[Tincanalley]

Losing patience with Rashford. He lacks game intelligence and doesn't look up often to see if teammates are in a better position.

There was a phase at the end where United were breaking and a simple square pass to Mata would have totally opened Astana up, but Rashford just kept running with his head down and then lost the ball. This is typical of him; he would not be a starter in a title winning United team.

And what's worse - Ole and the coaches are doing nothing to improve this part of his game.

i could not possibly agree more. Yet he does some great things too, when he doesn’t think about it.

 

[Denis79]

He hit 120 passes at a 93% passing accuracy

Was just trying to remember the misplaced passes he was talking about..

 

[Stubble]

Showed why most of the kids are not yet ready to start in bigger games despite the demands for it on this forum. Greenwood is on the fringes of a regular place but Gomes was no more than ok and Chong was Meh. Good to give them game time though in this and similar competitions, valuable experience.
Rashford is a popular scapegoat but he was a cut above the kids in his general play tonight, was involved a lot more than any of them and put a shift in. I still prefer Martial as our striker though.

 

[Kag]

He hit 120 passes at a 93% passing accuracy

And that partly why he was terrible.

I lost count of the times of that Gomes was shifting between pockets and Matic just sauntered the ball across to the full back.

 

[Still ill]

Turns out that even some nobody team from Azerbaijan is above Matic's level, as he was utterly garbage once again. Couldn't even place simple passes, and completely lost his head defensively more than a few times.

But I'm sure that won't stop him from talking shit about not getting picked enough.

Eh? He was excellent, I thought.

 

[UtdAgain08]

Good game, kids got time to play with Fred and Matic having very good games tonight.

They kids looked like kids at times but nothing to be unhappy about. Seems like a lot of our fans are looking for things to be negative about now. Maybe influenced by fans channels now.

All good, a win and we move on to West Ham with our players having a break.

 

[Matst1]

Missed it, don't know who's summary to believe... Either way we won

We did well. Just lacked penetration in the final moments, but we had kids playing, will be great for their confidence though. Of course, the resident moaners will come out with all sorts of ridiculous comments, ive already seen some about Fred, who had a really good game. He was solid.

I'm not sure what some fans want, it seems as if unless every player is putting in a 10/10 performance, it's not good enough.

 

[dev1l]

I think the game objectives were met:
- 3 points
- Youngsters and fringe players got plenty of game time.

Most of us expected a higher score of course, but when playing with inexperienced players every thing is possible.

 

[eire-red]

Hard to judge anything out of that match, Astana didn't really put any United player under pressure on the ball. Got the win and a few young players got a run out. More positives than negatives to be fair, lack of squad depth is a bit worrying though.

Don't really like the Europa League to be honest, play the kids, if we make it out of the group then great. If not, then it's still great experience for the young players. We need to focus 100% domestically. A strong top 4 finish is vital.

 

[McGrathsipan]

I correctly predicted the result.

 

[stu_1992]

We got the win and always looked comfortable. Considering the amount of changes and youngsters in not going to complain too much. Would I have liked more goals? Yes, but we made some good opportunities. Hit the woodwork twice. I thought Rashford was wasteful and as senior player (albeit still young) he should have done better with his opportunities. Delighted for Greenwood though. Great goal and finish. Hopefully a lot more where that came from!

 

[Snuffkin]

Lack of urgency and killer instinct which we have seen in most of our games this season.
I know we played the kids but it was very toothless. Hardly any shots on target given a woeful opposition.
I don't know what Rashford was doing starting the game he didn't look interested.

 

[NJM78]

We have scored 5 goals in 5 games(3 at OT). Something has to change, the only thing keeping us where we are in Prem league is everyone else’s shit form. Thing is those other teams have much more goals in them than us and over a long season we will be the ones that drop down the league.

As for tonight we will have to go some to win this competition, again I feel we lack goals so maybe a signing or two in January could help us.

If we had a top striker we probably could have been 4 up in first half but unfortunately everything fell to Rashy. Can’t wait to see Martial back leading the line and hopefully Pogba playing more advanced.

 

[edgecutter]

To be fair it was our away form that helped us win this competition. Fecking 1-1 masters at old Trafford

 

[R'hllor]

Romero - Did his job

Dalot - Had good and bad moments, crossing decisions were weird

Jones - Created chances for Astana, what a joke

Axel - Solid unline his senior more experienced partner

Rojo - Rabona, Roberto Carlos wanna be, had some decent crosses

Fred and Matic - Holy shit, the amount of touches they need when we trying to create something, they both had some comical moments

Chong - Things didnt go for him tonight

Gomes - Had a good game imo, should get more minutes in PL, Mata was worse when he was subbed on

Greenwood - Scored, looked decent, kid could be something else alright

Rashford - He should take one of those chances

All in all, kids had a run, we won, performance wasnt anything special but then again we aint good at playing football in final 3rd regardless.

People can use same old bullshit about kids not being ready, only thing they werent ready for is to carry most of those seniors tonight. They are heavy bunch.

 

[roseguy64]

What is with this? I think I missed something!

A video of Greenwood with his girlfriend hanging out in a car is out there and she calls him daddy.

 

[Kag]

That was a shit performance, really. But the likes of Rojo and Matic shouldn’t be anywhere near the team (albeit I understand that we need to play them in this competition) and the youngsters found it difficult. Greenwood’s decision making was especially off, but he’s learning. His goal was a mark of class, too.

I like Gomes, mind. In part because he actually takes care of the ball instead of acting like it’s a rocket. Our centre forward should probably take note of that.

We played like an inexperienced team that had never played together before. Which figures, in fairness.

 

[Casanova85]

Not funny. A 1-0 against an obscure (unknown) club. Bench material and youngsters, yes, but it was at OT. It should have been a 3-0 minimum.

19-20: the season of the 1-0.

 

[Tincanalley]

Eh? He was excellent, I thought.

Yes. Always some lad in here thinks slagging off the current out of favour player wins them street cred

 

[Gordon S]

Liked that performance! Astana made it really difficult with their extremely low defence but we kept going, moving the ball around nicely. Should have been more, feel a bit sorry for Rashford who works hard but nothing really happens for him.

Liked Gomes, disappeared at times but his quick feet are lovely to watch.
Matic was decent but slows things down a lot. Want to see more of these young players!
Great for Greenwood, he should grow from this. Could see him becoming our first choice n9 soon if Rashford doesn't find form.

 

[yamo123x]

Painful to watch, highlight being the goal. Pleased for greenwood.
Axel did himself no harm, Romero was ok, erm Gomes was ok other than his corners. rest of team were weak. Rashford was wasteful.

Was expected as these players haven’t played much but I worry what ole is trying to do, what are his tactics and style of play, we look clueless going forward

 

[RedNed77]

Fred.

I thought he looked ok. Matic was probably inferior.

Apparently lots.

@Catt apparently so.

 

[MonkeysMagic]

Even after a handful of games, we can all see that Greenwood is a natural number 9 in the making, something Rashford will never be.

At best he will have appearances off the bench in the PL as playing against seasoned experienced defenders will take it till. Its worrying then that we have to rely on Martial to be fit all season and he has already missed 50% of games played!!

 

[SaintMuppet]

I really don’t know how anybody can say a player is ‘ready’ after that.

‘That’ was a stroll for a goal against a nothing team.

Rashford cant finish, Mason can!

 

[afrocentricity]

We did well. Just lacked penetration in the final moments, but we had kids playing, will be great for their confidence though. Of course, the resident moaners will come out with all sorts of ridiculous comments, ive already seen some about Fred, who had a really good game. He was solid.

I'm not sure what some fans want, it seems as if unless every player is not putting in a 10/10 performance, it's not good enough.

Thanks mate, good to hear!

 

[Matst1]

Romero - Did his job

Dalot - Had good and bad moments, crossing decisions were weird

Jones - Created chances for Astana, what a joke

Axel - Solid unline his senior more experienced partner

Rojo - Rabona, Roberto Carlos wanna be, had some decent crosses

Fred and Matic - Holy shit, the amount of touches they need when we trying to create something, they both had some comical moments

Chong - Things didnt go for him tonight

Gomes - Had a good game imo, should get more minutes in PL, Mata was worse when he was subbed on

Greenwood - Scored, looked decent, kid could be something else alright

Rashford - He should take one of those chances

All in all, kids had a run, we won, performance wasnt anything special but then again we aint good at playing football in final 3rd regardless.

People can use same old bullshit about kids not being ready, only thing they werent ready for is to carry most of those seniors tonight. They are heavy bunch.

Fred and Matic were decent, especially Fred. Matic had a few wobbles and Fred lost possession twice but not in dangerous areas. You sure you watched the game?

 

[AJ10]

Not funny. A 1-0 against an obscure (unknown) club. Bench material and youngsters, yes, but it was at OT. It should have been a 3-0 minimum.

19-20: the season of the 1-0.

Indeed should have been but we can't finish.

This season we'll see lots of low scoring games and not due to creating less.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

To be fair it was our away form that helped us win this competition. Fecking 1-1 masters at old Trafford

Nah it was our home form that helped us win it.

Away form in the Europa League that season was W3 L2 D2 compared to the home form of W6 D1

 

[RedNed77]

BT Sport guys getting really carried away trying to build Greenwood up. I hope this doesn’t become a thing.

 

[nikineil]

A video of Greenwood with his girlfriend hanging out in a car is out there and she calls him daddy.

Thanks for the clarification. Still don't see where the innuendos come from?

 

[Casanova85]

Indeed should have been but we can't finish.

This season we'll see lots of low scoring games and not due to creating less.

We've find a weird balance between the "nothingness" of the 15-16 Van Gaal season and the typical defensive approach of Mou: Welcome to Ole's era, the 1-0 era.

And you know what? At least for this season, I'll take it.

 

[Judas]

BT Sport guys getting really carried away trying to build Greenwood up. I hope this doesn’t become a thing.

Well it already is, isn't it? Our manager sings his praises every chance he gets. The belief in all of football, from people who know a thing or two is that he's very very talented.

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

BT Sport guys getting really carried away trying to build Greenwood up. I hope this doesn’t become a thing.

He is English. Of course it will become a thing.

 

[MIC_FIN]

Sell Welbeck

 

[Alemar]

It must be noted that we have hit the post three times, and Rashford wasted a few great chances. So the scoreline is flattering for Astana

 

[Irwin99]

Youngsters got experience and seniors got minutes under their belt. Wasn't an inspiring performance, though that's kinda hard to achieve when an opposition team plays with a back 7 for most of the game.

They could have easily scored against us a few times on the counter if they'd had more quality but also we should have buried them earlier.

Axel was MOTM. I think starts in the PL would be a bit too soon for Chong, Gomes and Greenwood.

 

[Steerpike]

This would have been a lot more comfortable if Rashford had converted either of the close in chances he had in the first half. I wouldn't regard either of them as bad misses (the second was actually a really good save), but you would normally expect to score from at least one of them.

A number of players who needed games got them, and generally looked fine. The play was too slow, but this was a collection of players who won't have played together much - it's just not realistic to expect them to be playing slick, fast football straight off the bat.

Of the youngsters who played, Tuanzebe looked secure, Greenwood got a goal and had a few other decent efforts, and Gomes looked confident. The only one who struggled was Chong who looked a bit lightweight.

We still don't seem to have worked out how to put in a decent cross (a couple from Rojo in the first half excepted). Dalot, in particular, has some work to do here.

In summary, I'd rate it as a glass half full sort of performance.

 

[90 + 5min]

Ole and the team did well tonight.

We got result and could have scored at least 5. Rashford should have had hattrick first 15 min.

We got some kids playing and we were testing them. See were they stand. Some impressed, some didn't.

Ole made subs when needed. Put experience and we won the game.

Fred, Rojo and Tuanzebe were our best players.

Good Europa League start. Bring on West Ham.

 

[siw2007]

Astana are probably one of the worst teams that have come to Old Trafford in recent memory, but we still made hard work of it.

Out of the young boys, I was impressed with Gomes, should play more games in the future. Think Chong and Greenwood struggled with the step up though Mason did show his huge potential with his fabulous goal.

Still, happy with the three points, hopefully we get a few players back for the weekend.

 

[Fanatic 00237]

Very good run out by the young ones. I enjoyed the game, in all honestly. For a game during which most of our bright prospects (apart from Garner) were given a full start with the senior team, playing in a lineup of players who have never played together before for the most part, I think we controlled the game really very comfortably. It was never going to be a walk in the park but we had almost all the possession and loads of good attempts. A bit frustrated by all the missed chances, we could easily have won this by 4 or 5. Luckily Mason showed a glimpse of his brilliance.

My assessment of each player tonight:
Romero didn’t have much to do but every time he was needed, he did what he had to do well.
Rojo, Dalot showed they are ready to be called upon in the league if necessary, and they can be relied upon.
Tuanzebe should be given a chance to pair up with Maguire at CB, I think he can own it soon.
Gomes and Greenwood very exciting to watch.

Jones was Jones.
Fred really needs to do more to merit a place in our league starting lineup imo.
Rashy was very unlucky and a bit wasteful at times, could have got a hat trick on another day.
Chong looks the least ready for first team action out of the three attacking academy players.

Mata, Lingard and Young had okayish performances. Maybe Mata took a bit more control of the game

All in all, a pretty good evening for me.

EDIT: I genuinely forgot that Matic played, sums up what I made of his performance, I guess...

 

[Ventura]

Good to see the children start, although Chong may need another year in kindergarden before he is ready. On the other hand we don't have many wing options. If any.
Hopefully Garner can get minutes in one of the next few games (I don't mean on the wing).

 

[RMD83]

A young team, experimental and an overall decent display but hampered by a underwhelming score line. Could have been 3-0 or 4-0 on another day. It is what it is. A lot of positives to take. Greenwood and tuanzabe looked promising.