[vanderpants]

It's the same old problems. Can't play out from the back, can't deal with opposition pressing, don't pass the ball like a top sides, struggle to create chances from open play.

£120M of this summer's signings sat on the bench is just bizarre. Mctominay being dropped baffling. Why we signed VDB I've no idea.

i agree but Mctom has an injury according to ole

 

[Banana Republic]

The CB’s put under constant pressure because they had nothing in front of them and no help.
Fred all over the place, being brushed off the ball and swatted aside like an irritating bug.
Matic, slow and getting closed down, pressured and isolated out of the game.
Bruno, vanished in the 2nd half. Usually brilliant in our attacking moves, but cannot challenge, close down, press or tackle. In matches like this he turns into a weak lettuce and drifts out of the game.
That’s our midfield entirely nullified, with no chance of dominating or controlling the game.
Didn’t leave much for Greenwood and Sancho to work with.
Relegation battling teams often play better, even if their luck has run out.

 

[Raoul]

Also shows why Martial was up there. The ball kept coming back with Mason through the middle and we couldn’t get out

Agreed. Martial is generally anonymous, which makes it all the more annoying that he was there instead last week's formation.

 

[Josh 76]

Sick of supporting City to stop the scousers wining the league cause Utd have no chance.!

 

[georgieworst]

The fact that the alternatives are Martial and Dan James is enough reason for him to be starting, not to mention he needs the game time to get up to speed. You can’t expect him to light the place up from the get go coming off the bench in only his 2nd appearance in a new league.

Another year of substandard performances by playing staff and management ahead of us...rinse and repeat..Ole has got to be replaced.

 

[Swiss_Red89]

Rashford's decision making cost us again.

 

[I'm David Moyes damnit]

Obviously not a good performance, but also not the disaster that some will claim, as I expect terms like “disgusting”, “disgraceful” and “shocking” to inevitably start rolling in, as they do whenever we don’t win.

Truth is we should have been 1 or 2 goals to the good before Southampton scored, given their defence was clearly there for the taking.

However, after they scored they maintained excellent shape, and it became one of those congested away games where it was difficult for the better team to string lengthy moves together (though some of the passing clearly left a lot to be desired).

What today really showed the absolute necessity to buy a quality DM before the transfer window closes.

We shouldn’t have to play both Fred and McT as our central pairing yet do with our current options, as the backup (I.e. Matic, is demonstrably worse). Don’t think Fratic have ever played well together.

Can’t knock Fred too much today as he was basically playing CM on his own; the game was far too frantic for a well past his best Matic (again, not his fault, that’s just Father Time remaining undefeated).

Martial was dreadful, but starting him when he’s clearly nowhere near fit yet was a poor decision. Sancho should be ahead of him fitness wise yet didn’t get the nod, but even with his superior fitness he’s still looked well off the pace so far.

Varane will definitely start ahead of Lindelof now, Greenwood is looking like he’s shaping up to have his best season yet, Sancho will massively improve as he beds in, Rashford will be back within a couple of months and Cavani will play his part this season once he’s involved again.

Not a terrible result today, but we’ve been so spoiled by our away form over the last year that it’ll be the end of the world for some. With the crowds back now our away form will likely drop off whereas our home form will likely pick up considerably.

Not much to worry about really, except for the glaring DM problem.

 

[Lightbringer]

Still have not replaced Scholes darn it!

 

[georgieworst]

Sick of supporting City to stop the scousers wining the league cause Utd have no chance.!

That's about the size of it.

 

[Fanta Stick]

Van de Beek just spotted hailing a taxi for the airport.

 

[Bilbo]

Mixed feelings. A point at Soton is never a disaster given that we never seem to turn up there, but a little frustrating that we fizzled out in the last 20. The team looked tired at that point, and we struggled to deal with the physicality of a fresher team for a lot of the game.

See you all on Thursday when all the ninnies have calmed down

 

[Dare to Zlatan]

Cannot understand how martial was considered fitter then Sancho to start this game? absolutely baffling decision by ole.

 

[midou]

Pathetic midfield performance, and it is not the Glazers who pick this shite team. Donny, Sancho and Varane on the bench... you are having a laugh, Ole.

Lingard should not even be in Utd and he is our ace sub.

Donny should just put in a transfer request, he is better than all of Fred, Matic, McTominay, Lingard.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Last time VDB played (pre-season vs. Everton) he had an impressive game. Good performances are rewarded with minutes, right? right? zero minutes in either pre-season or regular season since that great game. What is it that we're telling players in this team, that good performances aren't meritorious for more minutes? VDB, for all his deficiencies in previous seasons, has started this pre-season off well, and coupled with his improvement in his strength and physique, really ought to have been given the minutes today?

There's no other way about it. If you say that him playing badly is why he's not playing then you have to account for this in light of his last game being a very good one. What is it? Did he play good, or bad? if bad, then fine, he doesn't play; but if he played well, which he did, then there's zero reason to not sub him in a game such as this when the game suits him.

 

[freddie the red]

Matic and Fred. Lidl levels of midfield.

It happens Aldi time

 

[Lay]

Midfield was meh

 

[Jericholyte2]

I actually think the bigger problem is utilizing our forwards better. Like, there are plenty of PL teams in history that have had great forward lines and a leaky back. Sometimes they didn’t win shit.

We’re in a situation where our forwards just don’t combine in good, interesting and productive ways consistently and it’s a relatively bigger problem

I can appreciate and acknowledge the forward line wasn't good enough either, but we were steadily in control, then lost that momentum at about 70 mins in and never really recovered it.

We didn't have anyone to quickly break their posession and quickly release it back to our creative players.

Might be different when Varane starts but it's still a glaring weakness in our squad.

 

[Dolf]

Same 11 as last match and we would have won, despite everyone calling for James to be replaced

 

[Raoul]

Why did Ole fiddle with last week's lineup that delivered 5 goals ?

 

[LuisNaniencia]

Given City lost to a poor Spurs team on day 1 then I guess we have written them off already as well then. This place never fails to amaze me!!

Do you realise how strong the league is this year? City have improved, Liverpool back to full strength and Chelsea now have a striker. We cannot afford to drop points to Southampton, let alone so early.

 

[2 man midfield]

When a team as naive as Leeds come at us gung-ho, we’re allowed the time and space to pick them off and make things very easy for ourselves. But when a team like Southampton get amongst us and restrict that space, we don’t have the technical ability to play out of it. It’s no coincidence Pogba was the only one who had a good game, since he’s the only one able to play his way out of it. Everyone else just panics and fires the ball out play.

When that’s the case it’s no wonder we couldn’t get any rhythm or momentum. We needed that physical presence on the field, that Cavani would have offered. Martial, Wan Bissaka and Fred don’t cut it in these games, which will come around often in this league.

 

[SER19]

Could have been a game in any of the last 5 seasons. This squad has more in it. Lingard coming on for matic is among the low points post Ferguson

 

[UDontMessWith24]

"We created enough chances to win" is right up there with "we were never going to win the title anyway" in terms of soft excuses that no professional footballer or manager would dare utter. Maybe this is a one off, but work rate and focus just vanishing out of nowhere for long periods has plagued sides fielded by this manager every season since he took over. The last 4 champions of this league won the league because more often than not they pushed on and created MORE chances in matches like this.

 

[Rightnr]

What do people expect? We need more investment. Even Pep and Klopp won't get top 4 with this team. We've barely bought anyone.


/s for the those that take this seriously obviously

 

[manichester]

We are a season behind with transfers, should have signed a centre back and right winger last season. Our failure to sort out the midfield will cost us this season and we will have a poor transfer window next season.

 

[sp_107]

It's the same old problems. Can't play out from the back, can't deal with opposition pressing, don't pass the ball like a top sides, struggle to create chances from open play.

£120M of this summer's signings sat on the bench is just bizarre. Mctominay being dropped baffling. Why we signed VDB I've no idea.

Summed up todays problem really well. We were too slow in the buildup and stuggled against pressing team.

Looks like we still need a proper DM

 

[Hugh Jass]

Its worrying. Reminded me or villareal all over again. With the players we have, this should be a comfortable 3-0 win.

A good bet would be that we go trophyless again this year IMO.

 

[gearoid]

Far too many sloppy performances all over the park (with the exception of Pogba). The inability of some of our players to make simple passes is infuriating and leaving VdB on the bench is a real headscratcher.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

I can't believe how awful the last 20 odd minutes were. They were there for the taking and we completely just took our foot off the gas and just let the game slip away to the point we probably should have lost. Shocking performance to be honest.

About 25 minutes to go Bruno started walking with the ball and I thought that was a bad sign.

Like you said, the last 20 minutes were so bad when the whistle went I was actually relieved to at least get a point.

 

[yipthatman]

That Mctominay cross across the box and no-one was there said it all really. Only second game and 4 points and an intact record. Anyone know why Varane didnt play?

 

[RedBanker]

Still have not replaced Scholes darn it!

And Rooney
And Ronaldo
And RVP
And RVN...

you can continue the list but the fact is we have forgotten what it is to win. We are okay with draws and losses. The attitude of the players today especially during the last 10 mins when a team which is supposed to be a title challenger should attack with a battering ram tells the story.

 

[RepardReece]

Summed up todays problem really well. We were too slow in the buildup and stuggled against pressing team.

Looks like we still need a proper DM

A proper DM and no Martial up front. Always seem to struggle that little bit more whenever he plays. Ideal scenario.

 

[mitchmouse]

Pretty appalling - don't care what people say but there's been no progression. same old problems. We barely created anything and yet again when Bruno fails to spark, we look nothing but ordinary.

Pogba easily man of the match (and I'm no his greatest fan) but even he rarely got people in on goal.

Ole's selection was a joke and everyone know we were 3-4 players shot last year and we haven't bought that number. As for those we did buy, we never got Jadon into the game and that's because the midfield isn't strong enough to boss things against a very very plain opposition. We still need a creative midfielder and probably another defensive one plus the sort of guy up front who scores out of nowhere - even the goal we got was scrappy.

In addition to all that, Maguire was awful. Lindelof way better of the two - and not for the first time. And that really has to be the last time Martial is allowed ot wear a United shirt. Not even close to being good enough and look totally disinterested

 

[MadDogg]

Matic, Martial, Pogba and Greenwood. It's stupid to have four of our front six be players who tend to slow play down on and especially off the ball. It ends up being Bruno and Fred the only ones trying to force the issue and win the ball back. We can handle one, two or maybe even three of those players starting, but four? Just no. Even if they have decent games on the individual level (as Pogba and Greenwood arguably did), the team as a whole won't work.

He didn't have a good match, but it was noticeable that the instant Fred came off Southampton just controlled the game as the rest of our players couldn't win the ball back. That's partly a statement on Fred, but mostly it's a statement on the other players.

Matic had a good preseason but he should never start another match unless it's an early cup game against minnows. The coaching staff must have had a word at halftime as it was noticeable he was staying more in midfield in the second half and we looked a bit better (until the afore-mentioned Fred sub), but that first half was one of the most disgraceful 'midfield' performances I've seen.

 

[Sandikan]

City started with a defeat, so we're still ahead of them.
But the league has long moved on from the days you can win it, while still losing 6 games and drawing loads.

We need to get Varane and Sancho in the line-up straight away now.

 

[Neo_Mufc]

Average performance, not good enough.

 

[Manny]

The arrogance to just assume the second goal was coming...

A lot the issues from last season are still there. Wayward passing in midfield, getting outmuscled, sloppiness at the back etc. Plus just a general inability to get the job done.
We are going to struggle with a challenge if we have to rely on the likes of Martial, DDG, Lindelof or Fred.

And whoever thought those yellow shorts were ok, needs to be fired.

 

[Noc-Z]

Pogba isn't a winger and the 2 behind Bruno are not effective....we need a fixed CDM so we can play Bruno and Pogba ahead of them. With a proper CDM we don't have to play 2 of McT, Fred and Matic. Martial is nowhere near enough to be our main man up top....I personally don't think he's good enough to be anywhere near our starting 11 but that's a bigger issue, he just doesn't have the engine or the drive.

When Cavani isn't an option Greenwood should be striker. Then Sancho and another on the wing. Martial I suppose if we have to, rashford when he's available. I dont think either are good enough so honestly we still need another winger. And a striker in a years time.

De Gea isn't good enough, Henderson isn't good enough.

Maguire can be good but not totally reliable get Varane in and see if that improves things.

I've been supportive of Ole all along but today I think I'm done. 2nd game of the season and he is getting so much wrong.

 

[UDontMessWith24]

It seems we are not allowed to play badly or draw away nowadays. We drew (and lost) many games like this under Sir Alex too…..

Its the second game of the season. If we win the next game and I told you before the start of the campaign that we’d win two and draw one, most would take that in a heartbeat.

We can’t start reacting this badly to a bad performance before there becomes a trend and at two games, we don’t know if this is gonna be the norm or just a blip down to still finding our legs/form.

let’s not forget that fans are going to make away games harder this season too. 1-1 isn’t a bad result considering our performance. Varane, Cavani and Rashford to come back in and hopefully Sancho starts producing when he’s up to fitness.

There's already a trend it's been going on for the better part of three seasons.

 

[MattofManchester]

Nevermind the midfield, we don't concede if our defenders don't proceed to act moronic for an entire game. Maguire the biggest culprit.

However, we're not winning any kind of title with our tame midfield.