United Lifers

Carrick has potential. Middlesborough sold his key players regularly. • Morgan Rogers (£15m) to Aston Villa. • Chuba Akpom (£12m) to Ajax. • Marcus Tavernier (£14m) to Bournemouth. • Djed Spence (£20m) to Tottenham. • Emmanuel Latte Lath (sale to Atlanta United in Jan 2025). He was 4th in first season and in playoffs. Then lost his attack and was 8th and 10th in following seasons. Why? His 40 goal strike force left. That’s quite a loss 🤣 • The "Brain Drain" of Summer 2023: • Chuba Akpom: Top scorer (29 goals). Sold to Ajax.  • Cameron Archer: The main striker partner (11 goals). Returned to Villa. • Ryan Giles: The main creator (11 assists). Returned to Wolves/Luton. • Aaron Ramsey: Key attacking midfielder (5 goals). Returned to Villa.  The Consequence: Entering Season 2 (23/24), Carrick had to replace 45 goals and 20+ assists from his starting XI. It took until November/December for the new signings (Latte Lath, Rogers) to gel, by which point they had already dropped too many points to replicate the 4th place finish. Yeah, dangerous to judge championship managers. 1. Their best players are poached or recalled from loan. 2. Premier league clubs relegated have parachute payments that mean they are tough to beat. There is hope for Carrick. He has more experience than Fletcher. Maybe not the same positive genius of Ole but he’ll bring calm and control. Maybe we need that. Still, City and Arsenal will be a tough start.

Seeing United fans respect Liverpool's win last year more so than Arsenal's this year tells you something. Nobody likes how Arsenal have done this. The fouls, the nudges, getting away with the red cards and penalties. Also, just awful football with rugby scrum corner tactics, diving at every opportunity. But most of all, it feeling like it was engineered by the refs in their favour to make a new league winner. Personally, I'm happy for Saka and Rice. Apart from that, the rest of it was a real downer for football as a whole. Lifer|||pk

Wow. Joe Hart let loose: "And this is what frustrates fans. Arsenal have lived off those scrappy, aggressive goals all season – blocking keepers, crowding the six-yard box, little nudges here and there." Joe Hart in full: He said: “I don’t care what anyone says, that goal should’ve stood. VAR has absolutely ruined moments like that. West Ham fought for that equaliser and somehow they’ve found a way to disallow it for the softest little touch you’ll ever see. If that’s Arsenal scoring at the Emirates, nobody even checks it for more than five seconds. And this is what frustrates fans. Arsenal have lived off those scrappy, aggressive goals all season – blocking keepers, crowding the six-yard box, little nudges here and there. Suddenly when it happens against them, it’s ‘clear and obvious’. Give me a break. I was a goalkeeper, I know when a keeper’s genuinely impeded and when he’s looking for help. There’s no way you can tell me that was enough contact for the goal to be overturned. The game’s gone soft. West Ham have been robbed, simple as that. You wonder why fans think certain clubs get favourable decisions because moments like this keep happening. Arsenal are in a title race and somehow every 50/50 call seems to land their way. That equaliser changes the whole atmosphere of the game and VAR bottled it. Absolutely bottled it.”

can you imagine if this was united? red cards and pens and disallowed goals. PGMOL have done one here.

Congrats to Villa. They play good football. How right was Fergie about it back then. Saw it before anyone. Unai is a hell of a manager. And they looked after Rashy, which I'll always appreciate. Lifer|||pk

Recruitment needs to be done early. It 'should' be easier this summer with finances and champions league football. Do major work before world cup inflates player prices. Carrick needs a pre-season with core of squad in place. And the fact is, we will need to elevate players from the academy as we'll need over the next few years to have 2 players for each position of a high level. Lifer|||pk

Zero penalties given against them. Zero red cards given to them. When has that happened before? Never. Varsenal season. The premier league this season has basically engineered Arsenal into being champions.

@AATalksBall Saka kicks the defender 😂. Slow it down man. Correct decision.

Tbf this is stonewall😭🤣 my word PGMOL are so bad

Even the Arsenal fans know that's a red 😂

21 scored in 9 HOME games under Carrick 9 scored in 7 AWAY games under Carrick. Over a season, we play 19 home games, 19 away games. Amorim vs Carrick Amorim got 18 goals in 10 home games Carrick got 21 goals in 9 home games. Amorim got 18 goals in 11 away games Carrick got 9 goals in 7 away games. I guess the difference is... defence.

Carrick's away vs home record. Fortress old trafford is back. 9 wins and one loss at home (pulling Calvert-lewin hair bobble nonsense) 3 win, 3 draws, 1 loss away and none of those games were gimmes. Just tough all the way through. 27 scored away in total across season 39 scored at home in total across season

Last 5 games. Won 4, drew 1. Chelsea, Brentford, Liverpool, Sunderland, Forest. To be fair, we should have lost the Chelsea and Brentford game. Sunderland, we got battered for a chunk of that first half too. Liverpool are just sinking. Forest is a dead rubber. BUT we would have drawn or lost more of them in other times. Next season, with more matches, we'll lose more of those games. Whatever team we have, it needs to be heavily reinforced in midfield certainly but also left and right backs and at least one more striker. Lifer|||pk

There are places we pass through in life… and there are places that become part of who we are. Manchester will forever be my home. To the city, the club, and every supporter, my sincerest thank you. These past four years have been unforgettable, filled with moments my family and I will carry with us for the rest of our lives. There simply aren’t enough words to describe the happiness and warmth we’ve felt here. Thank you for every cheer, every memory, and for making us feel at home from the very first day. Forever a Red Devil ❤️

@SkySportsNews The Turkeys vote on if Turkeys should be eaten at christmas?

Premier League is proposing to allow clubs to negotiate settlements over alleged breaches of its financial rules rather that seeing their cases automatically refereed to an independent commission, according to Sky News' Mark Kleinman.

63 xG 66 goals scored Generally, xG at the end of the season strongly correlates to goals scored. So it might be wrong over 1 game but over 38, it's strongly related.

Andersen was very good today. Break the bank kinda player and he'd be a key starter for the next decade!

the stats are crazy. Bruno could or should have had 3 assists, maybe 4 or 5. it's a dead rubber game where it's old trafford, casi last home game, bruno assist record motivation. forest played for some pride and habit of having done well recently but not much else besides. next week vs Brighton will be more intense. they will throw everything at it. Lifer|||pk

Lot of summer recruitment work to do if this is our bench. Is Bayindir going to be our reserve keeper? Is Malacia trusted to play as a reserve, let alone starting left back? Ugarte... no more needs to be said. Is Zirkzee trusted to score or assist or link up with the intensity required? Personally, Dorgu, Heaven, Maz, Yoro, Mount will stay. Mount has played very well in games under Amorim but will he be trusted to stay fit? What's his ideal position in this setup? A team that has to play in 4 competitions. You need to be able to field a second squad where the standards do not drop too much. We'll have to fortunately rely on the academy too. Lifer|||pk

hey, i get it but i'm actually not against the game being slower in parts e.g. someone walks up to take the throw in because I don't think players can run for 90 mins without a breather. they've got a system for time wasting already which can be refined by giving out yellows more often and faster. i just find deliberate fouls make the game 10x worse and should be punished accordingly. pulling someone's shirt and getting a yellow in a critical counter attack means we see fewer moves and goals.

@UtdLifers @theawayfans Managers would soon stop goalkeepers wasting time if they have to be replaced.....

Former referee Mark Clattenburg's proposed change to stop time-wasting in football: "Football is an entertainment sport, so we need as much playing time as possible. The first time I refereed in the Champions League, only 40 minutes of the 90 were actually played. "The two things I want to happen are that the referee has the power, instead of showing a yellow card to a player wasting time, to reverse the decision. If the player is instructed to take a throw-in and delays it, the throw should immediately go to the opposing team from that spot. "Often, players go to the sideline, bounce the ball, move it forward a long distance, wait for the referee to tell them to return to the original position, wait a little longer, are booked, and the referee writes down the sanction. Then, after about 10 more seconds, they take the throw-in. The player wins. They steal a minute doing that. Instead, if we had the option to reverse the sanction, without booking them, this wouldn't happen. "The other idea is the same but for goal kicks and corner kicks. If the attacker delays on purpose, the sanction is reversed, and they lose the corner, which becomes a goal kick. If the goalkeeper does the same, they go from having defensive control to conceding a corner."