Man United need a new Carrick and a striker…

during the UEFA Europa League match between Manchester United FC and Fenerbahce SK at Old Trafford on October 20, 2016 in Manchester, England.

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Beckham’s actions leave no need for words
An interesting piece by Nick Miller on David Beckham’s so-called ‘art of talking without saying anything’. Whilst I recognise that Mr Miller highlights that he isn’t viewing his piece as criticism, it definitely came across as a mixed bag. As Nick says in his piece, ‘Beckham is under no obligation to entertain any of us with what he says’. It is interesting though, that very few people seem to discuss his current career – his work with Unicef. Whilst you may find a lack of appealing quotes about his time in football, it is definitely worth searching through transcripts of his presentations via Unicef.

All in all, including Nick’s piece, it strikes me of a man that has enjoyed his time in football but doesn’t want it necessarily be used as the mark of who he is. Nick mentions his appearance on the 75th anniversary of Desert Island Discs and I believe Beckham mentioned how is eye was swayed during some time in Thailand with the Man Utd squad when they visited a women’s centre. In a way, he doesn’t need to make statements with wonderfully creative metaphors. What this statement told me was that this was a chap who, at the high of global fame, was grounded by quite a minor activity of ‘goodwill’ by his employer that drove him to another career. Throughout his time since he has used such a privileged position to try and improve the welfare of others.
Phil, London

 

Bored of sixth
There are a few words and phrases that keep hanging around this website that really get up my nose. ‘Clickbait’, ‘at a canter’, ‘for me, Clive’, Arsenal.

A new one that is really starting to cheese me off is ‘sixth’. For some reason it just won’t go away.
Andy Race (Man U v Hull is starting to wear thin too)

 

Man United need a Verratti
Let’s not get silly. It’s frustrating, but results like this have always happened. This was always the problem with playing against teams who are mostly hoping to get a point. That we’d dominate possession, dominate chances created and only be thwarted by an excellent shot stopper. And then of course almost concede from a rare chance against us.

The real problem is that we’re not being fast enough or clinical with our chances. Before we might have found a way through with brilliance or a set-piece. But neither we nor Jose have ever been very good at unpicking locked defences, and while Pogba is capable of brilliance neither he nor Herrera (especially) are that kind of creative player. Case in point yet another failure to make the right pass when players ahead (this time Ibra and Mkhitaryan) are making good runs.

Mata theoretically is, but as ever delivers too little of value, including once again failing to hit the gaping net when we need to be clinical.

Losing Carrick was huge, and we just don’t have a replacement for him – it certainly isn’t Rooney or Herrera. Sorting that (Moutinho? Verratti?) would make a world of difference next season, as it allows us to stretch the pitch and build from deep. Compacting the play into their box just makes it harder for us.

Jose really does have some work to do; some of our recent purchases just aren’t United standard, I’m afraid, along with the likes of Smalling and Valencia. But if Rojo can make himself important, who knows…
Guy S

 

And a goalscorer
Loads of E-mails on United this morning after another crappy draw which should have been a win but they all, in my opinion, miss the point.

I remember when Andy Cole first joined United from Newcastle and he needed about eight chances to score a goal, he improved on that and became a very good player for us. Now we have a team full of players who need too many chances to do anything, we’re always waiting for one player (usually Zlatan) to do the amazing instead of everyone doing the simple things well. How many tap-ins have United created this season? How many of our goals have been simple? I keep seeing people blaming opposition keepers playing well, that’s just bad finishing, usually because the shot is from too far out or the quality of pass makes it harder than it should have been.

When Jose goes shopping in the summer, if he has any sense he will buy a natural goal scorer, a replacement for Carrick who can supply that goal scorer and possibly a right winger who can do the same. The quality of chances the team create has to improve to make the finishing of them easier. Relying on Zlatan or Fellaini to head us goals isn’t going to get us in the Champions League.
Paul, Man Utd

 

Oh Jose…it’s embarrassing
Is anyone else (surely everyone no?) absolutely sick to the back teeth of Jose and his moaning?

He talks only to be published and everyone loves the clicks..so they publish his utter balls.

Most money paid on wages/purchasing players etc richest club in the world if anyone is a fraud then it’s him imho.

Goes to massive club, spends massive money on ‘best players in world’, wins stuff (normally) doesn’t seem like amazing management, more just a computer game hack.

He reminds me totally of Trump (no we aren’t going there again) in what, when and how he says things.
Al, Sick of his BS

 

…Just read Ibrahimovic’s comments about the Hull keeper, erm, insert the emoji crying with laughter face here. After Herrera’s whiney little sh*t post-match effort v West Ham earlier in the season this is absolutely fabulous, consistent stuff. It seems Mourinho has his own Kellyanne Conways and Sean Spicers at his side.

And of course his ruddy-faced, old Steve Bannon up there in the stands most games.

What’s that? Too much now? Rui Faria = Jared Kus-…ok i’ll stop!
Bobby Bear

 

Oh Paul…you’re embarrassing
Hahahahaha, I know you’ll get loads of these, but Paul Murphy, Manchester, you cheered me up this morning no end with your nonsense,

‘It may sound like sour grapes..’, Why, yes it does sound like that. Because it is.

‘I honestly think a United player could be shot, stabbed and hung in the box and we wouldn’t get a penalty.’ Do you? Do you really think that? Really? No. You don’t do you? (Having said that, if that were to happen the game would probably be abandoned and no penalty would be awarded, so you do have a point. Except that that wasn’t what you meant was it? So, no. You don’t have a point at all.)

‘On to Hull, it’s almost as if getting a result against United is more important than staying up.’ You do know that the former helps with the latter right? That’s how the league works. You get points for draws and wins and the more points you get, the higher up the table you go. The higher up the table you are, the less likely you are to be relegated. I’m explaining this because you seem to not understand the concept.

‘..let’s see if they put that much energy and passion in this weekend’ Please watch ‘that’ Kevin Keegan interview to see just how ridiculous you sound. I’d love it if you did. Really love it.
Michael, Chelsea, London

 

Up the Crouch
I feel that we should have a few words of congratulation to Peter Crouch. To become the 26th player to score 100 Premier League goals is some achievement, for a player who was deceptively skilful for a “big man” I remember him towering above a young John Terry to power in a header for Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge in 2002 and wondering who was this lanky chap. Interestingly only one of those goals was scored from the penalty spot, so makes the figures even more impressive.

To still be scoring goals in the top flight 15 years later is some achievement. He seems like an all round decent guy, has played for some of England’s top clubs and scored some great goals. Good work. Finally lets not forget his famous response when he was asked during an interview “What would he be if he were not a footballer?” “A virgin,” was the quickfire response. Peter Crouch we salute your 100 goals and your robot dance!
Chris Nixon CFC Surrey

 

Sweet Jesus
Cheers Nic, Lancaster for your shrewd prediction that Gabriel Jesus might be a bit of a baller. His four goals in six for Brazil didn’t really convince me, nor did his 12 league goals for league winning Palmeiras last year, along with the Brazilian player of the year award. When I saw Pep Guardiola ship £27m to sign him I thought he was a fool, but it’s good to know that there are people like you, Nic, who can spot such an obscure talent.
Ryan, Dundalk FC

 

City were seriously good though
Late to work this morning so hope this may make the afternoon box.

Quite simply our best league performance this season. Every single player was great. The ref was a blue last night as well.

We got all the luck and West Ham got none. Some very weird decisions.

Gabriel Jesus. Wow just wow. It looks like the kid has got everything.

Pace, power, skill ,desire, a football brain.

The kid has got every tool needed to be one of the best. I’m really hoping he carries on his excellent
start.

His pass to De Bruyne was lovely, many players who at that point, searching for their first goal would have been greedy and tried to get a shot off.

Not Jesus, he put it on a plate for De Bruyne, who was happy to oblige.

Not forgetting Sane, the lad looks like he has found his feet. Don’t they move fast. West Ham just couldn’t cope with him last night.

West Ham were very poor, but I’m going to focus on how awesome City were, as I have not been able to say that many times this season.

Is it a coincidence that Bravo didn’t play and we keep a clean sheet? Hmmm no. The defence looked so much confident.

All John Stones needed to do was channel his inner Terry Butcher, which he achieved to full effect after the head wound. That must have really hurt, a proper Peter Griffin “Arrrgh” moment. However it wasn’t intentional I don’t think, so not going to have a go at the West Ham player.

Hopefully for us, we will kick on now and try to finish the season as strong as possible. The league is more than likely gone, but you never know.

If anyone knows how to overturn a lead to pip someone to the title it’s City. Honestly I think we can get second and hopefully win the FA Cup.

If we somehow managed to win the Champions League, then Pep’s first season would be a wonderful success.

However nothing goes according to plans or wishes, so I imagine we will do some silly mistakes over the weekend and lose.

Final thought, I find myself really happy about Yaya Toure. It looked like he was going to fizzle out with a big cloud hanging over him.

I think it’s great that he has managed to work his way back into the team and has also played really well.

The big man is a club legend for the things he has done on the pitch for the club. It would have been sad if he left on a sour note.

Birthday cakes aside, it will be fantastic for City fans if he leaves us reminding us what a colossus of a player he has been.
DANNY BOOTH – MCFC (So holy Jesus came twice)

 

Sea, Sea, Seasliders…
Been a Bournemouth fan man and boy, thrilled by the ride up, but worried about the way down. I was quite content to watch us play some good football in League One, partly selfishly, I could rock up on a Saturday and buy a ticket and enjoy the game, now I can’t buy a ticket for love or money, even if they are available, because I ‘don’t have the points from last season’; so promotion to the Premier League left me conflicted, fantastic, super, great to see the club at the pinnacle of the sport, but the risk, what if we failed, but if we did fail I’d be able to get a ticket again when all the other fans disappeared to wherever they came from when we were shit.

I didn’t really appreciate on the way up how much was being spent, we didn’t buy a lot of players, when Eddie came back from Burnley, I think we only bought Matt Ritchie that January, and then I think the summer spending was balanced, Grabban went to Norwich, Wilson came in from Coventry, anyway money was getting spent, as the last year in the Championship showed with the highest losses recorded for any team in that division and a nice big fine to make it even better.

There are rumours that the finances are once again a bit ropey, which I hope aren’t true and is hard to understand given the riches of the Premier League, but then again the reserve team put out against Millwall in the FA Cup cost £44M (players accumulated since promotion to the top flight), and it failed, is Eddie Howe a tremendously talented coach but in general a terrible buyer of talent, Callum Wilson was a great buy, Matt Ritchie possibly the greatest buy, Marc Pugh, Harry Arter, Steve Cook, wins but how many wins recently, may be you just win some and lose some, and he won when the players were costing 4k now they’re costing £14m, the losses are harder to take. In the Premier League years a lot of money spent, but not a lot spent on the defence, Tyrong Mings stands out, early buy, highly rated, but looks like a great athlete rather than a great footballer and his time in the first team is maybe bearing that out, £8m and he wasn’t even making the bench until Ake went back to Chelsea.

Despite what Harry Redknapp thinks we’re in the relegation battle now, our defence has always been a bit iffy in the Premier League, I was starting to believe (Daniel Storey?) that maybe Steve Cook is less Private Louden Downey from a few good men (always looking to Simon Francis and Tommy Elphick to be his Hal Dawson) and may be more a potential England defender, why not? He has great touch has scored some corking goals, reasonable pace, great commitment, you look around at Jagielka and Cahill and you think, are they any better, could be Cookie?

Cook aside the defence is shite, Boruc is just good enough not to get dropped, pulls off a save once every three matches, Begovic would have been a fantastic addition, I guess that shows at least they’re trying, maybe land him in the summer if we survive.

In the points table we’re 14th, seven clear of relegation positions, in the form table we’re 15th and that feels kind of okay but we lost to Crystal Palace, Hull, Burnley, Sunderland and Middlesbrough and that feels less okay, last three games since Ake left, loss to Hull, draw with Watford and loss to Crystal Place to give them their first win under BFS.

So what do you think?
Steven (Is Baily Cargill the answer?) AFCB

 

Hull are staying up
I’m going to call it now – Hull are staying up.

What a dogged, hard-fought performance that was last night. United really could, and probably should have won that. I remember Jakupovic playing out of his during their play-off run last year, and it always surprised me that he has spent most of this season on the bench – last night he was simply sensational – his save from Mata was world-class.

I’ve strangelyy ended up watching Hull on about four occasions since Silva took over, and they really look like a much better side – defensively in particular they look more compact and organised – Harry Maguire in particular seems to be having a good run of games.

If they can sort things out at the other end (The Niasse transfer is quite baffling, he really is awful) and most importantly, start scoring goals – they will survive this season.

Hats off to Marco Silva – perhaps he does know the league after all, Jeff.
Lee (How poetic it would have been if Markovic had scored last night), LFC