The Official Manchester United Thread [vol 7]

[anniesdad]

200Plus Club said:

Lukaku looked quick and dangerous in the 2nd half and seemed to be starting to link up well with Sanchez. Let's hope it continues.

I agree. I had him as my MOTM yesterday on the drive home from the game. Nice to see SKY agreed with me. My mate thought I was barking but he's a little prejudiced against Lukaku...

Really liking the midfield 3 of McT, Matic and Pogba. Anybody else think that moving forward this could be the way to get the best out of Pogba?

[Alpinestars]

anniesdad said:

200Plus Club said:

Lukaku looked quick and dangerous in the 2nd half and seemed to be starting to link up well with Sanchez. Let's hope it continues.

I agree. I had him as my MOTM yesterday on the drive home from the game. Nice to see SKY agreed with me. My mate thought I was barking but he's a little prejudiced against Lukaku...

Really liking the midfield 3 of McT, Matic and Pogba. Anybody else think that moving forward this could be the way to get the best out of Pogba?

He was in and out of the game. Certainly one of his better games, but he's still not good enough in my view.

I thought McT was man of the match.

[m3sye]

Alpinestars said:

He was in and out of the game. Certainly one of his better games, but he's still not good enough in my view.

I thought McT was man of the match.

He is a local lad from my town McT

[KillianB4]

I'm really being impressed by McT, he's really after taking to the first team, looks like a lad beyond his years. Did a better job of marking Hazard then Herrara last time out (didn't look like he'd get sent off)
Constantly arguing with a bloke in work about McT, he thinks he cant cut it which is rubbish. Two big games in a row now, he looked good against sevilla, looked SUPERB against Chelsea imo.

Doesnt get unsettled and his distribution is great. Good things to come from him.

Disappointed Shaw has stopped getting a run out.

[Gavia]

Man marking is great is some ways, but it also removes your player from the game and means you lose a player when going forward. I’m not the greatest fan of it, not least as it’s another version of anti-football IMO.

I’d never have guessed that m3sye was from Lancaster way. I’d have put money on you being a full on scouser with a Gerrard style unintelligible accent too.

[anniesdad]

Alpinestars said:

He was in and out of the game. Certainly one of his better games, but he's still not good enough in my view.

Fair enough, we're all entitled to our opinions.

Who would you play as our regular 9? Personally, I think AM is a bit too lazy, Rashford not ruthless enough, Sanchez better operating deeper, Ibra past it now. Buy somebody? Who?...

With RL the expectation is that he will get you 25-30 goals a season and he's on target for that. Surely that's how strikers are judged on their goal return?

[franki68]

McT is not real ,he is an illusion .
Jose doesn’t play or give chances to kids remember .

[anniesdad]

franki68 said:

McT is not real ,he is an illusion .
Jose doesn’t play or give chances to kids remember .

Things have gone really quiet on that front.

Yes JM spends money but if he has an asset at his disposal that he feels can do a job regardless of age he's clearly happy to use him. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that the proud record United have of bringing (some) youngsters through the ranks is one of the things that attracted him to United in the first place.

[anniesdad]

Gavia said:

Man marking is great is some ways, but it also removes your player from the game and means you lose a player when going forward. I’m not the greatest fan of it, not least as it’s another version of anti-football IMO.

Jose knows Hazard's game and how dangerous he can be. I think it's one of the things that sets him apart from other managers that he will man mark if he feels it's necessary. You can't say it wasn't effective yesterday! Besides McT was deployed as a CDM yesterday so wasn't expected to join in in an attacking sense.

I think it's right to be 'umble as Mourinho puts it and to realise that the opposition have great players that we need to take care of.

[Ascayman]

anniesdad said:

Things have gone really quiet on that front.

Yes JM spends money but if he has an asset at his disposal that he feels can do a job regardless of age he's clearly happy to use him. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that the proud record United have of bringing (some) youngsters through the ranks is one of the things that attracted him to United in the first place.

To be fair i think it still is a fair point, buy lukaku who misses out most... Rashford, buy Sanchez who makes way? lingard. its not exactly putting faith in the youngsters is it? that said the midfielder looks very good indeed just needs Mouniho to stick with him.

[Gavia]

anniesdad said:

Jose knows Hazard's game and how dangerous he can be. I think it's one of the things that sets him apart from other managers that he will man mark if he feels it's necessary. You can't say it wasn't effective yesterday! Besides McT was deployed as a CDM yesterday so wasn't expected to join in in an attacking sense.

I think it's right to be 'umble as Mourinho puts it and to realise that the opposition have great players that we need to take care of.

I’m not denying it was effective, I just struggle with the idea that we’re so insecure about our team that we do that at home. I won’t be convinced by this team until we start to take it to the opposition and put games to bed inside an hour. Overly defensive play is going to be our downfall, not least as we seem incapable of stopping the opposition scoring against us.

We need to rattle teams, rather than let them rattle us. We’re giving them free reign to attack us and that gets their spirits up. In the last few games we’ve been on the back foot for large chunks of them and dropped a lot of points as a result.

[anniesdad]

Ascayman said:

anniesdad said:

Things have gone really quiet on that front.

Yes JM spends money but if he has an asset at his disposal that he feels can do a job regardless of age he's clearly happy to use him. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that the proud record United have of bringing (some) youngsters through the ranks is one of the things that attracted him to United in the first place.

To be fair i think it still is a fair point, buy lukaku who misses out most... Rashford, buy Sanchez who makes way? lingard. its not exactly putting faith in the youngsters is it? that sat the midfielder looks very good indeed just needs Mouniho to stick with him.

I think you're missing the point and this points back to your's and your fellow spuds assertion that you have/had the best first XI. When you are at/near the top, you always strengthen. Sit still and go backwards. United have to buy new players and add quality to the squad continuously. United is about a squad of players deployed to win matches in the way that JM believes is best and to provide enough strength in depth to cover injuries.

ALL the 1st team players will get regular gametime. Nobody misses out, including the young players.

Besides why play with one striker when you can play with three!

All the young players you mention have played in plenty of games this season (35 Lingard, 38 Rashford), and will play a few more until the end.

Besides JL's new 4 year deal signed last year at reportedly £100K+ per week tends to suggest that JM has faith in him.

Edited by anniesdad on Monday 26th February 11:50

[anniesdad]

Gavia said:

I’m not denying it was effective, I just struggle with the idea that we’re so insecure about our team that we do that at home. I won’t be convinced by this team until we start to take it to the opposition and put games to bed inside an hour. Overly defensive play is going to be our downfall, not least as we seem incapable of stopping the opposition scoring against us.

We need to rattle teams, rather than let them rattle us. We’re giving them free reign to attack us and that gets their spirits up. In the last few games we’ve been on the back foot for large chunks of them and dropped a lot of points as a result.

Oh I agree with you on that, early goals are the key, something we were doing pretty well earlier this season. Hopefully we can turn a bit of a corner and push on to going out with confidence and taking it to teams right from the kick off.

There's plenty of quality in the squad, just City this season has kind of shell shocked everybody and sort of stopped us in our tracks.

[Gavia]

anniesdad said:

Oh I agree with you on that, early goals are the key, something we were doing pretty well earlier this season. Hopefully we can turn a bit of a corner and push on to going out with confidence and taking it to teams right from the kick off.

There's plenty of quality in the squad, just City this season has kind of shell shocked everybody and sort of stopped us in our tracks.

I’m not buying this argument over City. They’re long gone and we should be using this year to play with a bit more freedom and see what that delivers. City aren’t long gone in the CL, but we were far from convincing the other night. I hate 0-0 away draws too. My stats will be proven wrong, but it always feels like we lost the home leg whenever we dragged out one of those tedious results.

We need to learn to play confidently, not with trepidation. We started the season with early goals and not conceding and almost a swagger in our play, but that’s all but fizzled out as the season’s progressed. That’s my biggest worry, as if we expect to challenge for any trophy next year, we can’t start to retreat into our shell at the end of the year.

[GTO-3R]

Something about McT that I like and he seems to have an attitude of fk you with him on the pitch. Bit Keano like and not afraid to get stuck in. I hope Jose keeps using him and sees that he is the midfielder we've been missing (hopefully) and doesn't feel the need to go out and buy one this summer!

Lukaku is certainly developing well and his all round game is massively improving but he's still so wasteful with his passing at times. He gave the ball away so much yesterday in key positions that could have resulted in a shot/goal.

[ORD]

Our tactics against weaker sides really are strange. We seem to try to give them confidence! With the attacking players we have, we should be trying to scare them stless in the first 10 mins (like Fergie's good sides did).

[chrisb92]

Aside from his woeful tracking back of Willian for their goal McT looked great. I'm sure he'll watch that and learn from it.

Second half was a great performance. You won't get many chances vs Chelsea, so it takes some moments of brilliance. Both moments came from Lukaku. A great move for the first goal, with a tidy finish and great footwork and cross for Lingard's. He also showed good confidence with that overhead kick.

The only strange point was DDG replicating some dodgy 2012 form. I'm hoping it was just the sun in his eyes!

[anniesdad]

Gavia said:

anniesdad said:

Oh I agree with you on that, early goals are the key, something we were doing pretty well earlier this season. Hopefully we can turn a bit of a corner and push on to going out with confidence and taking it to teams right from the kick off.

There's plenty of quality in the squad, just City this season has kind of shell shocked everybody and sort of stopped us in our tracks.

I’m not buying this argument over City. They’re long gone and we should be using this year to play with a bit more freedom and see what that delivers. City aren’t long gone in the CL, but we were far from convincing the other night. I hate 0-0 away draws too. My stats will be proven wrong, but it always feels like we lost the home leg whenever we dragged out one of those tedious results.

We need to learn to play confidently, not with trepidation. We started the season with early goals and not conceding and almost a swagger in our play, but that’s all but fizzled out as the season’s progressed. That’s my biggest worry, as if we expect to challenge for any trophy next year, we can’t start to retreat into our shell at the end of the year.

I agree with all that. That said, there is still a little pressure to stay ahead of the chasing pack. 0-0 aways are dangerous and we have of course, come unstuck before.

I believe the key is Pogba.

Getting him, Sanchez and Lukaku performing is key. With the other players, Jesse, Marcus and Tony supporting. There is lot's of talent in that bunch of players. Once they get up a head of steam they could be unstoppable!

[anniesdad]

chrisb92 said:

Aside from his woeful tracking back of Willian for their goal McT looked great. I'm sure he'll watch that and learn from it.

Second half was a great performance. You won't get many chances vs Chelsea, so it takes some moments of brilliance. Both moments came from Lukaku. A great move for the first goal, with a tidy finish and great footwork and cross for Lingard's. He also showed good confidence with that overhead kick.

The only strange point was DDG replicating some dodgy 2012 form. I'm hoping it was just the sun in his eyes!

Yeah McT didn't cover himself in glory on that passage of play!

DDG was just keeping things interesting he must get bored sometimes. TBF that one from Drinkwater dipped horribly in front of him, must be so hard to take that type of shot in to the gloves. The sun was affecting him at times as you could see him shielding his eyes quite a bit when the play was up the other end of the pitch.

[Gavia]

anniesdad said:

I agree with all that. That said, there is still a little pressure to stay ahead of the chasing pack. 0-0 aways are dangerous and we have of course, come unstuck before.

I believe the key is Pogba.

Getting him, Sanchez and Lukaku performing is key. With the other players, Jesse, Marcus and Tony supporting. There is lot's of talent in that bunch of players. Once they get up a head of steam they could be unstoppable!

There’s more to it than that. Sanchez seems to have unbalanced the team, I had great hopes for him being one of the final pieces in the jigsaw, as it currently stands I think he’s dismantled it! Martial needs to learn to smile. He’s a miserable tt and his slow walk off the pitch when substituted hints at an unhappy player to say the least.

There’s little point talking about building a head of steam, when we seem to have been put in the freezer, to extend your analogy.