The Official Manchester United Thread (Vol 11)

[Challo]

Driver101 said:

I can only judge in the games I watch. The stats don't highlight much improvement either. It's also been quite a weak PL season this year too.

Are you telling me you are happy with what you watched today?

No today has been a terrible performance. But we have won the caraobo cup, still in Europe, still in the top 4 and into the semi finals of the fa cup.

With a squad that isn’t that good, and ETH having to pretty much start the same team week in week out to compete. Are we going to have bad game? Yes. Am I happy with ETH? Very much so.

[Cie]

Driver101 said:

Anytime someone posts something you don't like you get all personal.

There was no reason to get upset with my post.

Good grief

[LF5335]

simon800 said:

Credit where it’s due, it’s hard to disagree with most of what you’ve said.

But I do think a worrying pattern is emerging when it comes to (a) consistently terrible results away vs top half teams and (b) massive drop off of form past few weeks.

We’ve gone from supposedly being in a title race (ok most of us knew what was nonsense and of course way beyond where we thought we’d be this season - but points wise we were 1 off city and right up there) to being 22 points off the top in just a few weeks.

2 home games best which is hopefully some relief - Brentford mid week and Everton Saturday. Two wins would be lovely…

I agree we were never in the title race. I think the away results against a lot of the better teams emphasises our overall lack of squad. We have had some decent results in there at home against the top teams. I think we’re trying to be cautious away from home and underestimating how much home fans and a fired up opposition can hurt us. There is no way we’re good enough to play for a draw away from home.

Next two PL matches are crucial to try to get the wheels back on ahead of the cup matches.

[bstb3]

Been out for the day, so a bit of a crappy result to come back into. Sounds like it was a bit of a disaster of a performance, compounded by some weird selections and subs? Bad day at the office for all then. It's going to happen, but needs to be rare. Our immediate league form of late isn't ideal, so we need to get back to some positivity in the week.

Brentford just got an away draw at Brighton, they're no mugs so it's not ideal as a next game.

[G-wiz]

We are giving unnecessary encouragement to the teams below us who covet our 3rd/4th spot.

st needs to stop now.

[franki68]

In fairness to driver chap we look woeful without Cas & eriksen and still have players nowhere near the level required .
Yesterday was like ole’s last season and ralf combined .

[mickk]

Blimey no credit given to Newcastle?Thought they played well.

[Frimley111R]

Our first team seem fairly strong and they gave us good results but now we're using many of our second string players they are either not good enough or simply have not gelled together into a team. This could be a simple issue of not having enough quality players overall.

Buying a random player like Wegorst sort of shows where we are with this. As said above, it's all well and good to have a player who is motivated and runs around a lot and draws opposing players away from our danger men but in front of goal he is beyond hopeless and he's 6ft 5 and yet I don't think I have ever seen him head the ball or be targeted for a corner!

Bruno is great but so temperamental. Yesterday he was tackled, lost out and then just gave up, no chasing back to the player, he just walked after him! That is not a winning mindset.

As said, we've achieved so much this season and this is fantastic BUT we're on a downward trajectory right now and if we don't stop it we'll all be feeling pretty pissed of by the season end. This is real test for ETG...

[LF5335]

franki68 said:

In fairness to driver chap we look woeful without Cas & eriksen and still have players nowhere near the level required .
Yesterday was like ole’s last season and ralf combined .

That just emphasises what I’ve been saying about our lack of squad and why it’s no surprise that we will lose matches. The rebuild has started, but only just. Give it time and don’t be surprised when things do t go our way. We’d have killed for a season like this at most points over the past decade.

Too many knee jerk reactions. Comments like “downward trajectory”. That’s because we’re so far ahead of where we really should be and are probably knackered. Don’t forget there was a long haul World Cup in the middle of the season to really knacker our players out. Most of whom aren’t good enough.

The attempt at a wind up by Spurs is pathetic but not surprising. They e just sacked another manager which to them is like winning a cup.

[franki68]

mickk said:

Blimey no credit given to Newcastle?Thought they played well.

Hard to say when we were so poor ,they definitely wanted it more but we were shocking on and off the ball .I don’t accept premier league players not being able to make a simple pass or being unable to cope with a press .

[simon800]

Whilst we had Eriksen and Casemiro (2 starting xi players out), Newcastle had Almiron and Joelinton (2 equally important starting xi players to them) out.

Comments about our squad depth aren't unfounded, but being realistic which Newcastle starting XI players from yesterday would you put in our team? I'd say 3 at the most (Trippier, Bruno G, Isak/anyone but Wout)

We lost to a team starting Dan Burn, Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff with just 2 of our very best XI out.......these are not elite players by any stretch and we put out a team with MORE than enough on paper to beat them.

[franki68]

simon800 said:

Whilst we had Eriksen and Casemiro (2 starting xi players out), Newcastle had Almiron and Joelinton (2 equally important starting xi players to them) out.

Comments about our squad depth aren't unfounded, but being realistic which Newcastle starting XI players from yesterday would you put in our team? I'd say 3 at the most (Trippier, Bruno G, Isak/anyone but Wout)

We lost to a team starting Dan Burn, Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff with just 2 of our very best XI out.......these are not elite players by any stretch and we put out a team with MORE than enough on paper to beat them.

Trippier is quality ,a big red who wanted to join ,united missed one there .

[Lotobear]

simon800 said:

Whilst we had Eriksen and Casemiro (2 starting xi players out), Newcastle had Almiron and Joelinton (2 equally important starting xi players to them) out.

Comments about our squad depth aren't unfounded, but being realistic which Newcastle starting XI players from yesterday would you put in our team? I'd say 3 at the most (Trippier, Bruno G, Isak/anyone but Wout)

We lost to a team starting Dan Burn, Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff with just 2 of our very best XI out.......these are not elite players by any stretch and we put out a team with MORE than enough on paper to beat them.

and yet Newcastle's squad of honest journeymen are in 3rd place whilst your team of 'elites' are in 4th?

[Gone a bit AMG]

franki68 said:

Trippier is quality ,a big red who wanted to join ,united missed one there .

Incredibly poor decision that. Bury lad as well.

[Challo]

Lotobear said:

simon800 said:

Whilst we had Eriksen and Casemiro (2 starting xi players out), Newcastle had Almiron and Joelinton (2 equally important starting xi players to them) out.

Comments about our squad depth aren't unfounded, but being realistic which Newcastle starting XI players from yesterday would you put in our team? I'd say 3 at the most (Trippier, Bruno G, Isak/anyone but Wout)

We lost to a team starting Dan Burn, Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff with just 2 of our very best XI out.......these are not elite players by any stretch and we put out a team with MORE than enough on paper to beat them.

and yet Newcastle's squad of honest journeymen are in 3rd place whilst your team of 'elites' are in 4th?

We don’t have an elite squad, very far from it. We have some top players, but also some very poor ones. I think our first 11 would have beaten them yesterday, but without Casemiro and Eriksen we had no control over the midfield, couldn’t retain the ball and struggled to create anything.

Plus you can tell the amount of games Utd have played this season is starting to take its toll. ETH wants to win every game, and therefore the side has rarely changed week in week out. Bruno has played more mins than anyone this season in Europe.
Newcastle are a very good team, and yesterday they showed what a good team they are.

[simon800]

Lotobear said:

and yet Newcastle's squad of honest journeymen are in 3rd place whilst your team of 'elites' are in 4th?

Newcastle with 2 first team players missing are a team that Man United with 2 first team players missing should be beating....

It's not a sleight on Newcastle at all, who have proved to be a good and well organised team. It's simply that squad depth doesn't wash with me when the opposition are (a) missing the same amount of players and (b) their stand ins are in most measurable ways on paper inferior to Man Utd's.

We dont have a squad to be challenging for the league, we do lack the highest quality backup players without doubt, and we are a work in progress - I agree with every poster who has said any of the above.

But this wasn't Man Utd with 8 first team players missing against prime Real Madrid. It was a team who had McTominay and Sabitzer stepping in for injured/suspended players against a team who had Joe Willock and Jacob Murphy stepping in for injured players.

You'd be hard pressed to find many football observers who'd see the latter 2 as higher quality back ups than the former.

Also a bit perturbed by Shaw and EtH saying the opposition simply wanted it more. How many times have we heard that....

Edited by simon800 on Monday 3rd April 10:10

Edited by simon800 on Monday 3rd April 10:10

[jgrewal]

Absolute shocker yesterday and completely unacceptable performance. Some of these players had a good rest in comparison to the previous weeks too. Shaw saying post match that Newcastle were more hungry is also concerning. ETH really needs to get a rocket up these guys because if we lose top 4 from where we were this is a real mess.

Edited by jgrewal on Monday 3rd April 10:16

[uk66fastback]

Spin it on its head and ask yourself how many Utd players Eddie Howe would have in his team. You’d be surprised I reckon …

[Frimley111R]

simon800 said:

Also a bit perturbed by Shaw and EtH saying the opposition simply wanted it more. How many times have we heard that....

Edited by simon800 on Monday 3rd April 10:10

Edited by simon800 on Monday 3rd April 10:10

That kind of comment is unbelievable. They wanted to win the game more? FFS. Can you imagine Lewis Hamilton saying he lost the race because Max V wanted to win it more than he did?!

It goes back to my earlier post about Bruno losing out in a tackle and then just giving up and letting the Newcastle player head towards our goal. I've seen other player chase back and get the ball or at least try to.

If a manager says that then the manager should FRO, IMO. He's saying he doesn't care enough and neither do the players.

[GTO-3R]

uk66fastback said:

Spin it on its head and ask yourself how many Utd players Eddie Howe would have in his team. You’d be surprised I reckon …

In a heart beat he would take:

Rashford
Casemiro
Eriksen
Verane
Martinez
Shaw

We were st yesterday but there does seem to be a massive over reaction..