The College Dropout

The more I think about it - the more I think Barnes was only signed as a bit of a FFP hack to replace ASM. He's older than Tonali with PL experience but not been given significant game time. I hope he's just been warmed into the starting line-up but I'm not convinced. Plans obviously change so I still have hope. But if the plan was to play Barnes LW and Gordon RW we would've tried it for more than 10 minutes in over 360 minutes of football.

I think we've taken a golden brick-approach. As in we only sign players that we think are solid gold bricks and we use all our money to do that (I think we've done that - possibly bar Barnes). And if we don't have enough FFP room for another gold brick, we just won't get anyone. And we'll invest in possible gold bricks even if they can't be used from the off (the fullbacks) because of the opportunity to get the gold brick at a low cost. I agree that we've doubled-down on Howe-ball but I'm not sure what alternative there is? Why sign Maddison if he doesn't fit Howe's plan? There are similarish players like Szob out there that do fit Howe's approach. In time we'll be able to get them so we'll wait it out.

The single worst aspect of our game from Villa till now has been our off the ball position when not pressing. I really liked the way Man U setup against Arsenal. Compact.

Agreed. We ended the the Brighton game with a burn back at LB. If Botman isn’t fit I wonder if we start Brentford the way we ended Brighton at the back? As we are at home to a side that’s not as good I hope he brings in Hall and we try something else. I hope he brings in Hall regardless but I do not anticipate it. The way the midfield 3 is setup isn’t working. But because of the opposition, the newness of Tonali and the injury to Joelinton I think he’ll persist with it or just bring Longstaff back. I would like to see us setup differently off the ball. But I think he’ll go into Brentford with a variation of Plan A. Agreed about progression in midfield. Joelinton has been off it all season. And Willock is the best at running with it into space and he’s been a massive miss. Teams are preventing Bruno from passing it. As much as I like Tonali. He’s not as good as Willock at running it and he’s not as good as Bruno at passing through the lines. I don’t expect Howe to change us from a running midfield to a passing midfield because we lost these 3 games. I think we need to change our defensive approach though but again due to the opposition faced and the opposition next - I just don’t expect him too.

I think if we do Plan A well enough we could go unbeaten in the next 6. A couple wins and the confidence and commitment comes back. Maybe we find it hard to break Brentford down and try different things.

Aye we make small changes because Howe is not a dinosaur but the adaptations are small. It’s more about imposing our general approach. We don’t really change personnel because of opposition - maybe a winger at home like when we had ASM. This season if not for injuries we would’ve started the same XI 4 games on the bounce. He’s not a ‘horses for courses’ type manager from what I’ve seen so far. And that’s fine.

I just think he’s more that than tactician. Not that he doesn’t have any tactics. Clearly there’s a defined style he wants to implement - it requires defined characteristics. But it doesn’t seem to change significantly or have massive variations. We’ve played 4 tough teams with different styles and from what I can see, the tactics have been largely the same. If Howe can motivate the players to do those tactics to the best of the players ability we do well. Pep is regarded as the master tactician. He adapts his tactics and line up to the opposition. As far as I can see, Howe doesn’t really do that. I keep banging on about it but we had issues in the half space against Villa but the press overpowered, we’ve had the same problems against City and Brighton. But in glimpses against Brighton I see Howe’s intention.

I’m beginning to land on Howe being a bit more of a motivator than a tactician. Which I think goes some way to explain his streakiness. I’m interested in seeing how he evolves tactically this season and how his motivation and approach fares with European football.

Martinez was onto Saka in central areas which helped Dalot a lot. He didn’t have to deal with him in those areas and could protect his own space. That move inside that Saka does is difficult for most fullbacks to cope with. Aye bad tackle. Unfortunate injuries. It’s a bad sign that both your starting CBs seem injury prone. And the backup. You can have Schar for £80m he’s fit as a fiddle.

Giving me jibe for talking about football match on a football forum is a bit pathetic. Ignore me. I’ll ignore you.

Aye as I mentioned that was the worst part of the performance. They lost concentration. The plan was clearly to man mark Odegaard and he was in acres of space so the players are to blame. But the approach was a good one and when the players did it - it largely worked. But also Arsenal are really good. Good manager. Good players. You can’t stop everything especially when they are at home. But to concede 35 seconds after scoring is awful. ETH should be furious.

I say this after watching us yesterday for about 70 minutes and not being able to figure out what our actual defensive plan was. Man U stopped Odegaard getting as much joy as he wanted. We let JP do what he wanted. Saka missed a sitter and got an assist but Martinez locked him down in the main. Saka is that good. We made Solly March look like Saka.

Not really. They man marked the danger men. Including a zonal man marking of Saka by a CB which meant the defender came deep into midfield at times. It meant Arsenal couldn’t play through Man U and struggled to create good chances apart from the first goal. Going forward they didn’t offer much aye. Which is why I could watch their defensive shape so much. But I liked how quickly they switched it. Arsenal are a good team playing at home. You can largely defend well and concede 3. That Garnacho goal stands and it’s a different story. But the actual approach was a good one that made sense and achieved a lot of its objectives.

It’s not just parking the bus. They’ve largely been awful away from home against good teams. Conceding bucket loads and looking wafer thin in midfield.

You can see the plan and it largely worked. Arsenal finally capitalised from a set piece to win it. Conceding the equaliser was the biggest error. Less than a minute is pathetic. I hope Eddie was watching how Man U setup off the ball.

They’ve lost but I was impressed with Man U shape off the ball.

Aye. It’s a yellow

Fair. Havertz kicks AWB during his dive.

Might be going man for man. Eriksen on Odegaard. Martinez on Saka when he’s in central areas. Casemiro on Havertz. The bravery in Onana’s passing is something else.

Man U’s shape out of possession is really good to me. Casemiro is maybe 5 yards ahead of Lindelof. Eriksen maybe 5 ahead of Marrtinez. Rashford and Anthony close and tight blocking passing lanes centrally. Congestinf that middle. CBS doing what we do and chasing the striker deep. don’t have all that free space in the half space.

There are people On Twitter suggesting wholesale changes which I think is the wrong thing to do. Just need to evolve it more. Our default approach is good enough to compete well in a lot of games.

Liverpool have done well given a relatively tough start. No CL they could get 80 points easily.

Man Utd playing some lovely switches.

He rejected Frankfurt who are in the EL and have a great record of developing players and selling them on for big bucks and mega wages... because he wanted to go to Crystal Palace on loan. Just loan. I can only think he wants the PL because it's a bigger stage but... over a team with a record like Frankfurt? Granted he didn't want a permanent move. But like? What?

Chill out fella, I would beat you up irl.