[DeGea’sFeet]

Take out MGuire Shaw McFred and Fernandes and you start to look like a team with promise.

Replace them with who thou? Fernandes gave the ball away too much, as always, but to his credit he is always trying difficult passes.

McTominay looks like a weaklink who can’t even do the basics, but no one there to replace him, Donny maybe ?

Shaw I think Malacia will replace him sooner rather than later

 

[pocco]

We absolutely need to sign Caicedo. That's my biggest take away from today's game, because the rest was predictable.

 

[Nevilles.Wear.Prada]

I understood it as ETH's admission the kids are better than the starters, and we're going with the kids from here on out. Seriously, though, Garnacho looked the far better player in his cameo. I think the fanbase is demoralized because ETH is asking us to put our faith in the same players who failed last season so miserably. At least with new players, we can genuinely hope. We all know the level of Fred and McT, and we know Bruno is a roll of the dice, you never know which form of Bruno will turn up.

I sincerely hope to god ETH did it to show the glazers who incidentally showed up for the match "look, I started with the best of what we have as you lot wanted, they were shite AF and then i persisted with as long as i could AND had to throw in 3 kids, its futile so get me some signing"

 

[tentan]

Dreadful. Nothings changed.

 

[PoTMS]

Living in London, just got home now from Manchester for the match and as you can tell had an absolute nightmare of a day. And yet still the worst part was that United performance.

 

[croadyman]

Depressing, but not entirely unexpected. Get the fecking chequebook out.

Yeah in next 6 days

 

[tjb]

They were quality, Maguire was decent too tbf and so was Ronaldo after coming on but it's a shame they have to share the pitch with the same dross we've put out for years...

Our midfield in particular has been a disgrace for the better part of 3/4 years now and we have yet to seriously address that need yet

This is the reason I can't talk about our attackers too much.

Sancho when given space looked decent on the ball, but didn't get involved enough like last season due to limited supply. Rashford wasn't great, but he also had limited chances to impact the game outside his misses. We didn't move the ball well enough to get effective switches. Switch Salah and Diaz with Sancho and Rashford and you would get the same performance.

Shaw, Fred and Mctominay were horrendous positionally. ETH likes the full backs to tuck in at times, despite his mistakes, at least Dalot offered that. Fred was overpowered in midfield, Mctominay was completely anonymous.

One thing I will say is that Eriksen came out of this looking really good as a no.8. He can clearly play in a double pivot as well which is fantastic. Getting De Jong will completely change how we look as a team, but I also think with Eriksen, we can sign a more traditional DM

 

[croadyman]

Living in London, just got home now from Manchester for the match and as you can tell had an absolute nightmare of a day. And yet still the worst part was that United performance.

Wouldn't go again while these leeches kill us

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

Dreadful display by UTD, starting where they left off last season.

I can't believe ETH thinks that FDJ is the only midfielder good enough to oust either Fred or McTominay from our midfield & that a 34yo WHU reject should be our new star striker!

And to make matters worse, after UTD lose we see City win without breaking a sweat & Haaland notches 2.

 

[sglowrider]

 

[VanDeBank]

Watch the game back last night. WOW, that was fecking terrible.
Deja vu to Rangnick ball.

 

[newgiz]

I wish I could be more optimistic, but unfortunately there's not much of a future or potential for some of the players who started the game yesterday.

Some of the play yesterday from our 'midfielders' cannot be attributed to rustiness. Its just purely a lack of ability. There was not a single sequence of play where we could string together a few passes together. No manager in the world can compensate for the lack of quality in this current United side.

On the other hand, Brighton looked well in control of the game and were extremely effective.

Its going to be a long season ahead and I can't help but feel that there's a lot more pain ahead for us.

 

[Elcabron]

DDG deserves a mention as well for being shite. Useless with the ball at his feet and great assist for their second goal. He needs to leave on a free transfer next summer. The Spanish realized his many flaws a few years ago and he doesn't even make the squad these days. Nice guy and been here a while but apart from good reflexes he offers nothing.

 

[Cypriot]

It was like muscle memory for certain players. Nothing like what was worked on in pre season. It’s going to take a while to coach it out of them and ETH knows it.

 

[mitchmouse]

Have the players come out on social media yet with the standard lines? Not good enough, must do better, we will continue to work, etc…

I think the cart horse at the back might have done...

 

[mitchmouse]

DDG deserves a mention as well for being shite. Useless with the ball at his feet and great assist for their second goal. He needs to leave on a free transfer next summer. The Spanish realized his many flaws a few years ago and he doesn't even make the squad these days. Nice guy and been here a while but apart from good reflexes he offers nothing.

agreed. One of the least brave keepers I've ever seen and surely can't inspire confidence ahead of him. Mind you, until yesterday I would have thought Martinez would be a reasonably priced alternative but he looked shaky as hell - still made a save (from rashford) that DDG would have shyed away from (and for me it counted as a save because VAR would have overruled the linesman on the offside)

 

[Ahmer Baig]

No more clean slate.

 

[mitchmouse]

Aside from the quality and mentality....

Anyone notice how physically weak we look?

McTom and Maguire are playing because their physicality as much as anything.

Not just talking about Martinez (who was one of the few positives)

I've spoken up for Scotty lots here because I really thought there was a good player in there struggling to get out - but he was like a madman yesterday. He'd have been great in the days of Souness and Bremner when you could make up for any deficiencies against more technically brilliant opponents by hacking them to pieces.

I'm afraid he has to go the same way as Fred - out the door, or maybe on the bench and come on in the last three minutes if we're winning 3-0... makes me sad to admit it. I really hoped he'd be one of those youngsters who worked his way up through the club

 

[mitchmouse]

Bringing on Phillips in the 88th minute when he’d walk into our starting 11. We’re a fecking shambles and those thinking there isn’t a problem are just as fecked as the club itself.

he'd look like Beckenbauer or Mathaus in our midfield!

 

[justsomebloke]

The first half was mostly as awful as anything from last season, the second a bit better but far from impressive. We're woefully passive when defending the box, can't win second balls, aren't able to move the ball upfield from our own third, don't really create scoring chances and have no control in the midfield. All the same stuff that marred last season, in the same way, from largely the same players.

Over it all hangs an unmistakable air of absent confidence. It really looks like the players don't believe in this anymore.

And why should they? There remains a fundamental dissonance between what went down last season and what we've done since. By any reasonable reckoning, for a club with any true ambition, last season was a disaster - one that clearly spelt out that something is very, very wrong. No one can say for sure what the right solution for that is, but anyone can tell it damn sure isn't what we have done. The onus is still pretty much on the same players to get the job done who didn't get it done last year - we haven't dropped any of them, and we haven't replaced any of them either. The players we have brought in seem more designed to support the same old core than to supplant or upgrade it. Shaw remains the go-to guy on LB, Martinez evidently primarily offer an alternative to Lindelof or Varane (neither of whom was among the problems last season), Eriksen kind of gives us a second option a few places in the midfield, which might be of value but doesn't really address anything fundamental.

Which brings me back to belief, and why anyone should have it.

All this being said, I keep reminding myself to wait for Round 4 or 5 before drawing any firm conclusions.

 

[GoldanoGraham]

Until we learn to move the ball down the flanks and attack with pace on the wings we are going to constantly run into trouble.

The same issue as last season is that as soon as we break we seem to continually cut inside, lose the momentum, allow the opposition to regroup and then generally lose possession.

Until we attack with pace and speed (like the Ronaldo cross for Rashford) we are going to be easy to set up against and wide open for the counter.

It’s all too laboured and too static. Bruno is one of the biggest culprits of this.

 

[SoCross]

Maguire & Eriksen were the only good players out there for me and to a lesser extent Martinez (who seemed to lose his head towards the end of the 2nd half a bit).

Fullbacks were meh. McFred was meh. Bruno should have scored and then did almost nothing for the rest of the game. Sancho looked very unfit. Rashford showed better workrate but the two wide men were anonymous. De Gea couldn't do anything about the goals but distribution was poor.

We absolutely need another midfielder, a wide option and possibly a third forward this season if we want top four. A RB would be handy too but I'd prioritise the other positions first.

 

[mitchmouse]

I'm sorry, what? People here still claiming Maguire is good? Did you watch the game? He never seems to pick up a man and i he does get close then never tracks the run. Lots o us have said it before, while he and DDG remain in that defence, we won't see any major improvement. How many partners has Maguire now had at CB and we still continue to leak stupid goals. yes, others are at fault too but a great defence (and team) has a strong spine. Ours appears to have been amputated

 

[Andy_Cole]

Boos at HT show how impatient we are. But those boos were to the same useless players. They deserve boos. I do want to give Hag patience though. He’s been dealt a horrid hand by the board.

 

[mitchmouse]

The first half was mostly as awful as anything from last season, the second a bit better but far from impressive. We're woefully passive when defending the box, can't win second balls, aren't able to move the ball upfield from our own third, don't really create scoring chances and have no control in the midfield. All the same stuff that marred last season, in the same way, from largely the same players.

Over it all hangs an unmistakable air of absent confidence. It really looks like the players don't believe in this anymore.

And why should they? There remains a fundamental dissonance between what went down last season and what we've done since. By any reasonable reckoning, for a club with any true ambition, last season was a disaster - one that clearly spelt out that something is very, very wrong. No one can say for sure what the right solution for that is, but anyone can tell it damn sure isn't what we have done. The onus is still pretty much on the same players to get the job done who didn't get it done last year - we haven't dropped any of them, and we haven't replaced any of them either. The players we have brought in seem more designed to support the same old core than to supplant or upgrade it. Shaw remains the go-to guy on LB, Martinez evidently primarily offer an alternative to Lindelof or Varane (neither of whom was among the problems last season), Eriksen kind of gives us a second option a few places in the midfield, which might be of value but doesn't really address anything fundamental.

Which brings me back to belief, and why anyone should have it.

All this being said, I keep reminding myself to wait for Round 4 or 5 before drawing any firm conclusions.

"round three" is against Liverpool, isn't it? we could be blown away which would ruin any remaining confidence in team...

 

[big_jeffstar]

every single time the opposition get on the ball, i now assume they're going to score, I have that little confidence in our defensive shape, you just know that one of them will lose their head and get dragged out of position.. not sure how any manager can sort that out, they're just not very good footballers, zero football intelligence to work in a system like Ten Hags
I don't think I've ever known us have a team where almost every player in it has massive weaknesses to their game that can be exploited,

Fred - terrible under pressure and is constantly targeted
McTominay - plays with too much aggression, no technique
Bruno - constantly loses the ball
Rashford - can't beat a man
Maguire - too many problems to list, but generally positionally awful
De Gea - can't play out from the back
Dalot - can't beat a man, not enough quality to his game
Shaw - jogs back to defend, won't overlap
Sancho - tries to do too much on his own

It's going to be a long old season, because i don't think there's a way of coaching the problems out of them, they're inherently reverting to form the minute they're asked to play under pressure, and we see all of their weaknesses in every game

 

[justsomebloke]

"round three" is against Liverpool, isn't it? we could be blown away which would ruin any remaining confidence in team...

Yes. (And "could" feels like a wildly optimistic choice of words right now, though Liverpool had struggles of their own against Fulham.)

Generally though, it takes a few rounds for things to settle down. Just think of Arsenal last season. If I was a betting man, I would've put good money on Arteta not surviving the season after those absolute horror show opening games, which as I recall were even worse than what we showed yesterday. Same thing with us the season before, though there were unusual factors involved in that case.

 

[Judge Red]

We were beaten by the better team and not just on the day. Potter will have a lot to answer for if we somehow finish above Brighton in the league.

 

[mitchmouse]

We were beaten by the better team and not just on the day. Potter will have a lot to answer for if we somehow finish above Brighton in the league.

I'm waiting for one of the red tops to say we should have gone for Potter instead of ETH...

 

[Player Red]

Considering we only had one competitive game since this same team spanked us 4-0 - it was an improvement. Silver linings and all that.

 

[Nickelodeon]

I think I've finally calmed down after yesterday's game. Penning down my player by player thoughts to get it out of system.

De Gea: Nothing much he could do about either goal. The commentator harshly criticized him for the second one but he did get decent distance on the parry. Distribution again was hot and cold but you could forgive him trying to find a wide person every time as Fred showed in the initial minutes that he's always likely to provide an assist to the opposition.

Dalot: Bang average. And took him just 10 seconds to prove that all our efforts to play out of the back will be hindered by the lack of quality of individuals including and especially him. He did have a few minor positives in attack though but he'll remain a liability for major part of the season.

Maguire: He was alright even if it may be an unpopular opinion. His switch of play in the initial part of the game was quite good. Unfortunately his lack of pace is always going to be challenge and the offside for the first goal was wafer thin. In an ideal world, we would be upgrading him but we definitely can't buy more CBs. It would be up to Lindelof or Varane to displace him. His ball hogging days are still continuing it seems.

Lisandro: He looked really impressive in the beginning with his ability to play short passes between the lines. Overall, he looked better than our other CB options.

Shaw: Similar to Dalot, he was quite average. Didn't offer enough quality on the final ball when he did overlap which in itself were far and few between. Picked up his customary booking as well.

Fred: You can never fault his effort and unlike Mctominay, he never hides. But playing him as a 6 is a suicide as he gives away the ball too frequently which, in turn, makes the CBs lose confidence in passing the ball to him essentially killing our entire approach of holding on to the ball and creating chances. He may be half decent option as an 8 from the bench but hope we never see him in that position again. His performance will cause the club to lose millions as all the potential sellers of CDMs would've seen how desperate we are to upgrade.

McTominay: Future captain they said. He is so poor on the ball when he actually shows for it but usually hides behind opponents. He had already given away the ball a couple of times before actually doing it again in the build up to the first Brighton goal. The fact that he lasted 75 odd minutes made me really judge ETH. He should be nowhere close to our squad.

Bruno: He has had a lot of credit in the bank for his G/A record but he's starting to run out now. He's always hit and miss with his passing but games like these really frustrate the hell out of you. Also has had this amazing propensity to miss sitters since the start of last season. He scores the chance in the first 10 mins and the whole game could've been different. He has talked the talk enough, we need to see it on the pitch now.

Eriksen: What a weird call to start him as the striker. Looked much better on the ball than any of our players. Nothing much to judge him on yet.

Sancho: He looks quality on the ball every time he has it but either he doesn't get on it enough or we're unable to give him that opportunity. In the 4-5 instances he did, he tried and missed the final ball in a couple of those, like the one to Ronaldo. He has to do more but I would put it down to a lack of midfield due to which we neither retain the ball nor get our attackers involved in the game.

Rashford: Shambolic. I have never been his biggest fan but, now, the fact that he's our only senior LW scares me to McFred levels. He had so much time and space to finish that chance when Ronaldo wasn't offside. The other chance from Bruno's cross when he hit it with his left foot wasn't as tough as he made it look. But between the two, he should've at least scored one. General play was the usual atrocious standard. He is the main reason why I wish our club has a proper DoF because they would see through the hype and sell him when his hype would be at it's peak. At another club, the likes of Rashford and McTominay collectively could've garnered close to 60-70 million. I hope I'm wrong but I don't see him as a top level footballer. Unfortunately, nosediving akin to Dele Alli.

Subs:

Ronaldo: Did nothing of note apart from creating the Rashford chance which was a really smart run from him. Work rate seemed quite poor though.

VDB: Usual nothingness. Which was an improvement on McTominay

The other 3: Should've been brought sooner. In ETH's defense, he had them ready at 82 mins but then we had a corner followed by a spell of play when the ball didn't go out for 6-7 mins. Malacia showed Fred like naivety in the stoppage time though.


ETH: Unless we face a threat of relegation, this season is going to be a free pass for him. Especially because of our snail like pace in the transfer market, there's nothing he can achieve with this set of players. So all we can do is hope that he's a miracle worker because we don't just need him to coach, he's also our only scout.

 

[miked99]

After watching the preseason games and then yesterdays match it seems Martial is going to be important in this system. His ability to hold the ball and link play was sorely missed yesterday. Very disappointing performance and result.

 

[Hughie77]

Martial was a miss , through preseason he's been on it, looks like the player we bought , 1st half was dreadful in losing possession and unable to recover from it. 2nd half was much better, and Dunks block of Martinez shot was excellent . Plus side was we had a CB doing that.
CM has been problematic, Mctom and Fred are not consistent enough.

 

[mitchmouse]

I think I've finally calmed down after yesterday's game. Penning down my player by player thoughts to get it out of system.

De Gea: Nothing much he could do about either goal. The commentator harshly criticized him for the second one but he did get decent distance on the parry. Distribution again was hot and cold but you could forgive him trying to find a wide person every time as Fred showed in the initial minutes that he's always likely to provide an assist to the opposition.

Dalot: Bang average. And took him just 10 seconds to prove that all our efforts to play out of the back will be hindered by the lack of quality of individuals including and especially him. He did have a few minor positives in attack though but he'll remain a liability for major part of the season.

Maguire: He was alright even if it may be an unpopular opinion. His switch of play in the initial part of the game was quite good. Unfortunately his lack of pace is always going to be challenge and the offside for the first goal was wafer thin. In an ideal world, we would be upgrading him but we definitely can't buy more CBs. It would be up to Lindelof or Varane to displace him. His ball hogging days are still continuing it seems.

Lisandro: He looked really impressive in the beginning with his ability to play short passes between the lines. Overall, he looked better than our other CB options.

Shaw: Similar to Dalot, he was quite average. Didn't offer enough quality on the final ball when he did overlap which in itself were far and few between. Picked up his customary booking as well.

Fred: You can never fault his effort and unlike Mctominay, he never hides. But playing him as a 6 is a suicide as he gives away the ball too frequently which, in turn, makes the CBs lose confidence in passing the ball to him essentially killing our entire approach of holding on to the ball and creating chances. He may be half decent option as an 8 from the bench but hope we never see him in that position again. His performance will cause the club to lose millions as all the potential sellers of CDMs would've seen how desperate we are to upgrade.

McTominay: Future captain they said. He is so poor on the ball when he actually shows for it but usually hides behind opponents. He had already given away the ball a couple of times before actually doing it again in the build up to the first Brighton goal. The fact that he lasted 75 odd minutes made me really judge ETH. He should be nowhere close to our squad.

Bruno: He has had a lot of credit in the bank for his G/A record but he's starting to run out now. He's always hit and miss with his passing but games like these really frustrate the hell out of you. Also has had this amazing propensity to miss sitters since the start of last season. He scores the chance in the first 10 mins and the whole game could've been different. He has talked the talk enough, we need to see it on the pitch now.

Eriksen: What a weird call to start him as the striker. Looked much better on the ball than any of our players. Nothing much to judge him on yet.

Sancho: He looks quality on the ball every time he has it but either he doesn't get on it enough or we're unable to give him that opportunity. In the 4-5 instances he did, he tried and missed the final ball in a couple of those, like the one to Ronaldo. He has to do more but I would put it down to a lack of midfield due to which we neither retain the ball nor get our attackers involved in the game.

Rashford: Shambolic. I have never been his biggest fan but, now, the fact that he's our only senior LW scares me to McFred levels. He had so much time and space to finish that chance when Ronaldo wasn't offside. The other chance from Bruno's cross when he hit it with his left foot wasn't as tough as he made it look. But between the two, he should've at least scored one. General play was the usual atrocious standard. He is the main reason why I wish our club has a proper DoF because they would see through the hype and sell him when his hype would be at it's peak. At another club, the likes of Rashford and McTominay collectively could've garnered close to 60-70 million. I hope I'm wrong but I don't see him as a top level footballer. Unfortunately, nosediving akin to Dele Alli.

Subs:

Ronaldo: Did nothing of note apart from creating the Rashford chance which was a really smart run from him. Work rate seemed quite poor though.

VDB: Usual nothingness. Which was an improvement on McTominay

The other 3: Should've been brought sooner. In ETH's defense, he had them ready at 82 mins but then we had a corner followed by a spell of play when the ball didn't go out for 6-7 mins. Malacia showed Fred like naivety in the stoppage time though.


ETH: Unless we face a threat of relegation, this season is going to be a free pass for him. Especially because of our snail like pace in the transfer market, there's nothing he can achieve with this set of players. So all we can do is hope that he's a miracle worker because we don't just need him to coach, he's also our only scout.

Sorry but DDG's attempt to push the ball away at the second goal was feeble at best... right back into the danger area. it was so bad, he'd have been better off not touching it at all. Plus there was the hospital ball to Fred even before Brighton scored.

Maguire proved again that he is possibly the slowest CB in the premier league and was caught doing nothing (again) for the first goal

Ronaldo sparked us into momentary life and put the ball on a plate for the woeful rashford. Don't tell me any of the Brighton players would have missed it. There was still enough time then for us to (undeservedly) get back into the game

 

[Nickelodeon]

Sorry but DDG's attempt to push the ball away at the second goal was feeble at best... right back into the danger area. it was so bad, he'd have been better off not touching it at all. Plus there was the hospital ball to Fred even before Brighton scored.

Maguire proved again that he is possibly the slowest CB in the premier league and was caught doing nothing (again) for the first goal

Ronaldo sparked us into momentary life and put the ball on a plate for the woeful rashford. Don't tell me any of the Brighton players would have missed it. There was still enough time then for us to (undeservedly) get back into the game

Regarding De Gea, there wasn't any effort from our players to block out the shot. Had March hit it with a little more power, De Gea's parry would've taken it further out. Its not like De Gea just left it close to the goal, he got his hand to it and pushed it wide. Don't think you can ask more from the keeper there. It was that sort where if you're an Allisson or Ederson, you would get away with it but a GK with question marks wouldn't.

What does not touching it mean btw? Letting it go into the goal?

Don't disagree on Maguire or Ronaldo at all.

 

[mitchmouse]

Regarding De Gea, there wasn't any effort from our players to block out the shot. Had March hit it with a little more power, De Gea's parry would've taken it further out. Its not like De Gea just left it close to the goal, he got his hand to it and pushed it wide. Don't think you can ask more from the keeper there. It was that sort where if you're an Allisson or Ederson, you would get away with it but a GK with question marks wouldn't.

What does not touching it mean btw? Letting it go into the goal?

Don't disagree on Maguire or Ronaldo at all.

Not sure it was actually on target... but it went in anyway so there's no difference. I just meant it ended up in the net anyway!

Most keepers would tell you that needs to be pushed around the post but I agree that his defenders didn't exactly help... goalkeeping can be a tough life but it was a mistake. had he been lucky, he might have got away with it, that much I agree

 

[ObscureBaguette]

Maguire: He was alright even if it may be an unpopular opinion. His switch of play in the initial part of the game was quite good. Unfortunately his lack of pace is always going to be challenge and the offside for the first goal was wafer thin. In an ideal world, we would be upgrading him but we definitely can't buy more CBs. It would be up to Lindelof or Varane to displace him. His ball hogging days are still continuing it seems.

It certainly wasn't his worst performance by his own standards. Not really any of the hideous mistakes we've become accustomed to. But as Tifo showed in what I thought was a very good asessment of our performance, his positioning was as dreadful as ever and his whole game still seemed to revolve around trying to make up for his lack of pace.

There was also the usual complete lack of impact, influence and leadership as captain. We need to get the armband off him and give it to someone who can actually lead and drive others on. I'd say Ronaldo but, well, that's probably not feasible right now.

 

[Stookie]

What else went wrong for you ?

Work things mate, I work in an operating theatre but part of my job is to go anywhere in the hospital where patients need airway management. I’m on nights and get called to the paediatric ward. Let’s just say things didn’t go well. Not the thread for it really.

 

[calodo2003]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Maticmaker]

Talk about 'deja vu' ....all over again!!!

Apart from one or two lovely cameo's from Eriksen and when he came on some attempts at 'pass and move' with DVB, it was the same 'bad dream' again.

Surely the 'fat lady has sung' now for most of that team?