[Adisa]

I had headaches so I decided to miss the 2nd half too . Not stunned to find out it was worse though

We all know the pattern the semi against Spurs will follow. Them camped in our half the entire game.
Just hope we come out with a win.

 

[roonster09]

Watched the full game for the first time, have to say performance was poor but glad we won. We should do lot better when we play against Spurs.

Apart from Matic and to an extent Mata, Lukaku, everyone looked average to poor.

 

[kouroux]

We all know the pattern the semi against Spurs will follow. Them camped in our half the entire game.
Just hope we come out with a win.

Exactly. They'll have lots of it, we won't have many shots. Hopefully we somehow win.

 

[Trizy]

Horse's mouth. Mourinho himself.

Sorry, had'nt watched the video. So, it's taking Jose a year and a half to notice how slow we are? ffs..

 

[Siorac]

It's incredible people are feeling like this, considering where we are on the table.
I am too.
This is what reactive football can do.

Well, yeah, the shit football certainly plays a part but to be fair:

- we are unlikely to drop out of the top 4
- we are obviously not winning the league
- we are out of the CL

Which means that we have a grand total of one game where the result is actually important beyond bragging rights and other less than tangible factors. Two if we win that first one. So it'd be hard to be excited anyway.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

We all know the pattern the semi against Spurs will follow. Them camped in our half the entire game.
Just hope we come out with a win.

If we approach the game in the same way, I just don't see us beating Spurs. We have to change.

 

[eat_grass]

Are you a ball boy at old trafford or something?
We're second in the league as a result of cowardly negative football. The players are clearly unhappy at being restricted and unable to express themselves.

Ah, imitating "shitty fan" triggered you, I see. Dumb rage isn't a good look. Your "cowardly negative football" defense shows you either know sh*t about football or what's happened this season.

Nonsense.

A team as strong as ours shouldn't have to park the buss one game, attack another game etc
We should be good enough to bring our attacking game to every match, and leave the burden on other teams to try and deal with it.
Changing tactics all the time just confuses players.

I don't think you know the meaning of "park the bus." I think you need something like Liverpool's style of play to make you feel like you understand what's going on in the game.

 

[eat_grass]

Nonsense. All that shows is him deflecting blame. His tactics, stubbornness and Man management are a major problem.

He's lying I guess. You're not the first one to have Mourinho's direct quotes show how little you know about what's actually happening with the team or in practice.

 

[eat_grass]

What i saw was players afraid of playing the ball on the ground. We had no players who could actually retain possession. We had 5 mins in the start where we played with some intensity, as a home team would normally do, but the game settled quickly and Sevilla took control in midfield. We had one chance in the first half with Fellaini, but that was really it. The Lukaku chances wasn't even chances, one was a punt from out the box and one he didn't even get a touch on. You could see our main plan was to get it to Fellaini. I don't think de Gea passed it to our defenders once, he always kicked it up to Fellaini. The game was lost with the players chosen and the tactics we had deployed for the day. Introducing Pogba to midfield with Matic and Lingard was just a car crash waiting to happen, we have seen that several times this season.

The players was certainly not without blame, but the manager has to take most of it.

It's not the first time we've seen that reaction though is it (afraid of playing the ball on the ground)? So is that a consequence of tactics somehow if it's happened in games where United had all of their attacking players on the pitch? It sounds more like an excuse to me ("the players play scared because Mourinho forces them to play good defense"), but Mourinho does have to take some blame for not knocking that trait out of the players by now.

It was a stupid comment and i take it back. What i meant is that it easy to spin it this way for Mourinho, and simply say that the players are not doing what he wants. I don't see what was so different from this Brighton game and to all the other matches we've won. Plenty of times we have needed some special quality, wether that's from a Martial/Matic/Lingard screamer or a cross into the box for Lukaku to head in. I don't remember too many swashbuckling team goals this season.

I'm not even complaining about the way we played, i thought it was fine against Brighton. We won that's what matters. Mourinho didn't think many of the players did too well though.

It might be that Mourinho's style of offense just doesn't work with a random collection of good players. He requires a ton of thinking from his players, forcing them to work out the situation on their own. But when they're tired or scared, their thinking gets muddled and they play like sh*t on offense. That's how I'm reading it.

I don't think Mourinho complained about the players' performances after the Brighton game, did he? I thought he complained about their lack of character: hiding from the ball. That's way, way worse than a bad performance. I hope that point isn't lost on people here.

The perfect situation was when Martial and Rashford was battling for that LW spot. One of them played a bad match, then the other got the chance and vice versa.
Alexis Sanchez came in to the side which resulted in Martial and Rashford getting shunted out on the right. I do hope that Mourinho can get something out of our attackers, because he said himself that he won't buy any in the summer.

I agree, but only in hindsight. Imagine the meltdown this place would have suffered if Mourinho had said, "nah, I've got Martial and Rashford already. I don't want world class Alexis Sanchez in my squad."

 

[Carolina Red]

Imagine the meltdown this place would have suffered if Mourinho had said, "nah, I've got Martial and Rashford already. I don't want world class Alexis Sanchez in my squad."

Indeed. Threads all over about why we can’t sign “____ type of player”, etc.

 

[eat_grass]

Only 2 fecking days of training for a faster build up an he’s criticising players for not all doing it right!
I’ve been supportive of Jose but that is ridiculous!

Haha, you're right that would be ridiculous.

But I really, really doubt that's what he's saying. He's saying, "we specifically targeted this aspect of our game and how to respond the last two days, and the players didn't do at all what they were supposed to."

 

[eat_grass]

Imo, it actually damns him.
Why don't we do it often?

I really doubt they don't do it more often. I think he's highlighting a specific issue they targeted prior to the game, and how the team didn't at all do what they trained to do. It just doesn't make sense to me that he'd only now realize the team is struggling offensively and finally do something to address it.

You can say all you want about Mourinho, but one thing is certain: he wants to win (if for no other reason than to shove it down the throats of his detractors and haters). If fixing the offense would have won him the Champions League this season, he'd have tried a lot more than just two days prior to the Brighton match.

 

[eat_grass]

Indeed. Threads all over about why we can’t sign “____ type of player”, etc.

Yep, and imagine if Sanchez instead was tearing it up for Man City right now. Hell, I might even have joined the "Mourinho Out" crusade after that.

 

[eat_grass]

PS: sorry for the walls of text. I've been away from the Caf for the last few days and just now responded to quotes.