Richy S

My thoughts on #SAFC problems and RLB for those interested. 1) The set piece set up, especially defending them but from an attacking point of view too, is appalling. 2) There is a serious lack of courage on the ball. Too many progressive, penetrative pass opportunities turned down followed by the simple, easy check back and 5 yard sideways/backwards ones. 3) The refusal to put the ball in the box is staggering. You're not scoring without it. 4) Sunderland are a team set up to score the first goal, yet can't stop conceding soft goals. Opposition then sit back, completely safe in knowledge we won't break them down, which pads out our 'key metrics' making them worthless. 5) Gone from the hardest team to play against to the easiest. No nastiness remains. No pride in being nasty. 6) We've become so easy to play through, even from an opposition goal kick. Simple rotation and they're out to thr halfway line. Every time. On RLB: The problems are significant and no signs at all they're even working on them. First goal v Zagreb was identical problem to first goal v Poznan for example. That, for me, makes it difficult to support RLB even if you want to, which I think most do.

😠 Matthias Jaissle says his NUFC players did not adhere to his match plan, which was NOT to play long balls "There is big frustration & disappointment. We could not not transfer what we saw in the week, training in a high level. Since the start of the game, not much was seen. That is difficult to understand. "We were not brave enough to break the line and play on the ground. We saw it in training, but there was almost nothing to see from these aspects in the game. In possession, this was not the level we wanted to see. "If you just play long balls, it’s not the style Osula prefers & that was not the plan. We need to analyse this in depth, why we could not start the game how we planned. I’m responsible for that, to make it work. "We have a clear identity of how we want to play. To bring the opposition in stressful situations high in the pitch. We spoke about creating 1-on-1 situations. The plan was not to shoot the long balls."

UNITED 👊

🗣️Matthias Jaissle in tonight's programme: "At the training ground we have been really focused on identifying and working on the areas we need to improve. "We are going through a period of transition, and we fully expect to experience ups and downs this season, as the last week has shown."

🚨 Kaveh Solhekol absolutely tore into Sir Jim Ratcliffe live on Sky Sports on Monday: And I couldn't agree with him more. Every single word. 👏 🗣️ "I'm going to tell you who's to blame for this situation at the moment. The person to blame is Jim Ratcliffe. "He bought the club almost three years ago. He bought 29% of it when the Glazer family put the club up for sale. He didn't buy the whole club, he only bought 29%. And by buying 29%, it meant that the Glazers stayed in place and Jim Ratcliffe got to run the football operations. "He's come in and said, 'I know better than anyone else how to run this club. We're going to do things my way.' And look what it's turned out to be over the past two and a half years. "First of all, he said, 'I'm going to back Erik ten Hag. We've been chopping and changing managers too much.' Then he went off and started meeting Thomas Tuchel and any other manager who was available behind Erik ten Hag's back. "When they couldn't find somebody else, they gave Ten Hag a new contract and money to spend. A couple of games later, Ten Hag loses his job. "In the middle of the season, they beg Ruben Amorim to come to United. He doesn't even want to go there in the middle of the season. He wants to wait until the summer. They pay a fortune to get him, even though he plays three at the back, a totally different kind of football. "Dan Ashworth doesn't want him. Dan Ashworth leaves, Ruben Amorim comes in, and they go all in on Ruben Amorim. That doesn't work out. They get rid of him. "They bring in Carrick as an interim. Okay, results are better. Then they give him the full-time job. "In the meantime, Ratcliffe has come in and said, 'We're going to do things my way. No player is going to get paid £250,000 or £300,000 a week here anymore. That's not going to happen. We're not going to sign any players for more than £60M or £70M.' "So Mateus Fernandes, Elliot Anderson, Harry Kane, Declan Rice, all these players, we aren't going to be signing them. "And also, we're only going to be signing players with Premier League experience. We're going to sign forwards one window, then the following summer we're just going to sign midfielders, then next summer we're just going to sign defenders. "So this is Jim Ratcliffe's way of doing things. He is to blame for this situation." 👏👏👏