₦airaland Forum

elampiro:
You cannot be at same level with a team that has won 29, drew 1 and lost nil.

Manchester City are playing the football of their life. Admit they are better and get over it. Even if you bring Zidane or another Guardiola to manage United, we wont be at City's level. Their success has been coming, now it has arrived. But they can't remain at the level for too long.

The truth be told, there was a time Ferguson failed to invest in this team. Scholes, Giggs, Carrick, Ferdinand, Vidic were calling for replacement, but nothing happened. Ronaldo and Tevez left, who did we bring? Valencia. Then Berbatov lost form two seasons after.

Many will point to our success of 2012/2013. But that season Bilbao made us look ordinary, and we were inferior on the field of play to Chelsea as many times we played them. Even in the match they played nine men against us. City, Tottenham and Everton were better than us. We won most matches by single goal, mostly late winners. During same period, City kept spending and you think those money spent wouldn't have a future impact?

This whole talk of City investing in their team for a long time doesn't cut it, it really has no correlation with where they are now or the quality of football they're playing...
If you like, compare between City and United who have payers in the team that have been there over the past 6-7 years and you'll see it's almost same number or we have more...A host of the present City team was bought by Pep, he knows the brand of football he wants to play and recruits players who can implement his ideas.

codedguy1:
you keep looking for excuses for Mourinho. what is all this nonsense about him missing players that's why he lost games he was supposed to win.

so you are yelling me that if all our players were fit we would be toe to toe with city even with Mourinho s brand of football.

Yes losing players can affect the team but the truth is mourinhos brand of football where he places so much emphasis on defending is what has affected the psychology of the the players coupled with playing players out of position.

And Mourinho should stop talking nonsense. what does he mean by replacing carrick with one player and improving the team with a second signing. so does he mean that the carrick replacement cannot also improve the team?

Am just asking?

I think he's codedly telling us that one of Herrera or Fellaini or probably both will be leaving the club cos it's not just logical to replace Carrick and still add another CM.
On another hand, Pereira might replace Carrick and we get another CM to replace Fellaini...

Well, Mourinho should calm down, he isn't doing himself any favor talking to the media, sit with Ed and others that matter and plan for January/Summer...
All this talk will prolly be misunderstood or misinterpreted by same press and next, it's an implosion...

PietroRico:
a certain milinkovic savic ticks that box pretty well, but then don already dey call 100m for he head

Heard about him but I haven't seen him play...
I just hope clubs won't rip us off after hearing Mou say we should spend like City (He implied it) i. e. 50m for a full back...We might have to spend over the odds to get our targets.

If we're looking to make an impact in the UCL then we must go for Sanchez/Ozil, Mahrez and midfielder who is comfortable defending and attacking...

Baritone:
Dybala is simply a Rich man's Oscar...

Na wah oh! Dybala is not in anyway similar to Oscar, his game is similar to Messi in some aspects...The customary drop of the shoulder, burst of pace and reliance on his left foot...His dribbling isn't as good as Messi's though and he can improve on his shooting...

We need to start planning for another RB that'll rotate with Valencia...I'm not a fan of Young at LB or RB

funlord:
Why is that veratti still dodging? I need to hear his name being linked to united a bit!

Veratti will be difficult as PSG are not a selling club, the only players you get from them now is most likely Di Maria, Moura or Draxler...Veratti is untouchable unless something dramatic happens...

Elsewhere, I'd take Dybala over Griezmann, he has more to his game, ability to beat his marker, goals and he is a set piece specialist...It's comes down to who Barca goes for sha. If Barca opt for Griezzy then Dybala is possible...

CapitalCee:
As as adults we can't understand that life is about ups and down, and not about pull him down syndrome. most complaints and whining here are just baseless fallacies, it's assumed that most people that comment here are adults, if a fifteen year old boy meet me on the road and engage me in a football debate, i will oblige him but may not take him serious as a full fledged adult, unless he showed absolute wisdom. Didnt you guys notice that most fans of other clubs are in glory of some wailing here? It's very annoying honestly. Go deep and search the minds of most of these trolls we see here, they are earnestly praying that mourinho will be sacked, so that we can go back to the era of LVG who signed 13 players for nearly 300m but only martial could make the current team. They know that with mourinho we will definitely struck gold one day, and that we will remain very competitive as long as he is around. When a naked man is offering you clothes, asks questions.

To be frank most of Van Gaal signings were really not bad at the time, it's just that things didn't work out...Depay was a hot prospect every other team wanted, Schneiderlin was among the best DM in the EPL, Teiger came with experience...Why things didn't work out is what I really don't know.

joeace2020:
I can point out countless comments that just got me surprised how people can change overnight. The same people who were full of praises for the manager have suddenly gone all anti-mourinho. We may have spent alot on players but since we aren't yet reaching our targets, should the club not provide any fund for more players if the manager needs? Should they sack him because with what he has spent which is below what city has spent we are not in the place we are in the table accordingly? People can criticize and say all that want but if the obvious weaknesses in this team has been fixed and we still play dreadful football, it is then i will give up completely on Mourinho and declare him finished. Not when there are still gaping holes, need for suitable quality players for such places that has cost us fortunes and will cost more that i will be calling for a sack. Y'all can focus on the money but every manager identifies players based on the state of their team and finacial and marketability reasons for their clubs. United has spent on players with those considerations and if we need to spend more to have a galactico worthy of scaring teams to a whimper i am all for it.

Of course the club should provide him more funds but one thing is certain, he'll get criticized if the team isn't doing well just as he gets the praise when we win...It's a no brainer, even in our respective fields of life, we get criticized by our bosses when things aren't going according to plan not withstanding how excellent we have been previously, it's part of the job.

joeace2020:
Thank you. I hope they weed out the talk of all the naysayers taking sides with rival fans to spread doom and gloom all over the club and help the manager get what he wants. Mourinho may not be as inspiring or as attack minded in philosophy as Fergie or Pep but he has taken us from near death and possible oblivion to the consciousness of people and the press again. Even our rival fans point to our previous bad seasons to ridicule us rather than looking at how poor they thought we'd remain like the Arsenal's and Liverpool's of this world.

The argument here was that Mou ought not to blame lack of spending or under spending for where we find ourself now, I have always argued that with the resources available to Mou, we should be a lot more closer to City...And nobody is a naysayer here, granted some criticism has been over the top but most of it is based on hard facts...We can all share the same view but as adults, it's expected we respect each others opinion...

PietroRico:
this simpleton for example run go create account.. . to troll with a term he cannot even spell and very likely does not understand.

Oga PietroRico you dey vex oh!!! Take it easy abeg.

diggz:
You self see am abi? Raumdeuter is the Picasso of amala turning.

raumdeuter:
Morata is delivering and keeping pace with other strikers, why can't hidden hazard keep pace with Sterling and co

So it doesn't matter if other strikers score let's say 5 goals, as long as Morata scores 3/4/5, he's keeping pace...What stops Morata from scoring like Sterling and Salah? Okay, I get they're not strikers so they can as well score 30 while Morata scores 10 as long as other strikers are posing similar stats...This logic doesn't add up.

odizeey:
I no like online brawls, na waste of time. Na here cowards like una dey get mouth.

Abeg make una chill, we all love United and want the best for the team...

Neymar1095:
Out of the top 6 man u has the weakest attack.

Lukaku, Martial, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Ibra (Though he's not fit 100%), Rashford, Lingard...

Kane, Lamela, Son, Llorente, Alli, Erikson

Firmino, Coutinho, Mane, Salah (Prior to this season, he wasn't really highly rated by most folks here), Solanke, Inngs, Sturidge

Giroud, Lacazette, Sanchez, Ozil, Iwobi, Walcot.

Aguero, Jesus, Sane, Sterling, B. Silva

Morata, Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Batsuayi...

Have I missed any? Looking at the above, do we really have the worst attack? Put into consideration the quality of the players listed and not their present form cos form is subject to many factors...

"Manchester City buy full-backs for the price of strikers," Mourinho said. When it was pointed out that United have spent heavily during his Old Trafford tenure, Mourinho continued: "OK, [but] it is not enough."

Hehehe...

joeace2020:
Really? Martial, Rashford, Mikitaryan and Lingard can comfortably do a job on the left wing. Let's keep pushing players to parts of the pitch that aren't theirs and saying they can do a comfortable job there. On the transfer budget thing, i first saw it in a MEN article were paddy Crerand was quoted as saying Mourinho was given a £200 million budget for his 1st year and £150 for the remaining two years. I have checked our expenditures for 1st and 2nd season and it seems to follow. How else would we explain the reluctance to pay Perisic's fee while persisting with the player for so long as if there weren't other options out there?

Your combined 11 and bench of City and United?
Mou has a 3 year contract and 6 transfer windows, he used more than 300m already thus if we're going by what Paddy quoted Mou won't be spending again but we both know it's not true, Mou will likely spend in January and come next summer, we'll set out for another heavy outlay on players...The club is really trying in terms of funding for player purchases and overhead cost.

BlueAngel444:
I laugh in french, Lemar isn't as good as Martial according to you yet he has more hope of making NT first team than Martial.

Well done sir

Well, we've seen great players overtime not get a Look in as far as NT is concerned...Coaches preference comes to play. Remember France with Domenesch.

joeace2020:
Thank God you brought this up. How would Mourinho release players when he's been given a limited budget in an inflated market and he can only fix a few areas of the pitch with it. A manager cannot let go of players if he won't be getting replacements. Mourinho is probably showing this frustration because obviously Ed isn't working along his agenda. You can't sell out up to 6 players for small sums for that matter amd expect to get in 3 or 4 and challenge for a season. Look at City's bench. Good enough to walk into our first team. Is it Gundogan or Bernado Silva or Aguero at times that won't make this our avergage team?

I said you can argue for or against and I was not mincing words, now, let's see your combined City-United 11 and the players you have on the bench, please oblige me...
Back to the crux of the matter, who said our funds for transfers were pegged at 150m or how are we operating on a limited budget...A coach that splashes 75m plus add-ons on one player doesn't sound like one operating on a limited budget, for limited budget, check Pochettino at Spurs...And it's well documented that Mou said he wanted 3-4 players and on several occasions he admitted that he'd be very okay with Ed getting 3 of his targets and the 4th was gonna be the icing on the cake so where you're getting your lines hinged on limited budget is something we'd love to have here...We got 3 his targets and the 4th was outrageously overpriced for his age and talent. You can't be complaining that Monaco fleeced us for the amount quoted for Martial whose best years are ahead of him and on another hand criticizing the club for not paying over the odds for a 29/30yrs old winger whose is best operating from the left where you have Martial and other who can comfortably do a job there, Rashford, Young, Mkhitaryan, Lingard etc

joeace2020:
I am not being overly aggressive. It's just sad that you want to make a case for Martial over Mbappe when the evidence points to the fact Martial was infact an unknown buy to Many United fans as well as the English press. In fact, Martial was so unknown and underrated a song was made for him.. Incase you need the lyrics.Here it is

Tony Martial came from France,

English press said he had no chance,

50 million down the drain,

As Tony martial scores again!

Na Na Na…

You can argue this if you want but Martial was money spent on an unknown signing. That you even use him playing first team in a squad that got to the quaters of the UCL says all about how you rate players. As for the Balon d'or clause, no dispute the club valued his talent enough to include that but would you compare his value and popularity in france to what Mpabbe was? Why people questioned Martial's talent, no one questioned Mbappe because it was clear to see this was a true, consistent talent. Why do i even think all those clauses were Monaco's way of stripping us of every cash they could get knowing we were more money than sense under LVG

How on earth am I making a case for Martial against Mbappe, I only responded to a poster who claimed Martial was unknown and pointed out that he was a Key player for a relatively underrated Monaco team that knocked out Arsenal and went toe-to-toe with Juventus only narrowly losing out in the quarters...Compare that team to that of Mbappe and you'll agree they over achieved by reaching the UCL q/finals...If you didn't notice him, it doesn't mean he was unknown...No way is a club of Man Utd caliber going to spend 50m+ for an unknown...

odizeey:
bros, he just want to justify his claim that martial is not up to standard.

Lol then he failed cos he was definitely highly rated...And talking about Mbappe, for all his brilliance, the current state of the market was a major determinant in the price PSG ended up paying, a price many big teams frowned at...
A pointer? Lemar was priced at about 90m when he isn't as good as Martial.

joeace2020:
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist. Its one thing to spend and another to spend on your set targets. I may not have seen Mourinho's list but i can tell you listening to him say things like "There's a different price for big clubs, big clubs based on their history and there's a different price for other clubs" it was obvious the Man is growing frustrated with the fact he probably didn't get the actual players he set out for in the market. If United had gone for Mendy or Walker or Jesus, Sane, i am sure they would have cost us nothing less than 50 mil each for defenders and more than 80 for attackers. City can pay those or even less because they don't have our history but we have to realize this is the realities of the market so we pay what we have to pay for the best players the manager wants. We Penny pinch and end up paying the amount we could have bought those guys for actual average players. Rival fans can call us any name they want but if we were top of the league with City's point gap todayand have spent a true fortune on quality players to get there then i honestly don't care. But trying to be frugal because of Moyes and LVG and keeping to 3-4 players per window with a budget not above £150 per window, we can only get what we have now. Few mid-quality players bought by Mourinho and not enough to replace or upgrade if they don't deliver

Mou only complained about not getting Perisic and for me, that's not enough for us not to be close to City...Darmian, Blind, Herrera and all the other average players are still here because the manager wants them...When Pep released Sagna, Clichy, Kolarov and Zabaleta, he hadn't gotten their replacements (A big mistake) thus it affected the price clubs quoted for players they were after. Mou should work with Ed to release or sanction their sales if he thinks they aren't good enough...

joeace2020:
Now this is one is a lie. Can you in all honesty compare Martial and Mbappe's breakthrough season? Can you? This is a player that was linked to all the top clubs in the world almost every week for months and now you want to compare with Martial who everyone was questioning the transfer and the sum involved for a relatively unknown player. Baba abeg talk true this one nor follow abeg.

Please tell me what is a lie? That Martial wasn't a first team player?
Someone opined (he wasn't sure) Martial only played the playoffs and I only informed him that Martial was part of the team that reached the Quarter finals losing to Juventus, also pointing out that he was highly rated and that was why we accepted the inclusion of all those Balon d'or clauses in his contract...Please disprove the points highlighted and stop being overly aggressive...

joeace2020:
Has Arsenal, Liverpool not invested in their squad over several years.. tell me what that has gotten them. In fact the Arsenal case is quite obvious and is exactly what investing quality players over squad players can do for you. Was it not when Ozil and Sanchez came in they started winning something again. Saying investment line is ridiculous is naivety of the highest order. We've bought too many average joes since Ferguson. Only with Mourinho have we been getting some players with signs of quality in them. What you are failing to get from my argument because of your Mourinho hatred is that we have spent well but spent on average players. You can only motivate average players the best as you can, they'll still be average. Whether you agree or not, the manager deals with the players everyday and from experience can tell he doesn't have a good enough squad. He has cried out now and the board better listens. Y'all can keep calling him chequebook and whatever narratives makes you exonerate our average squad and put all the blame on Mourinho.

Whose fault that we invested in average players? The coaches ask for players and the club set about purchasing them...Mourinho in his time here has gotten just about all the players he asked for bar Perisic according to available information so what exactly is the fuss about lack of investment? He got Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Bailly, Lukaku, Lindelof, Matic, Ibra (On a free but very high wages)...Pray tell, how many coaches are opportuned to get all of such quality in barely 3 windows? That's more than 300m worth of talent and you want us to sit back and go with his narrative that it's because we're not spending enough? Or just so we're not tagged naive or Mou haters? Hell no, we have spent hugely and that's not taking into context the huge outlay on transfer during the Van Gaal and Moyes Era...
And to correct an impression, I think all top coaches spend heavily thus I'm not one of those who refer to Mou as a cheque book manager but in this instance after spending over 300m on players, your least excuse should be investment related...
The only thing City has over us is a better bench (And you can quite comfortably argue for or against this) and a coach who is more expressive in his approach.

elampiro:
I saw Mbappe destroying fullbacks in Champions League matches. Who knew Iheanacho, Walcot and Martial? Martial only played in UCL play off (I think).

Martial was a first team player for Monaco when they destroyed Arsenal and unluckily lost out to Juventus he was already well known and highly rated...If Martial had remained in Monaco for another season, he'd have been quite easily a 100m player...

What is it I'm reading here, what exactly is lack of investment after spending so much over the past couple of seasons or do you not know that investment should go hand in hand with on and off the pitch improvement? Granted we're doing very well off the pitch but on the pitch, the quality of our football is poor and we've not posed the trophies that should match our huge outlays on transfers...Must it be PSG-level investment for us to accept we have been spending heavily on transfers?
One begins to wonder what would have been the case if we had Mou in the dugout in those years where the Glazers were tight fisted, I am talking about the years when fans got disillusioned and started a protest...Fergie managed to keep us winning and challenging for titles with little investment but look what we have now, a coach still complaining after spending so much on players... This investment line is just about the most ridiculous excuse for our underperformance yet...

Oasis007:
He's a great Addition to their Team though!

No doubt about that, an improvement to what they already have...

Oasis007:


If Kante ain't a Steel, then who else is a Steel my Brother?! And based on your description..... he's even an upgrade Version of Kante.

Kante is 50% defense and 50% attack, Keita is like 30% defense and 70% attack, he is by no means a DM...He'll function better paired with a proper DM...

Oasis007:
Bro..... Kaita is a Steel in the Midfield. He's not all about Power, he gets brain coz he's creative and also pacy.

Liverpool Midfield is getting more stronger. Lallana, Wijnaldum, Can, Henderson, Milner, Coutinho, Chamberlain, Kaita.... we really need to spend o!

Keita is no steel, he is more renowned for his forward forays, he's more like the attacking version of Kante...Liverpool still need a proper 4, a 2, depending on Clyne's fitness and another CB to partner VVD, you can add a goalkeeper if you wish...

codedguy1:
we don take this thing tire for here.

By the time Mourinho exhibits this type of strategy again next season, then we go come know say na area one chance we don enter.
How Mourinho will change to an attacking strategy is what I would like to see.

I hope he gets all the players he wants this next 2windows so there would be no excuse of "must we win the league this season" next season.

To think some of folks have used the excuse of Mou not getting Perisic at one stage or another is funny, same Perisic that is better on the left where we have Martial and Rashford...Mou might not have as strong a bench as City but we shouldn't be 14 pts behind at this stage with the quality within our ranks.