PL D FA Premier League

Manchester United 1:1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Post-match discussion


Sat, 22 September 2018

This is how far we've fallen. And we're not finished yet, believe me. This is going to be a long, hard season with little comfort.

When even your own manager sets the tone for the season by saying it'll be tough, you know it will be.
 
City, Pool and Chelsea will not win every game, there's still time to go up.
 
I think there are other ways to use him more effectively, as Mourinho should have seen in preseason. Put him closer to the box. Let him compete with Lukaku for that spot instead of giving Lukaku undroppable status up top and Sanchez undroppable status on the left.

And it's just not true that Sanchez was losing the ball a lot this match.
I didn't say he was losing the ball and someone else said Arsenal were using him as a striker. Maybe it needs to be tried. I would actually try it in the Carabao cup as Rashford still out, but he will probably persist with Lukaku, who is streaky as hell, but he is starting his bad spell early for him.
 
Bring back Sir Alex. Feed him loads or horse placenta or human babies or whatever it takes to keep him healthy and in charge.

Sacrificial Mou and Sanchez lambs whilst we are at it? The football gods would probably not take them...
 
That positivity was always fragile given that we weren't exactly sparkling in those matches. We've just been so starved of cohesive attacking play that those performances were enough to give us some hope.
what do you expect from this group of players who are so shit technically?
 
There are some very good players in the youth team.

Give some of them a run out.

Wolves are a good team. But there is no excuse for not winning at home.

feck this. Wolves is a good team. Burnley is a good team. Liverpool is a great team. City is an even greater team. Hove Albion is a good team. Hotspur is a good team. Forget madrid and barcelona.

So which team we should be expected to spank?

We should be spanking wolves at home, no matter what their form or who their players are. It's wolverhampton wanderers ffs.
 
I didn't say he was losing the ball and someone else said Arsenal were using him as a striker. Maybe it needs to be tried. I would actually try it in the Carabao cup as Rashford still out, but he will probably persist with Lukaku, who is streaky as hell, but he is starting his bad spell early for him.

Well I was replying to another poster who said he lost the ball with every touch in this match :)

I don't think Jose will try it either because Sanchez is a short little man who's going to lose most of the aerial duels when de Gea lumps it forward 30 times each match.
 
Didn't see the whole match but we looked good after the first goal until half time. People did know Wolves were going to be no push over right? They're probably the best team to have ever been promoted into the Premier League when you look at their squad.

Agree with you. Watched a couple of Wolves matches this year and they are actually quite good. That said, we had a lot of the ball today but, again, weren’t that threatening. Lukaku really should have put that gift wrapped chance away.
 
That's the bottom line.

Special mention to Valencia, Lukaku, Sanchez and Mata. 1/10 performances.

Did Valencia even cross it once? Every fecking time, take a touch, come inside and pass back. Criminal. Coward.

I love Tony V but he is very much done. He looked like a couple of times he wanted to go past the LB but you can’t tell he just seemed like he couldn’t will his body to do it. He’s done.
 
feck this. Wolves is a good team. Burnley is a good team. Liverpool is a great team. City is an even greater team. Hove Albion is a good team. Hotspur is a good team. Forget madrid and barcelona.

So which team we should be expected to spank?

We should be spanking wolves at home, no matter what their form or who their players are. It's wolverhampton wanderers ffs.

We are no longer a great team.
 
We could've really used a good performance from one of the attacking players today. None of them impressed.

Pogba, Fred, Fellaini (and Pereira) all did their parts and more I'd say.

Pogba played well but he was at fault for their goal trying to be flash in the middle of the field and losing possession.
 
Valencia, Mata, Lingard and Sanchez should be nowhere near our first 11. Hopefully we replace every one of those with some actual quality in the summer because our options going forward just aren’t good enough. I’m actually satisfied with our defence and midfield, but we don’t score enough goals. Jury is out on Lukaku having what it takes too.

Summer is a long time away. I think we need to figure out a way to get the most out of the shite we have accumulated.
 
Lukaku is awful technically, yet we still expect to hoof the ball to him and hope he can control it.

Yeah, but the rest are not. Everyone creams themselves over Martial's technique, Sanchez's technique is very good despite his performances, Pogba's technique is superb, Fred's technique looks excellent, Lingard's technique varies between decent and pretty good... could go on, really.
 
Let’s be honest we have had a kind start to the season in terms of fixtures. One game against the big 6 so far which was Spurs H, a fixture in which we have a good record, and the other 5 fixtures against sides which we should be expected to beat.

Therefore to find ourselves 8 points off the pace already is an absolute disaster. There’s no getting away from it.

It will require a step change in form from October onwards for us to salvage a credible league campaign out of this season. Currently it looks like being a long season of watching City and Liverpool play out a title contest that we are falling well short of.

If that is how it materialises I think the weight of support would want a change of manager.

In my view we should give Jose the rest of this season to demonstrate he can turn this around. If we did not contest the title but see improved performances and a more settled best XI emerging as the season goes on (e.g Shaw and Dalot nail down first team places) then I think we can go on under Jose.

If we’re still seeing disjointed performances by the end of the season, with no idea of our best XI and still looking like we need 5 or 6 players then I think it will be time to change the manager again :(.
 
Knew we'd struggle with the way they set up and they deserved a point. We were really poor going forward again after looking a lot more promising in the last three away games. Not good enough.

Lukaku was awful today but got no service to be fair. Sanchez and Lingard flattered to deceive and Valencia really needs to be replaced at right back. Pogba was our best player despite his mistake for the goal because he was the only one trying something.
 
a really frustrating day and a reminder about the level of this team under Mourinho

Wolves possibly even created the better chances even though we dominated possession

1) Sanchez was dire again - signing him looks like one of the worst moves - not sure what has happened to him - he looks like someone from the lower leagues and we've seen barely any premier league quality from him in spite of many thinking him an elite talent (me included)

2) Terrible day for Lukaku - it's ok talking about service but he needs to get involved himself and show more quality - we've no real backup for him - in our great teams we always had 4 strikers of Lukaku's class or better

3) Lingard had a Lingard day - ran hard, lacking quality, looked like an average player which is probably his mean performance level

4) Pogba - he lost the ball for the goal taking an unnecessary risk but aside from that I thought he showed real quality

one of the few in the side who were ambitious in their passing and play and we relied on him today far too much

he'll probably get slated for his performance as you know that's a great media narrative

5) Fred- was disappointed to see him subbed - took his goal well and had a nice free kick - actually think he's our best set piece player - great energy that helps create tempo in our play

6) Mata and Martial - meh for both - Martial was probably an improvement on Sanchez but neither had a real impact on the game and didn't look like they would have created a go a l had we played another 30 mins

7) Valencia - absolutely infuriated me - looks done, no courage to beat a man, looking for easy option then making himself unavailable with a silly run inside - was actually fuming at him today and Dalot shouldn't be dropped for him at all

8) I read some people slate Lindelof but felt Shaw, Smalling, Fellaini and Lindelof did what you'd expect- played to their levels, no significant mistakes, nothing exciting to report

overall it's clear the buck stops with the manager - we barely tested Patricio in the game - simply not good enough and time is ticking for Mourinho
 
I thought Old Trafford was 'owed a performance'. Fergie even showed up. And this was all they could muster??? Sigh...
 
Didn’t watch the game as it wasn’t on TV here, but it’s sad to see that we’re effectively out of the title race after six bloody games. Losing points against Brighton and Wolves, it’s just not good enough. We’re one header away from total melt-down to be fair, that save from DDG last week.

I wonder how the players are feeling about this, certainly can’t be a great dressing room at the moment. Other teams will never be be afraid to play against Lindelöf, Valencia, Fellaini, Lingard and Lukaku. Physical pain maybe, but these players aren’t better than mid-table ones.
 
Yeah, but the rest are not. Everyone creams themselves over Martial's technique, Sanchez's technique is very good despite his performances, Pogba's technique is superb, Fred's technique looks excellent, Lingard's technique varies between decent and pretty good... could go on, really.
This is called overrating of our players. I agree only with Pogba.
 
Poor result, abject performance but it's what we've come to expect at Old Trafford in last 5 years. We simply no longer scare teams and do not score enough goals!

On a serious note it really is time to say goodbye to the following players, T Valencia, J Mata, P Jones, A Sanchez, M Rojo A Young, M Darmian. We might get 100M for this lot which needs to be added to 250M to allow Jose or the next manager to buy the players who will finally respect this great club.

Lukaku needs competition up front like Icardi, we need a pacey left footed right winger and a commanding centre back just to be a regular top 4 team season in season out. Let's not forget in the last 5 years we have only made the Top 4 twice so talk of wining the PL is currently a pipe dream!
 
Honestly, we need a squad clearout and a manager who has a clue on how to play attacking football. So many average players.
 
Nuno. Guy actually knows how to coach a pattern of play to a Championship level team.
Not sure if this was said in jest but its actually a solid point. Yeah he's got little or no pedigree but if he finishes this season in a good position on the table, and we've already seen his body of work at a 'small' team, I'd say he deserves bigger things!
 
I said on another thread Lukaku should play from the right. He hasnt the skillset to be a target man. His strength is running with the ball and he could do this from the right and Rashford Martial or Sanchez could occuppy the middle. If we had Aguerro for example playing down the middle we would have loads more goals. We havent got a WC striker yet were supposed to be one of the biggest clubs in the world.
 
I was on a flight, so didn't see the match (probably a benefit, by the sound of it).

However bad Lukaku was, though, bear in mind one stat - PL stats 6, goals 4. 1 goal every 1.5 games, or extending it to the rest of the season, he'd score 25.

I'm not a big fan of his (would have preferred Alvaro), but one needs to look at the big picture.

If he fails to score in the next 4-5 matches, then he may need to be dropped, but would you really drop a 25 goal a year striker after a stinker?
 
It's embarrassing, that our plan B when we are looking for a goal is to bring Fellani up top.


It is not pretty or desirable but at the moment it is the only realistic plan B we have , we could have have played for another couple of hours today and we would not have scored trying to play through.

We just don't have the quality when we come up against a well set up team. Like it or not the reality is the hoof and hope to Fellani is often our best chance of a goal when we are up against it.
 

Man of the Match

Paul Pogba image Paul Pogba 34% of 488 votes

Runners-up

Player Ratings

5.3 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 375 ratings.

Score Predictions

381,16,31
  • Man Utd win
  • Wolves win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 33% Man Utd 2:0 Wolves
  • 15% Man Utd 2:1 Wolves
  • 13% Man Utd 3:0 Wolves
  • 12% Man Utd 3:1 Wolves
  • 6% Man Utd 1:0 Wolves
  • 5% Man Utd 4:0 Wolves
  • 5% Man Utd 1:1 Wolves
  • 3% Man Utd 5:0 Wolves
  • 2% Man Utd 0:0 Wolves
  • 2% Man Utd 4:1 Wolves
  • 1% Man Utd 1:2 Wolves
  • 1% Man Utd 0:2 Wolves
  • 1% Man Utd 3:2 Wolves
  • 1% Man Utd 0:5 Wolves
  • 1% Man Utd 2:2 Wolves
  • 0% Man Utd 0:4 Wolves
  • 0% Man Utd 2:4 Wolves
  • 0% Man Utd 5:2 Wolves
  • 0% Man Utd 0:1 Wolves
  • 0% Man Utd 1:3 Wolves
  • 0% Man Utd 2:3 Wolves
Compiled from 428 predictions.
Show more results Score Predictions League Table

Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. Wolves
Possession
65% 35%
Shots
15 11
Shots on Target
6 8
Corners
5 4
Fouls
5 17

Referee

Kevin Friend