He wasn't too bad today, like all the other players. It's the team in a all who was shit, we are not a good team, we have good individualities but our team is bad.
PL D FA Premier League
Stoke City 1:1 Manchester United
Post-match discussion
Thu, 01 January 2015
Absolute fecking snail pace, no intensity to our game. How did Januzaj turn into a shit Nani. Negative taking of Falcao, why not RVP or Mata. I know he has played a lot recently but he was the only one that looked like scoring. We missed Fellaini to break up play,we still would have needed speed though. Johnny Evans is not good enough, he nearly cost us the game on his own. You simply need pace away from home. The opposition need to be tested and put into tough positions. Not enough attempts on goal and not near enough movement. Poor Christmas overall for United.
And then he comes into the Fellaini thread to pull up posters who don't rate him. One of the biggest hypocrites on this forum that guy.your hatred for herrera is a little pathetic.
One good thing is that Smalling has cemented his place as our best centre back.
This match was clearly horrendous. What is the point of having 2 world class strikers in RVP and Falcao who have excellent first touches and close ball control when all we do is try to get crosses into the box from the wings? Winning balls in the air against Stoke is not a good strategy.
Also if we play arguably two No9s why do we play two No 10s, in Rooney and Mata. Rooney and Mata are trying to score rather than set up our strikers. They do not take the ball from Carrick and the defenders then turn to face our opponents and look for through passes or short passes to our strikers. Too many back passes and wing play.
We need midfielders who will deliver the ball to the feet of our extremely talented strikers.
If Rooney is to remain a midfielder Mata has to go and be replaced by an unselfish creative player who can face defenders and give nice passes to our strikers. Maybe when Blind comes back or we get Strootman Carrick can play further forward and deliver the service our strikers are crying out for.
This match was clearly horrendous. What is the point of having 2 world class strikers in RVP and Falcao who have excellent first touches and close ball control when all we do is try to get crosses into the box from the wings? Winning balls in the air against Stoke is not a good strategy.
Also if we play arguably two No9s why do we play two No 10s, in Rooney and Mata. Rooney and Mata are trying to score rather than set up our strikers. They do not take the ball from Carrick and the defenders then turn to face our opponents and look for through passes or short passes to our strikers. Too many back passes and wing play.
We need midfielders who will deliver the ball to the feet of our extremely talented strikers.
If Rooney is to remain a midfielder Mata has to go and be replaced by an unselfish creative player who can face defenders and give nice passes to our strikers. Maybe when Blind comes back or we get Strootman Carrick can play further forward and deliver the service our strikers are crying out for.
disappointing game. Either inject more urgency and physicality into our game like so Stoke did, or improve in the technical area.
we didn't do either...no urgency and we too many sloppy passes
we didn't do either...no urgency and we too many sloppy passes
LvG is on MUTV and he is saying we were not moving the ball fast enough, so he knows things aren't good. Also Young will be out for ages.
I'm not expecting free-flowing, attacking football. However, we do need wins, because otherwise, we could easily find ourselves out of the top 4 again should one of our rivals find a bit of form. I would be massively happy with a shit performance if it means we get a few more wins. We just have to find a way to do it without our injured players.
Its a good run of form. Big picture we have been playing much better than the start of the season but then again that's not difficult to do. We were abysmal at the start.
Whats alarming is that we struggle to beat teams away from home which rules us out as genuine title contenders. Whether its the formation that messes us up, our aversion to taking risks or our general lack of ambition, we just cant seem to put away teams on our travels.
Its great to see Old Trafford a fortress once again but if we drop the occasional points at home we might be in trouble in the battle for CL spots. Hopefully with our players coming back fit and that means getting Herrera/Di Maria/Blind back in the side and playing a back four, we will perform better in our fluidity and attack.
LVG on SkySports:
- The game was a 'war' - we didn't deserve more, they had the better chances
- Crosses were rubbish
- We had space and time to play football, and we didn't do well
- Second half was better than the first
- We don't have tall players, which made things difficult
- Young has a hamstring injury, Shaw is not injured - he was subbed as he didn't have 'match rhythm'
- Away form has to improve
- Will not discuss January transfer speculation. 'You can ask every week'
- The game was a 'war' - we didn't deserve more, they had the better chances
- Crosses were rubbish
- We had space and time to play football, and we didn't do well
- Second half was better than the first
- We don't have tall players, which made things difficult
- Young has a hamstring injury, Shaw is not injured - he was subbed as he didn't have 'match rhythm'
- Away form has to improve
- Will not discuss January transfer speculation. 'You can ask every week'
Playing 3 at the back means that we struggle to get the ball out of defence. I was disappointed with how little Mata and Rooney showed themselves for the ball, too. That must have been an instruction from LvG to stay up the pitch, but it definitely worked against us today.
Oh lighten up. We're well on course for the top four and we're light years ahead of last season. That's 9 wins, 5 draws and 1 defeat in the last 15 games. Carry on that form and we're heading for 82/83 points by the end of the season. My guess is that 72 to 74 points is sufficient for top four this year, so we're Still on target, even if we can't step up our away form.
Not moving the ball fast enough has been a problem all season. It's all fine and well LVG knowing about it but he doesn't seem to be doing anything to put it to rights. It's happening game after game.
He has said many things after many games, it's time they start to show something now. Just one good game away from home from an expensively assembled team is not too much to ask, is it?
Compared to how dire the situation was a year ago, with no sign of a Moyes being sacked, 3rd place and looking good for a CL spot is a big step up.
The problem with him and Jones is no composure under pressure. Of the CB's out there today I only rate Smalling.
yet things never seem to change......
it's like groundhog day and Herrera/Di Maria are needed in the starting lineup asap
the passing and build up is too slow, our frontmen aren't quick enough and we've done nothing on the break since Arsenal's awful defending at the Emirates
I say this every week it seems but the balance isn't right and we should ditch 3-5-2
at least Januzaj was finding space in advanced areas with his pace....shame about his use of the ball
Please, shut up, Mark. I can't stand him as a manager.
I was obviously glad that Herrera got a bit of a runout. We need Di Maria back and Blind. We need to be moving that ball quickly. It is too slow. Herrera can move it quickly, Di Maria is pacy and Blind is calm and composed in front of that defence.
Our away form is really disappointing. Remember when we had this issue under fergie a few years back.
If there was one thing we could retain from Moyes was our PL topping away form.
If there was one thing we could retain from Moyes was our PL topping away form.
Mainly because of poor substitution choices
How can Jones have 250% more MOTM votes than Rooney 
It is if some of the players are seriously grasping what he wants or just reverting to their old ways. Rooney was awful today, RVP too slow. I was pleased to see Herrera come on, but couldn't understand Falcao and Shaw going off. The Yeovil game must have had something to do with it. Adnan needs to be loaned out to get his confidence back.
Pace is an issue yes. But also, with the players on the pitch we don't have a midfield to play through. It's basically just Carrick. we need someone to play the simple passes and link the play. Ironically the player who'd fill the void who will completely be ignored is Fellaini too. Blind, Herrera and Fellaini. Not our best players but we need one or two of them in there to make this team play like a team. Di Maria will be the icing on the cake but he alone won't fix the problem we have in midfield.
If only. We would be top of the table pretty much.
I think with less substitutions we win this today. Obviously some were forced but I think we changed too much and it took the team too long to resettle in 2nd half.
Falcao should have stayed on and Shaw.
Herrera could have come on for Mata.
Falcao should have stayed on and Shaw.
Herrera could have come on for Mata.
Tiredness? Falcao bizarrely has come back from injury and played 2 full games in under 48 hours and still started today. Shaw clearly isn't ready to play the full 90.
Certainly we would be in the hunt.
Is there a general football thread about? For todays matches.
see post above. It's not like Falcao and Shaw were fully fit. Shaw is clearly not ready yet for a full 90 and Falcao has been run into the ground.
No other club has lunch time kicks offs on both the 28th and New Years Day AND both games are away from home. That, the windy conditions and continued injuries I think mean our Christmas fixtures have been more difficult than people think, but at least we didn't lose.
Edit: Spurs wasn't boxing day, point still stands though!
Edit: Spurs wasn't boxing day, point still stands though!
I like your positivity - i'm gonna hold on to that!
How either of them got any votes is the real question.How can Jones have 250% more MOTM votes than Rooney
Falcao run into the ground? I don't think so.
And nothing wrong with Shaw. Changing both wide players and then the central position of Rooney all at once really effected us in my opinion.
Too true.
The midfield injuries have hampered us. Falcao/RVP would have got a rest if Rooney wasn't playing in midfield. He also doesn't seem to trust Wilson, even though he said he did and let Welbeck go and no I am not one of the ones who keeps going on about Welbeck.
were we shite?
The vote should be boycotted. Can't think of a single player who "stood out".
Jones maybe?
But if we keep dropping points on the road we could find ourselves fighting and hoping for 4th at best
Required reading for all caftards.
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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13%
Chris Smalling
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8%
Michael Carrick
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7%
Juan Mata
-
5%
Phil Jones
-
3%
Luke Shaw
-
2%
David de Gea
-
2%
Wayne Rooney
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1%
Ashley Young
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1%
Ander Herrera
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 448 ratings.
Score Predictions
405,38,54
- Man Utd win
- Stoke win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 27% Stoke 1:2 Man Utd
- 20% Stoke 0:2 Man Utd
- 12% Stoke 1:3 Man Utd
- 8% Stoke 0:1 Man Utd
- 8% Stoke 1:1 Man Utd
- 7% Stoke 0:3 Man Utd
- 4% Stoke 2:1 Man Utd
- 2% Stoke 0:0 Man Utd
- 2% Stoke 0:4 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 2:3 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 0:5 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 1:4 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 2:0 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 2:2 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 3:1 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 3:0 Man Utd
- 1% Stoke 1:0 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 5:5 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 2:5 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 3:3 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 4:0 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 5:0 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 2:4 Man Utd
- 0% Stoke 1:5 Man Utd
Match Stats
- Stoke
- Man Utd
- Possession
- 34% 66%
- Shots
- 11 6
- Shots on Target
- 2 2
- Corners
- 11 7
- Fouls
- 8 12
Referee
Michael Oliver
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Rafael
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replaced by Adnan Januzaj
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-
-
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replaced by Ander Herrera
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