[Rado_N]

The Rashford one for sure.
What was the other one?
And for them it was just a shoulder charge.

The studs up late challenge that left Martial on the ground in agony for about five minutes.

 

[Red Dreams]

The studs up late challenge that left Martial on the ground in agony for about five minutes.

ah. yes.
amazing stuff that idiot did not see.

 

[prath92]

The studs up late challenge that left Martial on the ground in agony for about five minutes.

Just came to post this. That was a more blatant penalty.

 

[adamwest]

Was following from a family event and was going through the absolute ringer following that on Twitter. Was fecking furious which then turned to delight in the space of 2 mins with 2 notifications on my phone.

Same mate. First game i've missed this season. Horrible having to swipe down to refresh the bbc feed every 1 minute then duck out for a while only to see Grant bloody Ledbitter has scored! Seeing the ticker go from 0-1 to 2-1 within 2 minutes was pretty sweet though. Happy New Year all!

 

[dwd]

Was on the way to the game but had to turn back to go the hospital for a family emergency. Thankfully that turned out ok and we won in the end too. Fecking stressful though!

 

[Red Dreams]

actually this ref performance overall was worse than the Clatenburg performance for the City match.

The worst of the season so far. But the wave after wave attack coming forward was like the old days. Appropriate SAF was there watching on his birthday.
And Jose fighting the Boro player about where the throw should be made from was just....
to top it all off Usian Bolt calling in. What a lead in to the New Year.

 

[Red Dreams]

I watched the City/Liverpool match after, and the reason I said we can beat them both is because they play similar passing football. We are direct and 'in your face' though not like in the Keane days.
Neither team can handle that sort of direct football. Pogba, Herrera,Zlatan and Mikhi. They cannot handle these players.

 

[Ra5hid]

I thought that not having rooney on the bench today made a difference in substitutions, as when rooney is on the bench, jose will always use one sub sending rooney on. But today we substituted blind (who was on a yellow) for rojo, fellaini for mata (who changed the game), also allowing mikhytarian a more central position with mata on the right, and finally rashford for smalling, who could have had a penalty and also drove at their defense with blistering pace. Both attacking substitutions i felt i had an impact whereas most times mourinho would take off martial around the 60/70 min mark just to put rooney on.

 

[BIGbadBOO4]

The challenge on Martial was a blatant penalty, anywhere else and your getting booked for that tackle. Yes he got his shot off but seeing a defender dive in studs showing is an obvious foul. Did not see the Rashford penalty call that we'll but commentators believed it was a penalty and if they say that it obviously should be a penalty. They never give anything, typical MOTD not showing poor calls. Will never watch BBC coverage, so pro Liverpool don't know why they don't just admit it.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

Was it Mkhitaryan who ended up playing at left back after Pogba's goal? I remember seeing Jose furiously giving Rojo instructions after the goal

 

[Unlikely lad]

This is surreal

 

[Roosney]

This is surreal

Haha, even Slippy G on our d!ck now.

About the game I got two words: mood swing.

 

[VanGaalEra]

Same mate. First game i've missed this season. Horrible having to swipe down to refresh the bbc feed every 1 minute then duck out for a while only to see Grant bloody Ledbitter has scored! Seeing the ticker go from 0-1 to 2-1 within 2 minutes was pretty sweet though. Happy New Year all!

Haha the look on my face when the BBC notification came up that fecking Leadbitter scored

 

[Pogue Mahone]

This is surreal

Great stuff. Anyone who hasn't yet, watch this.

 

[Gasolin]

This is surreal

Well we are 3 pts behind "the best team in the world with the best manager, City", so if they're they good, so are we? Good to hear some people aknowledging the performances of the team. Win all Jan fixtures including Liverpool and it will be very interesting.

 

[Handré1990]

Oh how I've missed this confident feeling. Even when we went a goal down I was so sure we woudn't lose the game. Perfect ending, and I thought we looked assured after taking the lead, though it was only 4+4 minutes left. Everybody bar Smalling and Blind had good to very good games, with Pogba, Martial and Mkhi leading the line. Smalling is now the weakest option at CB imo, which says a lot of the others form as of late.

 

[Eyepopper]

Stevie reckons we're only a couple of players short and next year could be our year.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Smalling is a fecking idiot. You could see that knockdown coming a mile away.

At the risk of being a negative Nancy, so much this. How he didn't read that, I don't understand.

 

[Rightnr]

Stevie reckons we're only a couple of players short and next year could be our year.

Not sure we can read into this that much tbh. He wouldn't know, as he's never won the thing.

 

[Eyepopper]

Not sure we can read into this that much tbh. He wouldn't know, as he's never won the thing.

It basically means we are guaranteed not to win the league for at least the next 17 years.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

The win against Boro yesterday reminded me of our win against Sunderland on New Years day 2003, anyone remember that one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/2606735.stm

 

[frank lee madeer..]

As a 44 yr old manchester red , hands up , I was sceptical about what characteristics our team would show under Jose.
Shoot me now , cos all I want to see , is good football & a team that stands up & fights till the death . Thats what Mufc is all about . Great to see.
Happy new year fellas.

Ps. Did peppy le pardew win ?

 

[ghagua]

Good win despite that performance from the ref. Martial was a threat throughout the game. That is what he should be doing every match. Ibra was good leading the line and Pogba was immense. Mata should get on the pitch for 20-30 minutes when we are chasing the game. Mkhitaryan and Martial when on form are far more dangerous trying to break down a defensive line with their pace and trickery than Mata.

 

[::sonny::]

Smalling+Fellaini+Blind too many weak pts

+ Herrera tired and Miky not in a good day

Martial great game

 

[Raees]

This is surreal

Say what you want about Liverpool but I always feel their players talk about the game with more sense than United ex players unless the topic is Liverpool related.

 

[Shimo]

Getting on Mata and Rashford and throwing caution to the wind - that's when you know the team is just full of confidence. Going into 2017 in this manner, I can just imagine rest of the teams ahead of getting very nervous. And I also think we are getting a good amount of our fear factor back.

Hopefully Martial kicks on from this just like Mkhi did and Rashford also had a very good cameo - and we are going to need them both as the season wears on.

 

[rpg]

Late late comeback and it just had to happen on the majestic knight birthday.

Zlatan was quiet and isolated in first half and I can see Fellaini keep getting into his area. Both arent compatible with each other.

.

 

[unimaginative_name]

Plan A with carrick

Carrick
Herrera Pogba
Mkhi zlatan martial

Plan B without carrick

Herrera pogba
mata
Mkhi zlatan Martial

Fellaini should be plans Z when its last resort, it just showed playing fellaini really was shotting us in the foot, even though the refs farcical blunders. Playing herrera and pogba deeper is still better than playing fellaini in the team, as mata offers us creativity when we can't have pogba and herrera more advanced.

Actually I think today we played 4-1-4-1 even without Carrick when Fellaini was subbed by Mata. Jose played Mikhitaryan as right number 8 and Mata as a winger and Herrera as the holding midfielder. I personally think right number 8 is certainly the best position for Mkhitaryan while left number 8 is for Pogba. We need a world class creative defensive midfielder ALA Busquets to get the best out of Pogba and Mkhitaryan.

It does not help when refs are disallowing goals and our opponent GKs are putting in MOTM performances (and then playing crap the very next game. Heaton was fantastic against us and then conceded 4 goals the next game).

Yes, ref was poor today, but I think overall every big team goes through bad decisions and great performance from the opposition GK. Despite such adversity big teams do normally manage to score 2 goals per match on average. Our historical average score per match is 2-1 as well.

So, we shouldn't show excuses of bad refereeing and good GK, our strikers should just up their finishing efficiency to such a level that GKs find it impossible to save. I think Ole Gunnar Solksjaer said once, "There is no good save, only bad misses". I believe in that theory. If a striker does his job properly goal keepers will find it almost impossible to save.

 

[prath92]

The team that ended the game

DDG
Valencia-Bailly-Rojo
Herrera
Pogba mkhi
Mata-Rashford
Ibra-Martial

 

[Robertd0803]

Delighted with the comeback, I had a feeling we would win after 1-0 down. Lots of positives in the manner we won despite no Carrick,resting both Jones and Rojo and Lee Mason pretending to impersonate a referree. The disallowed goal, no Rashford penalty or Martial penalty (that was an ugly challenge) were dreadful decisions.

Nice to see Martial back looking dangerous and once again our goals were lovely. Fantastic header from Pogba.

 

[Gause]

The team that ended the game

DDG
Valencia-Bailly-Rojo
Herrera
Pogba mkhi
Mata-Rashford
Ibra-Martial

The back three were actually Bailly-Rojo-Mkhi at some point

 

[thoward]

The win against Boro yesterday reminded me of our win against Sunderland on New Years day 2003, anyone remember that one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/2606735.stm

Yeah, another game where we had more than 30 goal attempts. Jurgen Macho had the game of his life.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Not sure we can read into this that much tbh. He wouldn't know, as he's never won the thing.

Maybe not, but he's been an interested observer.

 

[Al-T]

Delighted with that. Beat a team that's been a bogey for us in the Christmas period before AND an incompetent referee.

Get in.

 

[marukomu]

Just got back after New Year at my sister-in-law's house. Guess what? Her cool husband managed to get me the game live in fantastic 4K quality, and it started at 12am Japan time. What a fecking great start to the New Year.
Let's hope it carries on.
The way we finished that game feels like the old United. LvG is a distant memory.

 

[Trizy]

Was on the way to the game but had to turn back to go the hospital for a family emergency. Thankfully that turned out ok and we won in the end too. Fecking stressful though!

Some things are more important than football. Hope all is well.

 

[JTW95]

Still bloody buzzing about this result. Hope Arsenal and Spurs drop points today.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Still bloody buzzing about this result. Hope Arsenal and Spurs drop points today.

I really can't see them dropping points today, but you never know I guess

 

[JTW95]

I really can't see them dropping points today, but you never know I guess

I expect them to both win as well but you never know. At least top 4 is finally within reach. Win the next couple of games and I think we will sneak in.

 

[wolvored]

That match was a throwback to the Fergie era. It had everything, excitment controversy, and the will to overcome and win in the end. I think our upturn has obviously been the new players especially Miki Ibra and Pogba. They are always looking to move the ball forwards, which some of the others still pass it sideways or backwards. Saying this, this is gradually improving as well. Yesterday was Martials best game by far. Im glad Mourinho went all out attack to get the win, but as soon as we were 2-1 up the intensity went. I know it was the end of the game and maybe some players were tired, but the way it went straight after the goal was an obvious tactic I wish Mourinho would lose. We should be looking for at least a 2 goal cushion imo before easing off.