2021/2022 English Premier League

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

We may see a ghost tomorrow, as both Harry & Lindeholf are not in tomorrow's squad vs Wolves...........

Spoiler!

The apparition is happening!

Provided he doesn't get injured in warm up.

[cam_wmh]

Eventful championship game yesterday, with Derby tying Reading late in extra time.
* Our Junior Hoilett gotta Reading, brace
* Rooney has Derby on a 4 games unbeaten streak —- should be given a Pride Park statue if he keeps them up

[Senator Clay Davis]

Mr. Jones has been.....United's best player so far? A lot of that is them being pretty poor overall, but he's made some nice passes and been in good position for the most part.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Mr. Jones has been.....United's best player so far? A lot of that is them being pretty poor overall, but he's made some nice passes and been in good position for the most part.

No, that’s — as has been often, de Gea.

[devo22]

deserved.

[Slava]

Five added minutes? What a farce.

[Senator Clay Davis]

You know your midfield sucks when even Wolves can dictate the game. United still miles away from competing for anything decent.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Slava

Five added minutes? What a farce.

how is that a farce? 6 substitutions, a goal and an injury here or there. 5 minutes is absolutely reasonable. Not that it matters though, United could have gone another hour without scoring. Brutal game and result.

[VladtheImpaler]

Even Great Satan cannot withstand the Wolf.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by devo22

how is that a farce? 6 substitutions, a goal and an injury here or there. 5 minutes is absolutely reasonable. Not that it matters though, United could have gone another hour without scoring. Brutal game and result.

Well those are basically standard for every game and almost none are five minutes. Truthfully, the whole added time is just not handled well though. I have no idea why they can’t just stop the clock like rugby has adapted to over the past years and when it hits 90 at the end of the play, it’s over.

[devo22]

I actually like the PL in that regard, they seem to at least account for substitutions, goals and stuff like that and have more added minutes. Always irks me when I watch the Bundesliga, they'll usually just add 2 or 3 minutes.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by devo22

how is that a farce? 6 substitutions, a goal and an injury here or there. 5 minutes is absolutely reasonable. Not that it matters though, United could have gone another hour without scoring. Brutal game and result.

Don't confuse him. He's still struggling with the basic rules.

[Bagor]

4-2-2-2

What a genius.

[d_phaneuf]

The 6 subs and a goal should be an automatic 4 minutes by itself if you go by the 30 seconds per sub, 1 for a goal that most reds have said they do

Easy to find another few minutes on the run of play

[Slava]

Originally Posted by devo22

I actually like the PL in that regard, they seem to at least account for substitutions, goals and stuff like that and have more added minutes. Always irks me when I watch the Bundesliga, they'll usually just add 2 or 3 minutes.

I'm good with them adding the time, and it's fine. But it could be much more transparent than the current system of just adding a somewhat random amount. It wasn't a factor today, but sometimes there are refs blowing the game up earlier than the fully allotted time, sometimes it's quite a bit past that time. I just think that in the interest of fairness, they should set it up like rugby has. Come to think of it...they could adapt the VAR to be like rugby also and I think it would be much better.

[devo22]

like d_phaneuf said, 30 seconds per sub is a good rule of thumb. Just looked up the average added minutes per league and I've come across this from 2017:

Premier League - 6:12 minutes
Serie A - 5:06 minutes
Ligue 1 - 4:25 minutes
Bundesliga - 4:00 minutes

so the PL really is quite generous in general, which is a good thing IMO.

I'd absolutely be in favour though of just stopping the clock every time the ball goes out of play. Just go with 2 x 30 minutes then and be done with it ... would be a radical change obviously, but there's only 55-60 minutes of real football per game right now anyway. Plus it would eliminate time wasting and BS like that.

[Slava]

More topically though, how is United this bad? That's a good squad overall, and while they're not perfect, they should've had enough to get a result against Wolves. Are the players not buying in to Rangnicks system, or is his system just not that good? It's weird to me, because they looked terrible today and of course last week against Newcastle.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Slava

More topically though, how is United this bad? That's a good squad overall, and while they're not perfect, they should've had enough to get a result against Wolves. Are the players not buying in to Rangnicks system, or is his system just not that good? It's weird to me, because they looked terrible today and of course last week against Newcastle.

not sure there's a definite answer ... I'd say there's a couple of things that add up. Rangnicks idea of football is the complete opposite to Solskjaers, so that was always going to take some time. Then pretty much the whole team had Covid, which limited training sessions and certainly didn't help. The midfield is still terrible all around, key players like Fernandes are completely out of form.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by devo22

not sure there's a definite answer ... I'd say there's a couple of things that add up. Rangnicks idea of football is the complete opposite to Solskjaers, so that was always going to take some time. Then pretty much the whole team had Covid, which limited training sessions and certainly didn't help. The midfield is still terrible all around, key players like Fernandes are completely out of form.

Everyone's had Covid so I don't buy into that.

For me it's more of the same. This is the sort of crap Ole got dragged over the coals for. Greenwood was the best of a poor first half yet he's the first to get dragged of?

Last year we watched United when the main attacking threat came from the left with Rashford and Shaw overlapping. And many wondered if only they had a RW to balance out the threat. They chased and chased one then when they finally land him barely play him and when they do stick him on the left. Whilst putting Rashford on the right? Which hasn't worked..... ever.

This 4-2-2-2 is just stupid. Zero width and what there is is AWB. Zero ability to get anything of danger to the front two. And more often than not leaving the two full backs exposed.

They have the makings of a very good 442 team.

What would I do? Get Rice. Give it a bit then give him the armband and build it from there. There is no leader.

[devo22]

I mean, "get Rice" is a nice idea and all, but that's much easier said than done. They're in the hunt for a CL spot themselves and they'll ask for ridiculous money. I'd love to see it, but I'm not exactly getting my hopes up there.

agree with a lot of the other stuff. Don't get why AWB is playing at all, it should be Dalot going forward. Also don't get why Sancho isn't given a chance on the right.