Are the front 3 starved of service
This topic contains 23 replies, has 14 voices, and was last updated by libanski 3 years, 7 months ago.
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February 3, 2020 at 12:10 pm #1823786
I know we have ago at James and MArtial. Was wondering as many bad games as they’ve had, is our central midfield a huge part of the problem? City have players behind the strikers who can do things with the ball but their front 3 can do things on their own as can Liverpool’s.
Also how much are our full backs to blame? Shaw and the new guy don’t really overlap much or beat players. City’s full backs do this and Liverpool’s are the best at it. Many say that the key to actually beating Liverpool is to nullify their full backs.
Or is it a combination of both or are our front 3 just not good enough?
February 3, 2020 at 12:35 pm #1823794They could definitely do more but yes they are “starved” due to a number of issues:
– no genuine creator in the central midfield roles
– The No.10 slot has been void of any meaningful presence (Lingard has been utter rubbish there from a creativity perspective)
– Our full backs never overlap and create spaceDon’t get me wrong, our forwards are nowhere near Liverpool’s or City’s, but if our forwards went and played in the midfields of the other two they’d have much greater success, whilst the forward lines of Liverpool and City would struggle in our team.
February 3, 2020 at 1:19 pm #1823808@mufc I think you have to take a look at the playing staff available and the form of players at different times of the season.
When we say a front three, it’s normally Rashford, Martial and James. When all three are on form, they’re pretty capable and can create and score a few chances on their own, but most the season they’ve had a poor midfield behind them and have suffered from poor service, this is due to a mixture of injuries, inconsistent young players, and a paper thin squad resulting in players who should be 4th or 5th choice midfielders having to play there too often. Sometimes we’ve taken our chances in these games, the game opens up and we look like convincing winners, but it does paper over our limitations to break teams down.
If this front three gets broken up, or any of them hit a poor patch of form (Rashford start of the season, James recently), the shortcomings in midfield start to become even more obvious and we become a very blunt attacking force (Wolves performance).
After Rashford and James there are basically zero options out wide, Chong has had a couple of games and not looked ready (and doesn’t seem to be committed to staying).
It will be a miracle if we see it, but before the end of the season, I would like to see a midfield three of McTominay, Fernandes and Pogba. With Rashford, Martial and James in front of them.
In the short term, I think we might see the back five return, with Fred, Matic and Fernandes in midfield, and Ighalo and Martial playing up top.
If Dalot can get himself fitter, then I’d also like to see AWB tried out on the right of a back 3. I think Williams and Dalot could offer good service as full backs in this setup.
It’s going to take a bit of luck with injuries and form to get either of these systems to work to a high level, if we get that we have a chance of winning a cup still, but I still don’t see us making top 4, even if we beat Chelsea.
February 3, 2020 at 1:26 pm #1823811They have been starved, but even when Wan-Bissaka gets forward and puts some decent balls in we miss the chances (Burnley) so it’s not really down to everyone else. Everyone is to blame. We just lack quality in the final third and have done for far too long now.
Fernandes looked good on his debut and can hopefully build up some playing relationship with the forwards over the mid-season break.
We lack a world class winger and also a back up striker. Midfield lacking too, but never going to get them all in one window. It’s a case of bringing in players when they are available and going from there.
February 3, 2020 at 1:30 pm #1823813Yes, but they’re also shite.
February 3, 2020 at 1:43 pm #1823817Neither Martial or Rashford are proper centre forwards, Ole has tried both of them there and they have both consistently failed to impress. Thankfully, at least Rashford now seems to have found his niche operating from the left, so it’s time for Martial to take his stinking attitude and ship the hell out of OT and a top replacement brought in, because he will never, ever change his ways.
Alan Shearer said recently that he doubts that Martial even likes being a professional footballer, and it’s hard to disagree.
As for Dan James, he’s just a very limited Championship standard player with pace and a good work ethic, nothing else.February 3, 2020 at 2:16 pm #1823832Apart from Rashford,the other 2 are just not good enough.James is utter rubish @ everything except running fast,to nowhere.Martial doesnt give a fuck about anything or anyone.On top of everything else,we havent got a proper No=9 and,and our midfield is utter shite,but what do you expect from the likes of Mata,Lingz,Andy???
February 3, 2020 at 2:53 pm #1823840A few weeks ago carragher said that our front 3 was as good as Liverpool and City’s but they’re just not consistent enough.
February 3, 2020 at 3:00 pm #1823843Just reaffirms my belief that Carragher’s a knob.
February 3, 2020 at 5:10 pm #1823868Carragher’s a knob.
Any evidence via pics?
February 3, 2020 at 10:37 pm #1823900Here is one starved to fitness
Manchester United new boy Odion Ighalo might not be fully ready for Premier League until MARCH
February 3, 2020 at 10:57 pm #1823903Yes they are starved of service but they don’t help themselves with the lack of movement especially that lazy fucker Martial. But in the end it all comes down to the coaching or lack of it!
February 4, 2020 at 7:50 am #1823926We only went for Ighalo because we missed out on Glenn Murray Zico.
February 4, 2020 at 8:21 am #1823940It’s our coaching too, for too long our midfield and attack have looked clueless and it’s not just Ole, under Jose too. Our defence has looked far better drilled, and that’s not saying much. I know you build from the back but we’ve been too concentrated on building a solid defence that we’ve completely ignored the midfield and attack, and not just in the transfer market.
February 4, 2020 at 9:48 am #1823972Ighalo was in pre-season training with Shanghai, we’re not playing again until 16th Feb so him not being fully match fit until March is not surprising. As he’s a Man U fan I fully expect him to run himself into the ground in any opportunities he gets, adrenaline and enthusiasm will get him through.
February 4, 2020 at 9:58 am #1823978There’s a huge difference between having Matic / Pereira Fred and Lingard/Mata in midfield compared to having Pogba, Fernandes and Fred/McTominay. It will be interesting to see the effect having our best/first choice midfield available has on our forwards.
I actually think that a midfield of Pogba, Fernandes and Fred has the ability to control matches and outplay the opposition, something we have been lacking for years. If these three can start moving the ball around quickly it will make a world of difference to our play.February 4, 2020 at 3:09 pm #1824117Hooked – I agree. But i also think Neville’s point was spot on after the Wolves game, we didn’t approach the game badly. We controlled it really, never looked under much threat. But in those types of games you expect to keep a clean sheet, to control the middle and then it’s up to the front 3 to create a bit of magic and score a couple of goals. That’s what you see the likes of Mane, Salah, Sterling and Aguero doing every week. But our front 3 don’t have that, certainly not on a regular basis. This should Martial’s most productive spell in a United shirt but it’s one of his worst. Dan James is completely burnt out having never played at this level before. Greenwood is still only 18 and the likes of Mata, Pereira and Lingard just haven’t produced anything all season.
So i would argue that actually Matic and Fred have done pretty well in the middle recently. We’ve just had no one, especially with Rashford out, up top who can do anything exciting or take advantage of us controlling a match.
February 4, 2020 at 8:32 pm #1824209Fred and Matic have been reasonably solid defensively of late but are very short on quality going forward. Both have a tendency to take too many touches before opting for the easiest pass, either sideways or backwards. Neither has the quality to pick a difficult pass through the lines and ever opposing team knows that they can drop off instead of risking the front 3 running into space.
It’s not all the midfielders fault, though; when there’s no space behind or between the defenders, the forwards should be able to drop deeper to move the defenders apart from each other. They simply don’t do that either as they rely utterly on counter attacks. Hopefully Bruno can offer a bit more finesse so the opposition is forced to close him down and thus leaving open spaces behind.
February 4, 2020 at 8:40 pm #1824211Bruno in Pereira out should massively improve us.
February 4, 2020 at 11:29 pm #1824266A bag of onions would be an improvement on Pereira, happy! I just hope we can sign the right players to complement Fernandes.
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