Post match v Scouse

[Skywarden]

today was all about that poor defending for the early goal.
Once that went in Liverpool sat back and it was always going to be a mission.

Lack of creativity from the centre is a bit of a theme at the moment, but hopefully when Nani starts, and Rooney is back that'll sort itself out.

Sensible post.

 

[Livewire1974]

Ok, I've had time to calm down and think about things rationally. Remember when Shitty beat us 6-1? Now, that was a bad day, basically poor performances all over the pitch. Today we had a number of poor showings and most of the rest of the players were just average. We are missing Evans, for me he is our first choice CB these days as the Rio/Vidic partnership has more than likely put in too many years at this stage. Young was pants and I am beginning to doubt if he really should be a United player. Cleverley is becoming as inconsistent as Anderson, however they do seem to play well together. I would love to know where Kagawa was, because he was the kind of player we needed today.

We have to get behind Moyes and support him now, while our performance was poor, we always tend to play crap at their ground. They were not great either and created very little. We messed up at the start and giving away such an early goal meant we were chasing the game from the beginning. Liverpool were happy to sit back for a lot of the rest of the game. We really missed Rooney and Rafael today, both would have given Liverpool something to think about. Smalling is missing as cover for RB, so putting Jones in there also cost us.

I would have liked to see Anderson getting a run out today, his running from midfield when Stevie G was tiring could have been an asset, and basically I'd like to see Moyes experiment with something towards the end of a game anyway. Even if we make a big signing or two tomorrow, we still need to work out how to use them in the squad/system anyway. Its early in the season and we have had a difficult start, with all the changes at the club it would have been a miracle if we won every game. Its a marathon, not a sprint. Sit back and laugh at the scousers, their delusion is already setting in. Its going to be a right laugh when they implode.

 

[Slevs]

Couldn't watch the game today, but found out about the results, how did we play?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Couldn't watch the game today, but found out about the results, how did we play?

We played better than Liverpool but were unimaginative and uninspiring going forward. Poor defending early on by rio cost us big time.

 

[LARulz]

This was like the Chelsea game for me. We controlled the game but without producing anything at all. We lacked the creativity/urgency in the final third and were happy to it seems pass it from side to side till Liverpool decided to lay the red carpet for us towards the goal. Cleverley honestly has hardly impressed me but seems to need to play as we are lacking options. As for Giggs..... I love the man and all but said it for ages now, he has no place in the starting 11 of games (league/CL). He is much more useful as a 'impact' player or someone to steady the ship if needed. I am going to assume everyone has said it already but I will say it to, no Kagawa was a huge disappointment and should have started.

 

[yamo123x]

feck off! Some people need to get their heads out of that kids arse, the more and more I see of him (along with countless reds I watch the games with) the worse he gets, today he proved it again. Not a big game player in the slightest, went missing against Chelsea and was dire today, can he never make a pass... or is it just the fact he gets the ball stuck in his bambi feet all the time to stop him from making one. Had his one good game against Madrid and will forever have that supporting him from some of you lot.

It worries me that Cleverley & Welbeck are apparently two of our best youth products to break into the first team, neither should start for me and how the get into the England side just explains why I couldn't give two shits about our national side either.

An excellent post, Welbeck massively overrated- and is not a wide player. Fergie had a thing about playing players out of position- looks like Moyes does too.

I'd much rather see 4-3-3 with nani Rooney & RVP as our front three and kagawa carrick and another mid.

 

[Revan]

Couldn't watch the game today, but found out about the results, how did we play?

In the same way we played against Chelsea. Without a single creativity and with even worse passing, We created nothing in the entire match.

Liverpool didn't play better, but they scored early from a corner. One of the most painful matches I have ever seen. At-least the worse one since the same game one year ago.

 

[Kraftwerker]

Controlled the game without having much sting. Liverpool were poor, but we played into their hands a bit.

Lack of creativity in final third needs addressing with midfield signings and bringing our more creative players back into the fold.

 

[AlwaysRedwood]

Direct difference to Fergie there, I hate to bring it up but its pertinent. Ferguson would have said poor performance but not signalled anyone out thats how you handle a bad game like that not gloss over it.

Sure but it falls into the "who gives a feck?" category

 

[vuc]

I'm not gonna start another thread for this but why did Rooney not play? Didn't catch the pre-match I only saw the game and I didn't hear it mentioned.

 

[CassiusClaymore]

I'm not gonna start another thread for this but why did Rooney not play? Didn't catch the pre-match I only saw the game and I didn't hear it mentioned.

Head injury in training.

 

[vuc]

Head injury in training.

Oh right. Not hugely serious then. Bit of a shame really, because he played well against Chelsea.

If it was John 'England's Lion Heart' Terry he would have bandaged his head up like Terry Butcher.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I don't really see how people can say we played well today - for the amount of the ball we had, and were indeed were allowed to have, we did next to nothing with it. We fashioned one half chance (for RVP) the entire game, and forced Mignolet into one strenuous save (from Nani, though you expect him to save that) which frankly is nowhere near good enough for a Manchester United side. The passing through midfield wasn't quick or good enough, or use of the ball was generally poor and at no point did we really do enough to get anything out of the game - our two most positive players in the second half were Evra and Valencia, which tells a story of sorts.

 

[Red Shorts]

feck off! Some people need to get their heads out of that kids arse, the more and more I see of him (along with countless reds I watch the games with) the worse he gets, today he proved it again. Not a big game player in the slightest, went missing against Chelsea and was dire today, can he never make a pass... or is it just the fact he gets the ball stuck in his bambi feet all the time to stop him from making one. Had his one good game against Madrid and will forever have that supporting him from some of you lot.

It worries me that Cleverley & Welbeck are apparently two of our best youth products to break into the first team, neither should start for me and how the get into the England side just explains why I couldn't give two shits about our national side either.

You know what, thank feck someone had the decency to say this. I have been saying this with my dad every time I see him, and you put it perfectly : Bambi feet. There was one moment in the game, just like against Swansea, where he thought he could be clever and try and hold up the ball against 2 people. What he didn't realise is that the ball wasn't as secure as he thought, and the ball was lost right outside our box. It was so close in the Swansea game in fact that he lost it. People think he's brilliant because he runs around the pitch all day! fecking Excellent, pay me £80k a week and I will run around the pitch aimlessly like I give a shit and run carelessly with the ball until I lose it. Where is his true position ? Striker? He is the worst finisher out of our strikers, and I would say Nani and Kagawa are better, so that would put him 6th in the list of attacking players and their finishing abilities, and that excludes Rafael who is better too! Could he play wing? His crossing ability is no way near that of our wingers, he does not have the accuracy or consistency that the rest do. A #10 role? Rooney and Kagawa are leagues above him there, as well as the fact he crumbles when he reaches the box more often than not. I don't see teams fearing Welbeck, whereas teams are certainly concerned about Sturridge. Right now they are leagues apart, and I believe this will remain this season.

Views on the match in general from GK up:

-Big Dave had little to do in terms of being challenged, nothing to do with the goal, easy stops when he had to come into action, had disgusting passbacks from his players, most notably Vidic who should have known better.

- I would say defense had my top 3 United players this afternoon (Valencia, Rio and Evra) which says a lot about our attacking game. Our distribution from the back really needs working; we aren't making our players as much as we should be, and we are ending up wasting a lot of potential possession. I actually thought we did this well against Chelsea, but it was De Gea's passing which was most successful rather than the CBs. Vidic was quite successful, but Rio wasted a lot, like he had done against Chelsea. Another point to note was how slowly we got it out of the back. Perhaps this is the fault of the midfield not coming in to give options, but it both allowed Liverpool to set up how they liked, and when they did forced us to go long more often than we should have. Perhaps Fellaini would be an excellent buy if we will be doing this all the time? Jones was pretty poor, and bringing Valencia on was probably the best decision he made all day, gave our attack so much more than Phil did, and kind of showed that he shouldn't be a Rb, and we should keep him to CB. Evra was pretty good going up, standard attacking performance from him, and didn't seem too troubled in defense either.

-Midfield were the worst of the bunch, and even our (arguably) most important player didn't step up today in Michael Carrick. I thought at first he was actually doing a good job, but as the game progressed his passing deteriorated rapidly, and he got caught up in possession one too many times. It actually reminded me a lot of the Carrick of old, the one where everyone wanted rid because he was becoming more of a burden than an aid to the team. I don't want him gone, not by any means, but it was not very confident. Cleverly proved my point I made the other day, and that is that he cannot play well under pressure from the opposition. His first instinct when he has someone bearing down on him is to turn around and pass it back. Only once did I see him try to take a quick chance and pass it forwards, and it was successful. When the ball came to him our play just stopped and we had to find another route, slowing down the attack almost to a halt. There was no killer instinct from him, and it just forced all of our play to come from the wings, making it that much easier for the opposition to work out and nullify. Arriving at the wings, we had Young and Giggs. They both go down as the two worst players on the pitch, never mind our team. The possession lost, the mishit passes, the stupid tackles (which a lot of our players made to be fair) got a bit ridiculous, and they provided nothing to the team. We should have started off with Valencia on one wing to at least halve the utter shite we produced, and when he came on he did more in 5 minutes than they had accomplished in half an hour! Young is a one trick pony, and Liverpool sussed it out. If we are forced to play these two more often in the season, with Giggs on the right wing too, then I feel this is going to be one long season.

-Not enough distribution to RvP, simple as that. For some reason we fed the ball a lot to Welbeck, and his finishing once again couldn't test Mignolet. RvP had two shots, one was a semi bicycle kick which could be pulled off once every 100 attempts in those circumstances, and the other was a nice through ball from Hernandez which could have challenged Mignolet a lot had it been on target. Our main goal threat wasn't used nearly enough, and this is down to the fact our midfield had absolutely no creativity. Welbeck didn't help much with his link play either and again, to me, he just doesn't look like a killer player in front of goal like Rvp or Rooney or Hernandez does. Good to see Chicha get a cameo, and even when he did he provided the only through ball in the game from us to almost score the equalizer. If he gains match fitness by next week, I really hope he gets a start alongside RvP, because these two definitely have the best partnership out of the 3 available strikers right now.

 

[TheGame]

We have several wingers however choose to play Welbeck there, baffling!

 

[Red Dreams]

we were not quick. That was the problem. The moment they got the early goal, Giggs who was there to slow down the game, did not make sense. Anderson would have been a good replacement.
I was also among those who berated Young. but him and Nani are just coming back from long injuries. I thought we had more of the game than the last visit we made...but a quick player like Rafael hurt them.

 

[Red Dreams]

good thoughts Red Shorts. Wellbeck is not the finished article by a long short. I think he is played ahead of Chicho often is because he does more of the fetch N Carry....but what we need is players who can score goals and cause problems...Chicho fits that bill. Which means we need a midfield that can actually be creative and press their backline. We saw nothing today. We better get some of the signings we have been after...or it will be a long season. We know Rooney gets injured so often.

 

[Dominos]

Direct difference to Fergie there, I hate to bring it up but its pertinent. Ferguson would have said poor performance but not signalled anyone out thats how you handle a bad game like that not gloss over it.

I don't know if you were following Fergie's post game comments last season but he frequently commented on how well we played when in truth we were horrifically shite - worst of all I don't even think he was lying, just had very low standards for what he considered a good performance. The most baffling of these came when we lost 2-1 to City at OT - not creating a single chance in 90 minutes save Jones' goal from a set piece, Fergie described our display as "magnificent".

Given we played slightly better today than the usual shit we serve up at Anfield, I've no doubt Fergie would have said we controlled the game and didn't deserve to lose.

 

[jem]

Umm, do we?

It's not as if this was a bread and butter match. This was the derby at Anfield, and I recall a fair few seasons where we've lost there (and even lost against them at Old Trafford) where we wound up winning the league.

Yes we do, especially when you consider how much potentially better the likes of Chelsea, City and Tottenham will be (emphasis on potentially of course.)

 

[Eriku]

Yes we do, especially when you consider how much potentially better the likes of Chelsea, City and Tottenham will be (emphasis on potentially of course.)

Again, if we can win the league without winning at Anfield, which we've historically had a hard time at, then it seems that this claim can easily be refuted.

 

[jem]

I guess we'll see. Not feeling particularly confident about this year.