[TMDaines]

Best away end for a while. Had to drive so was quite amusing watching it all unfold whilst sober.

Performance wise I thought it was nothing more than decent, we took our chances and Derby didn't. If I was Romero I would be asking Ole what do I need to do to get a start in the league

De Gea definitely concedes on one of those free kicks. It's not just penalties and corners he is suspect at.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Finally got to watch it.

Comfortable win, nothing spectacular, starting off slow and sloppy. McT kept giving the ball away then a running battle with Sibley, not one of his better performances.

Shaw was excellent, good striker's goals from Ighalo and got to rest a few players. Romero another clean sheet.

The cone was his usual pointless self.

See the Tottenham fans have stayed away again from this post-match thread as we won yet again.

Got the correct score again as a bonus.

 

[Craig Ward]

Turned out to be a routine win, and thats 9 without defeat i believe?

Still worrying signs for me, and although it might be nit picking i really believe our lazy use of the ball will ultimately cost us in big games.

To expand on what i'm referring too:
We spend too long on the ball
Lack of movement
Lack on intent to move the ball forward
Positionally we are a bit naive sometimes

Time after time i notice each player spends way too much time on the ball, only to give a simple one sideways or backwards. There's no urgency at all when we have the ball. Now this could come down to team instructions, tactics, player confidence or many other reasons. But it is a trend in EVERY game.

It might not seem like a big deal, but it strikes me as very lazy in terms of our intent and style. Very hard to watch players struggle to control simple balls into them, then labour for an extra 5 seconds in possession just to make a 10 yard sideways or backwards pass. Even some of these easy passes are often underhit or behind the recipient. I just do not understand why we cant be sharper with our passing and ensure our control of the ball is spot on, every time. Bringing Fernandes in has been brilliant, he's by far our best player in terms of quality on the ball and distribution of the ball and i hope more mirror what he does, as his quality just highlights how poor we are with possession of the ball.

We have talented players, i just think they need to be drilled to have the confidence to use the ball better. Playing in a laboured, slow way will only cause us problems, we need to be more proactive and sharpen up a lot.

From last nights game, have to mention again how good Shaw was. Very good performance again. Dalot in particular needs to do better to have a chance of pushing Wan Bissaka and another night for us all to wonder why Lingard and Periera get any game time at all. After the slating some fans gave us for signing Ighalo, good to see him getting a couple of goals. Giving Martial a much needed rest and silencing some doubters. 2 good goals.

 

[Gator Nate]

After a bit of a slow start, I thought we did well. Not spectacular, but we didn't need spectacular. And we weren't going to get spectacular with Lingard, Mata, and Dalot. Probably not with Ighalo, either, though the jury's still out on him. (And I expect Dalot to improve with a run of games, he came on quite well last year, I thought).

Shaw was man of the match for me. I thought he was the real spark throughout his time on the field.

Ighalo was a very close second with his two goals. For all the comparisons to Lukaku, I like Ighalo's movement more. Lukaku had bulked up but didn't know how to use his new body. Ighalo's second goal shows that he does know how to use his physicality. And had four shots on target.

Bruno was a little bit off, not sure why, but it may have been due to Lingard being out there instead of... anyone else.

I will defend Lingard a little, though, in that I saw him running full-bore for passes that were still too far out for him to get. He picked up in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game, too. He had the most pass attempts (mostly due to Bruno and Fred being pulled off early) with over 89% accuracy (5th in the squad on the night).

The defense had another solid outing with another clean sheet. Romero good in goal.

I have no problems with how Ole set up the squad. His substitutions were fine, resting players important for Sunday and Williams and Martial getting a bit of mid-week game time. Pereira, well, someone has to be thrown out on the pitch and I wouldn't want to risk anyone else on the bench with the luxury of a three goal lead.

Still in the FA Cup, still in Europa League, just three points off 4th in the Premier League with a superior goal differential to everyone outside the top 3.

 

[USREDEVIL]

Gave Romero and Shaw both 9's. Great individual performances by both. Bruno was a bit off but he was also making things happen. Ighalo looks a proper #9 but of course we should not get too carried away. Rest of team looked fairly decent and was again impressed with Fred, so i'm ready to apologize to him