What the feck was that? From a veteran goalkeeper, that is just embarrassing.
Manchester United 2:2 Steven Gerrard's Villa (Sat 23rd July, 10:45 UK time)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Guys, it was a bunch of kids in the second half in which their technical ability could no longer make up for their lack of physical ability. They got dominated physically by a side with a lot more first team players. I don't think this match would've played out this way on a good pitch. We would've kept a lot more control.
Thought the 1st half was really good and the 2nd half was really poor (including before the subs so can't just blame that). Overall 2-2 was a fair result imo. Good to have a tougher test in pre-season. Would be worse if we go into Brighton game without having any difficulties in pre-season. Looking forward to seeing Eriksen and Martinez in next game hopefully.
To be fair, the other games were during the week when people have work. It’s not that surprising that more people see it on a Saturday late morning.so true. It's mainly folk who have been silent during our other preseason games where we've performed really well, and now they're over the moon that they can complain.
If Ten Hag and the players have shown anything this preseason it's that they can get things right if they're coached properly. The set piece mistakes will be trained out of them in the coming days and weeks. We'll keep improving. Calm the feck down.
It’s a single game that largely means absolutely nothing. That first half gave me enough positivity that we’re going somewhere and I’m excited for the ride.
Why Chong is getting minutes ahead of Garnacho baffles me... and is a bit worrying. Cause Chong needs to go, preferably yesterday!
We'd have won if Ronaldo played
Good game. First team
Is quite strong. We need to buy some players to improve our bench.
The pitch was atrocious. Glad we came out of it unscathed. Good run in for the season. Hope we get the signings done asap
Is quite strong. We need to buy some players to improve our bench.
The pitch was atrocious. Glad we came out of it unscathed. Good run in for the season. Hope we get the signings done asap
No. People are being mad at the same old faces doing the same old shit.Are people being mad after this result in a preseason match?
De Gea is a coward of a player.
Concerned we only have 1 striker. We need another for this season. Maybe Ivan Toney?
This is along with a RB and CDM.
This is along with a RB and CDM.
I think that was a good game to watch, lots of goals, we played well in first half, still so much to do but 100% this is better than I have seen in a long long time, yes I know its only pre season. I think Martinez is badly needed on that left side and will probably partner Maguire or Varane. Midfield looks short, Fred and donny didn't work well for me and martial did well despite feeding on scraps. I feel positive about this season, long way to go but if we can improve this much in just 4 weeks, I cannot wait to see how we are around October time when we have an intense set of fixtures.
At last, a good test for our players.
There is no point in winning pre season games comfortably, if the new manager doesn't see how his players cope in pressure situations.
I understand that Ten Hag is trying to implement a new system into the players, and they automatically do the right thing without having to think about it, which, I suppose, is easier against lower class opposition, but today's match will certainly give Ten Hag a good idea of who can perform and who cannot, and in due course, the struggling players will probably get moved on unless they improve dramatically in the next two games.
There is no point in winning pre season games comfortably, if the new manager doesn't see how his players cope in pressure situations.
I understand that Ten Hag is trying to implement a new system into the players, and they automatically do the right thing without having to think about it, which, I suppose, is easier against lower class opposition, but today's match will certainly give Ten Hag a good idea of who can perform and who cannot, and in due course, the struggling players will probably get moved on unless they improve dramatically in the next two games.
January.
Couldn't care less about result. Performance wise, this second half exposed a lot not just the lack of quality from second string. All the talk about improved fitness, and the first string looked like they ran out of gas. Beside the goal, we got done by counter attack, and it's only Aston Villa. The supposed starting CBs pair is not good at 1vs1 defending. Even if they don't make tactical mistake, they're hopeless defending forward running toward he, and cutting inside. Also still don't look like we defend corner well. Not only the goal but another chances too. Under pressure, Fred as no 6 got exposed. Couldn't get away from Aston Villa pressing so either ended up getting tackled or his passed got intercepted. If we can't control the game till the end, in the PL we're getting punished.
Basically all the old issues. We may have improved from last season low point, but not enough to say we're not at very first building phase.
Some of our players are broken, they don't have the mental strength to persevere.
I agree. But with Matic, Lingard and Mata gone and Eriksen the only one to come in (at the midfield), I think Garner will get his chances. Even if we sign De Jong (or an other DCM).
5-2 loss but he’d have scored a great brace
Little bit of pressure from Villa in the second half and they went to shit.Long balls from defence to attack in a panic, the press completely disappeared and defence dropped deeper and deeper.
Just no composure. Also something needs doing about our set plays both in attack and defence, we brought in the set piece coach from Chelsea and we‘ve gone dreadful.
Just no composure. Also something needs doing about our set plays both in attack and defence, we brought in the set piece coach from Chelsea and we‘ve gone dreadful.
Good point about the weekday games, maybe that's what people are missing? We've had a positive preseason tour and not just because of the results.
I agree. I think he’s sticking around unless we sell DVB and bring in another CM.
Our youngsters coming through are not that good unfortunately. Pereira/Januzaj vibes
Cannot take one thing from this game given the conditions. It was only a cardio exercise.
Good because a perfect win record during preseason means we go into the actual season shitting the bed. This is a reminder we're still far away.
Why are we even playing on these dogshit pitches? Hardly ideal preparation for a pl game, the house across the street has been vacant for 18 months and still has better grass than that fecking marshland.
People act like pre-season isn't important, the first 2 games usually aren't but by the 4th/5th game no player is lacking match fitness and the best XI is mostly established as is your opposition's. Losing control like that is something we've seen happen all too often over the last decade and it should be of concern to us that these lot still lack concentration and the same cracks are showing. Yes, the pitch was awful but Villa had no problems knocking it about and neither did we in the first half.
The reality is we're 2 weeks away from the start of the season and we've got 1 new player with us on tour. Eriksen and Martinez haven't had a pre-season and more importantly we still don't have a midfielder which we've needed for about 5 years. Not to mention we're so threadbare up front we're having to play a youth CM as a false 9. I think the signs are more worrying than people make out, to be quite honest.
The reality is we're 2 weeks away from the start of the season and we've got 1 new player with us on tour. Eriksen and Martinez haven't had a pre-season and more importantly we still don't have a midfielder which we've needed for about 5 years. Not to mention we're so threadbare up front we're having to play a youth CM as a false 9. I think the signs are more worrying than people make out, to be quite honest.
Maybe him just being on the ball a lot has influenced my opinion on him in this game, he did make some poor decisions.
Happy enough with that. The manager said before kick off that the players were tired and he wanted to see how they reacted. The pitch and the weather definitely took their toll and with villa bringing on fresh legs in 2 waves before we made any changes, we never got going. Im just glad nobody got injured.
Lots of positives to take away and I still think by the time the window closes we will be even stronger and might look back on that first half team as comparatively weak compared to what we field later in the year.
Lots of positives to take away and I still think by the time the window closes we will be even stronger and might look back on that first half team as comparatively weak compared to what we field later in the year.
Januzaj coming through looked better than all of them did for the first team
This. You just cannot forgive veterans for not learning anything over the years at all.
If a goalkeeper is not willing to fly out and beat everybody for a high ball, then he's in the wrong business.
Spot on.
If Ten Hag and the players have shown anything this preseason it's that they can get things right if they're coached properly. The set piece mistakes will be trained out of them in the coming days and weeks. We'll keep improving. Calm the feck down.
Well what we saw today is what most of have suspected for some time;
DVB does not suit PL
Rashford is getting better but still a long way to go before we get 2017/2019 Marcus.
D De Gea is a short term solution at best to play a high line possession based game he’s just not great with his feet.
Our squad currently maybe 6th or 7th best in PL and that’s debate Villa had far more options from the bench today especially in attacking options, Hanibal played CFW let that sink in.
We still give games away and encourage teams without truly putting them to the sword we can’t strangle the life out of other teams like City and Liverpool do
If A Martial goes Missing and he will, who are we replacing him with from the bench
Fred is improving but he’s never a deep lying playmaker but he’s not a bad back
Up
L Bailey shows you why a left footed inverted winger can win you points in PL , Antony is a must transfer after this game
AWB just needs to go he doesn’t fit ETH system, T Chong as well time to go, he was never a united player
ETH probably doesn’t know his two starting CBs just yet so he needs to decide on that.
Some huge positives as well; Z IQbal future is bright, Malacia looks a good buy, Shaw thrives under competition, J Sancho on fire and Bruno has cut out some of the silly mistakes and Hollywood passes, however we need to get Ronaldo back, bedded in and 2 or 3 marquee signings in asap or we’ll be lucky to get into the top 6!
ETH looks the Don as a coach, however the PL as both pep and Klopp found in their first seasons will test you in ways you never expected and is a true baptism of fire.
DVB does not suit PL
Rashford is getting better but still a long way to go before we get 2017/2019 Marcus.
D De Gea is a short term solution at best to play a high line possession based game he’s just not great with his feet.
Our squad currently maybe 6th or 7th best in PL and that’s debate Villa had far more options from the bench today especially in attacking options, Hanibal played CFW let that sink in.
We still give games away and encourage teams without truly putting them to the sword we can’t strangle the life out of other teams like City and Liverpool do
If A Martial goes Missing and he will, who are we replacing him with from the bench
Fred is improving but he’s never a deep lying playmaker but he’s not a bad back
Up
L Bailey shows you why a left footed inverted winger can win you points in PL , Antony is a must transfer after this game
AWB just needs to go he doesn’t fit ETH system, T Chong as well time to go, he was never a united player
ETH probably doesn’t know his two starting CBs just yet so he needs to decide on that.
Some huge positives as well; Z IQbal future is bright, Malacia looks a good buy, Shaw thrives under competition, J Sancho on fire and Bruno has cut out some of the silly mistakes and Hollywood passes, however we need to get Ronaldo back, bedded in and 2 or 3 marquee signings in asap or we’ll be lucky to get into the top 6!
ETH looks the Don as a coach, however the PL as both pep and Klopp found in their first seasons will test you in ways you never expected and is a true baptism of fire.
Lads it's Australia
Which is why we needed an overhaul that we were sadly never going to get from our cnut owners. The batterings we took last season have definitely traumatised a few of these lads.
Yeah, this is the first full game I saw and there’s reason to be positive, but then again I’m positive about this season anyway. I can definitely see if that’s the first somebody with a more negative outlook sees that they’ll be thinking more of the same.
Even with this game, we do need some kind of negative moments to really use to grow from and stop mistakes. Better to do it now than against Brighton or Liverpool or whoever else we play early doors.
I always feel the same when we spank somebody in the first game.
And was lucky on another corner also.
Yeah, he didn't even try. He's a keeper, he's allowed to just plough through the pack.
Never has, never will.
Don't care about the result as preseason etc, and you can't read a huge amount into anything given the conditions and finishing the game with a midfielder up front, but, even in training, DDG has to be doing better. He let a little bit of physical pressure stop him from competing for a ball he should always be favourite to win. He really needs to harden up. People talk about standing further up instead of parking on the 6 yard line, and his distribution, which is all fair enough - but for me, this stuff is still the biggest issue as teams target it and it makes for a nervous backline.
Pitch was awful and we clearly weren't able to cope with it in the second half. First half was very good. The need for a handful of more physical yet skillful, players was clear in the latter part of the game when conditions woesened. Would have made a world of difference to have an imposing striker up top and some more steele in midfield.
IMO we need a striker (physically strong, good in the air and technically gifted) and two midfielders (Fdj and a strong powerful midfielder) sooner rather than later. We get that in and this team should be able to build up to a good table position and build a solid foundation for the future.
IMO we need a striker (physically strong, good in the air and technically gifted) and two midfielders (Fdj and a strong powerful midfielder) sooner rather than later. We get that in and this team should be able to build up to a good table position and build a solid foundation for the future.
why do our players shit the bed the minute the opposition have a go. we saw it time and again last season, we stop doing the basics and panic sets in. wheras a couple of seasons ago, it was the opposite with the players needing to be behind in games before turning up?
I'm gonna blame the pitch for most of the sloppy performance. You could tell it was impossible to move the ball properly.
Glad we had a tough game like this so we don't think everything is rosey and push back on bringing in more addition.
Glad we had a tough game like this so we don't think everything is rosey and push back on bringing in more addition.
It's unfair. Villa is clearly trained for matches where they are expected to slip a lot. The manager is an expert at slipology.