Preseason 2025/26

[Fuck the Glazers]

No injuries, and played some neat stuff.

Still some slack passing from the back that needs to improve.

Mount gave a good showing, and Hojlund not featuring pretty much would indicate the chances of him staying are low to zero.

One proper cm would really improve us alot, but there is progress there.

The real test will be next weekend though.

Did Heaven not get injured? I read that he went off with something.

[Jason]

No injuries, and played some neat stuff.

Still some slack passing from the back that needs to improve.

Mount gave a good showing, and Hojlund not featuring pretty much would indicate the chances of him staying are low to zero.

One proper cm would really improve us alot, but there is progress there.

The real test will be next weekend though.

Did Heaven not get injured? I read that he went off with something.

You're right, it must have happened when I went to make a cuppa, but commentators made no mention, so hopefully it wasn't anything serious.

[Felwin]

Watching the Fiorentina game. We're still utterly shite at playing out from the back. That's a worry, because as much as we've strengthened the front line, if we're always fucking up and on the back foot, we're not going to get them in games enough.

I hope Sesko could be the game changer here. Palace build up in the exact same shape that we do and have the option to go long to Mateta if they can't get out (how they scored in the FA Cup Final).

If that becomes an effective way of us getting out, suddenly the opposition have decisions to make. Double up on Sesko but risk leaving Bruno, Cunha or Mbeumo free, press us high and give us the long ball option, drop off and give us time on the ball. The latter worries me as I'm not sure we're built to break teams down slowly, but if it's either of the former, we could look very dangerous on the counter again.

Last season Garnacho was our only threat on the counter and he missed the 4-5 big chances he got. Teams will look at Cunha, Mbeumo, Sesko and Bruno this year and not fancy us countering them quick. But not every team will drop off and give us the impetus, least not Arsenal next weekend.

[JoelfuckingGlazer]

Watching the Fiorentina game. We're still utterly shite at playing out from the back. That's a worry, because as much as we've strengthened the front line, if we're always fucking up and on the back foot, we're not going to get them in games enough.

I hope Sesko could be the game changer here. Palace build up in the exact same shape that we do and have the option to go long to Mateta if they can't get out (how they scored in the FA Cup Final).

If that becomes an effective way of us getting out, suddenly the opposition have decisions to make. Double up on Sesko but risk leaving Bruno, Cunha or Mbeumo free, press us high and give us the long ball option, drop off and give us time on the ball. The latter worries me as I'm not sure we're built to break teams down slowly, but if it's either of the former, we could look very dangerous on the counter again.

Last season Garnacho was our only threat on the counter and he missed the 4-5 big chances he got. Teams will look at Cunha, Mbeumo, Sesko and Bruno this year and not fancy us countering them quick. But not every team will drop off and give us the impetus, least not Arsenal next weekend.

That's a good shout. I still think a quality 6 is a must though

[Felwin]

Watching the Fiorentina game. We're still utterly shite at playing out from the back. That's a worry, because as much as we've strengthened the front line, if we're always fucking up and on the back foot, we're not going to get them in games enough.

I hope Sesko could be the game changer here. Palace build up in the exact same shape that we do and have the option to go long to Mateta if they can't get out (how they scored in the FA Cup Final).

If that becomes an effective way of us getting out, suddenly the opposition have decisions to make. Double up on Sesko but risk leaving Bruno, Cunha or Mbeumo free, press us high and give us the long ball option, drop off and give us time on the ball. The latter worries me as I'm not sure we're built to break teams down slowly, but if it's either of the former, we could look very dangerous on the counter again.

Last season Garnacho was our only threat on the counter and he missed the 4-5 big chances he got. Teams will look at Cunha, Mbeumo, Sesko and Bruno this year and not fancy us countering them quick. But not every team will drop off and give us the impetus, least not Arsenal next weekend.

That's a good shout. I still think a quality 6 is a must though

Definitely if we want to compete at the top end, but it's surely financially beyond us this season.

Let's see if they can secure some funding for Baleba. I get the clamour but I worry the pressure will get piled on like with Ole once we signed Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho. It'd be ridiculous because we finished 15th but that's the nature of the beast, Amorim could go from needing to steady the ship to expected to get top 4 overnight.

[Fuck the Glazers]

Ed on the pod said buying Baleba would be Ratcliffe & co gambling on top 4. I agree. I can see Ratcliffe wanting to make that leap this season cos CL money is essential to progress. It might even be Amorim's target. Ratcliffe doesn't want to wait around and sets mad targets in other sports.

From what Ed was saying, if we got CL football this season, financially we'd be okay ish.

[Felwin]

Ed on the pod said buying Baleba would be Ratcliffe & co gambling on top 4. I agree. I can see Ratcliffe wanting to make that leap this season cos CL money is essential to progress. It might even be Amorim's target. Ratcliffe doesn't want to wait around and sets mad targets in other sports.

From what Ed was saying, if we got CL football this season, financially we'd be okay ish.

That worries me because it's exactly what Woodward did about 5 times. Chuck a load of money at the team and say "top 4 or you're sacked". Not sustainable and the reason we were absolutely fucked until these three signings and some good financial news cheered us up a bit.

[Fuck the Glazers]

Ed on the pod said buying Baleba would be Ratcliffe & co gambling on top 4. I agree. I can see Ratcliffe wanting to make that leap this season cos CL money is essential to progress. It might even be Amorim's target. Ratcliffe doesn't want to wait around and sets mad targets in other sports.

From what Ed was saying, if we got CL football this season, financially we'd be okay ish.

That worries me because it's exactly what Woodward did about 5 times. Chuck a load of money at the team and say "top 4 or you're sacked". Not sustainable and the reason we were absolutely fucked until these three signings and some good financial news cheered us up a bit.

Very true. But this time we have a new structure behind the scenes, and new processes, plus experts making decisions. Mostly, anyway. Whereas under the Glazers we had Ed signing players with a bias for commercial profile.

But yeah it's a fucking massive challenge to get top 4, when you think there's 6/7 clubs vying for 4 positions.

[Felwin]

Ed on the pod said buying Baleba would be Ratcliffe & co gambling on top 4. I agree. I can see Ratcliffe wanting to make that leap this season cos CL money is essential to progress. It might even be Amorim's target. Ratcliffe doesn't want to wait around and sets mad targets in other sports.

From what Ed was saying, if we got CL football this season, financially we'd be okay ish.

That worries me because it's exactly what Woodward did about 5 times. Chuck a load of money at the team and say "top 4 or you're sacked". Not sustainable and the reason we were absolutely fucked until these three signings and some good financial news cheered us up a bit.

Very true. But this time we have a new structure behind the scenes, and new processes, plus experts making decisions. Mostly, anyway. Whereas under the Glazers we had Ed signing players with a bias for commercial profile.

But yeah it's a fucking massive challenge to get top 4, when you think there's 6/7 clubs vying for 4 positions.

There are possible things that might work in our favour.

If Liverpool are able to nab Isak and Newcastle can't replace him, they'll be weakened and have CL football as a distraction.

Chelsea and Spurs are just as erratic as we are and could both easily replace their managers over the course of the season.

Forest probably won't be up there again.

Arsenal aren't guaranteed to be miles better with Gyökeres but you'd expect them to be 3rd best.

The chance that all these work in our favour though is pretty small, it'd be mental to expect too much months after we were all on the floor.

[fat maradona]

I reckon we had around 10-12 games last season where we either drew or lost by a goal. Given our biggest issue last season was creating and scoring goals, if we had scored 1 or 2 goals each game, we could have won the games we drew and drew/won the games we lost. Let's say that adds up to 24 points, we'd be have finished 5th/6th.

We weren't perfect in other areas either but the lack of goals last season was the biggest contributor to where we finished in the table and the lack of trophies. It also massively affected the confidence of our attackers, apart from Diallo (who we lost to injury at the worst possible time). I think just fixing that area will see us improve in table position and then factoring in how the players are adapting to the Amorim system now, we'll see better results.

Gotta stay positive, I was ready to give up on United over the past 2 seasons.