Manchester United 1:0 Leicester City

Lentwood · Sep 16, 2019

minh_loc_xoay said:
It's a disastrous start if you consider our next fixtures. We practically wasted a very kind opening rounds of matches.

How were they kind? Chelsea, Wolves and Leicester will all likely finish top half - obviously the disappointments where the Palace and Southampton results but there's not as big a gap between 3rd-20th as there used to be.

I would take the results/performances against Leicester and Wolves as the best measure of where we are as a team. Better than those two sides but not by a great deal!

Member 113277 · Sep 16, 2019

Lentwood said:
How were they kind? Chelsea, Wolves and Leicester will all likely finish top half - obviously the disappointments where the Palace and Southampton results but there's not as big a gap between 3rd-20th as there used to be.

I would take the results/performances against Leicester and Wolves as the best measure of where we are as a team. Better than those two sides but not by a great deal!

Good points.

Jeffthered · Sep 16, 2019

RedRoseTyke said:
Good points.

Well, that says much for the expectations of this Man Utd team, and also says much about how our expectations have been lowered by players, managers and the wider influence and activities of the Man Utd Executive team.

Wolves are second bottom of the league. And now we judge ourselves against Leicester who 'might finish top half'.

Blimey.

rotherham_red · Sep 16, 2019

minh_loc_xoay said:
It's a disastrous start if you consider our next fixtures. We practically wasted a very kind opening rounds of matches.

We beat Chelsea, drew with Wolves and beat Leicester - three sides who will be there or thereabouts in the top 6-7, with the former two pushing for top 4. Southampton and Palace were disappointing results, but results like that can happen and with the rest of the top 4 showing that they can have their own brain farts in matches (Spurs losing to Newcastle, Arsenal drawing with Watford, Chelsea letting 2 goals slip to Sheffield Utd, even City losing to Norwich), it's hardly a fecking disaster.

Get a grip, ffs.

Di Maria's angel · Sep 16, 2019

rotherham_red said:
We beat Chelsea, drew with Wolves and beat Leicester - three sides who will be there or thereabouts in the top 6-7, with the former two pushing for top 4. Southampton and Palace were disappointing results, but results like that can happen and with the rest of the top 4 showing that they can have their own brain farts in matches (Spurs losing to Newcastle, Arsenal drawing with Watford, Chelsea letting 2 goals slip to Sheffield Utd, even City losing to Norwich), it's hardly a fecking disaster.

Get a grip, ffs.

Hmm... I feel like Moyes probably feels like he was wrongly sacked. I mean, all teams lose so why didn't we just afford him these excuses and keep him for 6 years.

This is another great example of standards being so low - I guess it depends where you want United to be. We've gotten to a stage where we view playing the 19th placed team in the table as a difficult game.

Buster15 · Sep 16, 2019

mitchmouse said:
I have to believe there is a youngster who could step up... there damn well should be at a club like ours

While I fully agree with wanting to see youngsters playing, they should only be picked if they are good enough to perform at this level and not just because of their age.
The fact that Young, Matic and Mata are picked by Ole tells it own story doesn't it.

rotherham_red · Sep 16, 2019

Di Maria's angel said:
Hmm... I feel like Moyes probably feels like he was wrongly sacked. I mean, all teams lose so why didn't we just afford him these excuses and keep him for 6 years.

This is another great example of standards being so low - I guess it depends where you want United to be. We've gotten to a stage where we view playing the 19th placed team in the table as a difficult game.

If only Ole had the squad that Moyes had, then you'd have anything close to a coherent argument.

The standards are low because our squad is the worst its been in years. It's not exactly rocket science.

Di Maria's angel · Sep 16, 2019

rotherham_red said:
If only Ole had the squad that Moyes had, then you'd have anything close to a coherent argument.

The standards are low because our squad is the worst its been in years. It's not exactly rocket science.

How is it worse?

A couple of years ago we beat Arsenal 3-2 with a team comprising Depay, Rashford, Lingard, Varela, Blind and Rojo. Our squad in 15/16 was just as "bad". Hell, the 13/14 squad was past it as well.

tenpoless · Sep 16, 2019

Red Dreams said:
We have a very average squad.
It is also very thin.

It is right we got rid of the deadwood. But the fact we still have a few more to get rid of speaks volumes.

De Gea
Pogba

Macguire
Martial

plus others.

This is a new one :lol:

The_Order · Sep 16, 2019

dev1l said:
Statistics are like a bikini; What is revealed is interesting; What is concealed is crucial

there are some gloomy, and out miserable cnuts on here, but this THIS is why I stick around, have a Reddit Gold.

rotherham_red · Sep 16, 2019

Di Maria's angel said:
How is it worse?

A couple of years ago we beat Arsenal 3-2 with a team comprising Depay, Rashford, Lingard, Varela, Blind and Rojo. Our squad in 15/16 was just as "bad". Hell, the 13/14 squad was past it as well.

The 13/14 squad who won the title by more than 10 points the season before was past it? ok then.

15/16 had reinforcements in the shape of Darmian, Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger on top of the LvG mega signings that were purchased the season before. That they didn't work out is neither here nor there. They were brought in with big reputations and our squad at the time was regarded as complete, by the vast majority on here at the time.

Compare it to this squad, where 7 were shipped out with only 3 being brought in (all of whom were defenders), no attackers bought to replace Sanchez and Lukaku, no midfielders to replace Fellaini and Herrera. We almost have no depth in the squad outside of GK and CB - one or two injuries in any position not named CB or GK and we will have to play a bunch of kids who have the collective experience of barely a full 90 minutes between - how is that in any way acceptable a comparison to the squads we had before?

Member 113277 · Sep 16, 2019

Jeffthered said:
Well, that says much for the expectations of this Man Utd team, and also says much about how our expectations have been lowered by players, managers and the wider influence and activities of the Man Utd Executive team.

Wolves are second bottom of the league. And now we judge ourselves against Leicester who 'might finish top half'.

Blimey.

You have to be realistic - poor curation of the squad over a number of years has left us weak in some key areas.

Wolves will not finish second from bottom and Leicester are a similar team to us, currently - I watched the match at the weekend and it was reasonably even IMO, with some different strengths and weaknesses.

Better, but not by much, than Wolves and Leicester could place us anywhere between 4th and 8th IMO, that's the way it is. Expectations are one thing (and buying Maguire, Wan-Bisakka and James shows that we are looking to be considerably better than Wolves or leicester in the future, so I expect we will reinforce further over the next windows, thus improving the squad), but the reality is that we are where we are for the moment.

Remember where Liverpool were 3-4 seasons ago and look at them now - my expectation is a similar trajectory for us, but we're not entitled to it, it needs to be earned.

12OunceEpilogue · Sep 16, 2019

RedRoseTyke said:
You have to be realistic - poor curation of the squad over a number of years has left us weak in some key areas.

Wolves will not finish second from bottom and Leicester are a similar team to us, currently - I watched the match at the weekend and it was reasonably even IMO, with some different strengths and weaknesses.

Better, but not by much, than Wolves and Leicester could place us anywhere between 4th and 8th IMO, that's the way it is. Expectations are one thing (and buying Maguire, Wan-Bisakka and James shows that we are looking to be considerably better than Wolves or leicester in the future, so I expect we will reinforce further over the next windows, thus improving the squad), but the reality is that we are where we are for the moment.

Remember where Liverpool were 3-4 seasons ago and look at them now - my expectation is a similar trajectory for us, but we're not entitled to it, it needs to be earned.

I largely agree. We have the potential to be much better and hopefully we're on the long road back but it'll do us good to make peace with where we are just at the moment; upper midtable with a shot at a CL place next year, with aspirations to be much better in the coming years.

DSG · Sep 16, 2019

thejtrain said:
Add Matic in there, and we are handicapped before the ball is kicked.

Honestly, there is nothing controversial about it all at all. Young offers more than Shaw in every department, consistently. He should start ahead of Shaw as long as he is fit, which is most of the time.

Wow.

Perhaps you were watching a different match?

Almost all of Leicester’s attacking moves and chances came from Young’s side of the pitch.

Young’s crossing and corners are poor, and usually too far from the back post and not in areas of danger.

He frequently allows his mark space to turn.

He hesitates too much on the ball, killing any promising moves, favoring square and back passes.

Lack of movement after his passing reduces options for attackers and allows defenders to easily mark us.

When Shaw comes back, you will see an upturn in our chance creation, goals and overall quality of play. A healthy Luke Shaw is very important to this side.

StrettyEnder07 · Sep 16, 2019

Did we get fecking beat on Saturday? What game was I watching, christ all mighty any chance of not coming on here to just throw the team under the bus for the sake of it.

Feck it gonna throw a complete spanner in the works here and say something POSITIVE, guys don't have heart failure I know it is a rarity.

McTominay was fecking superb, lad was all over the place, leader in the making, more of the same please!

Maguire absolutely superb, hopefully him and Lindelof can build a partnership that can be solid for years to come.

Good to see Chong/Tuanzebe get some minutes.

Clean sheet, second of the season at OT, finally!

Rashford tucking away his penalty nicely after the circus of the last few weeks.

James faded towards the end but love his direct approach, when he picked it up and just ghosted past two players and smashed it just over the bar, Giggs like, brilliant.

We had a tough start, 2 points behind City, ahead of Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, will take that and the fact is we should have won at Southampton, we should have gotten a point against Palace, so we should be sitting a point ahead of City at the moment with a little bit of lucky.

Roll on West Ham, anyone who disagrees and wants to pick apart my post, knock yourself out.

ColvaleGoa · Sep 16, 2019

StrettyEnder07 said:
Did we get fecking beat on Saturday? What game was I watching, christ all mighty any chance of not coming on here to just throw the team under the bus for the sake of it.

Feck it gonna throw a complete spanner in the works here and say something POSITIVE, guys don't have heart failure I know it is a rarity.

McTominay was fecking superb, lad was all over the place, leader in the making, more of the same please!

Maguire absolutely superb, hopefully him and Lindelof can build a partnership that can be solid for years to come.

Good to see Chong/Tuanzebe get some minutes.

Clean sheet, second of the season at OT, finally!

Rashford tucking away his penalty nicely after the circus of the last few weeks.

James faded towards the end but love his direct approach, when he picked it up and just ghosted past two players and smashed it just over the bar, Giggs like, brilliant.

We had a tough start, 2 points behind City, ahead of Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, will take that and the fact is we should have won at Southampton, we should have gotten a point against Palace, so we should be sitting a point ahead of City at the moment with a little bit of lucky.

Roll on West Ham, anyone who disagrees and wants to pick apart my post, knock yourself out.

Well said.

Gator Nate · Sep 16, 2019

Shiva87 said:
The identity is clear for anyone who is objectively watching games under Ole. For me, it's the following and I hope you watch a few games to assess if this is true:

1. High press in transition + low block after high press fails.

2. High energy in attack - one/two touch, create one on ones for wingers, move the ball quickly with pace. (The players aren't trained well enough on this yet, and tend to lose the ball a lot trying it.)

3. Ball playing CBs - Compress the pitch by using ball playing CBs to beat opponent high press (with passes/ dribbles). This tactic gets adjusted game to game based on perceived threat from opposing strikers. CBs sit back a bit more when striker used to running on to balls in behind the defence.

4. Speed in transition - Counter attacking + quick release of forwards on winning the ball back. This is getting us labelled as a counter-attacking team, but we are actually most dangerous when we win the ball back in the midfield from opposing CDMs/ CBs.

A lot of this is picked from the Fergie template, but he clearly had better players to establish a clear pattern of play.

In 4-6 months from now, if we can establish clear patterns of play, then Ole would have done well.

Thank you! This x 10. I can't understand anyone saying they can't see what Ole's trying to do. It's been mostly down to personnel ever since he arrived. Whether a lack of talent or a lack of execution, it's been pretty obvious to me what Ole wants to do, but it's been a matter of not having the personnel to do it. People want to lump everything into cut and dried categories and I don't think his "style" is going to fit. He's trying to be flexible.

The one criticism I do have of Ole is the timing of his subs, but hindsight is always 20/20. Sometimes he nails it, like this match, and it's brilliant. That said, his initial selection was a bit questionable, but it was put up or shut up time for Matic and it's time for him to shut up. Fred is superior here. I don't feel Mata was as bad as most say, but he's a sub now, not a starter.

The lack of creativity is obvious without Pogba and Martial, but we knew that going into the game. We are going to pull a lot of pens this year (three in five games already?) and that (provided we hit them), combined with a now-solid defense, will bail us out a lot this year.

Annihilate Now! · Sep 16, 2019

DSG said:
Wow.

Perhaps you were watching a different match?

Almost all of Leicester’s attacking moves and chances came from Young’s side of the pitch.

Young’s crossing and corners are poor, and usually too far from the back post and not in areas of danger.

He frequently allows his mark space to turn.

He hesitates too much on the ball, killing any promising moves, favoring square and back passes.

Lack of movement after his passing reduces options for attackers and allows defenders to easily mark us.

When Shaw comes back, you will see an upturn in our chance creation, goals and overall quality of play. A healthy Luke Shaw is very important to this side.

What attacking moves and chances were these?

Leicester created next to nothing. Closest they came to scoring was from a Free Kick and from Lindelof dropping a bollock.

Stevondo8 · Sep 16, 2019

Annihilate Now! said:
What attacking moves and chances were these?

Leicester created next to nothing. Closest they came to scoring was from a Free Kick and from Lindelof dropping a bollock.

Exactly. Even second half when Leicester has plenty of possession, the only highlight on MOTD of them attacking was Ndidi’s chance in injury time. For me, was the best we’ve looked defensively so far this season. Maybe the attack didn’t click but that’ll happen.

StrettyEnder07 · Sep 16, 2019

ColvaleGoa said:
Well said.

haha cheers bud

mitchmouse · Sep 16, 2019

Buster15 said:
While I fully agree with wanting to see youngsters playing, they should only be picked if they are good enough to perform at this level and not just because of their age.
The fact that Young, Matic and Mata are picked by Ole tells it own story doesn't it.

but to me that's mixed messages... Ole has gone on record about picking youngsters but I'm not sure he rally has followed through. As I said, it is very poor for a club of our stature not to have decent back-ups(and Young is not - and isn't even a fullback)

Lentwood · Sep 16, 2019

Jeffthered said:
Well, that says much for the expectations of this Man Utd team, and also says much about how our expectations have been lowered by players, managers and the wider influence and activities of the Man Utd Executive team.

Wolves are second bottom of the league. And now we judge ourselves against Leicester who 'might finish top half'.

Blimey.

No it's an acknowledgement of where we are at this moment in time. It doesn't matter what our 'expectations' are, the reality is we're not very good!

Sandikan · Sep 16, 2019

Lentwood said:
How were they kind? Chelsea, Wolves and Leicester will all likely finish top half - obviously the disappointments where the Palace and Southampton results but there's not as big a gap between 3rd-20th as there used to be.

I would take the results/performances against Leicester and Wolves as the best measure of where we are as a team. Better than those two sides but not by a great deal!

How were they kind?

A Chelsea in all sorts of disarray first game, a Europa ridden Wolves (see their results so far after our game?)
Palace are tumescent, as Spurs showed, and Southampton will be in and around the bottom 3.

Pretty damm kind. We should be 5-7 points better off.

However, we are where we are! And the Leicester result was a good one.

Lentwood · Sep 16, 2019

Sandikan said:
How were they kind?

A Chelsea in all sorts of disarray first game, a Europa ridden Wolves (see their results so far after our game?)
Palace are tumescent, as Spurs showed, and Southampton will be in and around the bottom 3.

Pretty damm kind. We should be 5-7 points better off.

However, we are where we are! And the Leicester result was a good one.

I'm not interested in the 'subjective' i.e. 'a Chelsea in all sorts of disarray' or 'a Europa ridden Wolves', I'm interested in the FACT that last year, those teams finished 3rd, 7th & 9th.

7pts from two home games and an away game is a good return from those games

The big problem, as I highlighted in my first post, was the loss at home to Palace, which is never acceptable. Even a draw at Southampton can happen these days. Away games in the PL are increasingly tough, i.e. Norwich 3-2 City

Stevondo8 · Sep 16, 2019

mitchmouse said:
but to me that's mixed messages... Ole has gone on record about picking youngsters but I'm not sure he rally has followed through. As I said, it is very poor for a club of our stature not to have decent back-ups(and Young is not - and isn't even a fullback)

Rashford, Martial, James, McTominay, AWB, Pereira. They’re all pretty young. We had one of the youngest line up the first few match days. Greenwood has had decent game time too. And Dalit last season. That strikes me as picking youngsters.

Sandikan · Sep 16, 2019

Lentwood said:
I'm not interested in the 'subjective' i.e. 'a Chelsea in all sorts of disarray' or 'a Europa ridden Wolves', I'm interested in the FACT that last year, those teams finished 3rd, 7th & 9th.

7pts from two home games and an away game is a good return from those games

The big problem, as I highlighted in my first post, was the loss at home to Palace, which is never acceptable. Even a draw at Southampton can happen these days. Away games in the PL are increasingly tough, i.e. Norwich 3-2 City

What on earth does last season matter? Chelsea lost their best player and couldn't make a signing.
Hence it was a great time to play them.

And how are wolves doing this season? Again why is last year relevant?
It's last year!

Lentwood · Sep 16, 2019

Sandikan said:
What on earth does last season matter? Chelsea lost their best player and couldn't make a signing.
Hence it was a great time to play them.

And how are wolves doing this season? Again why is last year relevant?
It's last year!

OK, so you’re point is the most recent large Data set we have available i.e. last years finishing position, is less relevant than a subjective feeling you have about any teams relative strength or weakness at any given point in time?

You could go back and forth on “well this team where missing this player” blah blah blah all you like but you could build subjective positives and negatives in your head about every team in every game

Sandikan · Sep 16, 2019

Lentwood said:
OK, so you’re point is the most recent large Data set we have available i.e. last years finishing position, is less relevant than a subjective feeling you have about any teams relative strength or weakness at any given point in time?

You could go back and forth on “well this team where missing this player” blah blah blah all you like but you could build subjective positives and negatives in your head about every team in every game

Chelsea at home is usually a tougher game than we found on the first day. Do you not agree?
Wolves haven't been good THIS season, do you not agree?

Relative strength or weakness at a given point in time makes a huge difference to how tough or easy a fixture is!

mitchmouse · Sep 17, 2019

Stevondo8 said:
Rashford, Martial, James, McTominay, AWB, Pereira. They’re all pretty young. We had one of the youngest line up the first few match days. Greenwood has had decent game time too. And Dalit last season. That strikes me as picking youngsters.

ahh.. well I see why we don't quite agree. I don't see the likes of Martial (23) and rashford (soon 22) as youngsters any more

Stevondo8 · Sep 17, 2019

mitchmouse said:
ahh.. well I see why we don't quite agree. I don't see the likes of Martial (23) and rashford (soon 22) as youngsters any more

Maybe they’re at the upper echelon of young...

To be fair to Ole, prior to injuries bringing likes of Young and Matic into the line up, we had the joint youngest (or certainly one of the youngest) starting xi average age in the league at 24.something. That says to me he’s giving youth a chance. Maybe not the teenagers so much but you can’t throw too many of them in together, it’s got to be a gradual integration. Greenwood gets decent minutes, imagine likes of Chong we’ll see in the Europa.

thejtrain · Sep 21, 2019

DSG said:
Wow.

Perhaps you were watching a different match?

Almost all of Leicester’s attacking moves and chances came from Young’s side of the pitch.

We must have because none of that happened.

PL W FA Premier League

Manchester United 1:0 Leicester City

Post-match discussion

Sat, 14 September 2019

Full Member

Member 113277

Guest

Full Member

Full Member

Captain of Moanchester United

Go on Didier

Full Member

Captain of Moanchester United

No 6-pack, just 2Pac

Full Member

Full Member

Member 113277

Guest

In perfect harmony

Full Member

New Member

Full Member

Full Member

...or later, I'm not fussy

Full Member

New Member

loves to hate United.

Full Member

aka sex on the beach

Full Member

Full Member

aka sex on the beach

Full Member

aka sex on the beach

loves to hate United.

Full Member

Full Member

Man of the Match

Runners-up

Player Ratings

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Score Predictions

Detailed Results

Match Stats

Referee

Man Utd Lineup

Substitutes