Champions League

Yea, Jose had some limited success but the football was absolutely awful. Toward the end of his time it was absolutely horrific and morale was in the toilet. He was a busted flush way before he joined us and the fact that Woodward tried to present him as some sort of coup was hilarious and indicative of how out of touch the administration at the club is with actual football.

The appointment of Ole lead to an immediate up turn in form for many of our players, we had some brilliant periods of form and the football was miles ahead of Joses. Bruno almost single handedly dragged the team post Covid and again last season to a level which looked like steady progress. There may not have been trophies but it was a hell of a lot more enjoyable and cohesive than the Jose team.

Ultimately Ole's appointment made sense as a caretaker but the rush to appoint him as a full time manager when there was literally no need was again indicative of how weak the hierarchy are. It also happened right at the start of his first downward turn which ultimately will be the hall mark of his reign. It's boom and bust constantly with periods of boom being pointed to as progress until they're immediately followed by these huge dips in form.

He absolutely had to kick on this season to justify his position and if anything we're in the worst form of his reign and there's really no argument in favour of "progress" because it's just not there. If we'd won every game this season or even 3 more than we have you'd probably have to be giving him mor slack but we haven't and the performances are awful.

You can also reasonably say there's signs of regression this season. Our defense was pretty solid last year, the addition of Varane should have strengthened it to a degree that I would say most Utd fans were the least concerned about going into the season. Now it seems we can't stop conceding every game, with the lineup looking so shaky.

If anything would make the board pull the trigger on Ole, it's that they spend 79m on a highly requested player after 2 years of pursuit and he's not starting matches? Player with the most assists in Bundesliga and you can't play him in a CL match until there's 6 mins left? Same with Van De Beek, there has to be a reason for it we aren't seeing.

I'm not really sure anyone here has been particularly disrespectful towards him and he's still getting reasonable support at games in spite of the performances. I'm sure the wider online community is being a bit more abusive but that kind of comes with the territory of being a team that was attractive to glory supporters for so long that's now suddenly stopped. It's best ignored.

I also think the LvG/Mourinho stuff gets misconstrued too. For what it's worth, I wouldn't want either of those guys anywhere near the club. But I do also think it's fair to say that the nature of the performances aren't much better at the moment than it was under them, despite us being much more proactive in the transfer market for our top targets than we were with either of those guys.

Maguire and Shaw get slated something rotten, but both have just come out of an international tournament playing as part of a defensive unit where we had not just a good defensive record, but one of the best in the entire history of the sport. Maguire is quite clearly playing half fit, while guys like Bailly have been rotting on the bench.

Our squad is quite incredible really man for man. Sure, there are one or two areas we could do with tightening up in but that can be said of anyone. City seem to be doing just fine without a proper striker, for example and Chelsea managed to shuffle the deck and hammer Norwich despite injury issues of their own.

We're under achieving with what we have on a spectacular level. There isn't an excuse good enough for the way we play our football on a weekly basis. It's incompetency to an insane degree.

Yeah, he's absolutely a glass cannon but he's fit at the moment. There's absolutely no need to rush Maguire in like he has been when we've got the availability we have.

The club legend thing isn't right as you have to separate the player from the manager.

His management credentials are relegating a team from the premier League and doing alright with a Norwegian club.

I've honestly not got an ounce of ill will towards the guy. He's a legend. It's his dream job, he'll never manage another big team ever again. The people actually in charge of the club are to blame for letting this happen and go on for so long.

You simply cannot just forfeit a season to this kind of form because "sure let's stick with him". He's so far below par at the moment that he absolutely deserves to be questioned and another game of that level really should spell the end for him. He's already had 2 more than he really should have.

Haha Athleti player committed a professional foul and then refused to go to the ref to receive his booking. Ref sent him off.

As the refs at meant to.

Oh absolutely, but you never see it, especially with Madrid in Europe, they're an absolute disgrace.

Bit worried that Mane will get himself sent off.

Yeah I'm not saying that. I mean was fair to give him the job originally. If he continues to fuck it up then changing him should probably happen.

I think the most frustrating thing for me is simply the blind adherence again and again and again to things that just obviously don't work. I was a believer, I wanted him to have time, but he's had it and a lot of money and it's clear that he can't take us any further, imo.

However, I think that we're stuck with him until the end of the season, most likely.

Ref seemed to be losing it first half, but ATM have been far better in the second half. So gotta say fair play to him, he didn't want their shit and he has managed to stop it.

But they were having a proper go at injuring Mane the fuckers.

Well, aside from Bayern and maybe PSG.