11 Long Days Ahead

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So Newcastle 2, Manchester United won the first defeat of the Michael Carrick era completely

deflating that was unfortunately.

I was quite optimistic when that Casamera goal went in and 10 men for 45 minutes plus and

it was all looking quite promising and yes my first appearance in a while.

First appearance in a new house. I'm sorry if I'm sounding a little bit echoey today in a brand new

house. I haven't yet pod proofed it. Yeah, Ed. So we'll get there eventually.

We'll get there. Don't worry. Yeah, people listening won't be until different once the audio

magic has happened. You're also sporting a tash. Yeah, I am. Yeah, I just got to try some for

different new 30s. I want you, you know, become a dad's getting a bit old and boring and even

new USB. So that's what I've gone for. When I hit 30, I think I bought a motorbike and everyone

was like, you know, Christy said, I was like, no, it's a motor transportation. I'm not doing that.

So yeah, the tash is the next best thing. Very good. All right, while we're going to talk about

United's defeat to Newcastle, I mean, I guess there's been a pattern here hasn't there. The

performances have been kind of slow and underwhelming since Fulham. We've been

scoring through the brilliance of individuals and defensive security for the most part.

Just really was just all over the place today. And I can't, I'm not sure what I can put my

finger on it. I don't know where the you can. It just felt extremely listless. It's not like I can

point to career tactics or his team selection or really even the substitutions because I kind of

understand why they all happened. Most of them. Yeah. But everyone seems really flat and lifeless.

Can't pick a player out. He had a good performance except for Bruno created eight chances.

Even Bruno just the eight just the eight. Yeah. Even Brian and Boomo had like

easily his worst performance of his time at United. And I couldn't really tell why.

I thought Kuni was good in flashes. I think the fact that he was willing to take

a trip here on was actually making a difference at times. And us semi encouraged after

the first half. I still thought it wasn't fully polished performance, but it was a typical

game away at St. James's Park until the red card. And I thought we were dealing with it reasonably

well. You know, we've got to consider the run that we've had away in Newcastle and how

difficult we find it against their sort of hard running midfield. And it's a midfield of

Manu and Casemiro playing again for the second time in a few days against that midfield. So

it kind of went the way I expected to in that way. But I think it's the it's the spell after half

time, which is completely unforgivable for 25 minutes, half an hour. Just absolutely nothing.

Just just no control and when it should have been easy to have control. No chance creation

and just allowing Newcastle to dictate terms with 10 men. That's what has left me depressed.

I thought it was going to lead to a 11 draw which wouldn't have been a disaster. And then

obviously that goal happens at the end. And it's a very, very good goal. And it's also a very poor

piece of defending by a player who I thought had left United about three years ago. So I don't know

how much can how many complaints we can really have of that. It's annoying that it's gifted Newcastle

to more points than they deserve. But we didn't deserve we certainly didn't deserve three. We probably

deserved one. I think on on the XG take away the penalty, et cetera, et cetera. So it's

bloody deflating because you talk about that run of games as well. You know,

that has been sort of fortunate against Follett and Palace. West Ham fortunate to grab a point.

But in none of those games were we sort of as listless as we were today. Like you say today felt

like a low point of the car. Yeah. And I don't want to be too hyperbolic about it. I'm not

suddenly going to turn around and go, this is utter shit. It's all Kerriks fault. We're doomed to

failure under him. He's just a PE teacher, not a real manager, all the like nonsense you get

online inevitably. And I haven't read any of it. But and I had no doubt my comments

in your comments will be full of people blaming this player and that player it can be like extremely

liberally floated around. I think in terms of player performances because none of them really

performed except for Bruno and as you say parts Kenya, but really onion flashes system wise.

Yeah, absolutely. I was expecting Newcastle to be really hot coming out of the blocks. They are

at new at they've only I think they've only lost like two of the last 20 under lights at St James's

something like that is a place where it really gets up for it, especially those night matches.

Yeah, I'd have had some pretty terrible results there over the years. Not universally, but some

and I was expecting them to come out really hot and united defended really well. I thought for

the most part during that first half hour when you expected an awful lot of pressure.

Newcastle a lot of the ball, but they weren't creating loads of clear cut chances were they

oh, it's not like they create loads of clear cut chances for stop. Then there was you know

bits of action, right? The the second yellow card, which I guess we have to talk about because

it I'm in it. I don't see where you can not give a yellow card for that. He wasn't fouled.

He kind of tripped himself up and it's either a simulation or it's not. It's kind of,

can you be half pregnant in that situation? It's hard to definitely wasn't a foul.

It's a yellow card. It's just a yellow card. He hadn't already had a yellow card.

We wouldn't complain. There would be no discussion about that. There would be zero discussion

about that. And the first yellow card was a blatant pull on shit, wasn't it? First yellow card.

Just one of those sort of yeah pullbacks, obviously yellow as well. I'll leave a course in

Darren Fletcher with British TNT sports commentators on this. Sort of talking it into being a

harsh decision. And to be honest, I thought the referee was really, really poor tonight, but I

think that he did actually get into biggest cause of the game in the penalty and the the second

yellow for Rumsy, both correct, muffling to me that affluent reaction. See it's hard. There was

the same on peacock in the States that I was listening to on and complaining about it. And I just

don't understand the the point complaining about that one. I mean, given that before that, Dan

Burner had two goes at elbowing lucha in the face connected with both of them. That would have

been his second yellow card as well. And then we had Joe Linton, first yellow card for pulling

a player back, which the referee was very consistent about. He's very keen to get the yellow card

about, but he did yellow card, everyone who pulled shirts, I think. And then the sarcastic

clapping, which got Diego Delo sent off a little while ago. Apparently, that was the rule

until tonight. Well, it wasn't the rule until they invented it for Delo. And then it wasn't the

rule again after they de-invented it after Delo gets sent off. So, yeah, they could have been.

Jay Macy gets sent off for bouncing the ball down after he did. He did. He did not. I think

is worse to sarcastic and clap the referee than just throw the ball down a little bit more force

than you should do. And it wasn't like it was just once. He kept doing it, Joe Linton. He did it

in this kind of exaggerated way as well. And Sandra Tanali pulled him back and like said, stop. And

he kept on doing it. So like, yeah, anyway, I just to say that I'm not sure Newcastle can have

an awful lot of complaints about receiving one red card when it could have been more of you

are going to be strict about the rules there. And the penalty is definitely a penalty. Bruno,

he complained an awful lot about it, but he knows he's strict. As soon as he sees that back,

Gordon's just done him, basically, and it's clasher knees, he should have pulled his leg out,

basically. We didn't. Yeah, it was cheap. And we didn't deal well with Gordon at all tonight,

actually. And that was, I was a little bit perplexed about the decision to start Maserati.

I think Maserati generally did okay tonight, especially on the ball. He always does okay on the ball.

But I think maybe I'm far from me to sort of, it's far from me to advocate for Diego Dallow,

but maybe his pace in that channel, just to help you all out a little bit might have been

a wise call. I mean, maybe they thought that Maserati would be more press-resistant against Newcastle's

high press, but the game didn't turn out that way. And it turned out the direct running of Gordon

and Harvey Barnes was getting Newcastle into good area a lot, especially when they had 10 men.

They always go to be direct anyway. And so that was a bit of an odd one, I think. Just the way

that we don't deal with players who run, players who run through the middle or run at us. It's a

constant, it's a consistent problem. Has been for, since the 10 hard days, it's just why can't we stop

it? Why can't we keep up with, with these players? I mean, the physicality is a major issue still.

That hasn't gone away just because we've run a few games under Carrick, you know, I think that sort

of re-emphasised tonight by just the leginess, you know, the sort of stodginess and the

inability to deal with, you know, what we all know is a physically imposing taking Newcastle.

Yeah, Newcastle has done that to us quite a bit. They were dominant in midfield,

probably even after the red card, to be honest. They went to a 4-3-2, I think, wanting to have

that extra player in midfield with Bruno Drifting into the half-spaces. Casamiro, Maynu,

Casamiro obviously scored a goal with his head. We're going to miss that an awful lot. He started to

fade. I mean, that's why he was pulled off after an hour. Maynu was very quiet tonight. Yeah, poor,

he was poor, actually. Yeah, he just couldn't get involved in the game at all. Did the simple

things which he's been doing, but he didn't get anywhere near as many touches as he needed to or

has been in some of the recent games, probably his worst performance under Michael Carrick, since he's

come back into the team. And I mean, I guess, a nodder surprise that Carrick tried to make changes

in there. Casamiro went off first. Maynu later still didn't manage to get any control, even with

a manup, really. No, and I was in favour of the agate, so I think it did make sense. And Casamiro,

I know he scored, he was really poor tonight. I thought it was really poor. He made some really

rash decisions on the ball, just gave giving it away, flicking it to nobody. He does that when he's

tired. Yeah, it was the worst of Casamiro. It was the worst of him, and we know what he can do,

but it sort of highlights the problem of not having anyone else, literally having zero alternatives,

or the alternative to being Manuagate. I got the fact that you have to make a change on 60 minutes,

get some legs into the team. Carrick kept on sort of doing this with his arms, like rotating his

arms, like saying, let's get something going and never could. Yeah, it was just a poor knife on

the midfield. The issues we have with physicality and needing someone more dominant in midfield

hasn't gone away. It's much sharper when Casamiro has not had a week off. Basically,

he's sort of Indian summer, his revitalisation this season, because he's been really good,

mostly, has definitely been helped by the fact that he's not playing 90 minutes twice a week,

or three times in, you know, when we're back in the Champions League, it's going to be an awful lot

of games, and his worst performance has definitely come when he has to play two in the space of

days. I don't know whether that's true or my news. Well, all of them, maybe they're just not

conditioned in the same way, because they're playing so few games. I really can't put my finger on

exactly why they were quite so listless tonight. Of course, it bears the sort of hallmarks of

the Everton game, and the Amarim, doesn't it, when they were down to 10, and there's just nothing

happening, at least in this one we did create chances. And that was through Bruno, who was just

picking players out all of the time, you know, Yoro should have scored, really shouldn't need

with that header. Big chances, a big chance, yeah. Yeah, just so disappointing, because you're like

with Liverpool having lost six points ahead of them, just stamping authority on it,

almost guaranteed a place in the Champions League. And as it is, I think we're still in a great

position to qualify for the Champions League. I mean, Chelsea, obviously, had a thumping win

tonight against Villa, doesn't help us. And we have to play Chelsea again, we'll just play Villa.

Again, don't we? And so these are going to be like tighter, more squeaky, bun-time games.

Then perhaps they could have been if we got that win tonight, not that you expect to get a new

castle, even though they've been pretty poor this season and win. Yeah, it's not like we'd go out to

St. James's Park win every year, is it? It's generally speaking at a tough place. And

just I don't know, you're trying to find some analysis of that. And maybe they just all had an

off-night. Yeah, so we need to consider them how many midfielders we need in the summer,

because it's so blatantly obvious that this squad can't play more than one game in a week.

It's been, it's fortunate that we haven't had to, really, because it could have stretched

as more in the league, and the league phone could have dipped as a result, you know,

everyone wants cup runs, and it's a really quite boring and annoying that we don't have any

cup games at all, but it suited this squad and it's sort of played into their hands, maybe,

and allowed us to push for the Champions League in the way that we are doing. And we're still

still after losing that game. Yeah. Thanks to results around us. So it's not, this isn't a

disaster of an eye, it's definitely a point dropped compared to what the foreers deserved,

but yeah, that midfield revamp needs to get serious, because like Casamera and New Garting going

may new, yeah, I still see him as a big part of the future, and yeah, it's how it is absolutely

obvious. But there is an issue, I think, in terms of, I'm not sure whether it's mobility or stamina,

or just playing as many games as we're asking him to now, when he hadn't done it earlier in the

season, maybe he just needs to get up to speed with playing 90 minutes more often. Something needs

to change anyway, and it needs to be maybe three midfielders now, and not going to be able to

afford three early Anderson's or even three cars by labels, you know, it's going to have to be

sort of a structured rebuild with players brought into to cover different positions, and people

brought into it, and maybe just depth or bench strength rather than automatic starters, so it's

a huge thing now that club has to do.

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Yeah, two points there. One of mainly, I'm not that worried.

I think he's 21 years old. He's allowed to have bad night.

People are so high-show. People are so hyperbolic about him.

You know, I just like, I have to ignore most of the social media nonsense.

When Amerin was trying to convince everyone that

menus of pile of shit and couldn't play football, I blocked hundreds of people.

Just because I have no interest in talking to United fans who are, like,

totally bipolar about our players.

And he didn't have a good night tonight, but I think he's been pretty good in the

seven games previously under Carrick.

He adds a range and a profile to the United Midfield that we do need, right?

I think you want a physical destroyer and you want a connector and you want

Bruno the creator. That's the kind of right kind of balance.

And you put those together and you have potentially a top class midfield.

That said, I think Manu really does benefit from having a physical player alongside him

who eats up ground and does the destroying.

You can't connect if you're always in a double pivot.

And that will be the kind of play that United have to look for.

They, of course, are interested in Elliot Anderson.

I think he's been top of the list at United for some time.

Top of everyone else is list as well.

He's got a brilliant goal tonight against Manchester City.

Just, you know, remind everyone what he can do.

I was looking for a piece on my newsletter.

I was looking at all the data.

I mean, he's just a complete midfielder.

And 23 years old, perfect age profile that the problem is.

It's going to be an 80 to 100 million pound problem if there's a bidding war for him.

But like more widely, I think you're right in saying that it's three midfielders

United need it.

They need four, right?

If you're going to play two with Bruno ahead, you need four at the Champions League.

And Ugate will be sold presumably.

Casimir is going.

So that's two you need to replace.

And I would suggest that the profiles are two really high quality ones.

And one squad.

And in that piece, I did, I put a bunch of options.

But then you have the question about fullback.

Because there is a question about both sides of the fullback.

You know, the quality, Ugatello's quality,

Masrawi's dynamic physical profile,

lute sure's ability to get up and down.

Like, and then what do we want to do, Patrick Dorgu?

And we know where they wanted to left side it forward as well.

Because they tried to make a bid for Cementio in the winter.

Carrot was asked about it.

Lows and loads of times in the press conference before this one.

So that's just five players we named there.

Maybe six.

Yeah.

If we're in the Champions League,

the budget could stretch to 250 if they sell.

Mount, Zerxie, Hoyland, and Rashford and Ugate.

Right, that's five players you get fees for.

Obviously, you take Casimir's wages off the books and Ugate's wages.

Mount's got massive wages.

So you won't get a big fee for him.

And Zerxie not on big wages, but you might get a fee.

That gives you a pool of money with which to do this rebuild.

But it's really, really tough.

And you don't really have any room for mistakes.

Yeah, and I just wouldn't...

Maybe this is just me, but I wouldn't be selling both Mount and Zerxie.

I would be keeping one of them as a squad player.

And maybe Zerxie is the option because he's a point of difference.

I actually thought he was really good when he came on.

He was good when he came on, yeah.

Really tired.

He found some lovely channels.

Had a fantastic shot, which brought a brilliant saving Ramsdale,

could have won the game.

You know, just his sort of link up play when the game gets stretched.

We saw it.

I've seen it in a couple of games this season and whatever.

Mount's going blank about when.

Palace away, he was definitely one when he scored that goal.

Just the way he sort of plays at a different pace to everybody else.

And sort of...

Yeah, he almost plays at different sports sometimes.

Not necessarily in a good way,

but just the way he wants to play sort of off kilter.

And I think that can actually make a difference off the bench.

It's whether he wants to stay and do that job

when he probably could go and be the star for a Serie A team,

you know, probably one of the best Serie A teams.

He could be the main man up top or in the 10.

So that's what's it up to him, maybe.

Mount, I really don't know what to think about Mount

because he isn't feeling one of those two spots in the in the 4-2-3-1.

He isn't one of the two.

Yeah.

And Bruno is just always going to play as one of these out of the club

and Kunio is the second choice 10 now.

So I don't know where that leaves,

makes him mount if he can ever get in fit.

I think he probably wouldn't have made a difference tonight,

mind you, Ed.

Probably wouldn't have been his kind of game

because he can run and come around

and a lot of our players didn't look like they could do that tonight.

So I like it.

It's some balance, isn't it?

I like the theory of Mason Mount.

It's just a reality is a very different thing.

I like the theory of just succeed as well.

Like, as you say, he is a very different, different kind of player.

He's playing classical music

when so much of the Premier League is metal, isn't it?

And it's just because of that,

he often doesn't feel like he fits

and you just don't know where he kind of fits systemically.

He's definitely not a triker, is he?

So he's here at number 10.

He polarises opinion.

Yeah, no one can make their mind upon him.

I sort of diver wild the code from one opinion to the other

on him just based on a performance,

but that's what he's sort of like.

He's that frustrating player.

And yeah, he needs a need consistency

and they need the need options

because I'm so I'm so worried that the club

do the thing that they always do in the summer,

which is go after one target quite slowly.

Then another target quite slowly

and you end up with three players or four players

like you do every single summer.

And that's not going to be enough if we if we're going to be able

to handle games like this in midweek,

going to change the team up and off to keep it fresh.

And look at the top teams now that can change four, five, six players

and still put out a world class elite 11.

The past more I've done it all season.

I might win the title united.

You know, Carricks put out basically the same team in every game,

but one or two.

And I think tonight was the night when that finally came back to bite.

Yeah, I think that's all fair.

I mean, you're right about the number of I think he's like

and I don't think that's five players.

Let's go for the title next season.

Necessarily, it's it's five very identifiable problems

that you're trying to fix.

And they they've been willing to chase, you know,

Premier League proven high value targets from smaller clubs.

That worked really well last season with Coneer and and Boomer last summer.

And to do deals for surprising players like Dorgu and San Alamans.

And I do have a more of a confidence in we got our new data department,

which they've spent a lot of money on or they brought in new people

and it's partly about transfers.

It's partly about performance.

And we've got Christopher Vell leading recruitment.

And it does seem to be they're having a better hit rate.

It was hard to say with the manual Agate one,

who's thought that really was.

You know, whether they were sold a dream by the agents or it was Jason Wilcox or who,

because like they weren't all through the door.

Dan Escheroth wasn't probably through the door at that point.

Was he so that was that hasn't worked out.

Dorgu, we think he's going to work out.

Although for most of the time, we weren't quite sure.

That's plenty based on the last few weeks before we got into the league.

Exactly, exactly, exactly.

And some sense that there was some improvement there.

I guess this season.

What's gone wrong with Agate?

Because I remember sitting in a similar position talking to you after we drew

Angfield last season.

And he was really good.

Yeah, he was everywhere.

Hey, Ben Maynove.

We're excellent.

It was the best of him as a part of a double pivot.

And I was saying that he's not a true six and he's not a true eight.

He's somewhere in between.

He cuts the playoff.

He gets around.

His distribution is so, so poor that.

And I don't know, he just seems to really, he seems to lose his head quickly

that anyone loses their head.

And the rash mistake, it's very, it's very akin to Dallow actually,

some of the things that he does where.

He'll do a good thing.

He win the ball.

And then the next thing you know is going to be on a stake.

He can't deal with that second wave of pressure that comes on him.

But to sort of see the player that was so rated by a lot of top European clubs,

you know, he just hasn't made any sort of impact.

And you'd think the Premier League would kind of suit his style as well,

but it just, it's just been really lacking from him for a long time.

He's not all-round enough player to make it in the Premier League.

I wonder whether he'd look very different.

If you say Jiao Gomez was excellent against Liverpool last night for Wolves.

And if Guate was in the Wolveside, he'd probably look excellent as well.

When he has to do things that fit his profile and his skill set,

he doesn't really well.

He gets around, he harries players, he fouls, he tackles.

He's really, really high on the number of defensive actions, like in the data.

The problem is that you're knighted.

You have to do two other things, which he can't do.

One is distribution, but it's also the number six is supposed to take the ball off the

your centerbacks and help you build through the thirds.

And as soon as Guate came on, what they did was sit Maynu at six

for the, whatever, however, many minutes.

He was on another 15 minutes or so.

And push Guate to do the counter pressing, which you kind of understand,

right, because you can't give Guate the ball off Harry McGuire at the back and say,

okay, now you play it through the middle, because it's not going to happen.

Yeah, it shows a bit of a lack of trust in a Guate thing.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Not willing to give him that role.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, so you're throwing up there to a bit further forward,

not to try and create anything or link play at all,

but just to try and destroy it higher at the pitch.

Tyrus, Harry Ward, of course, that kind of strategy.

So I think that's the problem.

He's just joined the wrong club.

It's kind of why I was, you know, there were links with Jal Gomez in the winter.

He'll probably leave walls.

I like him as a player, but I do wonder whether he has a very similar kind of profile.

Obviously, the sporting connection as well.

And I also, like, you look at what Enrique did.

He joined Paris Saint-Germain.

He takes one look at Manuel Agate.

He goes, no, thanks.

You know, use the money to spend on Jal, never is.

They've got two, yeah, two absolutely silky ball players in their midfield.

Yeah, Agate couldn't really waste the boots off.

It's kind of good, he really.

No, that's right.

And coming back to the midfield balance question,

that's a question for the next season.

Huge reason, not just the number of players and the quality of the players we want, but

also, what do we want to be?

Because we kind of set up to be a great counter-attack inside still, aren't we?

With Enbumo and Kenya and Cesco burning pace and Bruno with Ancassamero both playing

high-risk balls all the time.

Do you want to become something more possession-oriented?

Is that the plan?

And like, who's that the plan for?

Is it for Carrick?

Is it for Nagelsmann?

Is it for someone else who we don't know yet to net that?

I think midfield's going to dictate that massively.

Yeah, I think there's a little bit of divide among the fan base when it comes to what kind of team

we want the United to be.

And I think I've always been drawn more towards that of the second style,

because I think that the best teams have more of the ball.

The best teams can break down smaller teams and put them away in a city,

if done for a decade under Pep.

I don't want, I don't want those to be exactly like sitios or like a Pep team,

but I'd like the United to be able to just dominate in those tight spaces.

And there's been a little bit of that, I think, in recent games under Carrick.

I think some of the attacking plays been really nice, but there hasn't been a sort of a sustained

sustained attack and sustained ability to break defensive teams down.

And that's what we saw tonight in the latter stages, especially.

And before those latter stages, actually when Newcastle were coming forward,

we couldn't even get the controls to push to pin the back.

We couldn't even do that bit.

We were still sort of playing Hail Mary's Bruno was looking for Bruno and Bruno and Bruno on the

switch and we were playing it quite long a lot of the time, which was,

I was baffled by London's playing Long Balls to Cesca when you're playing against 10 men.

Yeah.

But we have mixed our style up a lot, you know, since,

since, sorry, I guess, since, yes, at least since 10 Hark,

there's been no desire for us to be a control team.

And I do think that tripped you up a lot of, a lot of the time, as much as the United

tradition and Wayne will probably be on here saying, you know, the United

tradition is fast wingers and crossing and counter attacking.

Yeah, that's all, that's all well and good and that's part of the game.

You'll get opportunities to do that.

But an elite modern team, you know, it's like, you know, get a guy you can do both.

You've got to be able to, to play short, to tap it around.

Look at, look at Arsenal now, look at sitting now.

They are a lot more versatile than what they can do.

They're good on the transition and they're good at holding the ball.

Yeah, I think that's very true.

I mean, City have become more vertical as the whole league has.

It's always a response to the previous dominant tactical thinking, isn't it?

This is just evolution.

I always do find it funny.

There's a bunch of tacticals who basically give the impression that football is fundamentally changing.

You'll never be the same again.

Well, no, just constantly evolves, you know, and the current

ponch hunt for highly physical, set piece dominant sides will produce a bunch of thinking to counter that.

And it, Arsenal, the likely title winners this season are very dominant, right?

In most of the metrics, if you look at them, to the eye, they're horrible to watch.

I mean, they're just not an entertaining side at all.

But they are dominant in my social metrics.

Now, what they produce to produce that dominance is not beautiful.

25 par sequences that finish with a, you know,

a flourish or even a city style tapping or anything like that.

They use that dominance to get the ball into wide areas and force

free kicks and corners because they know how they have a real advantage there

because they've been working on this for longer than everyone else.

And they are quite prepared to use as many of the dark arts as possible

and referees don't call them out on it or even anyone else for that matter, right?

And, but they still have dominance and united have dominated so few games this season.

And it's to do with the types and the profiles of players we've got, right?

And so you just have to like two of your three midfielders or two midfielders under Amarim

are players that very, very much want to get the ball forward vertically.

And that's their skill set in Casamera and Bruno.

Of course, you'd want to take advantage of that.

And if you have some really quick attractive players on the break like

Kunya and Bruno, of course, you wouldn't take advantage of that as well.

So it's, I guess it's the question is all the, all this has come from, you know,

like the fact that Casamera is knackered and Manu had a bad game

and Ugate is at a shite, right?

This debate comes from there and that they, I presume.

And I have some relative, as relative to the last previous 10 years of,

of United's transfer market activity that will get this one.

Right. I hope so.

It's just that everyone might be chasing the same players.

Yeah, I think that, but I think there isn't an element as well where it is coaching.

And you can, you can change players.

And actually, if Bruno had been playing on the pet for the last five years,

what would he be like?

Would he be, would he be playing those four, five percent balls into the channels

or those outside of the foot crosses where there's one tonight where

Alan McCoy said on commentary,

I'll say, I could have got a leg across and got contacts on that.

I thought, no, he couldn't.

It was a really hopeful speculative ball from Bruno.

And we accept it because sometimes it produces a goal.

We know, maybe once a game it produces a goal, even looking is,

is a recent assist that is brilliant when it comes off.

But sometimes it's a very low percentage option.

And it, it concedes possession.

And tonight that just thought that's exactly what Newcastle wanted us to do.

And that's what we did.

We got involved in there in a slug fest, which is what they wanted.

We let Joe Linton run all over us and bully an elbow and push

and win cheap little shit fouls off the ref all game.

There was no poise and composure.

And that's what I wanted to see sort of the long-term development of this United

team, but many people disagree with that.

I've been interested to actually hear listeners and people in the comments.

What they want United to look like.

Forget who the manager's going to be.

Yeah.

You know, it's coachable.

Whatever you want is coachable from top-top players.

I think people forget that.

People sort of think, oh, these are the players.

This is what, this is the only way they can play.

These are guys who've been professionals for 15 years.

Who've been in top clubs and top academies.

I'm sure they can cope with slight tweaks and tactical instructions and stuff like that.

I mean, look at the way, go back to the way Pat and Klopp

and people like that coach their methods.

It was, this is my way and you fit into that.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

On Bruno, it's just a risk reward balance.

He's both brilliant at the risky pass because he just produced so many chances.

It's not luck, right?

It's not just a hopeful punter or whatever.

It's his quality.

Would he have played underpept?

Well, Kevin De Bruyne did and he had the so 80% pass completion rate.

Because he also similarly took on high risk rewards

and pepper accepted that because the other 10 players were all about control.

That's the difference.

That is the difference, right?

And so, would you, I mean, there's two times Bruno has been shifted

like two obvious times because the coach didn't like that risk reward balance

that won most recently under Amberin, pulled him back into midfield.

He was still managing to create chances and get a CS.

Even though he did adapt his game to playing central midfield.

And the other was Ralph Ragnick.

He took one look at him and said, no, I'm going to stick you on the left wing.

Didn't last very long that experiment.

Because when you've got a player of that nature who's

likely to win you many, many, many more games

than you lose under him, then you, of course, you know, that's worth it.

It's just you make sure your squad composition allows you to do the things you really want,

right, with the best players you've got.

Now, if you could tell me that United will create as many chances as core as many goals

with a different composition that didn't include Bruno,

I'd love to hear the outside.

You being the internet, not you Dominic.

No, I'm not for one minute saying the Bruno is rubbish or which is so Bruno

and I think like that.

I know you're not, but there will be people in the comments who are, right?

They will be, also be the people who will be complaining if we didn't create any chances.

Literally cannot have it both ways.

Now, if they, the internet, the world, the few people left on the planet who are Bruno haters,

mostly who, like, you know, watch a certain YouTube channel.

If there's another answer, great.

I mean, of course there are ways to win football matches that don't include Bruno Fernandez.

Of course there are.

But it might involve buying three new 100 million pound midfielders,

right, in order to get the balance right.

I don't think United is going to do that.

I think that they'll probably look at this balance to this squad and go,

yeah, Bruno is going to stay.

We hope he's going to stay.

It probably will if we're in the Champions League, give it one more go.

What is the composition of the plays we've currently got?

Well, the only other one that's going to be here next season is Maynu and some youngsters

who probably aren't quite ready.

What do the two or three other central midfielders we need look like in order to get the best out

of all these players?

You know, and get the squad composition right because it's obviously been Frankenstein for so long.

Yeah, it's also about for me.

It's about people like Amad, Maynu and Cesco improving, as you expect them to,

because looking at their ages and the sort of progression that they could go on in the next

few years, there's huge potential in those three in key positions as well.

And Amad should be the kind of right-wing who really compliments Bruno because he does give you

control. He's got a brilliant touch and very, very rarely gives it away. He's very, very

press-resistant.

I think we have actually missed him when he hasn't started the last couple of games.

I know he went quiet against West Ham and another game which is escaping me now.

He went a little bit quiet and people said we should swap him out and start and

boom on the right and Cesco up top.

It was probably the right call, but there's still something in Amad that brings an element

play that I don't think anyone else in that attacking four does.

And Maynu is the same in midfield, like you say, you just need the right player next to him.

Casamiro is the best choice at the moment, but obviously we know he's going and we need a different

profile than Casamiro in the future. Those three with Cesco as well and the improvement that he's

showing, that's just vital. And then whoever the coach is next to these and caracos somebody else,

you have to improve them, you have to get them to where they need to be.

Because if you don't, there's another rebuild about after there's another rebuild coming after that

and into years and there's more players that need to be signed. Look at the way that we had

to get rid of Hoyland and Garnacho because they were vastly underperforming. Look at the way we

had to patting, give up on Rashford, even though couple of years previously he'd been at that level.

There's all these sort of near misses in United's recent history with talented players.

So that is another worry of mine that we just will never get. There's that existential crisis

that we may never get this right, but I do hold hope for those three, in particular.

Yeah, you're right about the development of players. I mean, Amad, we just want more output,

right? Because it's brilliant footballer. Love him. We just need to look at the play.

I want him getting into double figures for goals and double figures for assists every season.

And same with Meanu, he needs to be a better progressive passer and needs to be on the

ball more, right? It's just true. If he wants to be a fully fledged player and he's 21, right?

So he can do this, especially the positioning to get the ball more. I think that can be

done through coaching and learning. Look at Madrice, who I've mentioned on this pod so many times as

the kind of profile of player that Meanu should be. Not saying he's as good, he's clearly not.

He was playing in Croatia at age 21, right? You know, it wasn't anywhere near Real Madrid

to see team winning five Champions League. So there's time, but you're right. Yes, they all need to

grow and develop and hiring and firing a manager over a year. It doesn't appear to be the best

path towards that. You know, years and years ago, I was on. I think it's BBC Radio Manchester.

They used to call me up fairly often, go on and be a pundit after the games and stuff like that. And,

you know, you remember the wireless Dominic when that's...

I've been doing it every now and then. Yeah, when people used to use that as post-match content

and not the watch-alongs. So the blog at the time was called United Rent. And anyway, I was asked,

why is it called rent? What have you got to rent about? And this is when the United

were brilliant and stuff like that. And I was like, pretty much anytime Nanny gets the ball,

that's what I want to rent about. But he would. And I brought that up because look at his record.

He got double figures for goals and assists so often. I think one season he got like 17 goals

and 15 assists. Absolutely elite numbers. You know, and we're like, well, he's not much good,

is he? You know, standards used to be so high. We would kill for a player who could do that.

He wasn't named Bruno Fernandez, you know, and it's... So yes, absolutely. We...

I think there's another level Ahmed can go to and has to go to. If he wants to be in a

title-winning United side, obviously we're not a title-winning United side right now. Same with

Maynu. I don't know. See, I'd like two top-class central midfielders and a third-dose cheaper

to push Maynu. And if it turns out, you know, even though, you know, I'm Big Booster and Big

Believer in his quality, if it turns out they're better than Maynu, then he won't play. And,

you know, that's fair do's at that point, isn't it? Yeah, and there's a bit of that sort of

you just, just standards based on what you've recently seen. You talk about, you know,

he had in the old days and how he was spoiled. But that's even happened recently. And I've not

looked really at social media after this game. I've had a few messages from Liverpool supporting

friends laughing at United losing. I mean, you know, look a bit closer to home lads, maybe first,

losing to wolves. But the standards from a really, really good and beaten run, we hadn't lost in

the league since four days before Christmas. And that was that villa game, which we were pretty

unlucky to lose, by the way. It was a similar story tonight, I think, you know, great goal from

someone cutting inside the Osulu, you know, goal, sort of a mirror image of Rodgers, I think.

Yeah. But people, people immediately think, oh, you know, you know, you know,

you should be carrying on this run, should be pushing for the title. Carrick was even asked about

it. Can you push for the title? He said something non-committal. And it was spun into a head by

Marco Carrick, refuses to rule out title push. I mean, we came 15 last season. We were shit,

like properly shit. Look at where Spurs are now. They're still down there. I know.

It's baby steps lads. You know, we've done pretty well under Carrick. I've enjoyed watching

us play the attacking football. It's my better than it was. The new signings have all done well.

We've lost in the last minute to a really good goal. It's really annoying. But, you know,

context is always key. Yeah. Yeah. Totally great. I'm not freaking out over this. The internet will

do, of course, but that's all right. It's disappointing. It's been, you know, the performances haven't

been all great under Carrick. I'm in the two best ones of a city in Arsenal. They had very specific

plans to win those games and it came off perfectly. All of the others you can kind of put pick holes

in. I think this was the worst of a lot. It was just so listless. We got 10 days, 11 days off. I

think it is now. Until the next game, some ridiculous number of days off. Anyway, sucks so much

because now we have to think about it for the next however many days. Just worry about villa at

home for the next however long. Yeah. Well, you know, villa are falling off a cliff at the moment,

so maybe we shouldn't worry about it. Or maybe we should. I don't know. There's two ways of

looking at everything. But just imagine, like, you know, the positive spin is we will have money,

right? This is what all the pain and for all I disagree with, like, Ratcliffe and him personally

and what he said about immigrants and his politics and, you know, I know it like there's lots of

United fans don't disagree with this fine. Like, you know, horse, yeah, everyone's got their opinions

and you know, it's very broad church and all that kind of stuff. But for all I personally don't

like about this man, the strategy of trying to reorganize the club in order to provide more

finances is basically working. Like, so United should have quite a pool of money in the summer.

Now, if we fall off a cliff after this and don't make the Champions League, that will not be true.

But if we do, just imagine the world in which we bring in. I'm just going to name some names

just for the sake of it, you know, Elliot Anderson and Sandro Tanali and Jal Gomez is like,

you know, your three midfields, you know, two starters and one or work, pick three names that

are your personal favorites. Like, don't hand big those. But Labour and Anderson and water, whatever,

whoever you love most, imagine you do that. He didn't hack me bowling out under Carrick. That's

does. Yeah, that's it. That's what I'm after. Yeah. There you go. There are some hipsters out there.

He's a good season. Yeah. Whatever the three is, imagine you get this right in the way they

got last summer, right? Then that gives you hope. Utterly transformational and I bet you then

we end the season inside of 10 points of the title. Winners, I don't think that would be enough

to quite win the title, maybe it would, I don't know. But yeah, if we have five or six points of the

title, win this next season, because we've got the summer recruitment, right? I think that's the

kind of progression we want. I just feel sick with worry that we won't make the Champions League.

I just had a look at the fixtures that were coming up and there and sort of those in between

the fixtures, Villa at home, Bournemouth away, even leads at home, feels like when you could lose

points on finishing with Brighton away or just, that's just horrible, just speaks with skin crawls.

Yeah, let's look more on the bright side. You painted a nice picture where the clubs are in

the bigger picture, which all it needs is to be better than one of Villa Chelsea in Liverpool.

And the way Villa are tanking, yeah, it could, it could be on still.

Yeah. All right, we barely talked about the gamers because it was shit. Oh, dear.

Oh, well, it is disappointing and we've got so long to stew about it as well. That's the

sickening thing. You just want the game at the weekend, don't you? So you can fix it. But

Casemiro will get to get a massage and relax his legs and he'll come back fresh and

probably mainly you can go look at the video and go, why are you rubbish tonight? And Brian and

Boomer, we had a world class stinker tonight, everything he touched went wrong. He can have a great

player, what went wrong? And Benjamin Cesco barely touched the ball so they can all go away and

ever think a long hard look at themselves and think about why they weren't any good. 11 days to stew,

let's just do it. I can't wait. Very good. Thank you, listeners, viewers, wherever you are,

you can catch Dominic around about. Don mood 19 on Blue Sky and Twitter. I've not done

the most abstract for a while. I usually do it to rant after we've lost, so you might get one soon.

Very good. Yep. And patreon.com for slash NQAT pod. So despondent with the game, I can

remember our own web address for the extra show. Adam and I talked about some of those midfield

options for this week's. I did something similar on my newsletter as well just to compliment it

with a bit of data and we'll see you at some point during the midweek. Thanks a lot. Bye now.

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