[Cantonagotmehere]

So glad to get the win.

Quick thoughts:

-Sancho is getting close to being a joy to watch.
-We have to risk playing Bruno and Pogba together even if they can be too lazy on defense. McFred technical ability combined is probably bottom 1/4 of the Prem. Only one at a time can be out there
-Rashford's decision making is still not there.
-Play Telles over Shaw, please, please.
- Why don't we move off the ball like Liverpool, City, etc...

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Feck me, this place is toxic. We won comfortably, so perhaps show some positivity, for once?

That looked anything but comfortable.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

We all know United aren’t a possession based team as we don’t have the players in midfield to do that.

There’s also no issue in giving a team with 10 men the ball and hitting them on the break.

I think there is an issue with that. When we have an extra man, we should be able to play a lot of one-touch passes and leave the opponents forever chasing. We should be able to cut through them at will and set up chance after chance. Sitting back with a man advantage and waiting for counters is not how I would expect any competent manager to coach it.

 

[NICanRed]

I want to think that the players were told to take it easy in the first half so that they would have energy and not fade in the second. If so they certainly did what they were told!
Passing! How woeful was that? Pass to the opposition. Hit the ball into the opponents midriff. Pass into touch. Really!
We have often heard that playing against 10 men can be difficult. We certainly proved the point.
So glad to get the win.

 

[The Boy]

I am really disappointed to be honest. Before the game, I didn't expect to win at OT (we never do) but I thought after that first half we were in with a good shout and with the prospect of Lamptey and Welbeck coming on against tired legs, I was hopeful.

The red card obviously changed everything. But I don't get why it was red card and why VAR was even involved. The ref made an on field decision for yellow and though Dunk did foul Elanga he wasn't the last man, Webster was clearly there covering. Clear cut no need for VAR, I rewatched the game on MUTV and even your commentators didn't think it was a red.

Still I guess that's football sometimes and despite that, I thought we put in an excellent performance with 10 men and were dangerous right up until the final whistle. So disappointed but happy with the team performance, I thought Cucurella especilly had an excellent game and caused you all sorts if issues.

 

[hellhunter]

Great result, decent but certainly not fantastic performance. Brighton are a great team considering their means, credit to them.

 

[nickyboy1981]

We needed that to hopefully turn the tide, we look devoid of confidence.

I just don't understand where the desire is, every single second ball Brighton came away with. Even when we were going in for challenges my first thought was that Brighton would come away with the ball, I was right the vast majority of the time.

 

[Scottynaldinho]

Funny thing is, couple of games before yesterday were some our best performances in years. This is how football works.

 

[Drizzle]

Our midfield play was horrifying and we missed some sitters, but overall the performance was slightly better than the recent porridge we've been served.

Our performance was much worse than the previous 3 games. The results bias here is staggering.

 

[cyril C]

Played worse than the last few games, but actually won this one... go figure

Quite right. I think we had the worst 1st half since Liverpool, and got away with 0-0 at half time. 2nd half was same old same old. Wasted numerous chances, almost dropped it at 89th.

 

[jackal&hyde]

A good win that hopefully will bring some confidence in to the team.

 

[Judas]

We've still got to be more clinical, that second half had no right to go right to wire like it did. We won't get as many chances in the bigger games which is worrying.

 

[UpWithRivers]

Brighton made us look worse. They played really well, especially dominating the midfield. But sometimes you need to dig deep and find a way to win. Job done.

 

[Bestietom]

Good to get 3 points. Now let's see how we fair against Leeds this weekend.

 

[Laurencio]

I'm just happy we won. There's a ton of room for improvement, but at least we got the three points.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Part of it was confidence. Old Trafford was nervy. The players were nervy.

The other part of it is that we don’t have a midfield metronome and we have Bruno Fernandes in there. Thought he really lacked composure again under pressure when we needed a calming influence. Pogba and Ronaldo were the only two who understood that we needed to slow the game down second half and allow Brighton to chase the ball and pull themselves out of shape with 10 men.

Always Bruno’s fault. To try and blame him for a dysfunctional midfield which included included who performed as badly as McFred is quite remarkable.

 

[NoPace]

I don't like to live in the past, but in our pomp, 10-man Brighton would've been thumped so hard, they'd feel the tremors all the way back in South of England.

In 2022, after they went down to 10 men, there were times when they made us look like we were down a man.
Eventually, we are going to play teams who are better and we will get humiliated.

Rangnick bringing on a 2nd fullback on the left to deal with Lamptey was totally reasonable (Shaw on a yellow too) and I think it's good that Rangnick isn't delusional about how bad we are, but also depressing!

 

[TMDaines]

Always Bruno’s fault. To try and blame him for a dysfunctional midfield which included included who performed as badly as McFred is quite remarkable.

You think Bruno is an asset for ball retention? We are never going to command such a large majority of the possession when we have Bruno playing his natural game. He’s a great creator, but he needs to learn to control the tempo of matches. When United lose their head, it is often because Bruno has lost his.

There were several times in the second half – within mere seconds of each other – when Bruno was careless in possession and kept turning it back over.

Fred and McT both comfortably had a higher pass completion rate than Bruno last night.

 

[Leftback99]

Not looking forward to the Away game against them we still have left to play.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

You think Bruno is an asset for ball retention? We are never going to command such a large majority of the possession when we have Bruno playing his natural game. He’s a great creator, but he needs to learn to control the tempo of matches. When United lose their head, it is often because Bruno has lost his.

There were several times in the second half – within mere seconds of each other – when Bruno was careless in possession and kept turning it back over.

Fred and McT both comfortably had a higher pass completion rate than Bruno last night.

That’s a weird thing to say. Of course they did! Because they didn’t create jack shit. They never do (well, Fred very occasionally does, McT never) They should be aiming for 90%+ pass completion. For Bruno you’d accept as low as 70% because his role in the team is to take chances and risk losing the ball in pursuit of creating goals. Giggs was the same when he played central midfield, with similar pass completion. Someone said Bruno was on about 80% last night, so singling him out after a diabolical performance from McFred is textbook agenda posting.

 

[Bestietom]

Lamptey would be one to keep an eye on, for summer transfer.

 

[Litch]

Reminds me of under Ole. McFred might be squad players at best (thought Fred was particularly poor yesterday) but if we started with Pogs and Bruno, not sure we win the game. Whatever they do or don’t do, they allow us to get the best of Bruno. When they play together, we generally win.
Must frustrate the shit out of managers and the better players…..

 

[Greck]

Reminds me of under Ole. McFred might be squad players at best (thought Fred was particularly poor yesterday) but if we started with Pogs and Bruno, not sure we win the game. Whatever they do or don’t do, they allow us to get the best of Bruno. When they play together, we generally win.
Must frustrate the shit out of managers and the better players…..

I certainly hope this isn't true because that means he can't play with superior talent in which case he'll end up redundant if we ever step up our midfield. We've accepted he's worse with Ronaldo but to be worse with Pogba is only understandable when we're without the ball. It's not a good omen to choose between having creative duty deferred to one guy or risk having him regress. That's another aspect of the Nani syndrome where the players is so inefficiently mistake prone they need higher responsibility to redeem themselves (btw Nani was my favourite for a while). Put simply he needs to learn to do more be more with less.

Fred and Mctominay though I don't understand what they do, them as the back 6 don't even give us much of an edge defensively, teams slice through our midfield even when they are there. How can 2 defensive minded mids be so invisible without the ball. It's like we're naked when teams run at us.

 

[NZT-One]

That’s a weird thing to say. Of course they did! Because they didn’t create jack shit. They never do (well, Fred very occasionally does, McT never) They should be aiming for 90%+ pass completion. For Bruno you’d accept as low as 70% because his role in the team is to take chances and risk losing the ball in pursuit of creating goals. Giggs was the same when he played central midfield, with similar pass completion. Someone said Bruno was on about 80% last night, so singling him out after a diabolical performance from McFred is textbook agenda posting.

You are right, using passing stats is tricky when comparing players with different tasks on the field. But still, I am sure you agree, that we expect every player to be as intelligent as possible. Which means that the player needs to pick his moments wisely. So even if you are on the pitch to be a creator, don't play low percentage longballs, when you are sitting 5 metres in front of our own box.

It's all fine and well to accept, that Brunos natural game is very vertical and very instinctive. But just handing possession away for free will punish us sooner or later against better sides. Plus we aren't particularly great against the ball either which doubles the risk.

I certainly hope this isn't true because that means he can't play with superior talent in which case he'll end up redundant if we ever step up our midfield. We've accepted he's worse with Ronaldo but to be worse with Pogba is only understandable when we're without the ball. It's not a good omen to choose between having creative duty deferred to one guy or risk having him regress. That's another aspect of the Nani syndrome where the players is so inefficiently mistake prone they need higher responsibility to redeem themselves (btw Nani was my favourite for a while). Put simply he needs to learn to do more be more with less.

Fred and Mctominay though I don't understand what they do, them as the back 6 don't even give us much of an edge defensively, teams slice through our midfield even when they are there. How can 2 defensive minded mids be so invisible without the ball. It's like we're naked when teams run at us.

I think, the main reason is that many traits of being a defensive mid work against their natural instincts. Both of them aren't great at positioning anyways, McTom (I feel) has always be on the top of his mental capabilities to not do shit in every situation. Freds natural game is being a dog. Super dragged to the ball, engage engage engage. Asking those players to sit gets them out of their comfort zone and yesterday showed how bad that can look.

It isn't just the midfield though. Look at So'ton or Brighton, they play together as a team, the defense pushes up and is comfortable on the ball, the attack is supporting by adding passing options and off the ball runs. Even though it is undeniable that McFred weren't playing well yesterday, we constantly making their jobs harder than it needs to be. I am pretty sure, that even better players would look somewhat lost playing in our midfield.

 

[Greck]

You are right, using passing stats is tricky when comparing players with different tasks on the field. But still, I am sure you agree, that we expect every player to be as intelligent as possible. Which means that the player needs to pick his moments wisely. So even if you are on the pitch to be a creator, don't play low percentage longballs, when you are sitting 5 metres in front of our own box.

It's all fine and well to accept, that Brunos natural game is very vertical and very instinctive. But just handing possession away for free will punish us sooner or later against better sides. Plus we aren't particularly great against the ball either which doubles the risk.


I think, the main reason is that many traits of being a defensive mid work against their natural instincts. Both of them aren't great at positioning anyways, McTom (I feel) has always be on the top of his mental capabilities to not do shit in every situation. Freds natural game is being a dog. Super dragged to the ball, engage engage engage. Asking those players to sit gets them out of their comfort zone and yesterday showed how bad that can look.

It isn't just the midfield though. Look at So'ton or Brighton, they play together as a team, the defense pushes up and is comfortable on the ball, the attack is supporting by adding passing options and off the ball runs. Even though it is undeniable that McFred weren't playing well yesterday, we constantly making their jobs harder than it needs to be. I am pretty sure, that even better players would look somewhat lost playing in our midfield.

I just feel having two workhorses in midfield should negate some of the positional weaknesses...that is if they were truly good at it. It's not just that they aren't good positionally, they don't have high level reading of the game, don't apply pressure where it's most needed. Fletcher and Park when he played narrow could be seen reading and tracking runners and snuffing out diagonal infield runs that would have otherwise outnumbered our back line. I think it was the game against Villa on the Coutinho goal we were already sitting deep and it still felt like they walked right through us to score that. Mids were nowhere to be found.

I appreciate they should be squad players but believe they're thoroughly average at their best traits. Their best attribute is being rounded without being 'bad' at one aspect and their worst is being average to below average at basically everything.

 

[TMDaines]

That’s a weird thing to say. Of course they did! Because they didn’t create jack shit. They never do (well, Fred very occasionally does, McT never) They should be aiming for 90%+ pass completion. For Bruno you’d accept as low as 70% because his role in the team is to take chances and risk losing the ball in pursuit of creating goals. Giggs was the same when he played central midfield, with similar pass completion. Someone said Bruno was on about 80% last night, so singling him out after a diabolical performance from McFred is textbook agenda posting.

Not sure what you think my agenda is, other than the fact that I think any team that has Bruno playing as the way he often does will have a ceiling on how much they can expect to keep the ball. If you want to routinely have 60%+ possession, you need to have far more respect for keeping possession and patience in attack. Bruno was on 75% last night. Only Sancho and Telles were lower and they see far less of the ball. It’s odd that you lament United’s ability to dominate the ball at home, but when I point out the player who most regularly concedes possession for United, I get accused of having an agenda!

Bruno still far too regularly brings pressure on United by forcing passes that aren’t on, when the team would benefit from just recycling possession, especially in moments of strife. How United played after conceding against each of Boro, Burnley and Southampton is indicative of Bruno losing composure and trying to hard at times. He’s a great creative force, but too often he makes a poor assessment about the relative risk and reward of a particular pass.

 

[TMDaines]

@Niall @Damien For some reason the line-up shows Varane and not Lindelöf as playing.

 

[Litch]

I certainly hope this isn't true because that means he can't play with superior talent in which case he'll end up redundant if we ever step up our midfield. We've accepted he's worse with Ronaldo but to be worse with Pogba is only understandable when we're without the ball. It's not a good omen to choose between having creative duty deferred to one guy or risk having him regress. That's another aspect of the Nani syndrome where the players is so inefficiently mistake prone they need higher responsibility to redeem themselves (btw Nani was my favourite for a while). Put simply he needs to learn to do more be more with less.

Fred and Mctominay though I don't understand what they do, them as the back 6 don't even give us much of an edge defensively, teams slice through our midfield even when they are there. How can 2 defensive minded mids be so invisible without the ball. It's like we're naked when teams run at us.

Agree but when the shit hits the fan and we need results, they play. I don’t think it’s coincidental and whilst there are clearly other factors, just seems to happen more times than it doesn’t. We all thought when RR came in, that was the last we seen of them and yet again, another manager has to play them to get a result.

To be fair to them, they are honest as the day is long and work off the ball extremely hard which often goes missed. Conversely my problem with Bruno and Pogs is they offer very limited support defensively so if you don’t take the chances they create, they potentially with equally cost you goals.

We could put Rice in CDM, we are still conceding cause it’s impossible for a single player to cover Bruno and Pogs defensive workload….

 

[Denis79]

Of the last 4 games this was our worst performance, thankfully we won anyways.

 

[Litch]

Not sure what you think my agenda is, other than the fact that I think any team that has Bruno playing as the way he often does will have a ceiling on how much they can expect to keep the ball. If you want to routinely have 60%+ possession, you need to have far more respect for keeping possession and patience in attack. Bruno was on 75% last night. Only Sancho and Telles were lower and they see far less of the ball. It’s odd that you lament United’s ability to dominate the ball at home, but when I point out the player who most regularly concedes possession for United, I get accused of having an agenda!

Bruno still far too regularly brings pressure on United by forcing passes that aren’t on, when the team would benefit from just recycling possession, especially in moments of strife. How United played after conceding against each of Boro, Burnley and Southampton is indicative of Bruno losing composure and trying to hard at times. He’s a great creative force, but too often he makes a poor assessment about the relative risk and reward of a particular pass.

Lot of that makes sense and for me why managers play McFred as they provide the platform for Bruno to play from. He can play his natural game knowing these two ‘water carriers’ are running around, attempting to win the ball back on rinse repeat. We see the best of Bruno generally when they play cause Pogs, Donny or Matic can’t or won’t pick up his shit.

 

[Oldyella]

Of the last 4 games this was our worst performance, thankfully we won anyways.

We were playing the best side of those 4 games though, so it's understandable we were never going to look as good.

 

[calodo2003]

Tweet

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[Longshanks]

Far too passive in the first half, allowed Brighton to knock it around and sat off them. Come out in the second half with a more aggressive approach got the goal and red card in our favour because of it made enough chances to kill the game but missed them. Endured a nervy final 10 minutes because of it.

Few things that I noticed in the game we look utterly confused with how to attack at times players almost looked like they were second guessing themselves with what to do with the ball. We have a problem with our defenders not holding a high enough aggressive line which massively impacts our ability to play a high pressing game.

 

[Fts 74]

Watched the game again this morning I thought
Brighton played very well but didn't threaten too much its criminal how our midfield is a bad as it is, can barely string two passes together.

Good result but performance wise not good.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

We were the second best team last night unfortunately to be honest. They had more and better chances, and looked like they were playing at home. If it wasn’t for the red card I don’t think we would have won that. Not to mention the super save from De Gea

 

[NZT-One]

Not sure what you think my agenda is, other than the fact that I think any team that has Bruno playing as the way he often does will have a ceiling on how much they can expect to keep the ball. If you want to routinely have 60%+ possession, you need to have far more respect for keeping possession and patience in attack. Bruno was on 75% last night. Only Sancho and Telles were lower and they see far less of the ball. It’s odd that you lament United’s ability to dominate the ball at home, but when I point out the player who most regularly concedes possession for United, I get accused of having an agenda!

Bruno still far too regularly brings pressure on United by forcing passes that aren’t on, when the team would benefit from just recycling possession, especially in moments of strife. How United played after conceding against each of Boro, Burnley and Southampton is indicative of Bruno losing composure and trying to hard at times. He’s a great creative force, but too often he makes a poor assessment about the relative risk and reward of a particular pass.

Totally agree here and I think, one of your points should be highlighted. It is all well and good if a player like Bruno tries too hard here or there, misreading a play, making a bad decision. But with Bruno this behaviour is somewhat of the norm. And that is where many problems result from. Its totally fine if your AM isn't great when needed to defend or play a part in buildup. But Bruno too often is weak in that respect. The De Bruyne comparison is sound here - last time I checked their completion stats are fairly comparable yet I am sure, he would never make questionable decisions when the team is vulnerable. Not even for a good chance.

Too be honest, it seems like we have an overarching decision making issue in the squad. The only player I'd trust to make the right decision most of the times was Shaw. And even he is struggling these days. If thats stupid things in the builtup, weird behaviour in defense or going for an idiotic dribble by Rashford (and also Sancho a bit) or not passing the ball when a chance is on.

 

[BusbyMalone]

The performance was no different from the shit we’ve served up the past few weeks (or months), but I guess we’re at the stage of the season where it’s “all about results”

But yeah - not great. Brighton controlled a lot of that game and if not for a spectacular save from Dave we’re probably looking at more dropped points at home. Obviously, we missed some chances ourselves, but the overall play is simply not good enough. Every team that comes to Old Trafford seems to be able to have large swathes of the game where they’re in complete control. Not good.

We looked much better when Pogba came on (surprise, surprise) as Fred was a disaster. The man is such a hindrance on this team. One or two assists don’t cover for the shit he does on the regular

As for Rashford, feck knows what’s wrong with him. I know some on here often say he was never good enough or was overrated, etc, but that’s not true. He was great for us and looked really promising, and backed it up with good numbers. But he looks so disinterested at the moment. He’s so infuriating to watch, constantly making the same mistakes over and over again. Not sure if there’s any way back for him here. This isn’t a couple of bad games we’re talking about.

 

[Maticmaker]

A win is a win!
A shout for Lindelof, he stood in at last minute for Varane, (illness) had some good sorties forward with the ball, trouble was our front men were so surprised they just stood and watched!
Played better in recent games and only drew, but as above 'a win is a win'

 

[city-puma]

I think there is an issue with that. When we have an extra man,

I am really disappointed to be honest. Before the game, I didn't expect to win at OT (we never do) but I thought after that first half we were in with a good shout and with the prospect of Lamptey and Welbeck coming on against tired legs, I was hopeful.

The red card obviously changed everything. But I don't get why it was red card and why VAR was even involved. The ref made an on field decision for yellow and though Dunk did foul Elanga he wasn't the last man, Webster was clearly there covering. Clear cut no need for VAR, I rewatched the game on MUTV and even your commentators didn't think it was a red.

Still I guess that's football sometimes and despite that, I thought we put in an excellent performance with 10 men and were dangerous right up until the final whistle. So disappointed but happy with the team performance, I thought Cucurella especilly had an excellent game and caused you all sorts if issues.

It’s a clear red card, no doubt about it.

As always, your team played awesome football. Everyone of them knows where to move and what to do with or without ball. Our team played like an amateur level, in contrast. Potter has done very special things. Over last two years, your team has become my second favorite in the league.

the only problem is your team doesn’t score enough.If it can be addressed, the sky is not the limit. Before the game, I think we most likely will get a draw. Unless we play shockingly poor, we could lose (because your team has that issue not scoring enough). The real game just showed we got the lucky to win it.The draw is more fair considering the performance.

 

[Castia]

Lamptey looked a real talent when he came on I’d love him at United.