[RedDevil@84]

Not everyone lives in the UK. How is it you're still discovering this in 2023?

How dare non UK folks watch Manchester United. @Wumminator will be furious at all these foreigners runing the club.

 

[December_16]

England's playing away to Italy. Then Ukraine.

Do you think Shaw & Marcus get rested?

At least after the Ukraine game, they have a full week rest until the League game against Newcastle. Sad truth is a full week of rest seems to be a luxury these days, and maybe their last until end of season if we get past Sevilla.

 

[sglowrider]

At least after the Ukraine game, they have a full week rest until the League game against Newcastle. Sad truth is a full week of rest seems to be a luxury these days, and maybe their last until end of season if we get past Sevilla.

It will be mid-week matches all the way till May and that will depend on how far we get in the two cups outstanding. And few opportunities to blood any academy player in May.

Next month is worrying -- the cumulative effect of playing so often (since Nov) will eventually take its toll. Just don't want us to tumble in the last furlong.

 

[Steve 007]

Today was great. We played badly at times, but we are through. We’ve lost two thirds of our midfield and have a very average striker on loan.
Positives are:
DDG as always making game saving saves.
Sancho getting us back in it. Bruno converting the pen. Sancho great run to win the penalty. Anthony coming on and having a big impact.

It’s glaringly obvious Weghorst isn’t a top tier striker, Fulham’s big man who we didn’t want had more impact before he was sent off.
Getting Ericsson and Casimero back will really help us reach our level again if we get to the final.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

We were just flat up till the penalty moment - missing players, getting in late Thursday night and a crap load of games, not to mention we also played with 10 men less than a week ago as well. Fulham though were not great, just a little better than us.

While Fulham def made it easy with the red cards, I would not call us lucky. De Gea made two very good saves but, then again if he doesn't make them you really have to be questioning him. 70th minute we were going to tie the game, at home. If Willian doesn't save it with his hand that is. With the way this team has been, you'd have then put the odds on us winning it from there at home - so can't call it completely lucky win, lucky it just became a lot easier to get that win in the 90.

As for Marco Silva - watched his interview he needs to get done for bringing the game into disrepute by his words implying that Kavanaugh is bent against Fulham - if that's a manager for any of the more high profile teams, you know FA would come down hard to make an example.

I missed the shove he is talking about by Shaw on Mitrovic but, the trip, that Mitrovic should have got a yellow for simulation, he literally put his leg out in front of Martinez and then flung himself to the ground, stupid interviewer should have called him on it.

On to Wembley - it's going to be a tough tough game considering it's going to be game #6 in 21 days, right after we make a trip back from Spain again. Thankfully Casemiro will be back for that, Varane most likely and hopefully Eriksen - and who knows damned Martial might decide to play as well by then.

Agree with your comments about Silva. That was one of the bitterest interviews I can remember. He called out the ref for having previous bias against them, and said they should have had 2 penalties today. Totally non-apologetic. I hope they give him a few extra matches on his ban, and I hope Mitrovic is out for the rest of the season. 10 more matches to play this season, and DiCanio got 11 matches for his assault on the referee, so it's not out of the question that's the last time Mitrovic plays for Fulham this season. Mitrovic is a good player so it could be the last time he plays for Fulham at all. But because Fulham are not one of the big clubs, they won't sanction either player or manager but with the lightest of punishments. Probably 1 match for Silva and 3 for Mitrovic. Remember when Mourinho kicked a water bottle and got a 3 match ban? Or Rooney swore at a camera and got a 2 match ban? Shortly thereafter we have Klopp manhandling a ref, and Liverpool players saying feck on live TV with no bans. Double standards.

 

[justsomebloke]

We were just flat up till the penalty moment - missing players, getting in late Thursday night and a crap load of games, not to mention we also played with 10 men less than a week ago as well. Fulham though were not great, just a little better than us.

While Fulham def made it easy with the red cards, I would not call us lucky. De Gea made two very good saves but, then again if he doesn't make them you really have to be questioning him. 70th minute we were going to tie the game, at home. If Willian doesn't save it with his hand that is. With the way this team has been, you'd have then put the odds on us winning it from there at home - so can't call it completely lucky win, lucky it just became a lot easier to get that win in the 90.

As for Marco Silva - watched his interview he needs to get done for bringing the game into disrepute by his words implying that Kavanaugh is bent against Fulham - if that's a manager for any of the more high profile teams, you know FA would come down hard to make an example.

I missed the shove he is talking about by Shaw on Mitrovic but, the trip, that Mitrovic should have got a yellow for simulation, he literally put his leg out in front of Martinez and then flung himself to the ground, stupid interviewer should have called him on it.

On to Wembley - it's going to be a tough tough game considering it's going to be game #6 in 21 days, right after we make a trip back from Spain again. Thankfully Casemiro will be back for that, Varane most likely and hopefully Eriksen - and who knows damned Martial might decide to play as well by then.

He thinks a player shoving another player is the same thing as a player shoving the ref? And what a stupid comment about the Mitrovic/Martinez situation - he plainly stick out his right leg to catch Martinez, that's closer to a yellow for Mitrovic than it is to a penalty for Fulham.

He lost his composure, which probably contributed to Mitrovic losing his - and that lost his team the game. And he did it over a situation where the ref plainly was just following the rules and made the only decision he could make. And then he bitches about persecution afterwards. Not impressive.

 

[Red00012]

At least after the Ukraine game, they have a full week rest until the League game against Newcastle. Sad truth is a full week of rest seems to be a luxury these days, and maybe their last until end of season if we get past Sevilla.

I was hoping Rashford coming off limping would be enough for him to pull out of the internationals

 

[mikeyt]

Shocker of a performance and what worried me the most was the lack of identity in our play.

We simply cannot play with McT, Maguire and Weghorst in the same 11 again. They are so slow and cumbersome on the ball. Weggy has had his moments at times but when you play McT and Maguire in the same team you get no pace of pass and that lack of tempo of moving the ball makes us far too easy to play against. We've all seen this over recent years but watching yesterday it was so evident that those two are hugely out of their depth here go completely against what ETH has brought to the team and both must be sold in the summer.

 

[Andy_Cole]

Just read through the match day thread for those 3 minutes

Why are people streaming a game that’s on ITV? Some people were still saying the pen won’t be given when it was 1-1

I was at the match so can’t confirm. But doesn’t ITV have 4K when streamed?

 

[crossy1686]

We’ve been shite for a few weeks now and it completely coincides with the fact only one of Ten Hags summer signings is starting on a regular basis.

 

[groovyalbert]

We had half a team missing three days after playing away in Spain. This is the time of year when you just have to grind out results.

We got ourselves back in the game. End of story.

Agree completely, and we managed to get through it. Not saying that isn't commendable, I'm just not sure we get through without Fulham's self-implosion.

 

[MancunianAngels]

Playing in multiple competitions is hard. There's a reason why, in the seasons where we ran away with the title, we didn't go as far in the cups.

We stumbled over the finishing line in 1999 and 2008 but had the league won by Easter in 2000 and 2001.

 

[wolvored]

I watched from the pub so you only see the match in patches, but I couldnt see we winning that game 11v11 until the pen. We look knackered and Casemiro and Eriksen obviously make us look a much different side. Playing WW is like playing with 10.5 men anyway.

 

[mitchmouse]

Only those wearing the reddest of red-tinted glasses will think we deserved to win that. We were awful for huge periods of the game and were completely dominated by Fulham, who may be doing quite well in the PL but are hardly a powerhouse. I don't normally believe the tired/overplayed trope but it's absolute madness that we've played pretty much every three days since the WC and it showed on Sunday (at least I hope that's all it is). Even so, we should have enough top beat Fulham - and the game showed jus how far we have fallen and how much rebuilding needs to be done - the squad is not nearly str9ng enough or deep enough.

I though McT had a decent enough game defensively and DDG and Martinez kept us in the game... and that was about it; the only positives. We should probably think of Paulinha or someone like him in the summer: he controlled the pace of the game virtually until their 40 seconds of madness; we rarely do that and certainly haven't done it much in the PL recently

 

[OmarUnited4ever]

If I was Fulham's manager, I would have gone into defense mode once the ref decided to check the video, it would have been only 1-1, and all needed was to rejig the team and sit deep to defend with 1 or 2 players running behind for counter attacks, yet Silva decided to lose his head and Mitro decided to fight the ref !!!

there has to be some sort of special punishment for such behaviors !!!

 

[Sunny Jim]

If I was Fulham's manager, I would have gone into defense mode once the ref decided to check the video, it would have been only 1-1, and all needed was to rejig the team and sit deep to defend with 1 or 2 players running behind for counter attacks, yet Silva decided to lose his head and Mitro decided to fight the ref !!!

there has to be some sort of special punishment for such behaviors !!!

4 match ban for Casemiro

 

[tomaldinho1]

He was giving a corner for that penalty

That’s actually what he should do. He can’t see the handball so even if he highly suspects it was he can’t just give it under pressure from the crowd/players if he’s not seen it. That’s a good use of VAR as it was a ‘clear and obvious’ error.

 

[Rams]

I don’t know what everybody is moaning about. Fulham were very good yesterday. But it was also a brilliant bit of quality by Antony and Sancho, Willian’s handball was deliberate and Fulham imploded. In the end a very good result for us in a difficult match.

 

[Tom Cato]

Fulham has become a very good team, so they were never going to be a bottom-dwelling pushover. They could end up taking as high as 6th in the Prem this season.

Would have liked to see the team perform better though. I doubt Ten Hag told the guys "go out there and stink up the place like you mean it". Playing like dogshit is on them.

 

[Denis79]

Today was great. We played badly at times, but we are through. We’ve lost two thirds of our midfield and have a very average striker on loan.
Positives are:
DDG as always making game saving saves.
Sancho getting us back in it. Bruno converting the pen. Sancho great run to win the penalty. Anthony coming on and having a big impact.

It’s glaringly obvious Weghorst isn’t a top tier striker, Fulham’s big man who we didn’t want had more impact before he was sent off.
Getting Ericsson and Casimero back will really help us reach our level again if we get to the final.

Mitrovic is a much better footballer that Weghorst, they aren't even comparable. Weghorst is way more likeable though.

 

[Pronewbie]

Fulham were naive and silly to self-implode, but we'll take it. We've got the cup luck this season.

 

[wazz786]

Only those wearing the reddest of red-tinted glasses will think we deserved to win that. We were awful for huge periods of the game and were completely dominated by Fulham, who may be doing quite well in the PL but are hardly a powerhouse. I don't normally believe the tired/overplayed trope but it's absolute madness that we've played pretty much every three days since the WC and it showed on Sunday (at least I hope that's all it is). Even so, we should have enough top beat Fulham - and the game showed jus how far we have fallen and how much rebuilding needs to be done - the squad is not nearly str9ng enough or deep enough.

I though McT had a decent enough game defensively and DDG and Martinez kept us in the game... and that was about it; the only positives. We should probably think of Paulinha or someone like him in the summer: he controlled the pace of the game virtually until their 40 seconds of madness; we rarely do that and certainly haven't done it much in the PL recently

I pretty agree with this, though having McT and WW and Harry Mag in the the same starting 11 is hardly going to trouble top teams, yet with Fulham who we should blow out of the water, we were slow and predictable and simply poor!

We need world class striker and couple of good technical midfielders who can control and dictate a game.

I’m shocked at the lack of control we have in possession and that does contribute to burnout and fatigue.

 

[UpWithRivers]

We were dog shit for sure but even if it wasn't a pen we could have still won it. Lets say Sancho just left footed it and scored. Then it was 1-1 with 15 mins to play. I still think we would have found the winner. For all Fulhams great play they only managed to score with their worst corner. It was bounced short and somehow found Boa Morte who flicked it and luckily found Mitrovic right in front of goal. Good play but a lot of luck in that goal. The saves from De Gea were good but saves he was expected to make. At 1-1 I think I would expect us to get the winner or at worst it would have gone to pens.

 

[Jeffthered]

Non existent other than playing critical roles in the two biggest game changing moments? I wish more players were that non existent.

Come on.... Sancho is struggling. He's fast becoming the new Jesse Lingard imo... I have no idea what Sancho is trying to do when he plays.. what's his identity, his role..??

Garnacho has far more about his game. Sancho was allegedly one of the most exciting players in Europe, if not world football at one stage.

 

[justsomebloke]

Only those wearing the reddest of red-tinted glasses will think we deserved to win that. We were awful for huge periods of the game and were completely dominated by Fulham, who may be doing quite well in the PL but are hardly a powerhouse. I don't normally believe the tired/overplayed trope but it's absolute madness that we've played pretty much every three days since the WC and it showed on Sunday (at least I hope that's all it is). Even so, we should have enough top beat Fulham - and the game showed jus how far we have fallen and how much rebuilding needs to be done - the squad is not nearly str9ng enough or deep enough.

I though McT had a decent enough game defensively and DDG and Martinez kept us in the game... and that was about it; the only positives. We should probably think of Paulinha or someone like him in the summer: he controlled the pace of the game virtually until their 40 seconds of madness; we rarely do that and certainly haven't done it much in the PL recently

Steady on there. No, it wasn't a good performance and we clearly are missing Casemiro when he isn't playing (and also, in this case, Varane, Eriksen, Martial and Antony). But I don't think we're that far away. We're doing pretty well even with a horrenduous schedule and several key injuries.

Not sure I'd emphasise McTominay for positives yesterday - he was, I think, our weakest perfomer all in all. Bruno in the end had contributed quite a lot and had a fairly strong game in my view, and Sancho grew into the game well too. And ETH hit the nail on the head with his subs once again - both Antony and Fred had very good cameos.

 

[Natener]

Only those wearing the reddest of red-tinted glasses will think we deserved to win that. We were awful for huge periods of the game and were completely dominated by Fulham, who may be doing quite well in the PL but are hardly a powerhouse. I don't normally believe the tired/overplayed trope but it's absolute madness that we've played pretty much every three days since the WC and it showed on Sunday (at least I hope that's all it is). Even so, we should have enough top beat Fulham - and the game showed jus how far we have fallen and how much rebuilding needs to be done - the squad is not nearly str9ng enough or deep enough.

I though McT had a decent enough game defensively and DDG and Martinez kept us in the game... and that was about it; the only positives. We should probably think of Paulinha or someone like him in the summer: he controlled the pace of the game virtually until their 40 seconds of madness; we rarely do that and certainly haven't done it much in the PL recently

We engineered the attack that led up to the penalty. Even against 11 the momentum would have shifted to our side and as we have proved several times this season we are very good at overturning a game in the last 20min. Only the most anti-United football fans would say we didn't deserve the win when we made a very good attack and rightfully won a penalty from it while the other team chose to self-implode themselves thereafter.

 

[JB7]

Come on.... Sancho is struggling. He's fast becoming the new Jesse Lingard imo... I have no idea what Sancho is trying to do when he plays.. what's his identity, his role..??

Garnacho has far more about his game. Sancho was allegedly one of the most exciting players in Europe, if not world football at one stage.

So you're trying to tell me he didn't play a critical role in the two biggest game changing moments then? I didn't say he played well, I responded to the poster saying he was "non existent", which he clearly wasn't given the impact he had on our first two goals.

 

[justsomebloke]

So you're trying to tell me he didn't play a critical role in the two biggest game changing moments then? I didn't say he played well, I responded to the poster saying he was "non existent", which he clearly wasn't given the impact he had on our first two goals.

I agree. It wasn't exactly eye-catching dominance and he was invisible for most of the first half. But as we started creating some offense he was very much involved with positive contributions, and increasingly so. All in all, one of his better starts this season, I thought.

Jeffthered; you ask "what's his identity, his role?". I think that was in evidence yesterday. Of all our attackers, he's the one who can make things happen inside the oppo box. For instance, he's often the one to set up an overlap, or to interact with one. Rashford generally moves into the box mainly to finish, Bruno and Antony mostly works around the edges. And Weghorst doesn't have too much impact wherever he operates.

 

[Loon]

This Rob guy on Sky is a cracker. He’s trying to suggest Fernandes touching a Lino at the dipper game gave all players, including Mitrovic, licence to touch the ref.

Of course, Rob is a Chelsea fan.

And of course, Warnock is a nodding dog.

 

[redmanx]

I don’t know what everybody is moaning about. Fulham were very good yesterday. But it was also a brilliant bit of quality by Antony and Sancho, Willian’s handball was deliberate and Fulham imploded. In the end a very good result for us in a difficult match.

Exactly, Fulham can only blame their idiotic manager who, for no reason, totally lost his head which led to Mitrovic losing his and Fulham losing the match.

 

[Maticmaker]

I felt absolutely sick on the Monday after the 7-0 against Liverpool, wonder what Fulham are feeling this morning, they should be made to read the opening lines of Kipling's 'if'... for a dose of hindsight

TBH I just couldn't see us winning that game from the off, (Utd team selection) was surprised it took Fulham so long to take the lead, even more surprised when they blew it... still you need luck to win cups, lets hope we have not used all ours up in this game!!
DeGea once again the hero, Martinez stoic in defense, Anthony lighting the blue touch paper, Maguire defending his own box OK, but trying to play out arghh..., has he got some lead weights in his left boot, playing out to the left every time in the first half?

Liked Keano's description of us playing 'in moments' throughout a game.

 

[ZH1]

Performance levels are destined to drop with the amount of games we've had. It's going to be a real difficult end to the season but with us having already played the top 2 hopefully we can pick up enough points to solidify champions league football.

I think with such a congested fixture list like we've had it's been hard for Eric to implement his style of football. We clearly need more time in training but with all these games we essentially go from a game, rest and into another game.

For the rest of the season we may have to accept performances like that against Fulham. I'd expect us to be far more polished machine next season when Eric has had more time on the training pitch with the players.

 

[Lost bear]

I mean.... Just wow.

Totally gifted the tie by Fulham. Couldn't see us getting back into it before they hit self-destruct.

Well, we were poor for much of the match but without the hand of Willian we would certainly have been level. From that point we’d probably have gone on to win it. Though this is of course pure speculation. Anyway, that’s entertainment!

 

[Lost bear]

Performance levels are destined to drop with the amount of games we've had. It's going to be a real difficult end to the season but with us having already played the top 2 hopefully we can pick up enough points to solidify champions league football.

I think with such a congested fixture list like we've had it's been hard for Eric to implement his style of football. We clearly need more time in training but with all these games we essentially go from a game, rest and into another game.

For the rest of the season we may have to accept performances like that against Fulham. I'd expect us to be far more polished machine next season when Eric has had more time on the training pitch with the players.

Yeah, agree with this.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Did not watch the game but it seems we were poor until that penalty. Don't care much as I think players are knackered and just winning the game was most important before the international break. I hope players will now rest as much as possible though most of them will have NT duties.

 

[JB7]

Well, we were poor for much of the match but without the hand of Willian we would certainly have been level. From that point we’d probably have gone on to win it. Though this is of course pure speculation. Anyway, that’s entertainment!

Yeah it's properly weird that so many people seem to be discounting this fact. We had been on top for 5 or 10 minutes before the red card, Antony had made a big difference to the game. Then if Willian doesn't handle the ball, it is 1-1. Huge momentum shift and likely only one winner from that point. But no, it's all about Fulham.

We can agree we didn't play well without going OTT.

 

[NLunited]

I honestly fell sorry for Fulham. Yes it was a handball an the penalty was ok but I am not sure it was that deliberate and I think it’s a bit unfair to be automatically double penalised for that. A bit the same as when the keeper trips someone and gets a red because he’s the last man. Sometimes it’s deliberate and fair and other times it’s just a millisecond mistiming and it’s penalty, red card and game over.

It is the rule: intentional handball on the line is red. Willian moves his arm to block the ball and blocks it. Without doing that it was going in between him and the post.

You don‘t stick your arm out to block a ball with your body, but tuck it in. Willian was desperate.

 

[NLunited]

Nah nah it is. I'm just looking at the performance as a whole. We needed two red cards to beat Fulham.

We were scoring the 1-1 and would have beaten them from there. The red cards were gravy.

 

[lex talionis]

Comments here that Fulham “deserved” to win the game need to understand that the game is played over 90+ minutes, not 60 minutes. Fulham were of course the better team for 60 minutes, but that’s not good enough to deserve anything.

As soon as Fulham were finally put under pressure, they imploded. We took advantage of their implosion. We deserved the win.

 

[JustinC00]

Running out of 'Get out of Jail Free' cards

Apparently you missed the Southampton match...