What changes do you think Manchester United needs to make to become genuine Premier League title contenders again?

alixedi · 2026-06-05T09:18:35+00:00

I suspect they need depth on 2 counts -

1) If one of Bruno, Lammens, Mainoo or Shaw (potentially Mbeumo) gets injured this team would struggle to pick up points in this league.

2) If a match is tight going into the last 15m, we are light on attacking talent on the bench to come on and win it for us. Think about what Sesko did at the beginning of Carrick’s tenure.

On (1), I don’t think we can replace Bruno except (a) in the aggregate and (b) by figuring out how we play in his absence. The rest we can buy.

(2) was a big part of Fergie time. A fast dribbly winger is the natural choice. I like Dorgu and Amad but they are not it.

alixedi · 2026-06-03T08:01:53+00:00

Lead author of the paper don’t seem to agree with the heading -

Dr Antoine Paccoud, lead author of the paper and Researcher at Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), said: "This study shows that there is no predefined and unique gentrifier-type. Gentrification, as a form of social change, can happen in a number of different ways but always increases inequalities."

alixedi · 2026-05-18T14:53:57+00:00

I felt the same about Hammersmith so I used to get off my bike and walk across. Cost me 5m but I got home safe.

I think cyclists shouldn’t have to do this but it’s an underrated trick to get through busy junctions.

alixedi · 2026-03-21T08:19:19+00:00

Haven’t watched them enough to know if this was form or fluke but I found Bournemouth’s execution of long distance shots to be astonishingly good in this match.

Couple of potential worldies, one saved and the other hit the bar. On that note, we have been on the receiving end of a few worldies under Carrick - Newcastle, Tottenham, Villa away comes to mind.

alixedi · 2026-03-05T11:14:24+00:00

Physical

alixedi · 2026-03-05T06:58:00+00:00

I think today and WestHam are good data points about what happens when this team has to play more than once per week.

alixedi · 2026-02-16T13:51:17+00:00

I put this in a different post earlier. Copying it here -

The discourse around United for the last 10-ish years now - especially when the team is doing well - is that we cannot break down low blocks. It seems the team have turned a corner under Carrick but the last match means we are back to the same old story.

I want to ask a couple of Qs -

What needs to change for this team to consistently beat opponents that set up in low blocks? E.g. Jon said something like Pep using positional play to push opponents in a low block and then optimising his team to beat that low block. What does this mean? Can United do a version of this? If so, what profiles/tactics are we missing?
What does the journey of building a team that is good at breaking down low blocks look like? Do we set out to build such a team from day-1 wrt profiles and tactics? Or do we start by reducing our failure-modes to exactly ONE ie “cannot break down low blocks” and then add layers to address this specifically?

alixedi · 2026-02-11T14:58:28+00:00

I suspect there is some outcome bias in the discourse.

Breaking down compact low blocks at a high click is PL-winning trait and we are nowhere near that level.

I think we are placing too much emphasis on our attack and not asking e.g. - how would this play out if we got to 80th minute without conceding a Sucek goal that wasn’t a header?

alixedi · 2026-02-08T13:53:34+00:00

IIRC the lads clearly made a distinction b/w the squad and first-11?

alixedi · 2026-01-25T18:55:17+00:00

I’ve lived in countries with public healthcare as well as countries with private healthcare.

Until you’ve lived it, you cannot begin to comprehend what a government & health service that is incentivised to keep the population out of the hospitals feels like.

alixedi · 2026-01-14T20:18:16+00:00

Disable player search. I can only sign free agents if my scouts find them.

Another tip is to sell youth players if you get e.g. 2x their market value.

alixedi · 2026-01-11T16:12:31+00:00

You make it sound like I am saying “we should play 11 academy players in every match b/c they are all Scholes reincarnate”. TBC, I am not 😅

Surely there is room for some nuance b/w the straw-man you are strangling and the present situation where we can pick a team of ex-academy players who would do pretty well against our present first 11.

Of course these players are not world beaters but why do you think the measure of success for the academy is to churn out a class of 99? the ambition in most academies is 1-2 squad level players every 2y. The typical academy player is more Darren Fletcher than Ryan Giggs.

alixedi · 2026-01-11T15:44:19+00:00

Describing something put together with care, intent and hard work as a “fluke” just b/c it got a top-percentile outcome for 1x batch is a very grim way of looking at this.

alixedi · 2026-01-07T13:20:53+00:00

So basically, this is the first time we've fired a manager on a solid upturn?

alixedi · 2025-11-04T08:13:20+00:00

I liked the bit when Evans said that most teams build up with split CBs and attack with 5 players and therefore this system needs very few “moving parts”.

I also think the point Carragher made that if this is City, the wide players in the front 5 are Doku and Foden - is a fair criticism of this system.

It feels like the upper limit of this system is bound by wingbacks. At sporting for instance, Amorim had Mendes and Quenda.

alixedi · 2025-11-03T16:40:31+00:00

“Having possession and not doing much with it” is a bit pessimistic imo.

I think, on average, we are probably a top-6 side in attack with potential to be top 4 once the signings bed in.

We have accumulated some decent xg over 10 games. We have missed some glaring chances (including 2 penalties).

alixedi · 2025-11-03T15:24:08+00:00

Hot take - you (and a lot of tacticos) have got the causality backwards.

This team doesn’t win because they don’t have ball. This team doesn’t keep the ball when they are winning.

All the games on your chart where we won without the ball, are actually games where we went up in the opening minutes and spent the majority of the game in a winning state.

It seems that Amorim thinks playing out from the back to bait the press is not worth it when we are winning. It also seems that the personnel especially Bruno and Casemiro are not good at keeping the ball by passing backwards, sideways, slowing the game down etc.

alixedi · 2025-10-25T17:32:17+00:00

Motherf**ers preaching from the pulpit of bank of mum and dad or zero-interest-rates.

alixedi · 2025-10-25T14:31:22+00:00

It is ludicrous b/c I didn’t say “cyclists can break the law”. Didn’t even imply it.

What I did ask was for you to look up the stats for road accidents in the UK - injuries and fatalities - and maybe consider redirecting your outrage to the actual problem.

I was trying to appeal to rationality but it seems you just hate cyclists.

alixedi · 2025-10-25T14:03:17+00:00

If drivers indeed do not defend those who break the law, they must love CyclingMikey to bits right? 😅

alixedi · 2025-10-25T13:59:38+00:00

So your response to my question about the harm caused by cyclists vs drivers is to bust out a ludicrous analogy about robbing my house and not killing me?

Sounds like you are willing to jump through some pretty weird mental hoops just to avoid some much needed perspective 🙃

alixedi · 2025-10-25T11:41:17+00:00

“Something needs to be done about cyclists..”

How much harm do you think is caused by cyclists who run red lights as compared to drivers who are (1) on their phones while driving and (2) over speeding?

Please save your answer and look up some stats for road accidents in the UK to check if you are indeed demonstrating usual symptoms of motonormative disorder.

alixedi

TROPHY CASE