[Ban]

So like I said initially...12 points and we need a point to confirm qualify.

Yeah probably got in the middle of your convo with the other guy.

 

[King.of.Red]

satisfied with the result but not with some of our players performances, especially bailly.

 

[davidmichael]

To be fair only Bailly would be considered first choice in defence, Matic would be considered first choice in midfield and Lukaku and possibly Mata first choice from our attackers so a win was the main thing.


Found it strange that Mata was kept on the right whilst Lingard was 10 as Mata simply isn’t too good in that role, I was very impressed with young McTominay though who looked very assured and composed although you can see he needs to continue developing and we clearly miss Pogba.

 

[whatwha]

Got the result we needed. Meh performance. Got to wonder if we even practice attacking combinations. Seem to be relying on the left winger to create something out of nothing.

 

[sammsky1]

Strange that Lukaku wasn’t allowed to take either penalty. Needs a goal pronto

 

[Raoul]

We need Pogba and Ibra asap to provide quality and competition.

I'm happy to get Pogba back after the next break. By that time he should be 100% and ready to go as the winter fixtures loom. Also have a feeling we will see an Ibra cameo as early as late Nov.

 

[Borden]

Desperately need Pogba back, even if he won't solve everything concerning our attack.

 

[K_Ash]

I dont care about the performance..I just want the 3 points (and not to lose!)
12 pts
1 goal against, in 4 matches!
will sleep well tonight

 

[K2K]

We lost to Feyernoord and Fernebache in thr europa league group stages just last season.

We have mastered the art of winning games in Europe again.

 

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Ugly game, job done. On top of that:


De Gea: What a man.

Bailly: Reminded me of a drunken uncle trying to play football after attending a barbecue.

Mike: Some good moments and some "wtf" moments.

Blind: Ok.

Darmian: His facial hair scared the benfica players I reckon

Mata: The invisible man.

Lingardinho: Bad day at the office?

Matic: Played on third gear and that's good enough.

McTominay: Attaboy

Martial: Possessed by the spirit of Nani, was all flicks and nothing feckin else. I love him, still.

Lukaku: prayed for Buddha in search for patience.

Mkhitaryan: He can´t win a tackle against feckin Stephen Hawking

Rashford: Love you!

Herrera: Hello, bye.

 

[MIC_FIN]

De Gea, Best performance out there. Martial Would have been up there if it wasn't for the lethargic way he took the penalty.

 

[Andycoleno9]

In champ league against solid team we won 2.0 with mixed team. We are in knockout stage without much effort. Great. I am happy.
But match thread today was really awful. Worst "our" performance in a long time. Everything was shit, players were shit, jose is shit, players don't care, we should not buy lukaku, etc....

 

[Dosse]

Its good to be back!

 

[Trophy Room]

I think we (including myself) take winning for granted. We seem to be coasting along not appearing to break much sweat. I can only hope that with all our players back we have a few gears in reserve.

 

[Tincanalley]

Jose you need to spread the love and quell the fear a bit, baby.

 

[carlosp]

1 more point and we're through top of the group. Job done tonight.

We are through already. Doubt we will get knocked off top.

 

[Jazz]

Happy. The win is all that matters.

Loving Dimi though on BT though. So cool

 

[Traub]

We are through already. Doubt we will get knocked off top.

Supersport is saying we've qualified but I don't see how. If we lose both games and Basel and CSKA both beat Benfica, we could theoretically finish third based on goal difference.

 

[Maradona10]

Ratings-
De gea - What is simple for him would be considered a great save for human keepers. Dave saves - 7/10
Smalling- Brain fart happened probably the caf thread on our defense being awesome had an effect. 6/10
Bailly- Simply considered benfica beneath him and refused to defend well to make it a fair competition - 6/10
Blind - Couldnt cross to save his father's reputation of producing good sperms, also managed to succesfully conduct our secret penalty technique - 6/10
Darmian - Very italian performance from him, Like margarita pizza boring but did what he is supposed to - 7/10
Mctominay - Although you could mistake him to be the first footballer to be sponsored by mcdonalds, he did everyything and yet did nothing - 6/10
Matic- Serbian metallic goal scorer, he meant to humiliate svillar and did it. Sure he will call him now and brag about the goal -7/10
Martial- Tried to get past his man on the outside twice that created imbalance in the forces of universe, had a shit game thereafter -7/10
Mata - Looked huggable, did a good job in getting out of a tight corner and got a standing ovation for that. 6/10
Lingard - Got elbowed in the side, dint fancy it after half time , went to do frog jumps on snapchat. -5/10
Lukaku- Could shoulda woulda scored, Had a poor touch tried really hard to blame it on martial wanting to take on his defender from the outside, failed. Better second half, dint get booed.

Subs-
Mkhitaryan - Standard mkhi, give the ball away, create a couple of half chances, divide the caf on if he should be kept sold or hired as an accountant 6/10
Herrera - Doing herrera things, could have been a succesful pickpocket with that face sadly chose to be a footballer -6/10
Rashford - Ran really fast, won penalty, which was then given to blind to score to feck up everyone's bets and make money for some lucky sob.

Mourinho- Tactics perfect, beard perfect, he probably started watching chelsea losing to Roma and had a wank at that.
Supporters- Did well to pretend they were interested when they knew it was gonna be a boring win, away fans rock though.

 

[el3mel]

Supersport is saying we've qualified but I don't see how. If we lose both games and Basel and CSKA both beat Benfica, we could theoretically finish third based on goal difference.

Which is an impossible scenario.

 

[alsabi]

Supersport is saying we've qualified but I don't see how. If we lose both games and Basel and CSKA both beat Benfica, we could theoretically finish third based on goal difference.

It is mathematically possible, but we'd have to lose both of those games by more than three goals, since it's head-to-head goal difference that counts in the CL.

 

[Dobbs]

We seem to be trying something no other team has. Namely playing good football using only one half of the pitch. We just didn't even pretend to bother with a right hand side.

I'm no expert but that doesn't seem a good idea.

 

[M4YON]

Happy with the result, almost done in terms of certified qualification.

Team displays are starting to worry me its been mentioned already but they just seemed lethargic as if they were drained of confidence completely.

All this despite 4 wins out of 4 in the our group and coming off a 2 win streak in other competitions...something seems wrong and it has been since the Liverpool game.

I imagine your manager setting up defensively for a draw in a big rival game sends a clear 'I don't believe you can win this game' kind of message and it hasn't been shaken off.

 

[donkeyfish]

Mourinho mocking the journo's again, always good fun

 

[carlosp]

Media trying to make some noise about Blind's penalty. Stupid knobs don't know the managers instructions and so make up crap against Mourinho.

 

[Traub]

Which is an impossible scenario.

Well practically yes but mathematically it can happen.

It is mathematically possible, but we'd have to lose both of those games by more than three goals, since it's head-to-head goal difference that counts in the CL.

Oh does it effectively become a mini league of the top 3?

 

[sunama]

I dont care about the performance..I just want the 3 points (and not to lose!)
12 pts
1 goal against, in 4 matches!
will sleep well tonight

My thoughts exactly.
2nd in the league.
Through to the next round in the CL, winning every game played.
Still in the League Cup.
We are cruising and I am buzzing.

BTW, Under Moyes and LVG, we were vulnerable at Old Trafford.
Under Jose, OT is once again, a fortress. If you play against us at OT, you are going to get beat and if you get lucky, you'll escape with a draw.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

I take it you’re speaking of the whinging posters in the match day thread?

Yeah.

@Rado_N quoted a tongue in cheek throw away comment of mine. To confirm, it was just that. a tongue in cheek throw away comment cos I was annoyed with the attacking play.

We were still pretty shit though in a few regards and if you cant see that then I guess we have different standards.

 

[carlosp]

Supersport is saying we've qualified but I don't see how. If we lose both games and Basel and CSKA both beat Benfica, we could theoretically finish third based on goal difference.

Do you think we will lose a game or won't get a point?

It's Mourinho. We are through, and on top. That is not going to change even if we need 1 more point.

 

[Irrational.]

Jose with another awkward post-match interview. Taking a dig at the 'specialists' who comment on the way the team plays.

Something isn't quite right here.

PS. The decision to let Blind to take the pen was Jose's. No reason given.

 

[SirAF]

Mourinho mocking the journo's again, always good fun

 

[Ian Reus]

Still missing that dynamism in midfield but more than happy to win the match and not concede.

 

[M4YON]

Jose with another awkward post-match interview. Taking a dig at the 'specialists' who comment on the way the team plays.

Something isn't quite right here.

PS. The decision to let Blind to take the pen was Jose's. No reason given.

Before his interview I thought he's done this on purpose so Lukaku isn't on the score sheet and now after i think that even more.

 

[Ban]

Media trying to make some noise about Blind's penalty. Stupid knobs don't know the managers instructions and so make up crap against Mourinho.

Half of the post match interview was about it.

Who cares!?

 

[el3mel]

Jose with another awkward post-match interview. Taking a dig at the 'specialists' who comment on the way the team plays.

Something isn't quite right here.

PS. The decision to let Blind to take the pen was Jose's. No reason given.

He's hitting at journalists since Sept 2016 when he called them Einsteins. Nothing new here.

 

[MonkeysMagic]

Job done, not the most inspiring of performance but getting out of the group (ideally topping it) is the main priority here. Hopefully come Feb when the CL resumes we’ll have interplay in an attacking sense and carry more threat forward. I feel most of the things the forwards are trying are not coming off, passing, one-twos, crossing, cut-backs...but confidence is a strange thing and once that returns I’m sure we’ll see all these things will click into place.

When you’re not playing well but winning games that’s more telling than winning when confidence is high.

 

[alsabi]

Well practically yes but mathematically it can happen.

Oh does it effectively become a mini league of the top 3?

The first tiebreaker in the CL group stage is head-to-head goal difference, followed by head-to-head goals scored and head-to-head away goals scored. So in fact we could lose 3-0 at home to CSKA and still finish above them on that final metric, for instance. Only if we're tied on all of those would it go to goal difference, goals scored etc. in all group games.

 

[SirAnderson]

Not sure who is the MOTM, thinking Martial, nobody aside from him really stood out for me.

 

[Ban]

Jose with another awkward post-match interview. Taking a dig at the 'specialists' who comment on the way the team plays.

Something isn't quite right here.

PS. The decision to let Blind to take the pen was Jose's. No reason given.

What's not right, journos are criticizing him, he talked about that.

 

[sunama]

In champ league against solid team we won 2.0 with mixed team. We are in knockout stage without much effort. Great. I am happy.
But match thread today was really awful. Worst "our" performance in a long time. Everything was shit, players were shit, jose is shit, players don't care, we should not buy lukaku, etc....

On this forum it is getting to the point that even if we won the CL and EPL double, fans would go into meltdown and demand that players be sold and the manager be sacked.
I'm struggling to understand if these so called fans actually understand that we are steam rolling past teams and only MCFC are doing better than us.
Jose and our players are doing a fantastic job and they have my full backing. Right now, I haven't a bad word to say about them.