[Zlatans Knee]

So happy for the win, I actually managed to get some sleep last night.
With regards to some of the problems we seem to be having at the moment, when comparing our team to Liverpool we have two midfielders capable of brilliance but also capable of giving the ball away in quite dangerous areas. Their mid 3 spend the entire match harrying and stressing the opposition. Bruno does that to a certain extent, the other two not so much. Then the other problem is of course our full backs. TFM had an okay game defensively but offered nothing offensively. AWB was just average. There is only so much magic Martial and Rashford can create if we do not have control of midfield and width with players who have the ability to cross from down the flanks. I can’t understand why we seem to be incapable of producing full backs that can cross a ball. Put Robertson and TAA in our team and we would be a completely different prospect. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that Laird can overcome his injuries and continue his progression.

 

[Squeaky Bumtime]

What was ugly but win is a win is a win.
Didnt get our game flowing in the 1st, we were trash tbh but got the goal, nicely taken by Marcus.
We grew into it in the 2nd and Matić absolutely steadied the ship. Got the much needed 2nd goal and close that one out.

Marcus and Anthony were again just brilliant, Greenwood was timid, he was aimed by Palace players and maybe not 100 percent.
Bruno was poor to decent but even like that had some great moments. McTominay and Pogba could have been better, latter grew into the game later.
TFM was decent given the fact he hasn't played in ages and AWB is clearly tired. Maguire has some brainfarts but nothing special and Lindelof was fantastic.
What to say about DDG, vintage DDG and it was a sight to see.

What I like about this team is that even when they're playing badly they produce some magical moments in the attack, they can produce a good chance or a goal quickly out of 4, 5 touches. When they switch on it's just a beautiful sight to watch. Compare that to the torture of games we had before..

We're making great strides and we're not even close to the end of the constructing of the team and it's way of playing.

 

[Berbasbullet]

We need to cut out the sloppy starts we have had a lot recently.

 

[fps]

The win covers a few sins, Rashford and Martial are such a threat which illuminated a match where some players looked tired or like they need to do more training and less match playing. Something I love about Bruno is his bravery, he will keep working, keep looking for that breakthrough, and never hide.

 

[Robertd0803]

Great result. I feared the worst when we started so slow and Palace equalized.

Lovely goals from Rashford and Martial.

 

[Bondi77]

I thought we were quality in the second half, Pogba was regal in the midfield and I am starting to believe that he will resign.
Am loving the understanding between our attacking players as we really do click now when we are around the box.
I have always been a fan of Martial but I did not think he had the workrate to play as a 9 but I am glad he has turned me around as I thought that was a real 9 shirt performance from him today.

 

[Devil may care]

Only saw the highlights but we looked very poor defensively, Mashford dug us out though, that partnership is looking superb!

 

[DevilRed]

Only saw the highlights but we looked very poor defensively, Mashford dug us out though, that partnership is looking superb!

Martial looks like a man possessed. His workrate has doubled and he is looking so much better at holding up the ball and playing others in. Even tracking back and defending at times.

OGS has worked wonders improving Martial (and many others).

 

[MalcolmTucker]

So important that we won this and also important that we were comfortable and casually chasing a third by the end. We finished the game confident and we did not look all that confident during most of it.

 

[RooneyLegend]

The growing pains of transitioning to a front foot team are there for all to see. Some of our players just don't suit that and these are first 11 guys.

AWB, Maguire and Lindelof is us asking for trouble if we're going to play on the front foot. AWB lacks quality period, Maguire is slow and asking him to defend counters is doing for trouble. Lindelof is what he is, a midtable defender.

Our options are the holding mid position simply have to improve. Scotty McT isn't enough and Matic is old. We need someone there.

 

[jeff_goldblum]

Tough game coming back from a disappointing result last time out. Those unhappy after that should remember that winning ugly is the sign of a good team. A year or two ago we were losing these games. Solid performance from De Gea after a difficult few weeks.

Clearly a bit of fatigue setting in and a few players not at the top of their game. Greenwood had a frustrating game, did the basics well but nothing he tried seemed to come off. You could see Palace doubling up on him which is a great compliment for a young player and in any case he shouldn't be expected to deliver big in every game. On another day Bruno and Pogba would have had a field day in the space left by them crowding Mason out.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

The growing pains of transitioning to a front foot team are there for all to see. Some of our players just don't suit that and these are first 11 guys.

AWB, Maguire and Lindelof is us asking for trouble if we're going to play on the front foot. AWB lacks quality period, Maguire is slow and asking him to defend counters is doing for trouble. Lindelof is what he is, a midtable defender.

Our options are the holding mid position simply have to improve. Scotty McT isn't enough and Matic is old. We need someone there.

Blimey, utter nonsense spoken in the match day thread has seeped into the post match thread.
Defensively he's absolute quality but needs to be more consistent in the final third. First and foremost our FBs need to be defenders.

 

[mancave bear]

Great that we can grind out a good result on a bad day.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Rode our luck massively but a win is a win.

Issues we have is still with team selection in my mind - the way Palace play the game was crying out for Matic from the start, as soon as he came on we settled whereas vs Southampton we needed a lot more drive/energy in there and McT/Fred would have been better choices.

Palace are always a tough team because Woy gets them set up really well, I still think there needs to be a concerted effort from the coaching team about how we manage games & once we're ahead start to be a bit more clever about where we take risks with the ball because as much as everyone likes Ole saying 'we're Man United and we always try to score one more goal etc' having Pogba & particularly Bruno often misplacing high risk, direct balls from deep just puts our defence under needless pressure.

As an aside, I've seen a lot of criticism of AWB but you have to remember as exciting as greenwood is, we still don't actually have an RW so there's a limit to what he can do offensively. he did make some stupid passes (like that terrible backheel to no one) but he wasn't as bad as people make out. If we were to sign Sancho, I think you'd see a lot more of him in better positions.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Blimey, utter nonsense spoken in the match day thread has seeped into the post match thread.
Defensively he's absolute quality but needs to be more consistent in the final third. First and foremost our FBs need to be defenders.

More like he needs to get a clue when we have the ball. He's a quality 1 on 1 defender and it pretty much starts and ends there. Everything else about him is below par. Our defenders need to be able to contribute both on the ball and defensively.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

More like he needs to get a clue when we have the ball. He's a quality 1 on 1 defender and it pretty much starts and ends there. Everything else about him is below par. Our defenders need to be able to contribute both on the ball and defensively.

Bit different to 'AWB lacks quality period.'

 

[Gator Nate]

Blimey, utter nonsense spoken in the match day thread has seeped into the post match thread.
Defensively he's absolute quality but needs to be more consistent in the final third. First and foremost our FBs need to be defenders.

Say it ain't so, mate! I seriously don't get the level of criticism, either. And I don't think he's poor in the final third, just not as good as Shaw or Williams over on the other side. He's put in some nice crosses and handled the ball well on more than one occasion. Baffles me, really.

 

[TheNewEra]

Bit different to 'AWB lacks quality period.'

There was one moment I was hoping AWB would go for it on the ball, he surged onto the ball pasted it to a United player and continued his run, he had so much space to run into with the ball but he slowed down.

It was almost like he didn't know what to do, and he's a former winger too which feels strange.

AWB also he does the trademark Valencia pass, run to the byline and smash it as hard as he can, he needs variation in his passing.

TAA and Robertson can curl a ball into a box without even beating a player, Becks was great at that.

AWB literally needs to learn to cross a ball, just stay behind at training and practice crossing a few hours after training each day from different positions.

AWB can be world class, but he really needs to just put the work in, defensively he's fine.

Sancho will change the whole right side though.

 

[ReddBalls]

Seems some believe you need world class players in every position. You don't.

Edit: it's not possible either.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Say it ain't so, mate! I seriously don't get the level of criticism, either. And I don't think he's poor in the final third, just not as good as Shaw or Williams over on the other side. He's put in some nice crosses and handled the ball well on more than one occasion. Baffles me, really.

I didn't want to say that TBF, don't want to be accused of needing to go to Specsavers. I looked at him objectively last night and he was no more off the pace than a lot of players. While he had some off moments, he had some good ones too

 

[Reynoldo]

It wasn't pretty for the most part but it was a crucial crucial victory. Biggest thing was seeing the confidence flow back into Bruno, Rashford and Martial as a trio later in the game. I really think these guys can kick on now for the next two league games and get our flow back.

Buzzing after last night again, great stuff.

 

[Gator Nate]

Seems some believe you need world class players in every position. You don't.

Edit: it's not possible either.

Sure it's possible. And the CAS just set the fee at 10 million euros.

 

[ReddBalls]

Sure it's possible. And the CAS just set the fee at 10 million euros.

Not even City have WC players in each position. There are not enough to go around.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

There was one moment I was hoping AWB would go for it on the ball, he surged onto the ball pasted it to a United player and continued his run, he had so much space to run into with the ball but he slowed down.

It was almost like he didn't know what to do, and he's a former winger too which feels strange.

AWB also he does the trademark Valencia pass, run to the byline and smash it as hard as he can, he needs variation in his passing.

TAA and Robertson can curl a ball into a box without even beating a player, Becks was great at that.

AWB literally needs to learn to cross a ball, just stay behind at training and practice crossing a few hours after training each day from different positions.

AWB can be world class, but he really needs to just put the work in, defensively he's fine.

Sancho will change the whole right side though.

But here's the thing, we don't play like that at all. There aren't fast hit crosses hit into the box immediately. Our strikers do not play like that.
We have a different system...not totally but it's more incisive passing and direct running.

He did do that at Chelsea and we got a fantastic goal. If we had Odion playing as an out an out CF i think it would change.

As for Becks we had CFs charging in on the end of it. RVN got a ridiculous number of goals through Becks.

 

[8thWonder]

More like he needs to get a clue when we have the ball. He's a quality 1 on 1 defender and it pretty much starts and ends there. Everything else about him is below par. Our defenders need to be able to contribute both on the ball and defensively.

He's not Dani Alves I'll give you that, however, I genuinely think he's the type of player who will get better and better going forward.

Stats wise, I think, and I could be wrong, he holds his own going forward in the league (fullbacks) against anyone not named Alexander-Trent or Robertson. If that's your benchmark then fair enough, however, I think you're doing him a massive disservice.

 

[tjb]

Say it ain't so, mate! I seriously don't get the level of criticism, either. And I don't think he's poor in the final third, just not as good as Shaw or Williams over on the other side. He's put in some nice crosses and handled the ball well on more than one occasion. Baffles me, really.

When we start winning, people try to find people with barely any issues to focus on. The security he provides on the right and the fact that he's shown so much improvement in attack should have people encouraging him. Unfortunately at United, our fans don't seem to know how to identify good defensive players. For all the criticism Shaw gets every matchday, look at how different we looked on the left flank without him. Not saying either of them are perfect, but they are clearly not issues for us. The only reason why a left back should be looked at concerns Shaw's injury record rather than his performances.

 

[Gator Nate]

When we start winning, people try to find people with barely any issues to focus on. The security he provides on the right and the fact that he's shown so much improvement in attack should have people encouraging him. Unfortunately at United, our fans don't seem to know how to identify good defensive players. For all the criticism Shaw gets every matchday, look at how different we looked on the left flank without him. Not saying either of them are perfect, but they are clearly not issues for us. The only reason why a left back should be looked at concerns Shaw's injury record rather than his performances.

I think the lack of Shaw/Williams on the left really hurt us last night. TFM did a great job defensively, particularly in light of playing on the "wrong" side, but he just didn't offer anything offensively, where Shaw and Williams are an integral part of the attack. That left Rashford in awkward positions, I felt, where he would have otherwise been further up the pitch in tandem with the RB.

 

[poleglass red]

is there any proof that AWB is a former winger is this an urban myth

 

[okLaptop1]

As good as it was for Rashford and Martial to score again, I was happiest for De Gea and his clean sheet to tie the record.

On to the next one.

 

[USREDEVIL]

Maguire is quite poor with the offensive headers. Can't he get that big english head of his to work properly? Get chicha in there to teach them how to use that thing. Maguire isn't the only one that's not very good at headers on the team.

 

[Lam]

Seems some believe you need world class players in every position. You don't.

Edit: it's not possible either.

Not that difficult if a club gets lucky with 3-4 home grown players. Take for instance our team

DDG- yes
80m CB - should be but not yet
50m RB - should be but not yet
30m 18y LB - won’t be despite the price
Pogba - yes
50m midfielder in Fred - won’t be despite the price
Bruno - yes
M3- potentially all 3 World class

Ideally for the amount we have spent + academy players, we should have a really good team now. Just that some of the players are not what we expected.

 

[Ramshock]

He'd leapfrog over his Mother's head and fart in her face on the way down to re-join United.

I doubt he hates United, there's a video of him wearing a United shirt in his garden. I think he feels hard done by and like he has a point to prove. Like I would.

Graphic but true

 

[Stig]

Jesse Lingard had a good substitution.

Please don't ban me

He ran around a lot - and unfortunately I too was pleased with that as a contribution from him.

I thought Timothy F.M. did well. Nothing fancy but didn't put a foot wrong. Not played for United in over 3 years so would have been under pressure and in the circumstances I would give him full marks.

 

[Moiraine]

Martial looks like a man possessed. His workrate has doubled and he is looking so much better at holding up the ball and playing others in. Even tracking back and defending at times.

OGS has worked wonders improving Martial (and many others).

Martial did his best to help United qualify for Champions League in LVG’s final season, scored two fantastic goals vs West Ham but our team fecked up and gave in against those feckers.

I really hope this time around, his effort is not in vain.

 

[cyril C]

It was horrible to watch, almost the entire game, if it wasn't the 2 goals that we scored and the couple of chances that Palace missed. Winning it ugly nevertheless, we just need more of these in next few games...

 

[Devil may care]

Martial looks like a man possessed. His workrate has doubled and he is looking so much better at holding up the ball and playing others in. Even tracking back and defending at times.

OGS has worked wonders improving Martial (and many others).

Yeah, he was getting more stick than deserved before lockdown imo but since the restart he's gone up a couple of levels, he's more combative and aggressive in his play and i agree that his hold up play and awareness of the movement around him has sharpened.

I agree, i feel both Martial and Rashford in particular have really taken in his knowledge about movement in the final third.

 

[red woppit]

It was horrible to watch, almost the entire game, if it wasn't the 2 goals that we scored and the couple of chances that Palace missed. Winning it ugly nevertheless, we just need more of these in next few games...

I enjoyed some of our forward play, and it was wonderful to see the interaction between Martial, Rashford and Bruno, but I must admit, midfield and defence looked shaky, and we certainly didn't look like a team that will challenge for top honours next season. Whether it's due to tiredness, or the wrong personnel in the team I'm not sure, but sometimes if you don't play well and still win it's a sign of a good team.

 

[John Keiler]

Had to turn the volume off, he became so annoying, although that's his default mode. As soon as he opens his mouth, I can still hear him screeching on and on about Van Gaal ("he's had £xxxxxxxxx, it's not good enough", and repeat ad nauseam at increasing volume).

I still think Savage has an effigy of Beckham hidden somewhere and worships it nightly with the mantra 'He got a contract and I didn't'.