One of those days.. or do we lack the character to put teams away

[Raees]

Do we have enough of a winning mindset/composure under pressure/ruthlessness in key individuals in our attack to get the ball across the line or was it just bad luck?

Will we see more Burnley/Stoke type results.. and if certain individuals are lacking cutting edge, what do we do about it?

 

[Randall Flagg]

No there are problems, it's one league win from the last whatever

Severe lack of goals recently

If this game occurred in the middle of a good run, it would be just one of those days

 

[J-Stander]

Ibra hasn't scored in ages, Rashford hasn't scored in ages, Lingard scores about 1 in 20. Mata pops up with goals but not enough to save us time and time again. We don't have enough regular goal scorers. Some good play and chances created but no fecker puts them away.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

One of those days, but these type of days are starting to happen too often. Well, they seem like the do anyway.

 

[Moonred]

It was one of those days but we do lack cutting edge in general. Over the last few years, we seem to only be capable of doing one good thing at a time.

It has lot to do with confidence and rhythm in general.

Today was one very weird day.

 

[JoaquinJoaquin]

I said it in the match thread but we are basically like the Liverpool sides of previous years that cannot put these teams to bed. And for that reason we will finish around 6th this season.

 

[JeffBoomTetris]

I'd say bad luck.

If anything, the way the lads still went on after going down to 10 men showed me that there's plenty of character.

Great defensive performance by Burnley too. Heaton was this week's edition of Friedel

 

[NYAS]

This whole concept of "one of those days" is the most bullshit thing.

You don't win, there are no excuses. It's that simple.

 

[The Black Pearl]

It's a normal day

 

[Scarecrow]

How does character help strike the ball better? We had 37 shots, there was nothing wrong with our attitude.

 

[bosnian_red]

3rd game we've played against "easy" opposition where we should have hammered them, 3rd game we created the chances to do so and the 3rd game in which we failed to take them. Against Hull to be fair, we at least got the win in the 94th minute but it falls in the same category. Chance after chance created, no composure to finish. Against Stoke Martial gave us the breakthrough but then we threw it away. And then now today. You can't put it down to bad luck when it happens in 3 out of 3 games against shit opposition in the league.

 

[Catt]

Shite finishing and we need to improve. But....we do play well and create chances wich we mostly haven't done for 3 years.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

One of those days, but these type of days are starting to happen too often. Well, they seem like the do anyway.

These days? As in the last two home games?

 

[Son Of Sam]

I don't believe in luck. We failed to score because of poor finishing. That match could have continued till Christmas and the result wouldn't have changed. Stick Ruud in his prime upfront today and he would have gotten a double hatrick.

Putting the ball in the net is a skill set. I really don't think any of our current players possess that skill set in abundance. It seems the finishing is too predictable. The system or the tactical input is working.....unfortunately, we don't have the personnel to finish.

 

[JON.B]

Lack of balance, lack of cohesion and low on confidence, get it all to click and we could be brilliant.. only problem is will we ever manage it?

 

[kouroux]

When something happens a bit often (chances missed), it's not a "one of those days". Something is truly not working at the moment.

 

[DevilRed]

Shite finishing and we need to improve. But....we do play well and create chances wich we mostly haven't done for 3 years.

At home maybe. Thats to be expected and I think teams purposely sit back and dare us to break them down, knowing we full well wont be able to.

However if youre talking about playing away we are pretty bad.

If only we would actually give Rashford/Martial a chance upfront. We'd score more goals. Thats not even to say that Ibra wont play his way back in the team. Im sure he will, but at this moment lets actually try to play with some unpredictability and pace.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

These days? As in the last two home games?

Yes. This is why I said it seems like it. Nearly happened against Hull too.

 

[The White Pele]

I don't think it's a lack of character just chances falling to players without the right qualities.

As talented as Zlatan is I've never been confident of him putting away the easy chances. Mata is generally a good finisher but missed a couple today. Rashford didn't have anything clear cut today and Lingard is not a clinical player.

 

[JustAFan]

How many "one of those days" do we have before it becomes jusy who we are?

 

[donkeyfish]

Mata hitting the post, Ibra hitting the bar. Thats bad luck.

Ibra scissor kick was great keeping.

Some of their last minute blocks, of which there were many, is great defending. Arguably we could be sharper in some of these.

Ibra miss towards the end, Rooney miss, Lingard shot etc. Thats poor finishing.

In summary, a little bit of all. There were so many chances, I probably don't remember them all.

 

[Chorley1974]

One of those days is just absolute horse. All sorts of reasons for this malaise, the squad isn't what Maureen would have picked, and the players are mentally weak. I'd give Maureen a few more windows to try and get this right.

 

[Kush]

Depends if you want to just assess today's performance alone or our last 7 in the PL. Just look at the league table and our GD is plus 1, for any club with aspirations of making CL let alone winning the league these are signs of massive problems. We just don't look like we've got goals in us, in games we do score we rarely look like we'll slaughter the opposition. It eventually reflects in our play where players think it's just not going to go in.

Jose needs to pick an XI which consists of his best players and which give us more chance of scoring goals, at the moment we have such little quality in final third. Only sparks we see is when Mata is on the pitch and Jose doesn't fancy him much.

 

[AXVnee7]

We're a fantastic team. It's just that the few things that we're bad out cancel out the many things we are good at. Our keeper is fantastic, our best back 4 is rock solid, our midfield is fantastic and very creative, dynamic, physical and diverse. We have plenty of pace and flair in Martial, Lingard, Rashford and Mkhi (even if he's not playing). However we have a fragile mentality, and a weak strike force, and this undoes everything. Our biggest problem right now is a severe lack of goals compared to the chances we're creating.

 

[SirMattBugsby]

It's not about a bad day or character. Our attack is way too one-dimensional, especially without Mata.

We rely too much on crosses, dead ball situations and individual skill which makes it hard against teams defending deep like Burnley and Hull. The only team goal I can remember right now is Mata against Leicester.

We need more of that creativity and penetration in central attacking areas to unlock defences. Tbh it was a problem last season as well, just in a different system.

 

[RedFish]

You don't win feck all when you don't finish teams off like today. Played well but agonisingly just a bit short in terms of killer instinct.

 

[PlayerOne]

Happens so often, so it't not one of those days. It's a regular thing with us, you never know who's going to score.

 

[Red Viking]

We're a fantastic team. It's just that the few things that we're bad out cancel out the many things we are good at. Our keeper is fantastic, our best back 4 is rock solid, our midfield is fantastic and very creative, dynamic, physical and diverse. We have plenty of pace and flair in Martial, Lingard, Rashford and Mkhi (even if he's not playing). However we have a fragile mentality, and a weak strike force, and this undoes everything. Our biggest problem right now is a severe lack of goals compared to the chances we're creating.

No offense but you are not a fantastic team when you´re placed 8 and possibly 9 tomorrow. Taking your chances is a quality that sets you apart from average players who need more chances to score a goal.

 

[predator]

I genuinely think teams sit back against us more than any other team. However that may be bullshit aswell. Even if this is true though we should be scoring. The finishing today was awful.

 

[Dobbs]

Nah that was a very good performance today. Nothing wrong with the character there.

It wasn't a typical United performance. We'd normally fizzle out, resort to long ball by the 70th minute.

Today we played some genuinely good stuff.

Bad luck, good goalkeeping and maybe three poor finishes.

 

[Catt]

At home maybe. Thats to be expected and I think teams purposely sit back and dare us to break them down, knowing we full well wont be able to.

However if youre talking about playing away we are pretty bad.

If only we would actually give Rashford/Martial a chance upfront. We'd score more goals. Thats not even to say that Ibra wont play his way back in the team. Im sure he will, but at this moment lets actually try to play with some unpredictability and pace.

At home we have been able to break teams down but our finishing is awful. Not breaking teams down is struggling to create chances.

Away from home is another story all together.

 

[Suv666]

The inclusion of Mkhi is hurting us. RW has been a problematic area for ages, if Mou didnt fancy Mkhi he should have atleast bought another winger, our play is too narrow at times we need pacy tricky wingers who can beat a man, even Mkhi and Martial arent proper wingers why the feck the past 3 mangers keep ignoring the fact that we dont we any wide men is beyond me

 

[ReDDHDevilS]

Today was one of those days but the games before that weren't. Heaton probably played the game of his life as well as us hitting the post and both Ibra and Rooney being awful in front of the goal.

When our main ST is missing sitters and tap-ins in almost every single game, we can't just blame luck. What's even worse is, the guy hasn't been subbed off for once!

 

[pixel]

Its our strikers who are letting us down.

 

[sammsky1]

How does character help strike the ball better? We had 37 shots, there was nothing wrong with our attitude.

Our problem is we have a 35 year old prima dona who thinks he's shit hot but actually he us just shit.

 

[DevilRed]

At home we have been able to break teams down but our finishing is awful. Not breaking teams down is struggling to create chances.

Away from home is another story all together.

Trying to be optimistic. But surely we need to at least score a goal at home. Sometimes it comes down to willpower and mentality. How badly do these guys want it? Guys like Ibra have not shown the leadership and winning mentality expected of them. Very lackadaisical and nonchalant.

They need to treat each game like a cup final. We just arent good enough to coast against ANY team.

 

[anant]

You can't give that excuse of one of those days when this thing has happened twice in the last 5-6 games(after Stoke). We barely managed to score against Hull. Scored just 1 vs Zorya in EL when you'd have expected us to score 3-4. We are far to inconsistent in front of goal. We score 4 vs Leicester and Galatasaray but fail to score against teams like Burnley or score just 1 vs Stoke, Zorya, Watford, Hull and the likes

 

[Catt]

Trying to be optimistic. But surely we need to at least score a goal at home. Sometimes it comes down to willpower and mentality. How badly do these guys want it? Guys like Ibra have not shown the leadership and winning mentality expected of them. Very lackadaisical and nonchalant.

They need to treat each game like a cup final. We just arent good enough to coast against ANY team.

We kind of have to look for positives and the style of play at times this season's been very good.
We need to build on that, continue to play this way, and start taking 3 points.

It'd be much worse if we had 3 - 4 shots a game and didn't create chances.

 

[Bobcat]

This game was a rare occurence of "one of those days" + their defense and keeper playing the game of the season + our players being wasteful + the ref being a twunt.

The people who are getting the knives out and start demanding heads are rolling, try to remember last season

Yes, we are in a bad place right now, 8 points from the top and what not, but we created 37(!) chances today, 11 shots on goal. Under LVG, we would be fortunate to have those numbers in the span of five games

I'm still pissed (and so is the missus because i happened to devour a bottle of rather expensive wine in the second half) but we have had our share of bad luck this season and by now things can only get better (right ?)

 

[shaggy]

Absolutely not. Our last game was a 4-0 defeat to Chelsea.

We're playing better football but still the manager is making bizarre decisions.