I remember some claiming that the reason why Xavi couldn’t implement attractive and attacking oriented football was because he didn’t have the squad to do so. Fast forward a few months and we are playing some of the most attractive football under Flick with an identical squad plus an injured Olmo.
Similarly, Steven Gerrard was in charge of AV in 21/22 and finished 14th. Prior to that, in 19/20 and 20/21, Aston Villa finished in 17th and 11th place, respectively. Emery took over in 22/23 midseason and finished in 7th place. Last season, he managed to clinch the EPL 4th spot and is currently 5th in the Champion’s League.
What exactly changed between 22/23 and 23/24 beyond, perhaps, a few new player acquisitions? A great manager took over, one of the very best. Suddenly results improved drastically. And I mean, he took a team which was in the Championship a few years prior to the Champion’s League essentially overnight. To insinuate that Manchester United’s squad couldn’t improve if it had the right manager in charge is a take I just cannot agree with.
Before Emery took over, people were probably defending Gerrard’s poor league results using that very argument: the squad isn’t good enough to perform better.
Point is, great managers can quickly improve on performance and results. With the right man in charge, players suddenly improve markedly. Heck, even under Flick we’ve seen how many of our own players are performing significantly better than they did under Xavi now that we have a tactically astute manager in charge.
I know this is Barca forum, but I am still not convinced by Flick. I just don't rate him much as a coach (I don't rate Xavi either before you say that). I think Atletico or Real will win the league and Barca will falter somewhere in the CL too. Hope I am wrong but I tend to take
@malvolio's pessimistic approach here. Barca are way too inconsistent with performances from game to game. You also don't play attractive football every game - some Barca games have been horrid to watch. Plus Lewandowski's all-round game is mostly horrific and WILL cost Barca at some point, if it hasn't already.
As for Man United their players could improve, but not significantly so. Their players lack too many technical fundamentals, and loads of them have very low football IQ too. I watch them every week and have for years, and it is abundantly apparent that many of their players struggle with first touch, passing, tight spaces etc. They're also poor athletically, slow and weak as a team.
It is frankly amazing how these undertalented bluffers keep fooling people into thinking it's coaches making them look bad. They're some of the biggest frauds in football, Man United's players. It has been going on for over a decade - people ALWAYS blame their coaches and let their players off the hook. Like I said to delancey, I honestly believe people are fooled into thinking because a player plays for Man United, who were good in the past, and cost a lot he must be good and better than those at smaller clubs - which is utter bollocks.
Coaches can improve players but these players have failed under multiple managers now. The likes of Shaw, Rashford, Maguire etc have played under 4/5/6 coaches and their level has been poor mostly. Now granted I don't rate any of those coaches either, so that plays its part too.
However, while your comment is generally true, I just don't rate most of Man United's players. Plus you can say that about any team - that a good coach can improve the players. It isn't a special or unique thing to one club.
What I take issue with is delancey saying that Aston Villa have a weaker squad than Man United. As one example, no coach on earth is making a donkey like Hojlund close to as good as Watkins - and I don't think Watkins is world-class or anything, but Hojlund is terrible - and no it isn't coaching, he just lacks basic football fundamentals and technique. Idiots were saying Van Nistelrooy as a former top striker was gonna get the best out of him. I laughed at that and was proved right.
Coaches can improve players but they aren't miracle workers. They're not gonna take a team that's been as low as 14th or 15th much higher than 8th, say (and yes, Villa were sabotaged by Gerrard, who is one of the worst managers at the top level, Amorim and Ten Hag are nowhere near as clueless as he is so it is a misleading comparison). They cannot turn water into wine. if you think any coach can turn Hojlund, Garnacho, Dalot, Zirkzee, Martinez, De Ligt, Onana, Ugarte, Mazraoui, Maguire, Mount, Antony, Mainoo and so on into really good players then fair enough. But I wholly disagree.
