A lot of kneejerk reactions. On another day we probably would have won this game. Performance honestly wasn't that bad. Missed a penalty and Bruno should have had a tap in. It just wasn't coming off for us. Their goal was offside too. Next one. Relax.
PL L FA Premier League
Manchester United 0:1 Aston Villa
Post-match discussion
Sat, 25 September 2021
Thought he was selfish a few times. When he shouldn't have been.
Man Utd vs Villa at home
Change the tactics? Feck me can a manager only make subs like?
he’s completely out his depth. He watches games like I used to watch championship manager when I was 12 years old, stands their arms folded.
If you want a perfect example of the phase “rabbit caught in headlights” then look no further than our current manager.
he’s done his part, brought the club together, brought the fans and club together’ish, returned us to potential title winners. That is as far as we will ever go with Ole, do you think he will ever win the league ?
I really think conte could win the league with this squad. The change won’t happen now, it’ll happen too late when the season is goosed
Interesting to see Villa play with such a high defensive line in the 2nd half.
No way they could do that if Rashford (or dare I say it, James) had been on the team sheet.
Greenwood is quick, but it's easier to cover 1 player than our typical rapid 2 pronged attack.
Can't help but think that would have been addressed to some degree if the defensive substitutions hadn't limited the options.
No way they could do that if Rashford (or dare I say it, James) had been on the team sheet.
Greenwood is quick, but it's easier to cover 1 player than our typical rapid 2 pronged attack.
Can't help but think that would have been addressed to some degree if the defensive substitutions hadn't limited the options.
The bold part is key, to be where we want to be, we need a top manager
He’s basic, was a good player and is now an average manager with a talented team.
Would you say Ole has it in him to win a prem league?
I don’t buy the “city have money” or “Liverpool have a settled team” argument
For me every team has holes, even the greatest teams, the difference is great teams have top managers that use the teams strengths.
I don’t think Ole knows how to do this. and is always thinking about the oppositions strengths more than our own
We got out-fought for everything - our players didn't seem to want it as much as Villa did.
Fair fecks to them, but our attitude stunk the place out.
Fair fecks to them, but our attitude stunk the place out.
I seriously don't have the energy for another up and down season. Please just be good or crap already.
well the manager should be able to motivate the players
The reason those arguments don't stick is you could see what Pep and Klopp were implementing so soon after joining. Could see the early signs of their football. You could place your faith in the fact that with better players they could win silverware.
Under Ole, the only improvements to our football are purely personnel related. I wouldn't say we play any better football than when he joined, we just have even more players on the field that can win games on their own. That isn't sustainable when our competition has squads just as good but are made more than the sum of their parts.
All teams have bad performances, it happens, but these games aren't an isolated incident with us. Even in games where we win, we far too often look the lesser side. It's why myself and others have constantly suggested it wasn't sustainable, but were laughed at because we were stumbling our way to some wins.
The same thing has happened every season he's been here. Simply put, with how stacked this squad is, we have enough in us to probably make top 4, manager or no manager. Thats just how much better our squad is than the majority of teams in the league. That being said, he is unfortunately nowhere near good enough to overcome Pep, Klopp or Tuchel when you see managers are clubs with far lesser resources getting more out of their players. He doesn't breed confidence, our performances don't breed confidence and the season after season pattern of our results eventually catching up with our performances doesn't breed confidence.
That's purely the coaching issues too. Not even getting started on his cowardly insistence on playing with two defensive midfielders against far lesser teams, the fact that he too often seems reluctant/unable to make changes to influence games etc.
He is an okay manager who has done a very good job up until this point because rightly or wrongly, the expectation wasn't to win the league or the CL. Now it is, which is where he is falling severely short imo
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Over the last two weeks the mask has been lifted.
I saw some nice passing sequences that were clearly designed to initiate a fast counter attack which impressed me but I also saw the entire team struggle with sloppy passing and being reactive when defending rather than proactive. We look like we are a slick team one moment and then like a bunch of strangers the next.
Perhaps you interpret thing incorrect? I don't think anyone saying other teams are performing consistently. What they're aware that Liverpool, Man City are capable of consistency. You would try to get credit in now, than waiting to match their run once they get in form. I laughed at Liverpool result earlier, but it doesn't mean our result and performance is acceptable.
Understand there is a bit of Fred dislike but fmd, McTominlay was worse than awful and yet seems to escape any criticism because he came through the academy.
Greenwood was wasteful , needs to understand that it’s not the U18 where he was the main man, there are often players in better positions and he tends to just look at taking a shot. A poor game.
Pogba looks like he is a luxury player, full of talent but the physical, tackling midfielders seem to push him into the background. Step overs etc are not going to fool too many hard tackling oppositions players, and he is half the player needed in midfield.
A strong defensive mid would shore up so much of what is obviously wrong with the club, not addressed in the transfer window. If that is Ole again not wanting to upset players currently sighed, that’s poor judgement as we kept Mata etc.
The problems are so obvious despite the strong looking front players, how was it not seen as a priority.
Oh well, on to the next game and hope for a change in tactics and set up
Greenwood was wasteful , needs to understand that it’s not the U18 where he was the main man, there are often players in better positions and he tends to just look at taking a shot. A poor game.
Pogba looks like he is a luxury player, full of talent but the physical, tackling midfielders seem to push him into the background. Step overs etc are not going to fool too many hard tackling oppositions players, and he is half the player needed in midfield.
A strong defensive mid would shore up so much of what is obviously wrong with the club, not addressed in the transfer window. If that is Ole again not wanting to upset players currently sighed, that’s poor judgement as we kept Mata etc.
The problems are so obvious despite the strong looking front players, how was it not seen as a priority.
Oh well, on to the next game and hope for a change in tactics and set up
Oles at the wheel, with a provisional license.
The 1st half vs West Ham was very good football. So 4 halves.
We will never contend for the title under Ole.
WE WILL NEVER contend for a title under Ole.
Lots of passion and the players gave it a good go. As a fan you shouldn't ask for more 
The thing I find concerning is that Ole put out his strongest team at home and yet Villa were the better team.
We never had any control in the game and our passing was shite.
Looks like we will be doing more bouncing back than normal this season if this performance is anything to go by.
We never had any control in the game and our passing was shite.
Looks like we will be doing more bouncing back than normal this season if this performance is anything to go by.
Mctominay and fred has gotta stop. Just one of either or even matic seems to work better
Top 3 voted players: De Gea, Varane and Greenwood.
Please don't give Ole yet another excuse to use he has enough already, has more than enough of his own players now
Because our inept manager doesn't care about keeping the ball and has absolutely zero emphasis on passing accuracy
Barely seen a mention anywhere about having to play 2/3rds of the game without Shaw and also losing Maguire for 25.
If Liverpool had lost Van Dijk and TAA in the same game there would have been poems written about it.
Dreading watching Lindelof/Dalot/Telles in midweek, they’re such a colossal downgrade defensively, Dalot in particular.
If Liverpool had lost Van Dijk and TAA in the same game there would have been poems written about it.
Dreading watching Lindelof/Dalot/Telles in midweek, they’re such a colossal downgrade defensively, Dalot in particular.
That's your business
I for one refuse to become chicken licken this early in a season, 6 games in 1 point off the lead, off 2 unlucky defeats with new partnerships still to gel up and down the pitch.
In that period
2 of our rivals dropped points at home to direct rivals.
One even started the season with a loss to an under strength spurs and couldn't get a point of Southampton at home just last weekend
In europe 2 them conceded 2 plus goals at home. We fortuitously lost away with 10 men.
We have been leaking a goal a game. One of them just leaked 3 to a freshly promoted sided. The other leaked 4 at home to red bull in europe. Could have been more if the opponent hadn't gone down to 10 men.
But for them it's fine and dandy. Whilst for us the sky has fallen, "we'll never keep up with them' and we should be "changing managers now..."
I just cannot share such sentiment.
United will come back stronger in the second half of the season. Have faith!
Microscoping game by game can make you lose perspective. Forget our rivals and focus on our own games - we’ve started the season poorly. Out of 8 games we’ve only played well in three, irrespective of what the results were. Teams that don’t play well don’t win the league, simple as that. Now you may expect us to improve, and I agree, we will at some point, maybe starting next game. But there’s no point suggesting that everything is ok when our current form is clearly below the required standard.
I bet ole's mates in the media will scapegoat the players or a specific player in general instead of throwing any criticism at ole despite the money he has had to spend
28 bloody shots...
Frankly, I don't understand people arguing about whether Ronaldo should of taken the penalty. Bruno saved our ass so many times, and he scored so many penalties it was natural that he should continue taking them. Now, after this, maybe Ronaldo will be the one next time, but atm. it is unimportant
The point is that we had to seal this long before the injury time. It never shouldn't have come down to this.
Frankly, I don't understand people arguing about whether Ronaldo should of taken the penalty. Bruno saved our ass so many times, and he scored so many penalties it was natural that he should continue taking them. Now, after this, maybe Ronaldo will be the one next time, but atm. it is unimportant
The point is that we had to seal this long before the injury time. It never shouldn't have come down to this.
If we have to wait till then, then i'm afraid we're fecked.
It's worth looking at who we've played vs who they've played. We've had a far easier start to the season than arguably anyone bar Liverpool yet we've still barely scraped by against sides we should be much more comfortable against, while losing against others. I take the point about new players coming in taking time to gel but I honestly don't think Ole has implemented a discernible system with this side yet, or at least not one that works, and with the players we have, I reckon we've every right to expect a lot more. I've never been convinced by him as a manager (though love him as a player and he's a United legend) but I think yesterday was the final nail in the coffin for me.
If we could control a game it probably wouldn't be a problem. But we can't. So I expect a patchwork defence to be under the kosh in midweek.
It honestly feels for the first time in his tenure that Ole is a dead man walking. Reminds me of the Jose days towards the end when you were just waiting for a few more poor results before the trigger is pulled.
I don't understand these "it's still early in the season" arguments. If a manager lost the first 5 games of the season 3-0 with truly dire performances, would it be unreasonable to question their fitness for the role? Even if it's only a few weeks into the season?
If you agree, then surely it follows that the quality of performances are more important than the relative point in the season? (Of course allowing for extenuating circumstances like 4 starting players all getting freak injuries.)
I get that he is English and all that but if he squared that ball for Bruno, it's 1-0 and would've changed the whole game for us. Maybe liability was too strong a word but he was beginning to think he's the next Ronaldo in this game instead of making it an easy goal for the team.
Shaw is most definitely a liability defensively for us, Mou targeted him in the Spurs game and we concede 6! In the game against Young Boys he failed to stop that cross for their easy goal. In the first half against Villa he even let their cross just roll in front of our goal.
I'm certain everything is ok because we have been getting keeping pace with everyone around us in spite of rightly being far from our best this early in the season with loads of partnerships still to gel up and down our team.
Its also 6 games in. I'm utterly uninterested in playing well now. I want us to be playing well when the business end of the season arrives in november
I'm almost not just being naively optimistic. I simply understand the style of our coach. He builds an attacking team structure that allows his players to express themselves then think through situations as they arise. As a result it is heavily reliant on settled partnerships to flourish consistently. Yet rigth now we are far from a settled team
Right now De gea is now back in favour.
He in turn has to gel with Varane and Maguire
Who have to gel with each other
Our full backs have to get used to the extra cover Varane gives and attack more
As those gel one of Fred or Mctominay will have to get sued to partnering one of Pogba and Van de beek full time. Because one a Rashford returns Pogba wont be playing wide left again and he and DVB will prove to good to bench
Our fullbacks both have to gel with Sancho
Our entire attack has to gel with sancho and Cr7
This will take time. Problem is our section of chicken little brigade of fans insisting on judging us by the standards of the teams around us. Teams settled from back to front. and at a different stage of development in their set up. They are all in the plug and play stage, We are still connecting the hardware in to correct terminals to turn the machine on successfully.
Yet even in plug and play stage the all have issues.
Both chelsea and Liverpool have dropped points at home to direct rivals
Sure City won big yesterday. Yet they started the season losing their first game to a second string spurs and failing to score against southampton at home just last week. No to mention leaking 3 at home to red bull in europe. Could have been more if redbull didn't finish with 10 men
Pool to struggled at home in europe vs Milan who they eventually over came. Just had a 3 all draw with a freshly promoted side whilst at full strength.
In comparison we had a fortuitous loss to YB down to 10 men. in a space of a week at OT ( we should have beaten west ham and we should havw drawn yesterday)., And despite not being near our best we aren't leaking more than 2 goals a game.
I'm sorry but I fail to see where this chicken little doom and gloom mentality is coming from that is flooding this place
My thoughts exactly. What's going on with Sancho???
For 3 years we've been chasing him, blowing sunshine up his ars£ saying he's the next best thing, we finally land him and he doesn't even start??!! WTF is going on? The kid should be starting every game, regardless of performances, to bed him in. I would understand it if we had paid £15m for him from a two-bit side, but we've paid top dollar for a player the German fans were crying about losing.
Why does this happen at Utd time and time again, he should have been a starter against Villa no question.
Quite simply because performances this season are about the same level as last season, and last season’s form was nowhere near the required level. We probably need to be 15 to 20 points better than last season to win the league, which is pretty sizeable. You don’t add 15+ points to your total with just better finishing. To improve that much your whole performance level has to improve across the pitch. Even with a very favourable fixture list, we’re not showing signs that a major jump up in form has happened. So it’s not unreasonable people are expecting a similar points total to last season, which probably wont be enough to win, or even challenge.
With all due respect to you as I have seen you posting on here for donkeys years...
Do you still only have teletext? What I mean is that, have you not seen that exact same performance for the last 18 months over and over- except sometimes we get bailed out by a penalty, even a retaken penalty, a last minute breakthrough, a worldie from someone, a VAR decision goes for us. Using the tried and trusted- “watching the match” approach to analysis...we have been extremely lucky and individually talented in equal measure for 18 months. That performance was no different to West Ham in which we scored a cracker and had a last minute penalty save. It’s the performances!!!!! Stop looking at teletext and convincing yourself- “we are 2nd—-2nd equal good”.
The reaction is no knee jerk...opinions like this fall at the first hurdle when you analyse 80% of our games regardless on whether we got 3 points or not.
I insist, It is unreasonable because they are willfully ignoring the realities on the ground. The team is still gelling. Yet in spite of still gelling and not flying it hasn't fallen behind our rivals like we did at the start of last season
Furthermore the team needed to improve in 3 areas:
compatibility at center defence to play a higher line consistently at home
operating with one dm and one play maker as a result of the compatibility in center defence
the right wing conundrum vs low blocks. We needed a right winger who stretches play not compresses it
In area one Varane and Maguire/Lindeloff are still getting used to each other
That will affect area 2 since Rashford is missing, there is room to still defer to the mc fred duo since we can push pogba wide left. Rashford's return will end that
Areas 3 wont be up to speed till sancho settles fully
All 3 wont happen till close to November
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I’m with you chief but there’s no reasoning with some people.
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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21%
Mason Greenwood
-
16%
Raphael Varane
-
13%
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
-
6%
Paul Pogba
-
4%
Diogo Dalot
-
4%
Bruno Fernandes
-
2%
Fred
-
2%
Cristiano Ronaldo
-
1%
Edinson Cavani
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1%
Luke Shaw
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1%
Harry Maguire
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1%
Scott McTominay
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 276 ratings.
Score Predictions
223,11,12
- Man Utd win
- Aston Villa win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 24% Man Utd 2:0 Aston Villa
- 20% Man Utd 2:1 Aston Villa
- 17% Man Utd 3:1 Aston Villa
- 16% Man Utd 3:0 Aston Villa
- 4% Man Utd 4:0 Aston Villa
- 3% Man Utd 1:1 Aston Villa
- 3% Man Utd 4:1 Aston Villa
- 2% Man Utd 1:0 Aston Villa
- 2% Man Utd 5:0 Aston Villa
- 2% Man Utd 1:2 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:0 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 3:2 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:3 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:5 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 2:2 Aston Villa
- 0% Man Utd 0:1 Aston Villa
- 0% Man Utd 1:3 Aston Villa
- 0% Man Utd 0:2 Aston Villa
- 0% Man Utd 5:1 Aston Villa
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Aston Villa
- Possession
- 60% 40%
- Shots
- 28 7
- Shots on Target
- 4 3
- Corners
- 5 5
- Fouls
- 9 13
Referee
Mike Dean
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Victor Lindelof
-
-
replaced by Diogo Dalot
-
-
-
-
-
replaced by Edinson Cavani
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-
