I enjoy your posts. I rarely watch United games in full though, so can't really participate.

I think a good forum needs some minimum number of users and a smaller number of active users who chat often. I think we don't have that minimum critical number here to keep it active.

Back when the United fed worked well I was usually online during matches to share my emotions and see how others react. Now I've posted a few times but it feels pointless when I'm the only one posting during matches so I stopped.

Yep.

It's more/less the same for me.

If there were more people writing I would be glad to participate, but since there are just the two of us and someone else who drops in occasionally, I've switched more to the Serbian forum where I also get to fight against Liverpool and City fans, which is sometimes a tremendous pain in the arse...but it can also be funny.

Just saw that we drew Rostov in the Europa League. Not great in terms of travelling but shouldn't be a very tough match. In March it's not -20 in Russia any more either. Looking at the remaining teams I think we're huge favorites to win the competition. It feels like we might have a nice end of the season.

Not a bad draw I guess, except for that couple of extra hours of flight to Rostov and back. The worst thing about this trip is that we play Chelsea away in FA Cup between EL fixtures.

I would have preferred Apoel or Genk or maybe Copenhagen, but OK, at least we avoided some of the better teams remaining in EL like Roma, Lyon , Celta Vigo or Ajax.
Anyway, if those are the strongest teams remaining then we have a good chance of winning the EL this year and add this trophy to our collection.

What makes me confident is the fact that Jose is playing very strong teams in the cup competitions. I am slightly afraid that the team will run out of steam before the end of the season like this but then again we've doing so fine lately that we might still win a lot.

We do only have one loss in the last 25 games and that was in the second leg against Hull when we didn't need a win. Perhaps we haven't been as dominant in attack as I'd like in some games but overall I think nobody can argue that we've come a long way and things are looking good. When was the last time we had a run of 25 games where we lost fewer than 2 games? I can't remember such good runs.

You are right. I have swithced more to red cafe, but the problem there is that there is too many people posting and I can't be bothered to read all the messages so I just see if there is anything worth reading an usually just read the first page. And when I find something to comment I don't have enough rights to comment because you need certain ammount of points to post there.

I'm not usually online to comment the games during the game, but I would like to comment the games after. But since there is rarely posts here I dont log in here so often that I used to (now I log in 1-2 times a week, where it used to be several times a day).

I would like to see more turnover in some games and more chances given to some players, for example Fosu-Mensah or Schweinsteiger or Shaw.
In the 2nd leg against St.Etienne there was no need to start with such a strong team, especially not with players who were one booking away from being disqualified.
There were also some Cup games where Mourinho could have shown more courage and rest some big names, maybe keep them on the bench and play them if necessary, like he eventually did against Blackburn.
I understand Mourinho is under big pressure to win every game, but I also think we have a team strong enough and big enough to win against lesser opposition even with several players who are not usually starters.
Apart from that, I think Mourinho is doing pretty well generally, as we are getting better and better.
Imo, with just a few tweaks here and there we might be even better.

Yeah, I found that with the big United forums as well - it's just too much. You can't really take part as you're one voice in the sea and nobody will remember you. Plus with masses there is always going to be hugely emotional because everyone posts when high on emotion and it makes you feel like everyone is nuts and the sentiment is different than it really is.

The size of the United fed was more or less perfect some 3-4 years ago before the big dip in numbers started. Enough to keep it active and not so many that it got out of hand. You knew most of the posters and their biases so there was a possibility to talk about things in a slightly serious way and also have fun.

I was slightly surprised that Jose went for such a strong team in the second leg as well.

I'm somewhat unsure about the way he does things. On one hand I totally agree on his line of thinking - if you're not putting in the effort in training, then you're not playing. It seems like Shaw isn't doing well enough and thus doesn't get games. I can understand that. I think it's the right way to manage things because it helps Jose to weed out those who are not that motivated. I think that means we're rarely going to be soft on the pitch. On the other hand I think that for those players who are in the squad already the chances should come not only for those who are doing better than the other guy at that moment but in smaller games for those who are putting in a 'good enough' effort. That goes especially for young players. For the youngest that will surely be a huge motivator and give them an idea how much work there still needs to be done. For others it gives them a chance to impress and show the manager that they can be counted on.

I'm not sure how he should manage Schweinsteiger. This season in the matches he's played I've seen him do a few good things but also once or twice I've seen his weaknesses. I think with him it's all about how well he plays. There I think the reason to rotate is to rest the first 11. I don't know how Jose has the fitness regimes set up and how likely it is that the players will burn out before the end of the season but if it's not a problem then I don't mind so little rotation. Resting players should be the only worry there.

I understand Mourinho is under big pressure to win every game, but I also think we have a team strong enough and big enough to win against lesser opposition even with several players who are not usually starters.

Right now I'm not so sure about this to be honest. Our midfield lacks balance without certain players and our attack also suffers without Zlatan linking play and just being awesome. In defense we've got a lot of good options and can rotate without too much fuss but elsewhere.. I feel there is a lack of another Carrick there(Schweini isn't as good defensively and that makes a difference in the 4-1-4-1 setup) and also as Fellaini is trusted.. well, we lose rhythm and everything gets slower. And it's slow enough that we're not going to dominate against most teams as so many teams will be able to take advantage of that.
In attack I think Zlatan is just so different and so good that replacing him with someone else means we have to play a different way. That will always be tough as everyone will have different role to play when we play another striker. In some games we had someone else as a striker and it didn't go smoothly at all.

I think we need to improve our midfield depth and in attack just replace Rooney with a top attacker(Griezmann?) and then we can rotate. In midfield I have no idea who could replace Carrick but we badly need to get a playmaker into the deep role. Who is also good defensively. And replace Fellaini to give us depth.

In midfield I have no idea who could replace Carrick but we badly need to get a playmaker into the deep role. Who is also good defensively.

That is maybe the most important thing to do in the Summer, find someone who is good enough to jump in and replace Carrick.

Who could that be? Imo, it should be someone already experienced, as we wouldn't have time to slowly build up a youngster in that position. It is just too important. Maybe we could also buy someone younger who would play occasionally and learn, but the most pressing issue is to find someone who is already good enough, someone who could quickly adapt.

Toni Kroos comes to mind, even though he is slightly less defensive than Carrick. Verratti is a great playmaker, too, but I don't know whether these players would leave their clubs. Maybe we should have bought Kante', but he isn't a playmaker, he is more of a destroyer and we already have Herrera who is actually better in certain aspects of the game. Anyway, a deep playmaker with the brain of Carrick is hard to find.

There is a young central midfielder that I think is going to achieve big things and I would like United to go after him, but as I said, such player might be too young to instantly jump in. I am talking about Tielemans from Anderlecht. He would be a good player to buy and let him adapt gradually.
Another youngster I'd like people to pay attention to is Diawara from Napoli. Very young but already plays with certain maturity, a cool player. We will surely find him an object of transfer speculation soon.

I think the ideal type of a player would be someone who is 21-23 and can already play there very well.

In some way I feel like we should get someone who is ready to just be plugged in there, but then again I think that shouldn't be the way we go about stuff. We have let replacing Carrick get away from us - the right time to buy his successor would've been about 3-4 years ago, then we could've started phasing him in gradually so that by now he would've been the main starter there with Carrick coming in and replacing him.

Getting a talent there who will make mistakes will not help our quest for winning the league. Unless that talent is as good as Pogba. That suggests we should try to get someone who is already at a very high level. As for Verratti and Kroos... I feel they're too attack-minded and will drift too far forward on the ball to work there really well. I can see Verratti moving on but I can't see Kroos coming. And if I'd pick one, then it would surely be Kroos as he seems to be less interested in running with the ball(which for a DM is a rather big risk IMO).

For me Verratti is more like a replacement for Herrera than for Carrick. And Kroos as well perhaps. Or Kroos does well in a midfield two in a 4-2-3-1 as well. If you remember then he came to the light at Bayern playing behind the striker... So I doubt he is very good defensively. I mean he could be good like Herrera but not like Carrick.

There probably are some good young midfielders out there, it's just hard to identify them without specifically looking at them. Some are bound to be great passers and we should try to get the best young passer/passers in the world to join us. That would allow us to play more enjoyable football. We saw how much of a difference it makes when we had Scholes. I just think that it's important to get someone with great passing into the side. All of the great teams have great passers in there IMO. The Barcelona team had four - Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Messi and they were out of this world. Our second CL-winning team had Scholes and Carrick(and Giggs). The best Liverpool team of the last 20 years had Alonso. Pirlo-Seedorf-Kaka were all great for Milan during their dominant period. Real at their best had Zidane pulling the strings.

Chelsea during Jose's first stint was different, they had a great team but relied on counters and rock-solid defense. But that's not what we want really..

I think getting at least one other great passer to combine with Pogba would make us a lot better. And with the squad as it is I hope it isn't going to mean Herrera dropping deeper. Because Herrera has been great but he isn't very good on the ball as a DM.

For summer transfers I think we have two problems to solve:
Backup striker. Rooney is there but IMO not good enough.
DM. Replacing Carrick.

And optional choice is replacing Fellaini.

There probably are some good young midfielders out there, it's just hard to identify them without specifically looking at them. Some are bound to be great passers and we should try to get the best young passer/passers in the world to join us. That would allow us to play more enjoyable football. We saw how much of a difference it makes when we had Scholes. I just think that it's important to get someone with great passing into the side.

Tielemans has excellent passing, technique and also brains, very mature for a 19 year old. I would definitely take him and develop him gradually, as by the time he's 22-23 he would be a great midfielder. Not an instant replacement for Carrick, but a player to consider for our future team.
Talking about passing, I also like Bernardo Silva from Monaco, great little player but more offensive though, a type of player like Mata. Imo he could fit into any midfield at the moment, including Barcelona.

Back to replacing Carrick, the first two options for me would be Kroos and Verratti. Unfortunately, no one from EPL comes to mind. Matic would be very good in a defensive role and he's got an excellent pass in him, but I am not 100% sure he'd be that world class player we're looking for.

The problem with replacing Carrick is that the player should be a DM-playmaker. I can think of a few that play higher up the pitch. Modric and Thiago come to mind right away. Verratti and Kroos for me are also players that do it slightly higher up the pitch.

If Herrera wasn't so good then we could just buy any midfielder and then add a proper DM whose main job is to defend and get the ball to the nearest midfielder. But as we have Herrera, then it would be a shame if we wasted him.

With someone like Tielemans I always have doubts - in a weaker league he might do well but can he do it in PL? Who knows.

With someone like Tielemans I always have doubts - in a weaker league he might do well but can he do it in PL? Who knows.

That's always a question with players coming to EPL from different realities, but in the last 20 years or so we've brought plenty of players from weaker leagues and made them great champions. It's always a risk which you have to take. The problem in the last years is that almost every good player will cost a fortune and there are less and less diamonds to dig up, as with internet and social networks it all became more visible and available to public knowledge. Now, as soon as a 15 year old kid in any part of the world rises above his generation, he instantly becomes followed by an army of agents, press etc. and his price rises astronomically. Then, if you are Manchester United and try to inquire about a certain player, his price doubles instantly :)

Zlatan is the man!

We were lucky, didn't play very well and got a help from the referee not counting the 'offside' goal for them.

Hopefully this is a start of a long list of Jose's trophies at United.

Jose has won all possible trophies with United so far... Let's that continues

Zlatan is great! Big player for big games.

Pogba fantastic, along with Zlatan he was the best on the pitch.

Bendtsen пишет:

Jose has won all possible trophies with United so far... Let's that continues

I'll sign up for that ride! :-)

With a win over Bournemouth, we are going above Liverpool and Arsenal on the table, just a point below City (3rd) and two points from Spurs (2nd).

It would be just a temporary satisfaction, but then we should see the outcome of other matches.

Anyway, we are there, we just have to keep playing well and continue using the chances we create.

Hope Miki will be fit, as he became an import figure for us. He is like Mata with speed, intelligent and hard to stop, so nowadays many of our actions go through him.

Wow, Luke Shaw in the first eleven \o/

I hope we won't underestimate the opposition, as this could be a classic banana skin game.

Well well well.. Zlatan might be in trouble and get 3 matches for that elbow.. The ref saw it but it feels like it was retribution and those might get seen as violent conduct and given a ban even if it was seen..

Hopefully they can take advantage of 11 vs 10 here though.

Could be three tough games against Boro, WBA and Everton though without Zlatan.

Unbelievable

You can't shoot a penalty like that when you're playing such an important game...