[Dylan94]

Starting to - unfortunately - think that Mata isn't all that.

 

[Deleted member 78215]

To sum up:

- Hernandez is just an incredibly mediocre footballer
- Rooney once again proves he cannot compete with top strikers as a single striker
- Our midfield both Herrera and Fletcher's passing was sloppy as feck (and this defiantly isn't the first time for Herrera)
- 352 is a system that is to safe and is a cock block for attacking wingers, 433 is a system which is perfect but we don't have the players to make it work (also due injuries).
- Our defense is shockingly bad like always, and what even shocked me more is that LvG allowed our centre backs to launch balls forward like a true English team. Either Smalling is going to get the belt, or LvG saw no other chances to build up from midfield (which should be a major concern for him then)

There are few top strikers, if any, who suffer the same lack of support as Rooney. Having a midfield worthy of a 6th place team does not help at all.

 

[villain]

Rooney needs to be braver, I'd much rather he took long shots like he used to than just needlessly pass it out wide.

Let it fly Rooney!

 

[Walrus]

I said it before (in this thread) and I will say it again - we were toothless in attack. Mata and Hernandez did nothing, Rooney did very little. Blame the defence all you want but in 90 minutes we barely put them under any serious pressure despite having the majority of the ball.

Blame the "average" players like Smalling and Fellaini but it was the supposedly strong attack that lost the game for us, in my book.

 

[Mister_Stubbs]

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I said before the game I feared for us in defense today. We didn't even have much to do but what we did have to do they did it badly.

 

[Someone]

The mood on MUTV is telling, everyone putting pressure on the club to spend.

 

[Crackers]

Dear god that was awful. We need to sign players. Woodward has got to get his act together.

 

[sammsky1]

Some overly harsh or unrealistic expectations here:

We are missing 3 or 4 key players, and also hoping for 2 major new acquisitions.

Still should have been good enough to get some points but we will remain a work in progress til at least after the winter transfer window.

May as well get used to that fact.

 

[LonelyFire]

Zero pace in the attack. Defence we all know about but the lack of quality in creating chances is worrying. Mata was non existent in that game - he needs to stand up and influence things.

Ps. Fletcher was fecking awful

 

[Kill 'em all]

So make some top signings, whining about a problem we already knew isn't going to help us. We lack players like Fabregas, Di Maria, Sanchez and Hazard, the type of players that win you games.

 

[Godfather]

Was ridiculed for saying it this week, but the squad is an absolute state. The club is an absolute fecking shambles when it comes to the players we have. We played a substandard winger at left back, a centre half ended up at right back, Fletcher stayed on despite offering nothing and we had a chronic lack of pace. Only Januzaj offered something a bit different.

The worst United squad I've ever seen.

I agree.
Injuries haven't helped but that's not an excuse for the showing they put us on a plate today. Absolutely shocking performance and I feel that this season could end similarily to last year's if we don't inject pure qualitiy into that team in the right places!

 

[Livewire1974]

Woodward has got to get his act together.

Woodward has to go.

 

[justboy68]

I said it before (in this thread) and I will say it again - we were toothless in attack. Mata and Hernandez did nothing, Rooney did very little. Blame the defence all you want but in 90 minutes we barely put them under any serious pressure despite having the majority of the ball.

Blame the "average" players like Smalling and Fellaini but it was the supposedly strong attack that lost the game for us, in my book.

I agree completely. We should be scoring more than one goal against teams like Swansea at home when we have 65% possession. The attack (which contains most of our bigger players) deserve just as much criticism if not more than the defence.

 

[Slevs]

I'm seriously still baffled as to what Fletcher did that was so good for Herrera to come off and not him. He was awful the entire game. Offered nothing but 180 turns and passes backwards.

 

[Orton]

Despite LVG's arrival, Rooney remains so one-dimensional with his auto-pilot ball out to the right flank regardless of the position he's in. Not only is it predictable, but it basically omits Mata from the build-up.

He basically failed every time he tried it today.

 

[Feed Me]

Starting to - unfortunately - think that Mata isn't all that.

He's a passenger. £40m wasted on a player we don't need.

 

[RoadTrip]

The thing is people seem to be surprised when others comment on our squad being average.

If we're being brutally honest, our defence is midtable standard. Our midfield is midtable standard. Up front is our only saving grace. Where do you expect us to finish with such a bang average squad? Just having the name Manchester United on your jersey isn't good enough to win you titles anymore.

Honestly, this is so true. I'd go further though. Our defence has potential to improve, but as at today's quality, it's bottom half of the table.

As for midfield, I can think of at least 6 teams who have a better midfield than us, both in squad depth and first team.

Wide players, we are mid table.

Up front, yes we have quality, but it's not exactly any different to the other big clubs. Might be a saving grace but not unique.

This team needs investment. Not to just improve, but to simply function.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Silly mistakes cost you at the back, and Fellaini should have came on for Fletcher. Mata needs to be more involved instead of STILL playing it out wide at every given opportunity, although Herrera was trying to play through balls to them on occasions. The long balls to the strikers need to be cut down too.

At least he tried to do it. If you keep trying something will come off. Taking Herrera instead of Fletcher was baffling. Hopefully this has made LvG's mind up about who is going and he will tell Woodward straight to get those signings done.

 

[Crackers]

If we sign one more CB of a very decent quality we'll probably make fourth. If we don't, I don't think we will. Signing a top quality holding midfielder on top of that would probably solidify 4th place for us.

 

[Aporkalypse]

Starting to - unfortunately - think that Mata isn't all that.

That's nonsense. What he does need, and what the team needs, is a strong midfield. Herrera can't do it all on his own, Fletcher is backup at best.

 

[DocRockter]

In the end we had what, five players playing in their preferred position?.. Now train a week, get some players back and get back in it.. Swansea played well and they made good subs when they needed to. Would had been interesting to see more of Lingard, hopefully it's nothing serious..

 

[Señor]

Woodward is an absolute muppet and needs sacking regardless of what happens this summer. He's proved to be incapable of his job two summers in a row.

 

[El-Manos]

I have a feeling Van Gaal will just buy one defender and that's it. We are going to fail miserably if that's the case. Everybody on MUTV today agreed that major reinforcements are needed and we lack world-class players at the moment.

 

[entropy]

We're a mid-table team.

We were a mid-table team last season and have done nothing to improve. You can get Van Gaal in but when you're stuck with someone like Fletcher as your midfield engine, opposition teams will be laughing.

We weren't that bad. We have been shite defensively for too long and today proved that.I think everyone including the players were optimistic about going into our first game. I am surprised that we did not make most of our pre season momentum. LvG is famous for not having a great start to his league campaigns, so I expect better things to come in the future. I am more worried for our defense than our midfield.

 

[Silverman]

I think we need to go for a 4-3-3.

---------------------------------De Gea
--------------------Rafael----Jones----Evans----Shaw
------------------------------Vidal----Herrera
----------------------------------Mata
--------Cuadrado/Di Maria----Rooney/v.Persie----Januzaj

We also need a top class CB if Jones or Smalling don't quickly prove themselves more.

As regards Vidal and Cuadrado/Di Maria, they are all signable so there should be no excuses.

 

[Mister Ed]

For all the lamenting about defence and midfield, it was our attack which was disappointing and completely toothless. In the first half, Mata and Hernandez were completely anonymous and Rooney wasnt much better.

Our attack wasn't great but it did the job, we scored one, we could have and should have scored one or two more, especially at the end we got a clear penalty disallowed.

But the defence was just horrible. Outplayed at times by fecking swansea and conceded two goals by making basic errors again. Midfield doesn't help out either, losing so many balls they expose the defence and they don't manage to set up chances for our attackers.

 

[Crackers]

Woodward has to go.

That's not going to happen though. He's a trusted advisor to the glaziers. They'll keep him around yet.

 

[RoadTrip]

There are few top strikers, if any, who suffer the same lack of support as Rooney. Having a midfield worthy of a 6th place team does not help at all.

6th place? Very generous, our midfield is firmly in midtable.

 

[Trigg]

Starting to - unfortunately - think that Mata isn't all that.

He's a good player but unfortunately he does seem to disappear at times. Playing in his best position we need an hell of a lot more from him and he needs to make a much bigger impact on the game.

 

[bosnian_red]

We were in control of the game but we weren't exactly doing much, Fellaini was awful aye but you've got our vice captain next to him who was much worse all game. The problem is we're relying on these players in our midfield who just aren't up to it at the level we want to be at.

Well I thought Herrera actually did well. Didn't help Mata did feck all the entire game as well. Also, Hernandez doesn't suit the team and style of play. I'm not worried as the goals we conceded were pretty much both just lapses in concentration and getting caught on the break, which wouldn't happen if we had Shaw and Evans there IMO. Or even just Shaw.

 

[Danny1982]

I'm going to give a very controversial opinion here and say, that was only one game. Just to remind everybody, we won our first game last season, and we lost our first game the season before.

 

[adexkola]

Vent frustrations here

Its feels like shit. I dont want to watch any more football this weekend

Speak for yourself... I can't wait for more footy

 

[Kostur]

There are few top strikers, if any, who suffer the same lack of support as Rooney. Having a midfield worthy of a 6th place team does not help at all.

Neither does having no first touch.

 

[Orton]

That's nonsense. What he does need, and what the team needs, is a strong midfield. Herrera can't do it all on his own, Fletcher is backup at best.

A strong midfield with defenders who have the balls to actually pass to them.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Yeah because we were so great before that weren't we?

We had just scored, we had the momentum. Why change it?

 

[KiD MoYeS]

We're heading down the Liverpool road I'm afraid.

 

[Raees]

I like that idea, I find it oddly cheering. However unlikely.

His rhetoric of late leads me to think, he is not happy at all with our work in the transfer market. Furthermore this game as bad as we were was definitely within our grasp, we had momentum and Herrera was just about getting into his stride.

I also refuse to believe he thinks Hernandez and Fellaini have a future at this club.

 

[BD]

Starting to - unfortunately - think that Mata isn't all that.

He's clearly a very good player, one of the best in the league on form. We've just been playing like shit since he signed. If we play like every other top team, i.e attacking through the middle and the wings, he'll flourish.

 

[Godfather]

That's nonsense. What he does need, and what the team needs, is a strong midfield. Herrera can't do it all on his own, Fletcher is backup at best.

Oh really? That didnt count for Kagawa then I guess?

 

[NinjaZombie]

Why did we sub in Fellaini for Herrera? Why? That was the most upsetting thing about this game.

 

[RoadTrip]

I said it before (in this thread) and I will say it again - we were toothless in attack. Mata and Hernandez did nothing, Rooney did very little. Blame the defence all you want but in 90 minutes we barely put them under any serious pressure despite having the majority of the ball.

Blame the "average" players like Smalling and Fellaini but it was the supposedly strong attack that lost the game for us, in my book.

Nonsense. We created nothing, but to create you need something to build off. A solid midfield, a reliable defense. We have neither. How often did our attacking players pick up the ball in threatening places to cause damage? Hardly ever. That's because they've got nothing to build off.

 

[Deleted member 78215]

6th place? Very generous, our midfield is firmly in midtable.

Fellaini and Fletcher certainly is mid table. I think Herrera and Carrick might give Everton a run for their money, though.

How the mighty have fallen.