Aaron Moniz

Not defending the board here, but I’m astonished how much defence Carrick is getting. The team (super fit last year) showed up this yr unfit physically and tactically. A few challenging results and Carrick instantly folded to some of the worst tactics United have ever had – a difficult bar to clear

I can’t recall Bruno ever speaking negatively about Solskjaer, Rangnick, Ten Hag, RVN, Amorim, or Fletcher in public, but he dismantled the entire approach after Como. Folding the forward line to add Youri Tielemans to the broken high press. Total set piece regression. Predictable on the ball.

No guarantees a new coach makes United better, but it’s foolish not to try. The only reason I could understand is if they need 1-2 more weeks to figure out a replacement

Dropping Bruno is whatever given his comments. My real question is, why is Tielemans, the Emery 6, playing in his spot?

Have caught up on all the recent United games I missed and I do have to say, my criticism on the board this week let Carrick off easy. His coaching has gone from a split of pros/cons that were difficult to size to utterly woeful and inexplicable since the Spurs match

I love football, man. TFC could’ve limped out of playoff contention months ago but instead they won me back over only to go 3-0 down 30 mins into the decider. Can’t wait for the Leafs to play the Oilers tonight!

The fact people are still (hate)watching and covering City games like they’re some WWE villain is wild to me. This isn’t some movie narrative where the cheaters get served their own medicine at the end, it’s tampering with competitive pro sports

Honestly it’s pretty simple: United need a long-term strategy that goes beyond player and coach. Downstream of that might include replacing Carrick and some players, but without the upstream part, it’s pointless. They will lack strategic consistency and compounding and fall behind other teams

Yeah, they haven’t hired “the one”, but it’s the lack of principles. Mourinho’s squad too old for Solskjaer, Solskjaer’s squad not technical enough for Ten Hag, Ten Hag’s squad not athletic enough for Amorim, Amorim’s squad lacked midfield control for Carrick. What’s the club trying to do?

Now they have a squad of technical players who aren’t athletic (Tielemans, Martinez), + athletic players who aren’t technical (Dorgu, Ugarte)+ in betweeners without elite quality who look lost (Dalot, Mount). Aggregate them all and United’s opposition have to deal with a bunch of nothing

United’s season dead in October, not Carrick’s fault even though he’s not good enough. I don’t understand what this team is supposed to be. Fast? Strong? Fit? Technical? How are they supposed to score goals? What are we doing about SPs? Is it a project or are 3 points all that matters?

1-1 against Leeds at 80’ and Rashford Cunha Lacey are keeping the bench warm. Every vision this team claimed to have has been given up after 7 tough league matches

I don’t think there was a morsel of planning in how to make Santos and Tielemans’ lack of mobility work in a progressive side, other than “they’re cheap relative to what they are”. That doesn’t make United a market exploiter, it just makes them cheap

Have some questions about this approach from United (are we back to 343? Are we going to defend and counter all year now?) but no doubt it is better than the first two months of the season

Although foundationally I’m not sure. I guess the idea is might as well limit settled attacks in exchange for numbers behind the ball if the settled attacks aren’t creating chances. But long term… I don’t know where you go from here, I guess we’ll see

I think great football teams result from adopting a smart teamwide vision, relentlessly pursuing it even when you get pushback, and compounding your gains over multiple seasons. I think Lisandro’s comments just publicly display that United don’t have any lasting top to bottom conviction in anything

The solution set under Amorim is almost the exact problem set under Carrick: more physical, press higher, ball carrying, positional discipline, wide play, set piece dominance. 2/3 midfielders who joined this summer would not have suited Amorim’s system. What do they even believe the squad should be?

Makes it impossible for anyone to know what they are or should be doing. What would sacking Carrick solve for? Are they going to go back to the above principles and Carrick doesn’t want to? Are they going to keep the Carrick principles? If yes to Q2, what is their view on why it’s not working?

Honestly maybe I’ll get over it but the City news does feel like a permanent rift in my enjoyment of the Premier League. Being told “everything you’ve watched the last 10 years as well as what you are currently watching is tainted” makes me… not that invested in watching anymore

Great win Toronto FC. There was no other match today

5 points from Hull Fulham Ipswich Everton and 10-man City with extremely mediocre shot margins. You tell me

Haven’t had more xG than the opposition since Ipswich

This is actually multitudes worse than anything Amorim produced in 25/26

Attacking talent is just wild. Just Doku, Semenyo, Cherki, Ndiaye, Haaland, Foden, Enzo squaring up teams and blasting games open

Aaron Moniz@amoniz.bsky.social

With the level of talent in their XI now, feel like City can kind of just sleep their way through wins. Type of thing where by October (before fixtures and injuries start to hurt) nobody thinks they’re particularly good and yet they’re 7-2-1 in their first 10

This season is going to be a lot of wondering why United don’t dominate games they have huge talent advantages in, and don’t win matches they should be winning. 3/5 such matches to start the season

If any past United coach with more dogmatic tactical ideals put up this 11v10 there would be think pieces about how that tactical approach should never be used again in the league

Enzo is the most insufferable person in the history of the game. And for no reason, he’s literally good enough at football not to have to be like this

Carrick only lever is open up games, create and concede chances, or close down games, don’t create or concede many chances. Some of the midfield stuff is very cool but other than that… I hope he fixes the gaps man. Embarrassing 11v10

Tielemans off is a mistake. Pretty frustrating

Think Carrick was coaching about a 9/10 before the red and a 3/10 since. Not changing the attack for this long is wild

Every minute from now without Sesko is a mistake

United weren’t creating chances but they were slicing through City in buildup 11v11 with the ball, and engaging lower and preventing incisive passing against them without the ball. Carrick deserves a lot of credit IMO. 55/45 against opposition with obviously better players

Why are people pretending Bruno and Foden exchanged equivalent blows lol

I tap you on the ground studs down you kick out at me in the air studs up. Shall we go 10v10 then?

12 Sept

Honestly I think it’s pretty difficult these days to accumulate talent that’s meaningfully better than Premier League average, and Spurs have just spent hundreds of millions on players who also aren’t really there (other than Savio and Fernandes)

12 Sept

I think it takes a particular kind of myopic thinking to see two years of clear talent deficit and think players like Tonali, Robertson, Mudryk, Tosin, and to a lesser extent JPVH, Senesi, etc. fix the problem of “our players don’t look different to your everyday team in the division”

10 Sept

United have good forwards, open tactics, and play 60+ matches this season. The individual attacking numbers are going to look absurd

10 Sept

Toronto FC just kept buying players until there were more good MLS players than not good MLS players playing every week, and now they are not the worst team in MLS. Simple sport

9 Sept

I’m not that well kept up with MLS despite being a ST holder, but Nashville first time in a while I’ve watched a team in any league and thought “this team is actually too good to be playing in this competition”

10 Sept

Thank you for your support in this Toronto masterclass

6 Sept

Do you know how many people publicly admitted they don’t rate Martin Odegaard lol could not be me

Early but Ipswich look like one of the worst coached teams I’ve ever seen in the PL

nytimes.comChelsea reach agreement with Monaco for Camara (Gift Article)Chelsea have reached an agreement with Monaco for the signing of midfielder Lamine Camara.The Athletic reported earlier on Tuesday that Chelsea were keen on a move for the 22-year-old, and had seen a ...

1 Sept

Not sure I think Camara is good enough to meaningfully change games for Chelsea – in or out of possession – but feels like that’s baked into this fee, so decent move I guess

David Ornstein@david-ornstein.bsky.social

🚨 Chelsea reach agreement with Monaco to sign Lamine Camara. Deal for 22yo midfielder worth £47m to #ASMonaco. Senegal international completed medical + joins #CFC on 6+1yr contract after Fernandez exit; set to arrive in London on Wednesday @theathleticfc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/liv...

1 Sept

Haven’t watched loads of Ndiaye, but think the general consensus I’ve seen here is too low on him. He looks very strong on the ball and has many of the tools high goal impact players have. Everton’s attack is pretty dry, sometimes the numbers just don’t pop for a wide player in a team like that

1 Sept

Wasn’t a fan of Gakpo for £85m but Ndiaye for £65m seems like a reasonable move for City. I do think some of it comes from overleaning on xG/xA/G/A/ baseline attacking involvement metrics that don’t apply linearly across a league

31 Aug

Think it is a bit lost on Spurs that the players they bring in have to actually be very good in order to win matches consistently. Just feels like numbers numbers numbers and they’re not even going to need numbers that badly this year

Fabrizio Romano (MIRROR)@fabrizioromano.yopro20.com

🚨⚪️ Tottenham are ready to buy Tosin on permanent deal from Chelsea if they can also get Mudryk loan deal done. Initial enquiry for Tosin loan but moving onto permanent deal after #THFC ask for Mudryk due to Ndiaye deal complications + only 1 loan allowed.