[Frank Grimes]

People having a go at Smalling

The free kick was given away almost on the half way line, should never have got to the stage of even being a threat on goal.

Smalling had another poor game. Terrible player.

 

[kthanksbye]

Matic was very lazy yesterday, his passes kept getting intercepted and he didn't challenge his man during the goal we conceded, maybe he needs a bit of a rest, now that Carrick is able to play, I hope Matic gets a breather.

I'm hoping Jose has to play Carrick and Pogba in midfield and then see that it'll be defensively weak, add Herera to that midfield for Lingard, and stumble upon the right formation.

 

[devips]

I don't understand this Smalling criticism at all. He was the best player for us yesterday.

 

[Darkhorsez]

We just didn’t turn up again. Frustrating really. Not sure on the losing the fear factor part but this article kind of sums it up ....

http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog/the...manchester-united-have-lost-their-fear-factor

 

[Florida Man]

I don't understand this Smalling criticism at all. He was the best player for us yesterday.

He was mostly responsible for their goal. He gave away the free kick + got yellow carded. And during the free kick, he literally assisted* the goal scorer when he hit the ball with his right foot.

*not without one our players (Phil Jones?) who left Newcastle with an open header.

 

[Sagittarius13]

He was mostly responsible for their goal. He gave away the free kick + got yellow carded. And during the free kick, he literally assisted* the goal scorer when he hit the ball with his right foot.

*not without one our players (Phil Jones?) who left Newcastle with an open header.

I couldn't watch the game so I can't tell if Smalling was having a good or bad performance but from what I see in the goal replay, yes he did assist the goal BUT it wasn't completely his fault, Matt Ritchie comes completely isolated walking into our area, Where was Matic? Valencia or any other should have marked him. It was a defensive mistake that cost us the game.

Sorry for bad english.

 

[devips]

He was mostly responsible for their goal. He gave away the free kick + got yellow carded. And during the free kick, he literally assisted* the goal scorer when he hit the ball with his right foot.

*not without one our players (Phil Jones?) who left Newcastle with an open header.

Giving away a free kick at around the halfway line is being responsible for the goal? And 'literally assisted the goal scorer'? Which match are we talking about?

 

[Florida Man]

Giving away a free kick at around the halfway line is being responsible for the goal? And 'literally assisted the goal scorer'? Which match are we talking about?

Not giving away the free kick means no goal from said free kick, and the ball came off of Smalling's right foot into the path of the goal scorer. It's no question that he has to take most of the responsibility for that goal.

What he's not responsible for is the lack of inventive passing, stagnant offensive strategy, or missing one-on-one chances. So I'm not going to put the loss down to him. Just the goal.

 

[ijc]

My girlfriend and I spent the weekend in Dublin for an early Valentines surprise and today we had a few drinks in a pub and some lunch while the football was on (I timed that well). She has never watched a football match in her life and she is totally uninterested in football but today she paid the game about 5 minutes worth of attention in total. I was obviously in a bad mood while the game was on and at the end, she asked me why the players are all playing individually and not playing as a team, not passing together in triangles and not attacking as a unit. Those were her exact words and that coming from her, after her first ever 5 minutes of football, really does highlight our problems. Let’s hope the guys getting paid millions can fix it.

You should have been kind and replied by saying that Man Utd are no longer coached how to attack, not even coached how we get into the box. We are only drilled or coached how to defend, it shows, and we still find ourselves with massive gaps, especially in midfield. Really, I don't think we can be identified with a style of football. We just pass it around without any purpose and wait until something breaks into the box.

Very good analysis from your girlfriend though, good enough to be on the United coaching team.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

The performance in my opinion wasn't actually all that bad. We created enough chances to win, we've just got to take them. Jose can't make these guys finish their dinner, at some point they need to take responsibility and bury some of these chances for a lift.

The goal we conceded was poor, but the backline is still struggling and makeshift, we're short a couple of fullbacks and I think the quicker the summer window comes around for strengthening the better.

 

[Lentwood]

That for me has to be the last time we play Pogba in a two-man midfield. If Jose doesn’t want to play a 3-man midfield or doesn’t want to play Pogba further up the pitch then I’m afraid it’s time to look at moving Pogba on.

We made Jonjo Shelvey look like a combination of Gattuso and Zidane yesterday. Against Spurs, the CBs got all the flak but our midfield was nowhere to be seen and every forward pass Spurs played seemed to find their attacking players in threatening positions.

What some people fail to understand about the PL is that ALL of the players are absolutely fantastic players on a level most of us can’t even imagine. If you give a player like Jonjo Shelvey the time and space to play passes he will look like a world beater. The same goes for any other journeyman PL midfielder. You have to win the physical battle and dominate your opponents mentally, physically and tactically and we don’t do this. We are so open we must be a dream to play against

 

[Lawman]

Matic was very lazy yesterday, his passes kept getting intercepted and he didn't challenge his man during the goal we conceded, maybe he needs a bit of a rest, now that Carrick is able to play, I hope Matic gets a breather.

I'm hoping Jose has to play Carrick and Pogba in midfield and then see that it'll be defensively weak, add Herera to that midfield for Lingard, and stumble upon the right formation.

Neither good enough to make a genuine difference plus as much as Herrera has been found out in my opinion until we get lingard out the starting 11. We are going to toil as he is not a starter quality for me and I’ve watched him a few seasons now and this is his best season by far too.

 

[kthanksbye]

Neither good enough to make a genuine difference plus as much as Herrera has been found out in my opinion until we get lingard out the starting 11. We are going to toil as he is not a starter quality for me and I’ve watched him a few seasons now and this is his best season by far too.

Agreed, but till the time we can get someone, I'd rather we play a 433 with Herrera than the current 4231 with Lingard.

 

[Nakhon Phanom]

The performance was best summed up by Smalling,a central defender,being BOOKED FOR DIVING IN HIS OWN HALF and Newcastle scoring from the resultant free kick.
Nobody played well but special mentions for sheer mediocrity to Pogba (89m),Lukaku (80m) and Matic (40m).For the money paid for the first two,in particular,you would expect much more than this......top 4 a big struggle now,I fear.

 

[Lawman]

Agreed, but till the time we can get someone, I'd rather we play a 433 with Herrera than the current 4231 with Lingard.

Couldn’t agree more but to be fair to lingard and I’m not his biggest fan as I can’t see it with him but he’s deserved a start of late due to his good form. But for me he won’t hold his form as his qualities are not there for me. Herrera over lingard in a 433 or even Fellaini over Herrera but ideally a new number 8 along side Matic (possibly 2 midfielders if we have the cash as Carrick will retire and Fellaini may move on alongside Herrera) but we also need a central defender as touched on and I think we are still an attacker short also. So still much work to be done and I don’t think any that is Jose fault in fact I’m glad he’s over seeing the changes as he signs very good players in general.

 

[Escobar]

The performance in my opinion wasn't actually all that bad. We created enough chances to win, we've just got to take them. Jose can't make these guys finish their dinner, at some point they need to take responsibility and bury some of these chances for a lift.

The goal we conceded was poor, but the backline is still struggling and makeshift, we're short a couple of fullbacks and I think the quicker the summer window comes around for strengthening the better.

I dont get that. We hardly created anything, we play dull football. We dont dominate the game, let alone midfield. Our striker gets 0 service, when we attack, we usually lose the ball and look clueless. The few chances we create is based on an individual effort, there is no attacking strategy, pattern, whatever... at the back, we cant play the ball out, we just hoof it and everyone is panicking. We can invest and invest, but in the end our manager should be able to get the best out of the team and play good football!

 

[Hamadovich86]

Frustrating game with some killer chances that should've been put away. The actual style of play was not exciting but we managed to create some chances because the quality of the opponent is not great. Our defenders were found out yet again, despite the fact that we have the fewest goals conceded I always feel like it will fall apart at any given moment. Mourinho's subs were off and he seems adamant on playing with two in the middle I cant understand what benefits he sees in that system. The league is over but we're making it hard for ourselves to ensure a top 3 spot early on so we can try to salvage the season in the FA Cup or the CL (extremely unlikely).

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Or how about we put Sanchez on the right, Martial/Rashford on the left, and play Pog in a 3?

Stop making so much sense! This thread is for knee jerking and rage only!

Today was because of 3 things.

1. Shoehorning Alexis into the team and also trying to keep in players like Lingard and Martial because they are in good form. Fair play bbein consistent but in away games we simply must play Herrera to help the midfield out. Put Sanchez on the right and let him drift, and please God drop young for Shaw.

2. Missed chances, martial and Sanchez should have scored and if they did we'd not be in this position now.

3. Being out fought in midfield and dinkys giving up because they wanted it more.

 

[BootsyCollins]

We did not play that bad imo.

With better finishing we would win this easy. Newcastle created one, maybe two, big chances. We had 4-5 big ones.

 

[ChrisNelson]

I've seen us play a lot worse than yesterday and grind out a result. Jose is spot on when he says we could have played for 10 hours and not scored - it was just one of those frustrating days.

Sometimes you will come up against heroic defenders and goalkeepers who just throw their bodies in the way and manage to deflect the ball away from danger every time. It was an incredibly annoying second half.

But I don't buy in to these comments I've heard from a few places that the effort wasn't there. Teams that aren't trying don't create 13 shots with 6 on target, or 10 corners. These are all things that come from United pressing, but we were playing against a team fighting for their lives and we got sucker punched because we didn't put any away. Even Benitez admitted that Dubravka could buy a lottery ticket and win.

I do however think that at least half of our shots on target should have been goals and what can Jose do about that? On any other day we could be sat here discussing a comfortable win but I do think there has been a bit of an over reaction to this result.

 

[JG3001]

Standards have dropped for some then. For me that was a terrible performance. They haven’t won at home in 4 months and yet they fully deserved to win.

This is my problem, I think even if yesterday’s chances went in, it just covers the deficiencies that have been ever present throughout the season.

I was asking the other day to some of my mates: of the 27 games we’ve played so far, regardless of result, how many of them were a “we battered em and deserved to win” game?

Because I’d honestly struggle to get anywhere near double figures for the amount of games we’ve dominated, the vast majority felt like they were on a knife edge with more having tipped our way.

You can’t dominate every game, that’s a no brainer, but United seem to make playing any of the other 19 teams a challenge when, with the players available, this should not be the case.

 

[Trizy]

I've seen us play a lot worse than yesterday and grind out a result. Jose is spot on when he says we could have played for 10 hours and not scored - it was just one of those frustrating days.

Sometimes you will come up against heroic defenders and goalkeepers who just throw their bodies in the way and manage to deflect the ball away from danger every time. It was an incredibly annoying second half.

But I don't buy in to these comments I've heard from a few places that the effort wasn't there. Teams that aren't trying don't create 13 shots with 6 on target, or 10 corners. These are all things that come from United pressing, but we were playing against a team fighting for their lives and we got sucker punched because we didn't put any away. Even Benitez admitted that Dubravka could buy a lottery ticket and win.

I do however think that at least half of our shots on target should have been goals and what can Jose do about that? On any other day we could be sat here discussing a comfortable win but I do think there has been a bit of an over reaction to this result.

Spot on. I thought we were very poor at a lot of aspect of the game but the chances were still there. On another day, we could've won that 3-1 (Martial 1v1, Sanchez open goal tight angel & Martial vs a wall of players).

Luck wasn't there today, just like Huddersfield earlier in the season. This happens all teams in the past 5-6 years over the course of a full season though. Still doesn't make it easier to stomach, mind.

 

[G-manc]

There's absolutely no tempo to our play which at times makes it reminiscent of the LVG era - it's all slow and in front of a 10 man wall. Newcastle have no quality to speak of, they just closed down and ran (who'd have thought it) to contest 50-50's which we consistently bottle to a man. Pogba in particular was disgraceful strolling around like it was a practice match. A semi-retired Carrick passed the ball forward more in half an hour than the rest of the midfield combined.

Alexis has quality on the ball but doesn't look to have made us any more of a threat going forward especially as it's meant Martial swapping sides where he has looked largely anonymous.

 

[Jig1234]

Good post. One can only hope something changes. We are still second though but atm so very far away from playing good football, lets see after chelsea and liverpool where we stand. Interesting to see how people react if we fall from top 4.

Whooh.

Next three games are massive:

HUD
Seviila
Chelsea

 

[Kapardin]

Feels like shit sitting at work on a Monday after a defeat. Bad enough we lose, but losing on a Sunday just increases the Monday morning blues. Feck this team.

 

[red_devil83]

We're just not a team. The addition of Sanchez makes us even more a collection of individuals than a team. Who plays one DM with Lingard and Pogba? Us apparently even though it's clearly a bad idea from the outset. Doubly so when Pogba is injured before the game!

No cohesion, no spirit, no gameplan, no tempo, no clue.

 

[iHicksy]

Smalling was awful. He didn't make a single successful tackle the entire match. Pogba was awful, Martial just looked not at it.

I think they're are a variety of options/solutions to try. But firstly I don't think we should ever play Pogba in a 2 man midfield again. My problems with him stem from the fact he holds on to the ball way longer than he should. Martial is also guilty of this. I think it stems from a kind of arrogance with Pogba in that he's of the opinion he can keep the ball for aslong as he likes because no one is good enoguh to take it away from him, almost like a "come and try i'll carry this until I choose to release it" type thing. So many of our attacks break down because we don't hit that killer pass first time, we allow the opposition to regroup time and time again.

On the plus side, I thought Lukaku had one of his best games for us, first touch, hold up and link play was all as I want to see from a target man. Lingard's movement was great as usual.

My solution is to play Sanchez on the right with Martial on the left With Pogba playing in front of two holding mids (McTom/Matic). Alternatively we could play Lingard on the right and Sanchez on the left with Martial rotating with Lukaku/Sanchez, with the latter moving out to the right when subs are made.

 

[BringNaniBack]

We need to play with 3 proper central midfielders until we sort out our problems. Matic, Pogba and one of Herrera, Carrick or Fellaini. Martial on the left and Sanchez on the right. I'd also say drop Lukaku but I know that's never going to happen.

 

[edgar allan]

We need to play with 3 proper central midfielders until we sort out our problems. Matic, Pogba and one of Herrera, Carrick or Fellaini. Martial on the left and Sanchez on the right. I'd also say drop Lukaku but I know that's never going to happen.

I would be dropping Pogba long before Lukaku.

 

[edgar allan]

Smalling was awful. He didn't make a single successful tackle the entire match. Pogba was awful, Martial just looked not at it.

I think they're are a variety of options/solutions to try. But firstly I don't think we should ever play Pogba in a 2 man midfield again. My problems with him stem from the fact he holds on to the ball way longer than he should. Martial is also guilty of this. I think it stems from a kind of arrogance with Pogba in that he's of the opinion he can keep the ball for aslong as he likes because no one is good enoguh to take it away from him, almost like a "come and try i'll carry this until I choose to release it" type thing. So many of our attacks break down because we don't hit that killer pass first time, we allow the opposition to regroup time and time again.

On the plus side, I thought Lukaku had one of his best games for us, first touch, hold up and link play was all as I want to see from a target man. Lingard's movement was great as usual.

My solution is to play Sanchez on the right with Martial on the left With Pogba playing in front of two holding mids (McTom/Matic). Alternatively we could play Lingard on the right and Sanchez on the left with Martial rotating with Lukaku/Sanchez, with the latter moving out to the right when subs are made.

If that is going to be the level of Pogba's effort then he shouldn't start away from home again. A midfielder that can't play as part of a 2 man midfield is not fit to play at the top level.

 

[PieCrust]

Didn't really learn anything new. Pogba is poor in a midfield 2, but Jose just won't use a 433 full time it seems.

Lingard had a good run of games, but ultimately isn't good enough to be a regular starter for a club like United, especially in the #10 role.

Martial continues to play disinterested, doesn't matter if he's on the right or the left.

Substitutions were terrible.

I don't know why Jose continues to not want to get the best out of Pogba.

None of this changes even if Martial and Alexis take their chances and we draw or even win. It's just papering over the cracks that have persisted all season.

 

[FrenchRed]

The state of some of the people in this thread!!!

God help some of them if they had been a supporter in the Big Ron days and before - "Feck this team" - good grief!!

Football comes in cycles, seeing some of the vitriol against our OWN TEAM in this thread is shocking tbf - we can't win all the time.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It if OK people saying we should have won and that we created enough chances to win. When it is one of those games and the strikers are having trouble scoring the defence needs to be on its toes and alert at all time. They weren't and cost us in the end. The freekick for the goal was pathetic, but to then not being capable of defending it was madness. A point is better than being humiliated in the fact that Newcastle United beat us.

 

[edgar allan]

The state of some of the people in this thread!!!

God help some of them if they had been a supporter in the Big Ron days and before - "Feck this team" - good grief!!

Football comes in cycles, seeing some of the vitriol against our OWN TEAM in this thread is shocking tbf - we can't win all the time.

I think Big Ron would have put more effort in than Pogba in midfield yesterday, he can still jog faster also.

 

[FrenchRed]

I think Big Ron would have put more effort in than Pogba in midfield yesterday, he can still jog faster also.

LOL, true that.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

The state of some of the people in this thread!!!

God help some of them if they had been a supporter in the Big Ron days and before - "Feck this team" - good grief!!

Football comes in cycles, seeing some of the vitriol against our OWN TEAM in this thread is shocking tbf - we can't win all the time.

We know football comes in cycles. It always has, but you don't just sit there and say Oh well! Nevermind. You try to change the situation or it will be a long time before we see a league title again. I am sure some Liverpool fan likely said exactly the same thing as you. Yes some of the things said are OTT, but you should expect at least the basics to be done properly and the manager to as keeps being said, learn from his mistakes.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

LOL, true that.

I would love to know what is going on with Pogba yesterday, did he play even with an injury? Was he ill? Was he in a sulk being asked to help Matic out? Does he know he should be in a three and the manager decided on a two again even though it doesn't work?

 

[FrenchRed]

We know football comes in cycles. It always has, but you don't just sit there and say Oh well! Nevermind. You try to change the situation or it will be a long time before we see a league title again. I am sure some Liverpool fan likely said exactly the same thing as you. Yes some of the things said are OTT, but you should expect at least the basics to be done properly and the manager to as keeps being said, learn from his mistakes.

I do agree with this, and I find it as frustrating as the next person - however I didn't see the game as the sky falling we had 3 or 4 gilt edge chances. We were poor, we made poor decisions and put in very little effort. However, the Manger can't countenance finishing of such bad quality, or the fact that Pogba hadn't woken up. I'd hope he is not coaching these things on the training ground... which makes me wonder what on earth is going on.

It's just that some of the comments in this thread are really OTT compared to the actual match. I was much much more annoyed at the Liverpool and Spurs game than this one.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I do agree with this, and I find it as frustrating as the next person - however I didn't see the game as the sky falling we had 3 or 4 gilt edge chances. We were poor, we made poor decisions and put in very little effort. However, the Manger can't countenance finishing of such bad quality, or the fact that Pogba hadn't woken up. I'd hope he is not coaching these things on the training ground... which makes me wonder what on earth is going on.

It's just that some of the comments in this thread are really OTT compared to the actual match. I was much much more annoyed at the Liverpool and Spurs game than this one.

The Pogba situation could get really get out of hand if we are not careful. The press will be happy to fuel a problem as well. If Pogba is really in a sulk, to me he has not shown enough to be shown much sympathy. If he is injured then the manager maybe needs to wind his neck in a bit.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

We turned up today just thinking we'd walk to a victory.

It's happened to a few times this season too... vs. Huddersfield, as soon as Leicester went down to 10-men, Southampton at Home... and now this game, sometimes it seems are players just think they'll waltz their way to a win and then get caught cold by a team who are way more up for it then we expect.

Leicester was still the worst (I genuinely think that a lot of our players thought that the other team weren't allowed to score or do anything once they got a red card) but this wasn't far off. Pretty disgraceful performance really.