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We will get to Manchester United, but first …
The streak … is over
You’ve probably seen it by now, but just in case: the silent rumors are really true. Mark Lawrenson has predicted Liverpool to lose.
“ Liverpool go into this round of matches at the top of the table so there is no indication that they are struggling, it’s just that they are not in their prime right now, ” he says. BBC Sport, fearing for his makeshift defense (who has conceded an open-play goal in five games).
Therefore, their 159-game unbeaten streak is over. Lawrenson had last predicted a defeat for Liverpool on the final day of the 2015/16 season, when they drew with West Brom. They have lost 16 actual games since then, but none in Lawrenson’s world. Until now.
2020 is really screwed up.
The Gaal of it
Mediawatch appreciates Neil Custis’ attempt to bring home a narrative in his column to Sun. And the fact that no repeats strangely At any stage.
His broader point is that “the omens for a trip to Merseyside have not been good for the Man United coaches lately,” so Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should be concerned as he prepares to visit Everton.
They were the last team David Moyes faced in office, while José Mourinho was fired after losing to Liverpool. Fair enough. But how does Louis van Gaal fit in, replaced after beating Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final?
“A 2-0 Europa League loss to Liverpool on 10 March 2016 convinced the Man United management that a change had to be made at the end of the season.”
Did losing the first leg of a Europa League knockout round ‘convince’ the management to fire a manager who was five points behind third in the Premier League and was still perfectly capable of winning the tie at the time? Bit strange.
“Yes, they won the FA Cup and even if they had also achieved a top four result, LVG’s fate has already been decided on the basis of that result.”
So why did you write in your story about Van Gaal’s firing that “once it was impossible to finish in the top four, his position became untenable”? So, was it not mentioned that a defeat in the Europa League first leg decided their fate? Didn’t you realize that four years later you’d have to pretend that visiting Liverpool is treacherous for every Man United manager under pressure?
Maur nonsense
Custis spends much of the rest of that article offering a half-hearted defense of Solskjaer. He is not as committed as his ‘Solskjaer knows the club, he knows the fans, he is part of the DNA and, again, he is heading in the right direction’ in September, but still.
“The question is whether Solskjaer, 47, is failing.”
Or, more pertinently, if it is succeeding. It’s not. However, apparently, “if the board is judging him for a decent period of time and thinking long term, which is what Man United still claims he wants to do, then he is safe.”
Well, Solskjaer won 55 and lost 25 of his 101 games in charge. Van Gaal, sacked due to a defeat in the Europa League first leg two months before leaving, won 54 and lost 24 of his 103 matches. That wasn’t good enough for the latter, so why is the former definitely ‘safe’ with an incredibly similar record?
Custis’ main point against firing Solskjaer is that “you start over: another new coach, another change in personnel, more money spent on the players he wants, rather than the ones he has inherited.” So your argument is not related to Norwegian being good at all, just that replacing it involves a lot of administrators.
But the ex-boss of Tottenham, Poch, is the answer, apparently, he adds in a withering and dismissive tone, completely unnecessary. And we should know what that looks like.
“He never won a coaching trophy and won just seven of his last 26 games in charge of Spurs before being replaced by Mourinho, the guy who fired Man United before naming Solskjaer.”
Who knew that Custis valued the Tippeligaen and the Norwegian Soccer Cup so much? After all, they are the only trophies Solskjaer has ever won. Then there’s the little matter that Pochettino won 132 of his 256 Premier League matches (51.5%), compared to Solskjaer’s 35 wins in 83 matches (42.1%). That feels pretty relevant.
Custis then adds that Manchester United’s ‘lean years’ have involved ‘an FA Cup, EFL Cup, Europa League and a second place in the Premier League’, and that ‘Pochettino would have taken either of those’.
He did. The Spurs finished second behind him. It was his best season in the Premier League. Man United was sixth that year.
“However, he reached a Champions League final, and the Spurs were lousy.”
And that is simply not true. They had nearly three times as many shots on goal as Liverpool and far more possession, only to be undone by a rather harsh penalty in the first minute and a second goal with three minutes remaining.
The Sun’s own report from that match said Tottenham “will feel badly done” as “they were the best team.”
But no, they were ‘horrible’, Pochettino deserves to be mocked because he chose to coach outside the elite in Spain and England rather than in Norway and Solskjaer should stay, not because of his achievements or acumen, but because replacing him means ‘you’ to start over. ‘.
And who could look at this Man United down-15th and without a league win at home in six games after a million-pound investment and think he might need that?
Poch and learn
Trevor Sinclair also doubts that Pochettino is the man to replace Solskjaer.
“I’m not sure,” he said. talkSPORT. “I’m not sure it fits the Manchester United philosophy because everything is attack, attack, attack. I think with the way Poch plays, or his team, especially when he took over Tottenham, he relied more on possession and playing across the lines. “
So who would you go to instead? Which coach, for him, is the “attack, attack, attack” coach that Man United desperately needs?
“I always thought Diego Simeone personifies Man United, that kind of aggressiveness, playing with the front foot, having the players super fit to be able to play 95/100 minutes of a game.”
Because Simeone is known for his full and fluid attacking football. Still, it’s a better argument than Custis “but you’ll have to name someone else.”
More than a Phelan
Martin Samuel writes:
That is what is truly unsettling about the first goal that Manchester United conceded in Istanbul. Neither Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, nor his coaching staff, saw it. Not Mike Phelan, not Michael Carrick. And these are empty stadiums. It’s not that managers and coaches can’t make themselves heard in the current climate. ‘
What heat? Write a well paying column for him Daily mail. It’s not? Completely ignoring Mike Phelan yelling at Nemanja Matic from the sidelines.
F365 shithouse story of the day
‘Would Man United fans take Gerrard now or Solskjaer until May?’
It’s a mailbox, but it’s still looking for trouble.
Recommended reading of the day
Jacob Steinberg in David moyes.
Miguel Delaney in Pep Guardiola v Jurgen Klopp.
Recommended look of the day
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