Our Finishing

[Mickson]

Rashford miss against Chelsea when 1 on 1 with keeper still keeps replaying on my head.

A shot from outside the box. 0.03 xG for that one. We are the third most clinical team in the league.

 

[Verminator]

I'd just like to add a little perspective to this and similar debates.
At the rates that games are coming, there is precious little time available to work on individual skills, and coach players on the finer points.
This shouldn't be a problem with experienced pros, but for the younger lads, or those learning new roles, it can be very important.

It also adds to the disappointment that the most serious problems are coming from defence, where the players are experienced, and embedded in familiar roles.
They should need the least one to one coaching, and yet, they aren't getting the basics right.

 

[Zen86]

I feel a lot of people are pissed with the result, as we have beaten them 4 times in a row prior too yesterday and they haven't beaten us since the dark days of LVG in 2014, and we have won 9 and drew just 3 times in the years since and now (some) people are making out like we got a draw against 2010/11 prime Barca with the result.

The overreacting on here gets worse and worse. It’s never that we were just plain unlucky with a result, a draw of course must signify issues with coaching, the way we play, and other such nonsense.

 

[united_99]

Wrong. I was insulted and prefer to respond. Another who has it upside down. One doesn't have to live in these arbitrary extremes. Being able to control football matches doesn't mean you have to play like LVG's United. This is the second time that's come up and it shows how warped some views are on possession football. Having to chose between the two, I prefer watching teams that go for aggressive approach, however, it is important that, no matter what approach you take, you're coached into being excellent on the ball, as two/there passes won't always score you a goal. It's how every great team builds it's foundation - to be able to win matches through both control and initiative. Which you choose to do more of them is up to the situation and preference of the manger. But these are basics and for some reason it's offending many. As if, possession play is some distasteful evil that must never be mentioned. We aren't Mourinho FC (I refer to his disdain for "pretty" football) this is Manchester United.

You are talking about not having to live in extremes but then you are mentioning Mourinho FC.
Not every team which plays possession football plays it the way Pep does.
And not every team which plays counter attacking football plays it the way Jose does.
And not every team which plays attacking football plays it the way Wenger did.

For you it all comes down to the fact that you just don’t like / rate Ole so you won’t admit we are improving. Hell you even managed to downplay his achievements and importance as a player in another thread a few weeks ago.
In the end it has never been and it will never be as simple as possession vs counterattack. What I want us to focus on is attack. By that I don’t mean we go all gung ho and just play only one of McT or Fred against good teams (like some posters want us to do). Neither of those are good enough on their own against good opposition.
Some possession managers are actually defensive managers and I don’t feel they play attacking football.
Where I feel you are right is that we need to improve our passing / ball control, but no coach in the world is going to turn Fred or McT or even Pogba in Scholes, Keane or Carrick. That leads us back to better recruitment (responsibility of manager and board). I am not claiming that Ole can’t improve our coaching, but I feel we have already improved (and hopefully with a couple of additions and a full pre season / more time to properly train together will further improve).
It’s obvious that with Scholes and Keane you will be dominating possession, but our aim even back then was direct and attacking football. I would say this is similar to what we are trying now, but back then we had one of the best managers ever and better players.
Now back to present: I believe we are trying to be an attacking side. But somehow if we win the ball and try to counter attack it is seen as something negative by some fans. Maybe we should pass the ball back to DDG, be so nice and let the other team reorganise and then decide to attack to prove a point.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

A shot from outside the box. 0.03 xG for that one. We are the third most clinical team in the league.

We were also the third best defence last year. We are still someway short of having a good defence.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

The overreacting on here gets worse and worse. It’s never that we were just plain unlucky with a result, a draw of course must signify issues with coaching, the way we play, and other such nonsense.

We aren't exactly Brazil 1970 mate.

 

[Mickson]

We were also the third best defence last year. We are still someway short of having a good defence.

But our defense was better overall last season, which the stats show.

 

[flappyjay]

You can't win anything if you have to score 3 goals every weak to win. We got knocked out out of the ucl because we needed to score 3 to draw with Leipzig.

 

[Zen86]

We aren't exactly Brazil 1970 mate.

Is that the expectation?

 

[The United]

Klopp would dominate and win against shite teams like WBA or something.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

It still needs work. When you get the chances, you take them. Otherwise you miss opportunities.

 

[Samid]

We can't hit a barn door.

 

[Pexbo]

When Ronaldo turns into Werner you know there’s some voodoo shit going down

 

[El Zoido]

The club is cursed.

 

[Samid]

Hit the fecking target for feck sake

 

[horsechoker]

Seriously

 

[Paul778]

laughable

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Our best finisher is going to jail and the others are refusing to hit the target.

 

[Judge Red]

As aggravating as their goal is, it should have been a consolation one. If we go out tonight it’s because of the sloppy finishing.

 

[Ayoba]

It's shocking!

 

[Irwin99]

Bruno, Ronnie and Rashford really need to get back in form. Some of the decision making from all of them has been infuriating.

Bruno had a chance where he could have easily taken a touch but chose to volley it and missed an open goal; Ronnie and Rashford both had shots where it was easier to square it.

 

[MacGlock88]

The opposite of a shooting masterclass tonight.
How to miss fantastic opportunities, and the best was to rue properly.

 

[Yagami]

Problem is, if our starting forwards are having an off day, our go-to super sub is Elanga. Unless Cavani is fit, which is rare. That, and not adding to the midfield, is going to cost us another season.

 

[Beachryan]

But we have a striker who is totally worth the fact he contributes nothing because he's the best finisher in the world?

 

[Samid]

I know the refs are fecking us over tonight with the disallowed goals but we're still missing so many good chances.

 

[Samid]

This is fecking shambolic. Time to start deducting wages.

 

[L1nk]

The annoying thing is we're playing some great football and getting into fantastic positions to score, and yet these players still can't score from sitters, it's absolutely shocking. Not sure what Ralf can do to remedy this situation

 

[MiceOnMeth]

The annoying thing is we're playing some great football and getting into fantastic positions to score, and yet these players still can't score from sitters, it's absolutely shocking. Not sure what Ralf can do to remedy this situation

Convince the board to break the bank and sign Haaland in the summer

 

[ManchesterManchester]

The finishing should come from having a great striker. If you remember when we had Ruud or RVP, sometimes in a game you only get one chance and these players never disappointed.

Ronaldo is our only main striker now that we have lost Greenwood. He isn’t clinical enough at 37, he looks on course to get 20 goals this season. He’s great and I hope he stays but we desperately need a striker at the peak of his powers. We aren’t Man City and don’t have a world class squad to play without a 30 plus goal a season striker.

 

[bosnian_red]

It'll come around... But we're just missing so many sitters

 

[arnie_ni]

Just seen the Bruno chances. Very poor.

 

[Jippy]

It'll come around... But we're just missing so many sitters

Should do if we keep creating chances like we have been. You're just waiting for that sucker punch though...

 

[M Bison]

If we had a lethal no 9 , a prime RVP for example, we'd be such a stronger side. I think we had Greenwood earmarked for that position, but its going to take some significant investment now, and not easy managing Ronnie's situation.

 

[ForeverRed1]

Convince the board to break the bank and sign Haaland in the summer

Why not go for kane? One year left on contract, is very very open to leave. Levy has to sell him this summer or lose him for nothing the next. He would be awesome for us I think. There isn’t a better striker with a better pass of the ball so I think he’d work really well with Ronnie. Still only 28 so got another 4-5 years at top level.

 

[Bastian]

This is fecking shambolic. Time to start deducting wages.

Yeah, I'm not really that far off thinking the same. It's criminal to blow these chances.

 

[I’m loving my life]

This has been utterly ridiculous. Why are our players so wasteful?

 

[Beachryan]

Not wanting to say we're a badly run club, but I think we're spending c. 750k a WEEK on strikers that either can't play or can't score.

 

[MadDogg]

Why not go for kane? One year left on contract, is very very open to leave. Levy has to sell him this summer or lose him for nothing the next. He would be awesome for us I think. There isn’t a better striker with a better pass of the ball so I think he’d work really well with Ronnie. Still only 28 so got another 4-5 years at top level.

If City go for him again he's definitely going there, but if they decide to go for somebody else then there's actually a fair chance of that happening.

 

[Red Rash]

The strange thing is last season Bruno, Ronaldo, Rashford were scoring a lot of goals. This season they are really struggling for goals.

 

[VinzentFTW]

We are crack period. No need to analyse