2016/17 Barclays Premier League Thread

It's all fun and games when you take the piss out of Arsenal for being bottle jobs, but it's no longer fun when your own team has probably just bottled another title.

And no, I'm not at all over reacting.

Sense geezer. The man simply isn't anywhere near the level he was at his pomp. Anything less than a title challenge with this United side and the money they've spent is a colossal failure, and Mourinho is well on his way to doing it.

Unsurprising though as this is what happens when you give a man a job who got sacked for putting one of the best sides in the League in a relegation scrap

He also turned that team into one of the best sides in the league, though.

The Man Utd team is too weird.

Like Blind, Rojo, Darmian etc, are all weird and seem to never play in there actual positions. No actual wingers, aside from really limited Lingard? A lot of slow players.

Man Utd's squad looks like what you'd expect if you left Rodgers in charge, with a blank chequebook, and no oversight.



Much love for Conte mind, that's how you do it - play to your strengths and actually find solutions.

If we'd actually spent that money well it would be a fair point.

Instead he inherited a tiny squad with a bunch of rubbish in key positions which has forced him to rely on players we all know are shite. Its disappointing to see him bring on Fellaini, but what other choices does he have? Schneiderlin is such a complete non-entity that Fellaini's bumbling incompetence actually makes him a better player because he at least has some impact from time to time.

If you judge Mourinho on the money United have spent then, sure, he looks shit, but if you judge him on the quality of the squad he inherited and the money he's spent I think the story is different.

We play better stuff, we create more chances, all the signings he made have addressed key issues and looked good (to varying degrees) and we just look a better side. A massively flawed side, true, but thats always been the case and heres more than enough indications in how we're playing, albeit not in the results, to suggest things are moving the right way.

Should he be moving them in the right way faster? Possibly. But the standards at the club both in terms of playing personal and accepted performances have fallen so low its no surprise it couldn't be fixed in a few months. Either way, has what he's done actually suggest a manager thats finished? Far from it and rather than cycle through another manager I'm more than happy to see him deal with the prevailing issues of club culture and to sort out the problems in the squad first.



Well Darmian's shite, so it doesn't really matter where he plays. Rojo is a decent centre-back (although quite probably not a United quality one) and horrific left back and fuck knows where Blind's best position is. He was signed as a midfielder but hasn't played there for close to two years. Blind's a thoroughly decent player and a good guy to have around the squad, but he's a bit of a jack of all trades.

Its a fair assessment, I think Van Gaal's biggest issues is that he had no idea how to build a squad (and I'd be interested to know if he was ever in charge of transfers before, I suspect not). Which left us with a hodge podge of ill fitting parts and players who aren't good enough. For all the money he spent only Martial and Herrera actually look like they're good enough to be starters for title winners.

Oh and Lingard's not a traditional winger by any stretch of the imagination. He spent his career playing centrally before he broke into the side. Like Blind I like him as a squad player but thats it.

^ FWIW - Darmain isn't shite, JM just doesn't utilise his strengths in his best position aka wingback. Just as he fails to utilise Pogba effectively and Rashford. Anyone who's seen Pogba clearly knows his best position is at LCM in a three man midfield. Anywhere else and he's simply not as effective. That's what you get with Mourinho though these days. He doesn't want to shift from his seemingly beloved 4231 system and continues to try to play square pegs in round holes.

Thought he'd struggle at United when he joined, so far that's been the case. He'd shown signs of his from the second half of Chelsea's title winning season where we allowed City back into it. Then last season speaks for itself. Throw in the whole negative environment he creates and it's not hard to see why he's only won 9 of his last 30 EPL games (iirc). He looks a shadow of the once bold and innovative manger that first made his mark at Chelsea.

Jose just doesn't give a fuck anymore.

Only just realised this is Utd's worst start to a season since Ferguson left and possibly since the Premier League begun i guess then?

It'll be OK once Pogba gets moved to LCM.

A little more to it than that.

And yes, I am aware this was said with incredibly sarcastic tone attached.

Pogba at RCM? Only in Bizzaro World imo.

It would appear Man City didn't get the memo about Leicester being utter shite this season

Bravo's shot stopping has been so so bad

That first time pass from Mahrez for the third was sublime

Hahahaha.

Thrilled to have someone else to laugh at?

Yep.

Remember kids, it's all Claudio Bravo's fault.

I knew Man City had a bang average defence but I didn't realise it was this bad.

Costa is so good this season.

United fans so classy, booing Fellani as he warms up and then as he comes on the pitch.

Spurs were awful

You mean like how your own fans were booing Moreno yeah?

That was just as bad, achieves fuck all

Huge win that. We are definitely improving.

I agree, just glass houses and all that.

But you clearly forgot about it before making the comment lol.

So because our fans have done it, it means i cant make a comment about it happening then? Solid logic VP.

No he's shite.

Dress it up all you want, but he just is not at the standard required to play in the premier league for Manchester United. He can't defend against anyone that has a modicum of strength or pace and he's even worse going forward, its difficult to remember a worse player going forward for us at full back over the years and the likes of Smalling and Rojo have played there. The idea that he'd somehow improve if given more attacking responsibility is somewhat laughable.

But then again, I'd say its fairly clear from the rest of your post like - as normal - you're criticising a team you've barely seen play, so its probably no surprise you don't have that good an idea of what Darmain's been like for us. The fact you criticise Mourinho for not shifting from 'his seemingly beloved 4-2-3-1' despite us playing a 4-3-3 in almost all our games at the minute pretty much says it all.

Darmian was getting turned over by Sissoko big time yeserday