Frustratingly repetitive things about our football every game

[Gandalf Greyhame]

- We've worked hard to get the ball back. When pressed in possession, we start passing square and backwards till it reaches De Gea, who punts it long aimlessly giving it away. Then we work hard again to get the ball back.

- Ashley Young gets the ball out wide on the right. He tries his decade old trick to lose his man, fails, and then aimlessly crosses it long to the general direction of Lukaku/Rashford and we lose possession.

- Pogba drops deep to collect the ball, turns around and tries to use his strength and skill against 2/3 markers. He fails, we lose the ball and are open on the counter.

- Lingard drops deep, running in arc from wing to the other. He receives the ball, one touch passes it back to where it came from, and keeps running. Finally we've managed to switch the ball from one flank to another with 10 passes where it could have been done instantly with one long ball switching flanks. Ditto Mata.

- Fred is facing goal, looking agitated like he always does. Gets the ball from the CB/keeper, takes ages to get it under control by which time he's pressed and loses the ball.

- Rashford gets the ball on the left. He shapes up to make a run, waiting for his full back to commit so that he can knock it on - but loses it to the shin of the full back who then begins a counter.

- We have to take a corner. We send everyone up and then the corner taker bangs it into the first person in way, or overhits it beyond the last person

- Apart from Pogba and the occasional effort from Matic/Herrera, no one behind our front line can pass the ball forward accurately to either feet or into space. On most occasions, the passes are sideways and backwards, and if they are forward then they are easily intercepted and we lose possession.

- We need to press. Two people are running their socks off, the third is just standing around - and the opposition simply pass it to the unmarked player near the said lazy person and they charge forward. Then the lazy fella will finally react trying to chase the man with the ball, while the other who were pressing have now given up their efforts.

- We are backing off an attack. Our backline is narrow and grouped up, despite a winger running down our right. The opposition pass it in space ahead of that winger, Young/Dalot turns around and is already behind the winger and too slow to catch up before they put in a cross.

- Defending a corner. We always leave a man at the far post who has acres of space to knock it on in front of goal or to take an attempt himself

- Defending in open play. Like in a backyard football, half the defence gets attracted to the man with the ball and is unaware of the runner who's run into the space they've just left behind.

- Trying to hold the offside line, one of our defenders (usually the full-back) is a yard behind, always playing the oppositon forwards on.

- Long ball over our defence - De Gea will not come charging out to claim it. No one except Smalling will head it, and we'll make a last ditch tackle leading to a corner

- Pogba is running ahead with space ahead of him - no one apart from Rashford will make a run to stretch out the defenders. Pogba tries to make something fancy happen but eventually gets outnumbered and loses the ball. Then he'll throw his arms into the air in disguist, while Lukaku, eyes wide open with eyebrows raised, will be standing a couple of yards ahead of him pointing animatedly at his own feet.


The list goes on. What are the frustrating aspects of our gameplay you'd like to see stamped out?

 

[TRUERED89]

De Gea's distribution & our abysmal corner taking, cant remember last time we scored one. What we did in the last min of the Wolves games sums it up completely!

 

[Jay_VC]

A lot of frustration summed up there

- We've worked hard to get the ball back. When pressed in possession, we start passing square and backwards till it reaches De Gea, who punts it long aimlessly giving it away. Then we work hard again to get the ball back.

- Ashley Young gets the ball out wide on the right. He tries his decade old trick to lose his man, fails, and then aimlessly crosses it long to the general direction of Lukaku/Rashford and we lose possession.

These 2 frustrate me the most as well, all this hard work/labour wasted, just to lump it forward. De Gea's long ball being horribly inaccurate doesn't help either. We need to be so much better in possession..

I feel like we lost some gears these last 2 months. Seems like everything got slower again. Less one-touch football. Not sure what is to blame. More changes in starting XI? injuries? Change of tactics? I guess there is plenty to say. It's obvious we need more quality in the squad though, everyone sees it, so I'm sure Ole sees it as well

I'm staying positive, but
lots of work ahead still..

 

[LingiBW]

- We've worked hard to get the ball back. When pressed in possession, we start passing square and backwards till it reaches De Gea, who punts it long aimlessly giving it away. Then we work hard again to get the ball back.

- Ashley Young gets the ball out wide on the right. He tries his decade old trick to lose his man, fails, and then aimlessly crosses it long to the general direction of Lukaku/Rashford and we lose possession.

- Pogba drops deep to collect the ball, turns around and tries to use his strength and skill against 2/3 markers. He fails, we lose the ball and are open on the counter.

- Lingard drops deep, running in arc from wing to the other. He receives the ball, one touch passes it back to where it came from, and keeps running. Finally we've managed to switch the ball from one flank to another with 10 passes where it could have been done instantly with one long ball switching flanks. Ditto Mata.

- Fred is facing goal, looking agitated like he always does. Gets the ball from the CB/keeper, takes ages to get it under control by which time he's pressed and loses the ball.

- Rashford gets the ball on the left. He shapes up to make a run, waiting for his full back to commit so that he can knock it on - but loses it to the shin of the full back who then begins a counter.

- We have to take a corner. We send everyone up and then the corner taker bangs it into the first person in way, or overhits it beyond the last person

- Apart from Pogba and the occasional effort from Matic/Herrera, no one behind our front line can pass the ball forward accurately to either feet or into space. On most occasions, the passes are sideways and backwards, and if they are forward then they are easily intercepted and we lose possession.

- We need to press. Two people are running their socks off, the third is just standing around - and the opposition simply pass it to the unmarked player near the said lazy person and they charge forward. Then the lazy fella will finally react trying to chase the man with the ball, while the other who were pressing have now given up their efforts.

- We are backing off an attack. Our backline is narrow and grouped up, despite a winger running down our right. The opposition pass it in space ahead of that winger, Young/Dalot turns around and is already behind the winger and too slow to catch up before they put in a cross.

- Defending a corner. We always leave a man at the far post who has acres of space to knock it on in front of goal or to take an attempt himself

- Defending in open play. Like in a backyard football, half the defence gets attracted to the man with the ball and is unaware of the runner who's run into the space they've just left behind.

- Trying to hold the offside line, one of our defenders (usually the full-back) is a yard behind, always playing the oppositon forwards on.

- Long ball over our defence - De Gea will not come charging out to claim it. No one except Smalling will head it, and we'll make a last ditch tackle leading to a corner

- Pogba is running ahead with space ahead of him - no one apart from Rashford will make a run to stretch out the defenders. Pogba tries to make something fancy happen but eventually gets outnumbered and loses the ball. Then he'll throw his arms into the air in disguist, while Lukaku, eyes wide open with eyebrows raised, will be standing a couple of yards ahead of him pointing animatedly at his own feet.


The list goes on. What are the frustrating aspects of our gameplay you'd like to see stamped out?

All this basically. It feels like we are playing a bunch of 15 year olds who just met a moment before.

 

[kps88]

Over hit pass in Lukaku's general direction. Lukaku applauds and gives a thumbs up.

 

[VeevaVee]

Safe passing, visibly seeing them not pass to a runner to keep possession. Then a few passes down the line just inaccurately lumping it into the crowded box.

 

[Ian Reus]

We dilly dally on the ball leading to our players being dispossessed.
Mata is always guilty of this, thinking he has more time on the ball when there's usually a player lurking just behind him.

Even if we had a player tell mata of the impending danger, "he's behind you."

 

[Offside]

Pogba getting tackled whilst he’s trying to sort his feet out with his back to the defender. Lukaku’s touch clearing it for them to counter attack. Rashford trying to run through players, or when he does manage to go round them just running it out of play. There’s plenty of things to work on.

Without doubt the worst thing is the corners for me. We’ve managed to get even worse side Ole took over despite improving everywhere else. Playing it short then losing it before it’s managed to get into the box is unforgivable. We’ve done it endless times recently. Not beating the first man is unforgivable. If Young managers to get it over the first man it’s a rare treat. Will never not be perplexed by professional footballers who can’t kick a ball under no pressure into a certain area of the pitch. Just beat the first man for feck sake.

 

[Solius]

Pogba seems to have this thing where he feels the need to prove he can roll any midfielder who has the audacity to try and take the ball from him. Sometimes he does it but most of the time he'll get outnumbered and throw a fit because he can't beat three men every single time.

 

[Hoof the ball]

- Martial has the ball to the side of the 18 yard box. Shaw occupies a position not more than 5 yards away behind on the outside rather than in front.

- Young is in-line with our CB's despite us having the ball and most of the opposition in their own half.

- We go for aerial challenges in areas of the field where waiting for the second ball would likely be a better option and result in us retaining the ball 50% of the time more than we do now.

- Players pass the ball, but don't immediately move into space to make room for a return ball. Consequently, the ball is pressured and passed backwards to Smalling, who in turn is mortified with the prospect of having the responsibility to pass it.

- Smalling passing directly into the body of the partner CB, square, instead of passing a yard or so in front to run onto. There's literally no excuse for this. Even if he's not very good at passing, if he can't be motivated to try to change that habit then it's all she wrote.

 

[Skills]

How slowly we pass the ball. It's as if they don't trust their team mates or think the football is a fragile baby so they just softly lay it off to each other. Just pass the ball with some pace and intent and trust your team mates to trap it.

 

[Red Star One]

We’re not called “title defenders”

 

[Hoof the ball]

Watching Young's cognitive ability crumble under the pressure for ten excruciating seconds whilst deliberating on who to throw the ball to during a throw-in.

That's not a prediction. That's a spoiler.

 

[AlexanderClaude]

- Pogba is running ahead with space ahead of him - no one apart from Rashford will make a run to stretch out the defenders. Pogba tries to make something fancy happen but eventually gets outnumbered and loses the ball. Then he'll throw his arms into the air in disguist, while Lukaku, eyes wide open with eyebrows raised, will be standing a couple of yards ahead of him pointing animatedly at his own feet.

This part made me laugh out loud .. I don’t know why Lukaku is surprised they are hesitant to pass to his feet ... all he does is give a heavy touch 5 yards away where he has to run back to catch up to it... I wish someone would just tell him that’s why they only try to lob it into him ... it’s his only chance

 

[Dike_Manc]

- De Gea holding on to the ball after an opposition attack fails down, knowing damn well our best chance is on the counter.
- Rashford tries to beat his man and runs the ball out of touch in the process.

OP mentioned all the others

 

[AgentP]

Agree with all the things OP said and will add a few of my own.

A midfielder receives the ball around the halfway line. He looks up to see 5 players standing and staring back at him. They are marked by defenders but don't even try to create space or make a run.

We take a corner or free kick, the ball lands in an opposition player's feet and he punts the ball up the field. There is not a single opposition player in our half. But De Gea doesn't move from his line. Our defender has to run all the way back. By then a forward presses the defender and he passes it back to the keeper who kicks it long.

We win the ball after sustained pressure from the opposition. The guy who recovers the ball goes into full panic mode and instead of passing to two or three easy options available, he whacks the ball straight back to the opponents.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Lukaku pointing, in general.

This world would be fecked if Lukaku pointing ever became a drinking game.

 

[Jay_VC]

Lukaku pointing, in general.

This world would be fecked if Lukaku pointing ever became a drinking game.

Thanks for the legendary Ring of Fire flashback

 

[Sylar]

Having a great chance or two to either take the lead or extend our lead (or even equalise), then suffering and conceding from a silly mistake.

 

[RedCurry]

I honestly enjoyed reading the original post. It really does summarize every frustration I have with our general play.

 

[charlenefan]

One thing that really annoys me is Pogba our best player is often invisible in games where we need him the most, now all players have bad games I get that but I'm not talking about being on the ball and things not coming off, I'm talking about how he literally may as well not be on the pitch.

Take Tuesday night for example, we're drawing/loosing the game and who's picking the ball up from deep and dictating play? Fred. Why the feck dont we move Pogba into the 6 and have him build the attacks? Ole literally mentioned that as a tactic after the previous game against Watford. Instead he (Pogba) wanders around the midfield trying to find space while never actually ever being in the position to get on the ball.

 

[Buster15]

How slowly we pass the ball. It's as if they don't trust their team mates or think the football is a fragile baby so they just softly lay it off to each other. Just pass the ball with some pace and intent and trust your team mates to trap it.

That is right. To me our style of play even under Ole is nothing like as effective or efficient as say City or even Tottenham. Apart from the really annoying aspect of not supporting the man with the ball, we take far too many touches and our transition from defence to attack is very slow and very predictable.
We just don't hurt teams often or badly enough.
All this has a common denominator - coaching.

 

[fellaini's barber]

Our right backs being proper turds in attack but still our captains for the past 5 years

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

That is right. To me our style of play even under Ole is nothing like as effective or efficient as say City or even Tottenham. Apart from the really annoying aspect of not supporting the man with the ball, we take far too many touches and our transition from defence to attack is very slow and very predictable.
We just don't hurt teams often or badly enough.
All this has a common denominator - coaching.

Actually our transition from Defense to attack is probably the best part of our game. We are quite quick with it and have been since Ole took over. The issue comes in building an attack from the back when we aren't on the counter.

Generally consists of: Lindelof doing 8 drag backs while looking for someone to pass to, while all of our midfielders stand still. Lukaku/Rashford is making some idiotic run 60 yards away towards goals that Pirlo would have a hard time finding, yet whoever is commentating constantly points out how great of a run it was (this is especially true when its Rashford). Lingard is running around aimlessly doing exactly what OP mentioned. Pogba is so wide left he's practically on the bench. Eventually Lindelof finds a midfielder who after passing it around few times switches it to Ashely Young who doesn't have a man within 40 yards of him because "why the feck would they?". Then he sees runners into the box, measures his cross, and promptly sends it over everyone. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Buster15]

Actually our transition from Defense to attack is probably the best part of our game. We are quite quick with it and have been since Ole took over. The issue comes in building an attack from the back when we aren't on the counter.

Generally consists of: Lindelof doing 8 drag backs while looking for someone to pass to, while all of our midfielders stand still. Lukaku/Rashford is making some idiotic run 60 yards away towards goals that Pirlo would have a hard time finding, yet whoever is commentating constantly points out how great of a run it was (this is especially true when its Rashford). Lingard is running around aimlessly doing exactly what OP mentioned. Pogba is so wide left he's practically on the bench. Eventually Lindelof finds a midfielder who after passing it around few times switches it to Ashely Young who doesn't have a man within 40 yards of him because "why the feck would they?". Then he sees runners into the box, measures his cross, and promptly sends it over everyone. Rinse and repeat.

But you have just accurately described why our transition from defence to attack is awful.

 

[Canagel]

The OP is just giving the picture of the last game. Of those listed
The repetivre things (the whole season) are:
1) DDG hoofs to nobody
2) Young hoofs to nobody
3) Young blatant shirt pulls after getting on the wrong side.
4) Set pieces into the first man. Now evolving into a possible chance for the opposition.
5) Lukaku waiting to be served inbetween two central defenders.
6) Matic trying the cruyff turn in his half/box

 

[groovyalbert]

Do other fans feel the same about watching their teams play?

I feel like Spurs, City and Pool can't have many gripes about style and repetitive faults. Arsenal as well right now.

Just us and Chelsea in this boat of the top teams right now.

 

[Gator Nate]

- De Gea holding on to the ball after an opposition attack fails down, knowing damn well our best chance is on the counter.

Every. Single. Time.

 

[Bocca9978]

Among many, corners.
We don't create anything from them. I can't remember when we last scored from one. And we have no decent takers.

I also hate short corners and then no one crosses it. The move just breaks down.

We also seem to get caught on the counter from our own corner too often.

 

[passing-wind]

Scattergun tactics, no repeition in the system. Irrespective of injuries a solid team will always adopt the same system. It seems under Solskjaer we have no clear directive in our play.

What is the philosophy we take into next season ? Thus far I can only count two good performances Cardiff / Bournemouth where we played with an identity.

We can't just turn up on the day and hope for the best, our performances in the last two months feel like Jose is at the helm again.

 

[SATA]

Mata bundled off the ball receiving it back to goal and the opposition breaks on the counter while Juan shouts for the foul. It's not a foul, Juan. You have got to be stronger than that in a men's game. You could see all this coming a mile away even before the ball is reaching him

Players hiding and shirking responsibility when chips are down. Our players are superbly good at this. Jesse, Rom, Martial and the likes

 

[RuudTom83]

How to find a solution is the real question.

Money isn’t unlimited either so it is a tricky problem.

For me a very good RB would make the biggest difference. The right midfield is a problem so Lingard gets the blame but Shaw helps the left side operate so much better without being world class himself.

I’d buy a RB and a DM to help the lads out at the back. Then coach the team better!

 

[Greck]

-Matic's need to run the ball 5 yards before making a 5 yard pass. Like wtf, if that's all you were going to do with the ball why not just make the 10yard pass earlier instead of slowing down the attack?

 

[SATA]

-Matic's need to run the ball 5 yards before making a 5 yard pass. Like wtf, if that's all you were going to do with the ball why not just make the 10yard pass earlier instead of slowing down the attack?

Matic is always looking for the forwards to make runs when he gets the ball but none of them bar Rashford does that really. He's one of the two players in the team that plays with his head up, the other being Pogba. Not his fault really when he sees no runs and has to make a five yard pass instead to keep the play moving

 

[van Nistelrooy]

- Pogba losing possession then making close to no effort at all to get back and defend.

- Lingard doing his best impression of a ghost every time he steps on to grass.

- Lukaku ensuring no one challenges him for the title of 'Worst Touch in Football'.

 

[breakout67]

- Pogba losing possession then making close to no effort at all to get back and defend.

- Lingard doing his best impression of a ghost every time he steps on to grass.

- Lukaku ensuring no one challenges him for the title of 'Worst Touch in Football'.

Watch out, that's heresy around these parts.

 

[Snow]

We don't have a plant when De Ge gets the ball any further than 30 meters out. When there's a long ball to Lukaku and he happens to win the aerial duel there's no one close to him. The wingers are not with it (Rashford is just very poor off the ball generally) and the midfielders aren't catching up so even if the pass is perfect there's just this "and then what?".

There's just a general lack of movement. We've usually go 2 midfielders that are pretty static. Our left winger is pretty static. Rashford is just there whether he's a striker or a winger. Lingard moves about but in the wrong places too much it feels, he's not open too often. Mata is the only player in the club I feel that actually moves well off the ball. Lukaku is alright but his hold-up or first touch fails him too often.

Our right flank is still pretty dead because of having no wingers and Young just giving the ball away half the time he passes the ball forward. Shaw's got good movement on the other side but there's not much running into channel's between the full back and center back like we see with City, we just don't open teams up like that. Martial just stays wide and waits.

 

[United Hobbit]

Good posts, I just hope the coaching stuff are seeing what everyone here is seeing but more importantly that they know how to fix it or at least put training in place to work around any player limitations

When the opposition score we are like a lower league team backs to the wall, frantically trying to clear our lines, almost like headless chickens, the opposition then seize advantage of this, swarming all over us, causing further chaos and confusion, potentially leading to another Chuckle Brothers moment.

It may just be his running style but Pogba jogging along as if he's out there for a sponsor's photoshoot

Our players look absolutely shot and struggle to breathe

We give the ball away far too much for a supposedly top side, watching us against PSG funny how our chances actually came when we had the ball. Their ball retention was very good.

Pogba and his penalty run up. Just run normally and put some force behind it, the run up he does gives me the jitters you'd think he would have changed it after having them saved due to it. If we are in a cup final penalty shoot out and he does it....

I was very impressed by Wolves and we started well, they could finish we couldn't also as soon as they got into the game we started to struggle and panic.

People mentioning De Gea (who as soon as someone said how slow he is to distribute the ball I couldn't help but notice how yes he is very slow to do so) and how he hoofs the ball, unfortunately look what happened Tuesday when he tried to pass it out! Our players need to start reading the game better to create the faster attacks, they strike me as quite slow to react.

Edited to agree with the fact we never seem to score from corners.

 

[mewnew11]

- We've worked hard to get the ball back. When pressed in possession, we start passing square and backwards till it reaches De Gea, who punts it long aimlessly giving it away. Then we work hard again to get the ball back.

- Ashley Young gets the ball out wide on the right. He tries his decade old trick to lose his man, fails, and then aimlessly crosses it long to the general direction of Lukaku/Rashford and we lose possession.

- Pogba drops deep to collect the ball, turns around and tries to use his strength and skill against 2/3 markers. He fails, we lose the ball and are open on the counter.

- Lingard drops deep, running in arc from wing to the other. He receives the ball, one touch passes it back to where it came from, and keeps running. Finally we've managed to switch the ball from one flank to another with 10 passes where it could have been done instantly with one long ball switching flanks. Ditto Mata.

- Fred is facing goal, looking agitated like he always does. Gets the ball from the CB/keeper, takes ages to get it under control by which time he's pressed and loses the ball.

- Rashford gets the ball on the left. He shapes up to make a run, waiting for his full back to commit so that he can knock it on - but loses it to the shin of the full back who then begins a counter.

- We have to take a corner. We send everyone up and then the corner taker bangs it into the first person in way, or overhits it beyond the last person

- Apart from Pogba and the occasional effort from Matic/Herrera, no one behind our front line can pass the ball forward accurately to either feet or into space. On most occasions, the passes are sideways and backwards, and if they are forward then they are easily intercepted and we lose possession.

- We need to press. Two people are running their socks off, the third is just standing around - and the opposition simply pass it to the unmarked player near the said lazy person and they charge forward. Then the lazy fella will finally react trying to chase the man with the ball, while the other who were pressing have now given up their efforts.

- We are backing off an attack. Our backline is narrow and grouped up, despite a winger running down our right. The opposition pass it in space ahead of that winger, Young/Dalot turns around and is already behind the winger and too slow to catch up before they put in a cross.

- Defending a corner. We always leave a man at the far post who has acres of space to knock it on in front of goal or to take an attempt himself

- Defending in open play. Like in a backyard football, half the defence gets attracted to the man with the ball and is unaware of the runner who's run into the space they've just left behind.

- Trying to hold the offside line, one of our defenders (usually the full-back) is a yard behind, always playing the oppositon forwards on.

- Long ball over our defence - De Gea will not come charging out to claim it. No one except Smalling will head it, and we'll make a last ditch tackle leading to a corner

- Pogba is running ahead with space ahead of him - no one apart from Rashford will make a run to stretch out the defenders. Pogba tries to make something fancy happen but eventually gets outnumbered and loses the ball. Then he'll throw his arms into the air in disguist, while Lukaku, eyes wide open with eyebrows raised, will be standing a couple of yards ahead of him pointing animatedly at his own feet.


The list goes on. What are the frustrating aspects of our gameplay you'd like to see stamped out?

Brilliant post. It's our typical play. It irks Me to death. The root cause is our players are pussy. From de gea to lingard all playing the safe game.

There is always two options for the players to do the risky and more difficult thing or to do the safer and easy thing. More often then not out players do the safe option.

Many players and managers will come and go but ultimately it's the mindset that needs to change. Under Fergie we used to take risks play attacking football and now it's just players pretending.

Another primary reason is people taking their position for granted. There is no competition for places. Play shit week in week out and still you know you are the first name of the team sheet because there is no one challenging you.

I love ole and I hope he is smart enough to see this. However when he keeps playing young as captain and starts lingard who adds nothing to the attack my heart sinks.

 

[GaryLifo]

Not every game, but every game that we've lost this season we have conceded at least twice.

Also, quite often the second goal is conceded within 5-10 minutes of the first.

This has driven me nuts all season because you can almost set your watch by it.