Playing Pogba 4 games on the trot after a long layoff is madness. Pogba and Greenwood should have come on as impact subs. Play Ighalo,give them something to worry about. Ole tactics were wrong
Is tiredness setting in?
- Thread starter devips
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
If we consider the breakdown of "deadwood" players, it would mean essentially getting rid of most non-first team outfield players apart from Brandon Williams, Daniel James, Scott McTominay and maybe James Garner.
Although hopefully Tuanzebe and Mensah become staple features of future match-day squads after their respective loan stints.
Although hopefully Tuanzebe and Mensah become staple features of future match-day squads after their respective loan stints.
I hope we can have strongest team for both/all games. Just not sure about our midfielders . Mctominay and Fred can go in and do a job I think as long as we have Pogba or Bruno around them.
Greenwood also didn't play that great vs Southampton so might be smart to give him a rest.
Just remember in the league we had Fred, Bruno and Mctominay vs Chelsea and they did great.
Agreed, don’t get me wrong I think Southampton deserved the draw but Oriol should have gone, it felt like they were fouling all over the place, Ward Prowse should of been booked twice in my humble but they pressed well and Pogba and Fernandes didn’t seem fully at it.
Not a total disaster but I don’t think we can drop anymore points if we want CL.
Let's see the Palace game first. Too many of these knee jerk threads come up after a poor performance. If we play poorly again, then yeah, we can analyse a worrying thread. It's important to remember that for all of Bruno's impact, we're still a way from being a truly top team on the pitch. You'll get the odd poor performance. Happens even to the best teams...
The squad ain't tired we've just played at 90% the last two games saving the extra to run Chelsea into the ground at Wembley on Sunday.
Truth is people aren't giving this team leeway due to their position and how used to the good performances they are now. People need to realise that post lockdown, it's a new team and they've done well. Having an off 2 2 draw against a team that played really well isnt bad. There will be games like this. Liverpool and City have a few of them. The issue we had imo, is that even though our team defence was good, the individual incapacities of some of our defenders showed their cracks at vital points in the game. For the most part, they didnt hurt us despite the fact that we didnt really settle into the game. It's a trait I have seen so far this season and the reason we are near the top 4 despite finding it so difficult to break down teams early on. Our defensive structure is great. Furthermore, even in this game, the ease in which we are able to manufacture chances even with small chunks of control was also impressive. It's unfortunate that this team didnt play earlier in the season as there would have been less pressure for results.
We got sloppy in the Borunemouth game as well. The Villa game was supposedly be a crushing victory but obviously no one can play 2 games a week, week in week out.
It certainly looked like it. The players just had a break which is about 3 times longer than what they’re used to, and during those breaks they play a handful of friendlies before league play starts. All in all I thought we were one of the fittest teams since the restart but it was bound to catch up to them.
Playing the same 11 game in and game out maybe OK during a normal season when players have time to recuperate, but with this shorten schedule and games coming every three days or so, not rotating has got to have an effect. The problem is that there is such a drop off when we change two or three starters for squad players.
If Ole had rotated yesterday and drew 2-2 or lost, fans like yourself would have went for his head. He 100% made the right decision not to
rotate in a crucial game where we could go 3rd place.
Fatigue plays a part in Southampton being able to overrun us in midfield but the difference between us and beginning of the season is that we still have goals in us even though we lost the midfield battle. The last minute goal was just really unfortunate given the situation. Minor disappointment but we still have a good chance to land top 4 and win trophies so lets see how far this team can go.
I dont think it's tiredness, Southampton were much fitter than us and outworked us. We didn't cope with that, so went defensive. Don't think we will be facing any other teams with similar intensity.
Tiredness is not the reason why we drew.
Any coach playing twice a week I would think. Remember how Ole's big run when he was appointed featured no rotation and then it petered out?
I can't agree. We looked jaded all over the field. That said, we would have won but for the late injury so it was a marginal call.
Is there something wrong with our physical training since other teams do not look that tired?
Rotating the entire team would have been equally terrible like what happened against Norwich and yeah we wouldn't have won either. However 1-2 players should have getting rested periodically from one game to another. Someone like Matic should have been rested for Saints game imo.
You're right.
Besides we struggled to beat their high press which drained a bit our defense, thus looking sluggish towards the end. They were in the game until the end so we had to work really hard for full 90 min, compared to other games where we didn't have possession issues or the game was over by the 60th minute.
Even if Ole knows how to get a win, I'm yet to see this United dominate a team that comes right in your face. Think City, Liverpool and now Southampton.
It was a typical game against a hard working Saints side with the high press that we struggle to handle. DeGea playing out from his line to Pogba is a schoolboy error, actually no schoolboy would do that. Hoof it over the pressing players is the answer until they retreat. Taking corners and defending corners has always been a weakness for us. Harry the head goes missing and DeGea won’t come out to collect or punch in most occasions. We still need a class centre half and left back. Martial has upped his game but missed chances a world class striker wouldn’t, Kane would have scored when he was through the other night. A few signings away from a good team, miles away from City and Scousers. City will spend big again to replace Aquero, Silva and strengthen in defence taking Guardiola the genius’s career spending to way beyond £1.50 billion or £300,000 according to City’s accounts!
I think if we faced Southampton straight after the Tottenham game we would have had a much better chance because Spurs did close passing options to our midfield players and as much as I say fatigue wasn't the issue, surely back then our players would've been fresher. Or maybe they wouldn't be yet in rhythm?
We were below our best and yet could easily have scored 5 and that is no exaggeration. How did we look tired exactly?
Hard to blame the first 11 for being tired after fielding an unchanged lineup for so long, our depth is pathetic.
Even Fred and McTominay who have reasonable reputations, are significant downgrades at the heart of midfield.
Even Fred and McTominay who have reasonable reputations, are significant downgrades at the heart of midfield.
OGS in the presser doesn’t think so. Says we are the fittest we’ve ever been. But also admitted that pogba was a late decision to play against soton. He might be still not 100% recovered hence the lethargic performance. Sometimes the manager has to make that decision for the player.