[Mihai]

Dyche is moaning that Lingard went down too easily for the penalty. Did anyone ask him about the handball or the penalty that was given then taken away?

And then he moaned about 5 minutes of injury time, asking where it came from. Completely forgot the fact his team time wasted for about 35 minutes.

Is he always like that? This is the first time I've seen his presser, but he looked like a proper tw@t.

 

[Trizy]

Not sure why Lukaku is getting hammered, two superb assists at Arsenal mean't he deserved to start last night, not having that is down to Ole messing about, that is keeping a striker who was MOTM in his last game in the side.

If Rashford did not panic, he would have had an assist, everyone is hammering Pereira for one mistake, what about Rashford missing from 6 yards out, puts us 1 up, Lukaku assist.

He then nearly scored when Heaton pulled off an absolute worldie of a save, on another night he could have had a goal and an assist, but that's all forgotten and he is a passenger, do me a favour.

Pereira didn't have the best of games, nor did Mata but Young was absolutely woeful as was Jones, two of the first choice starting 11, hardly a word said about them.

Agree on the balls into the box, was ridiculous they just defended them with ease, don't agree on the Lukaku agenda.

I didn't mention Rashford because I get hammered every time I criticize him on here even when its warranted. He's now scored one 1v1 chance in his last 11. Martial scores that chance all day and we win comfortably.

Agreed on Young but we all know he's useless.

Lukaku vs Arsenal is overstated. He was completely wank outside of the two assists. One great assist and one pass. It's Lukaku in a nutshell, 99% of the time he's a terrible footballer but when he gets a goal or assist people are blinded into thinking he played well.

 

[Tom Cato]

Solskjaer got it completely wrong with the tactics and selection tonight and we drew because of that.

According to the press conference, he rested a few players because they were nursing some nagging injuries. Better to rest them now, than to risk them being out for a long time now when February lurks. Lukaku had a really good game against Arsenal and I could see why he was starting with that in mind.

We have a really though schedule coming up, and the club is expected to perform against PSG, a wastly better team than Burnley. It's pretty easy to say what we should have done in hindsight, but I trust that the manager put a team out that was qualified to beat Burnely.

And quite frankly, the 2nd half surge more or less confirms that. The team came out pedestrian, something even Ole confirmed. That is on the players, they were magnitudes better in the second half.

 

[JoseandMkhiarespecial]

Post match thoughts
Thin squad
Injuries
Previous managers signings holding the team back as squad players can't reach the levels needed

Poch gets a free pass to lose games through a thin squad and injuries to key players.

Ole had Herrera and Lingard with niggles last night as they run so much when they give their all playing for him. Martial also had an injury.

So he had to replace them with Perreira who is Arsenal level, Mata who is Arsenal level, and Rom for Martial.

It's not Ole's fault he has a thin squad and that Jose seemed to tell Lukaku to put 10 kilos or 15 kilos on and lose his pace.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Is he always like that? This is the first time I've seen his presser, but he looked like a proper tw@t.

He's a gruff Mark Hughes.

 

[StrettyEnder07]

I didn't mention Rashford because I get hammered every time I criticize him on here even when its warranted. He's now scored one 1v1 chance in his last 11. Martial scores that chance all day and we win comfortably.

Agreed on Young but we all know he's useless.

Lukaku vs Arsenal is overstated. He was completely wank outside of the two assists. One great assist and one pass. It's Lukaku in a nutshell, 99% of the time he's a terrible footballer but when he gets a goal or assist people are blinded into thinking he played well.

Not saying you did mention Rashford, using his miss as an example of Lukaku wetting him up for what should have been a top assist.

Lukaku against Arsenal held it up well, gave their CBs a hard time all game, two top assists and worked the right hand channel well, passing was good, looked sharp, wouldn't say he was 99% useless bar his two assists, at all.

If we would have put any kind of decent delivery in last night he could have had a few, but every single ball into the box was woeful, not his fault.

 

[Bubz27]

Is he always like that? This is the first time I've seen his presser, but he looked like a proper tw@t.

I'm not sure, but I'm surprised he had so much to moan about. Bit sour imo.

 

[Judas]

I can't get over taking Lukaku off to spend the rest of the game swinging the ball aimlessly into the box. If you'd kept him on and done that tactic things might have been different.

It was just all a bit off last night. At least we didn't lose, but it feels like we did.

 

[mancan92]

Our 4 best players under Ole have been Rashford, Pogba, Lingard and Martial.

Tonight, Rashford and Pogba were off their game, whilst the other two were absent from the first XI. Starting only two of them should have been enough, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

I thought Lukaku and Mata were decent. In terms of our attack, we mostly did the right things and looked dangerous despite making mistakes.

The problem was that in midfield Pogba was a one-man-show. He played at about a six out of ten for most of the match. That's more than excusable, but when there's nobody else offering creativity, it becomes a big issue to have all of our eggs in one basket.

I think the lesson is that our midfield creativity needs to be addressed as a priority. It's madness to rely on only one man alone for an entire season.

Everyone should be allowed off-days, but the squad's imbalanced composition means that Pogba isn't.

I dont see how pogba had an off day. He still created 3 good chances and scored a goal. He was still our most creative player and involved in everything. Only problem yesterday was 1 mistake and lack of finishing.

 

[mancan92]

I can't get over taking Lukaku off to spend the rest of the game swinging the ball aimlessly into the box. If you'd kept him on and done that tactic things might have been different.

It was just all a bit off last night. At least we didn't lose, but it feels like we did.

You know we scored both goals whilst he was off the pitch............

 

[Mihai]

He's a gruff Mark Hughes.

Is this even possible?

 

[sunama]

Credit to Heaton. He Degea'ed us tonight.
How is Pickford ahead of him for England?

I believe Heaton has his game of the season, at OT.
Year before last, when he had his game of his life (at OT), I kept an eye on him. I noticed that a week later, he conceded 4 goals (I think it was).
Basically, the version of Heaton you see at OT, is not the same one which plays year round.

To be fair, our defence is terrible and against Spurs and AFC, it was DDG who was performing heroics which enabled us to win. If we had a GK of lesser quality our defence would leak a lot of goals.
Sadly, we have too many defenders who don't know how to defend.

For me, if Solkjaer does not jettison P.Jones quickly, it may result in him being replaced in the Summer.

All our managers have had player selection weaknesses. LVG (Rooney). Jose (Matic, Lukaku, Fellaini, etc). Solkjaer (Jones).
I don't quite understand why managers keep picking him, despite him showing that he can't stay fit and we leak goals, when he plays.

 

[Shez]

I can't get over taking Lukaku off to spend the rest of the game swinging the ball aimlessly into the box. If you'd kept him on and done that tactic things might have been different.

It was just all a bit off last night. At least we didn't lose, but it feels like we did.

Me and everyone around me were shouting for Lukaku to be taken off. He was doing feck all. TV wouldnt have caught it all but he was just standing around. Not running to get the ball, challenge the defenders or even jump when balls were being thrown into the box. Also, he was played through multiple times and with a better touch or speed he would have been away for a 1v1, however the ball either got caught in his feet or he dithered too much, or was just too slow. No issues with the sub
And we had to swing the ball into the box... from 55 mins onwards Burnley had at a minimum 10 players behind the ball. Their half was so crowded it was near impossible to string passes together (particularly as some of our players lack the quality to do so).
One thing that annoyed me was the lack of bravery from some of our players. We would get the ball and instead of trying to pass, shoot or whip it in, they would pass to someone else hoping they would do it instead

 

[pascell]

According to the press conference, he rested a few players because they were nursing some nagging injuries. Better to rest them now, than to risk them being out for a long time now when February lurks. Lukaku had a really good game against Arsenal and I could see why he was starting with that in mind.

We have a really though schedule coming up, and the club is expected to perform against PSG, a wastly better team than Burnley. It's pretty easy to say what we should have done in hindsight, but I trust that the manager put a team out that was qualified to beat Burnely.

And quite frankly, the 2nd half surge more or less confirms that. The team came out pedestrian, something even Ole confirmed. That is on the players, they were magnitudes better in the second half.

I thought the tactics mainly were to blame, after the first 30 mins, it was evident that getting it to Young to cross the ball wasn't going to work, playing it in the air is bread and butter for the Burnley defenders. He should've told the players to run at them more, that's when the gaps in their defence we're appearing and we creating our best chances of the 1st half.

Mata should've been subbed off for Sanchez to press more and get more energy into our attack, that's were you can see the difference between our 1st 11 and our squad players, the drop in performance level is worrying as these players will be needed in March against our better opponents. If we were persisting with crossing the ball, we'd have been better off with Dalot who is a better crosser of the ball than Young but hey ho it's done now, onto the next game.

 

[sunama]

It just bothers me so much watching our fullbacks put in cross after cross aimed at absolutely nothing..

I noticed this yesterday. Young, was particularly at fault where it looked as if he was aiming for a Burnley player, everytime.

 

[sunama]

Me and everyone around me were shouting for Lukaku to be taken off. He was doing feck all. TV wouldnt have caught it all but he was just standing around. Not running to get the ball, challenge the defenders or even jump when balls were being thrown into the box. Also, he was played through multiple times and with a better touch or speed he would have been away for a 1v1, however the ball either got caught in his feet or he dithered too much, or was just too slow. No issues with the sub
And we had to swing the ball into the box... from 55 mins onwards Burnley had at a minimum 10 players behind the ball. Their half was so crowded it was near impossible to string passes together (particularly as some of our players lack the quality to do so).
One thing that annoyed me was the lack of bravery from some of our players. We would get the ball and instead of trying to pass, shoot or whip it in, they would pass to someone else hoping they would do it instead

Agreed, on all points.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Is this even possible?

I never thought it was, but am having second thoughts.

 

[Cee90]

Perhaps I'm a glass half empty kind of person, but to me last night felt like a loss.

Gutted that the winning streak ended to Burnley at home of all teams.

Hopefully Ole learns from this.

 

[Bola]

Also OGS's top priority should be finishing in top 4 and not FA cup, we should play our absolute best team in each league match and leave the experiments for FA cup.

That's a very spursy thing to say

 

[Annihilate Now!]

You know we scored both goals whilst he was off the pitch............

exactly.

If anything he should have come off sooner.

 

[ZenMaster Coltrane]

I think the one thing that poor crossing obscures is the inability of the full backs to play the cutback cross from the byline. Obviously, Young has failed at this too when he's been in acres of space with no pressure but getting to the end line is a skill, which Pep really focuses on. Shaw can get there more often but that's usually because of an overload overlap and he seems unable to do it 1V1. When he does find himself there, his delivery is poor.

I think it's a fool's errand to scour leagues for supreme FB crossers from outside the box but there are definitely FBs that have the ability to get to the byline.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

The perfect wake up call before a tpugh month. Thats complacency nipped in the bud

 

[Sunny Jim]

Here are my thoughts.

First, I'm kinda "glad" this winning streak is over. I think that players were getting sort of nervous with each game. The weight of expectation was getting under their skins. The manner in which we got this draw, coming from behind, scoring two goals in the dying minutes of the game, will give players confidence. On one hand they know that nothing really serious happens when they go behind, they have the capacity to fight back. On the other hand this result will wipe out any complacency if there was any.

what I'm worried about is our fitness levels. We did look jaded IMHO. We lacked that spark, burst of pace to beat the man. I'm hoping that we can somehow deal with the fixture congestion.

This Burnley game showed that despite the numbers we lack depth. We have 2 full backs that can be trusted, our 4th choice midfielder is a huge downgrade, playing Mata and Lukaku slows us down. I'm sure that had Ole played the same team that beat Arsenal, we would have won yesterday.

 

[worldinmotion66]

I can't get over taking Lukaku off to spend the rest of the game swinging the ball aimlessly into the box. If you'd kept him on and done that tactic things might have been different.

It was just all a bit off last night. At least we didn't lose, but it feels like we did.

Get what you're saying but we did equalise from a cross to be fair. Lukaku is very average in the air for a man of his size, his overall laziness and his general size means he barely gets off the ground. Sanchez is better in the air comparatively speaking.

We needed a forward to drag their defenders around more but it was just a frustrating game all round. They were able to play deep and narrow, limiting us to crosses in the knowledge that it plays to the strengths of their centre backs. Rashford's scored some worldies recently, and I'm loathed to criticise him as the chance was all from his own work rate and desire to get up with play, but it's a different game if he's more clinical with the huge chance of the match.

 

[Jazz]

We may as well have given Dalot a chance yesterday. At least the lad can put a mean cross in.

In any case, we need to move on. The comeback to get the draw was very encouraging.

What I hope it demonstrates to our players is that you never, never take any team for granted. Anything can happen on the day in this league. Look at City - scoring goals left and right and then losing to Newcastle. It doesn't mean you approach games with fear, you just need to maintain your focus and concentration and be prepared for anything to happen. I have faith in Ole to reiterate this.

I am interested to see the approach for the next game.

It's also funny that before Ole we had already given up on top four. Now we're this close and all the expectation is coming back. How things change

 

[OldPop]

...
Ashley Young must have put 50 balls into the box and I can't remember him picking out one United player, he was woeful last night.
...

Almost the whole team performed worse than usual and my feeling is that the bad balls into the box were absolutely crucial for the match. So many balls should have resulted in a number of goal chances but almost everyone was too bad. To Young's defense should be said, the few times he managed to hit right, that then there were no own players in the box. In any case, no one with sufficient winning instinct.

 

[Jazz]

The perfect wake up call before a tpugh month. Thats complacency nipped in the bud

Yep. Agree. They will not be taking anything for granted here on in. Anyone having that mindset can sit on the bench or in the stands.

 

[Macern]

I noticed this yesterday. Young, was particularly at fault where it looked as if he was aiming for a Burnley player, everytime.

He’s always like that though. Whenever the team struggles, they all seem to end up passing to Young who utilizes his incredibly overrated right foot and whips in consistently terrible crosses. The rest of the team doesn’t help either. Often he lacks good alternatives and players become way too static when the team isn’t performing. It’s not easy to create a goal out of crossing to a static Lukaku who is unable to jump very high.

That being said, I hope he one day realizes he isn’t a very good crosser and stops attempting them whenever he gets a half-decent opportunity. He has only got one assist from a cross in the league this season. He’s 33 years old so I doubt that’ll happen unfortunately.

Regarding the same in general, I’d rather blame the players than Ole. He needs to rotate. We cannot play the same XI in every game. It’s not like he changed the entire team either. Pereira was probably the #1 backup for Matic/Herrera and considering how Herrera didn’t come in as a sub, and Ole mentioning a few minor injuries, he might not have been fully fit. We were obviously very unlucky too. In this game we had the highest expected goals out of all of Solskjær’s games (3.12 against Burnleys 0.77 IIRC). If only Rashford scored that chance in the beginning of the game.

 

[Judas]

You know we scored both goals whilst he was off the pitch............

I did know that, why are you telling me something so obvious?

 

[StrettyEnder07]

Almost the whole team performed worse than usual and my feeling is that the bad balls into the box were absolutely crucial for the match. So many balls should have resulted in a number of goal chances but almost everyone was too bad. To Young's defense should be said, the few times he managed to hit right, that then there were no own players in the box. In any case, no one with sufficient winning instinct.

Yeah mate agree that some of the balls there were no players attacking them, just seemed a very strange tactic when we don't have much height, especially after Lukaku came off, to put high balls into the box, but every time we got in a position to put a low ball into the box, we hit the first man or wasted it, very poor from out wide all night, going forward it is Martial Rashford Lingard until the summer when hopefully we get a top class RW.

Do need a CB to go alongside Lindelof and a RB

 

[trevor newnham]

What a fecking end to the match.

Burnley seem to be the premier bogey team for us at Old Trafford these days.

Ole got it wrong from the start, he should have played Lukaku from the right where he actually had a good game against Arsenal.

We’ll all bash Perreira for his mistake for their opening goal, but Jones really gave him a suicidal pass seeing the Burnley players converging on Andreas.

i totally agree with that. pereira was obviously feeling his way . I am sure there is more to come from him. However, Jones and Young have probably had their day. Young had so many opportunities to go 'one-on'one' and didn't take them, which highlights the need for a winger who can cross, or even a wing back. Jones does some amazing recovery tackles but I feel he shouldnt have got himself into the position to make that recoverty tackle anyway.
Lindelof is growing into a fine player,getting closer to Rio type player. I love Mata but I fear he is getting too slow now - hope Chong and Gomez can provide that soon.

 

[OldPop]

Yeah mate agree that some of the balls there were no players attacking them, just seemed a very strange tactic when we don't have much height, especially after Lukaku came off, to put high balls into the box, but every time we got in a position to put a low ball into the box, we hit the first man or wasted it, very poor from out wide all night, going forward it is Martial Rashford Lingard until the summer when hopefully we get a top class RW.

Do need a CB to go alongside Lindelof and a RB

Yes, I would prioritize an RB, have not given up hope for Smalling yet, I thought he and Lindelof had something good that was going on before his injury. Bailly may also be good with more routine.

 

[Volumiza]

It's hard reading some of these posts. Really negative again. We still performed better than at any time this season under Jose. Yes, last night did highlight some areas of our squad that needs changing or bolstering and I'm really surprised Fred didn't start ahead of Andreas but ...

1. Burnley had an excellent game, crazily well organized and Heaton had the best game of his season so far.
2. We fought and got two late goals which means we got a point instead of walking away with none.
3. The last 15 minutes was as close to an all out assault as I've seen from UTD for a good few years and was exciting as heck! The players clearly responding to Ole and fighting till the bitter end.
4. Mata really wasn't as bad as some are making out
5. Lindelof, another overall good display and an important goal, pleased for him.
6. We didn't lose
7. Not every game will be easy
8. We didn't lose
9. Did I say we didn't lose?

It would have been really easy for us to capitulate after going 2 down but we didn't. Yes, some of our play lacked quality but Burnely were really well up for this and their organisation matched there desire.

This could have been worse and I'm sure Ole will take some lessons from this match.

 

[Mugiwarared71]

wouldn't mind that tarkowski at united better than jones thats for sure

 

[GaryLifo]

Well that's because it wasn't a better performance not in the slightest, it wasn't particularly attacking aside from them sitting back and us lumping the ball in and how you can say we didn't deserve to be 1-0 down after that mistake

Shit happens we can't win every game but let's not try and gloss over what was a shite limp performance. I only care what we learn from it to avoid frequent repeats.

You are being disingenuous here. I clearly use the plural 'performances' for which I would say I am correct in stating that these have been better - and mainly because (Reading aside) they have been more attacking than under Jose.

On the pattern of the game to the point we conceded and especially with how well we had started the second half, we did not deserve to be 0-1 down. A mistake from a young player who doesn't play often in the first team is fortunate for the opposition and not the result of them having outplayed us or dominated the game in any way.

A game in which we had 28 attempts at goal and 72% possession I would also not call a 'shite limp performance'.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Not the same sparkle as recently.

Two awful defensive mistakes.
If Rashford had put away that easy early chance it would probably been a different game. That seemed to affect Rashford's confidence and he had an awful first half.

With five minutes left couldn't see us getting back in it put great last 10 minutes to grab a draw, another few minutes and we'd have won.

The first ever game I watched at OT was against Burnley and we were losing 0-2 with five minutes to go. Francis Burns scored and Paddy Crerand equalised.

 

[Jonno]

Burnley played an incredible game. They pressed, ran, tackled much faster than we could cope with. Our midfield to attack transitions were poor because they kept breaking it up superbly. When a team simply wants to use all their energy in stopping a team, there's little you can do but persist. Their defence and goalkeeper were superb. They were incredibly fortunate with the first goal. Correct score would have been 2-1 or 3-2 in my opinion.

Lukaku and Pereira were poor for us, we really missed the energy of Hererra (and Martial) but we had to rest him at some point. Hopefully its now clear that Lukaku is suited to coming off the bench and making an impact.

Great to see us come-back and rescue a point, Ole is still unbeaten and it's been a simply brilliant run of 8 wins and a draw.

I was at the United Brighton game and I noticed a slow start against Brighton and we got away with it. It was the same against Burnley and we weren't as lucky. Hopefully this has given us a good wake-up call ahead of some big games. We're still in two cups and a top 4 race, theres great potential for this season still.

 

[jem]

It's hard reading some of these posts. Really negative again. We still performed better than at any time this season under Jose. Yes, last night did highlight some areas of our squad that needs changing or bolstering and I'm really surprised Fred didn't start ahead of Andreas but ...

1. Burnley had an excellent game, crazily well organized and Heaton had the best game of his season so far.
2. We fought and got two late goals which means we got a point instead of walking away with none.
3. The last 15 minutes was as close to an all out assault as I've seen from UTD for a good few years and was exciting as heck! The players clearly responding to Ole and fighting till the bitter end.
4. Mata really wasn't as bad as some are making out
5. Lindelof, another overall good display and an important goal, pleased for him.
6. We didn't lose
7. Not every game will be easy
8. We didn't lose
9. Did I say we didn't lose?

It would have been really easy for us to capitulate after going 2 down but we didn't. Yes, some of our play lacked quality but Burnely were really well up for this and their organisation matched there desire.

This could have been worse and I'm sure Ole will take some lessons from this match.

I have no doubt that some around here have been waiting with a kind of weird, inverted schadenfreude, desperately anticipating the chance to type things like 'the honeymoon is well and truly over," or "Ole got his tactics comfortably wrong."

Imagine if, God forbid, Rashford gets injured later in the season, and that Ole had chosen to completely freeze Lukaku out, restricting him to occasional substitute appearances. There would be all manner of armchair managers on here talking about how Ole got it 'comfortably wrong' not keeping Lukaku involved by playing him against some of the lower-tier teams, like Burnley.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Jose seemed to tell Lukaku to put 10 kilos or 15 kilos on and lose his pace.

Eh?
Didn't Lukaku tell everyone he put on weight for the WC? How did Jose get blamed for this as well?

 

[Ronaldo's ego]

Our squad was exposed tonight. Lukaku, Young, Pereira, Mata, Sanchez all a combination of too ponderous and wasteful. Just not good enough. This ones on Ole, got complacent and shuffled the pack too much.

The positive is this performance and scenario was coming and the test was how we responded. Whilst we didn’t win we showed the fight and determination required. I’d happily sacrifice two points if it means Ole takes no chances with team selection and plays his best team from now on. Rotation is necessary at this stage of the season but our backup options are shite unfortunately