The Manchester United Thread

[mentalist (slight return)]

Half the football journos in England will be let go if he gets sacked.

[Diamond Dog]

It's getting better all the time......

[Diamond Dog]

Manchester United captain Antonio Valencia has apologised for liking an Instagram post which called for manager Jose Mourinho to be sacked.

The 33-year-old, who reports said had fallen out with Mourinho, returned to the team for Tuesday's 0-0 draw with Valencia in the Champions League.

After the game, he liked a picture of himself which had the caption: "It's time for Mourinho to go."

The Ecuadorian later wrote he liked the post "without reading the text".

"These are not my views and I apologise for this," the full-back said on Twitter. "I am fully supportive of the manager and my team-mates. We are all giving our everything to improve the results."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45730077

You couldn't make this up.

[KeithPratt]

It's going to drag on isn't it. I mean, I thought Mourinho would go but now I feel he will dig his heels in. This was his dream job and there is a sense that if he's sacked it will be difficult to see him at a top, top club again. The magic has gone- it'll be the Portugal job and then China for one last payday.

This is going to dominate the news narrative for ages and I suspect it is going to get quite dull.

[Diamond Dog]

Yes I can quite imagine watching United implode slowly through a long and bitter divorce would get quite tedious.

Well quite!

[Lord Rother]

It's going to drag on isn't it. I mean, I thought Mourinho would go but now I feel he will dig his heels in. This was his dream job and there is a sense that if he's sacked it will be difficult to see him at a top, top club again. The magic has gone- it'll be the Portugal job and then China for one last payday.

This is going to dominate the news narrative for ages and I suspect it is going to get quite dull.

Qatar

[The Modernist]

It's qite rare to find a pundit saying things that are genuinely insightful, but Liam Rosenoir nails he current problems at United.
Worth a watch..

[Diamond Dog]

I watched that on the night. Rosenoir absolutely said it right but, to be fair, it's what many have been saying for quite some time.

Yes they do lack pace in midfield but.... that's by design, not by accident. He signed Matic. He signed Pogba. He insists on playing Fellaini, Herrera, McTominay. In combinations of two or three. It's him and he's getting more passive year on year. Think back to that Chelsea team - Robben & Duff were true wide midfield players along with Joe Cole & Frank Lampard. You had Wayne Bridge & Glen Johnson or Paulo Ferreira as full backs - players who would get forward regularly, and quickly.

Compare that to now. There's your problem. Oh, and that Makalele did the job of Matic, Fellaini & Herrera put together.

[The Modernist]

I was always felt Ashley Cole regressed as an attacking full back under Mourinho, although you could argue he improved in other respects.

[Brickyard Jack]

2 down after 10 mins.....

[Lord Rother]

Great stuff.

I just can’t believe they can be that bad in the 2nd half.

Mourinho has done a brilliant job of undermining the confidence of the team.

Ah yes, Fellaini the saviour.

[Brickyard Jack]

Well, they weren't that bad in the second half.

[Diamond Dog]

It certainly shows the depths they've plummeted that they're hailing a come from behind home 3-2 win over Newcastle (who have two points from the previous seven games) as some kind of 'turnaround'.

Good to see Jose turning the press conference into yet another exercise in persecution, when I'm fairly sure the players and fans might have preferred it to be a little bit more about them, rather than addressing Mourinho's (completely false) accusations. What a twat.

[FOR5]

Being at the game on Saturday, the one thing that happened again, because it's happened several times this season e.g. vs Brigton, vs Spurs is that when we go a goal down it's almost as if we don't how to react and then within a few minutes concede another, it's as if we're shell shocked every time someone scores against us.

One thing I will say about the fans is that you didn't see a mass exodus at half time or on 65-70 minutes when still 2 down, it was actually one of the best atmosphere's in ages, the fans could sense that with the tactic change in the 2nd half we just simply had to go for it and did. That last 20-25 minutes is something we've rarely seen since Fergie left, actually putting the effort, determination and desire into it to get a result (they shouldn't need much geeing up mind being wealthy as hell, but hey that's another matter).

That is what we wanna see as fans every game, just leave everything out on the pitch and don't hide, too many of our players have been doing that, and i dont care how much money they are on or how much their market value is, if they don't wanna put the effort in then they can go for me, NO ONE is bigger than the club, not Pogba, not Sanchez, hell not even Jose who seems to make it always about him.

How we react and approach the next few games will be interesting given we play away to Chelsea, home to Juve and Everton, with the Derby coming up soon too. We need to stand up and be counted, either the player's and manager work to pull together or i guarantee we'll end up in the bottom half of the table come May

[Diamond Dog]

The virtually impossible happened this afternoon - someone elses behaviour made me feel almost sorry for Mourinho. That chelsea assistant is a fucking knob.

[Lord Rother]

Mourinho’s antics over the years disqualify him utterly from any sympathy, in fact may actually have brought on the reaction from the knob assistant yesterday. (Haven’t seen it myself yet.)

[Diamond Dog]

Jeez.... they got fucking owned by Juve last night.

[Diamond Dog]

How the fuck Man U won that game against Juventus is a mystery to one and all. And good to see Jose showing his usual class.

[Diamond Dog]

Taught a lesson today.

[Darkness_Fish]

Just seemed that Jose deemed it a write-off from the start, never even really gave it a go, did they? Herrera was particularly poor, too, normally you'd count on him if you need a stout defensive job and some shit-housery to earn a point. David Silva and Ferdinandinho were both magnificent today though, absolutely different class to anyone else in the league in their positions when they play like that.

Why do keepers insist on giving away those type of penalties though? It seems a really common one, where the attacker is pushed out wide, has a 1 in 1000 chance of getting a decent contact that would be good enough to score, and the striker only has the intention of a toe-poke forward to get clattered and earn a pen.