Tony247
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- May 2, 2018
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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.
We have tendency to overrate our youngsters forWeird 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.
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...
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.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.
Jesus....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...
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.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.
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.Played some good stuff to be fair. Once we’d got 4 I really wanted us to get more.
no Fergie shot, though.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...
Yeah, Fred is definitely getting there. He works really hard. His passing has improved massively. Just needs to start scoring now.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.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
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.People say gifts but tbf we pushed hard and that work caused most of their errors.
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.Depressing to see just 4 pages in a post match thread when we win, 13 pages when we lose.
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.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?
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.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.
I think he plays for Manchester City and not us.Jesus....
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.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.
I was about to say the same thing.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.
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.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.
Kevin Friend