Snak

Link til en side på www.theguardian.com

Mourinho fortæller journalisterne, at de må finde noget andet end angrebsspillere at kæde United sammen med frem mod sommer transfervinduet, for han kommer ikke til at forstærke sig i den afdeling.

Lidt overraskende med vores højre kant in mente, men det må vel som minimum betyde, at Matas kontrakt ikke bare blev forlænget for at få penge for ham til sommer, men at han faktisk indgår i planerne for næste sæson.

Det ser jeg som gode nyheder, og det betyder jo også at han vil prøve at få enten Alexis, Rashford eller Martial til at fungere på den højrekant. Min største frygt var, at én af de to sidstnævnte ville blive kørt ud på et sidespor, efter Alexis´ ankomst. Det ser ikke sådan ud nu, med den udtalelse.

Interessant udmelding fra Mourinho og vel i ganske tråd med det, vi lige har debatteret.

United HAR mange dygtige forwards. Desværre mangler United et offensivt flow, som blandt andet kunne skabes ved at spille 4-3-3, som tidligere nævnt.

Problemet er, at hvis man vil spille 4-3-3, så skal Lukaku, Mata, Lingard, Martial, Rashford og Alexis slås om kun tre positioner, mens de skal fordele fire imellem sig i en 4-2-3-1.

Omvendt er man tyndere besat på midtbanen, hvor Pogba, Matic og Herrera ville sidde ganske tungt på de tre mulige pladser i 4-3-3, med kun Carrick, Fellaini(skadet) og BigMac som reserver.

I den nuværende trupsammensætning er det altså svært at se, hvordan man skal spille 4-3-3, da antallet af forwards er temmelig skævt i forhold til antallet af centrale midtbanespillere. Det kunne man selvfølgelig have ageret efter i et af de overståede transfervinduer.

@Don_M:

Jeg tror, vi er mange, der ryster lidt i bukserne over, at Alexis har fået venstrekanten foræret på bekostning af de to unge - og særligt Martial. Det er desværre meget Mourinho´sk at være optaget af "instant succes" frem for at give unge spillere tid til at udvikle sig. Husk, at han tidligere rådede over både Lukaku og De Bruyne, da han var i Chelsea. Men med Martials sæson indtil videre in mente, burde han ikke være bange for at bruge ham imo.

Jeg håbede, der var nye tider i United, og jeg er vild med, at han har "opfundet" McTominay og givet ham så meget tillid. Egentlig er jeg også godt tilfreds med den mængde spilletid, som Martial og Rashford har delt mellem sig indtil nu, men hvis Alexis er hentet for at spille til venstre, så har Mourinho altså tabt sutten, hvis man spørger mig.

Som jeg ser det, vil det være fatalt at fjerne Martial fra venstresiden, mens det vil være lettere for både Alexis og Rashford at få succes på de to andre positioner bag 9´eren.

Yildiz: Du glemmer Mctuminay, men ellers enig. Lige nu giver 4-2-3-1 mere mening, men mod top-6 kan vi jo godt skifte til 4-3-3. Det burde spillere på det her niveau sagtens kunne.

Jeg glemte ikke McTominay. Jeg brugte bare kælenavnet "BigMac". Faldt over det forleden, og det passer da meget fint til ham.

OK den fangede jeg ikke lige, men det er da et ganske sjovt nick.

James Ducker med en meget positivt vinklet artikel om Mourinho og Guardiola og deres arbejde med akademiprodukter:

It was mostly overlooked at the time, a casualty of the fanfare surrounding Alexis Sanchez’s signing a few days earlier, but when Manchester United announced Jose Mourinho had signed a new contract last month, there was a line from the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, praising the manager’s commitment to blooding youth.

“He has embraced the club’s desire to promote top quality young players to the first team,” said Woodward, a pointed response to those who suggested the Portuguese would pay little more than lip service to the club’s rich traditions of cultivating home-grown talent.

Those suggestions had solid enough foundations. For all the success Mourinho’s managerial career has brought him, there has been a perennial black splodge next to the box marked youth development and no one has been more aware of this than the man himself.

He even arrived at his first press conference as United manager armed with a notebook listing the names of 49 players, colour-coded in red, blue and green, whom he was convinced would help him nail “the lie, repeated many times” that he was to academy players what weed killer is to plants. Yet the strength of that argument began to fall down when, on closer inspection, it emerged Mourinho had included the likes of Arjen Robben in his list, the same Robben who had already made more than 100 appearances for Groningen and PSV Eindhoven by the time he joined Chelsea for £12 million.

It has felt very different at United, though, and while entrenched reputations can take a long time to change, certain perceptions are, for now at least, being challenged.

There has been an understandable rush to measure Mourinho and United’s every move against what Pep Guardiola has been doing at Manchester City. But while Guardiola has raised all sorts of bars this term, there is a certain irony that Mourinho – “the monster that kills the little kids” as he sarcastically described himself last week – has bought into the academy ethos in a way his great adversary, often heralded as a champion of youth, has yet to do with any particular conviction down the road.

Tuesday marks the 60th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, and on a weekend when United supporters honoured the memory of the Busby Babes – one of the ultimate symbols of the potency of youth – there was something rather poignant about Mourinho dropping Paul Pogba and playing academy graduate Scott McTominay in the £89 million’s man place against Huddersfield.

Before anyone hints at an ulterior motive there, it is worth remembering that Mourinho has never been one for sentiment and that McTominay had already made more starts this season than the entirety of the five academy graduates at City who have fleetingly tasted first-team football under Guardiola since August. Note, too, that Marcus Rashford has made more appearances – 90 – than anyone since Mourinho took charge at United and another academy graduate, Jesse Lingard, who has also flourished, is fourth on that list.

While Mourinho was extolling the virtues of McTominay, or the “kid” as he affectionately calls him, Guardiola was whining about not having enough players in the wake of a mounting injury list and a failed move for Riyad Mahrez, and reiterated the point with a grimly petty decision to name only six substitutes against Burnley.

Such arguments really do not hold much sway when you have spent £450 million in 19 months and have an academy awash with exciting talents, any number of whom would have benefited from the experience of a match-day with the first-team squad. “If you’re the academy or reserve-team manager at Manchester City, you must think, ‘I’m wasting my time’,” said Gary Neville, the former United defender and Sky Sports pundit. “Rather than saying in an interview, ‘I haven’t got the players’, he could say he’s brought a young player from the youth team who has been wonderful this season. It’s really poor. And I can guarantee you the youth-team coach and reserve-team coach at Manchester City will feel disheartened by him having six players on the bench.”

It was a wretched move Mourinho’s critics might have once expected him to make but the tide seems to be turning.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/02/04/manchester-united-managers-faith-youth-puts-pep-guardiola-shade/

Det virker som om Pep har fået medierne lidt på nakken med sine udtalelser de sidste par uger af januar. Jeg synes også det er helt fair, at Mourinho får lidt anerkendelse, for selvom han ikke har spillet lige så mange af de unge, som jeg godt kunne tænke mig, så har han by far overgået sit image fra tidligere klubber.

Hvis Watford holder den føring mod et Chelsea hold i undertal bør vi simpelthen kunne køre den 2. plads hjem med vores resterende program

Det er ikke os du skal frygte.
Vi har rigeligt se til med bare at komme i top 4.

Det er egentlig meget sjovt, at Chelseas krise for alvor startede da Conte lagde sig ud med Mourinho. Det er næsten synd, hvis Mourinho ikke selv får lov til at sætte dødsstødet ind på Old Trafford.

Det er dog lidt tidligt at sælge 2. pladsen. Vi har et hul på 5 point. Det kan være væk på 2 kampe - og vi har altså et par rimeligt svære kampe i vente i de kommende runder.