[Bestietom]

Quite a few players seemed like they didn't want to play for the manager yesterday.

 

[redmanx]

We are an absolute disgrace, truly. Jose has to go now for me. The only reason the players can put in performances like that is because they're not playing for the manager. How else can they be that lacklustre? They can't call themselves professionals if they are playing for Mourinho with perfomances like that. No urgency, no desire. Just awful.

I know Klopp get's a lot of stick on here for his high fives and such....but christ I wish we got him when we had the chance. At least you can see he inspires his players, has a way of playing they all understand and execute. Same with Pep. We just look totally clueless.

We need big changes but most importantly we need the right changes. No more more just throwing money at things hoping they will fix the problems.

Matt Busby used to instil in his players that they had a duty to play for and entertain the supporters, and Fergie was the same; if any of our current squad are guilty of not playing because they don't like the manager they are not worthy of playing for Manchester United. Maybe Jose isn't popular with them, but that's no excuse for pathetic, disgraceful performances like this.

 

[Kaizane]

Truth is it's easy to scapegoat the defence because they were glaringly bad yes, but the whole team was a shower of sh*te from front to back. What I saw yesterday was nothing short of a complete disaster. The team looked like they'd never seen each other before in their lives; it was so so poor, I don't remember us creating any clear cut chances. If you can score then you've always got a chance but in our first two games we've had two penalties and two fortunate goals. We could play for days and we might not do anything meaningful in attack during that time.

If we have a unit of a CF in Lukaku and we hoof it up to him for knockdowns, why does he never have any runners to knock it down to?

Why do we always look to go out wide when attacking to look for the cross, therefore rendering ourselves too predictable and probably the easiest team to defend against in the PL?

Why is it our wide players always make the wrong decisions, they cut inside when they should be crossing and they cross when they should be cutting inside?

Why is our build up play so disjointed, what are they being coached on the training ground?

Why can't we just get the basics right? I get that every team has a bad patch, so then why not just keep the ball, keep it simple and just get the basics right and right out the bad form for a few games?

Why do most of the players' body language look like they couldn't give two sh*ts?

I could go on forever. Very worrying and at this point I don't even know where to point the finger, to be honest...

 

[99withaflake]

Someone stick this up in the changing rooms. Shouldn’t need motivating but could do the trick.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[SteveTheRed]

Very bad day at the office!

Once it started turning sour, we needed someone on that pitch to keep everyone focused and we lacked that. It was suddenly 2-0 and we didn't look like any players were turning around and saying "Calm down, we will win this 3-2" it was panic all over. The players looked like they were thinking "Oh god, we are going to lose 3-4 nil to Brighton".

It's only one game, we can move on from this but we need someone to take control on the pitch and steady the ship.

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

i dont see Fred. Hope he improves but he brings little to the team at the moment.

Thought he played really well first half against Leicester.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

I honestly think there is far to much over reaction, I think you will beat us next Monday.

 

[RedSky]

I honestly think there is far to much over reaction, I think you will beat us next Monday.

Have you watched both our games?

 

[Vadim]

I honestly think there is far to much over reaction, I think you will beat us next Monday.

The reaction isn't a surprise. Many Man Utd fans have had enough of Jose and the football United play under him. I've been patient with him and always get behind our managers, I even supported David Moyes until it was impossible to do so.

But I feel the clock is ticking for Mourinho now. The football isn't going to get better. He's been here for 2 seasons and 2 matches, he's spent a huge amount of money on his players, shipped out players he didn't fancy. And yet we still play the same cautious, slow, dire football.

Our fans would be fine if we lost 3-2 yesterday whilst having a proper go - peppering their goal with shots, mixing up the play, being aggressive and exciting. But it was yet another limp performance and the Utd fans have had enough.

I'm not calling for Jose to be sacked. But I'm no longer in the 'give him time' camp. He's had time and we look no better than when he first came in.

 

[Massive Spanner]

I honestly think there is far to much over reaction, I think you will beat us next Monday.

We probably will, but then, that's what we did last year.

Suffer through poor performances and drivel against weaker opposition, come up against a top six team and get a good result, get hopes up, suffer through poor performances and drivel against .. etc. etc.

 

[Raw]

I honestly think there is far to much over reaction, I think you will beat us next Monday.

The reaction is mainly due to the poor standard of football that we've been witnessing for a long time under Mourinho. If we won, people will say we played badly but who cares onto the next game 3 points in the bag etc.

Any loss, especially playing like this, is going to bring this kind of reaction because of how we play football. We might beat you next week, but I bet we'll look bloody awful while doing it.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I honestly think there is far to much over reaction, I think you will beat us next Monday.

The last 3 games at OT have all been 1-0 to us... and they've all been dire games of football, so if we do win, it'll probably be in the same fashion.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

Have you watched both our games?

I have but it’s the start of the season and players will be tired. We were terrible against Newcastle but got the win, we were really good against Fulham but they are a bit of an unknown quantity. Jose has been Jose and if Lukaku had of finished that chance early on I’d say you would have won it. I get all the Jose out but honestly I don’t see who you can get that that will gauarantee a massive improvement.

 

[RedSky]

I have but it’s the start of the season and players will be tired. We were terrible against Newcastle but got the win, we were really good against Fulham but they are a bit of an unknown quantity. Jose has been Jose and if Lukaku had of finished that chance early on I’d say you would have won it. I get all the Jose out but honestly I don’t see who you can get that that will gauarantee a massive improvement.

The big issues we have are glaring though. For a start we don't have enough touches in the opponent penalty box compared to the other top teams. We have no attacking threat down the right, which means an opponent can overload the middle and our left channel and we struggle. Our new midfield can't tackle (they got a combined 1 successful tackle against Brighton). Added to the problem that Jose has no real clue what our strongest 11 is so we're never a settled side.

You may point to that Lukaku chance and say "what if", but the problem is that we don't have enough of those "what if" moments to make it unlucky. If he misses 3 really good chances then i'd agree, but it was only one. We just don't create enough in the final third so therefore all of our players when we do get a chance have to be clinical.

 

[Bestietom]

The football we play is shite, we need to play faster and move forward with the ball, instead of sideways and backwards.

 

[swooshboy]

It's at the point now where you don't even think about who is on the sub's bench...or who we could buy in January...because there is no identity in this team and no detectable style of play.

Also, we have no player who even tries to rally those around them, or tries to hold players accountable. I was extremely frustrated with Rooney towards the end of his time here - mainly because of his inability to control the ball, but at least he showed passion and fight. All our players show is frustration.

The players were shocking, but then no matter who we buy, players end up looking as though they have never played together before - or even played football before. Simple passes are misplaced or miscontrolled. It seems as though every pass is slightly off - so that rather than receive the ball and look up and move forward, it takes an extra touch to control it, or move it back to their feet, which slows everything down.

I have no idea how things have not improved over the past few years. Either Jose is not aware of what needs to change, or he is aware and the players are not carrying out what they are being told.

It used to be that teams would raise their game against us - but now teams don't even need to do that. Brighton did not play a magnificent game - they were fairly average. We just make teams look better because we are easy to play against and offer absolutely nothing. I think we had 2 or 3 shots on goal in the entire game which is pathetic. Two of their goals came from a ball from DDG to one of our players who instantly lost control and gave the ball away.

This is not a knee-jerk post because we have been playing like this for a long time now - we have a couple of blips where we play well, but other than that these comments are nothing new. We are just incredibly frustrating to watch. But worse than that, we are completely boring as well.

 

[Raw]

The football we play is shite, we need to play faster and move forward with the ball, instead of sideways and backwards.

We really don't move a lot do we. What was it, Brighton running 10km more than us?

 

[donkeyfish]

I hate it when I agree with the likes of Souness but he was right: this is the most average United team since the days before Fergie and redknapp was right when he said he had no idea what United's game plan was. I said it weeks ago - to howls o abuse - but we are little more than also-rans this season. Even gary Neville struggled to find positives because there weren't any. I can't name a man of the match because there wasn't one. The closest to it was fellaini who a least showed some passion for the shirt. Awful... and I wonder when the blind here will start telling us we'll beat Spurs 5-0

Perhaps it is the most average, but I'd take that every day ahead of Moyes or LvG's second season.

 

[swooshboy]

The football we play is shite, we need to play faster and move forward with the ball, instead of sideways and backwards.

Agree - I feel as though every player's primary objective is to not lose possession - so they receive the ball and look for the easiest pass - usually sideways or backwards. Thos that actually look up realise there is no movement ahead of them, so they are forced to pass backwards as well. There is no risk taking, no adventure, no movement that forces the defenders to commit.

 

[Canagel]

Even Arsenal created more chances against Chelsea then we did against Brighton. No point laughing at other teams. We have big big problems and the only people who realise this is those who actually sit and watch our games. It's not about our defenders or players anymore. If we were actually peppering teams but leaking goals at the back then you could put it down to our defenders. A bit like Liverpool a few years ago. We are a woeful attacking team. It's been our problem for 5 years. Long balls to Fellaini is the best thing we can do so I wouldn't mind him starting from the beginning from now on.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Someone stick this up in the changing rooms. Shouldn’t need motivating but could do the trick.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

ABU media are loving it.

 

[Rash Decision]

Mate, we don't have top players. Not even close.

We have 1 world class player, 3 very good players when they have their day, and the rest is painfully average at best.

Keep comforting yourself that way.

 

[AbusementPark]

Not sure what match you were watching, but we needed 30 mins just to register a shot on target in the second half,and we barely created a single chance in the second half. Controlled the game and pinned them back, christ ...They had a 2 goal lead and they sat back because there was no need to push out and give us any space. We never looked likely to cause them any problems.

They stopped Brighton attacking which after the first half showing was a complete turnaround, there is no way Hughton would have said to his team to sit back when we looked so easy at the back, go for the kill. We dominated the play, while not doing much with the ball but it shows we can dominate teams by playing a more attacking game, which is what my point is. We always sit back and try to hit on the counter attack, when in truth we should be attacking throughout and forcing the opposition back. Defence should be on the half way line helping the midfield and attack pressure. We never looked like causing problems because of the forward passing, Pogba missed his passes time and time again, our players made good runs but werent being picked out. Fred was the only player I could see that was willing to pass forward and to play a risky forward pass when an easier pass was on. Fred tried to get the team going but the players were not good enough.

 

[RRCE]

So the players are just playing like this then, this isn't a hoofball instruction from Mourinho, all the players are just this awful at carrying out instructions, for multiple seasons? If you genuinely think we only lost that game because of a few mistakes and not because we got played off the park I have absolutely no idea what football match you were watching.

I don’t think it was just a few mistakes, it was countless mistakes, a few of which led to goals against. I’m not a fan of Mourinho’s football, and certainly don’t think he’s blameless in the overall situation (although there is plenty of blame to go around). My point was, playing against that team, even with the way Jose set the team up, it was an absolutely abysmal effort from the players.

 

[Thomas A.Anderson]

Keep comforting yourself that way.

Comforting with what? This is much bigger problem than manager.

Changing one man is super easy, changing this roster in contenders not so much. So no, I'm not comforting myself, I'm fecking pissed how much all deteriorated in last 6,7 years.

 

[Perseus]

They stopped Brighton attacking which after the first half showing was a complete turnaround, there is no way Hughton would have said to his team to sit back when we looked so easy at the back, go for the kill. We dominated the play, while not doing much with the ball but it shows we can dominate teams by playing a more attacking game, which is what my point is. We always sit back and try to hit on the counter attack, when in truth we should be attacking throughout and forcing the opposition back. Defence should be on the half way line helping the midfield and attack pressure. We never looked like causing problems because of the forward passing, Pogba missed his passes time and time again, our players made good runs but werent being picked out. Fred was the only player I could see that was willing to pass forward and to play a risky forward pass when an easier pass was on. Fred tried to get the team going but the players were not good enough.

Hughton sat back in the second half. Sensible, as United not so good on the front foot. Hughton and Mourinho come from the same generation and are of the same defensive mindset. Brighton started off with the passing game, supplemented it with pressing when they lost the ball and then fell back into deep defence.

Brighton were missing the influential Bruno, and the defence kingpin Dunk, and their pacy threat Izquierdo was injured and their new players were not up to the mark yet. And any rate, Brighton can't maintain attacking for a whole game. See how they get on at Liverpool next week?

Live on TV, there did not seem all that much wrong with running off the ball, finding space and accurate passing after the initial 25 minutes was weathered. Very clever run by Murray for the first goal. Signs there at Old Trafford last season that Brighton are very mean at not losing possession. Added selective pressing to their game, so they can win the ball as well.

 

[Skåre Willoch]

I'm not in the "Mourinho out" camp at all, but it really seems he's totally lost it, doesn't it? The team looks mismanaged, unhappy, and uninspired. Headless chickens the lot.

 

[Morpheus 7]

That was as bad it gets, zero fight, response or belief in ability. We are not chatting about one bad performance, we're chatting about 11 plus the sub's. The mistakes were awful but the shape and passing was something else. If we played a good side that could have been scary yesterday. If your Jose in or out you can't deny that the players weren't playing for him yesterday. That team has enough on the pitch to come back against Brighton. They just give up and that's the worst thing. They never believed in asking questions. That's what makes this side different, absolutely no fight when there up against it. They passively just see the game out, that's not Man United. We are a club absolutely divided now. The board and the manager(back him or sack him). The manager and the players( clearly issues with Jose and some of the players). It's hard to see us playing better football and more importantly challenging. It's a shame but think we need to part ways with Jose. He's lost the players and it's a matter of time, a scrappy win against Spurs changes nothing. Why wait to the wheels properly come off when we can change it now. Get a more positive style of football in and build. Nobody including Jose looks up for it. The board are spineless though, they will wait to its to late and just get someone else in without any planning. It's going to be a long season, you can't blame fans either. I'll support the team regardsless but it works two ways, we need to see way more.

 

[Acole9]

That was the worst performance since Mourinho has been manager. Pathetic, embarrassing, lethargic and spineless.

We've spent millions on the attack and we aren't utilizing them.

Sitting deep and inviting pressure is destroying us, our defence isn't good enough to soak it up. We have no leaders there. I'm not suggesting we copy City or the scouse but we need to be a lot more expansive than we are. The trouble is this how Mourinho sets all his teams up but this style of play is out of date, it'll have it's time again I'm sure but right now it's not doing us any good.

 

[Macca7]

Matt Busby used to instil in his players that they had a duty to play for and entertain the supporters, and Fergie was the same; if any of our current squad are guilty of not playing because they don't like the manager they are not worthy of playing for Manchester United. Maybe Jose isn't popular with them, but that's no excuse for pathetic, disgraceful performances like this.

Agree wholeheartedly....unfortunately though, the modern day footballer no longer cares about the fans and as they know they have more power than the manager they can just keep serving up shite performances until eventually he gets the boot. It's wrong but it's just the way it is these days, sadly.

 

[Perseus]

I have but it’s the start of the season and players will be tired. We were terrible against Newcastle but got the win, we were really good against Fulham but they are a bit of an unknown quantity. Jose has been Jose and if Lukaku had of finished that chance early on I’d say you would have won it. I get all the Jose out but honestly I don’t see who you can get that that will gauarantee a massive improvement.

Of course, Mourinho never loses when 1-0 up. On his right foot so it did not look likely to score. Same problem Knockaert had when it was still 0-0. Losing possession lost the game, Half a dozen times is all it takes. Or once if Lukaku had scored.

The gegenpress is going to be a continual problem all season, for lots of clubs. It will eventually get found out as the teams with good technique will get the lesser pressing teams (e.g, Watford) chasing shadows. Technique and concentration. Pogba (in his eagerness to push forward), Fred and Martial were the main culprits at losing the ball, Bailly in defence not Lindelöf.

This is usually on the reverse footing, with the run of the mill Premier League teams unable to make strides for an equaliser against United from open play. Stats for last season for not conceding from open play put Man United in a League of their own, with Brighton second best and Tottenham about the same. This the contrast between gegenpressing and deep defence. When the pressing fails the defence is out of shape.

Ashley Young (lots of possession in his own half wide near the half way line) and Luke Shaw played as wing-backs which left two holes against Brighton (playing two wingers) was fatal for the all important first goal. Calculated risk when 1-0 down.

 

[Kaizane]

I'm still shocked as to what I was actually watching yesterday, I think our traveling fans were too as there was a lack of reaction from them after the full-time whistle; nobody could believe what had just happened in that 90 minutes.

It wasn't the fact that we'd just lost 3-2 to Brighton, it was the manner in which we lost. I've never seen such a flat uninspired performance were every single player was just plain bad. I can understand when teams have off days, whether that's just luck simply not being with you on the day or the team doesn't turn up but there are instances of brilliance and flashes of fight, so it can be forgiven and you move on. Yesterday just felt different. A few people have said it and I'll repeat it, there is something fundamentally wrong within the team if the likes of Pogba, Martial, Lukaku and Mata can not even fashion a single chance between them against a team like Brighton, this has happened on more than one occasion also.

Not to blame one individual but I sensed something was off when I saw the team walking out at the start. Martial had a face like thunder (more so than usual) and his body language was just all wrong, never looked interested from the start and I think that resonated with the team. His head is gone, that much is clear. He's not interested in playing for Mourinho or the club. Great talent but his attitude has to be questioned, he's a professional footballer. That being said, the rest of the team's attitude needs looking at too!

Back to the drawing board for me, something HAS to change!

 

[Tony247]

We were overrun by midfield. Fred had hopeless game. We missed matic desperately. As it is our CB have butter legs, on top of that Fred positioning in front of them was horrendous. He was not picking spaces so that CB can pass to him but he was also losing possession. Hope he learns quickly otherwise another signing waste.

Before even we think of playing attacking football we first need to sort our backline problem. That is the foundation of good team.

 

[piratefox]

If Cardiff or other relegation candidates played like that their fans would be angry. An unacceptable effort, let alone performance. Nothing professional about that.

They can't pass a ball properly. Can't defend a set piece. Cack their pants when pressed. Can't stop teams getting in behind.

When a Jose side can't defend you're in trouble.

 

[simplyared]

It’s not just a question of team skills and playing systems. Immaturity is our main problem.

Yes we have a young squad with adequate playing skills. However, of the out players in yesterday’s game against Brighton, there were only 2 of them over 25 yrs in the starting line-up.

Fact is, our captain who has reached the age of 25, as skillful as he is, behaves like a 15 yr old on the pitch. We’ve added Fred to our squad who looks lost out there and in desperate need for some guidance. The ever important CB combination with Bailly and Lindelöf lacked any form of backbone, structure or communication between them. We can go on!

To our advantage you could say players the likes of Sanchez, Matic, Smalling and Valencia, all missing yesterday, can offer a certain amount of experience and leadership to the squad and one could argue what the outcome of yesterday’s game would have been with at least two of those players on the pitch.

 

[Vadim]

I'm still shocked as to what I was actually watching yesterday, I think our traveling fans were too as there was a lack of reaction from them after the full-time whistle; nobody could believe what had just happened in that 90 minutes.

It wasn't the fact that we'd just lost 3-2 to Brighton, it was the manner in which we lost. I've never seen such a flat uninspired performance were every single player was just plain bad. I can understand when teams have off days, whether that's just luck simply not being with you on the day or the team doesn't turn up but there are instances of brilliance and flashes of fight, so it can be forgiven and you move on. Yesterday just felt different. A few people have said it and I'll repeat it, there is something fundamentally wrong within the team if the likes of Pogba, Martial, Lukaku and Mata can not even fashion a single chance between them against a team like Brighton, this has happened on more than one occasion also.

Not to blame one individual but I sensed something was off when I saw the team walking out at the start. Martial had a face like thunder (more so than usual) and his body language was just all wrong, never looked interested from the start and I think that resonated with the team. His head is gone, that much is clear. He's not interested in playing for Mourinho or the club. Great talent but his attitude has to be questioned, he's a professional footballer. That being said, the rest of the team's attitude needs looking at too!

Back to the drawing board for me, something HAS to change!

I agree with all of this.

It pains me to say it but I think Jose will be gone before Christmas. The players just aren't performing for him. The tactics are dated. Woodward's face at full time said it all.

If Jose had just come in and it was his second competitive game, we'd all (well most of us) be fine with the performance and result because we'd think it was a hangover from the previous manager. But Mourinho has been in the Utd job long enough and I still don't see what kind of football we're trying to play? Is it counter attacking football? High pressure? It's certainly not attacking football and we're never in charge or controlling the game. We're Manchester United not Carlisle United!

Against Leicester, we were sat far too deep for most of the game. Against Leicester City, at home. City, Spurs, Liverpool and probably Arsenal and Chelsea, wouldn't sit that deep at home against Leicester City. We don't scare teams in the tunnel before kick off anymore. We don't demand any respect from the opposition anymore.

Then we have Jose's press conference. He's always coming out with unnecessary remarks. Some fans on here and Twitter think it's the 'ABU' media. It isn't. It's because Jose creates news and drama for himself. Look at Poch's interviews, or Pep's. They just get on with it. They talk about the football a bit, smile, and then it's over. No dramas to report and it's boring so media doesn't report it. Jose is always having a pop at someone, always moaning about something, always being so damn negative both off the pitch AND on it.

Utd fans are tired. We don't expect to win trophies every year. But we do expect to be entertained once in a while. Under Jose it's been extremely gloomy a lot of the time and this has to change.

 

[ZAGREB RED]

United just don't look strong in any department just now aside from the GK spot. Players under-performing hugely, lacking in any guts or determination, looking a bit disinterested and with zero self-belief means a collection of individuals resembling nothing like a team, which is what we saw yesterday.
One of the most galling aspects is that yesterdays abomination was preceded by watching City dismember Huddersfield and tonight Liverpool might well put a few past Palace. They will be disappearing over the horizon soon enough if something doesn't change at United. Soon.

 

[MancFanFromManc]

I've found a positive after the Brighton game..... we've gone from 7/1 to 25/1, I'm avin some of that. We'll get a whole lot better than the rubbish performance we sat thru yesterday. 25/1 is huge odds for us!

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

I've found a positive after the Brighton game..... we've gone from 7/1 to 25/1, I'm avin some of that. We'll get a whole lot better than the rubbish performance we sat thru yesterday. 25/1 is huge odds for us!

Are you being serious?

 

[Judas]

25/1 to do what? Not get relegated? Yeah we should probably stay up.

 

[AlwaysRed66]

It’s not just a question of team skills and playing systems. Immaturity is our main problem.

Yes we have a young squad with adequate playing skills. However, of the out players in yesterday’s game against Brighton, there were only 2 of them over 25 yrs in the starting line-up.

Fact is, our captain who has reached the age of 25, as skillful as he is, behaves like a 15 yr old on the pitch. We’ve added Fred to our squad who looks lost out there and in desperate need for some guidance. The ever important CB combination with Bailly and Lindelöf lacked any form of backbone, structure or communication between them. We can go on!

To our advantage you could say players the likes of Sanchez, Matic, Smalling and Valencia, all missing yesterday, can offer a certain amount of experience and leadership to the squad and one could argue what the outcome of yesterday’s game would have been with at least two of those players on the pitch.

Two players who many fans don't think are up to playing for the club, & a third whose performances since joining in Jan are average at best. I admit that the latter three would certainly have been better than our awful CB pair, Fred & Young. At least Sanchez will be pleased he wont be blamed for this shocking display, & to give him his due always tries, which is more than I can say about Martial.