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Fierce_LiNk

Football Season 2022/23

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16 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

I'm only taking the piss, don't worry. :laughing:

We're having a meltdown on the RedCafé forums at the moment. It's an utter mess. Wasted another transfer window.

Yuck, now there's a corner of the Internet I hope I never end up in. :D 

16 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

I've gone back and forth on the Ronaldo one. When he came in, it was a decent window with the Varane and Sancho signings alongside him, so I can't blame him for thinking that we were going to be stepping things up.

Ronaldo thought he was returning like the prodigal son to cement his place in Man U folklore and fire you from second back to the top of the tree.

Even his powers have limits! 

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Looks as though United have a broad agreement in place for Rabiot and expecting to launch an improved bid for Arnautovic. Definitely seem to be panic buying right now. If these were actual targets why wait until now to make them?

Edited by Emerald Emblem

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20 minutes ago, Emerald Emblem said:

Looks as though United have a broad agreement in place for Rabiot and expecting to launch an improved bid for Arnautovic. Definitely seem to be panic buying right now. If these were actual targets why wait until now to make them?

It's been nearly a decade and they're still giving off the same energy they were when Moyes took over, which is barmy to me. 

Remember when they spent a window targeting every world class midfielder under the sun, missed out on even challenging for players like Thiago because they were too busy twiddling their thumbs, and ended up with Fellaini? It's exactly that all over again! 

Also @Fierce_LiNk I totally agree. I feel like Ronaldo has gone through what Mourinho went through with United where he was coming in with an idea of changes needing to be made, not necessarily underestimating the undertaking to do so, but more realising as time went on that the abyss staring back was much, much, much deeper than they had first anticipated. 

Edited by Julius

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17 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Yuck, now there's a corner of the Internet I hope I never end up in. :D 

Ronaldo thought he was returning like the prodigal son to cement his place in Man U folklore and fire you from second back to the top of the tree.

Even his powers have limits! 

As far as die-hard forums go, it's pretty balanced. You get a few idiots who take things too far, but the majority are quite sensible and think things through. I'd imagine most of the big football forums would be similar. 

To be fair to Ronaldo, he scored 18 league goals in one of the worst United teams that I can remember. Not quite sure how managed that. He did his part and the best he could do. Prime Messi would've struggled in that team too, for sure.

11 minutes ago, Emerald Emblem said:

Looks as though United have a broad agreement in place for Rabiot and expecting to launch an improved bid for Arnautovic. Definitely seem to be panic buying right now. If these were actual targets why wait until now to make them?

The Rabiot signing isn't too bad if he's one of many. If he's 'it', then it's a poor signing. Really, he should be one of about 8 or more.

The Arnautovic one is just craaaaap. We need to steer well away from that one. Club needs to sort itself out instead of looking at him.

6 minutes ago, Julius said:

It's been nearly a decade and they're still giving off the same energy they were when Moyes took over, which is barmy to me. 

Remember when they spent a window targeting every world class midfielder under the sun, missed out on even challenging for players like Thiago because they were too busy twiddling their thumbs, and ended up with Fellaini? It's exactly that all over again! 

United did challenge for Thiago and Fabregas in that window. Thiago was reportedly coming to us, before Guardiola went to Bayern and declared that the only player he wanted was Thiago. Think he was one of the only players they signed that window. Once Guardiola came in for him, due to the Barcelona link, nobody else stood a chance. We also had a deal for Kroos lined up, which Sir Alex himself organised before he left, which reportedly Moyes decided to move away from. Moyes really set us back with some of the decisions he made during the time he was there.

The de Jong deal is just...very, very messy. We've had the bid actually accepted by Barcelona, but there's some really messed up shit going on at Barcelona with the money they owe de Jong, who isn't budging or leaving without what he's owed (17million, which is a significant sum of money). We've really chosen a bad Summer to get involved with Barcelona as they're in a mess, but a different sort of mess compared to us.

I don't blame United for going after de Jong, because Barcelona accepted the deal. But, we really should have been looking at additional midfielders anyway. Neves is one I'd love, Tielemans is available, so there are options out there. Tbh, we need about 3 or 4 new faces in that midfield.

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Rabiot sounds like a Pokémon. I can just imagine him bombing down the wing, screaming his own name.

  • Haha 2

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Could potentially be a high scoring weekend, with some great games lined up.

 

Saturday

Aston Villa vs. Everton

Arsenal vs. Leicester City

Brighton & Hove Albion vs. Newcastle United

Manchester City vs. AFC Bournemouth

Southampton vs. Leeds United

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Fulham

Brentford vs. Manchester United

 

Sunday

Nottingham Forest vs. West Ham United

Chelsea vs. Tottenham Hotspur

 

Monday

Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace

 

I'm expecting us to get a win against Brentford. Think we'll put in a better shift this week and win 0-2.

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MFW I check the scores and Brentford just put four past Man Utd.
omg-chris-pratt.gif

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And here comes the public apology from a player, this time it's David De Gea. Credit for coming out on TV and apologizing for his own mistake for the first goal. Brentford worked their socks off and even had the quality to hurt United but they certainly didn't help themselves. Let's be real, what top players want to join Manchester United right now after these first few games? I think they have to try and go the Arsenal route and rebuild with youth

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That performance....fucking hell. The first half was brutal. De Gea was a -1/10, an absolute liability. I have no idea what he was doing for the first goal and he was pure thick as shit for the second. Really, really idiotic things to do. As a team, we completely gave up after the first goal.

Awful performance. Terrible way to follow up the loss at Brighton with an even worse performance. Just...shit. Only redeeming quality was Malacia looked quite handy when he came on in the second half.

Need to bring in new players urgently. We're giving the same players chance after chance and with nothing to show for it. Luke Shaw is one example. We've accepted shit for far too long.

Brentford were unlucky not to score more. They pissed all over us. Well done to them, but fuck our lot.

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At least half the team should have been gutted and replaced by the new manager. I'm still shocked we've bought so few. Thought it was supposed to be a rebuild but only 3 new signings ?

Is it the bloody Glazers not oroviding the money, Ten Hag not going for anyone or is Man Utd just no longer attractive to players to join anymore?

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3 hours ago, Mokong said:

At least half the team should have been gutted and replaced by the new manager. I'm still shocked we've bought so few. Thought it was supposed to be a rebuild but only 3 new signings ?

Is it the bloody Glazers not oroviding the money, Ten Hag not going for anyone or is Man Utd just no longer attractive to players to join anymore?

The transfer window has been all over the place. Whilst I see why we've gone for the signings that we've had, it's madness how we've not got in more players for that central midfield position, and also up front. I think it's a case of the club giving too many chances to the same players, hoping that a new manager will come in and improve them. The truth is that there are too many players in the squad with limited footballing ability, many who would struggle to get into other Premier League sides. We've become a club who either stop, hinder, or slow down players' development. I look at someone like Sancho, who was a very exciting prospect in the Bundesliga, but hasn't got going at United. Shaw gives the same tired act over and over again and is very limited. Rashford had an abysmal season last year and hasn't turned up. You can say the same thing about the rest of the team. We've sunk to the level of the least able members of the squad, rather than bringing them up to the level of a team going for the top 4. Too many poor footballers.

Too many players underperformed last year and expected to be shipped out, only to still be here, still waiting to be sold or moved on. It's a deadly mix of lack of hunger, lack of ability, an unwillingness or inability to learn new training methods, all whilst picking up tons of money in huge wages.

Need at least 4 other players and we could do with having a serious look at some of the younger players. If you were to look at the entire first 11 who have started both games, they're all replaceable. 

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Huge game on right now. I'm going for a 1-2 victory for Spurs. I look at the Chelsea team and I don't see a huge amount of goals there. They play very efficient football, but I can't see them getting more than 1 past Spurs.

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Defenders FC returns, what a volley that was by Koulibaly. Just in time too considering Lukaku and Timo got on the score sheet yesterday...

50 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Huge game on right now. I'm going for a 1-2 victory for Spurs. I look at the Chelsea team and I don't see a huge amount of goals there. They play very efficient football, but I can't see them getting more than 1 past Spurs.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if the score stays as it is now, that's for sure, I think Spurs are a seriously scary proposition for this season (I'd say this about any team Conte takes on and is actually supported to have success with), but fingers crossed we score another and can nip it in the bud. 

We haven't really had a game plan to commit to all summer - hell, I have no idea what our target for this season is meant to be, and I don't think Tuchel does yet either other than to qualify for the UCL again - meanwhile Spurs got their business finished before most clubs even started talking about their summer plans and Conte is a deadly serious coach when it comes to training, they're going to run laps - in a very literal sense - around most teams this season. 

Hopefully that works in our favour come the World Cup in November :p

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5 minutes ago, Julius said:

Defenders FC returns, what a volley that was by Koulibaly. Just in time too considering Lukaku and Timo got on the score sheet yesterday...

Yeah, I'd be surprised if the score stays as it is now, that's for sure, I think Spurs are a seriously scary proposition for this season (I'd say this about any team Conte takes on and is actually supported to have success with), but fingers crossed we score another and can nip it in the bud. 

We haven't really had a game plan to commit to all summer - hell, I have no idea what our target for this season is meant to be, and I don't think Tuchel does yet either other than to qualify for the UCL again - meanwhile Spurs got their business finished before most clubs even started talking about their summer plans and Conte is a deadly serious coach when it comes to training, they're going to run laps - in a very literal sense - around most teams this season. 

Hopefully that works in our favour come the World Cup in November :p

What a finish. It was incredible.

I've misjudged this one. Chelsea are all over Spurs like ketchup on my chips. Plastered all over the place. Be surprised if they lose this one now. Spurs just can't get the ball off them.

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1 hour ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

What a finish. It was incredible.

I've misjudged this one. Chelsea are all over Spurs like ketchup on my chips. Plastered all over the place. Be surprised if they lose this one now. Spurs just can't get the ball off them.

Yeah, I'd happily take the draw going into this, any point from Conte is a point I'll gladly take :D shame Romero is a grade-A twonk leading up to that second though, but I gave up on these refs a long time ago ::shrug:

Loved seeing the heat between Conte and Tuchel, just the cherry on top! Mou vs Wenger vibes, post-match interviews should be fun...

Edited by Julius

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2 minutes ago, Julius said:

Yeah, I'll happily take the draw, any point from Conte is a point I'll gladly take :D

Loved seeing the heat between Conte and Tuchel, just the cherry on top! Mou vs Wenger vibes, post-match interviews should be fun...

Oh man, the refs properly did Chelsea over in that game. 100% should've been a red card for the hair pulling at the end. Also, questionable offside for the first Spurs goal.

The fight scenes between Tuchel and Conte were magnificent. :love:

 

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6 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

The fight scenes between Tuchel and Conte were magnificent. :love:

 

Tuchel to Conte:

:D

  • Haha 1

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Classic Anthony Taylor screwing us over!

If only we could put away our chances, we’d have been out of reach in the first half alone.

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So despite Man United being even shitter than anyone could possibly have imagined and sitting bottom with a -5 goal difference, we are still only two points behind Liverpool.

I have to grasp at what little straws are available to keep me going right now...

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Speaking of points, don't forget to sign up to the Fantasy Football everyone. League code is in the opening post.

I was sure Liverpool were going to win that game, but the sending off played a huge part. You look at Liverpool's bench and there doesn't seem to be too many attacking options. I do think that more teams will fancy being able to get something now and the games were generally be tighter. For those front three options, they've got Salah, Diaz, Jota, Nunez, and Firmino, so I guess it's pretty good when they're all fit and available. Could probably do with getting one more in for cover, or promoting one from youth.

 

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We really should have won the game easily. We actually played really well and bossed the entire match, even when we were down to 10 men. We just couldn't get the ball in the goal! I was really impressed with Harvey Elliot last night as well for us. He was all over the place.

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Got a few days until the next round of fixtures.

 

Saturday

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers (probably 2-0 Spurs)

Crystal Palace vs. Aston Villa (Maybe 1-1 in this game)

Everton vs. Nottingham Forest (0-0)

Fulham vs. Brentford (2-1 Fulham)

Leicester City vs. Southampton (1-1)

AFC Bournemouth vs. Arsenal (1-2 to Arsenal)

 

Sunday

Leeds United vs. Chelsea (Think Leeds will win this 1-0)

West Ham United vs. Brighton & Hove Albion (2-1 West Ham)

Newcastle United vs. Manchester City (0-3 to City)

 

Monday

Manchester United vs. Liverpool (Think we'll lose this 0-2)

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It's looking more and more like United might actually sign Casemiro; I think there were some rumours a few weeks ago going around that he was going to get a pay bump from Real, but United are reportedly ready to double his salary. Considering he's won all there is to win at Real, I honestly can't blame him. Worst case, they continue losing, but he experiences a new league and culture; best case, they actually turn things around, though I think plenty more is needed than this I think it could help sort out their spine more than any of the other recent signings they've made. 

Even more than the Ronaldo signing last year, this one seems like it could be scary just considering it should break up the hilarious duo of McFred, and especially seeing as United have needed a proper DM for 5+ years. Pretty funny that they make a move like this after Pogba leaves when one of the things he needed most was a DM to let him roam more freely at United. It'd also be a great chance for Fred and Casemiro to warm up their partnership ahead of the World Cup in November. 

The scarier part to me is that they were being linked so heavily with Rabiot before this and now they seem to seriously be trying to get one of the best defensive mids of the last decade (and he's only 30!). 

Edited by Julius

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Ancelotti has confirmed in a press conference that Casemiro is leaving. Oh man, please don't let us ruin this guy! 

 

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