[RetroStu]

Credit to the lads for how they responded going behind, but why do we need to go behind for us to start playing and showing some desire?.
Oh and thank God for Ronaldo because his goals are saving us at the moment.

 

[Denis79]

We have a superior team. We will win it.

 

[stu_1992]

Decent half for us I thought. We've have some very good chances and have been very close to being ahead. That Fernandes chance after a corner and of course Ronaldo should have squares for Greenwood.
They're lucky to be drawing to be honest as obviously their goal takes a huge deflection and other than a few minutes after Maguires poor mistake, we mostly controlled the game.
Need to cut out the poor passing which Fred has been mostly guilty of. McTomminay has looked good though I think.

 

[MichaelRed]

If Fred could pass we'd be lethal. Still, really good so far, unlucky to not have a couple more goals tbh.

 

[Scarlett Dracarys]

I think they'd make a decent front 2. Maybe in a 4312. Maybe I'll try it when the new fifa is out haha

Greenwood moves with such good energy. It's almost as if he's in a completely different gear. He has no transition delay, he goes from 1st gear straight into 6th in a blink.

 

[zenith]

Like I've said a million times. Replace Fred with Rice in this team and we're 3 times better in possession as well as more controlled out of it.

Absolutely

 

[Red Dreams]

Pogba is superb.
We should wrap this up in 20 minutes into the second half.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Think Pogba has been good. Greenwood has been excellent. Scotty pretty solid as well, along with Shaw. Fred...well, he's been like Fred.

Decent half though. Extremely jammy goal by them

 

[GaryLifo]

Not perfect, but that was by a way our best away first half of the season

 

[Mickeza]

we’ve played well - mctominay really zipping the ball well between the lines. You still get the feeling one of the sloppy giveaways we do will lead to a goal on the counter for them though.

 

[Todd]

Should have started Sancho and pulled Pogba back into the midfield so that we didn't have to suffer Fred

 

[Jezpeza]

Classic Fred and why we need to get a new first-teamer in that position.

Hes just an empty shirt in a game like this. The opposition allow him time to pass tbh because hes going to give it straight back to them

 

[Will Singh]

We’ve only got a couple of players who have that killer pass and vision, if we had a midfield who could pass we’d be winning this easily!

 

[Orton]

Pogba literally cannot be tackled today. So good on the ball. Can see a goal or an assist from him in the 2nd half.

 

[Art]

Whenever Fred has the ball, the directions in which he turns always makes life difficult for him, forcing him into a high pressure situation. He’s left footed. Maybe open up your body so that more of the players are available to pass to ?

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Can we just take Fred off & put a fan on? Tell him to keep it simple. If anything it’s an upgrade.

As Roy Keane said to Neville the other week - deep lying midfielder is the easiest position in football. I’d back Keane to be better than Fred even now - just keeping it simple and moving the ball on.

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

Ronaldo, Pogba, Maguire, Varane, McTominay.

Half the team are 6'2+ and they're all in the box for corners and we never threaten.

Fecking convinced they do zero set-piece training.

The routine appears to be for shaw to swing it somewhere into the middle of the penalty area and hope.

 

[DRJosh]

If it remains 1-1 after 60 mins I wouldn’t put it beyond Ole to sub Lingard in as opposed to Sancho.

 

[Mr Smith]

We've played well and are really unlucky not to be ahead. We've moved the ball better than any game this season since Leeds, quite impressed by how we've progressed the ball up the pitch. Confident we'll win if we keep it up, the chances are there.

Special mention to McTominay, who's both progressed the ball well and been excellent at bursting into the box which has added numbers and created space for our attackers.

 

[the_cliff]

Second Half their tired legs from Thursday should start showing. We should really be winning this game comfortably considering Antionio is out and they've had to fly back on Friday.

 

[Ananke]

Good first half. Controlling the game. Should have been infront. West Ham doesn’t have anything unless We make some stupid misstakes.

Think this is the irritating thing with us at the moment. We always have a stupid mistake in certain players that eradicates all the positives.

It’s hard watching those players, twitchy bum time whenever they’re on the ball and pressured.

 

[Leg-End]

Fred just doesn’t have the top level passing ability to make him the player we actually want and need him to be.

 

[Abraxas]

I think we've played reasonably well. We've had a number of chances, controlled possession. They're a good team, we're not playing mugs out there so I think overall that was a reaosnable half but we need to push on.

 

[united_99]

We do stuff well for a while and at the same time do other stuff badly.
Our build up and attacking play has been good today but we have been so open in midfield and too easy to counter.

 

[Ivor Ballokov]

You seem surprised

Ha, no! It hasn't even managed to achieve its usual low standard

 

[Yagami]

The moment we woke up and started playing with some intensity, we were carving them open like a Christmas turkey.

More of that, please.

Vivavavavava

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Good game, we've been the better team for the majority of the half.

 

[Hughie77]

Do not lose the ball in areas where they can counter, that's the main thing in this game. Controlled possession so far and created good chances, but concentrate out of possession more is needed. Varane looks very good, unlucky deflection, but there should have been a CM on that guy soon as. No sloppy passes be ok.

 

[Strelok]

Better from us. Faster, more direct and attacking oriented.
If we had played like this on Tuesday we would have easily won.

Tbf we were until the red card.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

I think we have played well to be honest. Probably the best I’ve seen from us in ages. You have to remember these are a decent side. Their goal is a complete fluke btw.

 

[Beachryan]

Ronnie definitely woke up wiht 15 to go there, thought he'd been invisible til then.

Greenwood though - what a player he already is. Been absolutely excellent out there on the right.
McT - certainly doesn't look a step below Rice in this showing, though quite different. Lovely pass for Ronnie but also probably his role to be defending the area their goal came from. Can't quite see where he was, Fred was out wide chasing the ball.
Pogba - Don't really think we 'need' him in this wide left role, but he's fine there. Doesn't offer the pace that I think you have to compliment Ronaldo with.
AWB - Still look slow on confidence to me, and inexplicably refuses to get close to the man he's marking on the right, always leaving an avenue to play the long ball out to him. Can't work it out. I guess he figures he can sort it through tackling.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

I agree with some of the posts here about Greenwood having an excellent game. He's a special player who seems to have an extra second and an extra foot of space every time he receives the ball. His link up play with Ronaldo has been great to watch.

 

[r0663664]

AWB and Fred has to be replaced. Fred is just poor. We have a world class striker who is good in heading but AWB doesn't even think of crossing it.

Hey Ole, do we practise crossing during training? Can we put in Dalot?

 

[Chicharo]

No excuses if we don't win this. Dominated the game, conceived an un ulucky goal, we were much better
However lots of open space when we lose the ball,which gave them a chance for a couple of very dangerous counter-attacks.

 

[Someone]

Overall happy with the performance. They scored a lucky goal but we reacted well. We're in control and if we avoid silly mistakes we'll be able to win this. Fred's passing is a menace though, very poor for this level.

 

[Withnail]

Like I've said a million times. Replace Fred with Rice in this team and we're 3 times better in possession as well as more controlled out of it.

Well that is apparently the plan for next season.

 

[Pickle85]

Not just you. We have Maguire, Ronaldo, McTominay, Pogba, and Varane who are all tall and very good heading the ball. So it's quite strange that we score so rarely from set pieces. Shaw's delivery is even decent. In fact, haven't we recently hired some set piece guru?

Didn't know this...here's hoping we start making them count!

What makes it weirder is we put in a lot of great balls too. Very strange.

Exactly...Shaw and Bruno consistently put in quality but for whatever reason we don't often seem to get the rub of the green.

 

[afrocentricity]

Entertaining but clutch at times...

 

[Adisa]

Whenever Fred has the ball, the directions in which he turns always makes life difficult for him, forcing him into a high pressure situation. He’s left footed. Maybe open up your body so that more of the players are available to pass to ?

Teams press him because they know he has a high chance of giving the ball away.
Its an open secret. Troy Deeny was spot on.

 

[Darkhorsez]

We have a superior team. We will win it.

Agreed - need to focus at the back. We have too much powder up front to put this away.