Welcome, welcome. This is the first installment in a recurring series.
"MOTW" is the common acronym for Match of the Week, but here at The United Fan Channel, this segement is called "Moron of the Week" where we highlight the dumbest, hottest takes of the week from sources all across the interwebs.

Without further ado...let's dive in!

Starting with Gary Neville.

Neville claims that Zirkzee with never trust or respect Amorim again after being subbed off early against Newcastle. What a load of shit. For one, yes, the team didn't play well, but people need to stop protecting Zirkzee saying that he didn't play that bad. Those people (I can't even call them fans) are clueless. Zirkzee's passing was atrocious the entire first half and his positioning...don't even get me started. Now without confirmation from Amorim, I cannot confirm if these were simply his instructions, but I cannot imagine they were, as we have never seen this shape under Amorim. What do I mean by this? Check out the screenshot below leading up to the first goal, as just one example of many.

On countless ocassions, Zirkzee would get dragged to be level, or even more advance, to Rasmus, leaving our midfield exposed with fewer players behind the ball and creating channels and gaps for Newcastle to exploit to get a foothold in our half. Even here, he's simply jogging back. The reason I do not believe this was part of his instructions is because there are other moments where he does actually get behind the ball, but those felt like the exception, not the rule. All in all, his positioning was wildly inconsistent and gave us a broken structure. You saw this contrasted after his substitution, where we had Eriksen, Casemiro, Amad and Mainoo getting behind the ball to provide 4-wide in the midfield. His positioning, along with his poor passing and high turnover, were the key reasons he was subbed off. Neville claims that Amorim got the team sheet wrong, but apart from starting Mainoo over Zirkzee in the first place, what's the alternative? Bruno and Ugarte were out, so you effectively had to play Eriksen and Casemiro in the pivot, if you are managing Mainoo's minutes. What I can almost assure you is that Amorim didn't want to play Mainoo for the full 90, as he has been used a lot and needs rest when possible.

Honourable Mention:

This post in the Red Devils subreddit.

The "chances created" stat is the most abused and skewed stat that is not qualified through other stats, so the fact that people continue to use it as part of an argument that is cherrypicked and taken out of context blows my mind. For every "chance created," you are lacking the following context: where was the chance created, i.e. where did the chance take place? what was the xG of the chance created? what is the share of chances created through the other roles, i.e. Bruno is generally the sole link between the back and the front, so where are the other chances coming from and what is Bruno's share in the squad? (now also compare that against other teams and players he's compared against) for every chance created, how many passes were wasted, i.e. when was there intent to create a chance that did not result in a chance created?

For context, Shot-Creating Actions, Bruno is sat 12th currnently in the league, for this season. No one cares about the whole of 2024 where Bruno played in a role, in a system that largely favored him and made him the focal point of it all. Only the last month of the year has he been asked to do something different and been made a lower priority in creating for the team.

The laziest arguments I hear on this subject are:

1) "If only people converted, then he would have more assists" - see above point about where those chances are actually coming from. There is a MASSIVE difference between Cole Palmer playing in his teammates between the lines and in on goal compared to Bruno playing a ball out to the wing only for them to cut inside and shoot. That is a "chance created," but the quality of the chances are wildly different and have starkly different xG's. There is a reason our xG is bang average and closely aligns with where we are in the table - the quality of our chances are not nearly as good as poeple make them out to be.

2) "We are better with Bruno" - how exactly? People will say things like "Of the last 4 matches Bruno has missed, we haven't scored in them!" (Looking at you, Beth at the United Stand...)

Cool. And how many matches has he missed this season alone? Why is it that we have 5 other matches this season, where he was involved, in which we've not scored? What's the excuse there?

Again, people cherrypick the worst of stats for an agenda to support Bruno, when in reality, he's not nearly as good as people make him out to be. Even in that thread, you have hyperbolic statements claiming that his assist tally would be higher if he was in a Liverpool, Bayern or Real Madrid side. So why isn't he? Why have these teams not approached Bruno over the years to try to lure him away if he's such a massive asset with fewer drawbacks than fans lead on in this argument? Is it because he leaves his position too often, leaving the team exposed? Is it because he wastes possession time and time again? Is it because is poor defensively? Is it because he's rash in challenges in dangerous areas? The guy is a liability and one that has stunted this team's growth for far too long. If you had a more protective