[Lewis.no.9]

Absolute borefest. Pointless possession, no penetration. I have no idea how we're going to challenge this season. We just need to re-evaluate our ambitions. Top four is probably the best we can hope for, especially whilst City keep digging out wins, and Arsenal playing like they want to challenge this year.

Darmian our worst player for once instead of Rooney.

As an aside, Palace fans are genuine cnuts.

if teams like leicester & southampton carry on and if Spurs get there shit together, to add to liverpool now with Klopp and West Ham randomly being up there....top 4 could be a tall ask again.

 

[Godfather]

Stripped of all context, that could be a good result. But the context means quite a bit.

It's not. It's not a good enough result if you want to compete for the title. It's a shite result out of an even worse performance.

 

[rockerlad]

Awful to watch

 

[Red Dreams]

It's all very well dropping players as long as you've got good replacements. We don't. The squad size is small and very short on strikers/forwards. A top striker and another central defender of quality and this will be a damned good side.

exactly mate. Looks like we will be busy again in January.

 

[crappycraperson]

Bring back the zombie football we played under Fergie

 

[gooDevil]

Woulda won with Martial up top.

 

[JPRouve]

After each games my conviction that we have to play with the youngsters is stronger, Pereira and Lingard have to play on the wings with Mata in the middle and Martial upfront.

 

[DevilRed]

Defense is looking good while attack is letting us down. Shouldn't be rocket science to determine where to make some changes.

Looking good? We were dire at the setpiece marking and in the second half, Zaha & Bolasie really put us under pressure.

The possession definitely helps but our midfielders are just instructed to hang back and protect the back four. Nobody seems to be allowed to make a forward run or a run behind the defence. Its whats causing us to be absolutely predictable and shite in attack.

 

[Borys]

Schweinsteiger, Herrera, Schneiderlin, Mata, Rooney.

What do those players have in common? All of them, once they receive a pass, will look around for a passing option. You can’t expect any of them to turn and beat a player. That’s not their game, simple as that.

It seems we have a total number of one player who can dribble with the ball. I swear it looks like every fecking team we face has at least 3 (including full backs).

It’s criminal that Young is sitting on the bench, considering the circumstances I mentioned above, and even if he plays- he’s a fecking fullback! I know he isn’t a worldbeater, but we need runners and dribblers.

Mata and Rooney up front is a recipe for disaster. Martial has had brilliant moments today, again, but it isn’t and won’t be enough.

For the record, I think van Gaal is doing decent job considering the squad he has at his disposal, but there’s a couple of things wrong with his team selection.

 

[eggwithsideburns]

Does LVG specifically tell the players not to pass the ball forward? It was another game where we don't look interested in scoring. Were a mess at the moment and playing Rooney at striker is just handicapping ourselves.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Chelsea have scored more than us.

Really … that shows the state of both teams at the mo

 

[Raven Blade]

Another horrible performance. You just never got the feeling that we'd throw caution to the win and attempt to win the game.

We were lucky to come away with a point. Despite all our possession, Palace had the better chances. It's a familiar story these days.

 

[Wumminator]

How about that Martial through ball?!

My internet went down for literally the two minutes of the game that happened, you fecking prick thanks for reminding me.

 

[Sandikan]

I think people are forgetting Palace away is a fairly tricky game.

City only limped past Norwich at home today.

We're just about in touch with top, 4 points off.

Need some confidence from the next two homes though, as I don't overly fancy us against anyone away at the moment.

4 draws in a row, scoring 1 goal? Terrible stats

 

[SteveJ]

I missed Time Team having a gangbang with brewlio's mum for that.

 

[Eyepopper]

No point blaming Rooney IMO. Particularly considering that there was no difference when he went wide and Martial went up top.

We looked like we didn't have a game plan at all. Pointless balls over the top, no urgency whatsoever. Giving the ball away cheaply. Dire performance.

We were terrible all over the pitch today.

 

[togg]

ok, so where the hell is Giggs in this equation? Someone who was brought up in a totally different footballing education? What the feck is he doing?

 

[Raw]

Another horrible performance. You just never got the feeling that we'd throw caution to the win and attempt to win the game.

We were lucky to come away with a point. Despite all our possession, Palace had the better chances. It's a familiar story these days.

I don't think I necessarily minded Palace getting those chances. They're the home team so you'd expect them to be dangerous, other than Darmian I think the defence did well.

It's up front that's a major worry. Not a single shot on target that wasn't a free kick, it's fecking insane.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Hard to see where goals are going to come from. Hard to see where chances are going to be created from.

Every time we have the ball it seems like there is 11 opposing players infront of it. We never seem to play a direct pass that takes a few players out of the game. And they didn't even remotely park the bus. Our build up is so slow that the opposition just jog back in to shape.

Seeing how quickly Palace get the ball from front to back, and how many United players have to bomb towards their own goal just makes me wonder - why don't we do that? That style of football with better quality players would be deadly. It would get the best out of the players we have. Martial attacking forward passes, Mata and Herrera with runners ahead of them, more space, even Rooney would probably do better than he does with his back to goal currently.

The best player on the pitch today is a player we got rid of for apparently not being good enough. I'm not saying Wilfried fecking Zaha is the answer, but fast, direct attacking threats are the answer. Ashley Young looked head and shoulders above everyone bar Martial when he came on, because he took hold of the ball and ran with it at pace. A makeshift right back, launching through the centre of midfield with the ball, because we have a severe lack of runners. It boggles the mind.

Perhaps I don't understand the philosophy, but from watching United, it seems like the philosophy is 10 players who can pass the ball short, with the hope that Martial can win it on his own.

 

[sammsky1]

Niall has fallen asleep.....

like most of us. I nodded off quite a few times during that game.

Reminded me of being in a pointless work meeting in a windowless room just after lunch. It was painful to keep my eyes open.

 

[J-Stander]

Dreadful.

 

[Cristiano_RAFC]

De Gea was man of the match and we saw a good sub performance by Young. That's about it really in my opinion. Particularly in midfield we seemed to lack both ideas and fight, while up front we had no presence. Rooney is too slow to play as a striker these days, and in the first half he also dropped too deep which left us with no bodies up front when we finally got there. Martial should be up front. It's not even criticism aimed at Rooney, because he works his socks off every time he plays so it's not to do with lack of effort. He's just not good anymore in that position.

If one team deserved to win, it was Crystal Palace who had the better chances and who looked far more dangerous than we did.

 

[Fergies Formula]

I can confirm that LVG has now lost my support.

 

[Witchking]

Possession: Palace 45% United 55%
Shots: Palace 11 United 4
Shots on target: Palace 5 United 1
Corners: Palace 7 United 3

From the official United website.

This makes for poor reading. Just 1 shot on target the whole match.

 

[DevilRed]

leiceister fecking city have scored 8 more goals than us. Let that sink in.

 

[Rake]

Possession: Palace 45% United 55%
Shots: Palace 11 United 4
Shots on target: Palace 5 United 1
Corners: Palace 7 United 3

From the official United website.

This makes for poor reading. Just 1 shot on target the whole match.

And the shot on target came from a FK...

 

[Wumminator]

like most of us. I nodded off quite a few times during that game.

Reminded me of being in a pointless work meeting in a windowless room just after lunch. It was painful to keep my eyes open.

It reminded me of all the times I hit on fecking Sarah in High School, fecking hours spent on MSN and in the end no penetration, not one fecking shot going anywhere near the goal and in the end jealous of some other lads who are scoring all the time.

 

[jeff_goldblum]

I can't quite bring myself to blame it all on LVG. Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger should easily have been able to control that midfield, Darmian and Rojo were poor in the face of two very good wing performances from Zaha and Bolasie.

What LVG is accountable for is not benching Rooney, and playing an unbalanced front-4 because of it. Playing Herrera and Mata would be no problem if we had two pacey players on the wing and up-front but Rooney can't offer that. For me, he should be fighting it out with Herrera or Mata so that we can bring more pace into the side, because having only Martial who can stretch things doesn't work.

 

[DevilRed]

Possession: Palace 45% United 55%
Shots: Palace 11 United 4
Shots on target: Palace 5 United 1
Corners: Palace 7 United 3

From the official United website.

This makes for poor reading. Just 1 shot on target the whole match.

Was that one shot the Martial chance at the end?

 

[SteveJ]

And the shot on target came from...

...Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

[pcaming]

Moyes 80 cross game vs Fulham was better than this dross. At least we were on the attack while looking clueless.

 

[#07]

This is the most disappointed I've been after a United game since Leicester (A) last season. We never looked like winning, and got worse after half time.

 

[vivaronaldo]

Absolute garbage ... Why chant attack attack attack ????

 

[caid]

I dont really think its the players. Or not individual players anyway.
We did look more dangerous with martial through the middle but we still created feck all.
Even in the first half when we had the overwhelming majority of the possession palace were creating better opportunities than us.

Mata doesn't work out wide without valencia at full back. Darmian just doesn't offer enough going forward to give us the width we need on the wing.
Playing mata, rooney and herrera in our front 4 doesn't work. Theres not enough pace there.
Lingard looks a bit limited, more limited than any of them but a bit of pace makes him look far more dangerous than them too.

Passing in midfield is too slow pretty much always with our midfielders taking 3 or 4 touches before deciding who they're going to pass to. Only 1 touch football they play is backwards.

I think we'll be like chelsea 2 seasons back, were just not going to score anywhere near enough goals to finish top.
Being difficult to beat and lack of competition will see us comfortably in the top 4 (probably, hopefully).

 

[FreakyJim]

We didn't even reach 60% possession?! Why live.

 

[caisenma]

You've got to take your chances. We should have scored at least 2 in the first half.

You have to make chances. We had few and far between.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Was that one shot the Martial chance at the end?

The freekick.

 

[DevilRed]

It reminded me of all the times I hit on fecking Sarah in High School, fecking hours spent on MSN and in the end no penetration, not one fecking shot going anywhere near the goal and in the end jealous of some other lads who are scoring all the time.

No its worse than that Twigg. At least you shot your load onto a piece of paper.

We cant even get our cocks up to shoot. So to speak. Some dire shite was on show today. LVG is playing a brand of cowardly football that doesn't belong at this club.

 

[sunama]

It is not just Rooney. Everybody else is not playing well, either. Except for DDG who is excellent.

Agreed 100%.
Yes, I agree Rooney is not MUFC quality, but what about all our other players? They are all goal shy.
We are now 300 minutes without a single goal.

Jamie Vardy alone has scored more goals than us, in the last 3 games.

 

[Dominos]

It's all very well dropping players as long as you've got good replacements. We don't. The squad size is small and very short on strikers/forwards. A top striker and another central defender of quality and this will be a damned good side.

It's baffling that people seem to be fixated on our strikers when the whole attack is contributing nothing at the moment. We play with 1 striker and we probably have a very good one in Martial if he's moved back there. We have no genuine right sided player in the squad, so we've stuck Mata there who has been invisible in every game since Wolfsburg. Our left sided players are underwhelming and Herrera is not contributing a lot as our #10 really, despite being neat and tidy (he's a central midfielder).