[Andycoleno9]

A reminder why he's fecking fantastic.

Should be replaced by Henderson

 

[klayton88]

Rashford closing in on Jones's 222 appearances. Jones has been at the club 4 years longer.

 

[The Stain]

Rashford channeling his inner Ronaldinho out there. Good to see him having fun.

 

[Random Task]

Quiet game so far but 2 moments of quality have us in the lead.

Norwich have been poor, we should be beating these by 4 no problem.

Absolutely.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

De Gea did well to get a hand to Cantwell’s curling shit there

 

[NewGlory]

Not really. He's drifting to the left quite a bit, due to the Mata drifting inside, but he's still our number 10.

In the game I am watching, Pereira is playing a winger, and Mata is the #10.

 

[DevilRed]

Williams can comfortably make the LB role his own.

Would be great if he put in a decent cross or two from the left wing. He has been excellent but lacking that service to our strikers. Love that he wants to take on every defender, but sometimes he needs to show a good cross or pass.

 

[Bobski]

Lindelof is actually a better passer of the ball than Maguire, much better at getting the ball through the lines quickly. Maguire takes longer and tries more ambitious passes but is less effective with it, thus his runs forward.

 

[prateik]

25 touches in oppn box for us.. thats a new stat I dont see too often.

 

[Man of Steel]

Is that not relevant to the discussion at all? We've dominated possession but are only on one shot on target against the bottom-placed team in the league.

Are you suggesting we should be unzipping and preparing for the double next season based on this performance?

Slight over reaction don't you think?

 

[Mike Smalling]

Decent enough half, but we should be creating more clear cut chances against a side like Norwich. Obviously it doesn't help missing Pogba and Martial having a bit of an off day so far, but we should still be able to do better. Our offensive play is still missing structure and ideas.

Hopefully we will be able to get a second goal early, because as we have seen we are capable of giving away big chances.

 

[redom]

Mata has done well in staying close to the touchline most of the time, we need more of that on the left to really stretch them but both Rashford and Williams have been guilty of being too keen to come off the line and make things crowded.

We definitely struggle with chance creation, dunno if it's because we don't have any particular tactic once we reach the final third or just poor decision making and understanding between players, probably a bit of both.

 

[prateik]

Just realized we have Liverpool next week. feck me.. was hoping we would go on a bit of a run in the league.

edit:
our league fixtures arent looking too good for the next few games.
Liverpool A, Wolves, Chelsea A, Everton A, City, Spurs A, Sheff Utd in the next 9 games... No clue when we'll have our midfield back.

Europa League it is then..

 

[Random Task]

Rashford closing in on Jones's 222 appearances. Jones has been at the club 4 years longer.

Jones must be approaching his testimonial. I struggle to think of a less-deserving player of such an award.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Brilliant pass by Mata!

 

[Paxi]

Rashford > Mbappe

 

[Nick7]

Good half. Norwich still look a danger when attacking though.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Mata has done well in staying close to the touchline most of the time, we need more of that on the left to really stretch them but both Rashford and Williams have been guilty of being too keen to come off the line and make things crowded.

We definitely struggle with chance creation, dunno if it's because we don't have any particular tactic once we reach the final third or just poor decision making and understanding between players, probably a bit of both.

Williams being right footed worries me for this reason, think we need to see him overlapping more on the outside.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Rare to see us dominating a game, a bit more quality in the final third and we'll be out of sight in the second half. Let's just make sure we keep the door shut at the other end, counters like the one that resulted in that good save will hurt us eventually if we don't get more goals.

I don't want to go all body language expert but we look very low key today, not many smiles etc. I'd like to hope that's because the players have been ear bashed all week about the need to act like fecking professionals after some dire performances.

 

[Andycoleno9]

No he doesn't. Just because he could carry the ball and cross aimlessly it doesn't mean it was efficient by any means. I reckon Bissaka doesn't create any less than Valencia despite being far worse on the ball. Valencia final ball is one of the worst thing you'll see on football pitch, despite being good at getting in good position with it.

Yes he was. Valencia was nothing special in attack but he was space shuttle in attack for AWB. In everything. Dribble, cross, pass all much better comparing with AWB.
Awb is better rb of course and he is the wall in defence which is the most important trait for defender but lets not overreact here.

 

[NewGlory]

What a chance for Norwich - Dave saves

His lastname is Cantwell... Cat skillz, Dave

 

[Cantona in disguise]

I thought we looked dangerous everytime we went forward how much of that was down to mata and rashfords individual performance I'm not sure. Norwich are dog. That idah up top looks like a lad from a sunday league side, shocking. Yet somehow they nearly opened us up. I'd be disappointed if we dont bag 3 or 4 today.

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

No reason we can't win this 3-0, Norwich are fecking poor but at least attempt to play football meaning we will continue to get openings.

 

[redshaw]

Super save from dave. Cantwell's shot was well inside the box and in the corner.

 

[Withnail]

Jones must be approaching his testimonial. I struggle to think of a less-deserving player of such an award.

Did you not hear?

He said he wasn't gonna have one as only his mum and dad would show up

 

[United58]

200th appearance today

Scary

I remember Scholes getting an award from the Premier League for his 500th* appearance at 31, against Liverpool (won 2-0, Scholes & Ferdinand ), Rashford could reach that number by 27!!! Really hope he doesn't succumb to burnout

*May have been 500 Premier League appearance, Rashford's tally is still insane though

 

[manutddjw]

I’ve actually enjoyed watching us so far. Amazing how the exclusion of the rat faced man child can do that.

 

[Strelok]

Class pass from Mata. Imagine if we have someone like KDB, Rashford and Martial would have doubled their numbers this season.

 

[Anustart89]

Slight over reaction don't you think?

People who aren't jumping for joy over this performance and calling us various superlatives are being subtly and not so subtly berated on here just because we're winning 1-0 against the team sitting at the bottom of the table.

The fact of the matter is that we've scored from our only shot on target against Norwich.

I'm not saying we've been shit, because we haven't, but I have higher expectations than producing one shot on goal in a half of football against the bottom side of the team. Some nice tippy-tappy play outside their box isn't enough for me to say that we've been "amazing", "outstanding" or "great".

Judging our performances should be allowed to be a little bit more nuanced than the caveman interpretation that says "leading = good", "not leading = bad"

 

[Adam-Utd]

Just realized we have Liverpool next week. feck me.. was hoping we would go on a bit of a run in the league.

edit:
our league fixtures arent looking too good for the next few games.
Liverpool A, Wolves, Chelsea A, Everton A, City, Spurs A, Sheff Utd in the next 9 games... No clue when we'll have our midfield back.

Europa League it is then..

Sheesh! I thought we’d just had a hard run

 

[RedTiger]

Jones must be approaching his testimonial. I struggle to think of a less-deserving player of such an award.

He's actually refused his upcoming testimonial because he thinks no-one will turn up, I felt quite sad when I first heard that.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Exactly what people don’t understand. Having a pack of chasing dogs has become everyone’s wet dream after Klopps success with Dortmund but they don’t realise it was only part of why they were successful. Pace and intensity without creativity and intelligence is meaningless.

Or Guardiola at Barcelona some years before Klopp and counter-pressing even became a thing. Barça throughout Guardiola's reign played with the single best high line, high-pressure, counter-press in the game, and did so with Pedro, Villa, Xavi, Iniesta, none of which are exceedingly fast. It was all about the organisation, cohesion, understanding, and the intelligence on the ball when they did win it back.

 

[Berbasbullet]

I thought we looked dangerous everytime we went forward how much of that was down to mata and rashfords individual performance I'm not sure. Norwich are dog. That idah up top looks like a lad from a sunday league side, shocking. Yet somehow they nearly opened us up. I'd be disappointed if we dont bag 3 or 4 today.

Agreed, Martial needs to do more, but happy with the half. Need to keep going and put them to the sword now.

 

[Jacob]

Is Martial close to scoring?

 

[Random Task]

Did you not hear?

He said he wasn't gonna have one as only his mum and dad would show up

He's actually refused his upcoming testimonial because he thinks no-one will turn up, I felt quite sad when I first heard that.

Now I feel bad for him.

Dammit.

 

[Red00012]

Good half. It would have been nice to be 2 up and make it more comfortable.
Early goal 2nd half hopefully.
Would like to see Gomes get half an hour

 

[stu_1992]

Missed the start of the game but came in just after the goal. The remainder of the half was pretty much exactly as I had expected before and after looking up match stats. Dominant possession but but not being able to break them down. Having said that, nice goal tbf. Lovely pass by Mata.

 

[NewGlory]

1-0
Rashford

Seeing more goals like these from Rashford, lately - being in the right place, right time, and finishing clinically with a first touch (vs. needing some heroics of creating the goal from the beginning) is a sure sign of him maturing and becoming a proper senior forward. Very happy to see the progress. Would love to think that Ole's influence and ability to share vast personal experience made the difference.

 

[Red00012]

Is Martial close to scoring?

The ball isn’t falling nicely to him but he has looked lively.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Is Martial close to scoring?

No, scoring is close to Martial.