[justsomebloke]

Ronaldo is totally finished isn't he. Sad to see.

While not a Ronaldo optimist, I do think we need to remember that he's had neither a pre-season nor much game practice, so a certain rustiness will probably have been playing into his poor performance here. He did seem to improve a bit as the game progressed.

 

[dutchred]

It is obvious that our reserves are not good enough. Tha back 4 has to stay as is. Since Shaw hasn't played he is the only possible doubt. Fully fit and in form he can cover for Malacia and Martinez. God help us if Varane gets injured
The midfield has to be any 3 from
Casemiro (when fully fit)
Mac
Eriksen
Bruno
Iqbal
Up front we just have to hope that Martial gets fit soon
Sancho
Martial
Rashford
Antony
Mc Neill
Garnacho

Ronaldo is past it and if Martial is unfit use McNeill, at least he has energy and can press, Ronaldo has neither

 

[George The Best]

It is obvious that our reserves are not good enough. Tha back 4 has to stay as is. Since Shaw hasn't played he is the only possible doubt. Fully fit and in form he can cover for Malacia and Martinez. God help us if Varane gets injured
The midfield has to be any 3 from
Casemiro (when fully fit)
Mac
Eriksen
Bruno
Iqbal
Up front we just have to hope that Martial gets fit soon
Sancho
Martial
Rashford
Antony
Mc Neill
Garnacho

Ronaldo is past it and if Martial is unfit use McNeill, at least he has energy and can press, Ronaldo has neither

Varane‘s injury record since he joined is not great - very good player when fit.

 

[redmanx]

I wouldn't read too much into the result as most of the team last night were squad players lacking match fitness.

If anything, it serves to highlight the strength of our first team players and how important it is to keep them fit. Rotation is a necessary evil.

Keep being positive, the revival is real

Rotation may well be a necessary evil but we need decent players to rotate; Maguire, Fred, Lindelof, Shaw, Martial are simply either not good enough or reliable enough to step in when required.

 

[TheRedHearted]

Rotation may well be a necessary evil but we need decent players to rotate; Maguire, Fred, Lindelof, Shaw, Martial are simply either not good enough or reliable enough to step in when required.

They need to get on the pace and believe me Hag can get them strong enough to put up a much better fight in the Europa. I think Hag has to figure out what he wants our second team to do effectively more than anything. Those five are quite good at counter attacking football. Think he underestimated how poor we are in Europe. Playing second string players. I’d rather play it safe and compact and when we get the break play it to the wings and push forward, those players all know those roles well they just need help with confidence, roles and cohesion.

 

[Glorio]

I'm convinced that Lindelof's move to RB in the second half effectively killed all attacking threat from our right side. It wasn't great in the first half, but in the second half it was non-existent regardless of who played.
The effect of a full back on the wings in the modern game is massively underrated I feel.

 

[Glorio]

Rotation may well be a necessary evil but we need decent players to rotate; Maguire, Fred, Lindelof, Shaw, Martial are simply either not good enough or reliable enough to step in when required.

Martial appears to be the first choice CF from all indications - he's played whenever fit. The problem so far is he's hardly ever been fit.

 

[sugar_kane]

I'm convinced that Lindelof's move to RB in the second half effectively killed all attacking threat from our right side. It wasn't great in the first half, but in the second half it was non-existent regardless of who played.
The effect of a full back on the wings in the modern game is massively underrated I feel.

It was a disastrous sub, we might as well have forfeited the game at that point. Lindelof has no attributes which would qualify him to carry out the duties of a modern full back. No pace whatsoever, ponderous on the ball, weak, nervous. He seemingly couldn't even take throw ins properly. Never want to see that awful experiment again.

Not a chance that he's better than AWB in that position.

 

[justsomebloke]

It was a disastrous sub, we might as well have forfeited the game at that point. Lindelof has no attributes which would qualify him to carry out the duties of a modern full back. No pace whatsoever, ponderous on the ball, weak, nervous. He seemingly couldn't even take throw ins properly. Never want to see that awful experiment again.

Not a chance that he's better than AWB in that position.

The thing is AWB wasn't available - he was named on the bench for the lineup, but he was sitting in the stands. The commentators (on Norwegian TV, that is) mentioned it several times. I would assume something happened during warmup, and that it was already decided that Dalot would only play the first half. Which left Lindelof as more or less the only option.

I agree it's hard to see Lindelof as a real RB option. He just lacks almost all the things you'd want in a FB off the ball - pace, acceleration, aggressiveness - he's a space control type of defender, which is OK for a CB but not for a FB. On the ball it does make a little bit more sense I think, given how ETH plays with the FBs moving in-field rather than make overlapping runs. For that part of it, his strong passing comes to the fore, potentially.

 

[RedOrange]

I'm convinced that Lindelof's move to RB in the second half effectively killed all attacking threat from our right side. It wasn't great in the first half, but in the second half it was non-existent regardless of who played.
The effect of a full back on the wings in the modern game is massively underrated I feel.

He played Blind there all the time at Ajax. Also it's clear that was above he made to give Dalot a rest, and to get Martinez into the middle so there was still someone to pass the ball through the middle since Eriksen was subbed off. If he had just put AWB on there would be no one at all who could pass from deep or from the right side, so he had to pick his poison.

Btw this is exactly why he waited so long for De Jong and why they will be in for another deep lying playmaker in the next few windows.

 

[justsomebloke]

He played Blind there all the time at Ajax. Also it's clear that was above he made to give Dalot a rest, and to get Martinez into the middle so there was still someone to pass the ball through the middle since Eriksen was subbed off. If he had just put AWB on there would be no one at all who could pass from deep or from the right side, so he had to pick his poison.

Btw this is exactly why he waited so long for De Jong and why they will be in for another deep lying playmaker in the next few windows.

Again, AWB was not available.

 

[OleTheGreat]

Just going to repeat the below from another thread because it holds true:

Ronaldo is an issue and we all know it. We have absolutely no fluidity when he plays. Casemiro needs minutes, he's barely played since he signed. Maguire doesn't fit EtH's style of play, and him having a role is simply a necessity if we're to retain any semblance of match fitness throughout the season.

This is a transitionary period in our history, we're not an amazing team because we won three games on the trot. Our recovery is going to take time.

I agree. Casemiro has no idea about the Premier League. It definitely isn't like the La Liga, where it is dead slow and everyone likes playing on the floor. He needs at least 4-5 games to get on top of the PL style. ETH thought it would be easy for Man Utd to play from the back but only we fans know how bad our defensive line is. Our RB has been very bad for a long time now and our LBs barring of course Malacia have been one dimensional. I don't even have to talk about McFred. It will definitely take one or more windows to solve all our problems and to get rid of Ronaldo, Maguire, Fred and the lot.

The most important thing I love about EtH is that he is very quick learner and adapted/stepped aside from his regular tactics to some dogged style football to win matches. I'm sure he will get more players in the future to suit his style and will start instilling the style in them.

The future looks really bright for us. The fact that he says we can win the title makes me happy because he is positive regardless of what he has.

 

[lex talionis]

I agree. Casemiro has no idea about the Premier League. It definitely isn't like the La Liga, where it is dead slow and everyone likes playing on the floor. He needs at least 4-5 games to get on top of the PL style. ETH thought it would be easy for Man Utd to play from the back but only we fans know how bad our defensive line is. Our RB has been very bad for a long time now and our LBs barring of course Malacia have been one dimensional. I don't even have to talk about McFred. It will definitely take one or more windows to solve all our problems and to get rid of Ronaldo, Maguire, Fred and the lot.

The most important thing I love about EtH is that he is very quick learner and adapted/stepped aside from his regular tactics to some dogged style football to win matches. I'm sure he will get more players in the future to suit his style and will start instilling the style in them.

The future looks really bright for us. The fact that he says we can win the title makes me happy because he is positive regardless of what he has.

The statement in bold above is the key to understanding how we escaped destitution and oblivion after the shambles of Brentford.