[Rich_H_1989]

OK...

Positives:

- Another clean sheet!
- The Blind and Smalling partnership was good again today. The odd worrying moment but when teams hit you on the break that's going to happen.
- Probably Memphis' best premier league display. Yes he frustrated by deal with that because he will.
- Mata played well.
- Carrick made a really positive influence on the team.

Negatives:

- Rooney again. He's not a striker and we will struggle while LVG persists with him up top.
- Although in patches it was better we still didn't move the ball fast enough.
- Herrera? Why when you need some tempo do you leave him on the bench?
- Romero really isn't comfortable with the ball at his feet.
- Our crossing is terrible! Although too be fair crossing is fairly pointless given who we have in our team.

 

[pseudo_canadian]

If van Gaal thinks we don't need any more players then he has lost it.

 

[paulscholes18]

Mata? Really?

Very slow, sluggish and sloppy today poor passing and crossing

 

[diarm]

How is Colloccini getting motm ahead of Perez?

 

[Will Singh]

We've scored 2 goal in 3 games and 1 was a own goal, this is FECKING SHIT, Ed and LVG have fecked up with Pedro simple.

Why the feck was Herrera not used, he was a AM/#10 at his old club, he should have come on for Januzaj and Chico for Rooney who is past it to be leading the line!

 

[Scarecrow]

Bad day for us but nothing to have a meltdown about. They responded well after the first 20 minutes (in which we should've gone all in and destroy them) and defended really well until the end. Coloccini, Krul and especially Mbemba were fantastic for them.
We could've definitely used Fellaini today, as he won us a few of those games last season.
Still waiting for Rooney to come through though. I have faith in him but it's getting worrying.
Memphis starts to show what we should expect of him this season. A brilliant performance followed by a disappointing one. Weird that Shaw is a year younger and yet seems so much more mature already. Massive today.

 

[Spoony]

If you fell asleep those last 10 mins than there's not much than can excite you.

Nah, I was awake last 15 mins. I'm sure I didn't say I was asleep all game...

But yeah exciting.

 

[vanrooney]

Cant see why this was a bad performance. on another day we win it 3 or 4 -0. Good to see that we fight until the death again and are dangerous. one of chica, smalling, valencia or carrick should have got the goal in the end. very very unlucky imo.

 

[Nights]

One of those days.

 

[WyoManU]

Well, we look better than the last 2 seasons. We have shored up midfield and look better organized in defense. Now, somehow, we have managed to let our attack turn to our weak point. Never thought I would be saying that for Man Utd. Certainly had our chances and on another day this game could've been a cricket score.

I rarely critique a ref, but I do think he was poor today. Rooney's goal was not offside. He also allowed the Newcastle players to foul and foul again and again without handing out a card to stop it. Anita in particular must've had 7 or so fouls from behind where he was humping our player, mostly Adnan, and was never even spoken to by the ref. Then, anytime one of their players fell over he immediately gave them a foul. Poor showing by him today.

I don't know if we were ever even in for Pedro, but you can see that when it comes to scoring you need someone with a bit more composure and guile than we have up front currently. I though Rooney was better today but we need a proper striker. If LVG wants to leave Roo in then put him in the hole but we need a player up front that can do it all. I don't know who that would be or even if it is available, but the way we play I can see a lot of scoreless draws.

Memphis has shown today that he is still just a prospect. He does remind me a bit of the early Ronaldo years where he had all the tricks and got himself into wonderful positions but didn't have the finished product. If he can learn how to make the best decisions then he will be good, but today he showed a lot of naivety.

 

[UnitedBoy]

I just really want a winger on the right

 

[BarstoolProphet]

The only positive thing to draw from this that it's now so glaringly obvious that Rooney's done and that we desperately need a striker.

 

[Fortitude]

Again shows we need a top notch striker. Rooney is finished at this level.

How on earth do you round on Rooney in a game like that?

No supply; a kid on one side not passing when he should and ignoring runs; a misused player on the right not doing anything, and then fluffing Rooney's cross he should've converted; a very lightweight #10 who faded after 30 minutes.

We have an attacking quartet who don't play like a unit and we have such a low amount of penetrative creativity that blame has to be spread around.

Rooney made a number of clever runs today that others ignored or didn't have the ability to play him in off of, why haven't you picked that out?

 

[Varun]

Rooney is a no 10. End of story. We need someone to play ahead of him.

Absolutely not. Our 3 behind the striker was very good. No need to push Rooney there. If we get a better striker, just bench him.

 

[mancan92]

Everything up till the final pass/shot was great. But as soon as it came to the strikers everything went to crap. I dont get it we have a goal scring midfielder on the bench we need a goal but instead bring on our most defensive one? I mean wtf was Van Gaal thinking. The less said about rooney the bettter.

 

[nistleloy]

Bizarre reactions. Thought we were good in the 2nd half and excellent in the 1st 25.

Fully deserved the win. Some bad first Al play, some bad luck, a goal wrongly disallowed and collocini doing well cost us 2 deserved points.

We do need a striker but that was obvious before the game.

This. A striker will make the difference. Some in here are going into full on meltdown mode which is unnecessary. We'll improve and goals will be scored. Another game where the opposition attack didn't really get at us and apart from two chances our defence once again looked solid.

 

[Dominos]

Poor petformances from Mata and Memphis today still we had one goal wrongly disallowed and created enough to score atleast another one it was just one of those days.

It was offside.

 

[stu_1992]

Unbelievable that we didn't score and win that game. Very frustrating. Not sure what else can be said other than that. We just need to become ruthless. Be that by sharpening our current players or bringing someone in.

 

[izec]

Games like these show that we arent there yet. We draw too often against shit teams, either because we play shite and create nothing, or like today, just dont score and kill them off.

Reminds me of last season, just too many draws when we deserve more.

 

[legball]

I thought the biggest problem today was the decision making, which was VERY poor, or abysmal at times. We do need a striker with a better movement, but on another day, we easily could have won the game. I'm not going to overreact.

 

[mazhar13]

I want to see us play like we did under Fergie.

Funnily enough, this match was exactly like our 1-1 draw against Newcastle during the 2011/12 season. I'm quite surprised at how so many think that we could have broken them down by playing faster. They were parking the bus after the first 20 minutes! Even fast-paced teams will start playing slower and struggle to break down such teams. We've had such matches very often under Sir Alex as well, and not just in recent seasons.

We did all we could in terms of buliding up. We just needed to improve our final balls, and we should really have scored given the number of chances we created. This is basically one of those games that we have to move on from. We cannot have this result put us down.

 

[holyland red]

Yes. It is LVG's fault that Memphis and Januzaj gave the ball away at every opportunity, that we didn't score when we dominated early on, that the ref was shite and it was also LVG's fault that the Newcastle defense put their bodies in front of everything.

Newcastle lose every away match. Thay're fecking shite despite throwing bodies everywhere.

We played two defensive CMs for 94 minutes against them at home.

We need a fecking striker to partner Rooney up front.

I reckon LVG is not faultless.

 

[Unlikely lad]

Very slow, sluggish and sloppy today poor passing and crossing

We'll have to disagree on that, thought he was one of our better players.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Fair point. He was the spark in the middle last season. You'd think that he'd be a natural choice for home games or at least further into home games when teams park the bus.

Yeah , there's no need for carrick or schweinsteiger and scheiderlin for games like these. We need drive from midfield, a goal scoring threat. We'll dominate the ball anyway.
It's so bizarre how something so obvious can be missed by Lvg.

 

[Obiorahking_]

Per Squawka, we created 15 chances today And from watching the game you could easily see we were much more creative today, yet we seriously struggled to finish.

Our crossing was terrible today, especially from our Luke Shaw and Darmian. I can give Shaw a pass because he was a beast defensively today, however Darmian was sloppy at times at RB and looked as if he was going to cost us a red card at one point.

 

[Todd]

Garbage result, and supremely frustrating to watch. We shouldn't have ever dreamed of dropping points until Liverpool at the earliest.

These are the types of results that just won't do if we're gonna actually compete for a title.

 

[Ødegaard]

Game was for the most part controlled, but I'm left with the feeling that when the time is running out, that we don't have an urgency and desire to get the last minute winner, but are content with staying true to the way of playing with no urgency, trying to play ball through the opponents 2-layer defense.

Edit: It's not meant for this game, but how i feel in general under LvG.

 

[Hed Zitin]

If we don't get a better CF and some pace on the right we are fighting for fourth. So predictable that play. The 20 mins of the first half were a distant memory because the game wasn't as open, which tells you a lot about Brugge as well.

After a second half or boredom, In the end we resulted to throwing the kitchen sink and hoping the ball would fall for someone. Philosophy goes out the window.

Well done to Carrick who at least plays an early pass forward.

Rooney is a waste of time right now. He can't play in this system. We control the game, but there just isn't the right play in the final third for him. Genuinely believe Fellaini would make a massive difference. We need a big man in the box for all these crosses.

 

[Mali_Zeus]

Few 'LVG' posts' I see.
One of those days as it was said here. Best game in the league so far but couldnt put the ball in the net.
Chicharito must start the next game instead of Rooney.
We need a new forward player too.
I feel if Fellaini wasn't banned he would have helped a lot.

 

[holyland red]

Funnily enough, this match was exactly like our 1-1 draw against Newcastle during the 2011/12 season. I'm quite surprised at how so many think that we could have broken them down by playing faster. They were parking the bus after the first 20 minutes! Even fast-paced teams will start playing slower and struggle to break down such teams. We've had such matches very often under Sir Alex as well, and not just in recent seasons.

We did all we could in terms of buliding up. We just needed to improve our final balls, and we should really have scored given the number of chances we created. This is basically one of those games that we have to move on from. We cannot have this result put us down.

It's true that we had similar games under Fergie, but I can't remember such negativity for quite some time.

 

[golden_blunder]

3 league games

2 goals scored

0 goals conceded

It's a process

 

[Offside]

On another day that's a 2-0 victory with a strong defensive performance and noticeable improvements from the last two. The fact we didn't score was bad luck (though we left it too late).

Excusable in the early parts of the season.

 

[Varun]

Who's the idiot with John dykes

 

[DatIrishFella]

TBF to Newcastle, they played like their lives depended on it. Not many teams will put in a shift like that and get the luck NC got today.

 

[Smores]

Softly softly don't catch no monkey

At least it was entertaining. since we did actually try this time I'm willing to put this down to one of those days, with a few concerns on LvGs decision making and approach.

 

[Dominos]

Our attack is fecking crap, let's be honest.. 2 goals in 3 games.

 

[SkeppyRed]

Weird considering the result but we actually played better than I have seen us for a long time.

Our possession based style is (slowly) evolving into intelligent build up play. With patience it will keep getting better until we reach a very high level imo.

Lack of quality in the final third is a concern however. Rooney's poor movement is so frustrating. People will blame Shaw/Darmian's final ball but when they did get in behind and have a split second to look up there was no intelligent movement.

 

[Lewis.no.9]

Pretty poor people complaining about the ref.

If Manchester Utd have to rely on the referee to win games now then I'm gob smacked.

We were toothless as a hobo demanding change today. Blaming the officials haha. The goal was offside too so take the red shades off lads

 

[Devil may care]

Some of our play in the first half was good and in fairness our flurry of attacking in the first 20 minutes slowed down because Newcastle switched it up to be more difficult to play through.

The second half was disappointing, I thought Smalling and Blind both used the ball well from the back and Carrick was moving it around well, but bar Mata the front 4 offered no spark of invention or threat. In truth despite the amount of possession in their third I said to my Dad I couldn't see where the goal was coming from.

Hernandez had one good chance but I think Krul was out quick which meant he couldn't do much more than he did IMO and Mata's chance was barely a half one on his weaker foot.

 

[lem8sh]

You should go and make a thread about it.

Wouldn't like to upset the applecart.

 

[Name Changed]

This is going to happen over and over again. We won't score many goals. We don't have a striker who can score consistently. Rooney scoring 9 goals in a 10 game spell won't be enough. What about the other 40 odd games? 3 games in the league now, only one goal (from our players). That says it all. And we played two poor teams in three.