Man Utd should discount ‘indecisive’ Michael Carrick from big job

Michael Carrick should not get the Manchester United job based on that defeat to Leeds. Especially after picking Manuel Ugarte.

Well I had a horrible feeling (Manchester*) United would lose that but I didn’t say THAT bad a performance coming. In truth we have been pretty poor against the sides lower down the league all season , no matter what manager we’ve had. We’ve dropped points against each of the bottom seven. Actually Palace are the only team we’ve beaten twice this season, so we’ve been inconsistent at best.

Michael Carrick can complain about decisions all he wants . I think Calvert Lewin fouled Yoro, it was certainly a rougher challenge than what Maguire was sent off for. Clear and obvious? Maybe not. As my annoying Leeds supporting friend said at the time Licha was sent off for basically undoing Calvert Lewis’s ponytail by accident”. I might add this was while being smashed in the throat by said pony tail wearer. Bit harsh but also bloody stupid. Just don’t grab his hair you utter moron. Instead of defending Licha for that, Carrick should be getting him to apologise to the fans.

Regardless of those decisions, Leeds deserved the win and United deserved to have their pants pulled down. The ref did us a favour sending a player off because it seemed to elicit some sort of reaction. Up to that point, Leeds were inspired and United were insipid. That was the worst we have played since the Brentford game. Leeds deserved to win four nil. Perhaps they should have.

United are still in the box seat for a Champions League spot, largely because the three teams below us have been varying shades of useless. That’s one win in four for United, one decent performance in the last seven (against Villa) and the game before that was against ten man Spurs. The Carrick-In brigade need to have a look at that and give their heads a bit of a wobble. If nothing else, losing to Leeds at home should be enough to discount him from the job until several more experienced and proven managers are looked at.

Going back to the red card though, are we sure we want THAT to be a red card? And if we do, are we sure it should be called violent conduct? Is it really that much worse than grabbing someone’s shirt? I’ve had various man buns and ponytails in my time and I can tell you for certain that Calvert Lewin was in no way hurt by Martinez there. Rude, cheeky, disrespectful maybe. Violent? Nah.

Well done to Leeds though, top performance all round. Perhaps the fact that I am able to be so complimentary to what I still consider a top rival is one of the reasons our players just can’t get it up for these lads any more? Ashmundo *this clarifier is yet more grudging respect. Would never do this for West Ham or Newcastle

…I can’t complain too much about the result, given the poor first half performance, but of course I will. Particularly as that was a massive chance wasted to help secure CL football for next season.

There were some questionable decisions from Carrick, notably starting Ugarte in MF who offers very little going forward. Options were limited but dropping Bruno in beside Casemiro with Mount in front would likely have worked better, especially as Leeds play an Amorim style system with only 2 in CM.

Then to wait so long to make changes was too indecisive for me. And when those changes did not include Ugarte it certainly raised a few eyebrows. That said, we showed some fight and nearly got a point. But a big sign of whether he should get the job or not is how the team bounces back from a bad result, so we’ll see.

The sending off. Oh dear. Does anyone actually watch that incident and think it was violent conduct? Yes it was stupid but he let go as quickly as he caressed DCL’s ponytail, akin to a couple of tweens having a sleepover and plaiting each other’s hair. No doubt they swapped friendship bracelets and wrote about it in their diaries after the game. If there’s malice or force, send him off; otherwise give him a bloody yellow card, laugh it off and move on.

Finally, some love for Casemiro. I had doubts he could get back to this level at his age but he just keeps turning back the clock and coming up with big performances. Just a shame we can’t give him any decent trophies to show for it. Hopefully they have a goalscoring midfielder lined up to replace him, and hopefully Bruno stays to help us lift the league trophy he deserves in due course. Garey Vance, MUFC

Lenny Yoro spends the majority of every game looking like a deer in headlights. He constantly looks like he’s about to fall over and quite often does just that. I’ve never seen a centre half outmuscled as often or as easily. He was at fault for both goals via a mixture of the above.

I think back fondly to Ayden Heaven’s run of games where his calmness, strength, and composure on the ball made his superiority to Yoro as obvious as Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s ponytail was to Lisandro Martinez.

How any manager favours the constantly befuddled Yoro over Heaven is beyond me but Carrick obviously doesn’t fancy Heaven. Why else would you put Ugarte back in central defence rather than sub him off for, you know, an actual central defender? Damian, Dublin (Yes, Leeds deserved it)

Michael Carrick reminds me of my pet monkey, who wrote really good poetry that left you with good vibes and a feeling that you could do anything. Bananas, my pet monkey, also played the guitar and used to help with household chores.

Sadly, I had to let him go because he could never help me with my homework… Muthama Gitonga, Nyeri (Mount Kenya)

Man U fans booing their team at HALF TIME. I can understand the frustration at bottling CL qualification but I thought their supporters were better than that. Ken Charlatan

( Mind you, we do have Man Utd among the 10 fanbases who have a right to be upset – Ed )

Love the Gary Neville quote. Best one yet… “We’re in the home straight now, the period when every game really does matter…”.

Luckily the previous 32 games did not matter and everybody starts now with 96 points and uneven schedules plus injuries. Brilliant insight. If we can call it that. Nobody ever won the Prem at a canter by late January before. Oh, wait…No never mind. It’s totally about the final 6 games.

One begins to understand the results of his (mis)managerial career. Thank goodness for sports channels and twitter! It still amazes how such an average player and mind ended up with an outsized voice. I suppose our IQs must drop when we turn from the news to finance to sports pages.

Any Liverpool fans still annoyed about Chelsea gazumping Caicedo and Lavia for outrageous sums? (153M quid with add ons!). Not this one. Chelsea are welcome.

No skin in the game but since City have won so many after taking over the financial dominance of the game from MANU, I suppose I prefer them to win again. Just to see Arsenal spin.

If anyone can get some smart people to write articles, provide quotes, host podcasts, it would be much appreciated. Maybe some of the actual people that manage football enterprises or run analytics teams, perhaps? I think many of us would prefer to read what they have to say. No more Nevilles, Carraghers(still luvya), Ferdinands, et al. plz!

We need useful commentary and insight or the pages and sites start to become irrelevant. Sean, Toronto, LFC

But seriously, I feel for you. The outright hostility of social media has crept its way into all forms of media and Spurs are truly on the nasty end of it at the moment. Not that that will make you feel any better, it coming from an Arsenal fan.

And so speaking of Arsenal…

Minty, were you there at the Emirates on Saturday? Did you take in the atmosphere for yourself? I have been going to Arsenal home games for 30 years and never booed, and neither have those around me. It bit of grumbling perhaps, but who hasn’t done that at their team’s games at times? It’s a minority that actually boo and probably about the same as fans of any other club. And as I said, mass grumbling I guess can sound like booing. And actually, in these circumstances, is a bit of booing really so wrong? Aren’t football fans allowed to be a bit emotional?

Also, the TV sound mixing editors probably exaggerate it, as it promotes bollocks banter like yours. I know, what are they like?!!

But of course a dose of reality doesn’t fit the narrative, does it?

And your point about how that motivates (or not) the players? Whilst I don’t particularly like the booing myself, if the players can’t handle that from a few fans, then frankly they are not worthy to play football at this level. No one seems too bothered about the abuse that gets shouted at players by opposition fans. Are they so delicate that hearing a bit of booing will just be a bit too much for them? John, North London

Funny though it may seem, at times, if a team like Arsenal doesn’t do well, it will be because of supporters like Stewie .

Trying to be clever by constantly barracking your own team is so boring and toxic.

Your team is top of the league. Still in with a great shot of the Premier League and the CL. It’s a long season and every team falters and has a bad patch at some point.

The players understand what the fans want as you know the players (who have not won a PL or CL before) want it more than anything as well. I am sure they can’t wait to go online to read the toxic sh*t from nobodies like Stewie who have likely done nothing and won nothing in life themselves as an incentive to do better. Paul McDevitt

TL;DR – Despite all the hyperbolic crazy, it’s actually just been a great season for a neutral and not even yet a bad one for Arsenal or City.

Now – I’ll start with a friendly stat-drop to remind everyone who’s currently a) in the throes of commiserating an incoming Arsenal worst-season-ever, or b) ecstatically celebrating the “Banterpocalypse” of Arsenal.

At the end of this gameweek, Arsenal’s form in the league over the last 5 games (4 wins, 1 loss) has only been bettered by Arsenal this season in two prior gameweeks 10 & 20 (5 wins) out of 32 – additionally, in 2003/04, Arsenal only ended up with one run of 4 wins or more in a row (a season defining 9 game winning streak that neither this years Arsenal nor City have yet achieved to give them “should be” status)

Conversely, this “useless” City’s worst run of form (1w, 3d, 1l) is actually pretty bad but also only 2 points off Arsenal’s worst this year (2w, 2d, 1l) – a 2 point swing, which accounts for 66% of the current difference between the two if City had 3 points from their game in hand.

I do worry a little for the Arsenal supporters who might be about to throw away genuine best vibes if they do end up winning something by preparing for the worst, a little more than the schadenfreude lot who may not quite have processed that all this preparation might be building their hopes up that Arsenal win nothing. By virtue of being the most successful team of the last decade, City will survive regardless.

In cricket terms (you love it – and if you don’t, eh, I’ll live), Arsenal are 352-5 in the third innings having just lost 2 quick wickets, with a lead of 150 runs – City, though there’ll be scoreboard pressure, have a great batting line up to test the 4th innings total. Multiple outcomes are still possible, and this *should* be what makes our sport interesting – SHOULD being the operative word of course – because instead likely we’ll all keep talking like that relative that’s still on your social media but you kind of wish they weren’t because their posts are all suspect enough to worry you, but not suspect enough to do anything about

All this and both Arsenal and City have other fish to fry, it’s not like this weekend, or next Sunday, win or lose, defines the league yet, let alone either team’s season. City already have a League Cup they neither needed, nor probably wanted, and could end up with a domestic treble no-one will give them credit for apparently. Arsenal could yet pull a Dortmund 2023/Ajax 2024 and create true “bottlepocalypse” by not only losing the league on the last day of the season, but then losing the Champions League final. City could win a perfectly respectable FA Cup and League Cup double, with Arsenal having the best season in their history by winning a League/Champions League double – probably still get no credit because “something something £2.9billion in transfers, something anti-football”. Harold Elonzo Hooler

P.S: I still think, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the football gods are about to award Arsenal with a win next week – and, for my entertainment’s sake I hope it’s a 3-2 worldie of a game, but for the absolute biss-poilery, it’d be funny if it’s a turgid 1-0, won in the 12th minute of 4 minutes of injury time, in off the hand of Gabriel while he’s twisting Khusanov’s nipple and Jover does the worm