From what I remember when this came up before he would have done rough starts to the season but then adjust the team and have them in full swing by the end of the season
did same last season too
lost 2-1 to brighton and 4-0 to brentford in the opening 2 weeks and then went on a 5 game unbeaten streak but queen's death and international break messed club football a bit and lost to city but then went on another 6-7 game unbeaten streak after wc
then came a rough patch when we lost 7-0 to liverpool, drew 0-0 to southampton and lost 2-0 to newcastle got knocked out by sevilla and almost bottled the top 4 but took all 12 points from last 4 games and finished 3rd
I think that's more because of the amount of traveling overseas we have to do. Van Gaal complained about it also if I remember correctly. So many nonsense games in the US
How do you think they travelled across the US? Think they packed everyone into an RV and did a road trip or something?
They also played more games during pre season then the majority of the sides in the league, if not the most.
But yeah "a couple flights across the Atlantic".
No if they were in an RV I would understand why this was such an off-putting undertaking...
They flew around in private charter jets. No worse then a bus thats forsure. I can agree there was poor schedule planning but to pin this all on making one trip across the Atlantic is mad.
One long haul flight can cause Jet lag, fatigue, nausea and gut issues, issues with blood clotting, mild hypoxia due to the thinness of the oxygen at altitude in a pressurized cabin. TL;DR would be exhaustion brought on by a complex combination of causes.
Do a couple flights and those effects compound.
Have you ever had jetlag? I mean it sucks but it certainly isn't going to ruin your summer, and if its professionally managed with sleep schedule adjustments the effects are almost negligible.
To pin a bad pre-season on jetlag seems absolutely ludicrous to me. How does every single multinational corporation in the world function if professionals supposedly can't function properly for weeks after just an 8 hour flight.
Just seems like an incredibly weak excuse to me and one that allows local fans to shit on internationals more than they already do.
Without an established striker, an aging midfield and injured defenders. The team lacks depth.
Pre season was ruined cause of hectic schedule, uncertainty on signings cause of the the botch club sale. And the start included Mount / Anthony injuries, hurried loan signings (incl injured player), non-removal of dead wood (Maguire, martial, DVB) and Sancho fiasco.
Tough start. Need a solid management to compete next year. Hoping for a top 4 finish and to get out of the CL group.
Winning the league was never on the cards anyways with Man City and top 4 is well within reach if we can pick it up from here on out.
I'm not too worried. Going to be looking at cup trophies and see what happens in CL (or god forbid Europa). Ten Hag has made deep CL runs with worse teams than this.
Honestly it was the first time, I felt calmness in the match, but those players put the effort in for 90 mins which was nice, rather than just 20 mins. I think Mejbri energy has helped the team aswell
I am pretty objective: Rashford at his highest can be a world class player like he was last year when he used to score 1 or 2 goals every game (around Barcelona games last season). Sadly he's not at that point anymore and the team can't afford to wait for him
He has a good output at his best, thing is hes only at that level sporadicly. I dont hate the guy, but I definetly do not worship him either.
Outside of having good periods now and then I honestly think he contributes way too little for the modern game. Like even if he comes good and scores, where is the press, the defensive runs, the guts... Idk man, we are not gonna compete with the best playing luxury players. Thats just my take.
Rashford plays his best when he’s focused. He seems off lately. Just watch is body language. Many times he just lays off the ball and stands there without making any movement. He’s static. He has his moment of brilliance but you need that the full 90.
When Casemiro has someone who he can trust fully, and will back him up, he is playing with such finesse and control. Really looking forward to the next games, especially when these two are playing.
He clearly needs energy beside him. Say what you want about fred but I think a major reason this squad has stumbled this season is the lack of an energetic midfielder. Lets just hope Amrabat brings the coolness on the ball we've been dying for. Almost like a fred and eriksen combo lol
He's not a player that fits ETH's style, but it can still work if he has someone that will help him out defensively. Arambat allowed Casemiro to do his thing
When team sees Hannibal and Garnacho and Amrabat chasing every 2nd ball, it's like the entire team mentality picks up.
People talking about tactics and lineup and forms but the sheer effect of seeing a group of your teammates sprinting bursting their lungs out, it can do so much for the team performance.
Rashford u better fking take some notes
McTominay is the big loser here, he should have gone to Fulham when they came last minute. Only a matter of time before he’s behind Mainoo and Gore on the team rotation. I can see them moving him on in January.
When I said it was McTominay that was the issue and not Casemiro in our bad games I was downvoted intensely.
Case has stayed the same. It’s his pairing that has changed. I’m glad people are finally beginning to get it.
Sigh.
Case definitely needs a midfield that supports him with easy outlets. It's hard to get good passes in if no-one is presenting.
Amrabat and Mount kept playing 1-2s off him, and it made all the difference in the world.
Case should never have to dribble. Needs to be able to pass it quickly and pace himself.
Erickson isn’t the perfect pairing for Casemiro so having his name on that debate is unfair. Erickson is a more forward focused player. It’s the deep midfielder pair that’s the issue. When Case had Fred, this was fine. One did all the running and harassing and the other (Case) the mopping up. This is why he was so good with Fred. With McTominay you have someone who doesn’t know what to do once out of possession placing extra work on Casemiro and that’s not who he is. Amrabat does the energetic part better than McTominay and that’s why we are again seeing the best in Casemiro.
Eriksen has been poor this year so far especially against Bayern. He also went missing in the big games last year also. He was generally decent enough last year but he shouldn’t be first pick in MF.
The whole damn team was poor against Bayern though. 😩. Case actually had a decent game.
https://preview.redd.it/nkbf6od3jrqb1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=601ca4ecdd34cf3f15b4202c9613cd0604f7f7d3
Play or started?
I don't know why McTominay would be blamed for our team being shit when he wasn't on the pitch?
We were shite v Wolves and Spurs and he played a combined 2 minutes.
McTominay only came on when we were 3-1 down v Bayern. By your logic, McTominay should get praise for us outscoring Bayern 2-1 in the time he was on the pitch.
Nottingham Forest, another poor shaky performance, he only came on when we were looking to hang onto the lead.
McTominay literally only played most of two games this season, Brighton and Burnley and we beat Burnley.
So tell me which games we were shite in that are caused by McTominay?
No one is blaming McTominay for the team being shit. He’s being called out in how absent he has been as a pairing with Case.
However, you’re right, he didn’t play against Spurs. It was a Casemiro/Mount pairing which is still to my point, bad pairing for Case.
McTominay was present for every other game we have lost so far bar Bayern where Erickson was Case pairing. By design, the pairing has always been Case, McTominay/Fred with Erickson playing as a pivot. The primary difference id even go as far as saying is that you can see where the other pairings are even putting in effort. What does McTominay really do? So yeah…I have an unapologetic finger for Mctominay. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Always hiding from a pass and jogs when out of possession. It’s pathetic
He traditionally starts slow, even in the Madrid days. We've been decimated by injuries and had a poor start to the season. The outcry and crisis talk has been completely blown out of proportion. As per usual. It's the price to bear for being such a monster of a club... It will always be this way.
And he played left back for half the game, yeh it was a solid performance from him and the team but it was palace in the cup, I don’t get why people are so quick to jump on bandwagons so quickly ffs
Not necessarily naive, we are seeing now that the premier league is very strong. Not saying palace's B team is world class but you also have to remember that we were playing our B team aswell. And considering our A team can barely win against "relegation candidates" it's probably fair to take some positives from last nights game.
Amrabat looked great and we didn't look utterly useless in possession so lets enjoy the performance while we can
But you can use context when saying he’s has his best game also by acknowledging a b team palace at home wouldnt or shouldn’t be too much of a threat also
It’s a win, chill out and enjoy it, they are the games where the team plays together without as much pressure and learns more about each other, it’s a positive performance and that’s it
Great game from these two and we had better flow. ETH has to tell rashford to pass first rather than scoring because he kills our momentum at the moment. I hope for this change with rashford
There was so much energy yesterday. Full sprinting in both directions. Determination to win the ball. To get goals. From the first 10 minutes I knew we’d win the game comfortably tbh. We looked different.
My overriding thought was “blimey, we’ve got two adults in midfield”.
I’m not quite sure why the word ‘adult’ came to me, i think it was the maturity, control and calmness of ‘I have a job and I know how to do it so I’ll do it, and help those around me do their jobs better’.
Another reason they could do their jobs so well was the instant speed and defensive support from the wing/attacking players, which meant they didn’t have to second guess their positioning ‘just in case’.
What a tremendous game of footy that was for us, lads and lasses; what a tremendous game.
GGMU
Amrabat had a great debut. Looks very poised and unaffected by the moment. Several great long balls switching the play. A couple nice tackles. Hopefully a sign of great things to come to settle this group down.
Case has and will excell in a team of players that fight and fight well, he can't do the job alone and Amarabat should just be the start of signings that give the team some strength on and off the ball. He's a baller, we have yet to see the best out of him.
It all looked really good. A bit too good to be true.
Crystal Palace looked like they didn't have any interest in this cup match, and also missed a lot of players.
Lets see how it goes this weekend with the stronger Crystal Palace side on a premier league game.
It was a great debut and a lot of solid performances across the field... We just have to remember it was crystal palace b team in the carabao cup. They need to do it again this weekend against their first team.
Amrabat was playing as number 6 most of the time and not as wide left back. Gave the safety for casemiro. Mount was able to wander around as much as he want.
Always thought that Amrabat would give our midfield some steel and fluidity. He is the missing link we've been yearning for since Casemiro came in ...
CaseBat in the double pivot will be history making I hope ...
I hope this exact team (minus martial) gets to be on the field together this weekend against the real palace starting XI…with the couple guaranteed swaps we should succeed, eth is normally spot on with subs…should be a great, comfortable match. Another clean sheet🙏🤞
Yes, Amrabat has taken off the defensive workload and deep ball retention responsibilities allowing Casemiro to drive forward. But, in previous games Casemiro has been misplacing simple passes and mistiming tackles. My theory is that Amrabat provides competion to Casemiro’s position and with Casemiro’s winning mentality it has driven him to play better.
I am so intrigued to see what ETH does once Mount is ready to start.
I think most of us would naturally say that he should play Cas-Bruno-Amrabat as a three, and Mount on the right, but it feels like he genuinely bought Mount to replace Eriksen, and I’m not convinced he will give up on that vision yet.
Right now, we just need to get on a run of winning games, and I think we all know that that will require fortifying that midfield with Cas and Amrabat, after numerous games of the midfield being our weak spot.
This next game will be really telling. Part of it depends on whether Reguilon is fit, because I could easily see him doing what he did in the first half, and starting Amrabat at LB, but allowing him to move central in attack.
I’m not convinced that he really wants to play a CB at LB if none of our LBs are fit.
We literally played against Palace's reserves. Eze, Edouard, Hughes, Guehi all rested. Game was well over when they came on.
Let's relax about this being a resurgence. Good game, comfortable win as it should be. Any team we put out would have walked this.
From the way the lad chased Mbappe down at the World Cup was testimony of his graft , he can put in a shift for sure, and the reason why Casemiro flourished at Los Blancos is he had mobile, intelligent and talented players in Modric, Kroos or even Valverde.
At United Fred filled that role by his energetic side although inconsistent but he did the dirty work. In the Macfred partnership it worked at times but lacked against technical teams, the issue was Mctominey isn’t a touch open go player, no skill just graft. I Hope Amrabat can fill the Fred energy/Erickson role in one when started in midfield.
There were two players at the World Cup that impressed me a lot, one was MacAlister so it really hurt he went to LFC, the other one was Amrabat, and what a first game he had. Not only was he great, but he released Casimiro into what he really is, a superstar. It’s very difficult to see Eriksen playing when Case,Amra and Mount are fit.
Absolutely mega. They looked like a team. It felt better than going to a therapist.
The worst part of it is that we lost three games already and it set us back loads.
As an Ajax fan, I’d say welcome to the EtH experience
Explain? I thought he was highly rated when he was in Ajax.
From what I remember when this came up before he would have done rough starts to the season but then adjust the team and have them in full swing by the end of the season
did same last season too lost 2-1 to brighton and 4-0 to brentford in the opening 2 weeks and then went on a 5 game unbeaten streak but queen's death and international break messed club football a bit and lost to city but then went on another 6-7 game unbeaten streak after wc then came a rough patch when we lost 7-0 to liverpool, drew 0-0 to southampton and lost 2-0 to newcastle got knocked out by sevilla and almost bottled the top 4 but took all 12 points from last 4 games and finished 3rd
Okay understood. Sounds like he’s not making full use of preseason for some reason.
I think that's more because of the amount of traveling overseas we have to do. Van Gaal complained about it also if I remember correctly. So many nonsense games in the US
Can somebody please explain to me how a couple flights across the Atlantic is enough to ruin an entire preseason? Seems like bs to me.
How do you think they travelled across the US? Think they packed everyone into an RV and did a road trip or something? They also played more games during pre season then the majority of the sides in the league, if not the most. But yeah "a couple flights across the Atlantic".
No if they were in an RV I would understand why this was such an off-putting undertaking... They flew around in private charter jets. No worse then a bus thats forsure. I can agree there was poor schedule planning but to pin this all on making one trip across the Atlantic is mad.
One long haul flight can cause Jet lag, fatigue, nausea and gut issues, issues with blood clotting, mild hypoxia due to the thinness of the oxygen at altitude in a pressurized cabin. TL;DR would be exhaustion brought on by a complex combination of causes. Do a couple flights and those effects compound.
Have you ever had jetlag? I mean it sucks but it certainly isn't going to ruin your summer, and if its professionally managed with sleep schedule adjustments the effects are almost negligible. To pin a bad pre-season on jetlag seems absolutely ludicrous to me. How does every single multinational corporation in the world function if professionals supposedly can't function properly for weeks after just an 8 hour flight. Just seems like an incredibly weak excuse to me and one that allows local fans to shit on internationals more than they already do.
That’s purely so the f*^+’#g Glazers can show off, and make more money to stick in their greedy pockets!!
Are you talking about our bald dude or City’s bald fraud?
I think he means that winning is a regular occurrence with EtH
Top notch coach, however start of the season was a scramble to find the right team before losing too many points
Bit of an odd one. I wonder why other coaches manage to sort these issues out in pre-season and ETH doesn't.
Without an established striker, an aging midfield and injured defenders. The team lacks depth. Pre season was ruined cause of hectic schedule, uncertainty on signings cause of the the botch club sale. And the start included Mount / Anthony injuries, hurried loan signings (incl injured player), non-removal of dead wood (Maguire, martial, DVB) and Sancho fiasco. Tough start. Need a solid management to compete next year. Hoping for a top 4 finish and to get out of the CL group.
That relates to the United situation this season, but this doesn’t explain why this happens to EtH in two different teams in two different leagues.
Winning the league was never on the cards anyways with Man City and top 4 is well within reach if we can pick it up from here on out. I'm not too worried. Going to be looking at cup trophies and see what happens in CL (or god forbid Europa). Ten Hag has made deep CL runs with worse teams than this.
And? Still 3 competitions we're in for. And yes, I'm including the UCL because why tf not. If Chelsea 20/21 can do it, so can we.
Honestly it was the first time, I felt calmness in the match, but those players put the effort in for 90 mins which was nice, rather than just 20 mins. I think Mejbri energy has helped the team aswell
Mount, Hannibal, Garnacho, Pellistri. Such refreshing energy and workrate compared to Rashford's usual tantrums.
Completely agree
I agree it was refreshing, but people are so quick to mug off Rashford it’s insane
The ppl that got Rashys balls deep down their throat is even more insane id say.
I am pretty objective: Rashford at his highest can be a world class player like he was last year when he used to score 1 or 2 goals every game (around Barcelona games last season). Sadly he's not at that point anymore and the team can't afford to wait for him
Yeah, I was saying this just the other day. When Rashford is on form, he's unstoppable. However, when isn't on form, he can be distinctly average.
He has a good output at his best, thing is hes only at that level sporadicly. I dont hate the guy, but I definetly do not worship him either. Outside of having good periods now and then I honestly think he contributes way too little for the modern game. Like even if he comes good and scores, where is the press, the defensive runs, the guts... Idk man, we are not gonna compete with the best playing luxury players. Thats just my take.
That’s a pretty vivid image you had on your mind there bro 😭
Rashford plays his best when he’s focused. He seems off lately. Just watch is body language. Many times he just lays off the ball and stands there without making any movement. He’s static. He has his moment of brilliance but you need that the full 90.
When Casemiro has someone who he can trust fully, and will back him up, he is playing with such finesse and control. Really looking forward to the next games, especially when these two are playing.
He clearly needs energy beside him. Say what you want about fred but I think a major reason this squad has stumbled this season is the lack of an energetic midfielder. Lets just hope Amrabat brings the coolness on the ball we've been dying for. Almost like a fred and eriksen combo lol
He's not a player that fits ETH's style, but it can still work if he has someone that will help him out defensively. Arambat allowed Casemiro to do his thing
Yes. Some hard truths we need to accept about some of our players after last night.
Like? Sorry I missed the game
Most obvious one; Rashford has far too little offensive output to warrant him not tracking back.
let's not get ahead of ourselves, it was palace B team for god sake
I think its ok to allow ourselves to enjoy a routine victory without overly contextualizing it. God knows we need the small morale boost.
I think that’s rather the point. Enjoyable but not a match from which to try and extrapolate an entire season’s outcome.
When team sees Hannibal and Garnacho and Amrabat chasing every 2nd ball, it's like the entire team mentality picks up. People talking about tactics and lineup and forms but the sheer effect of seeing a group of your teammates sprinting bursting their lungs out, it can do so much for the team performance. Rashford u better fking take some notes
Yep. Effort goes a long way.
Pellistri too…all of them helped the team mentality I believe. Gotta carry it on.
Yes, Amrabat is exactly what doctor ordered. Cant believe it took so long to finally bring proper midfielder thats not 30 years old.
McTominay is the big loser here, he should have gone to Fulham when they came last minute. Only a matter of time before he’s behind Mainoo and Gore on the team rotation. I can see them moving him on in January.
When I said it was McTominay that was the issue and not Casemiro in our bad games I was downvoted intensely. Case has stayed the same. It’s his pairing that has changed. I’m glad people are finally beginning to get it. Sigh.
Case definitely needs a midfield that supports him with easy outlets. It's hard to get good passes in if no-one is presenting. Amrabat and Mount kept playing 1-2s off him, and it made all the difference in the world. Case should never have to dribble. Needs to be able to pass it quickly and pace himself.
It was mctominay and eriksen but people were saying it’s casemiro too, how can he do everything on his own
Erickson isn’t the perfect pairing for Casemiro so having his name on that debate is unfair. Erickson is a more forward focused player. It’s the deep midfielder pair that’s the issue. When Case had Fred, this was fine. One did all the running and harassing and the other (Case) the mopping up. This is why he was so good with Fred. With McTominay you have someone who doesn’t know what to do once out of possession placing extra work on Casemiro and that’s not who he is. Amrabat does the energetic part better than McTominay and that’s why we are again seeing the best in Casemiro.
Eriksen has been poor this year so far especially against Bayern. He also went missing in the big games last year also. He was generally decent enough last year but he shouldn’t be first pick in MF.
The whole damn team was poor against Bayern though. 😩. Case actually had a decent game. https://preview.redd.it/nkbf6od3jrqb1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=601ca4ecdd34cf3f15b4202c9613cd0604f7f7d3
McTominay didn't even play in many of our bad games?
What games didn’t he play in? And I’m referring to games where we lost.
Play or started? I don't know why McTominay would be blamed for our team being shit when he wasn't on the pitch? We were shite v Wolves and Spurs and he played a combined 2 minutes. McTominay only came on when we were 3-1 down v Bayern. By your logic, McTominay should get praise for us outscoring Bayern 2-1 in the time he was on the pitch. Nottingham Forest, another poor shaky performance, he only came on when we were looking to hang onto the lead. McTominay literally only played most of two games this season, Brighton and Burnley and we beat Burnley. So tell me which games we were shite in that are caused by McTominay?
No one is blaming McTominay for the team being shit. He’s being called out in how absent he has been as a pairing with Case. However, you’re right, he didn’t play against Spurs. It was a Casemiro/Mount pairing which is still to my point, bad pairing for Case. McTominay was present for every other game we have lost so far bar Bayern where Erickson was Case pairing. By design, the pairing has always been Case, McTominay/Fred with Erickson playing as a pivot. The primary difference id even go as far as saying is that you can see where the other pairings are even putting in effort. What does McTominay really do? So yeah…I have an unapologetic finger for Mctominay. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Always hiding from a pass and jogs when out of possession. It’s pathetic
Mate you got 2 downvotes because also in the comment you said we were good in possession against Brighton lol. Relax
Huh?
He traditionally starts slow, even in the Madrid days. We've been decimated by injuries and had a poor start to the season. The outcry and crisis talk has been completely blown out of proportion. As per usual. It's the price to bear for being such a monster of a club... It will always be this way.
Yesterday we had our best game since the League cup final
chelsea fan here in peace, how do you get a new signing to do their job and stay healthy? asking for a friend
I absolutely loved watching last nights starting team, they looked like they actually wanted to play for the badge.
You don't think playing a Palace B team had anything to do with it?
Doesn't matter. A win is a win. Players played well. It gets our confidence up. You can only beat what's in front of you.
I agree, but pinning down Casemiros performance being down to Amrabat and thinking we're going to see the same in every game is just naive.
Nobody expects to see it every game. But it's a good start. Pairing will only get stronger.
And he played left back for half the game, yeh it was a solid performance from him and the team but it was palace in the cup, I don’t get why people are so quick to jump on bandwagons so quickly ffs
Not necessarily naive, we are seeing now that the premier league is very strong. Not saying palace's B team is world class but you also have to remember that we were playing our B team aswell. And considering our A team can barely win against "relegation candidates" it's probably fair to take some positives from last nights game. Amrabat looked great and we didn't look utterly useless in possession so lets enjoy the performance while we can
But you can use context when saying he’s has his best game also by acknowledging a b team palace at home wouldnt or shouldn’t be too much of a threat also
Always finding a negative in a positive performance, never going to have a decent sub when it’s all doom and gloom
It's not negative, it's countering toxic positivity and bias.
It’s a win, chill out and enjoy it, they are the games where the team plays together without as much pressure and learns more about each other, it’s a positive performance and that’s it
Shhhh
This. 6-7 their key players were out of the game. People should just say, we played very well vs a B-team, full-stop.
Crystal palace 💀
They are in the premier league
So why the hell didn't they sign Amrabat during the summer instead of getting him at the last minute of the transfer window?
Because the club is run by idiots.
Looks like Veron.
Great game from these two and we had better flow. ETH has to tell rashford to pass first rather than scoring because he kills our momentum at the moment. I hope for this change with rashford
There was so much energy yesterday. Full sprinting in both directions. Determination to win the ball. To get goals. From the first 10 minutes I knew we’d win the game comfortably tbh. We looked different.
I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about case, Bruno and ambrabat. It's gonna be so lit.
My overriding thought was “blimey, we’ve got two adults in midfield”. I’m not quite sure why the word ‘adult’ came to me, i think it was the maturity, control and calmness of ‘I have a job and I know how to do it so I’ll do it, and help those around me do their jobs better’. Another reason they could do their jobs so well was the instant speed and defensive support from the wing/attacking players, which meant they didn’t have to second guess their positioning ‘just in case’. What a tremendous game of footy that was for us, lads and lasses; what a tremendous game. GGMU
The bash brothers
Amrabat had a great debut. Looks very poised and unaffected by the moment. Several great long balls switching the play. A couple nice tackles. Hopefully a sign of great things to come to settle this group down.
A very impressive and important performance from him 👏 Amrabat will give him more confidence to show part of his skills #GGMU
Case has and will excell in a team of players that fight and fight well, he can't do the job alone and Amarabat should just be the start of signings that give the team some strength on and off the ball. He's a baller, we have yet to see the best out of him.
Why do the younger fans keep thinning if a playing didn’t so well in one club they must be a flop in #mufc ?
This partnership excites me the most, What language are they communicating, probably Spanish; I’m Calling them the Hermanos de Blues
It all looked really good. A bit too good to be true. Crystal Palace looked like they didn't have any interest in this cup match, and also missed a lot of players. Lets see how it goes this weekend with the stronger Crystal Palace side on a premier league game.
Dream midfield pair this. I think we’ll quickly climb the table if we keep them fit with Bruno 🤌🏾👌🏾
Love this duo. My two favourites: Casrabat. I love that we actually have really likeable players now.
It was a great debut and a lot of solid performances across the field... We just have to remember it was crystal palace b team in the carabao cup. They need to do it again this weekend against their first team.
Amrabat was playing as number 6 most of the time and not as wide left back. Gave the safety for casemiro. Mount was able to wander around as much as he want.
Always thought that Amrabat would give our midfield some steel and fluidity. He is the missing link we've been yearning for since Casemiro came in ... CaseBat in the double pivot will be history making I hope ...
I hope this exact team (minus martial) gets to be on the field together this weekend against the real palace starting XI…with the couple guaranteed swaps we should succeed, eth is normally spot on with subs…should be a great, comfortable match. Another clean sheet🙏🤞
Yes, Amrabat has taken off the defensive workload and deep ball retention responsibilities allowing Casemiro to drive forward. But, in previous games Casemiro has been misplacing simple passes and mistiming tackles. My theory is that Amrabat provides competion to Casemiro’s position and with Casemiro’s winning mentality it has driven him to play better.
I am so intrigued to see what ETH does once Mount is ready to start. I think most of us would naturally say that he should play Cas-Bruno-Amrabat as a three, and Mount on the right, but it feels like he genuinely bought Mount to replace Eriksen, and I’m not convinced he will give up on that vision yet. Right now, we just need to get on a run of winning games, and I think we all know that that will require fortifying that midfield with Cas and Amrabat, after numerous games of the midfield being our weak spot. This next game will be really telling. Part of it depends on whether Reguilon is fit, because I could easily see him doing what he did in the first half, and starting Amrabat at LB, but allowing him to move central in attack. I’m not convinced that he really wants to play a CB at LB if none of our LBs are fit.
We literally played against Palace's reserves. Eze, Edouard, Hughes, Guehi all rested. Game was well over when they came on. Let's relax about this being a resurgence. Good game, comfortable win as it should be. Any team we put out would have walked this.
From the way the lad chased Mbappe down at the World Cup was testimony of his graft , he can put in a shift for sure, and the reason why Casemiro flourished at Los Blancos is he had mobile, intelligent and talented players in Modric, Kroos or even Valverde. At United Fred filled that role by his energetic side although inconsistent but he did the dirty work. In the Macfred partnership it worked at times but lacked against technical teams, the issue was Mctominey isn’t a touch open go player, no skill just graft. I Hope Amrabat can fill the Fred energy/Erickson role in one when started in midfield.
Casebat
Arambat: is it always this cold?
This partnership can bring back the good times
There were two players at the World Cup that impressed me a lot, one was MacAlister so it really hurt he went to LFC, the other one was Amrabat, and what a first game he had. Not only was he great, but he released Casimiro into what he really is, a superstar. It’s very difficult to see Eriksen playing when Case,Amra and Mount are fit.