Club Friendlies - Aston Villa vs Man United on 12/09/2020

Nep77

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
453
Location
Helsinki,Finland
Mengi Elanga Mejbri all should get minutes in League cup atleast. Mengi has everything to be a top drawer CB.
 

mazhar13

Kermit Inc. 2022
Scout
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
36,524
Location
Toronto, ON, Canada
Galbraith looked tidy.
He looked quite nervous to me. Both McTominay and Fosu-Mensah took up more defensive roles and deeper positions to free him up, and at almost every opportunity, he turned back to the defence for a safe pass. He started looking more comfortable when was the first player to receive the ball off of the defenders and had more time on the ball. Whenever he was pressured, he lost the ball a bit too easily.

He's talented for sure, but he's not ready for the top flight yet. I think he needs a loan in the lower leagues in order to get used to playing against bigger footballers.
 

laughtersassassin

Full Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2014
Messages
11,330
Bruno has to drop back in the 8! Donny needs to be behind the striker.

James is just crap. The less games he gets the better for us.

The passing has been good from what I can see. I haven’t watched the first half though.
We haven't bought anyone to prevent James getting minutes so we stuck with him
 

ivaldo

Mediocre Horse Whisperer, s'up wid chew?
Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
28,699
If we can't beat Villa in a friendly then how are we supposed to challenge for the league? I'm sorry but I'm now ole out. Disgraceful. It's embarrassing. We are Manchester United.
 

Adam-Utd

Part of first caf team to complete Destiny raid
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
39,954
If we can't beat Villa in a friendly then how are we supposed to challenge for the league? I'm sorry but I'm now ole out. Disgraceful. It's embarrassing. We are Manchester United.
No white text ?
 

Offside

Euro 2016 sweepstake winner
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
26,627
Location
London
If we can't beat Villa in a friendly then how are we supposed to challenge for the league? I'm sorry but I'm now ole out. Disgraceful. It's embarrassing. We are Manchester United.
Agreed we could have kicked off with a nice easy 3 points today instead we’re already playing catch-up with much tougher games to come.
 

Dve

Full Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2019
Messages
2,898
Good first half with several solid performances. Special mention to McTominay, Shaw and the forgotten man Fosu-Mensah. Could he actually be an option at center back?

McTominay´s absence in the second half was noticeable, as we lost a bit of control in the midfield. Galbraith looked not quite ready for this level.

van de Beek had a careful start of the game, but got better as the game went on. United´s best player in the second half.

James and Lingard did alright, but their lack of end product cost us the game in the end. Rashford still looking not at his best, and Maguire was pretty bad. Not much to applaud Dalot for either.

But why no Fred, Mata, Pereira or Bailly?
 

ivaldo

Mediocre Horse Whisperer, s'up wid chew?
Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
28,699
Agreed we could have kicked off with a nice easy 3 points today instead we’re already playing catch-up with much tougher games to come.
This was a preseason so no points but I get what you mean. None of our front three scored today. If we can't score against Villa then how are we supposed to beat all the other teams? I'm so angry right now. Disgrace. Embarrassment. We are Manchester United.
 

littlepeasoup

Full Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
Messages
5,335
Location
Give peas a chance.
In his defence from this game he put two or three really good crosses into dangerous places and our players steadfastly refused to make runs towards the back post or the 6 yard box. If we had attackers with half a brain or some desire to score goals he comes away with a couple of assists and his job is done.
If I remember rightly (because I was critical of both Rashford and Martial from a positioning point of view), he was doing the same sort of thing at the start of last season too... putting in excellent crosses that should have at least resulted in a shot on goal had our strikers been a little more on the ball. I'm hoping if he gets his chances, and provides decent delivery, with a re-energised Martial he might get a few more assists this season.

Seems like he might be that type of confidence player, someone who needs a few goals/assists under his belt to flourish.
 

horsechoker

The Caf's Roy Keane.
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
51,375
Location
The stable
Club is rotten to the core and I'd much rather the Villa lads get on the United team bus instead.

Shite text
 

Dve

Full Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2019
Messages
2,898
This is a meaningless friendly, but United playing top class football but failing to score is becoming a trend.

Ighalo isn't truly good enough and he is only here until Christmas anyway. Striker wont be addressed this widow so we could end up short upfront this season.

Hopefully Rashford returns to top form, that would do a lot to solve this problem.
Elenga after christmas, perhaps.
 

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
If I remember rightly (because I was critical of both Rashford and Martial from a positioning point of view), he was doing the same sort of thing at the start of last season too... putting in excellent crosses that should have at least resulted in a shot on goal had our strikers been a little more on the ball. I'm hoping if he gets his chances, and provides decent delivery, with a re-energised Martial he might get a few more assists this season.

Seems like he might be that type of confidence player, someone who needs a few goals/assists under his belt to flourish.
To reference your username, a striker like Chicharito or Inzaghi would have bagged a ton of goals from James. And, correspondingly, James would have bagged a ton of assists from them.
 

0le

Full Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2017
Messages
5,806
Location
UK
This is a meaningless friendly, but United playing top class football but failing to score is becoming a trend.

Ighalo isn't truly good enough and he is only here until Christmas anyway. Striker wont be addressed this widow so we could end up short upfront this season.

Hopefully Rashford returns to top form, that would do a lot to solve this problem.
Interesting discussion. To be fair, a few years ago we were completely shit, so at least now we are playing some good football. Having someone like Greenwood and Martial in the side who are natural finishers, should be okay, provided we get Sancho this window.
 

bosnian_red

Worst scout to ever exist
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Messages
57,577
Location
Canada
This is a meaningless friendly, but United playing top class football but failing to score is becoming a trend.

Ighalo isn't truly good enough and he is only here until Christmas anyway. Striker wont be addressed this widow so we could end up short upfront this season.

Hopefully Rashford returns to top form, that would do a lot to solve this problem.
Teams go through good and bad finishing runs, both Martial and Greenwood are excellent finishers and are extremely clinical. Goals will come if you make the chances.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2017
Messages
2,271
Van De Beek really is such a smart player. The positions he takes up, the decision making, the weight of pass. One pass he made in the second half to Galbraith stood out. On the face of it, it was an absolute nothing pass. A literal 5 yarder under no pressure...but he just weighted it absolutely perfectly, placed it so that it was begging to be hit - which Galbraith did, and unfortunately just missed.

He'll add a lot in terms of being a 'glue' player that really raises the performances of the players around him and the team as a whole.

Thought Mengi and Shaw had good runouts too. Maguire and Rashford much, much less so; but it's all about minutes and fitness really. James somewhere in the middle - put in a couple of really testing crosses that were begging to be scored, but plenty of loose touches and poor decisions too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: roonster09

cyril C

Full Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
2,634
If we can't beat Villa in a friendly then how are we supposed to challenge for the league? I'm sorry but I'm now ole out. Disgraceful. It's embarrassing. We are Manchester United.
Here we go again. 1st game from the break, so you want to sack the manager and sell half of the squad...
 

SinNombre

Full Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2019
Messages
2,626
This is a meaningless friendly, but United playing top class football but failing to score is becoming a trend.

Ighalo isn't truly good enough and he is only here until Christmas anyway. Striker wont be addressed this widow so we could end up short upfront this season.

Hopefully Rashford returns to top form, that would do a lot to solve this problem.
I think the issue is lack of non-pen goals from the midfield and defense. And the lack of depth for us in attack if Martial, Rashford and Greenwood are missing their finishing boots.

Attackers at every club go through periods with poor finishing. None of our defenders ever score, and neither does our 6. Pogba as the deeper 8 hardly scores either.


Looking at the highlights, this was a decent outing for a friendly. We are still creating tonnes of chances, and the goal conceded came on a break after we should have won a penalty (and would have with VAR). With the first xi, would expect Martial/Greenwood and Bruno to score on a couple of the other chances.
 

AsonUnique

Full Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
178
Location
'merica
Good first half with several solid performances. Special mention to McTominay, Shaw and the forgotten man Fosu-Mensah. Could he actually be an option at center back?

McTominay´s absence in the second half was noticeable, as we lost a bit of control in the midfield. Galbraith looked not quite ready for this level.

van de Beek had a careful start of the game, but got better as the game went on. United´s best player in the second half.

James and Lingard did alright, but their lack of end product cost us the game in the end. Rashford still looking not at his best, and Maguire was pretty bad. Not much to applaud Dalot for either.

But why no Fred, Mata, Pereira or Bailly?
Could Pereira be on his way out? There were some rumors but it has gone quite. Smalling and Rojo have been training separately so I expect them to go soon. Wonder if Pereira would be next.
 

tjb

Full Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,309
Rashford played on the right today....that opens up a lot of options outside of Sancho
 

Class of 63

Sourness
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
9,028
Location
Going through the Desert on a Horse with no Name
I liked the 3rd kit shirt, it looked smart with the black shorts, though not sure how it will look with white shorts which is what we will normally see, unless the opposition wears white shorts obviously, and whilst the player name looked okay in Red I think the number should be in black.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
13,127
Supports
Erik ten Hag
Worth of watching the first half, we dominated it. But the 2nd half it wasn't worth watching and boring, although, Mengi was worth watching that 2nd half game. Mengi was very good when he came on.

Same of story, conceded from crossings.
 

nainaisson

Full Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2016
Messages
1,511
Location
Phantom Zone
If we can't beat Villa in a friendly then how are we supposed to challenge for the league? I'm sorry but I'm now ole out. Disgraceful. It's embarrassing. We are Manchester United.
I blame the zebra camouflage kits. How can you pass to a teammate if you can't be sure he isn't actually a zebra that just wandered onto the pitch?
 

Bondi77

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Messages
7,203
To reference your username, a striker like Chicharito or Inzaghi would have bagged a ton of goals from James. And, correspondingly, James would have bagged a ton of assists from them.
Exactly,
We could have the best winger and attacking fullbacks in the world but they would be a wasted on us as no one gets in the box to get on the end of anything.
 

Bebestation

Im a doctor btw, my IQ destroys yours
Joined
Oct 9, 2019
Messages
11,862
James doesnt actually look before he crosses. He just crosses as soon as he hits the touch line.

Run to the touchline looking at the ball and cross. Rinse and repeat. Will a poacher score from it? Sure sometimes - but that football has had it decade before this one.

He needs to becomes a wingback and replace Dalot if he is going to be here.
 

Strelok

New Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
5,279
Van De Beek and Shaw looking sharp, been some good link up between them as well
I don't know it's true or not but Shaw looked a lot fatter. Maybe because of the new zebra shirt. He looked pretty much like an overweight zebra tbh.