[1988]

We had the chances to come away with three points. Cavani should've buried the game with his two chances. Our attackers form is letting us down at the moment and it's starting to hurt.

 

[Maticmaker]

Not a lot of difference in the teams yesterday, we probably had the better chances, but with our strikers either not being where they should when the ball did arrive in the box, or like bus's two arriving at the same time, we just didn't 'click' in terms of attacking play/finishing.

What surprised me was the reshuffle after McTominay went off, it begs the question did Ole and his team know he had a stomach problem before they started? Playing Pogba almost in a wide role out on the left in the first half seemed a nonsense. Made a bit of sense when Scott left and Paul dropped into role in midfield with Fred, but why bring on Martial given the problems he's having? Surely move Rashford out to the left (where he prefers) and bring Greenwood in on the right??
No doubt Ole had his reasons, but I couldn't understand that initial line-up. If you are not playing Martial wide left, then surely it has to be Rashford?

We played more one/two touch football in the opening ten/fifteen minutes than we did all night against Sheffield, but it soon slowed down and Arsenal stepped up their pace; that Smith-Rowe lad looks like one to watch for the future!

So back to the drawing board, Sheffield had us 'sussed' during the week and Arsenal blunted our edge, last night, will Southampton drag us all over OT on Tuesday night?

We have to start learning to impose ourselves, not just relying on odd moments of excellence, nice those these are, they won't win us a PL title.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Not a lot of difference in the teams yesterday, we probably had the better chances, but with our strikers either not being where they should when the ball did arrive in the box, or like bus's two arriving at the same time, we just didn't 'click' in terms of attacking play/finishing.

What surprised me was the reshuffle after McTominay went off, it begs the question did Ole and his team know he had a stomach problem before they started? Playing Pogba almost in a wide role out on the left in the first half seemed a nonsense. Made a bit of sense when Scott left and Paul dropped into role in midfield with Fred, but why bring on Martial given the problems he's having? Surely move Rashford out to the left (where he prefers) and bring Greenwood in on the right??
No, doubt Ole had his reasons, but I couldn't understand that initial line-up. If you are not playing Martial wide left, then surely it has to be Rashford?

We played more one/two touch football in the opening ten/fifteen minutes than we did all night against Sheffield, but it soon slowed down and Arsenal stepped up their pace; that Smith-Rowe lad looks like one to watch for the future!

So back to the drawing board, Sheffield had us 'sussed' during the week and Arsenal blunted our edge, last night, will Southampton drag us all over OT on Tuesday night?

We have to start learning to impose ourselves, not just relying on odd moments of excellence, nice those these are, they won't win us a PL title.

They didn’t have us sussed. They just rubbed their hands at the defensive ineptitude. They were gifts

 

[Sultan]

Do we not generally lose or draw against the big 6 when we win the possession stats?

Our forwards best qualities are against teams who attack and leave spaces for them to run, otherwise, they simply hit a man wall with no pitch left.

The most realistic way to beat a low-block system is to have players constantly on the touchline stretching opposition defences. We don't have traditional wingers or full-backs in the squad for this set-up. Basically, a traditional 4-4-2.

Anyway, the result in isolation is not bad. The letdown in midweek is what's making this worse than in actuality.

 

[Maticmaker]

They didn’t have us sussed. They just rubbed their hands at the defensive ineptitude. They were gifts

Who are you referring to?
I said it was Sheffield had us sussed, they just stood in our way when we went forward and harassed our keeper; we couldn't find a way around them. Yes their goals were lucky for the most part, but we could have played all night and got nowhere, a 38 year old and his mates 'owed-headed' us all night.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Who are you referring to?
I said it was Sheffield had us sussed, they just stood in our way when we went forward and harassed our keeper; we couldn't find a way around them. Yes their goals were lucky for the most part, but we could have played all night and got nowhere, a 38 year old and his mates 'owed-headed' us all night.

That’s not having us sussed. They didn’t plan for us to give them 2 shocking goals.

 

[Maticmaker]

That’s not having us sussed. They didn’t plan for us to give them 2 shocking goals.

They didn't plan to win at all, just to stop us, and they did very effectively, a 'shield-wall' defence they would have been proud of in 'Game of Thrones', and De Gea was unsettled early on, and was like a 'rabbit caught in the headlights' for the rest of the game. The second goal had something of the 'keystone cops' about it.

The two lucky goals were a bonus!

 

[Inigo Montoya]

They didn't plan to win at all, just to stop us, and they did very effectively, a 'shield-wall' defence they would have been proud of in 'Game of Thrones', and De Gea was unsettled early on, and was like a 'rabbit caught in the headlights' for the rest of the game. The second goal had something of the 'keystone cops' about it.

The two lucky goals were a bonus!

I think I just said all that previously but never mind...

 

[Eric's-collar]

agree with this. there is so clearly no Plan B and every time we seem to have sorted something out, we find it's another false dawn

he's tried plan B's and they failed miserably, so he just reverts to type, problem is when teams sit in we can't counter, and when we have possession we seem pretty clueless with it.

 

[Maticmaker]

I think I just said all that previously but never mind...

Oh did you must have missed it?
Two luck goals we can agree on, my argument is that Sheffield came with a plan to stop us and it worked beyond their 'Wilder' (for give the pun) dreams.

 

[theklr]

Think the busy fixtures are starting to affect us now. Bruno, Rashford and Maguire are visibly exhausted , and Pogba and Cavani are starting to feel it as well. We would have smashed them if thise had more rest. Luckily at least PL games are soon further apart, and I hope we can rotate more for the cups.

 

[Lee565]

Having to endure such pragmatic football from our past two managers against the so called big clubs for 5 seasons now makes me miss the eccentric van gaal, he seems to be the only manager post fergie that set us up against the big sides without no inferior complex.

 

[lex talionis]

There's a lot of nonsense on this thread about how Arsenal is a team we should have beaten. People look at the table and remember their troubles not long ago. But they haven't lost in seven games, and right now are probably about as tough an opponent as you'll find these days, outside of City and maybe Liverpool. A draw is not a surprising result.

They are much better than their table position would indicate. Just like Liverpool wasn't griveously weakened by playing Henderson and Fabinho in defence. And just like Sheffield United wasn't an easy opponent despite being last in the table. Not really sure how much many people around here watch other teams. There's a lot of simplistic ideas.

Utter nonsense.

If we can’t expect to beat teams at the very bottom and at mid table we’ve got a serious problem.

Everyone here understands the occasional banana skin and no one here expected us to beat Sheffield and Arsenal 5-0, but these were two matches we reasonably expected four points from, not one point.

If it’s reasonable to expect that we should only manage one point from these last two opponents, Sheffield (20th in the table) and Arsenal (10th in the table) the problem with Manchester United is much deeper than one or two players being out of form.

 

[OrcaFat]

Utter nonsense.

If we can’t expect to beat teams at the very bottom and at mid table we’ve got a serious problem.

Everyone here understands the occasional banana skin and no one here expected us to beat Sheffield and Arsenal 5-0, but these were two matches we reasonably expected four points from, not one point.

If it’s reasonable to expect that we should only manage one point from these last two opponents, Sheffield (20th in the table) and Arsenal (10th in the table) the problem with Manchester United is much deeper than one or two players being out of form.

Not really. We are in a dip of form that’s all.

 

[OrcaFat]

Think the busy fixtures are starting to affect us now. Bruno, Rashford and Maguire are visibly exhausted , and Pogba and Cavani are starting to feel it as well. We would have smashed them if thise had more rest. Luckily at least PL games are soon further apart, and I hope we can rotate more for the cups.

Yes we do have a few tired players. Wish we could rotate more but it has to be done carefully as the quality can drop too much as seen against Sheff U.

 

[always_hoping]

So just Arsenal twice, City, Chelsea and Liverpool that we haven't scored against in the league this season. Could also really throw Spurs into that mix too considering that was a penalty scored within the first couple of minutes. Great stuff.

Spurs game was a freak one. Arsenal aren't a top team so not scoring against them is poor. Chelsea may finish in the top 5, Liverpool and City should finish in that top 3 and positive to take out of those games is they didn't score against United either.

 

[Buster15]

Best to accept we are in the pack fighting for 3rd and City plus maybe the scousers will eventually pull away from everyone

Yes. Same for me. And while fighting for 3rd place is not the destination, equalling last year finish but with a lot more points would be a minimum.

 

[Sandikan]

Having to endure such pragmatic football from our past two managers against the so called big clubs for 5 seasons now makes me miss the eccentric van gaal, he seems to be the only manager post fergie that set us up against the big sides without no inferior complex.

What's your understanding of the word pragmatic out of interest?

 

[OrcaFat]

Best to accept we are in the pack fighting for 3rd and City plus maybe the scousers will eventually pull away from everyone

I don’t see why though. Apart from the odd game we’ve been killing it results-wise for a whole year. Performance wise we’ve been up and down but, come on, a year of good results. And it’s the results that lead to titles, not performances (which also have been mainly good).

But it’s been a tough week and I understand the mood is low.

 

[VidaRed]

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Having to endure such pragmatic football from our past two managers against the so called big clubs for 5 seasons now makes me miss the eccentric van gaal, he seems to be the only manager post fergie that set us up against the big sides without no inferior complex.

Van Gaal’s most effective tactic against “big sides” during his reign was managing United at a time when they were all shit. Let’s not forget we let fecking Leicester win the league on his watch. We’ll never know how his United side would have done against the 90+ points Liverpool and City teams but the clever money would go on “not very well” considering how shit we were in Europe.

 

[RedDevil250]

Very disappointing second half. I thought we were better in the first half, but in the second half, I think we were mostly outplayed. Both teams had poor passing throughout the match and bad misses. The Cavani misses were just brutal.

What has happened to our form vs the big clubs? Seems like a poor mentality from Ole and the players and teams sitting deeper vs us and figuring us out. Not good enough vs the big clubs this year.

 

[Plant0x84]

Arsenal, like Liverpool offered nothing in attack and we really should have got more from the game.
We need to stop playing the club/reputation and play the 11 men on the pitch instead. Our mental game is weak right now.
I think on reflection a point against Arsenal seems worse in the context of the Sheffield game before it, unlike *pool/Fulham.
I actually feel this was a better performance than against Sheffield, but the fact that our fullbacks were our best players explains why we didn’t win.

 

[croadyman]

I don’t see why though. Apart from the odd game we’ve been killing it results-wise for a whole year. Performance wise we’ve been up and down but, come on, a year of good results. And it’s the results that lead to titles, not performances (which also have been mainly good).

But it’s been a tough week and I understand the mood is low.

Yeah and the week started off so well didn't it

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Does it feel to anyone else that our attack (besides a couple players) are not as technically strong as top teams? So many loose passes, poor touches and bad decisions. Not all the time, but it sure shows vs top teams.

We sure could have won, hopefully we get on a roll again soon.

 

[Leftback99]

Does it feel to anyone else that our attack (besides a couple players) are not as technically strong as top teams? So many loose passes, poor touches and bad decisions. Not all the time, but it sure shows vs top teams.

We sure could have won, hopefully we get on a roll again soon.

The last two games have been as bad as anything but other games they (Bruno, Rashford, Martial) can be brilliant. Consistency is the problem and age isn't an excuse anymore.

 

[wolvored]

Thinking back bringing Martial on for McTom was the most stupidest thing Ole could have done. At that point Greenwood on the right Rashford move over to the left, or change formation and bring VDB in. You know you are playing with 10 men with the form Martial is in at the moment. We need to prioritise a WC or as close as we can get CF in the summer. I would even sell Martial while we could still get some decent money for him.

 

[jackal&hyde]

We had the chances to come away with three points. Cavani should've buried the game with his two chances. Our attackers form is letting us down at the moment and it's starting to hurt.

I agree. We were the better team but it is what it is. Need to go on a winning run now.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Sometimes it feels like Ole has been told by higher-ups that he is not going to get a RW. So try to convert any of his forwards into a RW.

 

[justsomebloke]

Utter nonsense.

If we can’t expect to beat teams at the very bottom and at mid table we’ve got a serious problem.

Everyone here understands the occasional banana skin and no one here expected us to beat Sheffield and Arsenal 5-0, but these were two matches we reasonably expected four points from, not one point.

If it’s reasonable to expect that we should only manage one point from these last two opponents, Sheffield (20th in the table) and Arsenal (10th in the table) the problem with Manchester United is much deeper than one or two players being out of form.

In other words, you take a look at Arsenal's table position, and judge the strength of the opposition from that. Thanks for illustrating my point.

 

[Kostov]

Watching Liverpool and Salah yesterday, and compare that to any of our forwards vs Arsenal, it's night and day. I'm really not sure whether Marcus or Martial will ever get to that level in order for us to compete for a title while Liverpool have that kind of attack, and that's without getting to City.

 

[lex talionis]

In other words, you take a look at Arsenal's table position, and judge the strength of the opposition from that. Thanks for illustrating my point.

Yes, the point being nonsensical.

 

[justsomebloke]

Yes, the point being nonsensical.

Sure. Actually knowing something about the opposing team beyond looking up their current position in the table is totally unneccesary, irrelevant and nonsensical. As you have indeed, and to my great chagrin, conclusively proved by pointing out that we should beat them every time because they're currently 10th.

 

[Sea-Cow]

Two teams struggling to become relevant again. Looked a midtable match devoid of quality or spirit.

Very accurate. And this same review could be cut and pasted for too many of our matches.

Unless the lads can find some deep reserve of fitness and determination I am not confident that we will finish in the top 4. Depressing stuff really.