2024-25 EPL Season

[bluesfan94]

On the note of working well away from United. Who has really left and performed well? The Sabres comparison doesn't really hold up to me because the Sabres had multiple players leave and perform extremely well (and even win cups)

Sancho performed well in Dortmund, but it's not like the Chelsea version of him is much better than the United one.
Lukuku was better for Inter than he was for United, but not dramatically so given the average level of competition.
Elanga has done well but I don't see much difference now than when he was a youngster at United that isn't explained by being a couple years older.
Dean Henderson has done well, but he played well at United and just was stuck behind DDG because United wasn't going to move on from him.

McTominay this year. Andreas Pereira. Alexis Sanchez. Smalling. Darmian.

That said, I think the better argument is that a lot of players look good until they get to United.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

On the note of working well away from United. Who has really left and performed well? The Sabres comparison doesn't really hold up to me because the Sabres had multiple players leave and perform extremely well (and even win cups)

Sancho performed well in Dortmund, but it's not like the Chelsea version of him is much better than the United one.
Lukuku was better for Inter than he was for United, but not dramatically so given the average level of competition.
Elanga has done well but I don't see much difference now than when he was a youngster at United that isn't explained by being a couple years older.
Dean Henderson has done well, but he played well at United and just was stuck behind DDG because United wasn't going to move on from him.

The sample size is small, but so far Chelsea Sancho has IMO been quite a bit better than United Sancho.

I think Lukaku’s time at United gets probably underrated, but there was definitely a large gulf between his performances at Inter and at United, not solely attributable to level of competition.

@bluesfan94 is correct, though, when he says that the main phenomenon is players regressing at United, rather than bursting to glory after leaving.

 

[bluesfan94]

@bluesfan94 is correct, though

Stopped reading here.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Stopped reading here.

Soak it up pal, only time you’ll ever read those words from me.

 

[hatterson]

@bluesfan94 is correct, though, when he says that the main phenomenon is players regressing at United, rather than bursting to glory after leaving.

I largely agree with this but the original post was "That doesn't mean they are bad, but once they GTFO out of Manchester, they always perform better"

There have been extremely few players who have performed markedly better once they left. Several have left and performed a bit better, but that's to be expected when you have a trainwreck managerial situation. United haven't had a manger who seemed to have a tactical plan since probably Mourinho.

McTominay was always good for United I think everyone just realized that he was limited. He can be very good when filling a specific role and United just didn't have that role regularly available. It's not so much that he's performing better as it is that he's more regularly able to play where he should.
I think most of the others mentioned Pereira, Smalling, Darmian were viewed as better away from United due to the standards they were being judged against. They might have improved a bit, but I didn't see a dramatic difference in their play. At United, despite the team not remotely justifying it, everyone was expected to be world class. If a player isn't up to that standard it's glaringly obvious they're short of it. Mistakes are highlighted way more.

Sanchez was MOTM 4 times in 12 matches his first year at United and then had a rash of injuries in his second year as well as the standard Mourinho coming apart at the end.

Sancho will need to keep it up at Chelsea for longer for me to believe it isn't just 2022 again when he had a good stretch of 10-15 games for United as well.