No one wants to see the 'production line' not given a fair chance. How is it possibly you've managed to conclude that is the case? If a player is good enough to make the first team then he'll get his chance. Stop trying to overcomplicate matters.

Are you happy for that to be at the expense of results though? Would you take top 4 rather than the title if it meant 3 young players coming through rather than signing Zlatan, Pogba and Bailey?

The two aren't mutually exclusive, you can sign players and bring youngsters through.

Well yes of course but obviously if you are giving 3 young guys a first XI place that's theoretically 3 signings you don't need to make. Mourinho could in theory have left Zlatan where he is and said "Rashford is my number one striker" or similar. Would have been nuts to do that but you get my drift.

Yeah, it'd be bonkers.

Considering it's very much a squad game we're unlikely to encounter such a black and white situation as that. It's also that which makes this discussion quite redundant.

"It is an aggressive approach by myself. I want everything. Of course we are not going to get everything but we want to."

No more scrabbling for 4th place and calling that success. Very good, carry on.

Indeed. That direct no nonsense approach is a breath of fresh air after a year of boredom and then two years of (admittedly sometimes quite entertaining) weirdness.

If Mourinho see's rooney as a forward and has no intention of playing him in midfield then why have we signed ibrahimovic? i said on this forum months ago when we were linked with ibrahimovic that fitting him and rooney into the same team would be a big problem, and here we are. The two of them are incompatible in the same attack, they both need pace around them to compensate for there lack of mobility, they both like to drop deep and operate in the same area. If Mourinho is not going to play rooney in midfield then what the heck is he planning to do, its a bit baffling to be honest...

I think it was more a warning shot to Rooney that he isn't guaranteed a place in the team and that if he isn't performing up front he wont be getting shoe-horned into the team elsewhere just to keep him playing. I'm surprised that you are looking for negatives in that given that many people were complaining previously about Rooney being perceived as undroppable.

Enjoyed watching Mourinho's first press conference. He speaks like a winner, more importantly he spoke like a United manager should - bullish and proud to represent the club, unlike Van Gaal who thought being in the Europa League was an achievement or something. I love his ambitious, straight-talking approach and I love that he said the United job is a gig everyone wants .

I also like that Mourinho addressed the accusations that have been thrown his way over the years regarding youth and attacking football. It seems Mourinho is determined to put these myths to bed and show the world he is a manager who likes working with young players and playing attacking football. WIll be exciting to see how he approaches the job, that's for sure.

Favourite Quote: “It depends on the way you want to face it. I was never very good playing with words and hiding behind words and hiding behind philosophies. I was never good with that."
Almost feels like Mourinho is talking about Van Gaal in that quote...

it may be a warning shot but thats irrelevant to my point, mourinho has stated he see's rooney as a forward and not a midfielder, he has signed ibrahimovic to play up front, so unless i am missing something the plan must be for them to play together in a partnership. that would of been a great partnership about 5 years ago, but unfortunately for united its 2016 now not 2011 and any pace that either of them used to have is long gone. you can accomodate one player like that in a team, you can't accomodate two of them...

I don't think that's fair.

Van Gaal never gave me the impression that he was satisfied with our results, or league placing.

I think that pace is an overrated commodity in a centre-forward, these days. Especially in a team like ours. Most teams will sit deep against us, so pace is best used out wide.

I could see Rooney playing just off Ibrahimovic, with Martial and (presumably) Mkhitaryan as the wide forwards with pace and trickery.

Rashford, Depay, Mata and Lingard as the understudies (unless they're sold, obviously).

Maybe not privately, but publicly he was giving fans the impression, at times, that we were meant to be happy with what he was serving up and accept that we weren't a force to be reckoned with anymore. Even going as far as to say that the fans' expectations were too high, as if we were to blame for his failings or something.

Which is why it's refreshing to hear Mourinho talk about not being satisfied with Top 4 and Europa League.

you must have forgotten about the two years falcao spent in england, he was done once his pace went and had no chance of succeeding in the prem...


if the idea is for ibrahimovic to drop deep and be a link player then he needs mobile midfielders, wide forwards running beyond him, rooney doesn't fit that category, he's as slow as ibrahimovic these days...

Must I? Falcao was shot to bits. It wasn't just his pace that had gone, but his confidence and reactions.

Van Persie wasn't particularly quick, but he did pretty well, because he was an intelligent player.


How do you know that Ibrahimovic will be asked to drop deep?

van persie was comfortably more mobile then rooney and ibrahimovic now are, so thats a moot point.


because only a moron would expect a soon to be 35 year old 6 foot 5 inch striker to be running in behind and trying to beat offside traps on a regular basis in a physical fast paced league like the prem, and i don't think mourinho is a moron. ibrahimovic will be dropping deep, holding the ball up and linking with players, thats his game these days, thats what he has been doing for psg and sweden.

Another friendly added, Wigan away on Saturday 16th July,

You make it sound like Rooney can barely walk. Van Persie was not noticeably quicker than Rooney is now.

Giroud and Kane both score plenty of goals in the league, and neither are quick.


Then perhaps Rooney will play further forward.

Regardless, I don't particular appreciate the insinuation that I'm a 'moron', simply for speculating on what might or might not happen.

Mourinho bought Ibrahimovic, and has said that Rooney will play as a striker. Unless he's dropping Rooney, I guess that we'll see what he does with them.

in his prime he definitely was


both arsenal and spurs have lots of pace throughout the team, which goes back to what i said in a previous post, you can accomodate a player like that by having pacey players around them...


how does that solve the problem, it doesn't matter which one plays further forward then the other one, they are both too slow to work as a partnership for the reasons i already outlined...


i was responding to a question which was posed to me by you, and i didn't insinuate that you are a moron so if you took it that way your mistaken...

Assuming there's something in the Pogba talk, it would suggest that that's the type of all-action, quick midfielder that Mourinho wants even if it ends up not being him.

Not quite, he said that Rooney is not a striker any more. He's a goal scorer though, but a number nine and a half or ten, he said.

That says to me that Ibrahamovich will be the main striker with Rooney in behind. Maybe they can play off each other?

Sums it up perfectly

"We aspire to be like Manchester City" - David Moyes
"The expectations of the fans is too high" - LVG
"This club is too big to finish 4th or 5th and win an FA cup, I want to win the lot" - José Mourinho

Just to add to the above, #4722, in his later MUTV interview, Mourinho said about his strikers that Ibra isn't at the perfect age, but neither is Rashford. However, he said, if you add their ages together and divide by two, that is the perfect age!

Good news really as it confirms what we have suspected; he's going to use them both, as and when he thinks it's appropriate. One of them up front and Rooney in behind. Or any combination thereof.

I'm sure the many Rooney haters won't find it good news, till he leaves the club we'll keep hearing how undroppable he is, etc.