[James Peril]

One other factor other than the obvious poor finishing was the diabolical officiating by the ref and Lee Mason on VAR.

unbelievable.

Don’t agree with this at all, there were very few if any big mistakes by the referees and nothing out of the ordinary. This was on the team, not the referees. Blaming the refs after a «loss» usually means you have a bad case from the start, yawn.

 

[sirAlexsglasses]

I just don’t get the grief that RR is getting for this, we should have been 4-0 in 20 minutes, you can’t blame him on the entire team not taking their chances. We do have some of the most toxic fans around.

 

[Jeppers7]

Good performance. Elanga was outstanding. Just one of those games you get sometimes. But very costly.

 

[Jeppers7]

From the stretford end both pens looked like they should’ve been given. Anyone seen them on a replay?

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Not on Ralf, some of those players should be ashamed of their performances

He’s walked into a difficult job but a top class manager would have found a beat out of this group. Top 4 from when he joined with the fixtures we had was quite easy. And he’s blown jt

 

[James Peril]

Ronaldo getting a lot of stick, he was 10 cm and an offside away from the same tedious posters saying he is back and so important to this team. Biggest problem was Bruno, he wasted big chances, played for himself and shot from stupid angles. Ronaldo teed up the ball before it was passed to Bruno for his pathetic miss, he also crossed nicely for Bruno’s weak header in the second half. Like I said, Ronaldo was a few cm away from us winning and he actually put the ball in the net, Bruno let us down bigtime and thinks it’s better for him to always shoot from 40 odd yards. Doesn’t help that he has he body language of an angry 12 year old, unlike Ronaldo he hasn’t got a single important trophy in his locker and he really seems to annoy his teammates these days.

 

[Raincool165]

Bruno should be replaced by Mata next game. Let's see what happen.

 

[lex talionis]

Don’t agree with this at all, there were very few if any big mistakes by the referees and nothing out of the ordinary. This was on the team, not the referees. Blaming the refs after a «loss» usually means you have a bad case from the start, yawn.

We did not go enough to deserve victory and that’s the important conclusion, but we were in fact denied two stonewall penalties. They were close enough to miss in real time, but easy enough for VAR to get them right, and it didn’t.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

There are not enough calm finishes. LVG, yes him, said you should control the ball, take a touch, before you take a shot. Also too many want to be take the glory, instead of looking to see if someone is actually in a better position.

 

[Redfrog]

When Chelsea was doing the same thing when Tuchel was appointed, a lot of people where arguing about style of play and xg.
We are exactly the same now but people are too emotional to take it rationally.
We play better now, not every game but we play better. It was a good game we would have won 9 out of 10 times.

For one, I would be happy missing top 4 and have a real project seeing us develop a style of play and recrute players accordingly rather then scraping the top 4 and be short sighted.

 

[Red Dreams]

There are not enough calm finishes. LVG, yes him, said you should control the ball, take a touch, before you take a shot. Also too many want to be take the glory, instead of looking to see if someone is actually in a better position.

yeah.

Bruno and Sancho for sure.
there were others too.

 

[Giggzy P]

The best football we played since fergie left, IMO. the tactics were on point, we we had 93 % possession in the first 33 minutes. We should have been up by at least 3 goals.
I hated watching games under ole, we had I enjoyed the game even if we drew, we were for ever in control the most of the game but our plans didn't work. But we had a least on could see a plan

 

[Godfather]

Enjoyed the game apart from our moments in front of goal. It's a pity we don't have a proper striker

 

[Orange Tree]

Our play has improved, result has not. Let's just hope that Arsenal and Tottenham start hitting rough patch as we seem unable to string good results together.

 

[Anduin]

From the stretford end both pens looked like they should’ve been given. Anyone seen them on a replay?

First half on Elanga was never a pen, decent interception by Cathcart. Second half on Ronaldo was debatable, but Ronaldo should’ve gone down when Foster chased him down and Bruno headed over in the first half, stonewall pen if he doesn’t jump over Foster IMHO. It just goes to show why players are diving, they are not getting penalties if they aren’t on the ground, which is ridiculous.

 

[VinzentFTW]

We can win the CL

 

[King29]

Very disappointed with the result but that's a performance I can actually look forward to watching. Replace cr7 upfront with any decent 30 yo striker and we are winning that game.

We used to say in the Mourinho days when we were scraping wins with dire performances, that we'd rather see entertaining football even if it meant lesser consistency with results. Seems like the grass is always greener with some fans..

 

[Yorke to Cole]

This season is depressing. I have emotionally checked out. It has been catastrophic and one thing going after another.

I will probably get panned for this, but we definitely miss Greenwood as an option up front. As for the lack of steel in midfield, that is just a vaccum.

 

[VanDeBank]

Definition of fair weather fan.

"I havent watched most of the games for the past 10 years, let me tell you guys who have, how little I care to watch the games."

 

[GL21]

This season is depressing. I have emotionally checked out. It has been catastrophic and one thing going after another.

I will probably get panned for this, but we definitely miss Greenwood as an option up front. As for the lack of steel in midfield, that is just a vaccum.

I have to agree with you here. From a footballing point of view its a fair assumption greenwood could have been thriving as our number 9 right now. This opportunity was ideal for him to stake his claim. All along I was so opposes to Ronaldo arriving and stifling his development but he make a great job going one better an ruining his own career[/QUOTE]

 

[croadyman]

We have dropped far too many points since that win over Arsenal on Dec 2. Sadly think we will pay the price for it in next few games.

Created plenty of chances but let's be honest we didn't work Foster enough. Yes we should have had more stoppage time but not going to blame that.

Arsenal have some tough games in hand but will go into them with real confidence after Thurs night.

 

[simplyared]

There were many positives to take out of that game. Ok we only get a point out of it, but to you moaners: för feck sake look at the bigger picture!

 

[calodo2003]

Couldn’t watch the match, should we have won?

 

[Pretzels81]

As dull as it gets.

 

[Todd]

We can win the CL

No, we cannot. It'll take a miracle for us to just get through Atletico.

Over two legs against the likes of City, Liverpool, PSG or Bayern we'd get properly housed.

 

[valeron21]

Thought we played well today and should of win 3 or 4 nil.

I find interesting how people interpret raplhs job.. he is an interim manager nothing more , and hopefully can install some structure to the club when he goes upstairs. I think our fans are short sighted and expect a change in everything immediately. It’s a slow process and I think as an ‘interim’ he’s doing fine.

He’s shored up the defence , we don’t leak as many goals now, we are more in control now and creating more chances . I’d be far more worried if we create nothing and someone pulls out a bit of magic to win the game 1-0 . This match should of been 4-0 . Have some patience and we’ll come good and the strikers will get their confidence back. I just hope we’re still in with a shot of champIons league or top 4 when it happens !
I think half the posters here would of gotten rid of Klopp after a a season , it took a while before they became good but they had signs of progress which I see with this team. We need to be on the front foot and keep creating chances and the results will eventually come

 

[Buster15]

At this stage of the season when we should be having some kind of momentum, two more points dropped to a relegation side.

Roy Hodgson had got Watford very organised in such a short time. Crappy to watch but effective.

 

[Buster15]

Good performance. Elanga was outstanding. Just one of those games you get sometimes. But very costly.

Exactly that.

 

[croadyman]

There were many positives to take out of that game. Ok we only get a point out of it, but to you moaners: för feck sake look at the bigger picture!

Europa League Football could well be that bigger picture if we can't put teams away

 

[NZT-One]

The best football we played since fergie left, IMO. the tactics were on point, we we had 93 % possession in the first 33 minutes. We should have been up by at least 3 goals.
I hated watching games under ole, we had I enjoyed the game even if we drew, we were for ever in control the most of the game but our plans didn't work. But we had a least on could see a plan

It was our tactics that made Watford, bottom of the table to come to Old Trafford ready to defend for their lifes? We should have made some goals but we didn't. Certainly players are to blame but I think, RR didn't make a good decision to play Bruno and Pogba as the only midfield players for so long. Both were way too far away from the opposition goal from then on, Pogba was done physically after 5 minutes playing like this. Noone really stood out negatively but that shouldn't be seen as some sort of praise. It was Watford at the end of the day. And they were quite woeful in some periods....

 

[tjb]

This game showed what we can be with decent midfielders. Matic was able to impose himself on the game and limit the amount of space, through positioning, that Watford had to operate, which forced them to go long and allowed us to have consistent streams of offensive possession. All the top teams have these players, who also have the awareness to help the defence in the build up.

Matic is on his last legs, yet you could see how he helped us even with Fred beside him. That was the most important lesson today. We need to buy actual central midfielders who can help us keep attacks flowing.

The second takeaway was the fact that Lindelof and Varane looked good as a pair. It exposed Maguire's indecisiveness in possession.

 

[Sandikan]

Roy Hodgson had got Watford very organised in such a short time. Crappy to watch but effective.

They weren't so organised we couldn't put that array of chances in though?

 

[Fitchett]

We played some really good football, especially in the first half, when we could have gone in 6-0 up. Really shocking finishing by our forward players, especially Ronaldo and Fernandes. I thought that Matic and Elanga were our two best players, and the Varane/ Lindelof centre back pairing was really good. Once again, Rashford was shocking when he came on, offered nothing. Ronaldo was poor, but I don't suppose it was ever in the plan for him to play three full games in six days. Our other strikers need to step up, make themselves fit and score goals, so that Ronaldo can be rotated for everyone's benefit.

As to be expected, the referee Kevin Friend and the Bolton VAR Lee Mason gave us nothing. Two penalty shouts looked legitimate penalties from my view, high up behind the goal in East stand upper tier.

 

[croadyman]

Absolute shite. If you want to give yourselves a hernia look at the pile of fixtures this year in which we have just throw points away; whether it's through stupid goals given away, poor disjointed attacking or abysmal finishing.

Yeah home draws with Everton Southampton & Watford, defeats to Villa & Wolves too. That's not accounting for draws at Southampton, Burnley & Newcastle combined with defeat to Watford.

 

[DRJosh]

Top 4 dream has officially ended

Thursday night football back again

 

[Offside]

Dropping points at home to Watford is next level shite. feck off.

 

[AndyMUFC]

Just not good enough at finishing chances. Wasn’t as annoyed as I been after some games because we did completely dominate but we’ve dropped too many points now with these fixtures coming up.

First half in particular was very good, played at a great tempo with some good link up play and we were decent second half but ran out of steam as we started to get more and more desperate.

Love Elanga. Ronnie is not doing the business unfortunately.

 

[croadyman]

The Ronaldo experiment needs to stop at the end of the season. He needs to score every game to justify being in the team, that's how bad his all round game is. We get a good mobile CF and a DM in the summer and we'll be fine.

Need more than that but it's a start

 

[Karlos PFC]

Props to Ole for remedying that garbage for a couple of years

Terrible WUM

 

[donkeyfish]

Good performance. Elanga was outstanding. Just one of those games you get sometimes. But very costly.

This is what I would've thought in 2012, we've always had a few games like this during a season.

The problem now is that it comes on top of all our other mishaps, so aggregated it feels more dramatic only getting a draw. I think.