[Bilbo]

Yes, it certainly was, fans (particular Stretford End) singing their hearts out from ten minutes before the start and throughout the game, the noise level never abated, it was consistent and I am certain set a tempo for the players. Not heard such a constant roaring and singing like that at OT for 'donkeys years', well done to all concerned.

Great to hear that

 

[Dr Fink]

Finally, a pleasure to watch and left smiling leaving OT.

McTominay is simply awesome, almost Keane-esque, today: breaking up play and more importantly driving forward, dare I say it almost a box-to-box performance. Must be the first outfield dplayer on the team sheet now.

Williams: this kid ges better and better each game. Solid defensively and seems that little bit better than Shaw going forward.

Martial: no goals for him but everything that came off went through him; the lynchpin of the team. He's not a big, toucgh striker but he can hold, twist and turn and has superb touch.

Rashford: still not at 100%. He is far, far better out wide.

James: This kid has played far beyond my wildest expectations. The buy of the season for any club.

Maguire: solid today, won the ball and came out and played it. Excellent.

A great performance. For once - I'm not commenting an any negatives.

 

[KristianMackle]

I'm not worried about Rashford. As cliche as this may sound, as a lifelong Red, he has a burning desire to improve and to run through a brick wall for this club. His finishing will get better.
I do have a problem with no making Brandon Williams our starting LB and yes ahead of Shaw as well. Shaw loses the ball and jogs back to "help" the defense. Less said about Young the better so why does Ole persist with Young?

 

[OleTheGreat]

I thought the performance was good but again I feel Brighton played a bad game and were pretty open from the very start of the game. We were allowed to play through their midfield very easily and that obviously allowed Fred to grow in confidence to do what he wanted. I doubt if one of the top 6 teams would allow us so much time on the ball. Having watched the Liverpool v City game, I evidently thought we would struggle against either of them given our way of football is best only when the opponents go at us and we can counter them. Liverpool and City played a very open game but their passing is exceptional and I think we have a long way to go before we can get to that level. What surprises me the most is our backline, we have kind of sorted our defense but we still manage to give away a goal here and there and that's very frustrating. Hoping for Pogba to make a grand entrance and just bring us that little X factor against bigger teams. We need him to play the number 10 role or convert into a 4-3-3 with Fred alongside him in the midfield 3.

De Gea
AWB Lindelof Maguire Williams
Mctominay
Fred Pogba
James/Greenwood Martial Rashford

This should be the formation and our football is gonna blow the roof away!

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Happy watching that game. Nice to see us scoring 3 goals for 2 games in a row. Daniel was very good. Rashford should have scored more. Really hope McTominay's injury doesn't keep him out for long.

 

[Decomposing In Paris]

I thought the performance was good but again I feel Brighton played a bad game and were pretty open from the very start of the game. We were allowed to play through their midfield very easily and that obviously allowed Fred to grow in confidence to do what he wanted. I doubt if one of the top 6 teams would allow us so much time on the ball. Having watched the Liverpool v City game, I evidently thought we would struggle against either of them given our way of football is best only when the opponents go at us and we can counter them. Liverpool and City played a very open game but their passing is exceptional and I think we have a long way to go before we can get to that level. What surprises me the most is our backline, we have kind of sorted our defense but we still manage to give away a goal here and there and that's very frustrating. Hoping for Pogba to make a grand entrance and just bring us that little X factor against bigger teams. We need him to play the number 10 role or convert into a 4-3-3 with Fred alongside him in the midfield 3.

De Gea
AWB Lindelof Maguire Williams
Mctominay
Fred Pogba
James/Greenwood Martial Rashford

This should be the formation and our football is gonna blow the roof away!

But ultimately, we set up intelligently against Liverpool & if not for a defensive lapse near the end, would have won the game at Old Trafford. I take the point that Liverpool and City have better teams than us, but I wouldn't put a good performance down to the fact we were playing a team who were 8th in the league at kickoff.

 

[Hambley]

The team played well and Brighton couldn't demonstrate anything dangerous apart from that head kick. In a way that was due to our perfomance, in other way due to Brighton's own average level. They let us cross through wide areas and tried no agressive and effective pressure as Wolves, for example, did.

I just take it that many share my thought on it and have a restrained joy after this win. Nobody can guarantee it's not gonna be a shameful lose/draw against Sheffield with Rashford and Martial demonstrating nothing skillful and quality. We have a very disbalanced and unstable team which can't develop success longer then for 2-3 matches, unfortunately.

 

[Jerome Holland]

Finally, a pleasure to watch and left smiling leaving OT.

McTominay is simply awesome, almost Keane-esque, today: breaking up play and more importantly driving forward, dare I say it almost a box-to-box performance. Must be the first outfiel dplayer on the tema sheet now.

Williams: this kid ges better and better each game. Solid defensively and seems that little bit better than Shaw going forward.

Martial: no goals for him but everything that came off went through him; the lynchpin of the team. He's not a big, toucgh striker but he can hold, twist and turn and has superb touch.

Rashford: still not at 100%. He is far, far better out wide.

James: This kid has played far beyond my wildest expectations. The buy of the season for any club.

Maguire: solid today, won the ball and came out and played it. Excellent.

A great performance. For once - I'm not commenting an any negatives.

I miss this feeling of not watching fan channels and the negativity, for once i had a great Sunday.

 

[Dr Foo]

Quite an enjoyable performance, picking up since our Norwich performance. Martial makes a world of difference, and we need to pick up a striker in Jan to rotate with him to salvage any sort of success this season - he's the only one we have that is capable in that role. Dan James, his performances are now a given. Rashford needs the central striker with movement, skill and presence to bounce off, is finding his best element apart from finishing.

Midfield was pretty good, if Fred can keep it up, we're looking good. Peirera's improving, but can be replaced with Pogba if Fred cements his spot alongside Scott.

Our defence still seems a bit shaky at times - not conceding much but not good/focused enough to keep clean sheets. Maguire was good, Lindelof to me blows hot and cold. AWB, guaranteed solidity. Williams amazing for his start.

We need to keep up our energy and attacking edge throughout, not in spurts. But this is a young team that will develop (and like it or not, a manager who the club is backing to develop its ideals). Regardless of this result, I say keep Ole for this season unless we can line up a superior manager with ideals of attacking football and youth that won't need to wipe the slate clean again. Let's hope we can reap the fruits of this season of 'development' in next few seasons..

 

[Sea-Cow]

At the risk of sounding like an old lady here, I think Williams should chill out on pushing the opposition players out of bounds.

I appreciate his aggression and fearlessness etc etc, but that just is kinda a punk move. It doesn't really add anything other than possibly injuring someone.

The Brighton player was right to be pissed off about that.

 

[Shimo]

At the risk of sounding like an old lady here, I think Williams should chill out on pushing the opposition players out of bounds.

I appreciate his aggression and fearlessness etc etc, but that just is kinda a punk move. It doesn't really add anything other than possibly injuring someone.

The Brighton player was right to be pissed off about that.

Williams will need to watch himself because commentators mentioned it was a repeat of what he did to Odoi.

Not condoning it but, both Liverpool fullbacks ended up doing it yesterday too. Bit of nastiness is a good thing, we need a bit more edge in our side but, not at the expense of causing injury. VVD and Matip both laid out Daniel James with bit that nastiness with what was deemed legal, Williams just need to learn how to do the same.

 

[sincher]

I do like the look of Williams. He could be a regular very soon I think. Still a case for Tuanzebe over Lindelof too. Pogba to come in for Pereira, then like others said we mostly just need a back up for Martial in January followed by a top class right-sided attacker and another central midfielder in the summer and we should be back in the game properly. The rebuild is a bit painful and will continue to be for a bit, but there are some good signs of it working I think.

 

[sincher]

The basic squad setup of:

-----------------------------------De Gea (Romero)------------------------------------
AWB (Dalot)--Tuanzebe (Lindelof/Bailly)--Maguire (Rojo/Jones)---Williams (Shaw)
-----------------------McTominay (Matic)---Fred (Garner)-----------------------------
----------------------------------Pogba (Mata/Pereira)---------------------------------
James (Greenwood/Lingard)-------------------------------Rashford (James/Lingard)
-----------------------------------Martial (Rashford/Greenwood)----------------------

...looks like a decent framework for improvement in years to come to me. Italics the areas where we need to buy.

 

[Sea-Cow]

Williams will need to watch himself because commentators mentioned it was a repeat of what he did to Odoi.

Not condoning it but, both Liverpool fullbacks ended up doing it yesterday too. Bit of nastiness is a good thing, we need a bit more edge in our side but, not at the expense of causing injury. VVD and Matip both laid out Daniel James with bit that nastiness with what was deemed legal, Williams just need to learn how to do the same.

Yeah exactly, I'm all for our defenders being bastards, but I don't want them to be punks. Pushing someone in the back into the crowd is a punk move.

 

[Rameses]

Was just watching the replay. The Dan James run to pass to Rashford in the 67th minute (the missed sitter) looks like one of those glorious Ronaldo - Rooney counterattacks from 2006 - 8. It has been ages since I saw one of these from United.

 

[Danillaco]

Pogba doesn't get back into this team. hehe

I would gladly take him for Pereira, Mata or whomever is playing AM. Fred and McT are really clicking and would be great give Pogba this freedom to compliment his quality, in a 433/4231

edit: Damn you white text

 

[Danillaco]

Glad to see Rashford so frustrated; that's the look of a man who wants to improve.

Martial silent till the latter stages of the second half, my god what a player he is.

James is incredible. Feck me.

McTominay and Fred bossed the midfield. Hope to see the injury wasn't too bad.

We could've easily scored 8 goals today, it's a wonderful to have two great performances on the bounce. The movement from the players, how they create space for each other, and the energy was been outstanding.

My only nag is that we should've scored more, especially Rashford.

Rashford is something weird for me, he scored and did amazing, and yet somehow felt like an incomplete performance. Like it was supposed to be way better.

He could've scored two or three more, should've at least one, and in a couple opportunities should've been way less selfish and help Martial as the Frenchman and James did for him.

Funny that, but I guess the bar is so high with him, we get over expectations.

 

[OleTheGreat]

But ultimately, we set up intelligently against Liverpool & if not for a defensive lapse near the end, would have won the game at Old Trafford. I take the point that Liverpool and City have better teams than us, but I wouldn't put a good performance down to the fact we were playing a team who were 8th in the league at kickoff.

I do believe that setting up intelligently against bigger teams can get us results but i also believe that at Old Trafford it should ultimately be our way or the high way. We need to impose our style on the teams visiting regardless of their stature in the league in the past or in the current season. I think Liverpool stuck to their shape against City but made little tweaks during play like playing Henderson out wide to confuse City on the right. I think we are still looking for our best shape and it will take a while until we actually know our strengths and that will solely depend on the kind of players we have and their strongest position on the field.

4 different managers including Ole have had different view of the squad and have all tried their styles. I hope we stick with Ole for at least 5 years to give him a chance to actually train his players to learn about their teammates and the way like to move inside and out of the oppositions defense. We have hard working players now and i think we need to add a few more who can really impact in the game and make those darting moves in beating players. I want to see a team that fears no one and goes out there every week and pushes for a goal every time we get on the ball.

 

[shamans]

At the risk of sounding like an old lady here, I think Williams should chill out on pushing the opposition players out of bounds.

I appreciate his aggression and fearlessness etc etc, but that just is kinda a punk move. It doesn't really add anything other than possibly injuring someone.

The Brighton player was right to be pissed off about that.

Yeah but I would put it down to immaturity. Hopefully he stops doing that as the game goes on. The player was pretty much out of the pitch and it was a very dick move.