[Member 125398]

I thought we played well. Leicester only looked dangerous from dodgy free-kicks they bought. Rashford and Elanga were poor. No issues with McTominay this time round, thought he played well. Hopefully Tony and Tony are fit for Arsenal.

How many times did their players jump into ours and go down? It seemed like something they had worked on, it was infuriating that the ref didn't pick up on it.

 

[Teja]

I want to see Fred played in front of McAsimiro.

Jose unzipping somewhere.

But seriously though I think that workman-like midfield will get the best out of both McT and Fred and might give freedom for our attackers to exploit.

Shades of Fabinho - Henderson - Milner if we chose to just keep going long w/o building up play.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Leicester are trash defensively. With more confidence and Antony in the team instead of Elanga, we could have scored 4 here.

 

[justsomebloke]

Leicester are trash defensively. With more confidence and Antony in the team instead of Elanga, we could have scored 4 here.

I thought so too. The sort of team we were in 2020 might have torn them apart.

 

[MalaysianRed7]

Another win in a tough away ground where we usually struggle. Very comfortable defensively once again - I haven’t felt as secure with a United defence since Mourinho’s “treble” winning team. McTominay helped a lot with that with a top, focused 8/10 performance, while Casemiro came on and exuded class.

Up top, I was fine with Eriksen, Bruno and especially Sancho, but Rashford and Elanga were absolutely rubbish, albeit Rashford did at least get an assist. The former was lazy and disinterested while the latter lacks quality and has been made a first team player way too quickly.

 

[justsomebloke]

Another win in a tough away ground where we usually struggle. Very comfortable defensively once again - I haven’t felt as secure with a United defence since Mourinho’s “treble” winning team. McTominay helped a lot with that with a top, focused 8/10 performance, while Casemiro came on and exuded class.

Up top, I was fine with Eriksen, Bruno and especially Sancho, but Rashford and Elanga were absolutely rubbish, albeit Rashford did at least get an assist. The former was lazy and disinterested while the latter lacks quality and has been made a first team player way too quickly.

So, I'm just going to keep repeating it to those who evidently are no longer seeing the things that don't fit with how they think things are.

Rashford provided an assist and created at least another two good scoring chances. Our xA was 1.06, and 0.72 of that was Rashford's. So in fact, he was by far our best perfomer yesterday when it came to creating scoring chances.

He's been mostly rubbish for a long while and he was completely rubbish against Southampton, but he was not rubbish yesterday.

 

[RaddyRed]

Bruno after many saying he wouldn't fit the new system seems perfect with his energy.

Eriksen again looking quality on the ball

Cbs look the business

Casemiro just oozes class, unbelievable player and delighted we got him over FDJ. (Although both would have been nice)

Rb and a striker in next and we have the potential of a really strong side



Hopefully we keep this up against Arsenal.

 

[suhaylah]

Get Elanga and Rashford out of the team and replace them with Antony and Martial

 

[Tom Cato]

I wish we had sendt Elanga out on a loan. He is going the Brandon Williams route where he has 10% great games and 90% poor ones ever since he was introduced to regular gametime by Rangnick. It would be best if he had a option to hone his craft against lesser opposition for a good year.

 

[justsomebloke]

I wish we had sendt Elanga out on a loan. He is going the Brandon Williams route where he has 10% great games and 90% poor ones ever since he was introduced to regular gametime by Rangnick. It would be best if he had a option to hone his craft against lesser opposition for a good year.

Agree that would seem like the best solution. Provided we had the squad depth to do without him, which we sadly don't, I think.

 

[Maticmaker]

We didn't have a lot to beat really.
It was a good worked goal, the only time the front-men (collectively) looked 'on their toes'
Varane and Dalet stood out for me, McT too had a good 'mix them up' game.
Rashford is worrying me now, after a couple of games when he was beginning to look like his old self, last night was a return to the, 'back on his heels', always second to the ball, type of game, at times he moved around as though his mind was somewhere else completely... what is going on with this lad?
Still two clean sheets, lets hope there is a third on Sunday.
A shout for the away fans again, keep it going!

 

[justsomebloke]

We didn't have a lot to beat really.
It was a good worked goal, the only time the front-men (collectively) looked 'on their toes'
Varane and Dalet stood out for me, McT too had a good 'mix them up' game.
Rashford is worrying me now, after a couple of games when he was beginning to look like his old self, last night was a return to the, 'back on his heels', always second to the ball, type of game, at times he moved around as though his mind was somewhere else completely... what is going on with this lad?
Still two clean sheets, lets hope there is a third on Sunday.
A shout for the away fans again, keep it going!

What was going on with this lad yesterday was that he was by far our biggest creator of scoring chances. The team's combined xA was 1.06, his was 0.72. Had an assist, created another two big scoring chances. Your description would fit his performance against Southampton though. But he has now had 2 pretty good games in the last 3.

 

[Tigersam]

ETH referred after the game to Sancho's need to concentrate more on his physicality - which I assume was code for fitness. No coincidence he's been subbed regularly on the 65-70 minute mark.

He's a lovely player at times but never imposes himself on games. I do think a lot of it is stamina - if you're shattered you're not making speculative runs or taking a defender on, you're passing the ball quickly and hiding.

Yes, I'm curious about this because he is a young man and shouldn't be struggling after an hour of football.

When Erik Ten Hag first became your manager I remember reading that one of the first things he did was to ban 'personal chefs' which I assume these mega-rich footballers can have (I'd choose Nigella Lawson if I was on £200k a week!). I think this was to get the players eating together and start to rebuild team spirit after the problems last year of the Portuguese clique vs the UK clique. I initially thought this was a good idea.

However, each player is unique and each is a top athlete at the end of the day, if one player - Sancho in this case - could benefit from a specific diet to improve his stamina, then surely it needs to be considered. The food could be made whenever and heated up when they all eat, I mean it ain't going to be like some school dinner canteen situation is it, they are all going to be eating top quality stuff, just maybe he needs something different even if he eats it with the team as ETH wants.

 

[Sultan]

The biggest issue I have noticed at the moment is our lack of ball-winning ability when the ball is kicked out towards the forwards. There is no aggression or the ability to win the ball. Kicking the ball out high into the opposition half came into effect since the Brentford game when EtH realised we weren't ready or good enough to play the ball out from the back.

We are creating very few good moments of actual goal-scoring opportunities.

 

[ColvaleGoa]

Last night would have been a draw if Leicester had not conceded the goal - Martin Keown on Talksport just now

I mean never heard such enlightenment before!

 

[Tigersam]

We didn't have a lot to beat really.
It was a good worked goal, the only time the front-men (collectively) looked 'on their toes'
Varane and Dalet stood out for me, McT too had a good 'mix them up' game.
Rashford is worrying me now, after a couple of games when he was beginning to look like his old self, last night was a return to the, 'back on his heels', always second to the ball, type of game, at times he moved around as though his mind was somewhere else completely... what is going on with this lad?
Still two clean sheets, lets hope there is a third on Sunday.
A shout for the away fans again, keep it going!

I fear he is the Emma Raducanu of football.

 

[Maticmaker]

What was going on with this lad yesterday was that he was by far our biggest creator of scoring chances. The team's combined xA was 1.06, his was 0.72. Had an assist, created another two big scoring chances. Your description would fit his performance against Southampton though. But he has now had 2 pretty good games in the last 3.

Not doubting your stats, but to me he seemed 'out of it' for much of the game; remember, his part in the goal and him pulling back a ball across the box to Eriksen (I think), also the odd run on the ball, when it was played to his feet.
However struggling to remember when he a) won/first to a 50--50 ball, or b) beat an opponent in a straight run, c) won the ball back when he had lost it. The whole front line effort was poor after the goal, so he wasn't on his own. I just think there is something weighing on his mind, and certainly his confidence is nowhere near as high as it used to be... he was fantastic on the half turn, leaving most defenders for dead... maybe they have sussed him now?
Martial's injury might be whats keeping him in the side just now.

 

[jderbyshire]

I fear he is the Emma Raducanu of football.

Go on...

I've heard of her but don't know much of her.

What's the crack?

 

[justsomebloke]

Not doubting your stats, but to me he seemed 'out of it' for much of the game; remember, his part in the goal and him pulling back a ball across the box to Eriksen (I think), also the odd run on the ball, when it was played to his feet.
However struggling to remember when he a) won/first to a 50--50 ball, or b) beat an opponent in a straight run, c) won the ball back when he had lost it. The whole front line effort was poor after the goal, so he wasn't on his own. I just think there is something weighing on his mind, and certainly his confidence is nowhere near as high as it used to be... he was fantastic on the half turn, leaving most defenders for dead... maybe they have sussed him now?
Martial's injury might be whats keeping him in the side just now.

There was also, and not least, that beautiful 1st half curved ball across the box to Bruno, who was unmarked in the box but couldn't get a shot off before he was blocked. To me, there was no surprise reading those stats, and they confirmed rather than altered my perception of his performance. It's just these key offensive moments (and even very good players don't have a lot of them in a game) tend to be drowned out by the cumulative sense of disappointment from all the times things don't go well, especially when we already have a negative view of the player.

But sure, I wouldn't argue that yesterday represented peak Rashford either. There's clearly a lot of room for improvement still. It's just that wasn't a bad game from him.

 

[Tigersam]

Last night would have been a draw if Leicester had not conceded the goal - Martin Keown on Talksport just now

I mean never heard such enlightenment before!

When I was a kid I had a book called Colemanballs - cockups by commentators and co-commentators named after the master: David Coleman. But to my mind Kevin Keegan was the king, here are a few classics from him:

"We deserved to win this game after hammering them 0-0 in the first half."

"People will say that was typical City, which really annoys me. But that’s typical City I suppose."

"The good news for Nigeria is that they're two-nil down very early in the game."

"One of his strengths is not heading."

"Not many teams will come to Arsenal and get anything, home or away."

"Argentina are the second best team in the world and there is no higher praise that that."

“Picking the team isn't difficult, it's who to leave out.”

"Goalkeepers aren't born today until they're in their late twenties or thirties."

"If I had a blank piece of paper there'd be five names on it.”

"You can't do better than go away from home and get a draw."

"I don't think there's anyone bigger or smaller than Maradona."

"It was still moving when it hit the back of the net."

"I came to Nantes two years ago and it's much the same today, except that it's completely different"

"In some ways, cramp is worse than having a broken leg."

!!!

 

[Tony247]

Damn I was on fire yesterday. Correctly predicted starting 11, all subs and the scoreline!

 

[Maticmaker]

It's just that wasn't a bad game from him.

OK, each to his own, but I think you are easily pleased if you think Rashfords all round performance wasn't bad last night. Maybe its not his job to win 50-50 balls, or try to beat the opponent to loose or second balls, or to try to win back balls he's lost...I suppose I still think of him as a striker... but did he have one shot on target, if so I must have blinked!
Sancho finished off the goal fantastically, but the rest of his game wasn't that good, but striker's strike, maybe its going to be his turn in the sun now?

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

There was also, and not least, that beautiful 1st half curved ball across the box to Bruno, who was unmarked in the box but couldn't get a shot off before he was blocked. To me, there was no surprise reading those stats, and they confirmed rather than altered my perception of his performance. It's just these key offensive moments (and even very good players don't have a lot of them in a game) tend to be drowned out by the cumulative sense of disappointment from all the times things don't go well, especially when we already have a negative view of the player.

But sure, I wouldn't argue that yesterday represented peak Rashford either. There's clearly a lot of room for improvement still. It's just that wasn't a bad game from him.

The problem with Rashford isn't so much his one-off moments of quality like the assist for the goal or that Bruno chance. We know he's capable of those fairly often. His biggest problem is that technically he just isn't that strong, which means he's unable to play even remotely with his back to goal. He's simply not a striker, and you pretty much reduce all of his main assets in that position. The difference between him and Martial in that striker role is night and day as Martial has the best hold-up play in the squad by a considerable distance and actually helps to bring other attackers into the game. There are still far too many occasions where attacks are breaking down at the feet of Rashford and Elanga due to technical limitations. When you combine that with the erratic Bruno style, it's still culminating in a Utd team unable to really get their foot on the ball and control the game. I predict that bringing Martial and Antony into this setup will be as transformative to our attack as Martinez and Varane have been at the back simply by virtue of their technical ability and hold-up interplay. Let Rashford contribute in place of Sancho on occasion and from the bench where he can play to his strengths.

 

[justsomebloke]

OK, each to his own, but I think you are easily pleased if you think Rashfords all round performance wasn't bad last night. Maybe its not his job to win 50-50 balls, or try to beat the opponent to loose or second balls, or to try to win back balls he's lost...I suppose I still think of him as a striker... but did he have one shot on target, if so I must have blinked!
Sancho finished off the goal fantastically, but the rest of his game wasn't that good, but striker's strike, maybe its going to be his turn in the sun now?

I'd say that when you're a forward who created three quarters of the team's scoring chances, it would take some fairly spectacular failures in other aspects of the game to warrant being described as having had a bad game. Not sure he was that bad in his overall game.

Yeah, Sancho once more ran hot and cold. Think there's serious room for improvement there too.

 

[justsomebloke]

The problem with Rashford isn't so much his one-off moments of quality like the assist for the goal or that Bruno chance. We know he's capable of those fairly often. His biggest problem is that technically he just isn't that strong, which means he's unable to play even remotely with his back to goal. He's simply not a striker, and you pretty much reduce all of his main assets in that position. The difference between him and Martial in that striker role is night and day as Martial has the best hold-up play in the squad by a considerable distance and actually helps to bring other attackers into the game. There are still far too many occasions where attacks are breaking down at the feet of Rashford and Elanga due to technical limitations. When you combine that with the erratic Bruno style, it's still culminating in a Utd team unable to really get their foot on the ball and control the game. I predict that bringing Martial and Antony into this setup will be as transformative to our attack as Martinez and Varane have been at the back simply by virtue of their technical ability and hold-up interplay. Let Rashford contribute in place of Sancho on occasion and from the bench where he can play to his strengths.

Yup. Agree with all of that. But can't resist adding that if you have 3 or 4 "one-off moments of quality", that can actually amount to an end product that has a major impact on most games.

 

[Tigersam]

Go on...

I've heard of her but don't know much of her.

What's the crack?

Last year aged 18 she won the US Open as a qualifier - it was quite unexpected.

I read she made 18 million quid in the following twelve months through sponsorship deals mainly - she has struggled to win many matches on the court. Some people have said she may turn out to be a one-hit wonder if she can't get herself focused back on the court and away from these other non-sporting distractions. On the radio the other day I heard someone say she needs to stop swapping coaches, she may regain her form under a good coach!

Marcus Rashford's net worth according to wikipedia is somewhat similar (which shows what a rich sport tennis is!) because he has taken 5-6 years to amass his 20 million. He has one senior medal to his name (Europa Cup 2017) and also has been accused of spending too much time on non-sporting issues such as children's literacy, homelessness and child hunger (for which I admire him).

In some ways it is worse for her, tennis being an individual sport vs football being a team sport.

I hope she wins again something big, like Wimbledon and I'd love it if Marcus Rashford won a World Cup medal too...

That is what I meant when I said "I fear he is the Emma Raducanu of football" and you have to agree there are some similarities.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Last year aged 18 she won the US Open as a qualifier - it was quite unexpected.

I read she made 18 million quid in the following twelve months through sponsorship deals mainly - she has struggled to win many matches on the court. Some people have said she may turn out to be a one-hit wonder if she can't get herself focused back on the court and away from these other non-sporting distractions. On the radio the other day I heard someone say she needs to stop swapping coaches, she may regain her form under a good coach!

Marcus Rashford's net worth according to wikipedia is somewhat similar (which shows what a rich sport tennis is!) because he has taken 5-6 years to amass his 20 million. He has one senior medal to his name (Europa Cup 2017) and also has been accused of spending too much time on non-sporting issues such as children's literacy, homelessness and child hunger (for which I admire him).

In some ways it is worse for her, tennis being an individual sport vs football being a team sport.

I hope she wins again something big, like Wimbledon and I'd love it if Marcus Rashford won a World Cup medal too...

That is what I meant when I said "I fear he is the Emma Raducanu of football" and you have to agree there are some similarities.

Rashford has 3 senior medals to his name. He also won both a FA Cup (2016) and a League Cup (2017).

 

[redmanx]

Last night would have been a draw if Leicester had not conceded the goal - Martin Keown on Talksport just now

I mean never heard such enlightenment before!

If you can walk and chew gum at the same time, hey, you too can be a football pundit!

 

[redmanx]

When I was a kid I had a book called Colemanballs - cockups by commentators and co-commentators named after the master: David Coleman. But to my mind Kevin Keegan was the king, here are a few classics from him:

"We deserved to win this game after hammering them 0-0 in the first half."

"People will say that was typical City, which really annoys me. But that’s typical City I suppose."

"The good news for Nigeria is that they're two-nil down very early in the game."

"One of his strengths is not heading."

"Not many teams will come to Arsenal and get anything, home or away."

"Argentina are the second best team in the world and there is no higher praise that that."

“Picking the team isn't difficult, it's who to leave out.”

"Goalkeepers aren't born today until they're in their late twenties or thirties."

"If I had a blank piece of paper there'd be five names on it.”

"You can't do better than go away from home and get a draw."

"I don't think there's anyone bigger or smaller than Maradona."

"It was still moving when it hit the back of the net."

"I came to Nantes two years ago and it's much the same today, except that it's completely different"

"In some ways, cramp is worse than having a broken leg."

!!!

Keegan wore his heart on his sleeve, his brain too it seems.

 

[jackal&hyde]

Leicester are trash defensively. With more confidence and Antony in the team instead of Elanga, we could have scored 4 here.

I agree. And we did have a few more chances we should have put away.

I'm most happy about the team looking like an actual unit when defending with a back four that are confident. Things should only improve once Casemiro gets more and more integrated. Also very happy to see ETH accept DDG's limitation and adapting to it rather then go face first in to an obvious problem (like a certain Arsenal manager that came 8th 2 times because he could not adapt at all)

 

[Redbandito]

Good first half, disappointed with second.
Varane motm, MCT close second.
Casemiro not so good cameo

Were we arching the same player? I thought Casemiro came in and reestablished United on the ball immediately. He looked Like a significant difference maker to me. Has the ability to win the ball and quickly move it forward. Also clearly wants to be on the ball in tight spaces. Other than the time he got picked off on our side of the pitch, I think had an exceptional bit of play.

 

[justsomebloke]

Were we arching the same player? I thought Casemiro came in and reestablished United on the ball immediately. He looked Like a significant difference maker to me. Has the ability to win the ball and quickly move it forward. Also clearly wants to be on the ball in tight spaces. Other than the time he got picked off on our side of the pitch, I think had an exceptional bit of play.

Seconded. A joy to watch, and a terrific cameo. In part (and this, I've noticed, also goes for Malacia and Martinez) because he's doing things nobody's been doing in this team for so long I'd almost forgotten they were possible. Such as routinely hitting an accurate pass almost immediately after receiving the ball. It almost looked like he'd already thought about what to do before he received the ball, imagine that!!!

 

[NLunited]

I suppose we will continue to be set up to be hard to beat for now, and I’m fine with that. We need to improve our accuracy up front, we should have scored two more goals to kill the game.

Leicester is a good team, they will find their feet again after they a stabilize their defense.

 

[Redbandito]

People really need to start looking at Dalot. He's picking the right passes, but also defending so much better than before. Sometimes our fanbase, including myself, give up on players far too quickly, especially the ones bought as teens.

This Is a great point. I kept thinking that this team can win matches with Dalot at RB. Still need better depth there, but I don’t think we need to splash 50m pounds on a replacement for him if he is going to continue looking like this. Get a young guy like Malacia to come in and compete with Dalot, but that won’t expect to walk into the team merely by virtue of being signed for big money.

 

[justsomebloke]

I suppose we will continue to be set up to be hard to beat for now, and I’m fine with that. We need to improve our accuracy up front, we should have scored two more goals to kill the game.

Leicester is a good team, they will find their feet again after they a stabilize their defense.

1.10 xG. We got pretty much exactly the output we created for.

 

[justsomebloke]

This Is a great point. I kept thinking that this team can win matches with Dalot at RB. Still need better depth there, but I don’t think we need to splash 50m pounds on a replacement for him if he is going to continue looking like this. Get a young guy like Malacia to come in and compete with Dalot, but that won’t expect to walk into the team merely by virtue of being signed for big money.

Not sure I really agree with that. I thought had a good game yesterday, but also in recent games I think he's way too passive and stand-offish defending the box.

 

[mctrials23]

This Is a great point. I kept thinking that this team can win matches with Dalot at RB. Still need better depth there, but I don’t think we need to splash 50m pounds on a replacement for him if he is going to continue looking like this. Get a young guy like Malacia to come in and compete with Dalot, but that won’t expect to walk into the team merely by virtue of being signed for big money.

Hes making the RB position less of a must replace for sure. Will be interesting to see how he gets on with Antony out there on the wing.

 

[mu4c_20le]

1.10 xG. We got pretty much exactly the output we created for.

That's because xG only accounts for direct chances, and not the 200 interceptions Evans made. If not for him, we could have easily scored 3 or 4.

 

[Infra-red]

Leicester are trash defensively. With more confidence and Antony in the team instead of Elanga, we could have scored 4 here.

Ten Hag acknowledged this after the game. There was so much space on the pitch that we really could have given them a proper hiding - they (Leicester) look like a lost team.

United were really solid. "Solid" is not an especially exciting or dynamic word to use, but defensive solidity absolutely cannot be taken for granted after the opening two games.

It looks to me like Ten Hag might have come to a compromise of sorts with the players - compared to the Brighton/Brentford games, we look a bit less expansive and a bit more willing to go long when De Gea is uncomfortable playing out. Our possession statistics against Southampton and Leicester are also lower than you might expect for a Ten Hag side. We're not going to be Ajax mkii this season, but adapting your methods to suit your players is the sign of a good manager and I think it is already quite clear that Ten Hag is a very good manager.

 

[sokol11]

This is what you would expect a really good manager should do to the team. Lots of players playing unrecognizably better (Dalot, McT, Bruno...) and as a whole more organized. Playing much faster, almost all players releasing balls really. The first two games of the season were a trainwreck but maybe they were a blessing in disguise as Glazers shitted their pants and made funds available for Casemiro and Antony. CR is also still here and he doesn't have any other option than to knuckle down get off his high horse and starts playing as instructed. We could be in for a nice season.