[Relfy]

Good win. 2 away goals, clean sheet, halfway there. Get an early goal in the return fixture and kill the game off. A blessing in disguise that a few players will get a rest.

 

[Green_Red]

Another result, thats all that matters but we have few issues. The main one for me is how much we surrender possession uncontested. We just pass the ball to the opposition. Biggest culprit is our best player. Don't think I've ever seen a United player give the ball away as much as Bruno. And its not because he is trying some unbelievable passing, his passing isn't that good. When he gets it right its devastating but thats 1 in every 5/6 passes that his pass isn't intercepted. A player of his quality should hold himself to a higher standard than that. Needs to improve that aspect of his game next season. We can be boring to watch, but we're getting results, which is all that matters.

 

[TheReligion]

Accidental contact to the face can leave a mark. My two year old hit me in the face the other day and I had a nice red mark for an hour or two. But it didn't cause me to scream and roll around on the ground. And again, thats not me saying how super tough I am, I am not tough at all and never have been. I am the complete opposite of tough.

Maybe there is a replay of the incident out there that I haven't seen, but in my opinion that was nothing. He conned the ref into awarding a penalty for some accidental contact. I would like to think that every single poster on here would be furious if that was given against us.

So there was contact? Enough contact to give him a black eye immediately after the incident which would suggest it was significant.

I'm not sure how you can con someone when there's actually been contact as that's a fact in itself. It doesn't matter if the contact was accidental or not the same way a tackle can be reckless and dangerous without the intent. He's been struck in the face, it's a foul. Move on.

 

[cyberman]

So there was contact? Enough contact to give him a black eye immediately after the incident which would suggest it was significant.

I'm not sure how you can con someone when there's actually been contact as that's a fact in itself. It doesn't matter if the contact was accidental or not the same way a tackle can be reckless and dangerous without the intent. He's been struck in the face, it's a foul. Move on.

Its treating it with the set piece type excuses that i dont undetstand. I can see reaching out to keep touch tight from a corner etc, you get away with a lot in those situations but its from open play. A straight palm to the face is a foul every single time. You see fouls like that given every game. They were screaming for a penalty from a slight touch on Welbecks shoulder 4 days ago!

 

[TheReligion]

Maybe I am, but you are a blind supporter if you think that was a good performance to record 2 shots on target against one of the weakest teams we have faced in European competition.

Out of interest how many shots should we aim for in these kind of games?

 

[TheReligion]

Its treating it with the set piece type excuses that i dont undetstand. I can see reaching out to keep touch tight from a corner etc, you get away with a lot in those situations but its from open play. A straight palm to the face is a foul every single time. You see fouls like that given every game. They were screaming for a penalty from a slight touch on Welbecks shoulder 4 days ago!

It's strange really. Especially from your own fans. I'm also unsure how you can con the ref when you've been given a shiner.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

we ground out a result without ever being at the races. I felt sorry for greenwood and james. They hardly had decent supply.

 

[Maticmaker]

A 0-2 away victory in any European match is a good result.
Did it thrill you with the United performance? No, our two best players were the two CB's, IMO Lindelöf just shading it with his long pass (two of them) and his spotting of danger (such as it was).
Another one piece of magic from a less than 100% fit Rashford, gave us the victory, the goal from the pen was incidental, except it made the overall result in terms of the tie better for United and for me, because I predicted the 0-2 score on the Redcaf Match day predictor (first actual result I've got right for ages!)
Bring on Spurs, need to get some revenge for the 6-1!

 

[rotherham_red]

The sooner we can guarantee 2nd place, the better. Get 4-5 wins and then start rotating around the EL games. The likes of Bruno and Rashford are cream crackered and they are undoubtedly our best and most important players by a country mile.

One positive is that we'll have two clear weeks before the semis where we will just have the league games to play and prepare for. So, including the Spurs game on Sunday we'll potentially be 9 points closer to guaranteeing 2nd before we play the EL semis. Though that tie will have the game against the Scousers sandwiched in between, so I don't see much of an opportunity to rest there unfortunately.

 

[Buster15]

It was not a perfect performance but it was almost a perfect result.
Rashford, for all the criticism he gets and obviously not fully fit took his goal very well indeed.
But like many others, I am disappointed how often we give the ball away. And often in dangerous areas.
It is not as if we are playing at 100mph.
Just far too casual.
This is a high priority problem that needs to be resolved before we can claim to be a top side. Coaching staff and players need to work hard to eliminate this casual approach.

 

[McTerminator]

We’re just a struggle to watch so often. A win is a win, but do we have to be so fecking boring?

running on fumes.

 

[Tony247]

I don't care if Bruno "conned" the ref or not. It is a moot point for me.

United players were getting kicked all over the pitch and also getting yellow cards left and right for regular fouls. Granada were falling, screaming, rolling on slightest touch all the time. When the other team plays dirty to win, you pay them in same coin.

 

[Sea-Cow]

It's strange really. Especially from your own fans. I'm also unsure how you can con the ref when you've been given a shiner.

You con the ref by screaming and throwing yourself down on the ground like you just took a haymaker.

 

[TheReligion]

You con the ref by screaming and throwing yourself down on the ground like you just took a haymaker.

Not really possible when you have actually taken a haymaker.

Surely you see the difference.

 

[Sea-Cow]

Not really possible when you have actually taken a haymaker.

Surely you see the difference.

I've said earlier that maybe there is a replay showing this haymaker and I just haven't seen it. But from what I have seen it is an accidental grazing of the face and he screams and goes down so that he can con the ref into awarding a pen.

And yes I know that whether its accidental or not isn't the standard, but from what I can tell the player isn't facing Bruno at all, he is facing the direction of the cross coming in. I don't know how much force someone can put behind a sideways "punch." He puts his arm out towards Bruno so that he could be touch-tight and yes it connected with his face. And yes a slight blow can leave a mark on a face. As I mentioned earlier my two year old hit me in the face a few weeks ago and I had a red mark for a few hours.

But whatever this is pointless. Unless I see a new angle of the assault I am just not going to be convinced it was worth that reaction. I think it was extremely soft and would be furious if a dude reacted like that in a pick-up game in a park.

 

[Giggsy13]

The official was an absolute hack. Worst officiating job I’ve seen in several years. The diving from Grenada was apparent to everyone, so the penalty awarded to us was all the more sweeter.

 

[TheReligion]

I've said earlier that maybe there is a replay showing this haymaker and I just haven't seen it. But from what I have seen it is an accidental grazing of the face and he screams and goes down so that he can con the ref into awarding a pen.

And yes I know that whether its accidental or not isn't the standard, but from what I can tell the player isn't facing Bruno at all, he is facing the direction of the cross coming in. I don't know how much force someone can put behind a sideways "punch." He puts his arm out towards Bruno so that he could be touch-tight and yes it connected with his face. And yes a slight blow can leave a mark on a face. As I mentioned earlier my two year old hit me in the face a few weeks ago and I had a red mark for a few hours.

But whatever this is pointless. Unless I see a new angle of the assault I am just not going to be convinced it was worth that reaction. I think it was extremely soft and would be furious if a dude reacted like that in a pick-up game in a park.

So it's a foul then.

Not sure what you're arguing about.

 

[Judas]

We've been the victim of so much acting and people make a meal out of things, couldn't give a shit if we gave a bit back occasionally. Bruno was fouled anyway.

 

[Sea-Cow]

So it's a foul then.

Not sure what you're arguing about.

Is that the rule? If you touch someones face its a foul? I am honestly asking.

 

[TheReligion]

Is that the rule? If you touch someones face its a foul? I am honestly asking.

If you raise your arm and hit someone in the face? Yes that's a foul.

 

[Alvaro Maestre]

Didn't Matic get a yellow card for the same? You hit someone in the face and its a foul.

 

[Gator Nate]

This same team beat out Napoli in the round of 16.

Funny thing is that we have a habit of making nearly every team seem very pedestrian. Granada had nothing and this game was never in Jeopardy. West Ham are on the run of their lives and they looked poor at Old Trafford. Same with Manchester City at Ethiad, Milan, Everton, Real Sociedad, etc.

The interesting common factor all these matches had, is that the other team played poorly. Peculiar how that happens every time. Isn't it? Yes? This is your verdict week in and week out Redcaf.

Yeah. Every time we win, there's a significant number of fans that point out that the other team had an off day. Well, we made them have an off day. It's what we do. It's something we're good at. We prevent them from truly threatening. We don't allow that many goals.

Granada had three shots on target. Which was to say, Kenedy put three balls right into De Gea's stomach.

The flipside of that is that a lot of teams set up against us in particular ways because of the way we work when we're not on the break And it's a personnel issue in my book that cannot be resolved quickly by any management team, and perhaps not at all by one spearheaded by Woodward and Co. We're extremely one-dimensional on the attack because we have no consistently serious threat on the right. Overload the box, watch the left-side attacks, and you can prevent United from scoring much.

Our passing seemed off last night. First touch by almost every player was poor. But then, how much rhythm can you get into when you're getting kicked to death?

Massive result for us, though. Quartfinals is pretty much a done deal with the two away goals. Three forced rotations via yellow card. Sure, that ref graduated bottom of his class at Mike Dean's School for Officiating, but he did us two favors by the end.

For all those moaning about Bruno getting that pen, did you not watch the previous 89 minutes? At worst, he just did what the opposition had been doing and came out on top for it. With an extra away goal to boot.

Lindelof's assist was incredible. So was Rashford's handling of it.

 

[Sea-Cow]

If you raise your arm and hit someone in the face? Yes that's a foul.

Ok thanks. And if the same exact situation happened but it was us defending against Liverpool, and Salah reacted in the same way Bruno did, would you not be at least slightly annoyed by the reaction?

That was my point originally at least. That from the, admittedly few angles I've seen, the contact to his face in no way warranted the reaction. But instead Bruno exaggerated the contact to a huge degree so that he could con the ref into awarding a penalty. I was responding to people acting all high and mighty about their constant fouling as if we played the game with the honor and professionalism of Arthurian knights, to be shown to children the world over as an example in how to play the game the right way. If you think their fouls justified conning the ref into awarding a soft penalty, then fair enough! A few posters have made that point. But don't lie about it and act like Bruno was the victim of assault.

In my opinion, they were very annoying with their fouls and some of the fouls were very snide and you could say "dirty", BUT that we also cheated, just in a more efficient manner by cheating so that we got a huge away goal out of it. And that their fans would be justifiably annoyed because I most certainly would be if Salah reacted like that to some slight contact on his face.

 

[TheReligion]

Ok thanks. And if the same exact situation happened but it was us defending against Liverpool, and Salah reacted in the same way Bruno did, would you not be at least slightly annoyed by the reaction?

That was my point originally at least. That from the, admittedly few angles I've seen, the contact to his face in no way warranted the reaction. But instead Bruno exaggerated the contact to a huge degree so that he could con the ref into awarding a penalty. I was responding to people acting all high and mighty about their constant fouling as if we played the game with the honor and professionalism of Arthurian knights, to be shown to children the world over as an example in how to play the game the right way. If you think their fouls justified conning the ref into awarding a soft penalty, then fair enough! A few posters have made that point. But don't lie about it and act like Bruno was the victim of assault.

In my opinion, they were very annoying with their fouls and some of the fouls were very snide and you could say "dirty", BUT that we also cheated, just in a more efficient manner by cheating so that we got a huge away goal out of it. And that their fans would be justifiably annoyed because I most certainly would be if Salah reacted like that to some slight contact on his face.

I'm really not sure where you're going with this.

If one of our defenders gave Salah a black eye I couldn't have many complaints with a foul being given no. Nor could I accuse Salah of cheating as the evidence would be clear that he'd been walloped.

Is your issue with Bruno going down or are you arguing that it's not a foul? One is subjective the other objective. By the rules of the game it's a clear foul. Even if he stays on his feet it's a foul.

 

[wolvored]

Out of interest how many shots should we aim for in these kind of games?

More than 2

 

[TheReligion]

More than 2

Cool. So if we'd of got 3 you'd have eased off the criticism.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Cool. So if we'd of got 3 you'd have eased off the criticism.

No doubt. Or maybe 4. He would've been perfectly fine with that.

Also - he would've been perfectly fine with us losing if only we'd have put on a show, including more patterns (of play).

 

[Chesterlestreet]

running on fumes.

I dunno if you're being sarcastic or not (it's impossible to tell these days) - but we actually are.

The schedule has been pretty brutal.

It obviously has an impact on performances the deeper we go into the season.

But according to some, there is no correlation between fatigue and performance - 'cause...yeah, that shouldn't be an excuse for the PE teacher, etc.

 

[Glorio]

No doubt. Or maybe 4. He would've been perfectly fine with that.

Also - he would've been perfectly fine with us losing if only we'd have put on a show, including more patterns (of play).

Like Sevilla, the official's should have been so impressed with our performance, they should've handed us the trophy there and then

 

[Sea-Cow]

I'm really not sure where you're going with this.

If one of our defenders gave Salah a black eye I couldn't have many complaints with a foul being given no. Nor could I accuse Salah of cheating as the evidence would be clear that he'd been walloped.

Is your issue with Bruno going down or are you arguing that it's not a foul? One is subjective the other objective. By the rules of the game it's a clear foul. Even if he stays on his feet it's a foul.

My issue is the way Bruno screams grabs his face and rolls around on the ground as if he was legit punched. I just don't see a wallop!

I think the "black eye" is a bit of confirmation bias -- as in, the defender is not looking at Bruno, I don't see any evidence of a "punch" thrown, its just him putting his hand out to get touch tight with his man, but Bruno has a mark on his face so therefore he must have been punched by Rocky.... But thats not what I see in any of the clips.

I think if in my Sunday league game I accidentally touched a guy in the face when I reached out to mark him, a dude I'm not facing head-on because my body is turned completely perpendicular as I'm facing the cross, and he screams and goes down like he's been assaulted, then me and my entire team are going to say something along the lines of "oh get up you (derogatory term)" But I guess, technically, I couldn't complain if a foul is given.

I will leave it at that. Thanks to all for discussing in a civil manner! And well done to the lads on the win. What a Kroos-like ball from Victor, and a beautiful touch from Dr. Rashford.

 

[R'hllor]

3pts, thats about it.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Granada set up to get a 0-0 by frustrating us, denying any opportunity to generate match rhythm and get as many of our players yellow carded as possible so that they might have a chance in the second leg. They fecked up though and let two goals in. They are dead in the water even with Maguire, McTominay and Shaw suspended for the second leg.

 

[McTerminator]

I dunno if you're being sarcastic or not (it's impossible to tell these days) - but we actually are.

The schedule has been pretty brutal.

It obviously has an impact on performances the deeper we go into the season.

But according to some, there is no correlation between fatigue and performance - 'cause...yeah, that shouldn't be an excuse for the PE teacher, etc.

I’m deadly serious mate.

we saw the exact same thing in the last two seasons and this season has been the most intense of any both mentally and physically with the least rest/pre-season beforehand.

despite all of that people say Ole is useless if we don’t produce champagne football every week.

it is correct to say that everyone is in the same boat at this point (except city due to sheer squad depth and little breaks they engineered for themselves with the covid shenanigans they pulled mid season) but that’s why our league position is so commendable.

improvements to be made for sure, but to suggest performances at this stage in this season are a true reflection of any team is naive at best.

 

[wolvored]

Cool. So if we'd of got 3 you'd have eased off the criticism.

No. Your piss taking can go on all day, its still a shit performance to only have 2 shots on target against that quality of opposition.

 

[alexthelion]

No. Your piss taking can go on all day, its still a shit performance to only have 2 shots on target against that quality of opposition.

Good job we had more, then.

 

[Theo Cherry]

Another result, thats all that matters but we have few issues. The main one for me is how much we surrender possession uncontested. We just pass the ball to the opposition. Biggest culprit is our best player. Don't think I've ever seen a United player give the ball away as much as Bruno. And its not because he is trying some unbelievable passing, his passing isn't that good. When he gets it right its devastating but thats 1 in every 5/6 passes that his pass isn't intercepted. A player of his quality should hold himself to a higher standard than that. Needs to improve that aspect of his game next season. We can be boring to watch, but we're getting results, which is all that matters.

Ever wonder why City, Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern etc didn't snap this guy up before us? This post is why.

 

[Wewinsoon]

Ever wonder why City, Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern etc didn't snap this guy up before us? This post is why.

Or because they allrdy have insane good players in those positions?

 

[Isotope]

I've said earlier that maybe there is a replay showing this haymaker and I just haven't seen it. But from what I have seen it is an accidental grazing of the face and he screams and goes down so that he can con the ref into awarding a pen.

And yes I know that whether its accidental or not isn't the standard, but from what I can tell the player isn't facing Bruno at all, he is facing the direction of the cross coming in. I don't know how much force someone can put behind a sideways "punch." He puts his arm out towards Bruno so that he could be touch-tight and yes it connected with his face. And yes a slight blow can leave a mark on a face. As I mentioned earlier my two year old hit me in the face a few weeks ago and I had a red mark for a few hours.

But whatever this is pointless. Unless I see a new angle of the assault I am just not going to be convinced it was worth that reaction. I think it was extremely soft and would be furious if a dude reacted like that in a pick-up game in a park.

They looked at it again 100 times with VAR. No amount of screaming and rolling would con a ref for penalty with VAR.

 

[The Mitcher]

Ever wonder why City, Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern etc didn't snap this guy up before us? This post is why.

What a crap post.

 

[MrBest]

Ever wonder why City, Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern etc didn't snap this guy up before us? This post is why.

Are you are seriously complaining about Bruno? The guy is absolutely shattered but still manages to knick an assist and a goal here and there. Yes, recently his passing has been lazy but he is one of the only players we have that presses high, tries to bring other players in the game, moves to the ball and tries to pass forward or find that pass in space. He has not been rested in months, but has managed some astonishing stats this season, assists and goals. When he first arrived, his passing was a lot more accurate and consistent, but teams now have 2 players marking him on many instances. You have your right to not like him but I and possibly many on here understand the importance of him in the team. If you take away even just his leadership and desire to win on the pitch, you can probably take off 10 points. Bruno is not a robot, yet he has played 70ish games in just over a year, playing almost twice a week for months. Not many players can do that and still score and assist on a regular basis. I just wish the players around him show more to ease the burden off him which is why I think getting Pogba back to form and playing in the right position is key.