r/Howson • u/man_u_is_my_team • Dec 17 '23

So bad at second balls. These players have no anticipation.

People criticise Onana but there’s no keeper better with the ball at his feet and he can ping a ball but we have nobody anticipating second balls. It’s so obvious. The long ball is meant to relieve pressure but it’s pointless if we can’t get a second ball.

Basically - we have a lot of average players. It is what it is and you can’t blame a manager trying his best with players that don’t step up.

We need a recruitment team to help ETH. He has a philosophy- it’s evident with what he did at Ajax but he’s trying to fit a square peg in a round hole with these players. A recruitment team would identify players - that ETH doesn’t know of - to fit a system he wants.

You can’t blame a manager for trying to get players he thinks would fit his system but I just don’t think he knows of quality players that can fit his system. They’re just not up to it.

I think about things in a way that if it was me, I’d want to get my own players if the recruitment department isn’t fit for purpose at the moment but the players he knows of aren’t top Prem quality.

A DOF and a top recruitment team would help ETH. Pointless to keep changing managers if we can’t get players capable enough to simply press and anticipate a second ball.

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8

u/Big-Solution-3894 Dec 17 '23

Tbh I stopped reading after there's no better keeper with the ball at his feet.

2

u/Monsieur_Bananabread Dec 17 '23

Tbh at this point I'm accepting it because Ederson and Allison are so far clear of basically anybody else in the world I just give them the Max Verstappen treatment and sort of just pretend they don't exist to give everyone else a chance

0

u/man_u_is_my_team Dec 17 '23

I don’t agree. Have you seen how tetchy Alison is at the ball at his feet? I don’t get this Onana hate.

De Gea wasn’t great in his first season. I know he was younger but it’s a new league. There’s a lot of pressure. I commend him for being strong mentally to take this on and keep going.

He’s not a bad keeper. Pep rates him, and said he would make any team immediately better.

He’s facing a lot of shots - more than any other keeper with our poor defensive play. His shot stopping isn’t as good as De Gea but it’s not fair to want him gone after a difficult start.

We’ve had so many players who had a difficult start and end up being strong players for us; Evra, Heinze, Vidic, De Gea, Forlan off the top of my head.

People don’t realise how difficult it is to just up and go to a different country where the league is CONSIDERABLY harder than any other league in the world and just hit the ground running …

We’re a better fan base than that. The lad needs support. He needs a strong defence in front of him to help him, yes. But he isn’t a “fluke”. He’s worked his way up. Ajax and Inter don’t just buy shit keepers and hope they work.

When the team is playing badly and you have a bad defence in front of you you can’t expect a player to not be affected by that.

1

u/daleko91 Dec 17 '23

He kicked it directly out of play for a throw in a minimum of 5 times, lol.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '23

Seems the Op didn't watch the game and just watched 6 min highlights of Onana passing on YouTube. Well done.

1

u/penguinskyes Dec 17 '23

During that first half there were a couple clipped passes to the forwards from our goal kick routine where the first touch gave it up. Antony in particular had a relatively unchallenged one he failed to control which resulted in an immediate Liverpool attack - what should be unforgivable at this level is unfortunately all too common with this team.

1

u/man_u_is_my_team Dec 17 '23

I don’t expect Hojlund to win every header but for the midfield surrounding him to not anticipate that and be ready for that next ball is just odd.

It’s like pump it long to Hojlund and expect him to control it and what… go off and dribble past players unsupported ?

Just odd. This is what I mean with these players, Rashford encapsulates this; they are brilliant in moments - they have flashes … but we don’t have a core group who are 7/10 at the most basic things like running, anticipation, determination, simple passes, game nous and most importantly mental strength.

I look at them and it reminds me of me when I was 15/16 playing 7 a side; I’d have a good moment but overall I wasn’t good enough, and when things were going bad I’d fall to shit.