Manchester United 2:2 Steven Gerrard's Villa (Sat 23rd July, 10:45 UK time)

Richter

Hairy big footed Swede
Joined
Oct 19, 2001
Messages
29,853
Eriksen and Martinez replacing DVB and Lindelöf will be a massive improvement!
 

Bogga

Full Member
Joined
May 23, 2011
Messages
1,819
Location
Sweden
I wonder how the flat earthers explain this away ?
According to them Australia doesn't exist, it's all a hoax... they're probably in a big studio in Hollywood where they also filmed the moon landing
 

Sandikan

aka sex on the beach
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
53,517
If Lindelöf had pushed up and got done people would be having a go for letting Bailey run the length of the pitch unopposed. He has to stand off, slow him down and wait for someone to help me out. I swear some people know nothing about football.
Yep you're right.
It was brilliant defending letting someone have it on the half way line, jockey him inside for 50metres and score unopposed.

If only people knew as much about football as you ;)
 

AltiUn

likes playing with swords after fantasies
Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Messages
23,682
Both their keepers have been good, should be a lot more than 2.
 

Lentwood

Full Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
6,879
Location
West Didsbury, Manchester
Donny is fecking frustrating!
Donny is such a passenger
Donny is....rubbish

I have never in my life seen a player so average and contribute so little be talked about so much!

There is a reason Ole, Rangnick and ETH (three managers with three completely different systems) ALL prefer Fred and McTominay. It's not some great injustice or conspiracy
 

Anustart89

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
15,959
Bailey received the ball just inside the United half and by the time he took the shot, Lindelof was in our penalty area! Far too passive, you can't just allow a forward to run 40 yards, cut-inside a take a shot. Should have engaged 15/20 yards from our box and forced him to go wide...it's simple stuff really
And if Bailey had skipped past him with nobody back in defence to help out you'd be calling him a moron for doing just that. It's fecking easy in hindsight to say that "anything other than what he did would've been better", but in a regular situation you'd expect your teammates to put in more effort in getting back rather than taking a chance as the last defender on a 50/50 tackle.
 

criticalanalysis

Full Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
6,310
It is, but look at the lack of effort with which Shaw runs back, and then arrives a second after he's taken the shot. If he'd actually bothered to sprint back he would've been there once Bailey turned inside to take the shot and we'd have said "nicely done by Lindelöf to slow him down until he's being helped out".
Your defending of Lindelof is better than his was.
 

frostbite

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2021
Messages
3,360
They should fire the guy who organized a friendly on this pitch. The best thing we can hope for is to have no injuries.
 

Smores

Full Member
Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
25,582
Yep you're right.
It was brilliant defending letting someone have it on the half way line, jockey him inside for 50metres and score unopposed.

If only people knew as much about football as you ;)
He shouldn't have been unopposed though he should have had Shaw to contend with. Not hard to understand what he's saying and he's right about that aspect.
 

Adam-Utd

Part of first caf team to complete Destiny raid
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
39,954
And if Bailey had skipped past him with nobody back in defence to help out you'd be calling him a moron for doing just that. It's fecking easy in hindsight to say that "anything other than what he did would've been better", but in a regular situation you'd expect your teammates to put in more effort in getting back rather than taking a chance as the last defender on a 50/50 tackle.
If Lindelof would have laid down on the half way line it still would have been more impactful than what he actually did.

All he did was block de geas sight line :lol: you're having a real shocker here
 

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
Martial might not have scored yet. But his movement and hunger in the box is as good as I've ever seen from him.

It reflects badly on him that he ever let it slip away. But I guess we just need to be grateful that it's back.
 

evil_geko

Full Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2005
Messages
5,956
Can't judge anyone here really, horrible conditions, too bad. But it wouldn't be the Caf if some people don't start overreacting based on this game.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

Gullible
Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
21,716
Location
The Mathews Bridge
Sancho looking lots better than last season, and also fitter. He often looked slow, but he looks a lot quicker and sharper in his overall movement this summer.
 

Anustart89

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
15,959
I'd Imagine Martinez going for the tackle there. He gets the ball, great. He doesn't and Bailey goes past him, he's through on goal
I still wouldn't think that taking a chance on a tackle 30-40 yards from goal as the last defender would be the right move. The right move would be to slow him down and assume that your defenders would be making some effort in getting back as opposed to jogging like Luke Shaw did.

Just a few minutes after the goal there was a similar situation with Shaw defending, but the inside was covered by Fred making a sprint to shut down the inside option, like Shaw should've done for Lindelöf.
 

Adam-Utd

Part of first caf team to complete Destiny raid
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
39,954
He shouldn't have been unopposed though he should have had Shaw to contend with. Not hard to understand what he's saying and he's right about that aspect.
If you want to play a high line and push your fullbacks up the pitch this sort of thing will happen.

You think Van Dijk or Matip don't get left 1v1? he handles it absolutely horrendously.
 

criticalanalysis

Full Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
6,310
Yep you're right.
It was brilliant defending letting someone have it on the half way line, jockey him inside for 50metres and score unopposed.

If only people knew as much about football as you ;)
Some people seem to think there's no middle ground between 'shepherding a player 40 yards to your own penalty box' and 'making a rash tackle and not making it'.
 

MonkeysMagic

Full Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
1,928
Location
Euclidean space
Easy to blame the pitch but our passing has been horrific this half and precisely the reason I think despite all ETH efforts, he can’t polish a turd and some of these players are not at a level to be relied upon for a season.
 

mu4c_20le

Full Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
44,308
He will play on right. Last season Ole totally wasted him on left.
He started on the right, was moved to the left because he did nothing on the right. Rashford was moved over to accommodate him.
 

Adamsk7

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
2,718
Have to say, Rashford is working SO hard out there. Pressing all over the pitch