[Kostur]

I've watched the extended highlights now as I couldn't have watched the game yesterday and imo it was not that tragic. We should've easily won that game. Herrera and Fellaini's poor effort in first and second half respectively, Zlatan's poor finishing in first and second half, Pogba's crossbar, the disallowed goal, there honestly was enough stuff to make this a win.

Worrying thing seems to be though that I've mentioned all Zlatan, Pogba, Fellaini and Herrera up above and nothing about either Mkhitaryan, Rashford or Lingard. I don't know if it's the highlights that somehow haven't caught the positive contribution to the attack (just about any 1v1 with a defender to go for a cross or having a shot at goal, just anything) but Christ, in 90 minutes I haven't seen much from them to actually remind myself that they've been on the pitch. I think there was just this one cross from Rashford for Ibra in ~90th minute and that's about it. They really need to step it up. Even Daley had a decent go from the free kick.

It does seem that we were quite unlucky yesterday, which is nothing unusual for us this season. Freak goal (what the feck was DDG waiting for really), some crossbars, some poor finishing, some fecking shit decisions from the refs et voila, another Burnley, WBA or Stoke for us. There seemed to be some empty seats too which is pretty shit to be fair. Unlucky or not, our attacking players still need a word with themselves, the wingers haven't seemed to have done much this game.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

I think this point was more important in the grand scheme of the season because it would have thrown Everton in to the mix. The fact that we clawed one back on them and kept ourselves in fifth might prove to be an important turn of events if we end up making top four.

Okay we didn't finish our chances but I think a loss would really have hurt us a lot more.

 

[rpg]

Same old story. Start game on half gear then flunked a couple of chances then opponent score and defend deep then we start to throw the kitchen sink at them and ended as draw.

 

[Fully Fledged]

Even worse than LVGs 2nd season?! Wow.

We have scored less home goals than Hull you know?

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Draw Master United.

“It is an amazing run of 20 matches unbeaten but too many draws at home. Because of that we are in the position we are. We build well but we don’t score enough goals, we don’t kill off enough opponents and at the end of this season I think we will be punished by that.” (Mourinho)

Pogba's battles against the goalpost and crossbar continue.

De Gea is so poor this season.

We're not doing any finishing drills in trainings it seems.

Appreciate the efforts of our players though for not giving up and have a great go with total attacks.

Introduce video technology for offsides please, sooner the better.

 

[Handsome Devil]

Now that I am coming out of my post match depression, some lingering thoughts.

That Everton goal was as ridiculous as Big Dave's new hairdo.

Everton really came across as a bunch of classless thugs, and got away with it.

The BT commentary team got a collective bulge everytime Everton ventured into our half.

Diabolical decisions again but we shouldn't have to rely on them.

Just what is the point of Fellaini and Lingard in this team?

Wouldn't it be nice if Rashford could learn to control the ball when he goes off on a run?

Mkhi, play like you want to be here and Martial, stop being a sulkmonster and earn your rightful place again.

 

[midnightmare]

It's immensely frustrating to watch. While a lot of folks are blaming Mourinho though, I can't get myself to do that. He's right to be frustrated and frankly, performances are far better than they were the last 3 years. It's just that he's made us the opposite of what LvG did. Under LvG, we barely created anything, but had high conversions. Now, we create truckloads, but just can't seem to finish!

Zlatan - top scorer, but a conversion rate of just about 13-14% if I am not wrong. Just not good enough at this level. We really, really need a top goalscorer in the summer, regardless of what people say.
Rashford - I recall the start of the season where people questioned the purchase of Zlatan saying Rashford needs to be trusted. I said at the time that I still feared he could become the next Welbeck. With 8% conversion and plenty of sitters missed, he's worrying me. Seems to finish well when it's instinctive, but can't hit a barn door when he has time. Shocking.
Lingard - Not good enough. Enough said. Tries a lot and scores spectacular goals when he does, but just not good enough
Martial - Again, seems to have misplaced his finishing boots. I have hope and clearly Mourinho rates him and will keep him, but we need cover on the wings. He too is young enough to go either way. For all the hype of last season, let's not forget that there've been tons of wingers who've had a wonder season early on and then just disappeared. Don't want to be pessimistic. This is realism.
Mkhitaryan - Next season is critical. Feel he and Pogba are issues. Mkhi seems best in one type of system and Pogba in another. Worse, neither seems very good at all in the other's favoured system. My opinion after seeing a lot of him at Dortmund and for us is that he's best in a 4-2-3-1 where he can drift all over the pitch across the 3 behind the striker. Pogba only seems to work in a 4-3-3. Problems. Then again, where oh where is his finishing? Has had appalling misses all season and somehow seems to be running out of steam at a worrying point of the season.
Pogba - Sorry, the post is not a goal. Can't keep saying "bad luck". Needs to start scoring. Also, would help if he could be more disciplined in defence. If he could be a goal machine, we could afford to carry him as a luxury player. Right now, he's not offering enough goals (or clear chances) to justify the addition of another man in midfield at the cost of true wingers.

Overall though, I still feel a lot more positive than last season. It's far better to be denied by poor finishing (solvable more easily) than to be boring as feck and creating nothing (needs systemic work and massive churn).

That said, yes, time to put all the eggs in the EL basket - UNLESS Mane truly is out for the season in which case we could well catch the dippers (they've not won a game yet which he's not started since the day he joined them).

 

[Maradona10]

Lucky is Neill. You didn't know that?
Ask @Maradona10 as it's his doing.

You can thank me for the 20 game unbeaten Run.

 

[Siorac]

So much bitterness in here about Everton "raising their game". Laughable, considering they are only three points behind us and are having an excellent season overall. Didn't they smash City?

Or are we just sore that Liverpool beat them while we failed? Because that'd be pathetic.

 

[Quizierda]

We are such an overrated team with a lot of overrated & overpaid players + Mou has brought no progress..

We will fail in the EL, too and then we will throw 200+m again on even more overpaid players in the summer - yeaaah!

 

[Coops73]

Now that I am coming out of my post match depression, some lingering thoughts.

That Everton goal was as ridiculous as Big Dave's new hairdo.

Everton really came across as a bunch of classless thugs, and got away with it.

The BT commentary team got a collective bulge everytime Everton ventured into our half.

Diabolical decisions again but we shouldn't have to rely on them.

Just what is the point of Fellaini and Lingard in this team?

Wouldn't it be nice if Rashford could learn to control the ball when he goes off on a run?

Mkhi, play like you want to be here and Martial, stop being a sulkmonster and earn your rightful place again.

Pretty much agree with everything there (apart from the Lingard comment) but you're right about the BT commentary, the likes of Robbie Savage and Owen Hargreaves' punditry is nothing short of embarrassing.

 

[dwd]

@dwd is it you?

think FullTimeDevils might have some ArsenalFanTV envy as this chap was abit OTT!

and there was me thinking you shared my opinion

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Just wondering. Are we not excusing Rashford too much? Yeah he's just 19 or so and had his debut last season but isn't it time to start assessing him like any other team member?

First of all, I have my doubts about Rashford being a number nine. He just doesn't possess that body strength modern day number nine's need. He gets easily knocked off the ball time and time again. I think he is better as a wide player who cuts in to cause havoc. I will never trade Rashford for Ibra as striker right now. Maybe when Ibra actually gets old. Secondly, what does where you play have to do with you taking your chances? It will be interesting to see a fact sheet on United players' appearances. Rashford must have played more than most in that squad this season and he has missed some serious sitters.

I don't think Rashford has been wasted, I think he has wasted his opportunities this season. Nevertheless, I'm convinced he will be a much better player next season

But what opportunities does rashford ever have to score?? I can remember a very good chance against borough but appart from that he's not exactly had much to go on.

He isn't a winger, he continually gets on the last man looking for a ball in behind which never comes and even if people do look for it then usually the opposition is so deep he can't do anything. He is clearly developing and does not have all the quality yet but he tries hard and will get there eventually.

 

[pacifictheme]

From an everton forum.

"Shaw's shot kind of skipped up off the turf and Williams was just getting back to his feet in front of Robles - who himself was off balance.

The shot would have gone into the bottom corner and Williams made a snap decision to go for it with his head as it was at about rib-cage height. He missed (or maybe just skimmed it) and the ball hit his arm."

Nice to see the blue side is as deluded as the red.

 

[royboy16]

Mirallas being a prick.

The thing on lindgard ?

 

[GloryHunter07]

Do these undeserved draws.

"I cant do these undeserved draws"

What? Thats gibberish!

 

[Adisa]

Damning.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[podurban2]

Well it's true, we mostly let teams play their game even at home. Especially if we are 1-0 up, the players just put the weight on their heels. Mou needs to get his shit together.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Damning.

Tweet

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Hardly damning. More than one way to play football. Maybe Koeman needs to learn from the many managers this season who found a way to effectively counter Liverpool's tactics. He's just making excuses for getting humiliated at Anfield. Something that didn't happen to Mourinho.

 

[Bilbo]

Well we're in luck. I think 6 out of 9 of them are!

As @Bilbo said yesterday, since the Chelsea game we've dominated pretty much every team we've played. I thought we were crap in the first half but by far the better team overall. Our home record is getting stupid but I'm weirdly unbothered. You can see that we're very close to being a proper team. I'm stlll confident we're capable of turning all these dominance into a shitload of points. Although it may not happen until next season. Ho hum.

We need better attacking players. That much is obvious.

A few random thoughts from the game:

De Gea should have claimed that cross that led to the goal. He looks off the pace lately. Hopefully just a form thing rather than him seeing out the season before he departs

Lingard once again shows that he is nowhere near good enough for a club of this size

It's time to move Valencia back to right wing for the remainder of the season. He will give us the width we are crying out for

Ashley Young. Always liked him. I think he still has something to offer us and a lot of clubs would do well to pick him up if we let him go

Mkhitaryan - not his best week but he is clearly a player who needs to be loved. Just play him as often as possible please. Him being on form could be the difference

As has been pretty obvious for months now, us finishing top 4 or not will be decided by the head to heads coming up with the teams around us. I'm quietly confident that we can get the results we will need. We are hard to beat, we dictate matches and our form in front of goal surely can't go on forever

 

[Manny]

Damning.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Might have something to do with Liverpool only playing a game a week.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Might have something to do with Liverpool only playing a game a week.

Plus it's just the way Klopp gets his teams to play. We've know that for years. They press higher than other teams. It can be effective but draining over the course of a season. It's also not very effective against teams that park the bus.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

You have to question some of Jose decisions as well.

We needed a bit of creativity to open up Everton, so he brings on Miki, which was good. But then we just launched 30 yard high balls into the box, totally negating Miki.

Many players are in poor form, or no form because players have not had a decent run of games to get form.

DDG has looked disinterested for the last month. Sloppy against West Be on near the end and should have sorted the high ball prior to the goal.

Needs to rest Rashford or play him up front. He is not a winger.

 

[red4ever 79]

So much bitterness in here about Everton "raising their game". Laughable, considering they are only three points behind us and are having an excellent season overall. Didn't they smash City?

Or are we just sore that Liverpool beat them while we failed? Because that'd be pathetic.

Pretty much this!. It's like noone has a divine right to play well against us

 

[SkeppyRed]

Impressive how he manages to go on a rant like that without saying one bad word about the man who's picking these players.

How many managers do we have to go through before people realise it's the players!?!

 

[Manny]

I was saying this about the players last season too while everyone focused on LvG. No bottle, no fight, lack of focus, no personality. WHU away last season, with 4th spot up for grabs, was a prime example.

The only players who seemed troubled by what happened last night were Pogba, Zlatan and Carrick. Some just gave of a 'Oh yeah, we do this every year'.

 

[Massive Spanner]

I was talking about the team in blue. Who were crap against Liverpool and decent against us. Defensively, anyway.

Surely you can see the difference between pumping the ball into the box (us) against two big, slow defenders and playing quick, intricate football (Pool) against them? We played to their strengths, Pool played to their weaknesses.

Their keeper was much better though, I'll give you that one.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Surely you can see the difference between pumping the ball into the box (us) against two big, slow defenders and playing quick, intricate football (Pool) against them? We played to their strengths, Pool played to their weaknesses.

Their keeper was much better though, I'll give you that one.

And surely you can see the difference between a game where Liverpool got an early lead and one where Everton had a lead to protect?

Once Pogba came on we were completely dominant but Everton were happy to pack the box and defend for their lives. Something they never did against Liverpool because they went behind so early on. They also seemed to defend better, individually, getting more and more fired up with each last ditch block or tackle.

Not to mention that Gareth Barry had his usual blinder against us and didn't start against the dippers.

 

[Massive Spanner]

And surely you can see the difference between a game where Liverpool got an early lead and one where Everton had a lead to protect?

Once Pogba came on we were completely dominant but Everton were happy to pack the box and defend for their lives. Something they never did against Liverpool because they went behind so early on. They also seemed to defend better, individually, getting more and more fired up with each last ditch block or tackle.

Not to mention that Gareth Barry had his usual blinder against us and didn't start against the dippers.

Yeah but it's our fault everton took the lead early against us due to our shit finishing?

I honestly don't know why you and others are comparing the two games, really. Liverpool play better football than us, that's plainly obvious, and they played better against Everton at the weekend than we did last night. This whole narrative of us being unlucky and teams turning up against us when they didn't against other side's surely has to give in at some point.

 

[MDFC Manager]

This team is going places.

Good. Because we're not winning at home.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yeah but it's our fault everton took the lead early against us due to our shit finishing?

Huh?

I honestly don't know why you and others are comparing the two games, really. Liverpool play better football than us, that's plainly obvious, and they played better against Everton at the weekend than we did last night. This whole narrative of us being unlucky and teams turning up against us when they didn't against other side's surely has to give in at some point.

Liverpool did play better against Everton than we did. In the first half, anyway, when we were really not very good. That doesn't mean that Everton didn't do their annual bottle shop in their local derby. Both things can be true, you know.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Huh?



Liverpool did play better against Everton than we did. In the first half, anyway, when we were really not very good. That doesn't mean that Everton didn't do their annual bottle shop in their local derby. Both things can be true, you know.

Everton took the lead against us because as usual we couldn't put our early chances away and then gifted them a goal. Your comment about them protecting a lead vs us as opposed to chasing it against Pool is silly because it's our own fault that happened.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

This guy is a bit emotionally unstable. But I understand it is right after the game and of course you would be absolutely fuming after that.

"Would rather lose tonight" check your head lad. This point was pretty bloody important. Everton could have been above us and then we're psychologically back at 6th, Arsenal might still jump ahead on goal difference but the loss tonight would have been even worse. Can't really justify somebody who wants us to lose instead of take a point. That is a bit rank.

He is correct with the "get in your cars and eff off home" but this is what you get when you make muppet signings and smash your wage bill out of control bringing in random players without a cohesive strategy. I understand we've had three managers but simply "freeing up wages to sign other players" isn't the right idea. We need a fresh wipe of the slate and to bring in striving low-mid earners who want to give a pint of blood for the shirt and have them organically grow through the wage structure. Smashing down another 200/300k a week to a couple of top talents every season isn't really the right way to go about it if the club has an apparent "attitude" problem then we need to start pruning the bush until only the strong branches survive The core and the growth has to come from the group of players that want to be better than they are, not the players on big money brought in. Buying bottle is hit and miss but cultivating it is more the key.

Swelling the pay of the middle class of our team is one of the big problems. It is the Joe Hart equation. "Let in some goals? Pfft I'm an international on 200k a week, who cares at the end of the day innit."

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Everton took the lead against us because as usual we couldn't put our early chances away and then gifted them a goal. Your comment about them protecting a lead vs us as opposed to chasing it against Pool is silly because it's our own fault that happened.

What's fault got to do with it? I was explaining to you why the games followed a different pattern. With Liverpool picking off an Everton side that was forced to expose their back four, while we were up against a team that was happy to pack the box with Gareth Barry basically acting as a third central defender. I really don't know why I'm having to keep explaining this.

 

[GM K]

But what opportunities does rashford ever have to score?? I can remember a very good chance against borough but appart from that he's not exactly had much to go on.

He isn't a winger, he continually gets on the last man looking for a ball in behind which never comes and even if people do look for it then usually the opposition is so deep he can't do anything. He is clearly developing and does not have all the quality yet but he tries hard and will get there eventually.

Rashford is off form. It's not about where he is being played. I can't remember the sitters he has missed but there have been many. Against Middlesborough, against Chelsea, against Rostov. A significant number. Look at yesterday, the off side call aside, he should have buried that chance.

I remember when Cavani was frustrated at being played as a wide man because of Ibra at PSG. That didn't stop him from banging in many important goals for PSG. The excuse that Rashford and Martial are being played wide instead of through the middle, is wearing thin. They need to be more lethal and contribute goals. Imagine if each had scored at least 7 goals in the league this season.

Ibra has more than proven he deserves the striker role for now. They should live with it and get on with business. But it's not just them, IR's the whole attacking cast.

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

More of the same dross. As expected. Slow, aimless crap which devolved into Moyes-esque long balls into the box. We're just an expensive mid-table team, this season, really. We don't really look any better in general than Everton.

We're gonna finish 6th or 7th this season. And I don't see how anyone can be overly confident in us winning the EL league - we can't score against teams like WBA and Burnley, I wouldn't be confident against anyone once we get into the semi-finals (I am confident we can eke out a result over two legs against Anderlecht).

I don't know what the answer is either. That game was a nailed on 1-1 draw - I got it spot on, unfortunately. Once Jagielka scored, I didn't think we'd even get a point - that's how little confidence I have in our multi-million pound squad of even scoring one goal per game.

Only positives were Bailly and Rojo who showed fight and balls. Young worked as hard as Young can, as a limited but generally honest player. Shaw made a solid cameo, hoping he starts on the weekend.

Summary - Fellaini, Carrick, Young, Lingard, Blind, Rashford.

All of the above are either slow or average players. Rashford is included coz despite being talented, his contribution this season has been less than Jesse Lingard who is bang average - thus, he's considered average at this moment in time. When your starting 11 is jam-packed with slow and/or average players, why would you expect anything more than slow, average football and average results?

 

[Mihai]

You can thank me for the 20 game unbeaten Run.

20 GAME
20 GAME
20 GAME UNBEATEN
20 GAME UNBEATEN RUN
RUN

 

[Massive Spanner]

What's fault got to do with it? I was explaining to you why the games followed a different pattern. With Liverpool picking off an Everton side that was forced to expose their back four, while we were up against a team that was happy to pack the box with Gareth Barry basically acting as a third central defender. I really don't know why I'm having to keep explaining this.

I know why the games followed a different pattern, are you really being so pedantic over this? Fault has everything to do with it and you know it.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Our crossing isn't good enough.
Our delivery from corners and free kicks isn't good enough.
Our finishing isn't good enough.
Sort it out Jose.

 

[balaks]

You really miss Mata.