[LLMU]

We gained 6 points against Arsenal in the last two games, 3 points against City, 3 points against Spur and 2 points against Leicester. I will take this win anytime of the day as a good result no matter what happened n the field.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

We gained 6 points against Arsenal in the last two games, 3 points against City, 3 points against Spur and 2 points against Leicester. I will take this win anytime of the day as a good result no matter what happened n the field.

Don't really understand your maths here?
If you take your sample of the last 2 PL games played by all the above it would be
Utd 6
Leicester 4
Spurs 3
Arsenal 0
City 0
so it's plus 6 on City who now have 3 straight PL defeats. The bad news for you is that most of our remaining games look winnable.
Chelsea away and United and Arsenal at home are the toughest looking ones and with a manageable schedule and injuries starting to clear up I would be looking more at Arsenal as a team to supplant from the top 4. They look like a trainwreck just now.

 

[carlosp]

Got out of jail. The Watford players were just physically too strong for United. I think too many games within a short time caught up.

This. As I said before, this was the type of game we had under Sir Alex where we played a couple of game within a week and then had to grind out a result against Southampton/Stoke etc. and the lads did just that. I thought it was a great result and while lacking in the first half, the second was a lot better. And remember, this was mainly with the team being full of kids, not even something Sir Alex had to deal with. Thankfully Watford didn't have their scoring boots on.

 

[NJM78]

Good team except I wouldn't drop Varela for Darmian. The latter is a liability quite a bit of the time, whereas Varela has been excellent in this current run. He deserves to keep his place.

He has been good Varela, tends to grow into the game after a shaky first 20 mins or so, as for Darmian he has either been very good or very bad never seems to show consistency although I believe when not faced with lightning pace his tackling and general defending is better than that of Varela. WBA are another physical side and Varela seems very light weight to me but I wouldn't be disappointed if Varela keeps his place.

 

[Reducation]

I have now watched the full game and I agree the players looked knackered, the conditions were terrible. They were also playing a team of giants who either kicked them or dived.

Martial dived to get the free-kick. Awful.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Martial dived to get the free-kick. Awful.

That wasn't a dive

 

[Reducation]

That wasn't a dive

The "other" angle on MOTD showed it to be a dive. Perhaps you're in the "He had every right to go down" club. Ho hum.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

The "other" angle on MOTD showed it to be a dive. Perhaps you're in the "He had every right to go down" club. Ho hum.

No im in the having played football camp, when running at top speed momentum is your worse nightmare, when a player slides at you and your awaiting said challenge what happens? The body tenses up and your brain tells you to prepare for an impact, now when that hit doesnt arrive, that still doenst mean that your body isnt braced. In this moment its incredibly easy to lose balance and go to ground. I remember a similar indecent when Bale was at spurs and he was lambasted as a diving cheat. The problem is too many fans and pundits think diving is black and white and that you can only foul someone by actually catching them. If you slide in with intent and dont win the ball, there are many reasons why it can be a foul.

 

[marlowe78]

I can't say this was any surprise, they gave us trouble last time and if it wasn't for Schweinsteiger we would've only gotten a draw. Watford certainly deserved something from these games but luck and two late pushes for a breakthrough conspired against them.

I guess considering the CB pairing we had Wednesday, we didn't do all that badly. It's really amazing that Carrick is still having to slot into RCB (while being about 4 times slower than he used to be) and pairing him with Blind is a recipe for trouble. To make matters worse, Blind IMO had his worst ever game for us. Even in games where his positioning is bad, he is at least able to play passes well from the back. In this game, he couldn't do a thing right and deserved to come off at halftime if we actually had an established CB available. I don't know if he was ill or what he was playing it, but he was easily the worst man on the pitch.

I was happy to see Radford play with Martial, but Martial never really looked comfortable on the right and was quiet for stetches of the game, largely because his teammates couldn't get the ball to him. Rashford actually tied LVG's hands because he deserved to play but Memphis also had a very good game against Arsenal and couldn't be moved from the left. The solution was to shoehorn Martial onto the right, which IMO made us unbalanced. It's exciting to have all of them, but we don't look balanced up front with all of them together. We actually look better (believe it or not) with Lingard on the right, who is a good A to B wing player despite his flaws.

On the positive side, I think Schneiderlin was excellent. I was impressed with how he kept control in the middle and his passing was much more up to par. Varela and Fosu-Mensah were also quite good, considering their inexperience.

Great to keep the winning run going, even if it took some cleverness. WBA will be a tough game but I actually think this game was more of a physical challenge. On to Sunday.

 

[Reducation]

No im in the having played football camp, when running at top speed momentum is your worse nightmare, when a player slides at you and your awaiting said challenge what happens? The body tenses up and your brain tells you to prepare for an impact, now when that hit doesnt arrive, that still doenst mean that your body isnt braced. In this moment its incredibly easy to lose balance and go to ground. I remember a similar indecent when Bale was at spurs and he was lambasted as a diving cheat. The problem is too many fans and pundits think diving is black and white and that you can only foul someone by actually catching them. If you slide in with intent and dont win the ball, there are many reasons why it can be a foul.

Whether or not he was fouled does not have any bearing on whether he dived deliberately. And I am perfectly aware that there doesn't have to be physical contact for a foul.
And if that was Martial at top speed then he has a major problem.

 

[Acole9]

Bit of a scrappy win but they all count and we're now level on points with City, who would've thought it!