[The_Order]

Not having Lukaku as a focal point - means he doesn't get marked out of the game and a dynamic trio of Lingard, Mata and Martial can cut threads.

Also no long balls up to the big man...

 

[kundalini]

Took us a while to figure out how the system was meant to create chances but once we gained control, we dominated apart from 5 mins between our goals when Everton threatened briefly.

One of our better away performances. Most of the side played well.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

You wonder if they were expecting a lot more from Everton, who after the first Big Sam glow have gone back to being not very good. Second half they upped their game as they realised they definitely had the beating of them.

 

[GM K]

Which we usually do, especially during the Fergie years. Only recently we have had troubles there.




Quite simply, we played good football against Bristol and Leicester, just didn’t get the result needed. Today we did.

At last.Someone who shares my sentiments.

Reading posts here you will think we have been absolutely rubbish.

 

[Pearl of Wisdom]

Delighted with the performance and result today.
Would love to see us go on a big run of form now.

 

[rotherham_red]

Must admit, Lingards celebration made me laugh when I watch it back. Shooshing the Everton fans and looking so triumphant.

I'd hate him if he wasn't a United player.

Since when has that stopped Utd fans?

 

[AshRK]

Very very important win. I thought we were dropping more points but great to see players showing more balls and proving to us critics that they care and are still playing for Jose. It's easy to blame Jose but trust me 3 draws and to come our winning a game withing 48 hours of the previous one shows we are underrating our squad very much.

 

[buckooo1978]

I think the problem would be that with Lukaku starting, Martial gets moved to the left and then that might just cut off some of the freedom that Pogba enjoyed in this match.

that's certainly the way it's been so far but it's up to the coaching to make sure we aren't so rigid

pace, movement and strength can be a lethal combination and for what it's worth I even felt Lukaku did well when he had a few cameos on the right

the movement tonight made us unpredictable and that was a good achievement against Big Sam and his 10 men behind the ball - that's what we should be aiming for regardless if it's Lukaku/Rashford/Martial/Lingard in that front 3

 

[Castia]

Much better formation and style of play. It lets Pogba push forward through the middle and from the left giving us some much needed support in attack. With Lukaku fit through the middle and Valencia at RB it will be stronger still.

 

[FootballHQ]

Good win in the circumstances. Should settle things down for a few weeks as Stoke at home is a banker.

 

[dirkey]

At last.Someone who shares my sentiments.

Reading posts here you will think we have been absolutely rubbish.

Exactly. Some people I'm pretty sure just look at the result and judge everything from there. If the game doesn't result in a win, then surely the performance was appalling and everything falls back on the manager. They don't seem able to accept that sometimes the better team doesn't win a football match, and, shock of horrors, sometimes that happens in more than 1 game in a row to a team.

This place is hard to take after dropped points at times to be honest.

 

[ijc]

What a shocker, 3 man midfield gets the best out of Pogba... brilliant performance 2nd half - why can't we always play like that?!

 

[Jim Beam]

It's a big win, despite players not playing for manager anymore. Wonder what they would do, if that changes.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Which we usually do, especially during the Fergie years. Only recently we have had troubles there.




Quite simply, we played good football against Bristol and Leicester, just didn’t get the result needed. Today we did.

You said last couple of games. Our last couple of games were Burnley and Southampton. We played ok v Burnley but were absolutely dire v Southampton, hence my response.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

That was a big win for us. You could see the confidence flow back after we got our tails up. That should stand us in good stead going forward.

It’s not scientific but my eyes tell me a three man midfield works best for us. Today again we looked much better with three out there than with just too. Dunno why we don’t play 433 every game.

Pogba played quite a similar position to where lingard has been playing. Splitting hairs. Big difference was not having a target man, having pogba far up the pitch and also probably a very open Everton performance

 

[Roosney]

Yay, solid win and very nice goals both of them.
Mata and Pogba were great. Matic needs a rest.

 

[glazed]

Liked that formation. I know Martial isn't exactly a centre forward, but Lukaka and Ibra both need a holiday.

 

[RD76]

Rooney bottled it.

When he finished the bottles, he moved onto the cans. Then the spirits.

Finished off with a large doner meat and chips.

 

[JoaquinJoaquin]

I suggest you learn a second language and stop watching English broadcasts -- they're shit and are bad for your mental health.

The English broadcasts spend the entire game on everything but the football: what kind of narrative can we take from this game, what talking points can we help generate, and what headlines can we help create. It's shit.

The foreign language broadcasts actually seem to care about the events on the pitch more than the drama of the press. You feel the excitement of build-up play long before the shot is actually taken, unlike many English broadcasts that only recognize a quality opportunity upon watching a slow-motion replay.

The first half was damn entertaining, unless of course your idea of entertaining is only when United have the opposition's box surrounded. It was end-to-end stuff at many points, with last-ditch tackles and defending breaking up otherwise threatening attacking opportunities. It was the same type of performance United gave against Leicester and Burnely, just without the end product: Lingard's shot was just wide of the post, Pickford made a great diving save, etc. The first half was fun.

Well thanks for your suggestion, but I'll do what I want thank you. My eyes and brain can easily interpret what is happening and the point I was making is that we were toothless in the first half and many others said similar. In fact there was very few people happy with the way the game was going by half time. Our game plan in the first half was pretty much non existent and it was similar to the last few games in which we created very few clear cut chances. So if you're asking if I enjoy a team that plays that way, then no is your answer. I enjoyed the feck out of the team in the second half though, a team that looked like it had a plan and took the game to the opposition. That is Manchester United. Not that first half shite we have seen in the prior 3 games.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

What a shocker, 3 man midfield gets the best out of Pogba... brilliant performance 2nd half - why can't we always play like that?!

Yes, we need to stick with that. Now, if we can get a better midfielder than Herrera in there...

 

[Westerkerk]

First half very intense but a bit rudderless in the final third. Intense again second half but a little more heart I thought. Looked like a rocket had been blasted up them at half time.

Mata frustrated me throughout with some poor passes in attacking positions. Felt that Pogba led the troops today, I was really impressed with his aggression and positive play.

We are seriously missing real leadership and consistency on the pitch though - that's a worry for me going into the rest of the season.

 

[Escape Goat]

What a shocker, 3 man midfield gets the best out of Pogba... brilliant performance 2nd half - why can't we always play like that?!

And another shocker - playing Martial as a striker brings out a better performance from him.

 

[Escape Goat]

Liked that formation. I know Martial isn't exactly a centre forward, but Lukaka and Ibra both need a holiday.

Depends what you want from your CF. How many teams play with a big lump up front these days?

Sounds like the increased mobility of Martial helped the team's movement?

 

[Sunny Jim]

Liked that formation. I know Martial isn't exactly a centre forward, but Lukaka and Ibra both need a holiday.

IMHO we played Martial, Mata and Lingard in CF position today. Very fluid Spaletti-like formation.

Edit: yeah, dont think Ibra has a place in this team and Lukaku should play on merit.

 

[mattsville]

Having not won a game in 4 against inferior opposition and accumulating injuries and fatigue that was a very surprising and welcome performance, there was energy, purpose and cutting edge, this was the toughest game of our Christmas fixtures, great confidence and focus from Martial and Jesse, Pogba was immense, great to see Shaw gathering momentum, Jesse progressing very nicely, Martial slowly but surely, big win that.

 

[iHicksy]

We were fecking dire first half, lets not forget that. It was LVG-esque in the way we were toothless in attack and shaky as feck in defence. We gave the ball away needlessly on almost every counter attack for 10minutes solid with Matic, Mata and Herrera looking complacent as hell. It was like we didn't realise we didn't have Lukaku up top and played hoof ball to Martial, which of course came straight back at us, i was convinced we were going to lose, we were getting hammered and were resorting to taking long shots. Rojo, Herrera...even Phil Jones were shooting from 30-40 yards out because we had no movement or options in attack.

Then a totally different team came out for the second half, Mourinho's team talk worked miracles whatever he said and we played some fantastic stuff after the break, I just don't understand why we looked so fecking clueless the entirety of the first half.

 

[Luffy]

That was an excellent win. More so as it was against the notoriously crowded bus parking lot that Fat Sam's teams usually are. It's nice to be proven wrong about Mata and Lingard. It was briefly disconcerting to see our familiar jitters rearing their ugly heads when we scored, though relief quickly overshadowed that feeling when we got that second goal. I hope we keep playing with the same verve.

 

[manichester]

That was good no big man to hump it to meant playing football, players interchanging caused them problems. More of the same please.

 

[jderbyshire]

We looked really good tonight after some bad performances.

But this kind of performance tonight is what the player's should be striving for as a bare minimum.

This should be the standard - creating chances, getting in behind their defence repeatedly, full backs overlapping, tempo, flow.

Same again next match lads.

 

[Aniefiok]

Please let's always use 3 in midfield. Pogba was King today. So much balance, love how we snuffed out their attacks before it even started. Even Lindelof did a good job with Bolasie.

3 in midfield is the way forward. Pogba needs that freedom.

 

[Tincanalley]

Exactly. Some people I'm pretty sure just look at the result and judge everything from there. If the game doesn't result in a win, then surely the performance was appalling and everything falls back on the manager. They don't seem able to accept that sometimes the better team doesn't win a football match, and, shock of horrors, sometimes that happens in more than 1 game in a row to a team.

This place is hard to take after dropped points at times to be honest.

The ones I love are the posters who don’t watch the match (or watch glassy eyed) then head off to xG for the stats and base their conclusions on this and how often such and such player makes a backwards pass.

 

[Tincanalley]

No MOTD tonight it seems.

 

[desmondisback]

What a shocker, 3 man midfield gets the best out of Pogba... brilliant performance 2nd half - why can't we always play like that?!

Because Mourinho will probably go and fix something that's not broken rather than leave well alone and just try to repeat this.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

amazing how much ebtter we are away from home at the moment - made a lot of chances vs leicester too

 

[Aniefiok]

Shaw, Pogba with Martial drifting left was absolute torture for Holgate. Not sure any left back can play against such creativity, pace and flair.

 

[manorite284]

Shaw, Pogba with Martial drifting left was absolute torture for Holgate. Not sure any left back can play against such creativity, pace and flair.

Damn right. Most left backs would struggle on the right tbf.

 

[slir32]

6 points from Everton this season fantastic from the lads.

 

[Full bodied red]

amazing how much ebtter we are away from home at the moment - made a lot of chances vs leicester too

Been like that for a few years, hasn't it ?

Lack of decent wingers, for what seems like ages now, has meant that we've always struggled against teams who've come to OT and defended for their lives with our midfield and forwards just passing square along the 25 yard line in the hope that a space will miraculously appear inside the Penalty Area despite eight defenders being inside there.

I remember a match against WBA at OT a couple of years ago - they even started with four CB's 'cause they knew we had no bloody wingers, and then put their FBs in midfield.

At home, these same ' plucky ' underdogs can't usually do the same and have been relatively easy pickings for us - especially since JM arrived, but even when LVG was around most of our best performances were away from OT.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Been like that for a few years, hasn't it ?

Lack of decent wingers, for what seems like ages now, has meant that we've always struggled against teams who've come to OT and defended for their lives with our midfield and forwards just passing square along the 25 yard line in the hope that a space will miraculously appear inside the Penalty Area despite eight defenders being inside there.

I remember a match against WBA at OT a couple of years ago - they even started with four CB's 'cause they knew we had no bloody wingers, and then put their FBs in midfield.

At home, these same ' plucky ' underdogs can't usually do the same and have been relatively easy pickings for us - especially since JM arrived, but even when LVG was around most of our best performances were away from OT.

yeah i remember it being a big thing under LVG but at the start of the season we looked like we had enough to break the deadlock and then finish teams on the counter ! but we look a bit more nervous since then at home

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Fantastic to watch the second half I really enjoyed it. Pogba was incredible I thought and there were a few other great performances as well.

Lingard is becoming a key player for us he scores fantastic goals but he really plays well in general, his movement is the best in the squad easily and you can see he has a footballing brain. Mata had a great game as did the entire defence but the motm was easily pogba.

All in all very happy.