Diabolus Ex Machina

Or a Bear face. Could have done with one of his write ups!

I generally don't agree with people playing out of their natural positions but that is an intriguing idea.

Well while I like the guy Cedric hasn't been much better against the Prem fullbacks in terms of them getting past him so far. If Wanyama and Romeu are both sitting deep i'm hoping one of them can help cover if needed.

Good line-up, looks stronger defensively and yeah think Yoshida is at RB to help with the aerial threat and set pieces (he was statistically the best player in our team last year at winning aerial duels). Means we will be sacrificing some width in attack though. Mane and JRod will need to link up well with Pelle up front but think JWP will be the key man. Good chance to show what he is capable of.

Thing is our style of play doesn't use wingers does it. Our width comes from the full-backs overlapping the players on the sides. Shaw, Clyne, Bertrand and Chambers were all able to do this extremely well for us since rejoining the Prem. Think the last Winger we actually had would be Puncheon? While I can see how having wingers would help us adapt our tactics if required I just don't see it in our plans.

No need to jump on original poster he just provided the wrong link in regards to Pelle. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/sadio-mane-to-manchester-united-southampton-to-reject-attempts-by-united-for-striker-10462584.html Would seem odd to be willing to let him go unless we knew of a ready made replacement. Don't really have another striker like him that holds up the ball and was one of the guys Ronald wanted to bring in. Can't see much in it to be honest. Edit: See SuperSAINT already posted the link. Can't hurt to have it twice though.

This is the second time someone has posted this. Care to share the link with me as I don't see these posts on his official facebook page - only posts from visitors to the page. Here's the page i'm looking at for reference https://www.facebook.com/sadiomane10?fref=ts

The only recent posts I see are on the visitors posts which are either where he is linked in news stories or are from fans who could post their own comments which as it's open to all users can include Man U fans. In other words even if it's run by his representatives there's nothing about United that they've put on there.

So let's see if i've got this straight... - We've gone from not hearing anything while Man U were chasing Pedro, to having them gazumped by Chelsea only to have the media then announce that they are interested in Mane. - Then we are told that a bid was made last week for around £15m but we want to push it up to £25m - Then we are told that no bid has been made and that it is only 'interest still' but that Mane is apparently 'Keen'. This coming from a Man U source while one of our Journo's (Blackmore) says we have no interest in selling. - Finally the club say he is not for sale but the media still expect a further bid. An actual official response possibly forthcoming. - Somewhere in there one of the papers also says we are open to offers for Pelle Anything i've missed? Sounds to me like while there's certainly interest, United are trying to play this out in the media to try and put pressure on us. Hopefully we tell them where to stick it.

True though hasn't really been our style recently. Took a few hours for Wolves to do it with Afobe and I don't seem to recall Everton making many press releases about Stones. Seems to mainly have come from Martinez at press conferences etc... I'm sure we will hear something from the club in due course. Whether we like it or not is another matter...

To be fair Ronald was directly asked about Fonte whereas this has only sprouted up in the media in the past few hours.

Agreed, unlike with other players I can't see either a need or a desire for us to sell. Unless some eyewatering bid is put in it should be a complete non-starter. Even if Mane was to kick up a fuss he's still contracted to us and could easily be made to stay. I swear every time one of our players is even hinted to have other teams interested in them this place loses its goddamn mind.

What is there to indicate we haven't done exactly that and said he's not for sale?

The Telegraph article in the OP says they believe a bid was put in last week...funny we only hear about them wanting Mane after Chelsea scupper the Pedro deal. Almost like they need a replacement story

Shame they didn't post this story a couple of hours ago so Ronald could have nipped it in the bud at the press conference like with the Fonte nonsense. Almost like they held off so the story would get more interest... Anyway, can't see any reason why we would want or need to sell him, so unless they came in with an absolutely ridiculous offer can't see it happening and even then it would be a long shot.

Ok bad choice of wording on my part. I can't speak on Koemans thoughts on Reeds abilities or why he wouldn't think he'd be ready but I think what I put clearly shows that Koeman believes there are a number of players ahead of him at the moment. Think I should also be careful when I say how Koeman 'Rates' him and similar. Just because he hasn't given him much game time doesn't mean he thinks he's a bad player just that he prefers other options currently. He's got plenty of time to improve which is why a loan away if he's not gonna get much time here is a good idea.

Just to highlight why I think Koeman doesn't think Reed is first team ready - Reed started only 5 Prem games for us last season... Everton (Home) - Won 3-0 - Neither Morgan or Victor were playing. Played more of a 5-3-2 formation. Newcastle (Away) - Won 2-1 - None of Morgan, Victor or Toby played. Swansea (Home) - Lost 1-0 - Neither Morgan or Toby played. West Ham (Home) - Drew 0-0 - Neither Morgan or Toby played. Leicester (Away) - Lost 2-0 - Only Morgan was missing. So in total 2 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses, 2 clean sheets. Out of the 3 other players who had been played in the CDM position that season - Victor/Morgan/Toby - at least 2 of them were missing in the games Reed played with the exception of the loss to Leicester when Morgan still wasn't available and Reed would have been the obvious replacement (note: Cork played in no games with Reed last season either which is why he wasn't included in the above stats). Basically we had to be missing at least 2 players (3 if you include Cork) before he was given a chance with one of them potentially being a CB who would have been given the nod ahead of him if available. With Clasie and Romeu now being brought in and Koemans seeming preference for playing Davis (whether out of position as a CDM or changing formation so a second CDM isn't needed) it suggests to me that Reed isn't in line for a lot of game time even though his was a position where we needed depth the most.

Not speaking for Batman here but Ronald has always seemed hesitant to put Reed in there from the start on match days even when we are short due to injuries/suspensions. Last year it happened when he played Toby there instead when we were missing Vic or Morgan and at the start of this season he has played Davis back there as well when Reed has been available. The fact that this is not the natural position for either player while it would be for Reed suggests that Koeman thinks he still isn't first team ready. What other clubs do with their 20 year olds is irrelevant to Reeds position. The fact that Romeu has been signed to bolster that position and is seemingly set to go straight ahead of him in the pecking order also supports the theory that he is not highly rated. When Clasie returns from injury he will be fourth choice - 5th if Koeman prefers Davis there so you can see why he might want to go on loan to get game time.

Well if they want to pick and choose results like the 4-1 rather than look at our better overall record that's fine. I'd remind them the last time our 2 clubs actually met was only last year with the youngsters. Can anyone remind me what the score was again Watching the youngsters we trained ourselves at our fantastic academy win a Cup live on Sky Sports was also quite nice I thought. I'm sure their new port-a-cabin will help propel their youth to a similar level of success...

If he's not going to get game time then would probably be good for him. having said that I think he should be getting the game time with us especially with Clasie out but Ronald seems to disagree.

I think playing a more creative player at ACM would be fine. Playing Pelle, Long, JRod and Mane - all whose main focus is on attacking the goal - would still leave us with few chances being created however so I don't think you could play those 4 together. Davis or JWP help link up play while Tadic can be creative with the ball so they could all play there. Not sure if Clasie would be able to do a job there and not sure where Juanmi fits though would be interesting to try him there.

4-2-1-2-1

Told you, just semantics

Seems to be a case of semantics. I always saw it as Vic and Morgan as the 2-man defensive shield with Davis ahead being the link between them and Pelle and the 2 side men (Long/Tadic/Mane/JWP). The 2 on the side would also be responsible for covering when the Fullbacks overlapped (Davis helped cover too normally). This season either Davis has been part of that 2-man shield meaning he can't link play or we are playing only with Vic there which isn't giving enough protection especially with the young Targett and the new to the prem Cedric. Stick Vic and Romeu in front of the defense and allow Davis to be that link up man with the front 3 and I think we will see a big improvement. Will need to see if Clasie and Reed can play as part of that shield as well and I think JWP can also do a job as that link up guy like Davis. And to bring it back on topic this would be a great game to go back to this. Give Vic and Romeu a chance to play a whole game together back there and see how they get on.

I'm sure staying in the Premier League is seen as somewhat of a priority by the club. Your issue is that you don't believe the club can handle anything on top of that. In fact in previous seasons you've even been dubious of our ability to do that which has been proved emphatically wrong for the past 2 seasons. To quote another famous piece of sci-fi 'Dalek' - "I find your lack of faith disturbing".