[MyOnlySolskjaer]

He made a bread and butter save. Central enough, not especially powerful and at the perfect height.

Fair enough, didn't see a replay. It looked good at first glance.

 

[kundalini]

Either one of Smalling, Bailly and Fellaini has to take responsibility for starting moves, or we need to use a different combination that includes a player that is willing to do so like Blind, Herrera or Carrick. The temp in the first half was unacceptable.

Thought TFM has a very good game. Bailly's pace was impressive though his reckless challenges weren't. Most players were ok on the ball but few signs of quality. Pogba was both lazy and careless. Rashford unlucky to hit the bar.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Fair enough, didn't see a replay. It looked good at first glance.

I am just bring miserable. I just watched that game after all.

 

[OLLY ORANGE]

Hard watching that.
Lindgard, fellaini, young, Rojo, Rooney should not be starting in this side. All will need to be moved on in the next two or three transfer windows. Fellaini cannot start in the middle with another. Our tempo drops dramatically when he's in the middle and you can't have him just side passing under no pressure.

 

[AR87]

1. Pogba and Fellaini will not work unless you drop Herrera in there as a 3-man midfield. Even then I'm not sure it will since Fellaini doesn't play it quickly despite never choosing to pick out a penetrating pass and generally taking the easiest option. I have no problem with that, but if you're going to do that then play it quickly.

2. Pogba lost possession in some bad spots, which will happen, so I'm not too worried about it. His defensive contribution after losing the possession was absolutely shocking, including that pathetic effort after he lost at the start of the second half when he let the pass behind him on the outside despite it being the only option on. A better team would have punished us for that.

3. Rashford is great at forcing the action but he picked wrong options on almost every occasion today, including one opportunity he had in the first half to play it back to the top of the 18 for Pogba who was in acres of space for an easy shot.

4. It's really crazy how much putting Fellaini in for Herrera and Rojo in for Blind kills our ability to create in possession. Rojo neither made forward runs with any consistency nor defended well. A nothing player putting in a nothing performance. Funny enough when he actually did get forward, Mata almost played him in for a chance and he found Lingard wide open in the box for a header which the Zorya defender did well to block.

5. Lingard drifting inside to combine with Mata and Zlatan is fine, but he needs to mix it up and stay wide at times. It was shocking how little of a threat we posed on the right hand side as TFM seemed reluctant for the first 30 or so minutes to get forward. I actually thought once he started to get forward with more consistency he looked quite good. Thought it was harsh to take him off after he created the opportunity for the goal.

6. Smalling is really poor on the ball. Not a new thing, but it's just extremely noticeable when he's not surrounded by capable ball players as he was at the weekend. Putting him next to Rojo and in front of Fellaini really drives that home and it's quite shocking how nervous and shite he looks when he has the ball. Teams quite literally disrespect him and give him space to go forward with the ball because they know he won't do it with any purpose and either pass it backwards or make an awful forward pass which can ignite their counter.

7. We are terrible at closing out games. The last 10 minutes was pathetic from our defenders and central midfield in terms of holding possession and closing space. There's no excuse for that against opposition like that. The amount of misplaced passes during that team that cost us quality counter attacking opportunities was extremely frustrating.

8. I always have to temper a match like this with the honest understanding that a lot of players probably have a tough time getting up for a Europa League match. We can say how crap of an attitude that is, but it's the reality and outside of Bailly, Rashford and TFM it seemed like the primary concern for many players was not to exert themselves and avoid injury.

 

[tekkers3]

Clearly the mental problem of prior years is still affecting some players. Possession is too slow and deliberate, especially when teams are happy to sit back and defend with a compact shape.

Fellaini has played well against teams that give Pogba/ Mata/ Rooney space to work in as all he has to do is give others the ball. In these types of games he almost has too many options. Carrick would have been more suited as he plays a great simple game - but hindsight is great.

Herrera is now more of a key player. Get him back in the team

 

[Yagami]

Another rubbish performance.

Pogba's scoop passes are delightful, Pogba, Mata and Zlatan linked up together very well at times, Bailly was very good, Zlatan got another goal, and Martial is working his way back to full fitness.

 

[OLLY ORANGE]

Either one of Smalling, Bailly and Fellaini has to take responsibility for starting moves, or we need to use a different combination that includes a player that is willing to do so like Blind, Herrera or Carrick. The temp in the first half was unacceptable.

Thought TFM has a very good game. Bailly's pace was impressive though his reckless challenges weren't. Most players were ok on the ball but few signs of quality. Pogba was both lazy and careless. Rashford unlucky to hit the bar.

Totally Agree!
I think Bailly's passing ability is much greater than the others. But he's still finding his feet at the club.

 

[BennyBlanco]

That was absolutely brutal to watch, Christ I still feel like im being stabbing to death slowly with a rusty spoon even after its over.
I think i'm going to take a miss on the rest of the Europa games.

 

[Jackylad]

Stewart Lee quote, highlight of the evening! Good work, sir.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Turned off at halftime like a boss and don't even regret it one bit

 

[JoaquinJoaquin]

There is plenty of good in this team but there is equal amounts of bad. Jose has a job on but he clearly knows it, it's September and I'm not arsed..........yet.

There's going to be a lot of ups and downs this season I think that's clear. I'm not expecting to see the true Jose team until next season.

 

[Will Singh]

Pogba was terrible tonight but gets away with getting sticking here, it's always the fault of someone else that he was shit, it's Fellaini's fault that he kept giving the ball away I take it!!!!

 

[VanGaalEra]

Assist of the season.

 

[Jacko21]

Would appear the players are as enthusiastic as I am about the Europa League.

 

[.Rossi]

Players clearly affected by the revelations surrounding Big Sam.

Hard for the football family to take

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Tfm rojo and Romero all the others have been first team players so far

You could add Fellani and Lingard to that list.

 

[Jep]

Sounds like we were shite. Had it on laptop but had the wire v saints game on which got my full attention, sounds like I made the right decision as to what to watch, old trafford here we come.

 

[Wumminator]

Turned off at halftime like a boss and don't even regret it one bit

Crikey.

That ain't something to be proud of.

 

[duffer]

Anyone know why Jose gave one of his assistants a bollocking?

 

[BennyBlanco]

Pogba was terrible tonight but gets away with getting sticking here, it's always the fault of someone else that he was shit, it's Fellaini's fault that he kept giving the ball away I take it!!!!

It's not worth it mate honestly, people in the Pogba performance thread claiming he was good tonight...
fecking up on simple 5 yard passes half the time, that wanker Fellaini!!!!

 

[JezChan]

Assist of the season.

Almost had another to challenge that title, but he underhit it a bit.

 

[Devil may care]

The game should serve as data collection for Mourinho, he saw how our attack links better without Rooney, but hopefully also realized that you can't play front foot football without a DLP, especially when neither CB is a great distributor.

 

[sosolid4u09]

did Paul scholes really say pre game that had rooney played instead of mata against Leicester, the score would have been the same? what an incredibly stupid and utterly disrespectful thing to say

 

[Sylar]

After the first five minutes, I expected this sort of game. When you have a team playing like they did against us, this is where the likes of Blind and Herrera make a difference because of their fast passing.

We won, and thats all that mattered tonight. Some of our players however were a bit lazy / lax at times or trying to take the piss cos of the opposition. Too many extra touches at times which resulted in the game we got.

 

[RedFish]

WTF Savage on the Rooney assist!

 

[MrBest]

It really wasn't that bad. We made some decent chances and openings, and on other days we'd probably have scored more and won more comfortably. They never really threatened and I always thought we'd get at least one goal to win it, which I don't always think when watching us

What game did u watxh? Was pathetic performance against a unheard of team. Pogba an 85m man? No way. Fellaini worthy starter ? Bring back bastian!

 

[Aki_United]

Awkward to win with a lucky punch against that team with our expensive team

 

[Dec9003]

Will anyone be posting the video of Mourinho's post match comments when they're available?

 

[stu_1992]

Didn't see this because of work, sounds like I didn't miss much at all. Meh, feck it we won I guess.

 

[fishfingers15]

Rooney MOTM with the all important assist.

 

[Giant Midget]

Need passers from deep. Pogba and Fellaini only work if Blind is at CB.

 

[Thepinhead]

Not a good game for us but there were some good signs for me. We are using some passing systems that we werent using under LVG and they will get better as the players get used to them and more accomplished at them. There were also some signs that the reading of closing off the second pass is getting better. Makes me believe that there is good work going on at training, hopefully with a bit more time we will start to see more significant improvement on the pitch.

Agree. Not the best performance but I saw quite a few positives as you mention yourself. Our counterpressing looked much much much better than against Feyenoord. We actually pressed as a unit and got the ball back instantly. I also saw a lot of movement in the final 3rd with players exchanging positions etc. But you also have to acknowledge that even though the opposition wasn't that great moving forward they worked their socks off and played very well defensively.

I always feel like against these teams you have to score within the first 30 minutes or else it tends to be one of these games where nothing comes easy. Had rashford scored on that chance where he hit the upper bar we would probably have won 3-0 or so

 

[LouisDanGaal]

The only way to look at a game like this is we couldn't possibly have left with any more points. That's a start I guess.

 

[gav81]

I thought we sacked van Gaal. Wait... we did. So why am I still struggling to stay awake through the match? Oh... because Mourinho. This is not United.

 

[walkinhop]

"Rooney on instant impact - if he means that or not" How on earth can you look at that and even have the slightest thought that he intended to misshit that ball with his knee to what looked like a shit pass which Zlatan did the most out of is beyond me

"When he's on, they want him off, when he's off, they want him on", no. Just no. We don't want him on, at all.

We do want him on...on another continent

 

[Asger]

I thought we sacked van Gaal. Wait... we did. So why am I still struggling to stay awake through the match? Oh... because Mourinho. This is not United.

More because we still have a lot of players which are not good enough...

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

At least we won.

 

[77]

I'm laid up at home with a fractured colar. I started to pop my elbow joint in and out halfway through the second half, I was that bored.

 

[K2K]

Zorya where good defensively and definitely had a plan.

Good pressing in their own half and several banks of defenders kept us out.

Their attack was very poor though.