Vocal Voices

Leeds Utd win away at Brentford.

Burnley lose at home to Newcastle.

Burnley relegated, but it could have gone either way.

We have to increase the squad, it is an absolute must. Bielsa liked a small squad but it nearly did for us with the injuries. Marsch is going to have to pick a few boardroom pockets.

that was nerve wracking!

I bet it was. Well done, Leeds.

Pretty nerve-wracking at Manchester City as well ....

When Gelhardt's goal was ruled out by VAR I thought that it was going to be one of those days.
Very happy to be wrong but blimey, talk about being put through the wringer!
Yes we need signings; and not just one or two, and they have to be the right quality.
We may be able to keep Raphina and Kalvin. I hope so.

Yes Os - three City goals in five minutes!

Workingman wrote:Leeds Utd win away at Brentford.

Burnley lose at home to Newcastle.

Burnley relegated, but it could have gone either way.

We have to increase the squad, it is an absolute must. Bielsa liked a small squad but it nearly did for us with the injuries. Marsch is going to have to pick a few boardroom pockets.

We’ve got a few* players you can take off our hands.

Seriously though, you can’t go through another season without strengthening. It’s going to be a funny one too with everything stopping mid November for the World Cup. There are going to be a lot of games crammed into the first three months and it’s bound to take it’s toll injury and recovery wise.

*at least 10

Yes Jo, the situation at Man U is weird.No offence to Phil Jones but years ago I said that he wasn't a Man U type player, nowhere near good enough. You can carry one or two like that but no more.
Then you've got players who have the ability (Pogba, Martial, Rashford) but who can't or won't put a shift in, or whose form just falls off a cliff.
A lot of them show no desire, so different from the 90's United who had all the desire and ability in the word and who could also leave a foot in.

As for us I hope it's lessons learned. one experienced striker in the whole squad?? We need outfield players in all areas; being tight last January almost proved to be a very false economy.

The whole Phil Jones thing is a mystery. How he’s still at the club now makes no sense, apart from the fact that Ed Woodward apparently liked to tie players up to new contracts to preserve their resale value.
Fergie tried him in midfield a few times and he looked quite promising but then injuries started to take their toll and he’s rarely had a good run in the team at his favoured position let alone anywhere else.

I do feel sorry for him, a bit anyway because in all of this time he’s been getting paid a very decent wage without playing, but he said he didn’t want a testimonial because only his family would turn up and he came off social media because of the abuse he was getting from keyboard warriors. He got a great reception at Old Trafford earlier this year though and actually played pretty well after something like two years out.

It’s looking like Pogba and Martial are off, I’d give Rashford next season to show some improvement and ship him off if nothing changes. Pogba’s out of contract anyway but there’s always been the concern that if nothing better came up that contract would still be on the table for him. He’s not well liked by supporters.

What are your thoughts about Marsch?

It's hard to say Jo.
He has to be given credit for keeping us up.
He is managing what is essentially still Bielsa's team. He has had no opportunity to spend money and get in the players that he wants.
Some fans don't like him because he's American and he's not Bielsa, which seems a bit daft.
We won't really know how good he is until well into next season imo.

.

Internationally US men's and women's teams play attractive and entertaining football and are also successful, Marsch is well grounded in that philosophy. Whether it translates to success in the premier league is the question.

Whichever way it goes he needs new players and a bigger squad. We need to ship a few out and bring in quite a few more, but not Pogba, Martial or Rashford, thank you.

Sorry, Jo, you could be stuck with them. Who would want them?