Breaking the Habit - A Man United rebuild

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Even in their reduced state, United should be too good for the other teams in the UECL group.
Varied set of results in the premier league; again what is to be expected at this point.

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Thanks, yeah I do expect to win this group. It's certainly a step down from Champions League opponents. 

Judging from the images, I assume you still play the games yourself?...

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@Danimal5981 wrote:

Judging from the images, I assume you still play the games yourself?...

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Yes, I do. I'm still mostly involved in the Rangers career, but jump over here from time to time to play a few games.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Unable to score....sounds familiar.
Any academy strikers to promote and give a chance to, perhaps?

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I haven't found any myself so far, but there is one striker, a Portuguese fellow, who was the only one I kept from the academy, when I started. I didn't like the others, so I set them free.

I think it's way too soon for the Portuguese though, his OVR is really poor, so I need him to improve, before I'll give him a chance. Next season perhaps. I also play Mainoo and Garnacho quite regularly, so swarming the squad with more academy players are also not in my plans at this point.

Strange to say the table looks realistic with United and Chelsea in the middle. Scoring is a big issue so far. Any changes to the formation coming?

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@Stlducks4 wrote:

Strange to say the table looks realistic with United and Chelsea in the middle. Scoring is a big issue so far. Any changes to the formation coming?

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Yes, I noticed Chelsea too. Quite realistic actually. Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool in top 3 is also quite similar to the current real life league standings, except Aston Villa pushing Arsenal down to 4th IRL. I could be inclined to switch up a few things in regards to the formation. In my Rangers setup I have tweeked the formation to a back 4, a midfield with a CDM, RCM, LAM and a forward three with a RM/RW, a LF and a ST. It creates a lot of these "diagonals", which @Danimal5981 spoke of earlier, and it's worked wonders for me. I could try to recreate that here, though with the players at my disposal I'd probably try to reverse it, with a CDM, LCM, RAM, LM, RF and ST.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
It's a point about the game that I have raised in the past with EA, to no avail. When you start a career with an elite club, the contents of the academy are mostly dreadful - not at all what you expect them to have. It's simply not realistic that practically all of them need to be released immediately.
Never got any kind of acknowledgement from EA, though.

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At least we start with a "full" academy now, contrary to a few years ago, when it was empty at the beginning. I don't mind too much, I'll just find some myself, and I rarely introduce anyone in my first season anyway. I would like to be able to edit these youngsters though. Their names, appearances etc., that would be great to be able to change. Then you could also rename an academy striker as one you know from real life, who just hasn't been included in the game yet. This would be awesome IMO.

Ten Hag's job already on te line? Mid table with United... I mean, no one can make gold with this, but still - a little underperforming I'd say

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@Danimal5981 wrote:

Ten Hag's job already on te line? Mid table with United... I mean, no one can make gold with this, but still - a little underperforming I'd say

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There's definitely room for improvement, I agree to that. And EtH needs to find a way to make the team score some goals, otherwise it's going to be the end for him. He's making a decent effort with the defence though, and that's probably a good thing after conceding 15 goals in 6 champions league games in 23/24. If the goals start coming too, that could be the start of something new. Having sent so many expensive players away, with only Tapsoba and free transfers coming in, we might also see another new signing come January.

A good run of games minus the blip against Everton which was quite the defeat. Improvement up top as well. 7 goals in 3 league games after just 10 in  previous 10. Still much work to do tho.

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@thurlow885 wrote:

A good run of games minus the blip against Everton which was quite the defeat. Improvement up top as well. 7 goals in 3 league games after just 10 in  previous 10. Still much work to do tho.

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Thanks, yeah the Everton was just the typical "a good game followed by a poor game" routine that Man United have now been doing for years. 

Dear board members, @Danimal5981 @CO88LER5 @thurlow885 @Stlducks4 and anyone else wanting to weigh in. We have an offer on the table for Christian Eriksen, and we've decided to sell.

Real Sociedad offers a promising winger, whom we hadn't scouted or even considered signing at any point so far. And we did sign another winger of Basque origin this summer, with Álex Berenguer arriving from Sociedad rivals Athletic Club. Without much success, I might add. A hard working backup, but nothing more than that with only 1 goal to his name. And 0 assists.

More info on the player here: Barrenetxea FC 24 Jan 17, 2024 SoFIFA

Mönchengladbach offers a clean £22m fee, so this offer is probably the preferable from a financial perspective. But the board in general seems adamant that we won't be spending any of that money on a new player anyway, having already signed Manu Koné for the central midfield.

So what say you? Which offer should we agree to?

I'd go for the Sociedad offer.  I've had that player before and he's quite good.  You could later sell the player you bought and suggested you aren't convinced by...

I'd be quite tempted to take the cash/player deal. It's not often the AI actually send through a decent ISH player I find certainly not one I'd usually consider, but looking at stats and potential this one definitely has promise. Both options are a good for United imo, but would take chance on player and even if doesn't work out long term I'd expect a profit return within few seasons.

Thanks, @CO88LER5 and @thurlow885.

I agree, often the players suggested in swap deals are someone I would never even concider. And this time he actually looks quite promising.

I think I'll go with the swap then. It's also fun to end up with other players than I originally planned to target.

I'd think of it as a bit like when United bought Cantona from Leeds.  That started as an enquiry from Leeds for a United player(can't remember who).  Fergue said "no" but asked about Cantona, and the deal was done.  A totally unplanned deal.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:

I'd think of it as a bit like when United bought Cantona from Leeds.  That started as an enquiry from Leeds for a United player(can't remember who).  Fergue said "no" but asked about Cantona, and the deal was done.  A totally unplanned deal.

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That was Dennis Irwin if I remember correctly. 

Not often I agree in the term A Player is the difference maker, but back then Cantona sure was and someone like Fergie was able to tame him a bit better than Howard Wilkinson was. Leeds fans were furious for letting him go especially to United, but truth be known he was going anyways