CL W Champions League Group H

Manchester United 5:0 RB Leipzig

Post-match discussion


Wed, 28 October 2020

Valencia Shin Crosses

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"Martial...He's isolated Skrtel here..."
Also: tactical fouling is ruining football at this point. It's the single thing I want changed in the modern game, because these high press teams know that they can gamble relentlessly to win the ball back because if they miss then another player will hack the attacker down and give the team time to fall back into their shape. It's such a glaring exploit that doesn't get punished because refs don't want to get their cards out so often, and it gives teams that do this such an advantage to dominate the game from. We were really struggling with it the last 20 minutes of the first half, and while we were sloppy ourselves it does us no favors when we play it sharply out of the back only for Martial to be hacked down so that RB can't be punished for playing such a high line.

So stupid.
 

tjb

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Loved almost everything thing about the game. From the solidity in the first half to the wave after wave of attacks in the second.

What i will say is this....that 2 up front benefits all of our forwards. We aren't a team that has the marauding full backs of most european teams, and to be honest i've never been a big fan of them because of how exposed they leave the defence...having one is fine, but two just seems disastrous. For me personally, i've always felt that only really good possession teams can actually dominate with that tactic, and those teams either have to have world class attacking fullbacks that can keep possession ( which is rare) or having midfielders that can consistently outpass other teams...which can only be done by having specific managers and players that can make that happen ( which is even rarer.

The Diamond that we played today allowed both Shaw and AWB play like full backs as opposed to wing back, showing their defensive skills while keeping Leipzig at bay. Pogba, Fred and VDB were the ones responsible for overlapping, and when Fernandes and Rashford came in, the advantage of that direct attacking freedom was showcased. Last season, we proved that we had the capacity at the end of the season to dominate teams with possession, but I feel this direct attacking approach that we used in this game, with the solidity provided by our covering midfielders is the best approach for us to take
 

Gator Nate

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I was happy at 2-0. Now I can't wipe the smile off my face.

Fred was my MOTM, because of his contributions over 90 minutes.

My only criticism of the first half is that passes weren't crisp enough.

Outside of that, RBL were very tough in the first half, brought the fight to us, pressed like crazy... and Ole's lineup held up just fine. The opposition had the ball, but they couldn't do anything with it.

Lovely goals, all. Pogba to Greenwood... sweet. Loved that Martial took and made the pen. And Rashford's hat trick was wonderful.

Ole nailed it tonight, and he has the squad depth, finally, to keep this up.
 

RedMilo

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Thought first half was a really solid defensive performance and then second half, although they had more possession, they didnt really look like scoring at any point tonight which is satisfying. Special mention to Bruno his football brain is just a pleasure to see, and Rahsford's finishing tonight was deadly. Pogba and DVB played well and were the only players who retained the ball well in the first half. Hope we now follow this performance up vs Arsenal, we need to start winning domestically to stay in touch with the top.
 

The Irish Connection

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Stunning performance! I literally spat my gum out on rashfords hat trick. The rest of Europe will sit up and take serious notice.
We have to keep building on this now. Go on a run in the league please!
 

KKidAA

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Brilliant performance tonight. Completely nullified them, and looked dangerous all the time. Once the subs came on it looked like they might start tackling each other to get a goal for themselves.

Not sure what Ole needs to do to prove himself to the doubters at this point. Yes the spurs game was awful, but if you look at the results since Bruno came in we have been as good as anyone.
 

The Irish Connection

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I was happy at 2-0. Now I can't wipe the smile off my face.

Fred was my MOTM, because of his contributions over 90 minutes.

My only criticism of the first half is that passes weren't crisp enough.

Outside of that, RBL were very tough in the first half, brought the fight to us, pressed like crazy... and Ole's lineup held up just fine. The opposition had the ball, but they couldn't do anything with it.

Lovely goals, all. Pogba to Greenwood... sweet. Loved that Martial took and made the pen. And Rashford's hat trick was wonderful.

Ole nailed it tonight, and he has the squad depth, finally, to keep this up.
Yeah, Fred motm for me too. He’s just an engine, such stamina and pressing ability.
Between fitness and Fred and Mctominay in midfield, we’ve looked miles better in the last two to three weeks.
Wan Bissaka was class again tonight.
 

RedDevil-85

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Great performance from the whole team :drool:
Congrats to Rashford with the hat trick,fantastic stuff.

Lets build on this by slapping Arsenal at the weekend.
Come ON!! :devil:
 

Hugh Jass

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I was happy at 2-0. Now I can't wipe the smile off my face.

Fred was my MOTM, because of his contributions over 90 minutes.

My only criticism of the first half is that passes weren't crisp enough.

Outside of that, RBL were very tough in the first half, brought the fight to us, pressed like crazy... and Ole's lineup held up just fine. The opposition had the ball, but they couldn't do anything with it.

Lovely goals, all. Pogba to Greenwood... sweet. Loved that Martial took and made the pen. And Rashford's hat trick was wonderful.

Ole nailed it tonight, and he has the squad depth, finally, to keep this up.
Yea Fred was brilliant. I think we have to start Pogba where we started him tonight, in the sort of free MF, with two defensive MFs to shield the back four. When Pogba plays in MF two he is not as good and gets caught out in possession.
 

Alemar

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De Gea - excellent. Save from Konate header was superb. And why do we allow players to head from a point blank range? Konate was heading from 2 meters

Bissaka - tremendous defending. Nothing went past him. Still not very efficient going forward, though

Lindelof and Maguire - both didn’t have much to do. Most of the opposition attacks where handled by fullbacks of by Fred

Shaw - good defensively, made a good cross which must have been an assist. Still, Telles’ delivery is much better

Matic - player rather well, but got yellow carded.

Fred - 10/10 performance. If only his passing was better. Still, today’s Fred is essentially a prime Ngolo Kante

Pogba - made a lot of defensive work today. Fabulous assist for Greenwood, but got tired in the end and rightly substituted. Getting fitter gradually which is fine

VDB - not the best of games. He was...well, he was OK. But when Bruno came for him,the game changed immediately.

Greenwood - one chance, one shot, one goal. Efficiency. Rightly subbed as he got tired after not playing for a while.

Martial - had a stinker in the first half. Excellent in the second - earned and scored a penalty, made an assist to Sir Marcus, also had more chances to score

Bruno - fantastic cameo.World class assists, a few more chances created, real playmaker.

Rashford - arise, Sir Marcus.

McTominay - provided energy, decent cameo.

Cavani - not bad, he even scored (But offside). Had only 10 minutes, though.

Tuanzebe - strange substitution. I love Axel, but why to play him as a RB?
 

George Beast

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Squad depth is immense. To be able to bring on Rashford, Cavani and Fernandes whilst winning against the Bundesliga leaders is incredible.
 

kirk buttercup

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I think we saw tonight the value of depth in squad . first half team looked comfortable and played well against their high press. Second half we changed it and Destroyed them , absolutely destroyed them. Very good by all . Delighted with that performance. Really well done .MotM for me Has got to be Rashford he was lethal in every aspect when he came on . Fred was excellent too but the whole team played well and Ole got it right.
 

RUCK4444

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Loved almost everything thing about the game. From the solidity in the first half to the wave after wave of attacks in the second.

What i will say is this....that 2 up front benefits all of our forwards. We aren't a team that has the marauding full backs of most european teams, and to be honest i've never been a big fan of them because of how exposed they leave the defence...having one is fine, but two just seems disastrous. For me personally, i've always felt that only really good possession teams can actually dominate with that tactic, and those teams either have to have world class attacking fullbacks that can keep possession ( which is rare) or having midfielders that can consistently outpass other teams...which can only be done by having specific managers and players that can make that happen ( which is even rarer.

The Diamond that we played today allowed both Shaw and AWB play like full backs as opposed to wing back, showing their defensive skills while keeping Leipzig at bay. Pogba, Fred and VDB were the ones responsible for overlapping, and when Fernandes and Rashford came in, the advantage of that direct attacking freedom was showcased. Last season, we proved that we had the capacity at the end of the season to dominate teams with possession, but I feel this direct attacking approach that we used in this game, with the solidity provided by our covering midfielders is the best approach for us to take
Good post, totally agree.

It gets our best players on the pitch and suits us.
 

Isotope

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I'm happy Rashford got his hatrick. Tbh, i was pissed off that anyone other than him took that penalty. It was late on the game, and i thought that surely be the last chance to get his hatrick.

Well, well, well, what do I know..
 

tjb

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- Pogba: he is playing much better when he is not in the double pivot, on his familiar left side. He lost possession when he plays in the middle but that doesn't happen whenever he plays on the left. His defensive work and his supports to attack look " natural" too. Happy for him as he is quality.
- Martial is obviously not having a good form and his decisions sometimes are not good. But there is no doubt that everytime when he suddenly starts running with the ball, he causes trouble and you can feel the defenders scared. Trust to get into form and make better decisions.
- Shaw looked tired, needs a rest before he got injured.
- I believe Ole and staffs have prepared really hard for this period about formations, who play and so far it works. I hope they realize now the importance of workrate and legs needed from the midfielders. Matic for all his experience must be used probably to get effectiveness.
- The formations used through this match are perfect. When we playing 4231 late in the match with Fred McT, Bruno Martial Rashford and Cavani, that is a good balanced formation too.
- We worried about the workrate from RBL, but today seeing our players (especially Fred) chased, harassed and ran endlessly even the last seconds makes me happy.
- Last but not least is the concentration and believe the team have right now. You can see we are not panic, the players look confident (especially Lindelof). There is self believe in the whole team. They look calm and patience.
Harsh to say this, but Martial should really be worried. The switch to a two puts him up against both Greenwood and Cavani. Cavani may be a temporary rival, but Greenwood in a forward role that allows him to central without needed to hold up as much is really dangerous, especially as he would now be directly supplied by Fernandes and Pogba/VDB rather than bringing it from the right on his own or depending on the right pass from AWB. Before the year is out, he might find himself on the bench if he doesn't assert himself quickly enough. I still thought he had a good performance and is a good player. However, Rashford can produce THAT performance whilst also being the pride of England and Greenwood is our future....he really can't afford to miss games.
 

Falcow

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Reminded me of a Euro night under Fergie.

I may already have posted that in this very thread. I should probably go to bed.
 

Achilles McCool

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Also: tactical fouling is ruining football at this point. It's the single thing I want changed in the modern game, because these high press teams know that they can gamble relentlessly to win the ball back because if they miss then another player will hack the attacker down and give the team time to fall back into their shape. It's such a glaring exploit that doesn't get punished because refs don't want to get their cards out so often, and it gives teams that do this such an advantage to dominate the game from.
I usually hate rule changes in the game, but would anyone support a “foul count” on players similar to basketball? 5 or 6 fouls from an individual player then he “fouls out”? Not like a red card; it would just force that player out of the game/substituted...
I’m just brainstorming.

Back to the match: brilliant by the team and Ole. I’ll remember this match for a long, long time!
Ole in the locker room speaking to Marcus: “Nice hat trick as a sub! I pulled that off myself against Forest, but I managed four”
 

tjb

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De Gea - excellent. Save from Konate header was superb. And why do we allow players to head from a point blank range? Konate was heading from 2 meters

Bissaka - tremendous defending. Nothing went past him. Still not very efficient going forward, though

Lindelof and Maguire - both didn’t have much to do. Most of the opposition attacks where handled by fullbacks of by Fred

Shaw - good defensively, made a good cross which must have been an assist. Still, Telles’ delivery is much better

Matic - player rather well, but got yellow carded.

Fred - 10/10 performance. If only his passing was better. Still, today’s Fred is essentially a prime Ngolo Kante

Pogba - made a lot of defensive work today. Fabulous assist for Greenwood, but got tired in the end and rightly substituted. Getting fitter gradually which is fine

VDB - not the best of games. He was...well, he was OK. But when Bruno came for him,the game changed immediately.

Greenwood - one chance, one shot, one goal. Efficiency. Rightly subbed as he got tired after not playing for a while.

Martial - had a stinker in the first half. Excellent in the second - earned and scored a penalty, made an assist to Sir Marcus, also had more chances to score

Bruno - fantastic cameo.World class assists, a few more chances created, real playmaker.

Rashford - arise, Sir Marcus.

McTominay - provided energy, decent cameo.

Cavani - not bad, he even scored (But offside). Had only 10 minutes, though.

Tuanzebe - strange substitution. I love Axel, but why to play him as a RB?
This will sound weird, I'm not sure I like VDB as a 10 for us. He's far too uninvolved in the game. We usually play with the 3 on top that stay mostly forward, adding another person who is not a playmaker to the front 4 puts the midfield under pressure.

I love it when he does get on the ball, because he usually makes good decisions with the right technique, even in difficult situations. For me, that is probably United's biggest weakness in midfield line and having him drop deeper to support attacks, playing as an 8, would be better for us, regularly coming into the box when we are attacking.
 

Valencia Shin Crosses

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"Martial...He's isolated Skrtel here..."
I usually hate rule changes in the game, but would anyone support a “foul count” on players similar to basketball? 5 or 6 fouls from an individual player then he “fouls out”? Not like a red card; it would just force that player out of the game/substituted...
I’m just brainstorming.

Back to the match: brilliant by the team and Ole. I’ll remember this match for a long, long time!
Ole in the locker room speaking to Marcus: “Nice hat trick as a sub! I pulled that off myself against Forest, but I managed four”
It would be tough to enforce because there are way more players in football, but I do think VAR could be used to identify "tactical fouls" and alert the ref to give a card if one is found. Wouldn't even have to stop play like you might when judging goal decisions.

Fernandinho would be useless if he couldn't just rake attackers in their own half 10 times a game.
 

KKidAA

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Squad depth is immense. To be able to bring on Rashford, Cavani and Fernandes whilst winning against the Bundesliga leaders is incredible.
I agree with this. I got myself caught up so much in the Sancho saga that I was annoyed at our signings, but when you see what we've got on the bench now it really is frightening. Especially when you compare it to the days (not so long ago), when our bench would be Mata, Rojo, Jones, and 4 youth team players.
 

Jacob

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Lingard can't even make the squad with 10 subs, I love it.
 

Achilles McCool

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It would be tough to enforce because there are way more players in football, but I do think VAR could be used to identify "tactical fouls" and alert the ref to give a card if one is found. Wouldn't even have to stop play like you might when judging goal decisions.

Fernandinho would be useless if he couldn't just rake attackers in their own half 10 times a game.
Good points!
 

Okey

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Erm, can we get carried away now? Asking for a friend...
 

Jaqen H'ghar

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Beautiful game to watch and an immense result.

I disagree with anyone who thinks that we are not well coached, but today I think we won because of creative license given to our players. Our players were technically better and more creative, especially in the final third.

Games and results like this create a fear factor, kind of like the United of old, where teams would be afraid to attack knowing that pushing up will see them punished.

Rashford is regaining his preinjury form and confidence. Fred is cementing his place as a starter. AWB may not strike fear in the heart of opposition, but you bet the prospect of playing against him sucks the joy out of any left forward.

Bring on Ole's next First Real Test™:devil:
 

Man of the Match

Marcus Rashford image Marcus Rashford 81% of 440 votes

Runners-up

Player Ratings

7.4 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 447 ratings.

Score Predictions

177,32,46
  • Man Utd win
  • RB Leipzig win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 26% Man Utd 2:1 RB Leipzig
  • 19% Man Utd 2:0 RB Leipzig
  • 12% Man Utd 1:1 RB Leipzig
  • 8% Man Utd 1:0 RB Leipzig
  • 6% Man Utd 3:1 RB Leipzig
  • 5% Man Utd 1:2 RB Leipzig
  • 5% Man Utd 3:0 RB Leipzig
  • 4% Man Utd 2:2 RB Leipzig
  • 4% Man Utd 3:2 RB Leipzig
  • 3% Man Utd 1:3 RB Leipzig
  • 2% Man Utd 0:0 RB Leipzig
  • 2% Man Utd 0:2 RB Leipzig
  • 1% Man Utd 0:1 RB Leipzig
  • 1% Man Utd 0:5 RB Leipzig
  • 1% Man Utd 5:0 RB Leipzig
  • 0% Man Utd 0:3 RB Leipzig
  • 0% Man Utd 4:2 RB Leipzig
  • 0% Man Utd 5:2 RB Leipzig
  • 0% Man Utd 2:4 RB Leipzig
Compiled from 255 predictions.
Show more results Score Predictions League Table

Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. RB Leipzig
Possession
47% 53%
Shots
11 9
Shots on Target
5 2
Corners
2 5
Fouls
16 18

Referee

Matej Jug