Unrealistic expectations from individual games.

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I can't really get my head around the amount of stick or first XI are getting after yesterday's game... We didn't play well, but then it was essentially this teams first game back, so to expect us to be great is compeltely unrealistic.

In every Premier League teams first games back after the break... Only 4 actually named managed to score in the first half (Palace, Villa, Spurs City... City was in the 47th minute thanks to Luiz being incompetent).

So that's 16 teams unable to really do much in the first half of their first game back... Which includes us vs. Spurs by the way, where we hardly set the world on fire

Considering the changes and this was half our teams first game back... Against a team where everyone had started at least one game prior to this... Why is anyone expecting anything else other then a sluggish start to a game of football?

I realise it's fun to rag on players when given half an opportunity but come on now... Why should we hold our players to a different expectation then what's actually realistic?

We also were actually playing much better on the second half and were well in control before the first set of subs happened.

It reminded me of an opening game we had a few seasons ago where it was boiling hot and we won 1-0...and I came on here to loads of people moaning how slow we were, as if we should have been going at a million miles per hour from the off...its unrealistic.
 
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el3mel

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Because this is the traditional performance of many of these players, nothing to do with them not playing for a long time. Dalot, Mata, Lingard etc, these are their normal performances and nothing new.
 

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Because this is the traditional performance of many of these players, nothing to do with them not playing for a long time. Dalot, Mata, Lingard etc, these are their normal performances and nothing new.
Dalot is still young and has been alright so far in this computation, and Mata was playing well before the break with Bruno...
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Because people love to jump on our players or defend them like crazy if they are a favorite. Nothing new here really.
 

ShinjiNinja26

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Dalot is still young and has been alright so far in this computation, and Mata was playing well before the break with Bruno...
I think adding one of those players at a time into a strong team is fine but when you have them all on the pitch at one once that’s the standard performance level you get like yesterday. Just doesn’t work.
 

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I don't think it's unrealistic expectations to expect the Man Utd bench players to be able to contribute vs bottom of the table, mentally beaten Norwich. Do you? If they're not replaced this summer, we might as well give up ambitions like competing with Liverpool right now. They were playing for their futures supposedly and that's the performance they give?

We wonder why we're so far off the pace, when we have a bench that would struggle to be relegation standard if we're being realistic. That's a massive problem no?
 

Maluco

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Because this is the traditional performance of many of these players, nothing to do with them not playing for a long time. Dalot, Mata, Lingard etc, these are their normal performances and nothing new.
It’s this. Players like Mata and Lingard have been putting in performances like this for a long time now. I don’t think it’s right to berate them, but I also think they shouldn’t be United players anymore because they are not good enough.

Slagging them off doesn’t help anyone and shouldn’t happen, but it’s obvious where the frustrations are coming from, and it’s not because they are “just back”, it’s because it was “more of the same”
 

el3mel

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Dalot is still young and has been alright so far in this computation, and Mata was playing well before the break with Bruno...
Dalot has been pretty poor for the majority of his time here, and hasn't shown anything to suggest he's a great talent or anything, as for Mata, guy has been playing like this for the majority of the games in last 2-3 years. These kind of nothing performances are common from him now.

Seems you still have some hope in these deadwood.
 

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I don't think it's unrealistic expectations to expect the Man Utd bench players to be able to contribute vs bottom of the table, mentally beaten Norwich. Do you? If they're not replaced this summer, we might as well give up ambitions like competing with Liverpool right now. They were playing for their futures supposedly and that's the performance they give?

We wonder why we're so far off the pace, when we have a bench that would struggle to be relegation standard if we're being realistic. That's a massive problem no?
It's totally unrealistic to expect a great first half in what was there first game back... Besides they did contribute, They were winning 1-0 and totally in control after the understandable slow start.
 

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Dalot has been pretty poor for the majority of his time here, and hasn't shown anything to suggest he's a great talent or anything, as for Mata, guy has been playing like this for the majority of the games in last 2-3 years. These kind of nothing performances are common from him now.

Seems you still have some hope in these deadwood.
Too early to write off Dalot... Mata has a function which he tends to show when surrounded by the right sort of players (i.e. Bruno) ... Lingard I have less hope for, but it would be dumb to judge and /or criticise him or anyone for yesterday's performance.
 

Leftback99

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Because this is the traditional performance of many of these players, nothing to do with them not playing for a long time. Dalot, Mata, Lingard etc, these are their normal performances and nothing new.
Even more reason to not expect us to play great football then.

Even under SAF we had some shocking performances in cups with rotated sides, i don't know why it surprises anyone.
 

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It's totally unrealistic to expect a great first half in what was there first game back... Besides they did contribute,
They were winning 1-0 and totally in control after the understandable slow start.
I wasn't expecting scintillating football, not at all, but it was literally walking pace, no tempo & zero ideas or conviction to our play at all. They were embarrassing. It's not like i'm berating them based on yesterday, but this is what they have been like for a long long time. It was not good enough by any standard. We were winning 1-0 but we weren't in control. I always felt Norwich would score once they stopped being intimidated by the jersey and realised the players wearing it weren't up to much.

Are you honestly expecting to be able to challenge next season with players like Lingard/Mata as rotation players? If Pogba or Bruno get's injured, you're confident they would contribute in their places? Cantwell & Buendia play for the team bottom 21 points from 31 games and they're a cut above our bench players, do you think that's okay for a Manchester United team?
 

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I wasn't expecting scintillating football, not at all, but it was literally walking pace, no tempo & zero ideas or conviction to our play at all. They were embarrassing. It's not like i'm berating them based on yesterday, but this is what they have been like for a long long time. It was not good enough by any standard. We were winning 1-0 but we weren't in control. I always felt Norwich would score once they stopped being intimidated by the jersey and realised the players wearing it weren't up to much.

Are you honestly expecting to be able to challenge next season with players like Lingard/Mata as rotation players? If Pogba or Bruno get's injured, you're confident they would contribute in their places? Cantwell & Buendia play for the team bottom 21 points from 31 games and they're a cut above our bench players, do you think that's okay for a Manchester United team?
That does kind of sound like your berating them for yesterday's play? Despite that being exactly the same for every other team in the first half of their first games back?

First 20 mins of the second half we were in total control... Norwich weren't doing anything.

Also, if Salah and Mane got injured, would Liverpool challenge? I don't think any club in the world prepares for their two best players getting injured.
 

el3mel

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Too early to write off Dalot... Mata has a function which he tends to show when surrounded by the right sort of players (i.e. Bruno) ... Lingard I have less hope for, but it would be dumb to judge and /or criticise him or anyone for yesterday's performance.
They're not just criticized for yesterday's performance.
 

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I wasn't expecting scintillating football, not at all, but it was literally walking pace, no tempo & zero ideas or conviction to our play at all. They were embarrassing. It's not like i'm berating them based on yesterday, but this is what they have been like for a long long time. It was not good enough by any standard. We were winning 1-0 but we weren't in control. I always felt Norwich would score once they stopped being intimidated by the jersey and realised the players wearing it weren't up to much.

Are you honestly expecting to be able to challenge next season with players like Lingard/Mata as rotation players? If Pogba or Bruno get's injured, you're confident they would contribute in their places? Cantwell & Buendia play for the team bottom 21 points from 31 games and they're a cut above our bench players, do you think that's okay for a Manchester United team?
It was red hot yesterday afternoon in Norwich, it is the middle of Summer you know.
 

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That does kind of sound like your berating them for yesterday's play? Despite that being exactly the same for every other team in the first half of their first games back?

First 20 mins of the second half we were in total control... Norwich weren't doing anything.

Also, if Salah and Mane got injured, would Liverpool challenge? I don't think any club in the world prepares for their two best players getting injured.
I am describing what the team is like every time they have played this season. Yesterday's performance was not an isolated event. You're expecting me to give them the benefit of the doubt when that's been their standard performance anyway?

Like i said, our control was always based on the fact that Norwich were scared of us & didn't believe in themselves. We weren't creating anything or threatening them, we were going through the motions, hoping to hold on until the end. That's control to you?

That's not my point. I'm saying every successful team needs a solid bench to rotate their starters. We can't afford to rest our players though, because ours is useless. We couldn't even give them a rest vs bottom of the table Norwich yesterday, so until they're replaced, we've got no chance. That's just being realistic. You don't agree with that?
 

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People have been comparing full football games to highlights and YouTube videos for years.
As a result United are often compared to highlight reels from other clubs.

it’s maddening.
 

anant

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I don't think it's unrealistic expectations to expect the Man Utd bench players to be able to contribute vs bottom of the table, mentally beaten Norwich. Do you? If they're not replaced this summer, we might as well give up ambitions like competing with Liverpool right now. They were playing for their futures supposedly and that's the performance they give?

We wonder why we're so far off the pace, when we have a bench that would struggle to be relegation standard if we're being realistic. That's a massive problem no?
It is. Norwich played their 1st squad, all of them had minutes under their belt. Whereas we played literally our 2nd side bar 3 players. How many teams in the PL can beat another PL side comfortably with literally their 2nd team. Bar City (even their 2nd choice defenders would probably struggle), I can't think of any side.
Hell even City were struggling last year vs Swansea when they rested all their big guns and Swansea were a Championship club
 

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Funny, they've been like this all season, can say last season too. What's the excuse for those performances then?
The club can't win with some fans, if everybody is buzzing around like blue-arsed flies pressing closing down the opposition you'd have fans saying we've got no shape/discipline.

And on yesterday i'm not sure what some of ours fans were expecting in those conditions with most of the best players rested, plus historically FA Cup quarter-finals are usually boring as feck, we got the result we wanted, time to move on.
 

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I think the main issue is people vastly overrate the average performances of other clubs. Even Barcelona looked like crap and drew yesterday in a pivotal game. Liverpool have looked devoid ideas plenty of times this season but have scraped out results. Even in United’s best seasons we had horrific halves and games that would make anyone here start shouting for the selling of players. Especially playing a full B team like yesterday. Too many highlights and too little full matches are watched nowadays.

Saying that, I also think Mata and Lingard are absolutely finished and offer nothing positive to the team these days. Lingards best is basically running and putting in effort, while Mata has physically deteriorated into someone that you just hope gets a chance on his left inside the box, because that and his little dinked balls are the only things he can offer at his best.
 

Leftback99

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People have been comparing full football games to highlights and YouTube videos for years.
As a result United are often compared to highlight reels from other clubs.

it’s maddening.
Or they go on just results. The likes of Leicester and Wolves playing nothing like the great football many on here would have you believe.
 

baskinginthesun

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Dalot is still young and has been alright so far in this computation, and Mata was playing well before the break with Bruno...
What algorithm are you using here?

....Mata also got the assist for Ighalo's goal, did he not? I wasn't surprised by the perceived rustiness, either. Most of that 11 hadn't kicked a football in a professional match for 3 months. The performance was also good enough to see us through.