On a side note, why was Smalling put at RB again FFS and what's with this bringing the whole pissing team back for set-pieces?
Moyes So Far!
- Thread starter RedTillI'mDead
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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?
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No, but we can blame him for the fecking dark ages football that we are playing. It's a windy day in Stoke, so how what do we do? We play continual long balls, that's what. If this is the way we're going to move forward, then we may as well play fecking Fellaini up front.
And seriously we must be the only team that needs an injury (and thus a substitution) to play the lineup that we should've been playing in the first place (ie. Rafael at RB, not Smalling - who by the way, seems incapable of not playing a simple pass behind his intended target - so fecking infuriating.)
As for the goal, it's high time that Michael Carrick grew a set. That was Nasri-esque.
At some point it stops being bad luck and starts being ineptitude, although I feel like today it's mostly the bad luck thing. And Stoke. Sometimes it's also Stoke.
He has been unlucky but heard that Rio was fit, so to leave him out seemed an unnecessary risk, even if loosing two cb's was very unlucky. Still think though that we needed to set up with one of Rooney/RVP deeper but oh well, will have to see what happens in the second.
Bad luck and all that, but there's lots and lots of things we're doing wrong today.
- Wing-play, crosses and hoofball are the only styles Stoke can defend. So naturally it's exactly what we're doing.
- Ashley Young is only good at crossing from an angle. So naturally we have him on the corners and Rooney on the angled free-kicks from the right.
- Stoke are awful at defending on the break. So naturally we have all 11 men back for corners.
- We're struggling to maintain possession in the middle. So naturally when one of our two decent midfielders gets moved, the one on the bench stays there and we put a forward there in his stead.
- Wing-play, crosses and hoofball are the only styles Stoke can defend. So naturally it's exactly what we're doing.
- Ashley Young is only good at crossing from an angle. So naturally we have him on the corners and Rooney on the angled free-kicks from the right.
- Stoke are awful at defending on the break. So naturally we have all 11 men back for corners.
- We're struggling to maintain possession in the middle. So naturally when one of our two decent midfielders gets moved, the one on the bench stays there and we put a forward there in his stead.
But he doesn't make things easier for himself, does he?
He favours Welbeck over Fletcher, and now has two players playing out of position!
If Fletch isn't fit enough for 45 mins of football he shouldn't be on the bench at all.
He favours Welbeck over Fletcher, and now has two players playing out of position!
If Fletch isn't fit enough for 45 mins of football he shouldn't be on the bench at all.
maybe because we're playing a team full of tall and physical goons, and he thought a midget right back might not help?
Did Fergie not often leave Rafael out of the Stoke game.
Don't understand why Smalling who has been our best CB in the last 2 games is getting shunted back out there though.
I don't understand it, usually a consistent back two is something people feel is important in football. No? Finally we get Smalling and Evans together, playing relatively well for the last two matches and then we switch it up again. Not a lot we can do not with the Evans injury mind.
He's caught several. Van Persie, Jones (X3), Fellaini, Carrick, Rooney, Rafael, Vidic etc. etc.
hardly. Nasri turned his back, Carrick tried to deflect it. Imagine if he'd just left it and it'd have flown in.
Add to this Juan Mata on the right-wing in a 4-4-2 is a fecking terrible idea.
Yeah, but it's because of the inevitable bad luck days like today (still augmented by some awful tactics, I must say,) that you can't afford to get it so continually wrong on other days. Every team has bad luck; good ones don't need it as an excuse.
If we don't win today then a top 4 place looks very unlikely. I fancy Liverpool to win tomorrow and 9 points will be too big a gap to catch.
Of course. He's not to blame for bad luck. I'm not sure about van Persie's fitness, but generally, we've had bad luck with injuries. He is to blame for the shite football we've produced all season though, and for the team's mentality. I just don't see how he's going to change that. It would be a huge change.
Yeah, I was bemoaning that too. Should have figured that one out in the first 5 minutes.
He should've been trying to block. Hence the need to grow a set. Nasri-esque.
If some of you don't understand why he's put welbeck on instead of fletcher then theres no hope for you.
Doesn't get a penalty from van Persie being blatantly fouled in the box. Then Walters goes down very easily by the same sort of grapple, and Adam gets an incredibly lucky deflection. This game is cursed as well as Moyes. But to be fair, our attack has been lacking as usual.
I'm telling you guys though, Rooney, Mata, RVP and Januzaj have serious fecking potential to be absolutely murderous on the counter. I don't understand why we haven't kept it on the deck, we've looked good when we have before reverting back to type.
Ashley is more than capable of playing on the right to allow mata to play on the left! Very frustrated that this hasn't even been tried.
One thing we can surely agree on: with the addition of Mata, and the return of Rooney and RVP. Moyes has no excuses not to finish this season strongly. Doesn't look encouraging so far.
Yeah I agree completely on that. He's had his fair share of bad luck, but it wouldn't be the first time. I can remember Fergie having similar spells where we had bad luck with injuries at the back, and in some years we were still successful.
Even today, while we've had bad luck the overall standard of the football has still been fairly poor and unimaginative.
I'm betting that we'll rarely see those 4 on the pitch together, except in desperate, chasing-the-game situations (in which, Moyes will still likely opt for Welbeck.)
If the performances don't come with Rooney, van Persie and Mata all fit then we'll have to start asking serious questions of Moyes' suitability to the job. First half with the three and they looked okay.
Nah we will.
The problems comes defensively and in midfield though, which should've been addressed no matter how good a signing Mata is. While he's an excellent player, we're already strong in attack. Buying Mata isn't going to solve the midfield problems, nor will it significantly improve our defensive problems. We should improve with him in attack, but personnel wise attack wasn't really an area we had to worry about in the first place.
But I think everyone would acknowledge, Moyes included, that their positions were never the problem.
Just need to keep the ball on the deck.
Hope you're right.
Jesus...we won mata's first match comfortably, and we're losing to a deflected goal at HT and lost both our CBs. There's still 45 fecking minutes to go!!!
Moyes' tactics
Because Moyes' tactics dictate otherwise. We will never see the kind of free flowing football we all crave under Moyes.
Whose putting everything down to it?
Conceding a massively deflected own goal and loosing 2 CBs in a half is bad luck FFS.
I agree. While I'm thrilled with signing Mata (you can never have enough quality,) I still don't think we did enough. We need to address midfield and LB. Desperately.
True. Problems which existed before aren't going to just go away with this signing unfortunately, which is why I'm not sure we're going to significantly improve.
Here we go with the excuses. How many opportunities have we carved out against a truly dire Stoke side? And before anyone complains about the conditions, keep in mind that we're playing football that plays right into the hands of Stoke (ie. hoofball.)
I guess the comment about comparing him with a dog threw me...Who's blaming him? I was pointing out the abysmal luck he's had?
I guess we will have to agree to disagree, I think this whole comment about how we play football from the dark ages is getting old. We've had some good possession today and quick passing which hasn't resulted in clear cut chances but its hardly bad football.
This season we've not played well and you can see we are trying to get the ball down and play but Stoke (in typical fashion) are making it difficult.
The issue for me right now is that we're trying to get the ball forward far too quickly and when we don't we resort to crossing it in, just keep it on the deck and keep the ball. I understand the coaches and manager might tell players to do something but at the end of the day the players pick the passes and if all they can do is what the manager tells them then we have big issues.
I'm just imagining what someone like a Guaridola or a Klopp would set this team up with RVP, rooney mata et al.
Anyway, feck it, we're stuck with Moyes so we HAVE to back him. Lets hope the team can turn this around 2nd half.
Anyway, feck it, we're stuck with Moyes so we HAVE to back him. Lets hope the team can turn this around 2nd half.
I think we'll see Mata's true quality, once the other problems have been addressed. That's why he was a great signing.
Didn't have to wait long for that!
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