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*Official* English Football Season 2013-14
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
What a awful performance today. If we were going for the draw should have just played 3 in midfield and done it properly at least instead of playing 2 defensive wingers again when it hasn't worked at all so far this season when it's been done before.
3 of the front 4 were awful and the whole team seemed to have fight knocked out of them after the RVP injury. Also, Ashley Young needs to be locked in some dungeon somewhere and Moyes should forget that he ever existed. Only useful for some sub cameos at best.
But on the positive still only 3 points behind Chelsea and City having played Swansea, Liverpool, City away and Chelsea at home already in first 5 games.
3 of the front 4 were awful and the whole team seemed to have fight knocked out of them after the RVP injury. Also, Ashley Young needs to be locked in some dungeon somewhere and Moyes should forget that he ever existed. Only useful for some sub cameos at best.
But on the positive still only 3 points behind Chelsea and City having played Swansea, Liverpool, City away and Chelsea at home already in first 5 games.
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Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Not sure who brought in all those players and sold some. He didn't seem happy with some of the players going out and didn't play most of those that came in.
Also, fell out with senior players it seems.
All a shambles anyway.
cpr
International Coach
Meh, Fergie got handed bigger maulings by worse City sides than this.
As for Young, he had a good game last time out. Maybe Crystal Palace is his level though.
We'll be ****ed if Rooney goes in January, unless Chelsea fancy a swap with Mata.
Only silver lining is we've got some absolute beasts of games out of the way, though Arsenal and Spurs are the two who scare me this year. If we don't click soon then we could have an interesting top 6 come the end of the year.
As for Young, he had a good game last time out. Maybe Crystal Palace is his level though.
We'll be ****ed if Rooney goes in January, unless Chelsea fancy a swap with Mata.
Only silver lining is we've got some absolute beasts of games out of the way, though Arsenal and Spurs are the two who scare me this year. If we don't click soon then we could have an interesting top 6 come the end of the year.
grecian
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Dunno about that TBH, the 6-1 was a very odd game, you were really in it until the last minute.
This was a dire capitulation where you showed nowt, and Citeh just let you get it respectable by being lax.
Yet you're right, a lot of tough games out the way, and this is a pretty typical start from United for the last few years.
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NUFAN
Y no Afghanistan flag
Is Man U aiming to clinch a Champions League berth this year?
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Didn't get what you meant here. Are you saying Arsenal, Spurs or Liverpool are gonna end up winning the title ?
NUFAN
Y no Afghanistan flag
Yes potentially, Why not? I was just curious as to why you said you're only 3 points off Chelsea and Man City who aren't on the top of the table. The good thing is you're glass half full though as you could have easily said you are just 3 points above the relegation zone.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Because i still see Chelsea and City as our main rivals in terms of squad strength.
Arsenal maybe, but we have been down a similar road with them before in recent seasons and don't think they have the squad depth to battle on all fronts this season. Depends on what they add in January possibly.
Spurs again are in a similar situation with more weak areas if anything plus no experience in a title race and the Europa league distraction as well.
And as for Liverpool, i don't see them finishing above any of these teams tbh. 6th at best and a top 4 challenge if they have a good season.
NUFAN
Y no Afghanistan flag
Fair enough. If everything goes according to the script you'll be right but I think Tottenham and Arsenal are playing great at the moment and deserve to be included when saying you're only 5 points behind the top teams, not 3. BTW, what weak areas do you see at Spurs? Outside the starting XI who won at Cardiff yesterday, we have Lamela, Chadli, Holtby, Capoue, Rose, Sandro, Lennon, Defoe, Friedel, Chiricheș etc who are unable to get a starting spot. Europa distraction/disadvantage of having to play Thursday-Sunday could be an issue though.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
The 2 Fullback positions, lack of depth at the back and up front and lack of real top quality attackers and goals in the starting lineup.
Arguably Spurs have the strongest set of Central midfield options in the whole league, but other than that i'm not convinced yet. Up front Soldado while pretty good isn't a top echeleon striker. Dawson again while being good in recent seasons isn't top class at the back.
Out wide Sigurdsson and Townsend are hardly the most convincing set either with Walker and Naughton/Rose behind when you compare with other top teams. Will be key how Lamela and Eriksen settle but can see them both not being at their full potential consistently this season at least, even though Eriksen has started off very well.
NUFAN
Y no Afghanistan flag
Soldado has shown he has a terrific first touch and will get his fair share of assists throughout the year but so far he hasn't shot well on goal in general play, surely that will improve. Dawson is good enough for sure, you yourself said he's been good in recent seasons and the defense is working well together, 4 clean sheets from 5 games shows this.
Townsend and Sigurdsson are improved footballers who get excellent service from Dembele and Paulinho and I think Lamela is the trump card. His run and assist for Paulinho was very good. Lennon is a reasonable option when he returns from injury too if we need someone fast out wide. I don't really rate Lennon all that highly personally, so I didn't really need to mention him, just saying AVB has options.
What's Moyes going to do btw? Pressure game this weekend against WBA..
Townsend and Sigurdsson are improved footballers who get excellent service from Dembele and Paulinho and I think Lamela is the trump card. His run and assist for Paulinho was very good. Lennon is a reasonable option when he returns from injury too if we need someone fast out wide. I don't really rate Lennon all that highly personally, so I didn't really need to mention him, just saying AVB has options.
What's Moyes going to do btw? Pressure game this weekend against WBA..
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
We'll see. If Bale had stayed on top of what Spurs have added for a season could have seen them as a more genuine threat. Just lacking someone of that real top world class quality.
Go more attacking from the start hopefully.
Get Nani, Kagawa in the team and RVP should be back ofcourse and so will Rafael which would be a huge plus. Evans for Rio too who is playing too many games so far and needs to managed. Don't want too see Young starting games while other options are fit anymore.
The game against Liverpool in the Carling Cup became more important too probably. Could have used some lower league opposition at this stage to get some youngsters playing. Still hoping Januzaj, Fabio and Zaha get a run out.
Uppercut
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Spurs have had a pretty easy start, away games at two promoted sides and home games with Swansea and Norwich. And of course the loss to Arsenal. It's a good start but it's not enough that you can start expecting them to leapfrog 4 teams and 20~ points after losing one of the best players in the league.
NUFAN
Y no Afghanistan flag
What about the gains? Of course it would be nice if we kept Bale but the overall squad is so much stronger compared to last year. Do you agree with this or not?
Also, I don't think last year has anything to do with this year. There are so many key changes to the top teams players and managers and 12 points out of 12 (and 4 clean sheets out of 4) from the easier games is a great sign of hopefully things to come. Chelsea this weekend is a big test because if we are 0 points from 2 games against the top teams it wont look good at all, just like Man Utd's 1 point from 3 games doesn't look good.
My whole point was that its madness to only be worrying about City and Chelsea's points when there are quality football teams who are above them on the table.
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I don't think the table tells you anything really after 5 games. Before the season began we'd have agreed that Citeh and Chelsea are better than Arsenal and Spurs and nothing I've seen of them so far has changed my mind about that at all.
I don't really know if Spurs will have improved from last season. They did some good business but it usually takes a while before signing a lot of new players pays off. It's interesting that their good start has been built almost entirely on a back five that were all at the club last season (albeit with Rose out on loan).
I don't really know if Spurs will have improved from last season. They did some good business but it usually takes a while before signing a lot of new players pays off. It's interesting that their good start has been built almost entirely on a back five that were all at the club last season (albeit with Rose out on loan).
sledger
Spanish_Vicente
Haha, Sunderland.
It's so comical you'd suspect it was all planned. I remember a few months back Halsey mentioned to me that he wouldn't be at all surprised if Di Canio was brought in just to fire all the players up, beat the drop, and then moved on shortly after. It now seems that this has happened. What's peculiar, however, is the fact that they let him totally revamp the side, after falling out with (and selling) a number of key players.
Not the most appealing job for prospective applicants imo. I can't imagine many people would be too keen to walk into a squad which has no less than 14 new players settling in, none of whom you probably would have bought had you been in charge.
It's so comical you'd suspect it was all planned. I remember a few months back Halsey mentioned to me that he wouldn't be at all surprised if Di Canio was brought in just to fire all the players up, beat the drop, and then moved on shortly after. It now seems that this has happened. What's peculiar, however, is the fact that they let him totally revamp the side, after falling out with (and selling) a number of key players.
Not the most appealing job for prospective applicants imo. I can't imagine many people would be too keen to walk into a squad which has no less than 14 new players settling in, none of whom you probably would have bought had you been in charge.