[Gasolin]

had we taken off Mata and sat on our lead we still would have had Martial, Rooney and Lingard

the priority had to be the space in our box which was not addressed

The forwards with no balls means no occasions at all. That was the problem for a long time. Mata solves this issues, and Carrick also does partially. Those 2 players are too important to be left out. Otherwise, Rooney, Martial and Lindgard will have to come much lower on the field to get the ball, meaning that they won't be able to create the runs to call for the ball.

Herrera in for Mata could have been a better move than Memphis because Herrera can create some passes with momentum. But overall, Mata has been quite good in this role.

 

[edcunited1878]

It's not even wasting possession. It's a fecking pass to do to Schneiderlin who made the run to create the numbers. It's criminal at this point to not realize that this could be a killer for the game, after such a game where you spend a lot of energy, score, and defend well.

I agree, I agree. I was yelling pick your head up, pick your head up. Scheiderlin practically walked down the right channel, unmarked, no Chelsea player around him for yards. The two fresh legs did what they were supposed to do, then Memphis played the wrong pass. It was right in front of him and he still didn't do it.

 

[Norris]

I can't really complain about this result. If we played like this more often, particularly against the Norwich's of the world, we'd be doing a lot better. If the mistake of a young and promising LB is what leads to our blowing a lead at Stanford Bridge in extra time, then I'm not going to lose too much sleep over that. I also don't have any problem with LVG's subs. Bringing Depay on late against a team pushing for a winner makes sense to me. Hardly LVG's fault that said player brainlessly gave the ball away prior to the equalizer. As well, I can't really see the problem with bringing Schneiderlin on for Fellaini (despite the latter playing quite well in my opinion.) Herrera for Mata was neither here nor there for me - a sub simply to run down the clock.

There were ebbs and flows in our performance, but this was much more entertaining than a lot of the dross we've been served up this season. It's clear we're still several players short of challenging for the title, but foundations are being set.

Agree with many of those points, but a few disagreements.

• Fellaini should have stayed on. If anyone should have been subbed, should have been Carrick. Fellaini and Schneiderlin together could have dealt with the physical presence Chelsea posted. Schneiderlin with his pace could have alse helped his defenders. Everyone knows that they'll by umpteen crosses coming in when chelsea are going for the equalizer.
• I think the Herrera-Mata sub came after the goal was conceded if I am not mistaken. So can't be a run down of the clock. I noticed many people say on the match thread he was looking tired, so maybe he should have come sooner. He's also quite tall, could have helped out in defence more than Mata.

LvG certainly doesn't get any blame for this. Brainless Memphis and inexperience cost us that goal. I felt CBJ should have gone to the goal line in case Costa tried to get around DDG. It seemed the tackle put DDG off. But apart from that, agree with most of what you say.

 

[PieCrust]

Unforgivable Jackson playing Costa onside. One moment of mental weakness undid the entire result.

Oh well. I've been shipped out since December, it's all about waiting for next season really. LVG doesn't have it in him to make the top 4, yet alone challenge for the league.

 

[stu_1992]

A good performance for the most, but ultimately leaves me feeling very frustrated. We were the better team for the majority and to just completely drop off at the end was pathetic. Make no mistake, we gave them that victory by dropping so deep. Inviting pressure on to us, and giving them confidence. Doesn't help when you have players making poor decisions on the ball too.

 

[skidmark]

I was only watching on TV, so hard to tell really, but we seemed to set out relatively aggressively - for example, after a Chelsea break we only tended to have 4 +DDG behind the 18 yard line, so a lot more options then going forwards if the Chelsea play broke down (LVG must have been giving birth watching it though). Chelsea on the other hand sat Mikel (think it was him) in front of the back four to chase Mata around whenever he ventured away from the wings, along with Matic too. Pretty defensive stuff for a home game from them I thought.

I was hoping we'd become a bit less adventurous after going 1 up, and in that respect I actually think we lost a bit after Fellaini went off - Rooney couldn't hold up a booted ball as well as Fellaini could have as a lone striker at that point of the game. I also thought it was a shame that in between the goal and the Fellaini substitution, we didn't try a long-ball counter attack approach more often, but with a tweak to the formation to accommodate that idea better (swap Rooney and Martial) - I think it was Rooney who got an off side on the half way line; so if Terry and Cahill are playing a defensive line as high as the half-way line, then I guess there is a lot of space behind them for a quick player like Martial to exploit.

Overall, I thought we did pretty well. I always expected Chelsea would up their game for us, but for most of the game they came no-where near.

 

[Yorkeontop]

Chelsea looked there for the taking. Paid them too much respect.

 

[Norris]

CBJ should have played the line at the edge of the box when Blind was moving up. But anyway, the whole problem comes from Memphis' action so...

Yeah, that's true. But usually don't one of the CB's shout such instructions to push up. But in that moment, it's obviously very difficult to do. Some inexperience there, I have no doubt he will learn from it.

 

[Man of Steel]

Anyone know when BFS is back??

 

[Man of Steel]

A fit and fresh Bastian would do wonders right now, especially as we are playing more attacking now.

 

[Norris]

Can some one post a link to the post match presser ?

 

[buckooo1978]

Unforgivable Jackson playing Costa onside. One moment of mental weakness undid the entire result.

Oh well. I've been shipped out since December, it's all about waiting for next season really. LVG doesn't have it in him to make the top 4, yet alone challenge for the league.

unforgivable?!

get some perspective man

kid had a super game and you can't crucify him over that

 

[J-Stander]

Anyone know when BFS is back??

The only update was from the MEN and they said he was out for another month last week. The club are awful at giving proper updates on injuries.

 

[legball]

Against Newcastle & now Chelsea, we've conceded late goals and lost 4 points in the process. Our in-game management is poor, Chelsea are not Barcelona, yet, when we scored, we simply handed them the initiative and let them do what they wanted, we kept booting the ball away, it was cowardly & that's why we lost. Memphis again showed that he's not the brightest of the lot, a simple pass to Schneiderlin would have put us in a great chance to make it two, but he wasted time, then fumbled it. Anyway, that's top four gone now & it will be a miracle if we make it. I'm out.

 

[Hamadovich86]

We were brilliant until we scored which is shocking if you think about it. I think the commentator said that Chelsea had 90% possession towards the end of the game. If you concede possession that much and make sloppy passes you'll pay for it.

I think most United fans could see that equalizer coming a mile away because of the way we approached the match after scoring. Its yet another disappointment in a season filled with disappointments though I have to say that we played some good football here and the hope is that we could build on that to ensure a CL spot.

 

[Gasolin]

Yeah, that's true. But usually don't one of the CB's shout such instructions to push up. But in that moment, it's obviously very difficult to do. Some inexperience there, I have no doubt he will learn from it.

Yes Smalling should have been clearer. I think somehow Blind realizes the line should be played but CBJ goes back because he thinks he should defend. It's not even fair to talk about a mistake here. It was just very disorganized. But if you take a step back, the right thing to do was to play the offside line fully because every single Chelsea player was in front of the goal and the 2 forwards were calling for it so packing up the defence would force Chelsea to go lateral.

 

[Hamadovich86]

We were brilliant until we scored which is shocking if you think about it. I think the commentator said that Chelsea had 90% possession towards the end of the game. If you concede possession that much and make sloppy passes you'll pay for it.

I think most United fans could see that equalizer coming a mile away because of the way we approached the match after scoring. Its yet another disappointment in a season filled with disappointments though I have to say that we played some good football here and the hope is that we could build on that to ensure a CL spot.

 

[simonhch]

Unforgivable Jackson playing Costa onside. One moment of mental weakness undid the entire result.

Oh well. I've been shipped out since December, it's all about waiting for next season really. LVG doesn't have it in him to make the top 4, yet alone challenge for the league.

Weird. I've already forgiven him.

 

[Man of Steel]

The only update was from the MEN and they said he was out for another month last week. The club are awful at giving proper updates on injuries.

Thanks. We could do with him fit and fresh right now to give some calm and leadership, a month is a bit shit if true..

 

[Laphroaig]

Can a cocky kid lack confidence?

Of course.

The fact Lingard is keeping him out so effortlessly says it all.

Yeah, that goal seemed effortless. It's no use discussing Memphis really. I believe he is a talented kid who is struggling in his first season in the PL and in a struggling team. Build him up, give him time, that would be my plan. If you disagree - fine.

 

[Norris]

Yes Smalling should have been clearer. I think somehow Blind realizes the line should be played but CBJ goes back because he thinks he should defend. It's not even fair to talk about a mistake here. It was just very disorganized. But if you take a step back, the right thing to do was to play the offside line fully because every single Chelsea player was in front of the goal and the 2 forwards were calling for it so packing up the defence would force Chelsea to go lateral.

Agreed. Playing the line is obviously riskier, but was the right thing to do there.
I feel however if CBJ didn't go sliding in on DDG, he might have saved that 1v1. The angle Costa was at and the position De Gea had taken up, it looked dead on to be a save.

 

[Triple.Threat]

Van Gaal's management and tactics were poor after we scored. We stopped using Martial who was terrorizing them. Memphis should done better with that ball. Showed Zero footballing IQ either go to the corner flag or use a high percentage pass to Morgan. He basically bailed the Renties out with the poorest pass possible.

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[Tyrion]

We're heading for 5th, let's be honest so a win here was probably more than we could reasonably expect given the shite we've seen every week.

Adjusting expectations for this incompetent shower, it's not too bad of a result.

 

[Adebesi]

I could feel the goal coming for the last 10 minutes, we gave become chokers, completely unable to see out games.

 

[Trizy]

We played well like we have been recently(shockingly enough) but completely bottled it at the end. It's been a trend during LVGs time in charge.

 

[Man of Steel]

Many people have said this before, but I would have liked to see Giggs or God forbid VG on the fecking touchline the last 20 mins, getting some instructions on and giving a few bollockings!

Am I wrong to think that this would have helped us?

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Nice to see LVG give it large to the media again post-match. Some of the media are absolute trash. The media guy, actually stated that United were looking to replace him and wondered why he went balistic.

 

[.Phil1968]

Just hoofing the ball aimlessly from their set pieces when there was time to run with the ball.You can accept that in the last few minutes but not with 10 MIns to go.However played very well in long parts and really should have won.

 

[Norris]

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/4160...-utd-fans-destroy-memphis-after-?ICID=HP_BN_1

 

[Spock]

Remember when so many were complaining about performances yet got the results. Today, again, confirms that results are all that matters. Wasting away two points because the performance, mentally/tactically/physically declined post-goal, is so disappointing again.

Absolutely. It's really about winning trophies, isn't it? But truth to be told, you can't win trophies playing dire football and champagne football doesn't guarantee you trophies.

Let's lance the boil and hire Jose tomorrow. Missing out on fourth place is not an option and I really don't see a path to getting to fourth place under Van Gaal even if I acknowledge that the gap isn't as great in reality as it seems on a computer screen.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

To summarize it in a single sentence: "This is how good we are in possession when the opponent chooses to play at a higher tempo and commit players forward".

One too many fouls given away just on the edge of our box, countless poor clearances which gave the ball back to the opponent, no composure to play the ball out of the defense. It also comes as no surprise that the moment Martial got tired of trying to get on every ball in the attacking half we barely managed to keep the ball and string two passes together.

As a result, we couldn't impose our tempo on the game but we dropped very deep and tried soak up the pressure. It was easier to keep the ball when Hiddink was still playing with one out and out defensive midfielder alongside Matic and with Willian and Oscar on the wings too. It was a rather passive lineup that allowed us to enjoy some good spells of possession. Probably Hiddink's aim was a repetition of last season's game at the Bridge but we scored first this time.

But with the introduction of Hazard and Pedro, Costa had someone to link up with and Chelsea weren't depending solely on Willian to pull the strings in the attack. Costa was constantly trying to stretch our back four and play with his back on goal, something our defense can't cope with.

As a possession based side, we should be doing better under these circumstances. It's a recurring theme, especially away from home. When the opposition plays with urgency, directness and pace, we can't just keep the ball under pressure and take the steam off the game... defend through possession. It's happened many times before, even in games we won.

We still have a long way to go.

 

[Sandikan]

Van Gaal's management and tactics were poor after we scored. We stopped using Martial who was terrorizing them. Memphis should done better with that ball. Showed Zero footballing IQ either go to the corner flag or use a high percentage pass to Morgan. He basically bailed the Renties out with the poorest pass possible.

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I can't see for a second how he thought a ball round a defender from that position was ever going to be a doable ball.
It'd take an amazing pass, and for Schniedy to show the pace of a Bale to get onto. And even if he got onto it, he'd either have to check and take it to the corner, which Memphis could have just done anyway, or fire a ball across on the stretch which would most likely go out of play or be intercepted.
Mad.

 

[Ixion]

Mostly a good performance but invited far too much pressure for the last 20 minutes, brought it on ourselves.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Correctly predicted the score
Couldn't believe how poor Chelsea were at the beginning of the match
Should have won
Decent performance
Gave away too many cheap free kicks in the last 15/20 minutes
From Depay's poor pass to cocking up the offside trap for the equaliser
DDG MOM for us but Courtois made more saves for them
Lingard scored but other than the shot Courtois turned round the post he did nothing for the remainder of the match, so weak
Frustrating
Need a right sided player who's similar to Martial

 

[The red panther]

Biggest overreaction I have read for ages, and that's saying something.

He's a WUM ignore him

I'am not a WUM

It is how I honestly feel about United at this moment, I think we are one of the shittiest teams in the league since december and the results are a proof of that.

The thing about this whole situation bothering me the most is some fans being positive about this, calling today a good performance, are you having a laugh ? You'd be right about it if we were playing Chelsea from last season or anyother season but this year they are 14th in the league and just about anyother team has been taking away 3 points from but not us. In my opnion this was another boring game of shit football, lateral passing, no creativity, no quality but you are right if you'd say we were the better team on the pitch for first 70 minutes (because Chelsea were so poor) and getting the lead, then throwing it away because we can't handle any sort of pressure.

-We are boring as feck
-We can't handle pressure if teams start playing forward
-No creativity or quality in the team
-No desire/drive/energy in the team

-We have 14 on 36 since december (played 12, won 3, drawn 5 and lost 4)
-Out of the CL
-6 points away from 4th place and 12 points away from first place

How the feck do people still find a spin to say anything positive about this ? Honestly I hated watching this game, I didn't think we deserved to win, last 20 minutes were terrible, apart from goal Lingard and shot from Martial not seen any chances worth mentioning and all that against a team currently in 14th place. People talking about it like this is still the unbeatable Chelsea, it is not. This shit is worrying and massively disappointing. People still getting a positive spin on it, sorry but you are putting the standards for the club ridiculously low. I feel outraged watching this shower shite, but somehow there is always fans still applauding and saying it was a good performance, it is fecking not, simple as that !

 

[Asger]

Some very positive signs but post goql we went to pieces. Or Chelsea turned it on. Either way a draw was fair in the end.

Martial, Rooney, Mata, Lingard, BJ, Carrick all excellent i thought. DDG also.

I do think we'll struggle for top 4, but i thought that before today. At least our performances are improving.

Was he playing today?

 

[Man of Steel]

It's all mental with our team at the moment and has been since Moyes season. How players suddenly collapse into what we became today after the goal and the last 20 mins is now inbuilt into the players minds. Where is this coaching of VG's that he has drummed into them? Why does it vanish and go to shit when we score or the pressure is on us? If the players are mentally weak or broken, then everything has to be re evaluated with their training and they need therapy! Christ, they are making me need therapy these days!

I hate to say it but it may be that the players are more to blame than Vandal.

Get a sports psych on them all now.

 

[edcunited1878]

I can't see for a second how he thought a ball round a defender from that position was ever going to be a doable ball.
It'd take an amazing pass, and for Schniedy to show the pace of a Bale to get onto. And even if he got onto it, he'd either have to check and take it to the corner, which Memphis could have just done anyway, or fire a ball across on the stretch which would most likely go out of play or be intercepted.
Mad.

To be fair, Morgan was pointing towards that area. Whether he meant to whip a ball in towards the box, but in the end, it was horrible. And then Memphis jogged all the way back, while every other teammate went back into position.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Shades of the infamous 5-3 performance against the Champions elect of this season. Thought we were delightful till the last half hour or so, real shame. Football is a 90 minute game. You can't expect to win matches by turning up for two thirds of the game. Poor performance, overall.

 

[Mrs Smoker]

Was he playing today?

Yep. Was good. More so in second half.