[Tony247]

It was a very good display by the team. Fred's distribution was good. Martial uncharacteristically worked hard. Overall very entertaining...until mata and lingard came on.

 

[Run_time_error]

Weird feeling, 4-1 but not totally satisfying. A much better performance all-round than the Watford game of course but Newcastle really aided and abetted. Finally a headed goal from a cross and that was a thing of beauty. Good finishing for the other three goals. Fred has really benefited from a long run of games but the injury to Mctominay is a big concern. It means we either have to play Matic or drop Pogba back deep, neither of which is ideal. I really want to see Pogba further forward but Matic looks finished. AWB terrific again but has a tendency to amble back into position sometimes and Lindelof is exposed. Axel would be my preference at centre-back as he's simply faster and better than Lindelof. Finally, waste of time bringing on Lingard and Mata. They brought virtually nothing to that game. Sad, because they have both been valuable in the past.

 

[gajender]

Weird feeling, 4-1 but not totally satisfying. A much better performance all-round than the Watford game of course but Newcastle really aided and abetted. Finally a headed goal from a cross and that was a thing of beauty. Good finishing for the other three goals. Fred has really benefited from a long run of games but the injury to Mctominay is a big concern. It means we either have to play Matic or drop Pogba back deep, neither of which is ideal. I really want to see Pogba further forward but Matic looks finished. AWB terrific again but has a tendency to amble back into position sometimes and Lindelof is exposed. Axel would be my preference at centre-back as he's simply faster and better than Lindelof. Finally, waste of time bringing on Lingard and Mata. They brought virtually nothing to that game. Sad, because they have both been valuable in the past.

We have tendency to overrate our youngsters for
Sure ,Lindelof may or may not be long term solution for us but Tuanzebe has shown nothing so far to suggest he is good enough to replace him at this moment.

 

[noodlehair]

De Gea - Must be disappointing when the opposition don't even give you a chance to ham anything up

Bissaka - Put in an inch perfect cross for Rashford to powerfully rise and head into the goal, thus creating the most unlikely goal ever scored, apart from the time Darmian half volleyed one in off the post from 25 yards.
Maguire - He cost us a chance early on by daydreaming in the middle of the pitch about 15 yeards too deep, marking no one, and then ignoring the players running off him to slowly drift towards the ball. He (somehow) got away with it, so 5 minutes later does EXACTLY THE SAME THING AGAIN resulting in Newcastle scoring. This guy is a massive concern form me. He's too often the other team's best attacking player AND the other team's best defender.
Lindelof - He just kind of fumbles around these days.
Shaw - Gets forward well but then endulges in far too fannying around once he's there. No one ever scored a goal from their winger and fullback constantly overlapping and just passing the ball between each other until one of them falls over.

McTominay - Seemed absolutely determined to either get sent off or injure himself. Probably spent Christmas with Rojo and Jones.
Fred - He does a lot of good things but the festival of sideways passes in the second half begun to get very annoying.
Pereira - Has a lot of shots for someone who almost never scores. Face of a WWII fighter pilot.

Rashford - 15 goals in half a season. I told you gimps 20-25 even at his age if he's played consistently and I WILL be digging the thread up to be a smug bastard when it happens.
Greenwood - Looks genuinely better at football than the rest of our team. Not sure if this is a cause for excitement or concern. The only player we have who seems able to think and do something at the same time. The rest seem to have to pick one or the other.
Martial - Nearly created a catastrophic rip in spacetime by accidentally trying to score a hatrick for Manchester United in a premier league game.

Subs:
Pogba - Newcastle became so bad he almost seemed confused about what to do.
Mata - Finally an actual suitable tactical situation to bring Mata on. When the remainder of the game has become so pointless you need your players to be as pointless as possible to ensure nothing that isn't pointless happens.
Lingard - Maybe he should start doing his JL sign after whenever he gets pointlessly booked, instead of scores.

Newcastle - Strange that the tactics of passing the ball to opposition players in or near your own box as many times as possible didn't yield better results.

Camera director - If there is one thing I want to see more than the live football game I'm paying to watch, it's Bobby Charlton sitting in a crowd wearing a hat, almost entirely obscured from view by the rain, watching the game I can't watch because I'm apparently watching him instead...

 

[2 man midfield]

Newcastle - Strange that the tactics of passing the ball to opposition players in or near your own box as many times as possible didn't yield better results.

Camera director - If there is one thing I want to see more than the live football game I'm paying to watch, it's Bobby Charlton sitting in a crowd wearing a hat, almost entirely obscured from view by the rain, watching the game I can't watch because I'm apparently watching him instead...

 

[Member 119614]

We were nowhere the first quarter and then scored some lucky goals. Being ruthless is good though I like that but it was not a good attacking performance at all.

 

[gerdm07]

Lethal finishing from the lads up front, and I was pleased to see AWB get an assist. Fred was on his terrier game today as well. Mason is cold, so promising and I think the quality of his all round game is getting a bit overlooked.

I thought Ole made the rights subs as well, McTominay needs some rest and Pogba got a full half under his belt, plus we got to rest Rashford and Martial due to killing the game off so early, good stuff.

Agree about Greenwood. He is very silky with the ball. I found myself wanting him to get the ball more just to see his smooth play.

 

[Andersonson]

De Gea - Must be disappointing when the opposition don't even give you a chance to ham anything up

Bissaka - Put in an inch perfect cross for Rashford to powerfully rise and head into the goal, thus creating the most unlikely goal ever scored, apart from the time Darmian half volleyed one in off the post from 25 yards.
Maguire - He cost us a chance early on by daydreaming in the middle of the pitch about 15 yeards too deep, marking no one, and then ignoring the players running off him to slowly drift towards the ball. He (somehow) got away with it, so 5 minutes later does EXACTLY THE SAME THING AGAIN resulting in Newcastle scoring. This guy is a massive concern form me. He's too often the other team's best attacking player AND the other team's best defender.
Lindelof - He just kind of fumbles around these days.
Shaw - Gets forward well but then endulges in far too fannying around once he's there. No one ever scored a goal from their winger and fullback constantly overlapping and just passing the ball between each other until one of them falls over.

McTominay - Seemed absolutely determined to either get sent off or injure himself. Probably spent Christmas with Rojo and Jones.
Fred - He does a lot of good things but the festival of sideways passes in the second half begun to get very annoying.
Pereira - Has a lot of shots for someone who almost never scores. Face of a WWII fighter pilot.

Rashford - 15 goals in half a season. I told you gimps 20-25 even at his age if he's played consistently and I WILL be digging the thread up to be a smug bastard when it happens.
Greenwood - Looks genuinely better at football than the rest of our team. Not sure if this is a cause for excitement or concern. The only player we have who seems able to think and do something at the same time. The rest seem to have to pick one or the other.
Martial - Nearly created a catastrophic rip in spacetime by accidentally trying to score a hatrick for Manchester United in a premier league game.

Subs:
Pogba - Newcastle became so bad he almost seemed confused about what to do.
Mata - Finally an actual suitable tactical situation to bring Mata on. When the remainder of the game has become so pointless you need your players to be as pointless as possible to ensure nothing that isn't pointless happens.
Lingard - Maybe he should start doing his JL sign after whenever he gets pointlessly booked, instead of scores.

Newcastle - Strange that the tactics of passing the ball to opposition players in or near your own box as many times as possible didn't yield better results.

Camera director - If there is one thing I want to see more than the live football game I'm paying to watch, it's Bobby Charlton sitting in a crowd wearing a hat, almost entirely obscured from view by the rain, watching the game I can't watch because I'm apparently watching him instead...

Jesus....

 

[Eleven-Eighteen]

Newcastle gifted us goals, but good on us for converting. Great to have some wind in our backs once again. Let's kick on from here...hopefully.

 

[Strelok]

We were nowhere the first quarter and then scored some lucky goals. Being ruthless is good though I like that but it was not a good attacking performance at all.

After the 4th goal we had a very good attacking display for about 10' and looked very dangerous, until Lingard and Mata came in imo.

Look at our options at the bench if we don't buy anyone in Jan it's just fecking crazy. However I don't think we will tbh, feck Ed.

 

[Johnson Yip]

We have to thank Steve Bruce's Newcastle for the Christmas gifts.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Played some good stuff to be fair. Once we’d got 4 I really wanted us to get more.

They did try to get more, but once we had four Newcastle just sat back and we didn't get the space quite the same. We saved a lot of energy yesterday which is good when we have another game so soon.

 

[norm87cro]

Finally some good finishing aldo I thought their keeper could have done better with Martial's equalizer. But if you strike it low and hard sometimes you get rewarded. (like Lukakus rebounds against PSG and Newcastle last season after some similar Rashford efforts). Other goals we're very well taken

 

[Run_time_error]

Camera director - If there is one thing I want to see more than the live football game I'm paying to watch, it's Bobby Charlton sitting in a crowd wearing a hat, almost entirely obscured from view by the rain, watching the game I can't watch because I'm apparently watching him instead...

no Fergie shot, though.

 

[Shimo]

Was so angry that first 20 minutes. The short corner, then the bloody throw in to a double marked player. Then the defending, had me seething. That they scored, that it was Matty Longstaff was not surprising.

But, also not surprised at the response. The players decided to actually play and press properly. That it took getting scored on though is what frustrates so much.

Think it's debatable about the 1st and 3rd goals being gifts, both were down to good work and good strikes - bit of fortune sure but, then again we've had a bit of misfortune at times as well this season with some exceptional keeping and shit VAR calls. Great that we were able to then stroll about for 30 min with next game so close

Every starter should be fined a week's wages if they don't start every game with that same level of workrate and intensity. Maybe the quality will be up and down but, no excuse for not having the effort to press and work to win every ball. You don't need to train for effort, that should be built in every game.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

That was one of the most negative games from newcastle that I've ever seen. When they are 1-0 up I understand them sitting back. Even at 1-1. At 2-1 they can still sit back and hopefully get an equalizer on the break. But at 3-1 and 4-1 they were still sitting with a back 10. Not sure what the point of the was...

 

[Ban]

Nice comfortable win.

4 pages.

 

[Member 113277]

Funny how Fred has amazingly self improved over the past few months?

Couldn't be anything to do with coaching, could it - as the Caf says our coaching is non-existent

 

[b82REZ]

Like many, my eyes rolled when they scored and I expected another defeat. But fair play to the lads, they dug in and got the result. Our performance after the 1st goal was exceptional.

The lads surely know that other teams wont capitulate like Newcastle did and I hope we see a higher level of perseverance and application in games we fall behind against lesser opposition. I think we may have gone into our shells had we not scored in the first half.

Burnley will be a different challenge. They will sit deep again and are a much better side than Newcastle and are unlikely to gift us as many chances. It's important to use this momentum going into this busy week but I do fear how we cope when we don't score early.

 

[Lentwood]

De Gea - nothing to do (thankfully)

AWB - much improved going forward, two great crosses, seemed to be playing much higher up the pitch

Shaw - also played higher and we did get caught a couple of times in the first twenty minutes, jury is out on whether he has the fitness or recovery speed. OK go forward decent pass for the first goal.

Maguire/Lindelof - exposed at times in first 20 minutes but both fine.

Fred - industrious, wish he would stop shooting though!

McTom - thought he was poor tbh. May benefit from a little rest.

Pereira - never going to be Utd standard but I’m convinced he should always be ahead of Lingard in that No.10 role.

Rashford - overall I thought he was fairly poor but great header, uncharacteristically so.

Greenwood - plays like a proper inside forward. It’s amazing how at 18 he plays this position so much more intelligently than Martial and Rashford. Gets in the pockets and gives the defenders a problem, creates space for his full back to isolate the opposing full back. Great goal, few nice moments all-round

Martial - why can’t he show that aptitude every week? I don’t care about the goals, my favourite parts where him sprinting to close down defenders and I believe I actually saw him make a tackle at one point! What changed from Watford? Pressure from Greenwood? Ole had a word?

Pogba - just better than the others!

Mata - pointless sub. I would rather his minutes go elsewhere, anywhere

Overall I thought we clearly tried to play in more advanced areas and this did take us twenty minutes to get to grips with. Newcastle gifted us a couple of goals but we’ve deserved a few breaks this season. Still not perfect by a long way

Newcastle - I felt they were poor and far too negative. We were all over the place between minute 10-20 but they sat so far back I felt we were allowed off the hook fairly gently. No idea why they insisted on passing it out from the back, they just didn’t look comfortable doing it. Showed us too much respect overall

 

[Stookie]

Funny how Fred has amazingly self improved over the past few months?

Couldn't be anything to do with coaching, could it - as the Caf says our coaching is non-existent

Yeah, Fred is definitely getting there. He works really hard. His passing has improved massively. Just needs to start scoring now.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Funny how Fred has amazingly self improved over the past few months?

Couldn't be anything to do with coaching, could it - as the Caf says our coaching is non-existent

Fred is a £50m Brazilian International. Could also be he's improving because he's getting a lot of game time. Shaw is the same sort of player. Play them as bit part players and they're not very good. Give them game time and they keep improving.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Started slowly and McTominay getting booked in the first minute didn't help.
Having given Newcastle a gift lead with some poor defending, Lindelof passive and unaware again, we finally sparked into life.

Excellent game by Martial, Greenwood was good as was Fred who was very industrious again. Pogba came on and showed his class but the forward momentum was lost when Rashford and Martial came off and replaced by Mata and the pointless Lingard.

With a game so soon afterwards Ole did well though to rest them.

 

[Toni Roncoroni]

A good win there, especially after that lousy start of the game. Great to see Rashford, Martial and Greenwood scoring. I wasn't that impressed from Fred yesterday to be honest. Although I wish him well all the time. Frustrating decisions from a few players in the final third. Andreas for example when Greenwood was free on the right hand side and he tried to pass it trough to Martial.

But the quality in the final third was missing badly for the last 30 minutes or so. I know they took the speed a little bit out of the game but it was clear to see why we are usually struggling. No good ideas, lack of quality of the passes and nobody takes risks. Some of our players like to shoot all the time where it makes no sense but they never take on a player or trying something with a (risky) pass. I know, yesterday it didn't matter, but that is the point why we are usually struggling against those "smaller" sides.

 

[Maticmaker]

Whilst Newcastle were enjoying their visit to OT 'early doors', in stark contrast we looked vulnerable at times poorly timed, or rather in accurate passing, slow off the mark for second balls and again looking at times like our players train on different pitches. Then suddenly it clicked, or Ole threw his magic switch from the bench and suddenly we snapped out of it, found our men with crisp passing, and we began to look like a team, not just players wearing the same kit and off we went. A few sporadic minutes of wobbles in the second half, but otherwise no problem. It should have been 6-1 really but the final score will do... for now!

 

[DSG]

Depressing to see just 4 pages in a post match thread when we win, 13 pages when we lose.

I have to say, I don’t think effort and work rate have been a problem since Ole took over. Execution and performance have been a problem at times. The first 25 minutes we were dreadful. Misplaced passes, poor positioning, passive defending.

I believe that our players lack self belief at times. We want to win so badly, we put more pressure on ourselves. Once Martial scored, we surged to life and became more confident.

The McTominay injury is a blow. Frankly, I’d rather see Garner take his spot than revert to Matic or play Pogba there and continue with the Pereira / Lingard / Mata triple decker shit sandwich at the 10.

 

[Gator Nate]

People say gifts but tbf we pushed hard and that work caused most of their errors.

Agreed. The Ole-Outers keep saying they don't see what he's doing, but it seems to me we press much harder in the opposition half when they get the ball than most other teams do. Rather than drop back and try to get the ball back in our half, thus spreading out their defense, we try to get the the ball back in their half while they are spreading out in transition.

 

[Bilbo]

Depressing to see just 4 pages in a post match thread when we win, 13 pages when we lose.

It really is. The old saying 'if you cant say anything nice don't say anything at all' seems to work the other way around on here.

Its not as if we win 4-1 every week. Why do people find it a better use of their time to criticise our players and staff than to praise them for playing well?

 

[DSG]

It really is. The old saying 'if you cant say anything nice don't say anything at all' seems to work the other way around on here.

Its not as if we win 4-1 every week. Why do people find it a better use of their time to criticise our players and staff than to praise them for playing well?

It’s a valid question. I do think that all nuance has been lost in the Caf. You’re either Ole In or Ole Out. He’s either 100% to blame or it’s 100% squad / Woodward’s fault. The reality is that there is plenty of blame to go about.

Unfortunately, because we are so polarized, when we win, the Ole Out crowd has nothing controversial to post, and therefore less replies from Ole In, etc., etc.

Sadly, the Caf has just become another microcosm for general society today, whether it’s politics, economics, even comedy.

 

[Bilbo]

It’s a valid question. I do think that all nuance has been lost in the Caf. You’re either Ole In or Ole Out. He’s either 100% to blame or it’s 100% squad / Woodward’s fault. The reality is that there is plenty of blame to go about.

Unfortunately, because we are so polarized, when we win, the Ole Out crowd has nothing controversial to post, and therefore less replies from Ole In, etc., etc.

Sadly, the Caf has just become another microcosm for general society today, whether it’s politics, economics, even comedy.

Yep. When did the actual football matches become the thing that people least like to talk about? This place is apparently full of tactical experts that are suitably qualified to judge who is a good enough manager and who isn't, but there is rarely any actual tactical discussion on here following a game.

 

[utdalltheway]

It’s the usual: this place blows up when we lose or draw to a team below us. It’s easier to see what’s wrong than what’s right.
It is somewhat surprising the see the ratio though.

As for tactical discussions; I’ll keep out of that as I’m clueless when it comes to that.

 

[Foxbatt]

Jesus....

I think he plays for Manchester City and not us.

 

[gerdm07]

I think part of the reason for the few pages is it's the holidays...maybe.

Two plays make me not want to believe in Rashford and Martial.

1. Martial's second goal. He controls the ball, takes a nice soft touch, then takes a heavy touch and almost shows too much of the ball. The announcer said that Martial was almost teasing the keeper with that heavy touch so he could dink it over him. I don't believe it. Anytime you are going one-on-one with the keeper you want to keep the ball as close as possible, at most one-step away for a finish, so you can react to the keeper. Having watched Martial for a few years now I see that as just a heavy touch and mistake and he was a bit fortunate to be able to score. He does this too often going at defenders also.

2. Rashford got the ball near the center line and dribbled forward shaking off two defenders in the process. So far so good. The remaining defenders had to react leaving Martial open on Rashford's right. Rashford passes to a running Martial but the pass has too much weight on it and Martial does not receive the ball in stride. In fact, Martial has to chase the ball and goes further away from the goal. If this were a one-time thing I would just shrug. However, it's not a one-time problem, Rashford's passes are too often too hard or too soft. This pass stopped a good opportunity for a quick counter.

In both cases these are just things you should not be doing on a regular basis after this much time in the PL and as a professional. Mistakes like these make me wonder if either one has a good football IQ and can become truly world class.

 

[DSG]

I think part of the reason for the few pages is it's the holidays...maybe.

Two plays make me not want to believe in Rashford and Martial.

1. Martial's second goal. He controls the ball, takes a nice soft touch, then takes a heavy touch and almost shows too much of the ball. The announcer said that Martial was almost teasing the keeper with that heavy touch so he could dink it over him. I don't believe it. Anytime you are going one-on-one with the keeper you want to keep the ball as close as possible, at most one-step away for a finish, so you can react to the keeper. Having watched Martial for a few years now I see that as just a heavy touch and mistake and he was a bit fortunate to be able to score. He does this too often going at defenders also.

2. Rashford got the ball near the center line and dribbled forward shaking off two defenders in the process. So far so good. The remaining defenders had to react leaving Martial open on Rashford's right. Rashford passes to a running Martial but the pass has too much weight on it and Martial does not receive the ball in stride. In fact, Martial has to chase the ball and goes further away from the goal. If this were a one-time thing I would just shrug. However, it's not a one-time problem, Rashford's passes are too often too hard or too soft. This pass stopped a good opportunity for a quick counter.

In both cases these are just things you should not be doing on a regular basis after this much time in the PL and as a professional. Mistakes like these make me wonder if either one has a good football IQ and can become truly world class.

You’re being a bit too critical, mate. Even Messi makes mistakes. I remember when Wazza would go through a rough patch and I’d be down on him, but class always rises.

There’s plenty of squad targets for criticism, but I think Rashford and Martial are class. Yes, they are inconsistent, but both are technically top shelf.

 

[Withnail]

You’re being a bit too critical, mate. Even Messi makes mistakes. I remember when Wazza would go through a rough patch and I’d be down on him, but class always rises.

There’s plenty of squad targets for criticism, but I think Rashford and Martial are class. Yes, they are inconsistent, but both are technically top shelf.

I was about to say the same thing.

Do we really need either of them to be World class? If they can reach a level where they are consistently scoring around 20 a season and creating assists as part of a front 3 we'll be alright.

 

[DSG]

I was about to say the same thing.

Do we really need either of them to be World class? If they can reach a level where they are consistently scoring around 20 a season and creating assists as part of a front 3 we'll be alright.

If we want to win the PL and CL, eventually we’ll need world class at several positions on the pitch. I think all of the front three will need to combine for 60-70 goals, and one will need to hit 30-35.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

We are lucky we failed to sign Longstaff. He is nothing special based on this season games.

Happy for AWB with improved contribution in attack. And we finally score a heading goal. What a goal from Rashford.

Martial, Fred and Shaw were good.

We took our chances well even though some were given by Newcastle