17 Dec 2018 20:34:54
Poch seems to be a lot of people's 1st choice to succeed jose.
Its hard to argue against his credentials and although he has yet to win anything he has done a good job at Southampton and spurs.
He has spurs competing with the best and playing good football. He has also developed a couple of good young players that have come through their academy.
But he has spurs close he has a very good squad that he has built and got them all bar a couple to sign long term deals and signed one himself.
If he takes over united it will take a couple of seasons and 300m to get us to where spurs are now. To be honest he would need a gael force wind behind him to be there any quicker than 2 years.
I think it will be the same for any manager that comes in.
There is no quick fix.
On the face of it we have a lot of players that have great potential. Dalot shaw bailly lindelof. Fred jessie pogba martial rash lukaku sanchez i think tuanzabe can also fall into that category. Chong gomes greenwood may also develop under a new coach.
But ddg and sanchez aside they are guite young.
We don't have real quality behind them.
A lot of those above are prone to injury and are pretty inexperienced . No leaders to bring more out of their potential.
Young valencia herrera darmian fellaini jones rojo periera mctom darmian are just not up to it. Mata and matic smalling are reliable squad players imo and have good experience.
Most of those players have been playing 20 plus games a season for the last 4 years. They are certainly not all poor players but they are not and have not done enough to be part of our squad. imo they all need to be sold for as much as we can and help them get good options.
A squad of dalot shaw smalling tuanzabe lindelof bailly fred pogba jessie sanchez martial mata rash lukaku rash needs to be complimented with a few proven top class consistent experienced pros. With the character to win perform and to bring the best out of their younger talented team mates. To be big enough and respected enough to pull the young guys back into line and keep them focused when they step over the line.
The most important thing for any new coach is to be aligned with the board on his style of play and to be aligned with them on player recruitment.
The players must suit his style whatever that is.
We have been hammering square pegs into round holes for years.
Of all the pl a y we s I've mentiond above with potential to do much better they need to fith the coaches style too. So they will have to adapt.
I think its a huge challenge. Maybe even bigger than the one jose took over.
Im really looking forward to seeing who it is and how he goes about the job.


1.) 17 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 21:44:08
Good post ken. Whilst I do agree that this squad is weak in some areas, I do feel that it has quality in other areas. If you give rashford, martial, Lukaku, pogba, mata, Sanchez, Lingard to any other top 6 manager and you will see a much better level of performance and output than we are seeing from these players under Jose. Whilst it’s not a quick fix, I think Poch would have this squad playing far better football and have us in the mix for top 4. Yes we do need to spend heavily again on full backs, cb, cm, rw and perhaps striker. But I do think with a proper coaching and hard work on the identity and attacking patterns, we will see some of these players play close to their potential than we are seeing right now.

I had a discussion with my mate whose a Chelsea fan and he said something very interesting today. I’ve been feeling extremely frustrated at certain players such as pogba, Lukaku sanchez and in all honesty would not blink twice if they were shown the door. He told me that the issue here is Jose and that we should not give up too easily on the likes of pogba. In jose’s Final season at Chelsea, he said the Chelsea fans turned on the three rats (hazard, Costa and fabregas) as a result of Jose’s scapegoating and blaming of them. But the following season these players stepped up and won the league. What he’s trying to say is pogba, Lukaku sanchez are not terrible players and we will most likely have a tinge of regret if we see them perform for other sides. He says Jose is the issue and once he is gone and the players are given confidence and positive tactics, we will start seeing some of these players hitting the sort of form we expect from them. I tend to agree with this.

Someone like Poch will get a better tune out of these players. We will see a style of play and a more positive mentality surrounding the club. We will see progression and a team which embodies the manager. Yes it will take time to challenge but at least we would be doing it in the right way with someone who footballing ideology is in keeping with the traditions of the united way.


2.) 17 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 22:44:18
We saw the huge difference between a team playing with confidence on Sunday.
Klopp hammers his teams into believing they are great, did the same at Dortmund, and they punch way above their weight.
It all inevitably goes south someday, let’s hope it’s quick.

And then you have us playing with no confidence whatsoever.

Simply ok talent I would argue our squad is above Liverpool’s, but they play with the believe of being great and our team is being told it’s not good enough and needs replacing.

Any manager who instills some kind of confidence into this bunch will be back in the top 4 easily and can then build from there.


3.) 17 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 23:24:31
Ken - For me we have the makings of a very exciting squad but we must move away from the likes of Fellaini, Smalling, Matic and Lukaku who only play because of their physical attributes and not their footballing ability.

In my opinion our team can be transformed with only two or three quality additions. We need a commanding and experienced CB that is comfortable playing from the left. This would be my priority for now.

We desperately need a RW, somebody that has pace, can dribble and beat a man, can cross the ball and also has an eye for goal.

We also need a CM that can compliment Pogba. Someone that passes the ball effectively and efficiently, somebody that can read the game, is positionally disciplined and is mobile enough to press and win the ball back.

In my opinion we need to show patience and trust in the development of Martial and Rashford. If fit they should play every game now. We won't know just how good they can become without a consistent run of games.
Lingard needs a consistent run of games as a No 10 instead of being shunted out on the right all the time so we can properly judge at what level he can operate. Add a quality right winger/ forward to those three and we have a fluid, dynamic and exciting albeit inexperienced forward line.

Shaw and Dalot need a run of games at full back so we can determine just how capable they are. Young and Valencia have been good servants but they are both nearing the end of their careers and the younger guys should be given a chance to prove themselves now. If we add a commanding, experienced CB to play on the left, someone capable of organising the defence and providing a calming influence whilst supplementing the development of both Bailly and Lindelof we'd have the makings of a decent back 4.

4-2-3-1

De Gea
Dalot
Bailly or Lindelof
?
Shaw
Pogba
?
Martial
Lingard
?
Rashford

With three quality additions in those positions I think we'd have an exciting team. It might not be capable of challenging straight away but with a run of consistent games with a brave and expansive manager I think it could develop into a very good team.
Now is the time to give theses young players a chance. We are now so far behind we have absolutely nothing to lose.


4.) 17 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 23:32:56
Above Liverpool's in talent? What have you been smoking fella.


5.) 18 Dec 2018
18 Dec 2018 09:42:28
Pooch seemed to be on everyone's wish list. His team's play attractive, attacking football. Ok. Would he want to come? Would Levi let him? No. Look elsewhere.


6.) 18 Dec 2018
18 Dec 2018 12:13:25
What a great thread, I agree with pretty much all the points being raised. We need some quality additions, but a different Manager would get far more out of our current squad.

There seems to be a malaise around the place, you look at Liverpool and City and they play with a smile, they seem happy, so do Spurs, and so do Arsenal this year. Our Manager moping about, scowling and growling must sleep through and impact the general culture.