It was actually a very good game.
PL D FA Premier League
Chelsea 0:0 Manchester United
Post-match discussion
Sun, 28 February 2021
just show how Pogba is very important to our squad...
Shit game.
I sometimes wonder how professional footballers who train daily with a football can misplace simple passes and crosses during actual games. That McT “cross” was criminally shit and one that every footballer should be able to execute correctly.
I sometimes wonder how professional footballers who train daily with a football can misplace simple passes and crosses during actual games. That McT “cross” was criminally shit and one that every footballer should be able to execute correctly.
Love your work, Michael Owen.
Yeah there is no doubt he isn't strong enough to make the big calls in a game like this, can see Bruno ending up burnt out and frustrated because Ole won't give him enough rest
Yeah our passing compared to the midfields of other sides in the top four is absolutely atrocious but particularly in these big games. There is no doubt we need to improve that first XI in the summer but with COVID hitting us hard can see us signing maximum of two players sadly.
Fred's shot on his weaker leg wasn't a real chance, just a good effort. None of us expected him to score from there, OGS was surprised he even came close. The counter never amounted to a chance, and a fluke penalty that should have been given isn't a chance either. McTominay's was a decent chance but nothing like Giroud's and Reece's. By my count they had two clear-cut chances and we had zero. That said, 0-0 was a fair result and reflective of the match.
Our form against the top 6 sides is what will perhaps seal our 2nd spot and title challenge, quite the counter point to the beginning of Ole's reign where we kept dicking our rivals around us. 6 goalless draws where we played with a handbrake on is damning regardless of anything else.
People moaning about us not creating enough chances meanwhile we are playing at the Bridge against a back 5 plus Kante. With that kind of negative line up I'm surprised we even created chances to begin with...
Yes, scoring 9 against a club that ended up 2 men down is a massive achievement. Maybe we should have that made into a trophy to make for the lack of recent silverware. Take a look at the goal scoring against the 'big six' and maintain the haha's....
I should have left the words bigger teams out. You are right
Surprised at the negativity of the thread. Our record this season has been awful against the big 6 teams, but this game was different to the other nil-nils we've had. This was totally different to, say, the draw against City at Old Trafford for instance, which was a really poor, low energy game. I thought this was a high quality match between two well drilled & tactical teams, both of whom passed effectively from the back through the opposition press and kept possession well in midfield under pressure. I was particularly pleased that we didnt sit back and wait for the opposition to come onto us, instead we pressed from the front pretty much all game. If we'd played with that intensity and focus in every game against Big 6 opposition, our overall record in those big games would be much better.
Neither team did much with the final pass, but I think that was more about good defending than poor attacks. We might have gambled for the win in the last 10 minutes, but then the draw suits us more than it suits them, so its hardly a surprise that we didnt pour attackers forward. More of a surprise is how conservative Chelsea were to be honest. So far, Tuchel looks like a very boring manager.
I did think it highlighted our over reliance on Bruno, again. He was poor on the day and that meant we lacked the killer pass that you need against a good defence. We also really missed Cavani. We needed someone to have a running battle with their CBs yesterday, Rashford and Greenwood never really positioned themselves up against the CB at any point, and were happy to spend more time in deeper or wider areas. Trouble is it was super congested. Rashford in particular thrives in space, so he was never going to do well in that set up. But with Martial's form what it is, there isn't that much we can do there.
Disappointing not to get the win that would have put a clear gap between us and Chelsea, but it game me confidence about our overall performance level going into the run in.
Neither team did much with the final pass, but I think that was more about good defending than poor attacks. We might have gambled for the win in the last 10 minutes, but then the draw suits us more than it suits them, so its hardly a surprise that we didnt pour attackers forward. More of a surprise is how conservative Chelsea were to be honest. So far, Tuchel looks like a very boring manager.
I did think it highlighted our over reliance on Bruno, again. He was poor on the day and that meant we lacked the killer pass that you need against a good defence. We also really missed Cavani. We needed someone to have a running battle with their CBs yesterday, Rashford and Greenwood never really positioned themselves up against the CB at any point, and were happy to spend more time in deeper or wider areas. Trouble is it was super congested. Rashford in particular thrives in space, so he was never going to do well in that set up. But with Martial's form what it is, there isn't that much we can do there.
Disappointing not to get the win that would have put a clear gap between us and Chelsea, but it game me confidence about our overall performance level going into the run in.
One point is not a bad result at all, and the performance wasn't that bad either. Let's not forget we were playing away to a pretty well-coached Chelsea side that has let in two goals since Tuchel took over. Since they basically played with five defender and a couple holding midfielders, they were always going to be difficult to break down. You can always be dissapointed we weren't more clinical in certain situations, but that's just football.
Also, a draw was a much better result for us than for Chelsea, and given Leicester's defeat the round overall has turned out fine. As long as we beat Palace, we will be fine.
Also, a draw was a much better result for us than for Chelsea, and given Leicester's defeat the round overall has turned out fine. As long as we beat Palace, we will be fine.
I agree that this is an OK result, and there were many positives to take away from the performance. Certainly it did not show an overcautious or defensive mindset.
Our xG though was the lowest we've had in any league game this season - 0.36. Even the loss against Arsenal was better (0.39).
I think it's a valid question whether the team is taking the right approach by attempting to seize the initiative against teams like Chelsea, City and Liverpool. Clearly, that is the route we need to take to become a contender, but it also seems clear that we are not yet able to translate that approach into scoring. Too much too soon? Or just necessary growing pains? In either case, it seems to underline the need for further strengthening the squad.
Our xG though was the lowest we've had in any league game this season - 0.36. Even the loss against Arsenal was better (0.39).
I think it's a valid question whether the team is taking the right approach by attempting to seize the initiative against teams like Chelsea, City and Liverpool. Clearly, that is the route we need to take to become a contender, but it also seems clear that we are not yet able to translate that approach into scoring. Too much too soon? Or just necessary growing pains? In either case, it seems to underline the need for further strengthening the squad.
Just because we don't score, that doesn't mean we played with the handbrake on, in this or any of the other goalless draws. To me it seems quite obvious that on the contrary we are playing with a higher ambition level and more risk in these games this season than we did last year. We don't just sit back and counter, like we did. But we're not seeing the results on the scoreboard - at least not yet. But see above post.
OK point and a decent result but in the context of the game the same problems exist and are costing us wins: an inability to keep the ball, shoddy passing from good players, lack of patience.
Well, Chelsea haven't lost since he took over, and haven't looked like losing either. He immediately instilled a clear structure that was evident already in the first game against Wolves - very compact shape, high line, intense counterpressing. It's allowed them to pretty much dominate every game they've played (yesterday's, the least so). They are now stable, have the ball most of the time and is very hard to play against. That looks like a strong foundation to me. What he hasn't yet achieved is translating that dominance into consistent offensive output - they create relatively little compared to how strongly they dominate play. But that's not too surprising, at this stage. He still basically only just arrived.
Where do you get these from?Dan James covered an insane amount of ground today.
Sorry, but this is just bollocks, and a resounding testament to people's ability to simply see what they want to see.
How exactly should he have set the team up? We played 4231 just like almost every other game for the past two years. And we had what I would consider to be our best available 11 players on. And we played with a very high line, and insanely high counterpressure, through the whole game. This is not just an ambitious way to approach a game against a team like chelsea, but also what is known as "tactics".
I'm sure he's kicking himself over forgetting to tell the team to do strong build up play. Probably he was too busy shivering with cowardice.
Most fans want to see Ole start to play with more aggression in these games.
Again sorry, but this point warrants asking you the question if you actually watched the game? Because I really, really struggle to see how they could possibly have played more aggressively than they did here. If there was one thing they delivered out there, it was that. Did you not notice how our whole forward line aggressively chased the ball all the way down to Mendy, constantly?
Really?
Brighton 3-2
Fulham 2-1
West Brom 1-0 and 1-1
Sheffield United 2-1 and 1-2
Burnley 1-0
Newcastle 4-1 and 3-1
So, against the bottom teams we have 7 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.
"Devoid?"
Should have been a penalty, ref bottled it but Chelsea was there for the taking especially in the first half.
Shows the folly of taking 2 games in isolation and using them to make a judgement
Chelsea were the biggest bottlers.With the squad at their disposal and only Thiago missing, they set up to nullify our attack and hit on the counter but never took any real risks. Shameful really.
It was a tough away match against top 6 team and we got a point, I thought we play better than our opponent too, so I won’t be comparing much.
The stalemate could've been broken if the penalty was given and then we would've seen Chelsea push harder and maybe scoring and then United respond to that and I'm sure it would've ended being a great game but the ref robbed us off all the fun. How is that not an unnatural position and how is that not a penalty? Ole is right, some of the managers complaining has gotten us nothing from the refs these days. It is pure evil and maybe cost us a title challenge. Yeah yeah poor football on our part but we need some luck to change things our way too. We're not miracle workers.
I thought Chelsea played pretty much exactly like they have in every game I've seen them since Tuchel took over. They just weren't able to hold on to the ball as much because we didn't drop deep, and subjected them to the same kind of counterpressing they practise themselves. As a consequence, they created less offensively than they have been doing in previous PL games (except for the Wolves game, but that was the day after Tuchel took over). You could perhaps point to the selection of Kante over Jorginho as a slight defensive twist, but overall this was the same game plan that has seen them dominate their games so far. I would not call it a defensive approach, not at all. This by contrast to Lampard's team at OT, which definitely came to play to defence first, second and third.
We played basically the same game, except perhaps a bit more direct in the attack. It worked pretty well in the first half, where the ball spent about twice as much time in Chelsea's home third as in ours. Less so in the second. All in all, the statistics suggest they pulled it off better than we did - they had more possession, more shots, more shots on goal and a much better xG (1.17 vs 0.36).
We played basically the same game, except perhaps a bit more direct in the attack. It worked pretty well in the first half, where the ball spent about twice as much time in Chelsea's home third as in ours. Less so in the second. All in all, the statistics suggest they pulled it off better than we did - they had more possession, more shots, more shots on goal and a much better xG (1.17 vs 0.36).
Sorry, but I think you’re seeing what you want to see. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
If you think that was some sort of tactical masterclass from Ole, or that he had to set up and play that way simply because he had no other options (due to injuries or some other excuse), then we‘ll just not see eye to eye on this.
Playing not to lose should not be the United way. Only one team yesterday was actually playing football to win, and it wasn’t us.
Not entirely sure why but I really enjoyed the second half - maybe it was because we managed to get through the game without a major
f@ck-up!
Despite the usual suspects here having a go at him, I thought Lindelof had an almost flawless performance: own up, lots of you expected Giroud to bully him and score at least one header whereas in fact he barely go a look in. Maguire was pretty good too although there were times you wished he had one more speed than "donkey"!
Fred and Scotty actually controlled the midfield against (on paper) a much stronger midfield. The disappointment came up front. I am convinced if Cavani had been fit (and played) we'd have got a goal. Greewood had moments but not enough, same for Rashford, and when Martial came on... well he needn't have bothered.
As for the ref, I didn't think it possible for anyone to come close to Lee Mason's shit show but he managed.
To be honest, I'd have take a draw if you'd offered it at 4.29pm - we are never gone to catch City so all we can do is try to keep putting a litle more space between others and the top four. I realise that is a pretty crap thing for United supporters to have to accept but that's what we've got with Ole's tactics... sorry tactic - he only has one
f@ck-up!
Despite the usual suspects here having a go at him, I thought Lindelof had an almost flawless performance: own up, lots of you expected Giroud to bully him and score at least one header whereas in fact he barely go a look in. Maguire was pretty good too although there were times you wished he had one more speed than "donkey"!
Fred and Scotty actually controlled the midfield against (on paper) a much stronger midfield. The disappointment came up front. I am convinced if Cavani had been fit (and played) we'd have got a goal. Greewood had moments but not enough, same for Rashford, and when Martial came on... well he needn't have bothered.
As for the ref, I didn't think it possible for anyone to come close to Lee Mason's shit show but he managed.
To be honest, I'd have take a draw if you'd offered it at 4.29pm - we are never gone to catch City so all we can do is try to keep putting a litle more space between others and the top four. I realise that is a pretty crap thing for United supporters to have to accept but that's what we've got with Ole's tactics... sorry tactic - he only has one
I won't be putting two pence on beating Palace... we might even forget to turn up! We should win at a stroll but we don't often do strolls any more
A lot of you seem to forget how poor our record against Chelsea is. A draw at SB is a decent result. Is it disappointing? Yes but dropping three points would be worse.
What I disliked most yesterday were Shaw, AWB and Maguire trying stupid passes with the outside of their boot and giving the ball away.
What I disliked most yesterday were Shaw, AWB and Maguire trying stupid passes with the outside of their boot and giving the ball away.
Bolded part: Nothing in my post suggests I think this, and I don't.
Otherwise, you've no arguments. You don't point to anything to show we played with a defensive posture, and you can't, because we obviously didn't. You don't have an answer to what was wrong with how the team was set up. If you're not able to spot a high counterpress when you see one, and prefer to simply ignore it when it's pointed out, then it's no good pretending it's a case of not "seeing eye to eye".
Scoring the most in the league may or may not be massive achievement. I didn't say it was. Just pointing out how foolish it makes what you said look. Take out the sotn game.. even though doing so is idiotic .. we still have a good goal scoring record. Sorry that it doesn't suit you
I'm assuming that's a stat you found and it sounds about right. This is why they can't sustain an attack anywhere close to what City and even Liverpool can and looks like they play a cautious game. This is why I'm not concerned with getting another CB. United needs a CM who will help them hold on to the ball better and a striker who will finish chances. Another CB would be third or fourth on my list of United's needs.
Agree mate, but Chelsea were just as bad. The overall quality of the game was effected by how desperately each team didn't want to lose. A loss in this game would have been really bad for either side so not a shock that it was a draw.
Well said. Some people can't wait to jump on the negativity train. Honestly, the way some people are going on you'd think we'd lost yesterday and were out of top 4. We're still 2nd, we drew against an improving Chelsea team away from home and we move on. Could be a good week for us. If we beat palace, chelsea play liverpool so one or both of them will drop points. Then we just have to beat city at the weekend- simples!
Actually I made it up. But yeah sounds about right doesn't it.
So what - those 9 don't count? Okay, let's take 7 off Liverpool for the Palace game. So much being made of the 'big 6 games'. Last year we beat chelsea home and away, same for city and we squeaked in to top 4 on the last day with 66 points. We're on course to easily surpass that total. We've been much better this season than last. Nobody is close to City, so we have to keep improving.
I posted as such a while back. Chelsea were a disgrace
Chelsea are no pushover and taking into account their recent performances and us being away from home, that was imo probably the best we've performed this season. We took the game to them and were far more dangerous and could easily have come away with 3 pts. Future's looking good!
Man of the Match
Runners-up
-
15%
Fred
-
15%
Daniel James
-
13%
Victor Lindelof
-
13%
David de Gea
-
8%
Harry Maguire
-
1%
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
-
1%
Mason Greenwood
-
1%
Scott McTominay
-
1%
Bruno Fernandes
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 244 ratings.
Score Predictions
83,48,68
- Man Utd win
- Chelsea win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 22% Chelsea 1:2 Man Utd
- 19% Chelsea 1:1 Man Utd
- 9% Chelsea 0:0 Man Utd
- 8% Chelsea 1:0 Man Utd
- 7% Chelsea 2:1 Man Utd
- 6% Chelsea 2:2 Man Utd
- 6% Chelsea 0:1 Man Utd
- 6% Chelsea 2:0 Man Utd
- 4% Chelsea 0:2 Man Utd
- 4% Chelsea 1:3 Man Utd
- 3% Chelsea 3:1 Man Utd
- 2% Chelsea 2:3 Man Utd
- 2% Chelsea 0:3 Man Utd
- 1% Chelsea 3:0 Man Utd
- 1% Chelsea 0:5 Man Utd
- 1% Chelsea 1:4 Man Utd
- 1% Chelsea 0:4 Man Utd
- 1% Chelsea 5:0 Man Utd
Match Stats
- Chelsea
- Man Utd
- Possession
- 57% 43%
- Shots
- 18 11
- Shots on Target
- 6 4
- Corners
- 3 4
- Fouls
- 11 12
Referee
Stuart Attwell
Man Utd Lineup
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
replaced by Anthony Martial
-
