How much worse could it get at Man United?

Defeat at Spurs last weekend left Manchester United in 15th place in the table. Next up they take on a resurgent Everton managed by the first person to tasked with the challenge of following in Sir Alex Ferguson's footsteps. From David Moyes to Ruben Amorim, United seems to be stuck in a cycle of underperformance. So, what is preventing them from moving forward?

Ayo Akinwolere is joined by The Athletic’s Adam Crafton, Carl Anka and Oli Kay. Plus we’ll hear from football writer, Charlotte Harpur on her recent interview with Raphael Varane.

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:32 Spurs v Man Utd
00:03:40 Amorim’s systems
00:08:43 United’s recruitment
00:17:40 Have Utd embarrassed themselves?
00:20:50 Varane interview insights
00:26:18 Do United need to move on?
00:34:32 How Utd treat young players
00:42:32 Do young players want to come to Utd?
00:46:53 Outro

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[BigDome]

Carl was on fire here. This is why we listen to football pods: to hear interesting insights that we can't get elsewhere and that we as casual viewers of football don't have.

[alexandrupetrea]

I've been folllowing the Athletic on youtube for quite a few years and I've never seen Carl Anka this demoralized. He used to find a glimmer of hope even in the darkest days of Solskjær or Ten Haag, but this video he seemed quite upset.

[Sir_P]

Oh my word Carl Anker may just be my new favourite untied commentator/journalist, this makes way more sense than anything our whiny ex pros have said

[chrisclassical]

the real problem we face in life is not the actual problem but rather accepting the situation we find ourselves in. there is a futility in fighting yesterdays battles. our only hope is to make peace with today and look to the future for glory.

[tapiwakanengoni-km]

Carl Anker is the GOAT. Articulate, charismatic and most importantly of all knowledgeable. He makes a super complex dynamic of United legacy issues, simple for everyone to understand. The Athletic have struck gold with him.

[albacino]

Still missing the point about tactics and structure: The main point isn't 532 or 4231, it's about getting young, hungry, physical players who don't behave like divas and are not overpid. That is the new tactic and that will last longer than Amorim.

[overman]

It's going to get worse because when Amorim gets sacked the next manager won't want to play 343, but he won't have the players to play a different formation.

[JRAWK]

The team needs stability, it's no coincidence that the three most successful PL clubs of the last 5+ years have also had long term managers. Arne Slot inherited a very stable squad. Amorim didn't and he needs at least 3 seasons to sort things out.

[TtotheCizzel]

Losing antimy and Rashford without getting 1 attacker in was madness

[hanif-plhd]

20:11 agree with this, the team too fixated on the formation, while not having a clear playing style, is it a counter attacking team, is it possession based. theres some silver lining though, ive seen improvements in the gameplay against leicester and spurs when zirkzee drops deep.

[edpoole]

Yesterday Man City got knocked out of the Champions league and Aston Villa hosted league leaders Liverpool in an end to end 2-2 battle. So obviously the Athletic has made yet another Man utd video.

[chocolateDroppa]

The fans, I think, have it wrong.  Where we finish in the table isn't the most important thing; our performances and squad clearout are. We can't build a sustainable squad with such imbalanced salaries. Casemiro and Rashford are our highest earners but are not our best performers. Mount and Shaw are also at the top end of the pay scale yet rarely play. We need to get rid of all of them and reset the squad.  Finishing eighth means no player should be earning beyond £200k at this Man Utd. I'd even take relegation, because fans are really underestimating the damage the Glazers have done. We've been papering over the cracks since the day we sold Ronaldo. We'll never win the league with Maguire as a starting CB, Onana as our keeper, or Højlund as our "WWE striker."  They need to be replaced.

More importantly, our performances have improved, albeit slightly. Under ten Hag, we had no control. Games were end-to-end, and we gave away numerous chances. Under Amorim, we have more control; it's no longer end-to-end.  Our real problem is that we have control but no threat. We need to reach a point where we have constant threat within our controlled play.  Threat means that every time we isolate their fullback on either side, it should lead to a chance. 

Unfortunately, Dalot and Garnacho will never be 1v1 experts. This is why I insist Man Utd should be pushing for Rayan Cherki in the left 10 position. Forget about Cunha, etc. These are expensive players who are not good 1v1. Cunha, for example, is good at carrying and holding the ball, which works because Wolves play counter-attacking football. But against low blocks, Cunha can't beat the fullback 1v1. We'll waste a lot of money on him, and he'll look bad because we misprofiled him. If we're buying Cunha as a striker, then fine. But if it's as a number 10, expect complaints. We need 1v1 experts. Right now, we only have Amad. Quenda would be just another option on the right; we have no one on the left side.

We also need a two-footed number 8 with a good passing range. Bruno is playing there for us, but we need a younger version. We, of course, need some defenders and a striker who is really good at hold-up play. If we're going to spend big, I think we should only do so on the striker. Get a Gyökeres, for example. That's the only position where we can spend £50m++. Every other position, we should spend very little. 

For me, Cherki for £20m is a no-brainer. Sverre Nypan for £10m is a no-brainer. Bringing in Quenda for around £25m is a no-brainer. Promoting Sekou Kone, Amass, Lacey, Mantato, and Chido is a no-brainer. We don't need to spend £200m to build a competitive squad.  We actually need to let even more players go. Lindelöf, Shaw, and Mount should be sold; it hasn't worked.

[Josh-jsfs]

00:51-0:56—Pot calling the kettle black, isn't it? Pretty sure Crafton is guilty on this on more than one occasion.

[ccogdill]

Just 3 weeks ago you all started a video "well United have just beaten Fulham 1-0. Not a great performance but it's 5 wins out of 6 and things look to be turning around."

Cut to this week after an injury to their leader on the defensive line tears his ACL, their best attacker has an ankle injury that will keep him out for the whole of the season, the entire squad has, what I can only assume, is the bird flu, and we are back to "sky is falling" type of settings.

Everyone, including this platform, needs to relax. Analyze the match. Move on. Come back in 12 months and see where it's at.

[morlath]

Carl Anka's description of the squad composition pretty much sums up how the Glazers have run the club's transfer policies ever since SAF retired. 12 years of constant mismanagement has smashed random players together and told the managers to make it work.

[Idkevenwhatisnttaken]

Best of these podcasts in ages. Carl spitting fire

[stanleyokafor]

The comment by Adam about Klopp and Liverpool is so wrong. He should know better. Klopp came into a team he inherited from Brendan Rogers who nearly won the league with this team. It was an attacking team that was better suited to Klopp than this Manchester United team is suited to Amorim. Comparing apples and oranges if you ask me. Pep also came into a team that had been built for him several years before he arrived.

[MrTimothydclark]

Enjoyable listen (I say this as an Arsenal fan) with interesting points from all the guests. I was a little surprised (again, even as an Arsenal fan) to hear so little of the Glazers. I guess bringing Ineos as human shields has worked, though the jury is still out on their competence. But once you're into the territory of rotting from within, lack of core strategy etc, failure to modernise, surely the Glazers must get more airtime. The only point they really came up with was when Carl mentioned Ineos has put more of its own money in, which is at the heart of all this.

[innocento.]

Why the hysteria? Against spurs the man u players missed several big chances. It is obvious that the players are not good enough. A manager cannot enter the field and kick the ball himself.

[ConstantinoHaza]

A one dimensional playing style is what is dangerously dogmatic. A polyglot structure is actually pragmatic... So Oliver's view is the complete opposite of what it is.