[ilovepantyhose]

SEASON REVIEW 22/23 PART TWO
part 2 discusses about team playing style, performance, mentality, and squad depth and improvements

Team playing style
ETH wants his team to play out from the back and conduct high pressing to quickly win the ball back. but the team still lacks the quality to pass their way out whenever they play an opponent who high press them. often they lose the ball in their own third and get quickly countered, good opponents will make them pay. we can see that the team got nervy when pressed and made mistakes, DDG also got nervy and made horror passes, some of which resulted in goals

when man u do high pressing, it works against some teams but wasn't effective against top teams like city, arsenal or pool. using a high press means that all the outfield players and defensive line are higher up the pitch. but DDG is not a "sweeper keeper" and there is a big gap between the high defensive line and GK waiting to be exploited by the opponent, couple that with a slow DC like maguire, sure to concede goals. we don't see maguire much in action as he doesn't fit into the system, ETH picks DDG because he is the best of the three GKs in the 1st team

how to counter the opponent high press? i still think the best way is to go direct, punting the ball to the striker is the best way to bypass the high press and doesn't invite unnecessary pressure in own third

the team also has to be more aggressive (or dirty) overall, disrupt the opponent's rhythm and game plan, don't let them have time and space on the ball. there will be more fouls but at least opponents won't walk all over them at will

Team performance, mentality and form
on some days, man u played well and the football is flowing and exciting. on some days man u started slowly or couldn't get into rhythm, and would struggle to break down opponents. and on an abysmal day, everything that could go wrong would go wrong and the result is 7-0

i believe consistency is key here and the manager must motivate the players and maintain the standards. notice that the squad seemed to have taken the foot off the gas after they won the EFL cup and it was reflected in the results. ETH had to say in the media that the players need to have the focus and hunger for more trophies. the players need to cut out social media all that nonsense and fully focus on football

some players don't have the mentality to dig deep when man u conceded first, seems like they have achieved their life goal of playing for a big club and coast all the way until they retire. as a supporter, it pisses me off when i see footballers on fat salaries play mediocre football. teams under SAF were known for their determination and fightback mentality, the current squad is still on and off and some way to go from "never give up"

home form - OT stopped being a fortress ever since SAF retired, and man u became a laughing stock. ETH has done a great job in making OT into a fortress again, the home loss to brighton was a blip but i'm optimistic opponents won't get a result when they come to OT next season onwards

away form - can be improved as ETH continue to work on squad mentality and consistency, its impt that man u cannot start slowly or concede silly goals

Squad depth and improvements
suggestions of areas to improve

i feel the current squad depth is average, as results will suffer in the event of injury crisis or players lose form. man u went thru a rough patch in march and april when several players got injured at the same time and results suffered

GK
can man u sign a GK that fits ETH system? if unable, ETH will have to make do with DDG and next season will be similar to this season: great saves sprinkled with howlers and horror passes. its rumoured that henderson wants to leave, so ETH will need to sign a third GK with experience

Defence
firstly, maguire needs to go. next up, bailly, can he get a clean slate under ETH? or will he leave as well? if so, then man u need to sign at least 2 defenders: a pacy DC, and a defender who can play anywhere across the backline. if cannot sign a DRLC, then may have to look within and retrain williams to be DRL. will be good to have an utility man in the squad ala P.Nev or o'shea

Midfield
note that eriksen is 31, fred is 30 and casemiro is 31, i think ETH can get them to perform at high level for one more season, but at the same time need to think and plan long term to replace them eventually: must sign a DMC at least, there is a box to box MC in VDB but ETH doesn't rate him well

i think mctom can also be retrained, both as a targetman and as a DC, he can become a versatile D/M/SC given his height (1.93m), which can benefit both club and country

Attack
man u need to sign a striker who can consistently score 20 goals every season, the priority is to sign a "drogba", who is strong, fast, good in the air, can hold the ball up and link up play. man u is lucky that rashford hit a rich vein of form and didn't suffer any serious injury this season, but what if he loses form or suffers a long term injury? even though ETH has martial, antony, sancho, garnacho at his disposal, i don't think they are consistent enough to score 20 goals every season. man u need another striker to share the scoring workload in the event of injury or form loss (remb SAF had yorke, cole, sheringham and OGS). city really kio tio durian when they signed haaland for only 51m