Point out where i said Mctom is better than Rodri? My only comment about the DM position was that if 36 year old Fernandinho can be used, why not 33 years old Matic? and his use should be sparingly. You going to uproot an already well discussed topic about Reyna is simply to institute your nonexistent "emotional" fallacy ad hominen, and to me it is totally unnecessary.
My point is City may be better than Utd in depth but there is no gulf in class and ole has an embarrassment of talents to rotate.

The supposed gap is negligible if Ole ups his game...Liverpool didn't have the depth of City when they won the league. I wonder why a perfectly negligible gap is now an issue when we are involved...

lekkie073:
Ole complainants....
You complain of sixth position, he tried and made third, una still find way to complain. He ended second, yet you are not convinced.
He lost semis, una complain, he tried to break the jinx by entering a final, yet the mere fact that he lost on penalties was enough to rain down verbosities. You don't see progress at all. You only want success to come overnight. If your types were around during the early stages of Fergie's Era, this is the same thing you will be doing.... Prophesying doom

Baba no Southampton fan will be demanding that they win the league, a respectable finish is enough for them. You don't spend over £400m and point to a 3rd and 2nd place finish...History remembers winners and not those who came second or 3rd...

And yes, if Fergie was hired today and spent over 400m in less than 3 seasons on the job, a lot more would be expected of him...

If you still don't get the drift then that's your problem...

You guys keep saying if Bruno or Maguire is injured we are finished...Do you guys really think there's anyone at City that can effectively replace KDB? I don't think so but they have a system that covers for whatever gapping hole in their team. Bruno, Pogba Maguire and AWB might look irreplaceable but we don't have to replace Bruno with a player that creates and scores as much as he does neither do we have to replace AWB with a RB that is a tackle merchant. Lindelof, Dalot (This guy played over 25 games for Milan) VDB, Sancho can step in and do a good job...Mind you, all those players won't be out at once...

TheLequte:
Maguire sef. If he gets injured we’re doomed. And AWB too.

Maguire, Bruno and AWB. The drop in quality when compared with their replacements is huuuuge.

City has almost nothing like that. KDB gets injured? Graelish or Gundogan will slot in and the drop in quality will not he huuuuge.

Lindelof, Dalot, Pogba/Sancho can cover for them...

lekkie073:
You just like to argue and argue your life away on what adds no economic value to your life in Calabar. Sit here all day and be castigating those people who are among the best in their careers. Glazes, whose funds are the major force directing the affairs of the club are not complaining. The mancurians forking out GBP to watch every season are not perrenial complainants,

Na somebori from Calabar carry the matter for head like Panama hat.
Despite melodygonna trying more than enough to make you see reason, you still no Wan gree use your intellect effectively.
If you like, cry from now till eternity, the club will decide when it's employee (manager or player) leaves. If you are still watching football with the mindset that your team is expected to beat every other club to it every time, then you are not qualified to be a fan.
Let me ask you this....

How many times have you complained that your father is not as rich as dangote? How many time have you aspired to be the best employee in the organization? But you persistently complain about someone doing the best in his field to ensure success for himself and the organization he represents. You and your ilks here just waste the whole day giving people thousand rational and irrational reasons to see someone in a bad light.
Make una no kill unaself on issues that are beyond your control.

Baba calm down, you don't know me...For your information I am doing well for myself hence no point looking at my dad...Because someone comes here to while away time doesn't mean the person is less busy or jobless, Ole is coach of Manchester United, one of the biggest football club in the world, if you think it's out of place for fans to talk about his methods then that's your headache...Away from football, have you ever seen me attacking Ole?

If my post is giving you headache, kindly scroll past, there's no gun to your head asking that you must read all the post here...

afrodoc2:
Hopefully the guy will grow a pair and start making use of his squad.

I am sure he won't have any problems rotating the forwards (apart from Bruno). The problem like you rightly pointed out is when it comes to resting Bruno, using VDB and resting our 1st choice defenders.

Dias plays almost all City games same with Stones...Against lower opposition, Pep plays Gundogan as the DM with KDB/Silva and Foden ahead of him...

I think we can rest one or two of AWB, Varane, Maguire and Shaw against lowly opponents. The problem is when Ole rest all our star performers for a game and brings in a lot of bench warmers. At least let the start while resting 1 or 2 first team players...

For instance if Dalot replaces AWB in a defense that has Varane, Maguire, Shaw and a midfield of McFred, Pogba, Bruno, you'd hardly notice a drop in quality...That's a good way to give minutes to those on the bench and not put out a starting 11 of Dalot - Lindelof - Bailly - Telles in defense with Matic - VDB and McTominay in midfield...

So we should not talk about Ole because we have not manged a club as big as United before? Lol...

E no go work...

afrodoc2:
Do you know all these things you said about not excusing Amaka and us having a really good squad can be true and City might still have a better squad?

I wanted Amaka sacked back in the first half of last season. I am not interested in excusing him.
He has disappointed in some ridiculous ways so I no send the guy as a manager.

However I still believe Pep’s squad is better. They are more resistant to star injury and for most people it would even be difficult to name with certainty who the top stars on that team are.

If Ole manages the squad we have well, I believe even we can develop this resistance to star injury...

At City, game time is spread across and that's how it should be, they all look sharp when called upon but here, Bruno, Pogba, AWB, Shaw, Maguire, Rashford and McFred must play every game, how then will VDB, Telles, Dalot and the rest not look off space when situation forces Ole's hand to use them?

When Rashford and Cavani returns, I will like to see how Ole handles our attack...We too can share game time around while remaining incredibly strong, it's up to Ole to figure out how best to use the squad at his disposal. Here's hoping he gets it right.

inFamouz:
I think we will win something this season, the squad is good enough for at least a domestic trophy, and a good run in the CL, the league will be super interesting, I won't mind us losing to any of the big boys but I want us to run them close.

Same here...

chidexxy007:
@bolded, they are both liabilities rn.

I don't agree DDG = Ederson

True @Greenwood.

I don't get.
In the past 2 seasons, I thought Martial have been Ole's first choice CF with Greenwood/James and Rashford on the wings?

We have Sancho now and Cavani since last season...

Our wing options are;

LWF - Rashford, Martial, Sancho

RWF - Sancho, Greenwood, Rashford

James is 4th choice depending on availability and importance of the game...

CF - Cavani, Greenwood, Martial...All based on order of importance and availability...

FirstbornWds:
As it is, you can not be normal. You obviously are a troll... Definitely not a Barcelona fan.

Surely... Na to swear for you or plank you remain

Na today you know? That guy was and is a Messi hater... When Messi wanted out for the way Bartomeu ran the club, guess who he castigated? Messi...

inFamouz:
I don't want to get drawn into dis arguement, but De Gea is better than Ederson.

You can carry all your ball playing nonsense to the trash, Ederson haven't had a performance like that of De Gea against Roma last season, that was pure World Class, Ederson can never have a performance like that in his career, he isn't just capable of such fits.

Our attack is the best in the league, that shouldn't even be up for debate.

There's no way as a Wing forward is Grealish better than Rashford.

Grealish break out season is actually last year, but he's better than Pogba as an AM lol, if VdB hasn't signed for us people will be rating him at least on par with Gundogan and better than foden and B,silva but our manager rarely uses his bench so how would we know? I for one know that VdB in that Ajax team was Mad.

Rodri is just an Ordinary player protected by the Tactics Pep deploys, suddenly he is world
class, Man! fernandinho at 36 is better than that Fraud.

The grealish hype is ridiculous, Sancho is better and a lot proven than that Beckham wannabe, he hasn't done sh!t at the biggest stage ffs! His best season is at Aston fucking Villa, man barely escaped relegation just two seasons ago, got his stat inflated by the freak Liverpool 7-2 game and now he's a better AM than Pogba, we have forgotten Pogba being the leader in almost every statistics possible during Ole's interim season where Pogba was given a free role, but let's pretend that didn't happen and Pogba is too slow. Lol

And lastly Fred is really underated in this streets I really believed that if he started the UEL final, we would've won, he's Brazilian first teamer ffs!! Respect.. Respect... Respect..

Not to forget McTominator was actually productive than most of the City CM's that are said you be better than him.

Tuchel's attack is just mere, he has added Lukaku who many here thinks he's an Average no.9 to his rank let's see how they fare this season.

Lastly, A proven Goal scorer like Lukaku is nothing Special, but Grealish with just one Good season with midtable Villa is World Class

If we don't challenge them now, the lie will become truth...This season, we have no excuse not to win the league or UCL or at least get very close whilst winning the FA Cup...I don't care about Messi joining PSG or City sign Grealish, we have quality too and it must count...

CapitalCee:
He smartly Merged Rashford/Martial just to bring in James but it is Marhrez to Silva, as if their is an Anglo-Franco Player known as Anthony Rashford a.k.a. Marcus Martial. Where is Mahrez/Silva to Samuel Edozie?

Hehehe He might even claim Edozie is better than James...

In all, I like that we didn't even mention Lingard who went to West Ham and was the star...Over 38 games, Lingard to outscore Torres and Silva but we aren't ready for that discussion...

eph12:
I still think Ole will get something right this season. I hope so anyways. However, there's no gulf in class between our team and any other team in the EPL. While they may edge in one position, we edge in others. So I don't get the hullabaloo

This is no but the truth...No one team among the favorites (Manchester City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool) edges it across all positions, it is left for the coaches of the respective teams to mask their flaws and make their areas of strength count...

eph12:
We have Sancho that should be able to play that role very well now sef. I don't know what the problem is.

With Bruno out, we can switch formation and tactics and still get very good results against most teams in the EPL. This shouldn't be up for debate. What's this madness about DM sef?

They're watering the ground early enough so they can have any other person for the kill rather than Ole but e no go work, as far as I am concerned, he takes the fall if we fail...

Klopp didn't have the best CF, CM, AM and RCB but he won the league but here we must sign the best in every position...

If Ole was a black man then I would have attributed it to juju abi Norway dey do juju pass us?

CapitalCee:
So we are moving from Mahrez to Silva, but its Rashford/Martial to James, why are you combining them. Why not Mahrez/Silva to Edozie.all in the bid to trash the squad

Anything to undermine the quality in our ranks...

eph12:
It should be Mahrez/Silva to Delap since Martial and Rashford have become one player na

You sef see am...

If Pep stuck to playing a midfield of Rodri, Gundogan and KDB, will any of you ever imagine that Silva and Foden can slot in as CMs?

Yesterday, Jesus played as RWF while Torres occupied a more central position...Can Ole try such?

Pep is a mad man, he tries out his players at different positions, something Ole can never do...Even resting players for others who play the same position na wahala...

Oasis007:
Do we really need to arguing this matter at all? Man City Squad Depth is far superior to ours. This is a fact, very clear for everyone to see.

If the Argument is on Liverpool or Chelsea Squad Depth, it's debatable, but Man City? Make una dey calm down abegi.

Point it out let's see...

CapitalCee:
Over the course of the season Ole should use VDB and Matic to supplement. Last week Klopp used Ox and Milner, this week he changed it to Elliot and Henderson, next week expect to see Thiago and Curtis Jones or Fabinho. Why wont Ole use Fred and Mctoms this week, next week Mctoms and pogba, next VDB and Fred, another week Matic and Pogba thats how to keep the team ticking over the season thats where the managers acumen comes in. You are saying the quality will drop because the manager is sticking to a rule book and not tweeking anything week in week out. This is now a tired excuse are you saying for Ole to win anything he must have 22 world class players?

I have asked them if Liverpool had a better team than City when they won the league but up until this moment, no response from them...

Was Wijnaldum better than KDB?

Was Firmino better than Aguero?

Was Henderson better than Gundogan?

Was Fabinho better than Fernandinho?

TheLequte:
Patrick you should stop now.

Should we compare Grealish to Pogba?

eph12:
I don't know why this is too hard to understand. Pep doesn't exactly do like for like substitutions in some areas, why are we expecting same for our team?

Most of them arguing only watch Manchester United games that's why someone will come here to say it's Bruno or we're done for...

chidexxy007:
Lol

AWB to Dalot compared to Walker to Cancelo?

Shaw to Telles is worse that Zichenko to Mendy

We don't have Goalkeeper right now.

Mahrez to Silva is not much drop in quality compared to Rashford/Martial to James.
Maguire to Bailly = Dias to Ake

Whilst Greenwood is better, he is still young and quite inexperienced. Why is Pep hesitating to play Liam Delap more often?

Telles is better than Mendy...

De Gea = Ederson...Watch City often before arguing or check the stats (Errors leading to goal)...

They're better at LB, I have acknowledged that but we are better at RCB, LCB and LB...

Greenwood is miles ahead of anything City Hass in their CF position...

Why are not you talking Rashford to Martial but rather Rashford/Martial to James? That's 3 players there...

TheLequte:
Pogba that we were buying players to unlock for the AM role

He’s best as a CM. He plays AM too but not like Bruno or KDB or Graelish will. Dude is too slow.

What has Grealdone to be compared to Pogba in any role? Grealish is good with the ball at his feet but he is not a threat to the opposition in most cases...

TheLequte:
It’s as if you read to attack, not to understand.

So you’ll take Rashford and James at RWF over Silva and Foden? And if Rashford is already at LWF, how’s he playing at RWF.

You’re picking pieces to prove a narrative.

If you take a holistic look at the whole picture, your position will be different.

Having said that, City just about edges United in attack. It’s almost the same squad strength. And United also just about edges City in defense. It’s about the same thing. The midfield is where the gulf is. Cos City has quite a lot of players who can give a decent performance there. United don’t. That’s why there’s a gulf there.

Also, I don’t see you having a problem with United being slightly better than City in defense but look at you viciously fighting the same conclusion at the other end.

And also- United just bought Sancho and Varane to close the gap/get a little bit forward in attack and defense.

If you have a logical objection against the methods or want to rate some players differently, you can. You will still arrive at the same conclusions.

You didn't see Foden at LWF abi? Or you just like undermining your players? I'll take Rashford across the front 3 position over Silva...

What I want you to understand is that at worst, we would do with Rashford on the RWF position if Sancho and Greenwood are unavailable...For City, away from Mahrez and to a lesser extent Sterling, no other player in their ranks will out perform Rashford as a RWF...

How do they edge us in attack? I'll take Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Sancho, Cavani, James over Grealish, Sterling, Torres, Silva, Foden and Jesus any day, any time..

chidexxy007:
Square peg, round holes.
Na you go still come here come rant.

Not like it's something they haven't tried before though.

Tried when?

We used to be behind them some 2 seasons ago but not anymore...The gap (if any exist) is negligible...