Tired....again

[tenpoless]

Extreme fatigue
Chronic tiredness
Hyper exhaustion
Absolutely knackered

All sounds like an excuse you made when you've just had 10 weeks off from school and you spent it mostly wanking due to boredom to the point where your cock looked like a peperami.

I am not buying it. They are tired but not chronic, they can still run. The way some of you are going about this, it's as if the players have been walking around in sahara desert for 20 days, surviving only on crisps and bottles of piss.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

4 games in 9 days and you lot wonder why we're tired. It's a minor miracle that we haven't succumbed to any muscle injuries during this time as well!

Indeed but for some on here, it's not that. It's mental weakness, it's poor selection, it's sub standard players, it's a shit league and we're not good enough. It's everything but fatigue.

Welcome to the world of the modern day Utd fan

 

[Wade3]

We simply need more depth in quality. While the top teams, except for Liverpool, may not be as good as in other years, the league depth is quite good. Thus, even against the lower teams, a certain quality and fitness are essential. I'm not saying you need a backup with the same quality for every position, but the drop-off to our bench is too massive. As great as Sancho is gonna be for us, investing into better backups for our entire defensive lineup is gonna be key.

Additionally, I probably would have rested most players against Chelsea too. Yes, the FA Cup is a trophy we should usually aim for, but with the possibility of securing a definitive CL place, there's no point in using players who were visibly fatigued anyways.

 

[oz insomniac]

The depth of talent in the squad is really not up to the level needed To challenge seriously. At the same time Ole should have made decent changes against Chelsea to freshen up the players for the last 2 more important games, that is a sad reflection on past recruitment and the managers reading of the situation.
Personally tend to think that some blame needs to go back on the CEO and past managers who contributed to the roster and no doubt the the insane extensions and payments to several players who should have been moved on to make room for new recruits.
Time will tell if Woody and the Glazers understand the needs of the side to challenge the Pools and Citeh, and now Chelski as they sign players, Lowballing bids are just silly looking at our genuine Strengthening requirements. Hanging around the top 6 or so is not what the club was built on.

 

[pocco]

Are the likes of Fred, McT, James, Ighalo, Pereira, Mata, Lingard, Williams etc really not good enough to beat some of these teams we've faced since lockdown? Even if we only brought in a couple at a time, I don't think the drop off should be so big that we struggle as much as we do. Fergie or any good manager could get a performance out of those players against low level teams, guaranteed.

People are talking as though we need the likes of Grealish, or players at that level, on the bench, just to be able to beat the likes of West Ham. Christ, if we had options on the bench of that quality then we should be competing on all fronts. It's amazing how far the goalposts can be moved these days to excuse our performances.

 

[Judas]

We've witnessed the exact reason why people are morons for saying stuff like "why do we need Sancho, we've got Greenwood Martial and Rashford!!!!" or "Why do we need VDB or Grealish???? where would they play we've got Bruno and Pogba!!!!". We've been so shit for so long people think having an alright starting lineup is enough and have forgotten (or weren't watching football) when we had a squad with depth, and quality depth at that. You don't win things with a squad built like ours, its simply impossible unless you get a miracle go your way.

 

[theklr]

Are the likes of Fred, McT, James, Ighalo, Pereira, Mata, Lingard, Williams etc really not good enough to beat some of these teams we've faced since lockdown? Even if we only brought in a couple at a time, I don't think the drop off should be so big that we struggle as much as we do. Fergie or any good manager could get a performance out of those players against low level teams, guaranteed.

Problem with that is that they could hold out a game probably, but since we needed to catch up a massive GD difference we needed goal scorers on the pitch at all times. And none of those are that.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Tired? Or losing our nerve/composure when the stakes are high? Bearing in mind we’ve repeatedly fecked up opportunities to win what should be easy games in weekends when 3 points would take us ahead of rivals, throughout the season, my money is on the latter.

It’s doing my head in the way people keep talking about tiredness. Remember when a mid-season break was talked up as the key to keeping players fresh at the end of the season? They’ve just had three fecking months off to recharge their batteries and now they’re supposed to be on death’s door after 9 games of football? Come off it.

 

[United Hobbit]

I think Ole doesn't help the situation by being so rigid in his time to make subs

Yes a lot of those outside the first 11 are a huge drop in quality but if used correctly in a decent side, the drop in quality will be less.

However Ole dithers too long and often won't make subs until the 70th/80th minute, reducing the point of using them as the players they are replacing have practically played the whole game. I'd like to have the timings for all his substitutions over the season

If used correctly, some of the "squad" players could be useful, eg Dan James on the left where he does better- gives Rashy a rest. In a slower game eg yesterday, Mata in place of Bruno. Inghalo has scored some important goals for us prior to lock down so unsure why he's suddenly frozen out. I haven't really seen Laird as don't tend to watch the youth games but know people on here really rate him, has he been included in the squad? Could he have come in instead of AWB in some of the games we've been leading to rest AWB? Gives him some experience at the same time. Fred and McT were performing well prior to lock down. I'm not saying change the whole side but sliding in a couple of these players, at the very least the games we were ahead would help, if not start one or two and have the stronger players ready on the bench to come on, however that would require Ole being pro active with his subs if we are toiling, giving them enough time to affect the game.

I think there is a mental problem as well, we used to laugh at Tottenham and Arsenal for being bottlers, I'm starting to think we have the same problem, I think that's why the FA Cup would have been a good trophy to win as it would possibly help eradicate some of this and fire them up.

Also very loosely you have the hint of the players feeling "too comfortable" I know they were reported as taking a pay cut as we didn't get CL but they still earn astronomical wages regardless of where we finish unless relegated. Its not like us regular people who if you don't perform/ meet targets there are sackings/ redundancies.

Lack of leadership on the pitch and to some extent on the touchline. We lack a Roy Keane type to try and rouse everyone and get them going- imagine going back into a dressing room with him after that first half yesterday with what is at stake. We have lacked someone like that for a long time. Bruno and Maguire seem the closest thing to leaders but nowhere near how he was. Make players want to stand up and be counted. We were bailed out yesterday by an 18 year old (albeit one who looks very special) he wasn't hiding some of the others were.
Also Ole's touchline mannerisms. I'm guessing his ipad gives him a better view of things and admittedly he isn't always in shot so he may do this but I'd like to see him getting out of his seat more and urging the players forward. Would the likes of Klopp/ Sir Alex be sat down timidly? I don't think so! However slightly it gives the impression he doesn't care/ the players could feed off his passivity. Yes sit down when we are ahead and playing well but until then get a bit more vocal and show a bit stronger body language

 

[SSSSnake]

To echo a lot of what has been said already. We lack squad depth. The starting 11 do look shattered and can we blame them with the fixture congestion? Players who have come in for those injured or rested cannot bring us to the same levels. We looked so unbalanced last night. Sancho, VDB and a CB/LB is so desperately needed.

 

[sewey89]

They are clearly very tired. But the most alarming thing is it has highlighted how thin our squad is.

I do think the the starting 11 need a lot of praise for how they're handling it though - We're exhausted, yet we've won all but 4 games since the restart, losing 1. And in every draw, we had chances to win it.

Even yesterday, what did they create other than the Bowen shot in the second half? A silly penalty given away.. Same as Southampton, game should've been dead and buried but we just didn't take the chances.

Ole needs to get the boys fired up, go out there and leave everything on the pitch. Adrenaline should get them through the last game and then they get a well earned rest.

 

[Jonno]

This wont happen next season. We'll buy one or two good players, we'll have longer between games. Playing every 3 days is an unbelievable task to be honest, especially when your only alternatives from the bench are to take one of your front 4 off for Dan James or Lingard

 

[Jonno]

4 games in 9 days and you lot wonder why we're tired. It's a minor miracle that we haven't succumbed to any muscle injuries during this time as well!

This.

He can't do right for wrong. He rests players, he gets slaughtered. He keeps his best team on the pitch, he gets slaughtered for us being tired.

Grab a draw or a win on Sunday, get well rested, have a proper go at the Europa and the majority of level headed Man United fans will be very understanding and happy in whats been a crazy couple of months of football.

It's simply impossible to play at your best when you're playing 4 games in 9 days. Impossible.

 

[Stacks]

Are the likes of Fred, McT, James, Ighalo, Pereira, Mata, Lingard, Williams etc really not good enough to beat some of these teams we've faced since lockdown? Even if we only brought in a couple at a time, I don't think the drop off should be so big that we struggle as much as we do. Fergie or any good manager could get a performance out of those players against low level teams, guaranteed.

People are talking as though we need the likes of Grealish, or players at that level, on the bench, just to be able to beat the likes of West Ham. Christ, if we had options on the bench of that quality then we should be competing on all fronts. It's amazing how far the goalposts can be moved these days to excuse our performances.

Four of them are. We have played many fodder teams who would have been matched in their physical and energetic style as most our opponents lack technique. People were talking about Fred being POTS and McTom as a future captain once upon a time. Ighalo has been a threat in every game. Since the restart Mata has played less than 45 minutes. The squad usage is awful.

And yes West Ham are trash.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Indeed but for some on here, it's not that. It's mental weakness, it's poor selection, it's sub standard players, it's a shit league and we're not good enough. It's everything but fatigue.

Welcome to the world of the modern day Utd fan

To people like the above, I ask this: We haven't played well since the first of these 4 games (Southampton), you still blame it all on tiredness? I would even say against Villa we started really slow.

 

[romufc]

They are clearly very tired.

Why do we look the most tired?

We played with 2 fresh full backs. Pogba, Martial, Greenwood were rested on the weekend.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

They actually should be less ‘tired’ now than when we were spanking teams by three goals in June. The big concern after lockdown was lacking fitness after not playing for ages. The complete opposite of playing too many games. Their match fitness should have improved a lot over the last month and they should be more or less at their peak now. We’re not ‘tired’, we’re just playing badly.

 

[Stacks]

We simply need more depth in quality. While the top teams, except for Liverpool, may not be as good as in other years, the league depth is quite good. Thus, even against the lower teams, a certain quality and fitness are essential. I'm not saying you need a backup with the same quality for every position, but the drop-off to our bench is too massive. As great as Sancho is gonna be for us, investing into better backups for our entire defensive lineup is gonna be key.

Additionally, I probably would have rested most players against Chelsea too. Yes, the FA Cup is a trophy we should usually aim for, but with the possibility of securing a definitive CL place, there's no point in using players who were visibly fatigued anyways.

McTom and Fred were being praised before COVID. Ighalo always causes hella problems when he comes on. They can hold it down based off what I have seen and we have won games with worse players (lingard, James, Andreas etc)

The depth of talent in the squad is really not up to the level needed To challenge seriously. At the same time Ole should have made decent changes against Chelsea to freshen up the players for the last 2 more important games, that is a sad reflection on past recruitment and the managers reading of the situation.
Personally tend to think that some blame needs to go back on the CEO and past managers who contributed to the roster and no doubt the the insane extensions and payments to several players who should have been moved on to make room for new recruits.
Time will tell if Woody and the Glazers understand the needs of the side to challenge the Pools and Citeh, and now Chelski as they sign players, Lowballing bids are just silly looking at our genuine Strengthening requirements. Hanging around the top 6 or so is not what the club was built on.

No one believed we were near challenging though. Just beat relegation fodder for now, is enough.

This.

He can't do right for wrong. He rests players, he gets slaughtered. He keeps his best team on the pitch, he gets slaughtered for us being tired.

Grab a draw or a win on Sunday, get well rested, have a proper go at the Europa and the majority of level headed Man United fans will be very understanding and happy in whats been a crazy couple of months of football.

It's simply impossible to play at your best when you're playing 4 games in 9 days. Impossible.

Then rotate properly. We have beaten teams with McTom and Fred with one of Bruno/Pogba before. Why do we have Ighalo if not to rotate? Ighalo has played 90 minutes of premier league football across 10 matches so thats 9 mins/match. Our players will continue to get run into the ground every season as no team as a world class squad, thus its gonna be more of the same.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I'm surprised with how Ole kept on playing our best players in such tight fixtures. Now last game we reached the point that what we have on the bench can not perform any worse than what we have on the pitch. Awful management and we've seen it before even without congested fixtures. When Ole played Rashford though injury against Wolves in the first round of Fa cup which sent him out for a long time and when Ole played a recovering Pogba against fecking Rochdale. It's so awful and the only two times we've rotated against Chelsea and Norwich in fa cup, we still finished the games with our our best XI

 

[sewey89]

Why do we look the most tired?

We played with 2 fresh full backs. Pogba, Martial, Greenwood were rested on the weekend.

We do seem to look the most tired and I don't know why. We've played as many games as anyone and I don't think the fixture schedule was kind to us, but we shouldn't look this much more tired, I agree.

Pogba, Martial and Greenwood all played at least 30 minutes at the weekend and I don't think fitness was an issue for them, I think they looked 3 of the freshest.

Again, the fullbacks didn't look tired, they're just not very good those two.

The real tiredness appears to be Matic, Bruno and Rashford. Matic is slowing play down too much I think which is causing us problems when we're getting pressed. I think we should be starting Fred over him on Sunday and then we can bring Matic on for the last half an hour when the pace has slowed down to try and see the game out, similar to what we did against Palace.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

Looks like most of us agree it's not Ole that's the problem but the insane schedule combined with our (lack of) squad depth, especially in attack. Let this sink in: Ighalo is our best attacker on the bench. After that we've got James, who's played like a headless chicken every time he's played since the break. Or Lingard, but don't even get me started on him. In midfield at least we've got Fred and McTominay, but to be honest Fred doesn't seem to be able to handle being a sub. He was doing well when he was a starter but he's regressed lately. Our creative options are Mata, who's lost his legs, and Pereira, who works hard but doesn't offer much else. In defence we have nobody since they're all out injured.

It's been 10 games in 33(?) days after three months with no football and only a very short period to prepare. We knew at the start of the season our squad depth was going to be a problem and that was with a normal schedule, let alone what we're having to do now. Most teams in the league have better squad depth so it makes sense we're feeling it more than most. Despite this we've gone on a fantastic unbeaten run nobody expected us to. Most of us thought top four was out of reach by december, yet here we are in third. Let's just hope we can get it over the line and improve our squad ahead of next season instead of looking for someone to blame.

 

[romufc]

We do seem to look the most tired and I don't know why. We've played as many games as anyone and I don't think the fixture schedule was kind to us, but we shouldn't look this much more tired, I agree.

Pogba, Martial and Greenwood all played at least 30 minutes at the weekend and I don't think fitness was an issue for them, I think they looked 3 of the freshest.

Again, the fullbacks didn't look tired, they're just not very good those two.

The real tiredness appears to be Matic, Bruno and Rashford. Matic is slowing play down too much I think which is causing us problems when we're getting pressed. I think we should be starting Fred over him on Sunday and then we can bring Matic on for the last half an hour when the pace has slowed down to try and see the game out, similar to what we did against Palace.

Yeah, I do agree.

Matic looked blown, I must have screamed at the screen everytime he got the ball. He receives the ball and looks around takes another touch, looks around gets pressed and plays the ball back to Maguire.

I don't care if you play the ball to Maguire but do it quicker. We move the ball so slowly, it is so annoying.

I do agree with Fred, he will give us alot more energy.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

To people like the above, I ask this: We haven't played well since the first of these 4 games (Southampton), you still blame it all on tiredness? I would even say against Villa we started really slow.

I think it's a combination of factors. The main one is fatigue.You just have to look at the teams apart from Liverpool and City who have had nothing to play for in the PL

Leicester in freefall. Injuries and lack of squad depth is costing them.
Chelsea, very inconsistent. Lost 3 games very badly, since restart. But for some, losing heavily but playing attacking football is more acceptable than 2 draws. They could yet finish 5th
Wolves and Sheffield Utd: inconsistent form but heave exceeded expectations.
Arsenal: 10th, say no more.

Our GD is 28
Chelsea 13
Leicester 28
We've scored 64, compared to Leicester and Chelsea's 67.

Yes we started slow against those teams but were able to put them to bed and kept errors to a minimum. Fatigue has played its part but also a lack of quality in the squad. What's hurt us is the 10 draws pre lockdown not the 2 subsequent to it.

Some on here are being over critical and need to get a grip.

 

[Jonno]

McTom and Fred were being praised before COVID. Ighalo always causes hella problems when he comes on. They can hold it down based off what I have seen and we have won games with worse players (lingard, James, Andreas etc)



No one believed we were near challenging though. Just beat relegation fodder for now, is enough.


Then rotate properly. We have beaten teams with McTom and Fred with one of Bruno/Pogba before. Why do we have Ighalo if not to rotate? Ighalo has played 90 minutes of premier league football across 10 matches so thats 9 mins/match. Our players will continue to get run into the ground every season as no team as a world class squad, thus its gonna be more of the same.

Rotate properly? We rotated against Chelsea and Ole got slaughtered. He played Fred against Chelsea and he was awful. We played TFM last night and he was awful. Williams, chasing the game against Chelsea. Lingard gets minutes, and he's anonymous, he's tried to bring Bailly in, he got injured, McTomminay does get minutes.

We're not going to get run into the ground though, are we. We're never going to have to play 4 games in 9 days ever again. We're only doing this now because of a global pandemic forcing the footballing authorities to squeeze games into a short space of time.

Lets just edge a CL spot, get rested and go all out in the Europa. Next season we'll replace the likes of Lingard, Jones with better alternatives such as Sancho, Ake, or whoever.

 

[Strelok]

Tired? Or losing our nerve/composure when the stakes are high? Bearing in mind we’ve repeatedly fecked up opportunities to win what should be easy games in weekends when 3 points would take us ahead of rivals, throughout the season, my money is on the latter.

It’s doing my head in the way people keep talking about tiredness. Remember when a mid-season break was talked up as the key to keeping players fresh at the end of the season? They’ve just had three fecking months off to recharge their batteries and now they’re supposed to be on death’s door after 9 games of football? Come off it.

Tbh I started to find this fecking annoying. These guys don't understand a feck about how fitness works yet constantly moaning about this.

Let's say a player body is like a battery, fully charged is 100 %. After a match it drops to 40 % for example. According to science it'd need at the least 72 hours of rest for a professional footballer to get "recharged" back to 100 %. It's not fecking like you rest for 3 months and your battery is at 1000 % so you can play 10 matches in 30 days and you'd always at 100 %.

Actually don't train and don't play for a long period of time make you less fit than if you do. Both body fitness and match fitness. Also the accumulated fatigue of your muscles, your mind for playing too much in a short time without adequate rest and relax time. Don't forget that the players still have things to do when they're between matches. They still have to train, have to travel, have to attend tactical meetings etc.

Tbh I don't even want to talk about this because it's fecking obvious but I'm really tired of listening to this bullshit 3 months.

 

[redshaw]

Ole had the perfect time to get the team some rest in the FA Cup. Under normal circumstances I would say play a strong team but with this silly schedule, Ole being scared to change a winning team for league games and top 4 so close I would've played a second string 11. Not only that our first team took a kicking at Wembley and the game dragged on longer with the headbutts.

 

[United Hobbit]

Yeah, I do agree.

Matic looked blown, I must have screamed at the screen everytime he got the ball. He receives the ball and looks around takes another touch, looks around gets pressed and plays the ball back to Maguire.

I don't care if you play the ball to Maguire but do it quicker. We move the ball so slowly, it is so annoying.

I do agree with Fred, he will give us alot more energy.

I was another shouting "move!" at the screen. They were just taking too long on the ball and by the time it was finally played, West Ham had got back and packed the box. We were doing much better when we were playing quicker football. We then had control of the game which would have enabled more players to be rested. We invite more pressure by being so slow on the ball, if we pass it quickly, we are put under less pressure but dithering on the ball invited them to pressure us, leading to them creating chances. The lack of urgency was grinding me as well, given this isn't just a dead rubber top 4 is at stake.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Tbh I started to find this fecking annoying. These guys don't understand a feck about how fitness works yet constantly moaning about this.

Let's say a player body is like a battery, fully charged is 100 %. After a match it drops to 40 % for example. According to science it'd need at the least 72 hours of rest for a professional footballer to get "recharged" back to 100 %. It's not fecking like you rest for 3 months and your battery is at 1000 % so you can play 10 matches in 30 days and you'd always at 100 %.

Actually don't train and don't play for a long period of time make you less fit than if you do. Both body fitness and match fitness. Also the accumulate fatigue of your muscles, your mind for playing too much in a short time without adequate rest and relax time. Don't forget that the players still have things to do when they're between matches. They still have to train, have to travel, have to attend tactical meetings etc.

Tbh I don't even want to talk about this because it's fecking obvious but I'm really tired of listening to this bullshit 3 months.

I know, right? Just as well they’ve had the opportunity to play 10 games of football over the last month. That should have them as fit as fiddles. Oh wait...

 

[Adam-Utd]

Clearly fatigue.

You cannot play 4 must win matches in 8 days and not suffer a drop off in performance, it's just not possible.

At the worst in a normal season you'd be asked to play 3 games in 8 days, and even then you'd usually rotate a bit to keep things fresh.

Unfortunately our good spell after the break has got us carried away with trying to keep momentum and not changing a winning team, but now it's left us lame.

Maybe that's Ole's inexperience as a manager and getting excited at a winning run.

If it was just 1/2 players not doing well you could perhaps say they aren't mentally up for it, but it's the whole damn team.

A poor mental state doesn't make you go unbeaten for nearly 2/3 months of football, i don't believe that 1 minute.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Tbh I started to find this fecking annoying. These guys don't understand a feck about how fitness works yet constantly moaning about this.

Let's say a player body is like a battery, fully charged is 100 %. After a match it drops to 40 % for example. According to science it'd need at the least 72 hours of rest for a professional footballer to get "recharged" back to 100 %. It's not fecking like you rest for 3 months and your battery is at 1000 % so you can play 10 matches in 30 days and you'd always at 100 %.

Actually don't train and don't play for a long period of time make you less fit than if you do. Both body fitness and match fitness. Also the accumulated fatigue of your muscles, your mind for playing too much in a short time without adequate rest and relax time. Don't forget that the players still have things to do when they're between matches. They still have to train, have to travel, have to attend tactical meetings etc.

Tbh I don't even want to talk about this because it's fecking obvious but I'm really tired of listening to this bullshit 3 months.

Its very simple logic tbh

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Clearly fatigue.

You cannot play 4 must win matches in 8 days and not suffer a drop off in performance, it's just not possible.

At the worst in a normal season you'd be asked to play 3 games in 8 days, and even then you'd usually rotate a bit to keep things fresh.

Unfortunately our good spell after the break has got us carried away with trying to keep momentum and not changing a winning team, but now it's left us lame.

Maybe that's Ole's inexperience as a manager and getting excited at a winning run.

If it was just 1/2 players not doing well you could perhaps say they aren't mentally up for it, but it's the whole damn team.

A poor mental state doesn't make you go unbeaten for nearly 2/3 months of football, i don't believe that 1 minute.

We’ve known since Ole first took over that this team has the mental fortitude to go on a long run of good results under relatively little pressure. What we have major doubts about is their ability to keep getting these results where each game has a huge pressure to perform. We’ve seen what happened in the past when we’ve had what looks like winnable games to secure the CL slots. Dropped points and horrible performances. Doesn’t it seem likely the same thing is happening again?

 

[rotherham_red]

Four of them are. We have played many fodder teams who would have been matched in their physical and energetic style as most our opponents lack technique. People were talking about Fred being POTS and McTom as a future captain once upon a time. Ighalo has been a threat in every game. Since the restart Mata has played less than 45 minutes. The squad usage is awful.

And yes West Ham are trash.

The problem is not that they're shit or not good enough, it's that they have returned from lockdown lacking sharpness and form and it is now at a crunch time of the season. Ole gave them a chance vs Norwich and they just weren't up to it at that point. He then brought many of them on in subsequent games, where they showed little, if any, improvement.

The management are stuck between a rock and a hard place: rotate and risk results when we're already at the point of a zero-sum situation vis-a-vis the race for the Top 4, or play our first XI all the way through in the hope that we have just enough within us to make it.

They banked on the latter.

 

[romufc]

I was another shouting "move!" at the screen. They were just taking too long on the ball and by the time it was finally played, West Ham had got back and packed the box. We were doing much better when we were playing quicker football. We then had control of the game which would have enabled more players to be rested. We invite more pressure by being so slow on the ball, if we pass it quickly, we are put under less pressure but dithering on the ball invited them to pressure us, leading to them creating chances. The lack of urgency was grinding me as well, given this isn't just a dead rubber top 4 is at stake.

It was shocking the speed of movement.

Matic should have been brought off for a more energetic Mctimonay or Fred. That was very poor from Ole. The other thing that gets to me is when chasing a game, the amount of needless fouls we concede and invite pressure really annoys me. That is not down to tactics and Ole, just pure lazy play from some of our players.

 

[LoneStar]

Our quality drops off a cliff past the first XI. Thought we could've had fresh legs on today though just to add some energy in the latter stages.

Does it really? Fred and Mctominay are more than good enough said options which could have been used more often.

And this doesn’t explain the matches like Chelsea where we had lost anyway, yet continued to play Bruno.

 

[Adam-Utd]

We’ve known since Ole first took over that this team has the mental fortitude to go on a long run of good results under relatively little pressure. What we have major doubts about is their ability to keep getting these results where each game has a huge pressure to perform. We’ve seen what happened in the past when we’ve had what looks like winnable games to secure the CL slots. Dropped points and horrible performances. Doesn’t it seem likely the same thing is happening again?

There does seem to be a pattern forming I agree, but I can't help but feel it's just a coincidence.

Early in the season we just weren't in good form and were dropping points whether our rivals won or not, so not sure that stat can be that helpful.

Right now both Leicester and Chelsea have taken LESS points than we have in the last 9 games, so are they also bottle jobs with weak mentalities?

I can only speak from my opinion of watching the matches, and to me there's a clear downturn in sharpness/energy/tempo in our play. We don't start the games fast and really get at teams, it's just laboured and they look like they're just in the motions.

I guess we will only really know if once the Europa league games come whether we get the speed back into our play.

 

[Josep Dowling]

We’ve played near every 3/4 days for the past 3 weeks. The players just don’t have enough time to recover. I remember saf commenting once about this where he said between games he told the players to rest and trust that they would do the right thing (ie not get smashed).
I wonder if we’ll do something similar this time round. The guys look like they have lead in their boots

So has every other team in the league. That’s a weak excuse.

 

[Smores]

No it's just an excuse not to blame the manager or players not performing. I genuinely don't think it's ever popped up as an excuse until Ole took over amazingly. Football debate reduced down to fitness

There was lots of praise when we first came back at how well we'd done to be fitter than every other team. Suddenly all our mistakes are just fitness.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

There does seem to be a pattern forming I agree, but I can't help but feel it's just a coincidence.

Early in the season we just weren't in good form and were dropping points whether our rivals won or not, so not sure that stat can be that helpful.

Right now both Leicester and Chelsea have taken LESS points than we have in the last 9 games, so are they also bottle jobs with weak mentalities?

I can only speak from my opinion of watching the matches, and to me there's a clear downturn in sharpness/energy/tempo in our play. We don't start the games fast and really get at teams, it's just laboured and they look like they're just in the motions.

I guess we will only really know if once the Europa league games come whether we get the speed back into our play.

That’s another reason for me that goes against tiredness as an excuse. If they’re heavy legged after too many games surely you’d expect that to kick in towards the end of the match, when everyone is at their most knackered?

No matter how physically tired they are, we should be able to at least start the games looking as sharp as the opposition. The fact that the opposite is happening points towards issues other than fatigue. And, just like dropped points in choke games, slow/sloppy opening periods have been a feature under Ole (and with this squad of players) that go back well before the recent fixture congestion.

 

[Siorac]

Tired? Or losing our nerve/composure when the stakes are high? Bearing in mind we’ve repeatedly fecked up opportunities to win what should be easy games in weekends when 3 points would take us ahead of rivals, throughout the season, my money is on the latter.

It’s doing my head in the way people keep talking about tiredness. Remember when a mid-season break was talked up as the key to keeping players fresh at the end of the season? They’ve just had three fecking months off to recharge their batteries and now they’re supposed to be on death’s door after 9 games of football? Come off it.

10 games of football but I agree. Also, the whole "we are so tired" argument started with the Southampton game which was only our seventh game since the restart. So playing six games in a row seemingly destroyed us - and we actually rotated heavily in one of them, at Norwich.

The reality seems to be that we're doing better when we're the underdog but we crumble when there's real pressure and expectation.

 

[Zlatan 7]

Why do we look the most tired?

We played with 2 fresh full backs. Pogba, Martial, Greenwood were rested on the weekend.

Because we’ve played the most games in the shortest amount of time with a shit load of pressure and still picked up the same points?

I find it hysterical that people are saying we’ve played shit teams and should have rested Bruno and won anyway but at the time people were saying thank feck we had Bruno to put away these shit teams that sit back and leave no space.

4 games in 9 days but the players are obviously not tired