[Annihilate Now!]

There's bad performances and off days but that was genuinely embarrassing.

Haven't seen anything as inept as that possibly since Moyes. Maybe under Jose but only after he was basically trying to get sacked.

Looked like we'd never had a single training session

Yeah struggling to think when we last that inept, especially with the quality we had on the pitch.

Villa were rubbish and beat us.

 

[NK86]

Nothing to do with tactics. Just on a Straight player swap with lindelof even with the same tactics we look worse at the back

We were as bad with our full strength first team as well. I really think it's futile discussing anything when people cannot see the obvious.

 

[Withnail]

The Villa goal is schoolboy defending from Pogba.

Cavani's man scored direct from the corner. What was Pogba supposed to be doing?

 

[evil_geko]

On your high horse as well. Such an advanced thinker. I'm in awe

No horses here, never rode one, maybe on my bicycle, but it's not very high.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

There's bad performances and off days but that was genuinely embarrassing.

Haven't seen anything as inept as that possibly since Moyes. Maybe under Jose but only after he was basically trying to get sacked.

Looked like we'd never had a single training session

It is when people keep saying it's an off day or it's one of those days. You only say that when it is a rare. This is not that rare. As someone said the performances are not starting to catch up with the results.

 

[Withnail]

United better get Conte in asap. Ole is clearly cracking under pressure and is now just like a rabbit in the headlights. And now claiming the Villa goal was offside!

The commentators also pointed out that a Villa player in an offside position may have been in De Gea's eye line.

I haven't seen a proper replay to judge.

 

[Ceteris]

MU TV throws Ole a soft ball question "they were set up to frustrate us today" and the he jumps on it beaming yea we 30 efforts and most of them were blocked. PANTS
Villa had a proper go at us today, they didn't pack the bus and nicked a goal, nope they had all the better scoring opportunities.

You have Ronaldo in your team and can't even create one chance for him in a game? Are you mad?

He's gotta go, he studied us, got us a decent squad and rid us of some deadwood. His job is done, if the owners have any ambition on the pitch then Ole should be gone before Monday.

And someone have a word with Greenwood please, pass the fecking ball when it's necessary. First half if he passes to Bruno he scores then it's a different game.

 

[OrcaFat]

And? Do you expect every win to be an amazing performance? That's never the case, for anyone.

If you sincerely believe what you've seen from this team over the past couple of seasons to be utter shit, that's.....just not reasonable, sorry. It isn't. Not the results, and not the football. You're going to continue to be disappointed, with this manager or the next.

I agree with you.

It gets demoralising when the team isn’t firing and a few results go bad but it was ever thus, even in the days when we won more titles than we lost.

 

[UDontMessWith24]

Im not offering excuses, these things happened and were beyond the managers control. Villa played out of their skins and deserved a point at the very least. At times like this you hope your "big guns" will perform, today, not for the first time, too many of ours didnt; even Bruno who normally is an absolute shoe in to score a penalty, today blasted his kick over the bar; when did that ever happen before? Greenwood seemed to think he had to score to the detriment of others in better positions who might well have scored if he had passed to them; Pogbas ball control and passing was poor and Ronaldo wasnt getting the ball in positions where he could go on and score. Too many players not playing or being allowed to play at their best; should Ole dump them all for the next game, or persevere in the hope that, even though they will have off days, they dont all have them at the same time? Ive said before that if at the end of this season we have still not won a major trophy or at the very least finished a close 2nd in the Prem and reach the final of the CL and/or the FA Cup, Ole should resign; its only September, he deserves the chance to see if he can take the team he has built further; or not. I believe he can.

How convenient. We weren’t playing as a team period, and underperforming players are a direct result of that. Cohesion and energy are things a manager should be able to influence.

 

[Handsome Devil]

I wonder what an Ole sack poll would show now. Probably still 51/49 for or against or something close. Nothing will change in the foreseeable anyhow so expect many more "bad days at the office."

 

[Withnail]

No horses here, never rode one, maybe on my bicycle, but it's not very high.

Not as advanced as previously suspected

 

[yumtum]

schadenfreude.

I was only my girlfriends phone when I posted that...

 

[Juansar_07]

One can say we were still decent in the first half, although Villa could be leading.
But seriously what happened to us in the initial minutes of the second half? We looked utterly disjointed, clueless, partly dejected and actually felt like we wanted Villa to have more of the ball, control the game and hit them on the counter the way we usually cherish. All this with our strongest possible lineup and most of them with adequate break. One could've presaged the outcome in those moments.

A better team won and we need to sort this out by winning against Villarreal, that too with a makeshift back line. Losing points there will severely hamper our chances to progress.

 

[wise_old_man]

For the first time I have to say I am off the Olé bus. I have no idea what's been going on, against Young Boys, West Ham and now Aston Villa. I cannot see any sort of game plan here, any setup or system. It just looks like lethargic, asleep at the wheel football. Look at the squad we have. The talent that's there, and it's not being utilised to its full potential. That's on the manager and the coaching staff.

I've backed Ole these last seasons, but this is now starting to genuinely concern me.

It has concerned people for quite a long time, though.

 

[Mickeza]

It shouldn’t if the players buy in to a concise, well drilled attacking game plan that they execute with confidence. It’s a byproduct of for the most part everyone just doing their own thing in attack

It’s a byproduct of having very individual players. That’s the thing those who keep banging on about coaching are missing. Ronaldo and Greenwood are going to shoot any chance they get and no amount of “coaching drills” will change that - it’s who they are. Bruno is going to play the risky pass - it’s who he is. Ditto Pogba. More often than not it will work - we will score goals - today it didn’t.

 

[Suedesi]

Well, that was a bit shit

 

[RedSky]

It's such a bad result when you put the context of the next two month of fixtures into the equation. We really couldn't afford to drop points today. Let alone lose.

 

[evil_geko]

Not as advanced as previously suspected

You really are "Black and White Andy".

 

[Withnail]

You really are "Black and White Andy".

No idea what that means but your bike joke was lame is what I meant if you need it spelled out. Good luck

 

[RoyH1]

That was plain awful. When none of the opposite team would get into your first XI on paper and still beat you, then you know you had a bad, bad game.

 

[VivaUnited21]

It is when people keep saying it's an off day or it's one of those days. You only say that when it is a rare. This is not that rare. As someone said the performances are not starting to catch up with the results.

Yeah this result has been coming for some time now, our performances have been so dis-jointed since the Leeds game. We deserved that today.

 

[HerbT]

I over-optimistically assumed it would be obvious that I was referring to the Premier League.

I understood that was likely your intention but you very clearly referred to your last 5 games and that put a much different spin on the results you were claiming.

 

[OrcaFat]

Yeah struggling to think when we last that inept, especially with the quality we had on the pitch.

Villa were rubbish and beat us.

We made them look rubbish but they are actually a good side. A team like that can always beat you if you’re not at it.

 

[Hugh Jass]

You have to be at it 100%. With us some days we are up for it psychologically and then other days we cannot be bothered. You have to be at 100% every match.

 

[largelyworried]

It’s a byproduct of having very individual players. That’s the thing those who keep banging on about coaching are missing. Ronaldo and Greenwood are going to shoot any chance they get and no amount of “coaching drills” will change that - it’s who they are. Bruno is going to play the risky pass - it’s who he is. Ditto Pogba. More often than not it will work - we will score goals - today it didn’t.

I don't personally agree, but even if you accept that what you say is true - why build a team like that?

 

[DomesticTadpole]

You have to be at it 100%. With us some days we are up for it psychologically and then other days we cannot be bothered. You have to be at 100% every match.

Surely if it keeps happening that is lack of mental preparation, maybe should be putting some focus on that as well. You can run around all you like on training pitch, but if your head isn't there it means feck all.

 

[Mr Anderson]

Same issues the last 3 years. Can’t break down the opposition. Too slow build up play. Get pressed and shit the pants.

Rinse and repeat. Can’t beat anyone unless we can’t counter

 

[SirScholes]

That was plain awful. When none of the opposite team would get into your first XI on paper and still beat you, then you know you had a bad, bad game.

McGinn gets in for me but that’s it

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Same issues the last 3 years. Can’t break down the opposition. Too slow build up play. Get pressed and shit the pants.

Rinse and repeat. Can’t beat anyone unless we can’t counter

Then that is up to the manager and coaches to sort out. They obviously don't think it is a problem, but it is becoming a big one.

 

[space]

Meh typical Ole performance

 

[noodlehair]

It is when people keep saying it's an off day or it's one of those days. You only say that when it is a rare. This is not that rare. As someone said the performances are not starting to catch up with the results.

We've only played well against Leeds so far for me...and it's not like most of the other performances have been just ok. One or two have but they've mostly been rubbish and tactically we've been shocking. Half our team at one end of the pitch and half at the other and no plan to actually control the game.

Should have lost comfortably to Wolves and lucky to beat west ham...and this is an "easy" start to the season supposedly

 

[Hugh Jass]

Surely if it keeps happening that is lack of mental preparation, maybe should be putting some focus on that as well. You can run around all you like on training pitch, but if your head isn't there it means feck all.

It is down the manager to motivate. The Europa final is another example where coming into the match we had just been labouring through games and were not at 100%. Thus we were shit in the final.

 

[justsomebloke]

You simply cannot keep putting out poor performances and expect to get away with it. I think as fans collectively we've been guilty of thinking that a performance is good as long as the result is good, but today reminded us this isn't the case. Good results follow good performances. If you play badly, you get caught out, even if it won't happen every week.

Same flaws on show again today. No plan. No game management. No control. Just look for our main guys to show their individual talent to make a chance, then let our finishers do the rest. And all too easy to disrupt by a competent tactical manager with a team of willing players. The idea that adding Ronaldo and Varane would make us better at both ends was always fanciful. Good teams aren't just a collection of good individuals.

So far we've played 8 games this season. We've had 1 excellent performance (Leeds), 2 decent performances (Newcastle, West Ham league) and 5 that were various forms of poor (Southampton, Wolves, Young Boys, West Ham cup, Villa). The league position so far has been a fig leaf covering up the fact that we've started this season poorly.

Nothing I've seen so far makes me think we're a realistic challenger in the league. Clearly, you don't just infer that from the maths of the situation, even if 5 points dropped in 6 league games is bad. But the simple fact is that we look no better this season than last season, while all our competitors have gotten better. The fact that we look no better despite a demonstrably better squad looks bad for the manager.

This season is panning out as I feared it would. I totally expect to win our next game and then go on a decent run during that tough set of fixtures, that's been typical of Ole's tenure. But the consistency of performance has eluded him almost since the start and so far this season nothing has changed. He hasn't shown any signs of going up a level this year. I think he's at his ceiling and what we have now from Ole is what we'll always get.

I think you negatively exaggerate our performances against Newcastle, Southampton and today a bit, and I certainly don't agree with your last sentence. But otherwise there are some good points here. We have clearly not yet achieved the levelling-up we should, and that we'll need to be credibly on par with the other big 3. Something is not right with the shape and coherence of our attacking game, and it's not that the coaching is inherently unable to get that right, because we've looked better than this in the past. But with major new pieces like Ronaldo and Sancho (and Rashford missing, which also impact quite a lot on that), there's an adjustment to make and we don't seem to have made it.

 

[firstkuyttouch]

Two freak injuries to two key players leading to them being substituted; a Villa goal from a corner which wasnt a corner; a penaty denied when Maguire was fouled; Bruno missing the target like he did from a penalty and numerous near misses from Greenwood, Pogba and Bruno. All that and too many players not on song, giving the ball away, miscontrolling it etc. How can any manager be blamed after a match like that?

I think I’m in love with you

 

[Litch]

But he's a club legend?

 

[TwoSheds]

Cavani's man scored direct from the corner. What was Pogba supposed to be doing?

If you're the man on the post there's only two situations where you're supposed to leave that post. First is when the ball's cleared, second is if you're going to go and attack the ball. Pogba leaves the post to stand somewhere near an opposition player and the ball whistles straight past where he'd previously been and into the net.

Its basic stuff.

 

[GMoore23]

2 more home games before the break and I want to see VDB given a chance next to McTominay.
Fred shouldn't be needed unless we're up against one of the top 6. All he's good at is running. He has seriously regressed again.

 

[ghagua]

No individual brilliance, no goal, hence no points. Terrible coaching, terrible management. 3 losses out of 4 matches while playing football that is at the level of what we played under Marueen.

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

No excuses for today.

I was as unhappy when the score was 0-0 as I was when they were winning 0-1.

How long can we blame individual performances for poor results?

Teams seem to have worked out how to stifle us. High press our defenders and McFred and we simply cannot cope.

Forget comparing us with City, Liverpool, Chelsea etc. We are being outplayed and out thought by the Aston Villa's of this world...................on a regular basis!

Either OGS needs to change the tactics or he needs to go

 

[Devil may care]

It wasn't much different to the games we've won, our style of play is primitive and today we didn't get a piece of individual star magic to dig us out, Aston villa didn't play extraordinary, they just pressed us and worked hard, it was basic shit that we failed to deal with.