How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Manager?

This topic contains 22 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by Zico Zico 2 years, 1 month ago.

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 23 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #2051571
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    We need to start discussing who the manager should be. Who are the main candidates? Why should we go for them? Why shouldn’t we go for them?

    Pochettino – Great manager, did very well with Spurs, has struggled with the egos in the changing room at PSG, should win the Ligue 1 at a canter, his first major trophy as a coach which is the bare minimum for a PSG coach at the moment, won nothing with Spurs though. If he doesn’t win the CL this year with PSG then he’ll be considered a failure.
    Ten Hag – Has converted what is an always potentially good club in Ajax into a club capable of competing on both domestic and European fronts. They are defenisvely one of the best sides in Europe as well as scoring a shitload of goals. Plays an attractive style of football. Again, has won a lot in Holland with Ajax which is the bare minimum you’d expect, not won anything in Europe but has turned heads.
    Rangnick – Certainly has more vision and expectation than some of our previous coaches but at his age you can’t help but think that he should bring that expectation and vision upstairs and let someone younger and with a longer shelf-life take the role of coach. Has made a few media gaffes but can’t help thinking that the club hasn’t helped him there. There are shoots of recovery but can’t help thinking the club need to make a decision on his future and fast as it’s hamstringing his efforts to reinforce the squad when the managerial situation is so fluid.
    Simeone – a great coach who inspires his players but his style of play is dour to say the least. Very defensive minded, happy to concede possession and let teams wear themselves down before pouncing on the counter or at set pieces. Very cynical style of play also.
    Any other serious contenders? Simone Inzaghi maybe? Marco Rose? Christophe Galtier?

    #2051584

    happyhurling
    Participant
    • :

    Well there’s clearly a dearth of top managers around isn’t there? Apart from the obvious ones who won’t be available to us. I think what’s more pressing is our view of the managers role and duration. We’ve been pretty naive in thinking Moyes was going to be there for 7 years, even LVG to a lesser extent was hired to put his philosophy onto the club longer term and when that failed we tried a quick fix in Jose. But i think we might need to change our idea of the manager and realise that he needs to be replaced every 3 years with someone younger and better, unless they’re doing an incredible job like Pep or Klopp. So the manager is defined by the structure of the club from the top down. Basically, as the manager you turn up and coach the players to winning every week playing our style of football using the players we’re signing. If you don’t win a trophy every season you’re gone.
    Is that the next stage of evolution at the club…?

    #2051594
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    That’s a very valid point and I think that was the primary aim in appointing RR. He and Murtough have to clearly decide and implement a style of play for the club to adapt to and then appoint a manager capable of playing that style of football. I think that’s the problem Cholo is having at Atletico Madrid, he plays and coaches a particular style of play but with the arrival of Joao Felix and a few others it’s clear that the club want a more attractive style of play that he really isn’t capable of delivering. It’s why I feel he’ll leave Atletico sooner rather than later. It’s clear that his players love him and respect him but I’m not sure that they can deliver what he wants any longer.

    #2051617

    jm1502
    Participant
    • :

    We had top coaches in Van Gaal and Mourinho (ok, maybe past their best but still proven) and you could say Moyes has done well other than with us. What does that tell you? It’s recruitment and ours has been fucking appalling. Get that right and make sure you recruit players with moral fibre and character as well as ability, and any good coach will be able to ‘manage’ them.

    #2051623
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    Worse again jm, you could argue that plenty of our players had moral fibre and character before they signed for us but were corrupted when they got here. There’s a sense of entitlement here that has rotted everything to the core. Fergie was able to overcome it by having the balls to sell players if they felt they had ‘made it’ and just cruised along thinking they were bigger than the club, even if we made a loss. But now we’re a business we can’t countenance that, we can’t let assets go for a loss under any circumstances. Better to make a loss and have a squad that is proud and appreciative of where they are, than a bunch of no-good assholes like we currently have.

    #2051637

    happyhurling
    Participant
    • :

    It’s just not that easy is it? I’m pretty sure Maguire was identified for the right reasons. Leadership, good with the ball at his feet, good in the air and players clearly respect him. Jadon Sancho looked to be everything we needed on that right wing to break down defences that sat back.
    Varane was a clear and obvious upgrade on Lindelof.
    Ronaldo was a more consistent goal scorer than Martial.

    But, it just doesn’t fuckin work out that way!

    #2051644
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    It should also be pointed out that Moyes was a train wreck in a few clubs before he rediscovered his mojo at West Ham. Sometimes the clubs just fits, our problem at the moment is we’re trying to put a five fingered glove on an octopus.
    Maguire though, was he leader in that defence? Or was it Wes Morgan?

    #2051645

    The problem is that, no matter which manager comes in, the ‘vibe’ of th club remains the same:

    – The main social spine of the team remains there: the likes of Lingard, Pogba, Rashford, etc., who all have football as their 2nd priority, are the ones who seem to be the spine whilst what you’d call our 2nd line (players like Maguire, Shaw, De Gea, Mata, Martial, etc.) all have the mental strength of a traffic cone.

    – The coaches have not been replaced as managers have come and gone: how Phelan and many of the other coaches remained so long is beyond me… at least we got rid of Carrick and McKenna and maybe this can be a sign that we can finally strip the spine of the coaching staff out and get superior coaches from the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, etc.

    – The scouting has not changed significantly since the days of Fergie despite it utterly failing year in year out. The only time we looked to have some kind of good recruitment plan was when Butt was in charge of youth development and we were looking to sign good, young players from around Europe and integrate them to the youth teams, but other than that it’s been a mess.

    In reality, the club is a shambles from top to bottom and we really need to strip it down to the bone and start afresh… but we all know the Glazers wouldn’e fund that so I actually have absolutely no hope already for the next manager.

    #2051655

    jm1502
    Participant
    • :

    The scouting was pretty shit under Fergie as well Sympathy. Remember Bellion, Obertan, Djemba x 2, Powell, Kleberson, Bebé, Tosic, Diouf, Buttner, Prunier and a host of others mate? In fact the list is fucking endless. Yes, there were successes, but they were hardly gems that the scouts dug out, they were guys everyone was chasing.

    #2051662
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    @jm, scouting is haphazard at best mate, look at other clubs around Europe, how many young players do they get from abroad, most talent is local or national with very few international youngsters. Look at Barca? Three years ago we would have said their scouts were doing an excellent job, now they’re completely in the shit, scouting was a shambles, overpaying mediocre players, same as us, reliant on a few ageing stars to keep it all together and when Messi left it all collapsed like a house of cards. Unfortunately we haven’t almost gone bankrupt so our board aren’t seeing things with the clarity Barca’s were forced to.
    Could our scouting dept do better, absolutely, don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending them, serious work to be done but scouting isn’t exactly the science that many seem to think it is.

    #2051693

    homerjay540
    Participant
    • :

    I’d stay away from Simeone. He’s a winner but I just don’t like his style of play
    I like ten Hag. Obviously the Dutch league isn’t very competitive but they seem to do very well in Europe lately too

    Somebody here keeps mentioning Graham Potter. He’s done an amazing job at Brighton playing positive football on a shoestring budget. The one question mark over him would be dealing with player egos and I think key would be RR acting as Director of Football. It would be up to him to clear the decks of the biggest egos – (including CR7 I’m afraid) and let the players know that even if they get the manager sacked they still need to answer to him (RR)

    #2051699

    happyhurling
    Participant
    • :

    Good point about scouting being hit and miss. City and Liverpool have it sussed now but let’s not forget the amount of shite City signed, Mangala and Mendy and a huge amount of shite before that. Pep was also very lucky in that he inherited some world class players too. Klopp has got away with it largely due to the brilliance or Salah i think. He’s still buying the likes of Minamino, Tsimikas, Phillips – there was Nathaniel Clyne, Shakiri. He doesn’t always get it right.
    The one thing they do have is that they’ve been there for 5 or 6 seasons so they’ve developed a working strategy. We just don’t allow managers to that at United.

    #2051720

    jm1502
    Participant
    • :

    Yep, not disputing other clubs’ scouts. But I’m not interested in other clubs, I just want the scouts that work for United to come up with the goods occasionally ffs.

    #2051736

    @jm1502 – that’s fair enough, and I guess all clubs have their fair share of duds… but I think our scouting was MUCH better back then than it is now.

    Ignoring the likes of Vidic and Evra, which were superb signings in hindsight, even lower-level transfers like Nani, Carrick, Park, Van Der Sar, Valencia, Hernandez, etc. would all be considered epic signings compared to the dross we’ve had since 2014. I’d go as far as to say that only Fernandes was an actual “good” signing for us since 2014 – that’s shameful!

    #2051912
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    We’ve been better scouting young players than first team players. I mean regardless of how good we thought Maguire was, he still wasn’t worth what we paid, regardless of Fergie’s so called Utd tax.
    I think Ten Hag is probably doing at Ajax what Fergie did at Aberdeen. He’s creating a dominant team. It was easier to win a European Cup in those days too, it’s designed to undermine smaller teams these days so I wouldn’t necessarily hold it against him that he hasn’t won a European Cup in this era.

    #2052861

    Scholsey
    Participant
    • :

    Would you take Brendan Rodgers off the short list?

    #2052899
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    There’s been no mention of him this time around. It’s amazing how reliant they were on Vardy for goals, and how influential Fofana was as well. It’ll be Ten Hag or Poch I think, maybe Inzaghi but that’s it I’d say.

    #2055515
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    Having watched PSG against Real last I’d be far more positive than I was previously. They absolutely smothered Real. Their midfield just pushed them back, squeezed the middle, stopped them playing their game. Their full backs bombed up the line all night pushing Mendy and Carvajal back. It was a high energy lesson in how to control a game, and the fuckers ran and ran for 90 mins. It was impressive I have to say. I’m not sure if Real even had one shot on target.

    #2055567

    moral
    Participant
    • :

    Killy, the only thing is its a very limited Real team now – Kroos can barely walk and modric looks a very tired soul. Casemiro is also distinctly average.
    Truth is PSG have better players all over the park with Real having 6 or 7 over the age of 30.
    Bigger tests await…..

    #2055644
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
    • :

    I know but you can only play what’s put in front of you and PSG absolutely dominated from start to finish.

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 23 total)

You must be logged in to reply this topic.