We lost a game, stop over analysing everything

[Canagel]

agree with the OP. I went even further and said it was one of our best performances this season. probably the best away match at a top 6 club for a while. we literally conceded nothing - a DDG mistake and dubious penalty call .what else did they do? We had at least 5 clear chances and didn't take any that's why we lost. nothing to do with complacency or attitude.

 

[Brightonian]

Lots of sensible folk here, nice to see. I avoided the caf yesterday because no matter how often people say they're expecting a setback or that it won't matter before the match they always seem to lose their minds and decide that every player is shit and the manager incompetent afterwards.

Good OP, good thread.

 

[AltiUn]

I wouldn't mind but it's not like we got played off the park, we had chances we just didn't convert. We've played worse, the Tottenham match was our worst performance, if we score just one of our few very good chances then it's a different match. The only big mistake for me was the midfield, Fred and Pogba is very attacking and we left an in-form McTominay on the bench in place of Matic who had just returned from injury. I won't read too much into this game, we just need to bounce back accordingly against Wolves.

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

I think people just got carried away with the fantastic run we’ve been on since Ole’s appointment.

We overachieved, we’re not there yet, this is team is definitely going places, but we need out young players to develop further and couple of new additions to the first team.
We were good enough for at least a draw, on a different day we would’ve won.
But you can’t expect us to go and win every football match, particularly not away to a decent side like Arsenal.

 

[Red Dreams]

We lost a game.
Ole is not ready or summat to that effect.

 

[WensleyMU]

Breath of fresh air this thread.

 

[BigRon1985]

Still frustrating though - top 3 was a distinct possibility. Need to take our chances - games are running out. Still think we can scrape top 4 though.

 

[nycender]

Thank you. Browsing some threads sometimes you would think SAF never lost a match here.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Two quarter finals to play and what could be exciting last matches of the season.

Definitely bigger things to win than match against Arsenal.

 

[purgethefallen]

Two quarter finals to play and what could be exciting last matches of the season.

Definitely bigger things to win than match against Arsenal.

How many in here would have been expecting that scenario three months ago?

Shows how far we've come in such a short time.

 

[Jomini Da Tactician]

Still frustrating though - top 3 was a distinct possibility. Need to take our chances - games are running out. Still think we can scrape top 4 though.

It still is a possibility. We are 3 points behind Spurs and 2 behind Arsenal. We are in contention for a top four finish. Obviously a win would have been fantastic. However, we are still in it.

 

[langster]

Well going by this place none of our players are good enough. It's amazing how creative posters are when we lose.

So true. I was slammed for defending our squad and saying it was poor management more than poor players. Fergie taught us that team spirit, unity and confidence mixed with talent and good tactics can always win titles and cups.

Yes, we need some new players and yes we need to get rid of a few too, but we are not and never have been as bad as many made us out to be. Mourinho just drained the life and soul out of the squad. Ole has brought them back to life by believing in them and giving them the confidence they needed.

He's not perfect and he's not the Messiah (he's not even a very naughty boy) but he is United through and through and between him and his team they have just brought the fighting spirit, belief and hope back to the club that has been missed since Sir Alex left. Feck the doom merchants and FIFA fans, let them moan amongst themselves and let them spend £3 billion on players, the rest of us can support our team and be happy someone who truly gets the United way is in charge. Win, lose or draw, at least we know we are United again.

 

[roonster09]

So true. I was slammed for defending our squad and saying it was poor management more than poor players. Fergie taught us that team spirit, unity and confidence mixed with talent and good tactics can always win titles and cups.

Yes, we need some new players and yes we need to get rid of a few too, but we are not and never have been as bad as many made us out to be. Mourinho just drained the life and soul out of the squad. Ole has brought them back to life by believing in them and giving them the confidence they needed.

He's not perfect and he's not the Messiah (he's not even a very naughty boy) but he is United through and through and between him and his team they have just brought the fighting spirit, belief and hope back to the club that has been missed since Sir Alex left. Feck the doom merchants and FIFA fans, let them moan amongst themselves and let them spend £3 billion on players, the rest of us can support our team and be happy someone who truly gets the United way is in charge. Win, lose or draw, at least we know we are United again.

Very good post. When Ole was appointed I said "finally we have a manager who puts club's interest before anything", so at least we don't have to worry about manager shitting on players just for personal gain or to keep his reputation in tact, or no more "1 won this, that, this isn't my team" nonsense.

Yeah we need few players but like you said, it was never as bad as spending 500 million to sign entire new team.

 

[mazhar13]

Yeah, I was surprised by the responses myself. @Tarrou and I talked about this when we were watching the match, and we both came to a conclusion that even this loss should give us hope for the future given how we kept fighting and creating chances. Arsenal weren't comfortable the whole game, that's for sure. We had multiple goalscoring opportunities, too. I can pinpoint to particular points of improvement, but all of that could have been moot had we scored a goal in the first or second halves and got a result.

I feel like most people take the benefit of hindsight for granted. Hindsight makes appreciating a hard-fought performance like that quite difficult. We just need to realise that we cannot go back and change the past in any way; we need to move on and look forward to Wolves on Saturday. Our top 4 prospects become more difficult, but so be it; it was never going to be comfortable, anyways.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

So true. I was slammed for defending our squad and saying it was poor management more than poor players. Fergie taught us that team spirit, unity and confidence mixed with talent and good tactics can always win titles and cups.

Yes, we need some new players and yes we need to get rid of a few too, but we are not and never have been as bad as many made us out to be. Mourinho just drained the life and soul out of the squad. Ole has brought them back to life by believing in them and giving them the confidence they needed.

He's not perfect and he's not the Messiah (he's not even a very naughty boy) but he is United through and through and between him and his team they have just brought the fighting spirit, belief and hope back to the club that has been missed since Sir Alex left. Feck the doom merchants and FIFA fans, let them moan amongst themselves and let them spend £3 billion on players, the rest of us can support our team and be happy someone who truly gets the United way is in charge. Win, lose or draw, at least we know we are United again.

Agree with this! I think to be critical is fine of course, but some people go way over the top. I see guys wanting to sell almost half our squad and then spend 600M or something to buy 5-6 top players and 3-4 squad players. The grass is greener on the other side type of guys.

Mentality and culture is so important and I think Ole is getting back a positive mentality to make us winners again.

 

[Tomuś]

The 'we were still in Paris hence didn't perform' line sounds a ready-made, lazy excuse. We were much much better than a hangover team is. Looked nothing like jaded or something. We didn't score so didn't deserve to win, as simple as that.

 

[Tomuś]

Agree with Ole when he suggested it may well have been one of our best performances under him but a bit of a freak result given the sitters.

 

[Okey]

Great OP. I was starting to wonder too if we weren't ever expected to lose a game. We played well, so chin ups. Even the Sainted bald one down the road has lost a few this season It only becomes a worry if we go on a losing run. And I'm pretty sure we won't. Onwards and upwards...

 

[tieunhilang]

Yeah, I was surprised by the responses myself. @Tarrou and I talked about this when we were watching the match, and we both came to a conclusion that even this loss should give us hope for the future given how we kept fighting and creating chances. Arsenal weren't comfortable the whole game, that's for sure. We had multiple goalscoring opportunities, too. I can pinpoint to particular points of improvement, but all of that could have been moot had we scored a goal in the first or second halves and got a result.

The dreadful thing is, what if we miss out on top 4 at the end of the season, and some of our players (Pogba, for example) leave us for another team with Champions League next season? People talk about how being out of Champions League makes it hard to attract players (Which we desperately need too). But we also have to worry about how to KEEP our current good players without Champions League next season.

So yeah, "hope for the future" is nice. The thing is whether or not we can maintain it.

 

[SER19]

This! People should watch back the old DVD season reviews. I have the 02/03 Van Nistelrooy one and we had some utter dross performances and howlers.

Yeah it's part and parcel. At the other extreme people point to those bad games and say 'Ferguson didn't play exciting football'. We live in an age of extremes. Ferguson played phenomenal football but in the real world that involves some dreadful games too. We will lose again before the end of the season. It won't mean anything more than that. I just hope it isn't in the champions league

 

[Swiss_Red89]

I was also surprised to read that much negativity in here, especially only a few days after the lads brought us one of the best if not the best night in the last decade...We didnt lose to Fulham at home, we had to play Arsenal away and were unlucky, on a other day we would have won.

But it was a lot of "Rashford is not good", "DeGea is overrated", "Lindelof is a mistake waiting to happen", "Soksjaer is tactically naiv" etc. Didnt unterstand this...

I think its generally the case that english football fans are often a bit too harsh with their players and Teams. (national team a good example). But have to say as a Swiss, i'm used to much more medicority and shitness with our football teams, so i'm obviously naturally less critical when watching top football :-)

 

[SadlerMUFC]

We lost.

Shit happens.

Players have off days.

It's to be expected, especially after what happened midweek.

It's not the end of the world.

If doesn't deserve 20 threads analysing everything and it doesn't need individual player threads being blamed. We lost. Yes it sucks, but we move on and yes players have bad days but we move on. Onwards and upwards not backwards and downwards.

The loss didn't bother me much because we played well. We were the better team but we lost. If we keep performing like that we will get all 3 points most weeks. It just didn't happen this time. We move on and win the next one...

 

[rollingstoned1]

Well if you wanted to put a positive spin on it, id say at this stage of the season if you had a choice would you rather we lost the fa cup game or the one on Sunday? There's no guarantees We'd go onto win it obviously while 2 pts in 8 games is nothing considering Tottenham are also now probably in that top 4 dogfight. For me it was a no brainer, we had to lose at some point so rather the league match which may perhaps not matter much in the end than a cup match which would send us out. We actually played better in the game we lost mind you.

 

[Dr Foo]

Totally agree with the OP. We have defied many odds on this incredible run, kept winning despite a massive amount of injuries, a defeat had to come at some point along this difficult set of fixtures. To be even in contention for top 4 is a great testament to Ole and the team. We have a good record at the Emirates, but it was by no means a foregone conclusion of victory, and the over confidence of many fans going into the game was startling. As pointed by previous posters, we have had better EPL winning teams in the past that lost in this fixture. Our performance in this game was actually pretty good compared to previous ones

 

[Escobar]

It is because people really care again, get excited before games and have hope to win. We didnt have that in the past years so now a loss in a way hurrs more.

 

[Patrick08]

We lost a game of fine margins, though the quality and chemistry on the pitch looks off since 4-5 games now.

 

[matsdf]

The dreadful thing is, what if we miss out on top 4 at the end of the season, and some of our players (Pogba, for example) leave us for another team with Champions League next season? People talk about how being out of Champions League makes it hard to attract players (Which we desperately need too). But we also have to worry about how to KEEP our current good players without Champions League next season.

So yeah, "hope for the future" is nice. The thing is whether or not we can maintain it.

Do people forget that we got Pogba, Zlatan, Mkhi, Di Maria and Falcao all right before seasons where we weren't in the Champions League?

We've been outside of CL a couple of times during the last few years, NO player has left us because of it.

 

[Raven]

Just seeing this tread now, you're exactly right. Unfortunately there is a group of total cretins on here who only seem to post after a loss. It's pretty pathetic.

 

[RedTillI'mDead]

I'll take this thread a step further and say that even if we lose to Wolves it's no biggy, or any special sign. We have players returning who aren't match fit and players who have accumulated quite a lot of games having previously played very little. Trying to transition back in those not match fit will naturally make the balance quite hard to get right.

I also think there are niche balances to be considered. Herrera compliments Matic because he is so mobile. I'm not sure any other midfielder quite cuts it in terms of energy and effectiveness thus there is a case that if Matic plays, Herrera has to. Some of these niche balances may take time to explore or work around. E.g. a 4-1-3-2 giving the extra body in midfield to help Matic if Herrera isn't playing

The international break might help us a chance to regain some fitness/ sharpness, so the first game back after that is the important one.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

I don't think posters were noticeably more negative after this loss than I expected tbh.

Issue for me wasn't performance which (after slow start) was good... it was losing to Arsenal who are competing with us for top.4.

 

[TRUERED89]

The dreadful thing is, what if we miss out on top 4 at the end of the season, and some of our players (Pogba, for example) leave us for another team with Champions League next season? People talk about how being out of Champions League makes it hard to attract players (Which we desperately need too). But we also have to worry about how to KEEP our current good players without Champions League next season.

So yeah, "hope for the future" is nice. The thing is whether or not we can maintain it.

We signed Pogba without CL didn't we? Di Maria, Falcao, Memphis, Zlatan, Herrera, yes some of them turned out to be shite but were considered elite at the time. Money always talks the loudest, and we are moving in a positive/upward trajectory so I really feel players will be well up for joining United in this very exciting new regime under OGS!

 

[minoo-utd]

It is not about the loss at all, it's about missing out on champions league and how we keep our best players if we do not qualify.

 

[RasTiaGba]

Just wait until the Barca match OP.

If Messi scores an amazing goal, people will blame Ole for us not having a high expected goals etc. Into Barca.

Pep and Klopp have spent like half a billion and Ole has spent 0 yet but you know this will be the case.

 

[Raees]

Are we still allowed to analyse games yet or not?

 

[Obi-Red-Kenobi]

We signed Pogba without CL didn't we? Di Maria, Falcao, Memphis, Zlatan, Herrera, yes some of them turned out to be shite but were considered elite at the time. Money always talks the loudest, and we are moving in a positive/upward trajectory so I really feel players will be well up for joining United in this very exciting new regime under OGS!

Herrera was not considered elite, and never has been.

You’re right though, money counts, and you will still attract a certain level of player, but whether that level of player, or mentality of player is what you want, is another thing I’d say.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Just wait until the Barca match OP.

If Messi scores an amazing goal, people will blame Ole for us not having a high expected goals etc. Into Barca.

Pep and Klopp have spent like half a billion and Ole has spent 0 yet but you know this will be the case.

It's important to have perspective and not get carried away with criticising a manager who walked into a sinking ship. But at the same time, let's not be blinkered. The Manchester United manager is the most important person at the club and it's important for it to be occupied by one of the best in the world (at least for us, and it doesn't have to be a big name). Based on what to be seen, it prolly should be Ole. However he/whoever else should always be scrutinized as the standards that need to be maintained are incredibly high. Let's not be under illusion that okay/good is going to be enough.

Are we still allowed to analyse games yet or not?

Yeah I think there's two extremes right now - people who react in panic mode to every negative event, and those who want to brush any analysis/questioning under the carpet.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I've seen enough to want to see what Ole can do in the market and then hopefully with the right additions to this team. At the same time he does need to get us playing much better than we have the last few games. We haven't seen a seriously impressive performance for awhile it seems.

 

[Raees]

I've seen enough to want to see what Ole can do in the market and then hopefully with the right additions to this team. At the same time he does need to get us playing much better than we have the last few games. We haven't seen a seriously impressive performance for awhile it seems.

I agree with this - what I would add is I want to see him commit more to attacking football post summer (focus on quality of possession more as that is the bedrock of modern game), ensure that the fitness levels of the team are higher (capable of constant press and avoid such a low bottom level of performance) and make subs earlier if things are not looking like they’re going your way.

I wouldn’t give him a long term contract but say to him the jobs yours if you can sort this out over the next season. I’m not a believer that a coach needs years to change things.. one season is sufficient to see if things are headed the right way.