Manchester United 1:2 Crystal Palace

Wrong lineup, poor tactics, some seriously bad luck and absolutely horrendous refereeing. Don't want to sound like we lost this because of the inept ref, but that guy should get some prison time for that shiitshow.

The end of last season, endless media speculation surrounding transfers and a little bit of summer sunshine and it helps to erase how crap we were at the end of last season.

This Palace game reminds me somewhat of the Cardiff match.

I keep falling to the trap of believing we are into a full scale rebuild as OGS keeps reminding us yet I can't square the fact that even DURING a rebuild we should be capable of beating teams like Wolves and Palace.

Anyone who seriously thinks we are getting top 4 this season is delusional. Although our defence is stronger that is mitigated by the fact that Mcguire only signed right at the end of the transfer window so no time at all to integrate him and bed our defence down. Our midfield is weaker than last season and so is our attack.

I predict we'd be lucky to make Europa League qualification and if confidence drops then we'll be a lower league side.

I just watched the game and we can pass blame on the players but we have to realize at the end of the day, the entire foundation up to the crest of the empire is broken [manager - to - CEO]. We cannot rely on Paul Pogba to be our single creative talent and then put him in a CDM position while allowing Lingard to play in the #10 role. That is the managers fault. The roles in this case would have been better off reversed. The midfield and #10 role are crucial but at the same time, how many crosses from the wings did we see. Less than 5 probably; why? lack of creativity. Rashford needs to be grounded but anyone saying Martial had a terrible game...please consider his role. He is a #9 and feeds off the creativity from others and cannot be expected to come out and get the ball to then penetrate an entire team logging in defense.

So the lack of creativity is why we lost and the absence of a true captain on the field is why we bottle things up after conceding a goal. Losing faith here as it has been almost 7 years since Fergie left and he was still able to crack out wins and a #2 spot (barely won by ManCity) with poor players and few retired ones.

Sign a striker to replace Lukaku? No

Sign a midfielded to play with Pogba and McTominay? No

Sign a number 10? No

Surprised with 4 points from 3 games? No

AndersB said:

How does one find the post match thread when logged in? For some reason it only appears when I am not.

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You're literally posting in it.

Are you Jesse Lingard?

Why would VAR not give a pen for that foul on Martial? Seemed obviois to me. Similar incidents in Chelsea game too. I dont get it.

We are a 6th-7th placed team who retained our aged players while letting a midfielder and striker go without replacements.
These kind of results match our ambitions

Irwin99 said:

Pogba and Mctom combo are not the answer in midfield. Greenwood is not ready. Lingard was horrendous again.

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There were many posters on here saying they didn't want to sign a striker like Mandzukic (spell?) or that they'd rather get rid of Lukaku and Sanchez so that none of them could take mintues from Greenwood.

Being a backup striker at United is not a role that you'd have a kid assume. He could/should be 4th or 5th choice.

Need a number 10, another winger, midfielder, and a CB who can fecking win headers besides the other one starting.

JJ12 said:

Yeah all those great players we sold....

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We had similar games last season and Lukaku coming off the bench was the difference between ending the game with no points or at least one. That's why I didn't want us to sell him. The same goes for Fellaini.

MattyB1986 said:

Bang average. But we never invested enough in midfield, no creativity. And de Gea with another brain fart of a mistake.

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Hardly true. We have one of the best midfielders in the game in Pogba and in Sanchez one if the best paid. Can't say we have not invested.

el3mel said:

Yeah since then we have been selling players without replacing them. Sell Fellaini, sell Herrera, sell Lukaku and then replace them with no one but fans will be happy because oh Fellaini and Lukaku play ugly football so we can sell them without replacing them at all. This is on Woodward. We should have got a creative midfielder and a striker in summer after selling those players, because whatever we like or hate them, they were options from the bench at least.

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Indeed. That was utterly irresponsible by us.

There were time when we would bring Lukaku or Fellaini on. Other times, we would start with them, but bring Martial/Rashford, etc. Now?

Embarrassing home defeat against a team that hadn't won or scored a goal coming into today's game.

The defeat for me is more on the players heads than management IMO as even with the tea lady in charge the players should be able to beat Palace at home.


The number one problem with this United team nowadays is the lack leaders or dare i say none at all in that team. Palace to be fair to them had organised defence but they were rarely trouble because United have little creativity in the middle of the park. The defending for both goals was shocking, last season repeated. Lindelof should have done better on the first goal and DeGea awful as he basically gifted the winner to Palace.

Another missed penalty Rashford this time, why wasn't the Martial incident reviewed? looked like a penalty to me. Its going to be a long season and to be honest hard to trust this group of United players finishing the season any higher than last season.

Anderley said:

Brave being positive in this thread

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Because I don't have high expectations as I know that we are not good enough, we need at least 3 players who would be starters and I don't know why anyone would expect us to be really good. But this game wasn't so bad, especially 2nd half. It just didn't go our way (yes, there were mistakes, like Lingard staying on for that long and I think that Lindelof should be dropped for Smalling, but fine, but we still should have won this game concidering what happend on the pitch).

SGA said:

We had 3 shots on target. What a disgrace.

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Criminal. Absolutely criminal. Against a team like Crystal palace

Sir Scott McToMinay said:

Lingard hasn’t scored a goal in what, half a year? probably well over that, that’s Man United’s starting no.10 for you.
We can’t possibly be playing a defensive no.10 week in week out, absolutely nothing player, might as well play Fred in there.

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Lingard is a headless chicken who made us play with 10 men. We should have put Andreas in his place.

Same story every year, we refuse to buy a right winger while we spend 50m on a right back at doesn't cross frequently or well. We apply the same to the left with Shaw. All fans see the problem with this team and yet the coaches at Utd fail to recognise it. Why?! Alex, come out of retirement and tell them that football is easy. Don't overthink it.

The optimism is the killer

Was hopeful of a top 4 push leading into the season especially after the Chelsea game.

Truth is we’ve won 3 in 15 games and have had a poor summer recruiting.

Another shit season coming, I feel like having a football blackout for a couple of months.

De Gea blunder then laughs with the Palace keeper at the end of the game, taking the biscuit that guy.

Horrendous performance from us and the referee.

Shocking result and performance wasn’t any better. We had a lot of the ball, had some chances, some free kicks but ultimately we weren’t good enough.

Palace are going to be one of maybe 9 or 10 teams that are going to sit back, defend, break up play, time waste etc. You have to break down these teams, we failed the test today.

Few other points. Rashford was the wrong penalty taker, after the debacle against Wolves it was the perfect chance to give it to Pogba again, the whole push to give it to Rashford set him up for the fall, especially since he had a bad game. We also showed our immaturity today, the younger players were frustrated after going 1 down when we needed a calm head. For example, Rashford played okay prior to goal but couldn’t make the right call in second half when he was under pressure.

Zebs said:

You're literally posting in it.

Are you Jesse Lingard?

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I logged out in order to find it, then logged in again, so that I could post this question.

But thanks mate. At least you got the chance to do some subtle Lingard bashing. Nothing gets the blood flowing quite as much

MrSingh2002 said:

Sign a striker to replace Lukaku? No

Sign a midfielded to play with Pogba and McTominay? No

Sign a number 10? No

Surprised with 4 points from 3 games? No

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I'm still surprised we beat Chelsea.

This shit show is on the board, we actually weakened areas over the summer that needed to be improved.

People seem to be overlooking the run we are on. Last season ended with 2 wins 2 draws and 8 fecking defeats in final 12 games. We have already lost again and only won once. Why will we all of a sudden improve just because we have some better defenders. Any defense will concede if the midfield and attack are so poor. We did not strengthen, we actually made our team worse and we will pay a heavy price.
Ole, I’m 100% certain will be gone end of the season and the mess will continue.

Raoul said:

Dropping 3 points due to pissed penalties is unexpected

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True especially in the Wolves game but we shouldn’t be relying on pens against Palace at home.

Solid back four now, right?

Fracture90 said:

Wrong lineup, poor tactics, some seriously bad luck and absolutely horrendous refereeing. Don't want to sound like we lost this because of the inept ref, but that guy should get some prison time for that shiitshow.

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Honestly well summed up pal . It's going to be another loan depressing season at OT

A performance from 2015 December. Also recalled the West Brom at home in Moyes season in which Berahino scored. Absolutely shambolic.

For all the possesion we had, we didn't have anything to show for it. We created next to nothing other than a penalty and useless attempts from Rashford. James scored but he looks like a kid playing senior football. Always on the floor and not because he's kicked or something. It's because he's physically weak. He's at the same age of Rashford, AWB but he's too frail.

If we had this performance under Van Gaal or Mourinho they'd get crucified. Well done to Palace defending very well. They deserve to win that. I'm sure Mourinho would love that performance and is having a good laugh somewhere right now.

Also well done to Lindelöf losing the ball in the air to a guy who is 10 cms shorter than him. I said in another thread that playing with Lindelöf - Maguire in a high line is too risky and it showed today. We could've played with Smalling instead of Lindelöf and not concede that goal and maybe the second one. Also lose nothing in possesion because he did nothing either. People saying this is a solid back 4 but I don't see it myself. Our right & left backs are good but CBs especially Lindelöf is suspect as ever.

Can't believe we're actually looking to 17 years old's feet to save us now. Please don't tell me Sanchez is worse than this shower of shit. It's too arrogant and far from the truth. People probably will blame De Gea but this is not on him. We lack a plan in attack and Palace punished us on the counter like a good coached side would do in a pragmatic way. Ole will not make it here. He's out of his depth.

OneUnited24 said:

Horrible game. we really need Pogba further forward, there is no creativity without him.

Also Play Fred deeper, start with Gomes or mata. Do anything but for the love of god drop Lingard.

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Agree with you on this. Lingard is rubbish plain and simple. Would rather Fred and Mctominay sit back with Pogba in the hole.

Has been a dreadful result,however if Liverpool or Arsenal win it's a catastrophic one.

Nou_Camp99 said:

Cursed or just have a really shit team? I'm going for the latter.

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We clearly aren’t but individual errors keep messing us up. We never seem to raise our level against the lower teams until it’s too late.

We desperately need a 10 that can control the ball and thread clever passes, no surprise we looked no better after Lingard went off.

JonDahl said:

3 wins in 15...

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How so?

For the first time i'm starting to wonder if Ole is out of his depth here.
Sure we've caught some bad luck here and there last two games but our attacking play is abysmal. Our build up is so slow.
Mctominay is useless so far back. Comes alive when he joins attack.
Lingard adds nothing against teams that defends deep.
James and Rashfords decisionmaking have been poor last two games.
Lindelöf has had a slow start, Smalling, Jones and Tuanzebe must all be close to start next game.

At least we have a really young team and should improve during the season.

Pogba was absolutely shite people will defend him no matter what, our 90 million pound midfielder. Pogba fans instead of United fans would rather blame a bunch of kids.

Well that was fairly Poor..The same issues over and over again.
No one to take a quality set piece..I mean i can't remember the last time i saw a quality set piece from United.
No leadership. McGuire was for me showing some sort of leadership but other than that nothing.
Defensive frailties.Still there. No Midfield to cover the defence is our main issue.Everytime we play a team
that sits back it just takes them one attack of no great quality to cause problems.
Weak management. Shaw Get off your injured..Playing Lingard.Why he doesn't do anything..Weak
Too much dilly dalling on the ball.. Pogba,etc etc all think they have time,they do not.
No Guile..No creativity.No inspiration.
Too much emphasis on youth,too many young players. Greenwood came on for example.What is he 17?Did he touch the ball?Too many young players that aren't currently good enough.?
Old Trafford Crowd. Another big issue..Like playing in a Library..Get behind the team.I know its hard but it has to be done.The away fans do it?

Alabaster Codify7 said:

Our form since the end of last season is relegation form. Fans felt a summer pre-season would iron out the creases and we'd hit the ground running. Well guess what, same shit different season - same fecking personnel.

Want to know why we seem like mid-table fodder most of the time? Below are some regular starting 11 names:

Luke Shaw
Victor Lindelof
Scott McTominay
Jesse Lingard
Daniel James (sorry kid, at present you are a mid-table standard winger - that might not always be the case)

MANAGER: - Ole Gunnar Solksjaer


When 50% of your starting 11 and your manager would not be out of place at West Ham United or similar, you should not expect anything more than WHU standard performances and results. I say that as WHU win 1-3 away from home today but you get my sentiment.

When your substitute bench contains:

Juan Mata
Ashley Young
Nemanja Matic

And 17 yr old kid who is supposed to be a major game-changer.

I don't know what to tell you.

This is a mid-table squad, managed by a mid-table manager.

Strap in and be prepared to finish 8th.

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Fully agreed. We will finish top 8, maybe reach quarter final of the Europa League.

RedDevil@84 said:

We are a 6th-7th placed team who retained our aged players while letting a midfielder and striker go without replacements.
These kind of results match our ambitions

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Exactly.. Bet Lukaku is p*ssing himself, first time in my life I've been fed up with what united are dishing up. Absolutely shocking today.

thesheriffjw said:

Until Pogba stops doing all the drag bags in his own half, i cannot see how can play in the deeper roll.

He loses possession more times than the rest of the team together.

Possession does not win games, its goals.

Its going to be a rollercoaster of a season if teams like palace can win at OT

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He wasn't in his own half he was half way into the opponents half.

3 shots AT OLD TRAFFORD against a Palace side who have looked pretty woeful. Was struck for the whole match how much it looked like an away game.

We're fecked this season. 7th would be good finish at the standard we showed today. Abysmal.

But then what do you expect relying on utter shite like Lingard and basing your profile on English lads who can 'run about a bit', with a manager with all the tactical knowledge of an ex footballer who's had a few goes on football manager 2015. Oh wait.

Not really surprised by this. I couldn't see us scoring enough this season with these players and we're already conceding too many. It will only get harder next week with a 12-30 k.o away at Soton then a 2 week break while Pogba puts in another transfer request. This is gonna be one hell of a miserable season and if Solskjaer is still here at the end of it I'll be amazed.