I’m thinking more like this

Rather put on an extra defender than Hojlund tbh

Yeah, don’t want to watch him give VVD a lap dance for 90 mins

Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in

Mid imo. He needed the saliba plan of doing 2 years in Ligue 1 instead of 2 years beside Jonny Evans

Bayinder is better on the left that’s a good shout

Yeah could learn a whole lot more on loan than here and it would probably keep his transfer value up

Hasn’t been bad at all but hasn’t been playing from the start enough for us to really tell how good he is. His 1 on 1 defending has seemed good.

as usual, wrong decision has been made. new owners, new transfer team, football team, manager, same old s***.

Doubt this changes much. But let’s see

We’re so down bad people are reminiscing about Ighalo

talking about a loan to juventus with obligation to buy

Something has changed internally bc I’m seeing reports like “coaches and staff have said how good his attitude has been lately” which isn’t what we’ve been hearing the last month or so.

Yoro would not have joined if we were suddenly going to loan him out for a year or two.

We signed one of the most promising CBs in Europe, beating Madrid to his signature. He's been injured and is slowly getting his sharpness back, all while adapting to a new country, a new league, now a new manager, a new system, a team that is being talked about as a relegation contender. Give the kid some time.

And the f*** does his transfer value matter. We've bought him to be at the club for a decade and succeed. We're not some s*** selling club that we should have any concern for something like that in regard to someone rated as one of the biggest talents in world football.

I’m not saying he’s been bad at all. I’m just saying as long as we are looking this hopeless it might be better for a young talent to play for a Monaco or Marseille where he learns how to play in a dominant team, then when we hopefully get better we put him straight into the team. I really don’t see what he’s learning playing relegation ball with us atm.

He's hopefully getting a very unique lesson in resilience and mental toughness which will aid him for the rest of his career.

He's playing in a top league against top forwards. What does he get out of coasting another year playing f***ing McDonalds league.

You’re both exaggerating — there’s benefits to both options.

A 19 year old playing in a top 5 European league definitely gets benefits that isn’t just playing in the “McDonalds League” and he’s certainly not doing his development wrong by staying here and playing “relegation ball”.

The most important thing for Yoro at his age is consistent game time; which we are handling well since his injury.

It was briefed at the time that the move was a little bit of a d*** swing from Berrada as new CEO, and I think it kind of was, but heyho. We’ve got one of the biggest CB talents in Europe on our books.

Here’s hoping his progression is linear and we break our usual mould…!

I'm not saying throw it all away. By all means have a style of play, a belief. It doesn't mean though that you have to instill it 100% from the very get go. You can be rational and notice, 'hey the players aren't quite suitable for this particular aspect, maybe I can retry implementing that after a transfer window or if I see an uptick in morale or with extra training'. It doesn't need to be all or nothing. That's why that mindset is a fallacy.

I can't think of a single top coach that hasn't changed their mind on style of play once in their career.

Beyond that, a style of play is not the same as a formation. You do not need a 343 to play high-line, possession football.

On Ten Hag:

I don't agree with the 'gave up' argument, and I think a lot of that sentiment gets attributed to a quote he made that he himself has said was misinterpreted. He came in with a certain intention, realised it wasn't possible at that point in time, switched things till he got to a transfer window, bought players who he felt would suit the style he wanted, tried it, still struggled to implement it, found himself reverting back yet again.

Where he f***ed it was in:
1) poor coaching - he (should have) had enough pre-seasons to implement what he needed.
2) poor recruitment - not all on him, don't like the agenda that it is.

There were lots of times where he did try to implement what we hoped he would - cup game against Palace always comes to mind, we were excellent that day. But yes he f***ing annoyed the hell out of me too because he would never push on and commit to it, he was always seemingly too fearful (and tbf did have key player injuries). Nonetheless, he should have risked it and tried anyway (and I said this at the time) because it was inevitable he was going to fail if he stuck with doing what he was.

I think we also just like to boil his Ajax style down to 'possession' when it was far more than that. Counter-pressing, attacking overloads were all critical things at Ajay that he too was visibly and verbally trying to implement here. His signings, while we may not like them now, were very much geared towards that. Mount may be an injured mess now but there's a reason why he's a manager's (including Amorim's) dream. Onana might seem trash now but at the time he was viewed as that front footed keeper that would help us play a high line and play line splitting passes. Antony, the workhorse of a winger. Martinez, mobile and intelligent left footed CB with excellent ball-playing skills.

Ultimately, I am not saying abandon the whole philosophy. Just perhaps realise that maybe this is too difficult to successfully execute it at this very second (halfway through the season with the team mentally shot, struggling for points, limited training sessions, naturally irregular fits for this system). Instead perhaps think about trying to implement elements of it or making elements of it work in a different formation, while icing others until we have had a transfer window and pre-season.

This guy was better than Zirkzee I’m negl

Being tough on players like Rashford works

The duality of man