Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2017

dfx-

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

I expect jubilation from the many in here slating the draw last week with minimal chances created and giving up so much possession.

I'm sure many are happy now with us really going for the game, keeping it open and not letting up. It's just a real shame we lost and didnt get a thing. But hey at least we went for it.

If anything, this shows how much last week was a missed opportunity. Two draws if you recovered today or one win last week and a loss today?

You just can't afford to settle for a point with City bursting away and there's always a chance of a game like today. At what point did United 'go for it' today, second half flew by with little incident or threat.

How long is Fellaini going to be out for? I think he's as big a miss as anyone.

Bret Hart

We can put a stop to all the daft title talk now. City will be out of sight by the time they'll arrive at OT. They've 6 very straightforward fixtures before the game at OT. I can easily see them clocking up 100+ points on there way too the league title.

We're in for a fight for now for a top 4 spot. Just great. Right now we're just a cup team,so roll on Tuesdays game.

limnam

One thing this thread seems to have proved is expectations are back and high!

That Jose is some fecker. Getting peoples hopes up.

AidoEirE

limnam wrote: »

One thing this thread seems to have proved is expectations are back and high!

That Jose is some fecker. Getting peoples hopes up.

Nah one thing this thread has shown in the last 12 hours is people are quick to throw their toys out of the pram

jayo26

I don't want to sound like Bangkok here but a few weeks ago i said about pogba been a loss to to us and I was called out on if as a lazy opinion....... yes I'm looking at you!!!!!!

Only 2 or 3 other people agreed with me then but looking at it now how many actually thinks he is a massive loss for us???????? I would go as far as saying he is the heartbeat of the team for creating chances and taking the pressure off the defence.

wanderer100

jayo26 wrote: »

I don't want to sound like Bangkok here but a few weeks ago i said about pogba been a loss to to us and I was called out on if as a lazy opinion....... yes I'm looking at you!!!!!!

Only 2 or 3 other people agreed with me then but looking at it now how many actually thinks he is a massive loss for us???????? I would go as far as saying he is the heartbeat of the team for creating chances and taking the pressure off the defence.

Agree with your there. Pogba and Matic together were running games and we're impacting both our attacks and defence massively. We need Pogba back asap but i'm more worried about the rest of the squad who just aren't stepping up to the plate. We all know who they are.

adox

Yeah and she Pogbas back and we lose it will be “whichever big player is injured” that we are missing.

Sometimes it’s not a player that is missing that’s the problem. Sometimes it the player on the pitch that aren’t performing or the manager making wrong calls etc.

This was Huddersfield.

adox

jayo26 wrote: »

I don't want to sound like Bangkok here but a few weeks ago i said about pogba been a loss to to us and I was called out on if as a lazy opinion....... yes I'm looking at you!!!!!!

Only 2 or 3 other people agreed with me then but looking at it now how many actually thinks he is a massive loss for us???????? I would go as far as saying he is the heartbeat of the team for creating chances and taking the pressure off the defence.

And it was a lazy option. Losing to Huddersfield doesn’t change that and has nothing to do with the disagreement on that day.

Trigger

adox wrote: »

Yeah and she Pogbas back and we lose it will be “whichever big player is injured” that we are missing.

Sometimes it’s not a player that is missing that’s the problem. Sometimes it the player on the pitch that aren’t performing or the manager making wrong calls etc.

This was Huddersfield.

You can absolutely see that the team is missing the link in the middle that Pogba brings, he takes the ball and always drives forward. Herrera and Mkhi haven’t been stepping up to provide that in his absence. Matic has been trying to do that as well as everything else.

jayo26

adox wrote: »

And it was a lazy option. Losing to Huddersfield doesn’t change that and has nothing to do with the disagreement on that day.

Really ? Because today we lost to two stupid mistakes but if we had anyway of creates chances we have the players to put them away.

Since pogba got injured the team has gone back to creating **** all chances on goal never mind results I don't call that lazy I call it eyes wide open.

The disagreement that day is the same as now we didn't create enough we had enough possession today to win it's as simple as that and pogba is the main man in the team for making chances and he was last season too.

jayo26

astradave wrote: »

You can absolutely see that the team is missing the link in the middle that Pogba brings, he takes the ball and always drives forward. Herrera and Mkhi haven’t been stepping up to provide that in his absence. Matic has been trying to do that as well as everything else.

Totally agree with matic opinion here Dave but I also thought he gave the ball away today quiet poorly but nothing takes away on how wrong I was about Herrera in the summer I thought he was the main midfielder for us and was outstanding Last season but he has had a chance to step up with pogba out and he has completely failed in my opinion.

Giggsy11

jayo26 wrote: »

I don't want to sound like Bangkok here but a few weeks ago i said about pogba been a loss to to us and I was called out on if as a lazy opinion....... yes I'm looking at you!!!!!!

Only 2 or 3 other people agreed with me then but looking at it now how many actually thinks he is a massive loss for us???????? I would go as far as saying he is the heartbeat of the team for creating chances and taking the pressure off the defence.

Yeah, it's obvious we don't have any midfielders who has Pogba's passing range and his ability to link midfielder and attack.

There are few who downplays Pogba, it's not surprising. When Pogba plays there is at least some fluidity in the game, if he isn't we struggle most times.

Rekop dog

Pogba was there last season when they regularly struggled with dynamism and fluidity in the league.

Summer signings didn't address the biggest issues in the side.

Jose in the post-match PC

Just got to watch the match there now. Yep, now is one of those times where I wish that we didn't wear words like 'awful' and 'pathetic' into the ground, because that performance truly was both of those. I knew the score having listened to the game live in the car on the way to work, but I couldn't help but watch it anyway.

So disappointing, and I don't know what really happened. In the last two games, I could at least think that I saw what happened and make sense of it to myself. Against Liverpool - The players shít the bed with the manager's game plan, but we still got a point at Anfield in the first game back from a break.

Against Benfica - Group stage CL away to defensive opposition, it wasn't pretty but it was 3 points.

Having just watched yesterday's game, I have nothing.

It's interesting that Jose said that he hasn't seen a worse attitude from this group of players in the past, and he's at a loss as to why it happened...

Jose in the post-match PC wrote:

"I hear Ander Herrera in the flash interviews and he says the attitude and desire were poor. Oh my god, when a player says that, and when a player feels that, I think they should all go to the press conference and explain why, because I cannot explain."

"Of course it concerns me - If it happened today, why can it not happen tomorrow?"

So, why the poor attitude? I wonder if there was an element of "It's Huddersfield, there's no way we're not winning this game" in the players' minds early on. Then, by the time they realised that they weren't going to win this game on auto-pilot, they were 2-0 down and just too late? Where last weekend some thought that the team showed Liverpool too much respect, did they perhaps not show Huddersfield enough?

I saw quotes from Jose's press conference in here, but didn't see the actual video posted yet. Apologies if it has in fact already been posted, but any United fans who didn't see it should check it out. It's possibly Jose's most honest, and pissed, since he started at the club.

Let's be honest ourselves. He could have sat there and went with something along the lines of 'My players tried their best today. I'm happy with the performance, but the referee, poor conditions, bad luck, Doink the Clown, whatever, they were against us'

He didn't though. Could he have if even he wanted to? He looks quite agitated, it would have taken some effort to shine that up I think.

It was a woeful performance, nothing will change that. I am a bit more relaxed about the implications having seen that press-conference though. The performance and result don't seem to bother anyone more than the manager, it will be interesting to see what reaction he can get from the players.

Although they deserve it, I don't really care about them getting the hairdryer treatment, just adequate training and instruction to address the problems. That press-conference shows that the manager is aware of those problems and you can be sure he'll strive to fix them. Many more days like that and he'll age worse than Moyes.

AidoEirE

We could bring back pogba all we want but that mid is still not right. Of course he's the link between lines and sooner back the better. We all seem to repeating ourselves here.

All attacks are coming fron the left, the right needs work. We are getting to predicitable.
People asking to bring shaw back...why? Young has done a fine job since called upon.
How about work the right side.
Its funny seeing as our goal came from there.

adox

jayo26 wrote: »

Really ? Because today we lost to two stupid mistakes but if we had anyway of creates chances we have the players to put them away.

Since pogba got injured the team has gone back to creating **** all chances on goal never mind results I don't call that lazy I call it eyes wide open.

The disagreement that day is the same as now we didn't create enough we had enough possession today to win it's as simple as that and pogba is the main man in the team for making chances and he was last season too.

Yes because my point that day, which I’ve tried to explain to you before was, the team that were put out that day were more than capable of beating the opposition and didn’t and the analysis should be on why they didn’t and what went wrong, not “oh if we had Pogba there we would have won”. That’s why it was lazy. That performance that day was way beyond missing one player. It was a collective failure.

I’ve also stated numerous times that Pogba is missed but he isn’t the sort of player that will dictate the pace of tempo of a game and if the team around him isn’t performing the basics for him to sprinkle his magic on it then he just isn’t the sort of player that is capable dominating or setting the tempo of a game on his own.

I can’t speak for today’s game as I didn’t see it. Maybe Utd were dominant and just couldn’t find that killer pass etc. and everyone played well to a point where his presence would have beeen that extra ingredient needed. The game I wa talking about at the time to you, Utd were awful and the players that played needed analyzing etc. Pogba wouldn’t have influenced how they played. It was a time to hard a good hard look at the team and why they played so poorly, a group of players more than capable of beating the opposition that day and a group to a man, that hugely underperformed. It really wasn’t a time to say”ah we really missed Pogba” “this shows you how much we miss Pogba”. The team could barely string two passes together. That needed analyzing. That needed to be discussed.
Pogba played in quite a few of those type of games last season and didn’t influence the or change the performance or tempo of the game.

He is an excellent player of course and will of course be missed(like any good player) but that wasn’t really my point on the day and I think you know it.

Robson99

There are 4 or 5 players not good enough for United. That said they should be still able to beat Huddersfield.
I think its easy blame the players and that press conference was **** from Mourinho. He always blames everyone bar himself when things go wrong. Brought that negative crap into the Liverpool game and now hasn't been able to snap us out of it. The book lies with him. Its a pity the journalists didn't ask him if his flirting with PSG was the correct attitude for him to have. If he keeps this going he might be at West Ham and not PSG.

Bleating Lamb

Fair enough if he begged to get a loan move but when I heard that Perreira wasn’t going to be around for cover I had a feeling it might come back and bite us and it has BIGTIME!
Reality is for such a big club when you take say Matic and Pogba for example out of mf the replacements there at mo are not inspiring.
Pereira could well have started the last 3 games we have played,he has a good passing range and isn’t afraid to put in a shift tackling either.

adox

astradave wrote: »

You can absolutely see that the team is missing the link in the middle that Pogba brings, he takes the ball and always drives forward. Herrera and Mkhi haven’t been stepping up to provide that in his absence. Matic has been trying to do that as well as everything else.

Did you think the team were good enough to beat Huddersfield when you saw the line up? I did.

Shouldn’t we be analyzing why they didn’t and what went wrong with the players that played?

If Utd are relying on Pogba alone to beat the likes of Huddersfield then the club are in a right mess.

I don’t think they are and I think it’s more than rational to want to critique the players and team that play and lose to Huddersfield and draw to Stoke without resorting to “if we had Pogba there we probably would have won” etc. I mean these teams aren’t Real Madrid where we are missing that sprinkle of magic to beat a top team.

I’m not being down on Pogba per say. He is what he is. What I have issue is is the lack of trying to look at what went wrong with the team selected, or the tactics, or the performance of the players etc, instead of we really missed Pogba.

I don’t know how some of you can reconcile having the opinion that Utd could be challenging for the league and at the same time think we can’t beat Stoke or Huddersfield without Pogba.

secman

As Adox said that starting should be beating Huddersfield, we hardly created a chance, their keeper had as handy a game he will ever have in PL. Truth is we still have 5 to 6 very ordinary players at the club. We also have a manager who will do what he does in the big games, another cup season most likely.

Robson99

adox wrote: »

Did you think the team were good enough to beat Huddersfield when you saw the line up? I did.

Shouldn’t we be analyzing why they didn’t and what went wrong with the players that played?

If Utd are relying on Pogba alone to beat the likes of Huddersfield then the club are a in a right mess.

I don’t think they are and I think it’s more than rational to want to critique the players and team that play and lose to Huddersfield and draw to Stoke without resorting to “if we had Pogba there we probably would have won” etc. I mean these teams aren’t Real Madrid where we are missing that sprinkle of magic to beat a top team.

I’m not being down on Pogba per say. He is what he is. What I have issue is is the lack of trying to look at what went wrong with the team selected, or the tactics, or the performance of the players etc, instead of we really missed Pogba.

I don’t know how some of you can reconcile having the opinion that Utd could be challenging for the league and at the same time think we can’t beat Stoke or Huddersfield without Pogba.

Exactly if we cant beat Huddersfield without Pogba then we are in a mess. We have been poor for the last 3 games and spurs and Chelsea to come. Now Mourinho cant sit back and play for the draw

jayo26

Can I just say I was drunk last night sorry adox for calling you out like that.

And I do agree we should be beating Huddersfield with that team yesterday but did you or anyone else expect Ander Herrera to be so bad at passing this last month?

It's probably not fair to single him out but he has really disappointed me I had him up there as one of the best midfielders in the league but he has a golden opportunity and completely not taken it.

The thing with pogba and it was the same with that stoke game too I don't think I said of we had pogba we would of win but in the stoke game we were been put under pressure while on the ball and pogba most certainly would of had the better skills to take it down and find the long pass to take pressure off the team.

Yesterday we had all the possession and all the time in the world to pick out passes but we had no one to great anything for the forwards again I believe pogba would of made a difference without him in out midfield it looks slow and no urgency to attack.


Again pal sorry for last night.

Trigger

adox wrote: »

Did you think the team were good enough to beat Huddersfield when you saw the line up? I did.

Shouldn’t we be analyzing why they didn’t and what went wrong with the players that played?

If Utd are relying on Pogba alone to beat the likes of Huddersfield then the club are in a right mess.

I don’t think they are and I think it’s more than rational to want to critique the players and team that play and lose to Huddersfield and draw to Stoke without resorting to “if we had Pogba there we probably would have won” etc. I mean these teams aren’t Real Madrid where we are missing that sprinkle of magic to beat a top team.

I’m not being down on Pogba per say. He is what he is. What I have issue is is the lack of trying to look at what went wrong with the team selected, or the tactics, or the performance of the players etc, instead of we really missed Pogba.

I don’t know how some of you can reconcile having the opinion that Utd could be challenging for the league and at the same time think we can’t beat Stoke or Huddersfield without Pogba.

Im of the opinion that it’s both. Of course I thought we had enough to beat them, my main gripe is with the players, Herrera and Mkhi especially, not stepping up and being that creative link.

Did I expect Herrera and Mkhi to be this bad since Pogbas absence? No. Do I think Pogba would have made a difference to both games? Yes.

When you are playing a team that has 11 men behind the ball for 90 mins you need your creative players to step up.

Cantona's Collars

It was a bit of a throwback to LVG on looking back at the performance.Nobody making runs and creating space.Everyone seemed static when receiving the ball,this allowed Huddersfield to keep their defensive shape.Even when we created 2 on 1 situations out wide we never took advantage of them as the ball ended up being recycled and going square into congested areas.

deadybai

City have won the league already I'm afraid. De Bruyne is unreal.

We are too slow in attack. Takes us about 3 times as long as City to create an opportunity. Lukaku is our only striker and it's so predictable

As for Lindelof. What a poor player he looks . He was poor against Burton Albion FFS.

Herrera, Lingard, young and Shaw all need to go and be replaced with some of quality. Our creativity is so bad . We don't even have some one to cross the ball into the box .

People forget about how poor we were last season. We had one good run of form for around this time last year until about November. We finished fcuking 6th !

Starting to lose patience with Mourinio. He needs to beat both Spurs and Chelsea for me.

adox

jayo26 wrote: »

Again pal sorry for last night.

No worries at all Jayo. I know you sort of prodded me for a response so that’s what I gave but you exlained why and it’s appreciated.

I’ve no problem debating with you as I know you are genuine with your opinions, even if we don’t agree on some things.

adox

astradave wrote: »

Im of the opinion that it’s both. Of course I thought we had enough to beat them, my main gripe is with the players, Herrera and Mkhi especially, not stepping up and being that creative link.

Did I expect Herrera and Mkhi to be this bad since Pogbas absence? No. Do I think Pogba would have made a difference to both games? Yes.

When you are playing a team that has 11 men behind the ball for 90 mins you need your creative players to step up.

I can’t speak for yesterday as I didn’t see the game but I think it was the Stoke game where this all started(when I was annoyed with the performance of the team overall and really didn’t want to hear “we miss Pogba” trotted out) where we were so poor in pretty much every part of our game that Pogba would have made little difference.

Imo Utd need to playing well as a team to see the best of Pogba. I don’t think he is the type of player that will change the tempo of a game if it isn’t going well for Utd.

Even putting that aside, those players, the team selection, the managers decisions etc all needed to be analyzed that day.

Again not sure why people continue to suggest the point being made is we didn't win yesterday because we were without Pogba.

This is true to an extent but there is more to it and it's been repeated multiple times.

Not understanding the point in its entirety it seems.

You except the players in to replace him would be adequate against teams like huddersfield but the form of Herrera and Miki has been so poor it's so easy to single them out as the Crux of the issue.

And this hasn't been sudden. It's been clear for a few games now. It was evident going far back as the games against Everton and Stoke.

I think Fellani provided a much different dynamic against Everton so we did end up winning that game but that 4-0 scoreline still flattered us.

For alot of that game for example we were incapable of linking attack with mid only for some break away chances. I think by the latter stages of the game against Everton fellani exploited them from set pieces and we ended up with a bigger scoreline. I even remember mikis form being poor in that game too but his one or two assists coated over his inadequate performance.

Matic has been overworking especially with Herrera beside him.

It's like Herrera was trying to play the same role as Matic and there was such a visible gap between Herrera and Mata yesterday. Mata even started to drop deep as he hardly received the ball from Herrera for the first 30 minutes. This led to him making the mistake for the first goal.

At least Mata tried to get the ball. Mikis was so poor the last couple of games he wouldn't even have bothered.

They have let the team down big time. Either they buck up in time or its cross the fingers and pray Pogba and fellani return sooner.

As soon as they do I expect Herrera to be benched immediately.

adox

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

It was a bit of a throwback to LVG on looking back at the performance.Nobody making runs and creating space.Everyone seemed static when receiving the ball,this allowed Huddersfield to keep their defensive shape.Even when we created 2 on 1 situations out wide we never took advantage of them as the ball ended up being recycled and going square into congested areas.

I agree to an extent(based on the midweek game as I didn’t see yesterday’s).
I remember watching and thinking there was a staticness, no only in movement but in the passing of the ball. The ball was always played directly to feet, n bed ahead of the player when there was space.

That might sound petty but it’s that sort of thing that can help dictate the tempo of a game and actually force the tempo to be increased. I remember seeing Valencia free in the right numerous times with acres of space ahead of him and the ball was played direct to his feet where he was more or less in a standing position. If the ball had been played 10or 20(or even 5) yards ahead of him it would have forced him to run on to the ball, giving natural momentum. It might seem a small thing but I saw it happening all over the pitch and remember thinking it stood out as a negative.

bangkok

jayo26 wrote: »

I don't want to sound like Bangkok here but a few weeks ago i said about pogba been a loss to to us and I was called out on if as a lazy opinion....... yes I'm looking at you!!!!!!

Only 2 or 3 other people agreed with me then but looking at it now how many actually thinks he is a massive loss for us???????? I would go as far as saying he is the heartbeat of the team for creating chances and taking the pressure off the defence.

Lazy opinion

deaddonkey15

adox wrote: »

I agree to an extent(based on the midweek game as I didn’t see yesterday’s).
I remember watching and thinking there was a staticness, no only in movement but in the passing of the ball. The ball was always played directly to feet, n bed ahead of the player when there was space.

That might sound petty but it’s that sort of thing that can help dictate the tempo of a game and actually force the tempo to be increased. I remember seeing Valencia free in the right numerous times with acres of space ahead of him and the ball was played direct to his feet where he was more or less in a standing position. If the ball had been played 10or 20(or even 5) yards ahead of him it would have forced him to run on to the ball, giving natural momentum. It might seem a small thing but I saw it happening all over the pitch and remember thinking it stood out as a negative.

I've been noticing this with United for years, especially in away games like yesterday when it's the opposition's cup final. Even when the ball is being passed around the defence the pace of the passes can be slow and you''ll often notice a centre half having to wait for a pass to arrive to him from another centre half, before he then proceeds to play it to the feet of the left back. I reckon that lack of urgency and pedestrian tempo permeates throughout the team. It doesn't stretch the opposition and allows them ample time to keep their shape and position. When a forward pass to an attacking player is attempted then it's usually received with their back to goal and one or 2 players pressing from behind. That's why I felt criticism of Martial yesterday was a bit harsh. We're not playing to his, or any of our attacking player's strengths when the play is so slow and predictable like that. Inevitably they just try aerial balls over the top which rarely seem to work.

bangkok

I cant understand why we dont go 2 up front in some games. Rashford and martials best and favourite positions are up top but neither have been given the chance to play there

bucketybuck

deaddonkey15 wrote: »

That's why I felt criticism of Martial yesterday was a bit harsh. We're not playing to his, or any of our attacking player's strengths

Is Martial from Liverpool? It never seems to be his fault...

Thats a little facetious perhaps but honestly, I haven't even seen any criticism for him yet, he was non existent yet again and seems to be slipping under the criticism radar yet again.

On the list of players who don't step up to the mark you have to have Martial right at the top, again and again he has flattered to deceive. The only consolation is that I suspect Jose knows it full well and is not impressed in the slightest.

deaddonkey15

bucketybuck wrote: »

Is Martial from Liverpool? It never seems to be his fault...

Thats a little facetious perhaps but honestly, I haven't even seen any criticism for him yet, he was non existent yet again and seems to be slipping under the criticism radar yet again.

On the list of players who don't step up to the mark you have to have Martial right at the top, again and again he has flattered to deceive. The only consolation is that I suspect Jose knows it full well and is not impressed in the slightest.

There's little he can do out on the left of a disjointed team against a side sitting back and staying compact. As I stated above, we're not playing to our attackers strength's. Passing him a ball to feet under pressure with his back to goal and expecting him to turn and beat 2 or 3 players is unrealistic. Despite the goal, Rashford wasn't much of an improvement when he was on the pitch. Mkhitaryan is a disaster at the moment. They're not immune to criticism but as I said it's harsh to single them out when we aren't playing to their strengths.

Rayne Wooney

Pogba played all last season when we were poor, he isn’t the missing link.

We haven’t really improved on last year, Lukaku was basically a straight swap for Ibra, Matic for Carrick. That left our league season depending on Mata, Martial, Lingard and Mkhitaryan, our 4 senior attacking players, to be far far better than they were last season, and they simply aren’t. They are all midtable performers on any given day and that is why if this continues we could finish 5th or 6th.

I think to save our season we need to bring in a couple of quality attacking players, the Ozil links make sense now, but the chances of doing that in January are slim. We have been throwing money away for the last 5 years, whilst City have accumulated a serious amount of talent all over the pitch

Lord TSC

bangkok wrote: »

I cant understand why we dont go 2 up front in some games. Rashford and martials best and favourite positions are up top but neither have been given the chance to play there

Was that not how we lined up yesterday in the second half, with Rashford and Lukaku up front? Doesn't matter if you have one or two up front, if the midfield is devoid of ideas, then the service for strikers isn't there...

PhlegmyMoses

bucketybuck wrote: »

Is Martial from Liverpool? It never seems to be his fault...

Thats a little facetious perhaps but honestly, I haven't even seen any criticism for him yet, he was non existent yet again and seems to be slipping under the criticism radar yet again.

On the list of players who don't step up to the mark you have to have Martial right at the top, again and again he has flattered to deceive. The only consolation is that I suspect Jose knows it full well and is not impressed in the slightest.

This is why we won't win the league. We are reliant on two kids with barely 100 PL games between them to be the main creators. Inefficiency and inconsistency should be a part of their game. The real culprits in the squad are the supposed finished articles like Mata, Mkhitaryan, Herrera, Young (even Valencia from a creativity standpoint). These guys should be leading the charge and all have at some point in their careers, yet it is Martial and Rashford who have shown real ownership of attacking threat so far this season. Sure, they will have poor games, but that is to be expected.

how.gareth

Lads I think we need to indulge a player like Ozil to get some creativity up front, it’s just not happening with our other number 10s

Liam O

I think a lot of problems have stemmed from constantly playing long balls to a player who it not very good in the air or at holding up play in Lukaku. Just gifting possession to the opposition. Can work with Fellaini there but Lukaku despite his size and strength is just not that player.

The only other plan bar that is getting the ball out wide to cross. This infuriates me as it's been the same for the last 4 years and just doesn't work. Valencia and Young put in nice looking crosses to nobody. I'd say Valencia has made about 6 or 7 hundred crosses in the last 4 years and has less than 10 assists.

What is it with this team that no matter the game plan or manager it breaks down to hit and hope crosses? Oh wait. The constants are Young and Valencia. Yet they've not been replaced. It's baffling.

I'm going to be told that I'm too harsh on Valencia and it's not his fault that United lost yesterday and that's true enough I guess but when it's 4 years after he was moved to RB for being utterly useless in attack and is still the main attacking outlet down the right it's hard to take.

bangkok

Rooney with a great finish

DM_7

United miss Pogba. That is obvious. It is okay to miss him.

The team should be able to take games on and look like they could win even without him.

The team struggle when something unexpected happens, for example Jones gets injured at 0-0. Instead of taking 10 minutes to settle, realise Lindelof has played little, that Smalling had to move to left centre back, they continue on as if nothing happened. Within a few minutes they concede, again, instead of making sure no other goals are conceded before half time they quickly concede a second.

The game is now as good as over because it is 2 goals down to a team flying while United are missing key players.

Just like last season, when injuries arrived, United played the same disfunctional style.

No movement, playing passes to isolated players, guys like Herrera and Lingard trying to play at 100mph giving the ball away while others are playing slow. Eventually Rashford will sprint in behind, out wide, play a pass but none of his teamates are able to get near it as he is too fast for them.

Jose said he would really see what they are made of when they go behind, start to struggle. Can he bring them out of this poor play or will he row in behind his safety first approach and compound the problem?

Lord TSC

I saw someone sum up on Reddit the issue.

Basically, there's a lot of players where they have two gears; "We're United, we can kill them, let's kill them" and "Oh god, we're losing, we're ****ed".

There's a lot of players who, mentally, when we go down, don't have it in them to fight back. They just absolutely shut dow, and don't have the ability to regroup. A lot of them are players who've been with us for a few years now too; players who I love as people, but just don't ever show the guile to buckle down when a game starts going wrong.

limnam

-Current Europa league winners
-League cup winners
-Best start to a premier league season for yonks.
-2nd in the league.
-Top of champions league group. Sailing through it.

All this while we're missing 3 critical midfield players.
1 world class striker.
2 of our best defenders of last year, now 3.

1st defeat of the season and suddenly half the squad is not good enough?

Getting as fickle as the lads next door lads.

limnam

Lord TSC wrote: »

I saw someone sum up on Reddit the issue.

Basically, there's a lot of players where they have two gears; "We're United, we can kill them, let's kill them" and "Oh god, we're losing, we're ****ed".

There's a lot of players who, mentally, when we go down, don't have it in them to fight back. They just absolutely shut dow, and don't have the ability to regroup. A lot of them are players who've been with us for a few years now too; players who I love as people, but just don't ever show the guile to buckle down when a game starts going wrong.

Not really having that.

The only player yesterday playing with fear was miki.

We didn't not come back yesterday because players think we're rubbish when a goal down and don't play.

Young's attitude yesterday was spot on but there was some issues with his end product regarding quality. It had nothing to do with him think we're rubbish.

The same could be said across the team.
There was no fear in rashers...Ander...Matic...Tony...
Wasn't much quality eithier, but it wasnt out of fear of us been shiote

RobbingBandit

Lukaku is missing Pogba the rest of the midfield is missing Fellaini and we are definitely missing Bailley will miss Jones and could do with a fit confident Shaw but that might be overreaching.

Cantona's Collars

limnam wrote: »

-Current Europa league winners
-League cup winners
-Best start to a premier league season for yonks.
-2nd in the league.
-Top of champions league group. Sailing through it.

All this while we're missing 3 critical midfield players.
1 world class striker.
2 of our best defenders of last year, now 3.

1st defeat of the season and suddenly half the squad is not good enough?

Getting as fickle as the lads next door lads.

Yep, could be worse,we could be 8th.

bucketybuck

limnam wrote: »

-Current Europa league winners
-League cup winners
-Best start to a premier league season for yonks.
-2nd in the league.
-Top of champions league group. Sailing through it.

All this while we're missing 3 critical midfield players.
1 world class striker.
2 of our best defenders of last year, now 3.

1st defeat of the season and suddenly half the squad is not good enough?

Getting as fickle as the lads next door lads.

Take your head out of the sand.

There are issues in that squad that have been there for years, they are still there and again and again those issues have smacked us in the face with dropped points.

People have pointed out these problems literally dozens of times and yet every time there is another horror show you will have people coming in to say, "You're over-reacting, its just because we were missing player X, everything will be fine...".

Cop on. Mourinho has made great strides since he joined the club but there are still fundamental problems with that squad and we would be better served recognising that rather than pretending that its all just because of a few missing players.

J. Marston

Kane 1-0 Liverpool.

Cantona's Collars

J. Marston wrote: »

Kane 1-0 Liverpool.

Comedy capers defending again,we should have been a bit braver last week.

Trigger

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

Comedy capers defending again,we should have been a bit braver last week.

Spurs seem to be trying the exact same as us, though we were muck at it, let Liverpool have the ball and catch their high line