I didn't watch the game live but watched the full game knowing the result and this is exactly how I saw it. Only thing I would say is we looked gassed around 70 minutes as a team and it seemed Spurs had higher level of energy than us. While Young may be stop gap, I still have plenty of hopes for Shaw. Jones had a tough game but he was playing against Harry Kane.
What happens when we come up against decent opposition? | Errr
- Thread starter Sassy Colin
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and Ali and Alli.
Winks has more time and space that he probably could have built the pyramid and still made the pass. Clear chance and no half chance by any means.
Exactly. That's a half chance.
Winks has more time and space that he probably could have built the pyramid and still made the pass. Clear chance and no half chance by any means.
Ironic, that you didn't read the part where I said we have been playing with high intensity for 3 weeks and before that it was slow football with bursts of intensity. Well I shouldn't need to say that, I am sure you can figure that out yourself unless you expect United to go from a team with least distance covered to most within a month.
"I know they didn't have a shot on target but that doesn't mean they didn't miss chances either" Surely you would agree that we also missed chances in first half and second, IMO dave's saves were good but not anything extraordinary bar one from their CB and Alli, lloris made some good saves with pogba's flick being the best one. Although I agree we need to do better but with fatigue (IMO) and lets not discredit spurs here (we weren't playing cardiff) who are a fantastic team, they were always going to create chances at home with our defence. Fortunately Dave was on form but most saves were normal, that you expect a decent keeper to save. People are loosing their sh** because it was 10 saves and thinking all their shots on target should have been goals while ignoring ours, forgetting who we were playing away and for some reason expecting our crap defenders to turn to gold vs kane, alli etc...
Exactly. If this was a half chance then all our attempts in the first half were 'quarter chances' at best. None of our shots were clear cut chances, even the Rashford goal. Spurs created the better chances all game but didn't finish them. Also, we have a certain David De God.
Winks has more time and space that he probably could have built the pyramid and still made the pass. Clear chance and no half chance by any means.
Come on. That was a big chance. But pretty much their only one in the first half.
Second half was a different story but yeah, we could have buried them before the De Gea heroics.
Agreed.
First half was fairly even but with us taking our chance and Spurs not managing a shot on target.
Second half was one of the more dominant 45 mins we've had against us in recent times. 21 shots against us in 1 half and De Gea was our best player. On another day with sharper finishing from Spurs and a day where De Gea wasnt at his best and we'd have been losing 2-1 or 3-1. We didnt. We won 1-0
But De Gae is on his best more often than not. I feel like the De Gae argument is equivalent to hypothetically predicting Barca’s results without Messi.
We’re lucky to have him. But this is what you expect from De Gae.
100%.
Sorry, I don't consider that a chance, let alone a clearest.
I dont think thats true at all this season. Plenty of times he could have done better especially on crosses and balls coming into his 6 yard box
Definitely last season though. Seems more up for it again as with the rest of the team.
I reckon we'd be at least 8-10 points better off at least. Think we'd have won away to Brighton, West ham and Southampton and at home to Palace.
Why? He could have scored himself, he could have passed for an easy tap-in... why do you think that wasn't a goalscoring chance?
Haha I was only joking. I don’t like to talk hypothetically. If we sacked Jose in the summer we probably would have ended up with a different manager!
To me it looked like he try to pass it. Even if it's a chance to call it the clearest is a bit too much.
Not convinced with Ole yesterday. The victory was because of De Gea.
Waiting for the next big game, and hoping we win convincingly. (But win above all else)
Waiting for the next big game, and hoping we win convincingly. (But win above all else)
Well, yeah, he fecked up the pass. He made the wrong decision but if he had made the right one, they would have scored. And they didn't have a better opportunity in the first half, apart from the disallowed goal but that was clearly offside.
I didn't say we didn't miss chances. I said the first half was competitive from both teams going back and forth. You keep repeating we're forgetting our chances which again proves that you jump to replay rather than reading.
Also sorry but saying the shots were straight at Dave looks like a point being made by a rival to undermine him rather than a praise for the team. That's not the first time in last 5.5 that we saw Dave putting such performance to save us. It's the only thing consistent in United post SAF.
Why? Just cause they were better in the 2nd? In the 1st he got it all right and we looked really good. In the 2nd I think fitness played a part and sure he maybe could have changed something earlier but it wasn't all that bad overall.
Not just because of the 2nd half. Even in the first half, our game plan was to hoof it up to the flanks over and over again. The number of times De Gea got the ball and lost possession through a long ball upfield was frustrating. At no point did we try to play our game of passing quickly and swiftly through the middle, despite knowing that they did not have a DM to cut out play. We were afraid of the press and played like Mourinho would to counter it.
Not very impressed.
Second half was obviously all them. Again, no intention of keeping the ball with punts upfield. Our midfield was non existent because the game went literally over their heads. That is not the way I want to see United play in big games. I wanted us to outplay Spurs, to cut through their defence with our passing and movement, not hope and pray with long balls like under Jose.
People forget the mess Mourinho left this good team in, and we are a sprinter trying to become a marathon runner again and we already making noises, we have been bottom of the league on distance covered under that lunatic. But my concern is how the likes of DDG, martial etc have all not signed contracts yet, but we already need 5 players, a RB, CB, DM, CM and RW, and we need to spend that cash this jan on a top class CB, ole deserves the money after getting us from the ashes and ole rising us up like a phoenix. Ole has turned us from midtable looking closer to 18th than top, to now ole having us look like a side that can get top 4, if the board do not spend money this month we have abig problem. If we buy a CB this month, we have an even better chance at top 4, even do really well in the CL. But we cannot ride our luck with phil jones at CB, we buy a defender this month, tackle the DM, CM and RW position, but we got to get DDG and martial under big contracts and like now
When we have to play Phil Jones , we're bound to give up some big chances against Kane, Eriksen, Alli etc.
People have been saying that this was the first real test for him, and we won 1-0. What more can you ask for, really? The squad is the same as in august, and we all know how that went. Maybe it wasn't a convincing win, but to actually come away with three points is massive, and what top sides are supposed to do. The very best sides manage to squeeze out wins, just as we did yesterday.
Also, "The victory was because of De Gea". How is that an argument against anything? You can flip that around and say that Spurs weren't convincing, they only created so many chances because of Eriksen or Kane. Having good/great players is vital to any top side. Whether that player is a goalkeeper or a striker, they make all the difference. "Barcelona aren't that convincing really, because they have Messi"
So that was a brilliant result and an impressive first half against Spurs. But with an eye to the future and areas we can improve at, what do people feel was the reason Spurs pinned us back and were hammering us in the second half? I mean eventually I imagine we want to be the kind of side Spurs are unable to do that to.
My initial thoughts:
It was a terrific win and a highly entertaining win. At times, especially in that first half, we were opening spurs up with ease. But the second half gives us much to work on over the next few months.
My initial thoughts:
- Our front three is fine and performed well on the night so no complaints. For the most part they created chances when they got the ball and tracked back as much as possible.
- The midfield did, at times, a very good job but as the game grew we found it extent difficult to play through the middle. We have to improve our quality in these central areas and withstand the press better. A deep lying midfielder could be key but to be fair spurs are exactly blessed in this area.
- Our fullbacks got too narrow allowing theirs a lot of space. But I don't think it was a fullback thing. Spurs controlling the midfield and knowing they've got our CBs on toast made everyone sit deeper and narrower, I imagine.
- Our centre backs. Kane was toying with Jones who appeared to be having some sort of footballing fit. Lindelof was solid but can't impose himself. At the end of the day every spurs forward in that second half including Son was holding the ball up wnd holding off our CBs with ease. This can be solved by signing a CB but Smalling is also key.
- Finally, I suppose, more time spent understanding Ole's ideas and being able to find each other tight and highly pressed spaces. Don't know if it will, but I hope it comes with time.
It was a terrific win and a highly entertaining win. At times, especially in that first half, we were opening spurs up with ease. But the second half gives us much to work on over the next few months.
Now you're just trolling. If you fail to see the difference in tactics and gameplan between yesterday and almost any game with Jose at the helm (have a look at the 3-0 stomping the last time we played Spurs), you better stop trying to analyze football forever. Because what you're saying here is nonsense.
The distinction I would make is that he never passed it to Sissoko, thereby never actually creating the goal chance in the first place.
Yeah the first half of this season is the first time in a long time that he hasnt been superhuman and instead wasnt the best keeper in the league.
Hoofing to the flanks? Didn't see it that way at all. Didn't happen that way. We played on the counter with quick fire passing with barely ever hoofing.
Of our 364 passes yesterday, 20% were long balls. The only game in which we've had a higher percentage was in the loss to Liverpool (21%).
This game was eerily similar to the our previous win against Spurs but back then we didn't like to admit that we weren't half bad.
Bring on fecking PSG 
All long balls are not same. Playing through ball form deep and on the ground is also considered as long ball, it isn't same as having tall striker and hoping for second ball.
How expectations are changing quickly...I'd say not half bad from a squad that was considered utter dross by a sizable portion of the Caf just a month ago. Now people are disappointed we only won 1-0 at Spurs away. Let's get real here , City were reduced to surrendering possession and sweeping balls out of play against Liverpool at home. For a team that features Phil 'the calamity' Jones , Young and Matic , we didn't do that bad.
I don't know, it didn't look that bad to me honestly. Maybe I'm painting it too rosy but in the 1st half we were on par if not more dangerous than them.
Also there's a difference between aimless hoofing and long balls. Long balls is a legitimate tactic which if performed right can be very effective.
It's true that a lot of our long passing was tactical and attempted at attacking the space behind their fullbacks. And it was working well.
At the same time, it's fair for people to want to see us outplaying these top teams on the ground at some point. That would be a more genuine indicator of our quality and cohesion than this tactic which worked well but isn't the most difficult to negate, and not a long term strategy.
At the same time, it's fair for people to want to see us outplaying these top teams on the ground at some point. That would be a more genuine indicator of our quality and cohesion than this tactic which worked well but isn't the most difficult to negate, and not a long term strategy.
At the same time, these things take time. You don't suddenly start playing everybody off the park after playing cautious football for 2.5 years
Agreed. It's been a remarkable start for Ole given the amount of time he's had to do any actual coaching with the team. We got away with it a little bit against spurs but I can only see the team improving/learning from it.
I don't doubt there will be an unexpected loss before too long as I can't see us going unbeaten til we face Liverpool on the balance of probability.
Looking at the run of fixtures and what's been happening at Arsenal and Chelsea top 4 is well within this teams capabilities.
Maybe I judge our keeper differently from other people which comes across as being similar to rival fans opinion of De gea. For me the saves he made I expect him to save whether other keepers can do that with consistently, I don't know. Bar two saves which IMO were hard saves (Alli one on one and near post save from their Cb) the rest were decent saves and I expect De gea to save on a bad day. Not undermining De gea's performance but for me De gea keeping out decent/good chances are like Messi/Ronaldo scoring, you kind of expect it.
Don't understand how anyone can criticize yesterday. First half we were pretty dominant. Set the pace of the game, they had nothing going forward bar that early opening through Winks (which happens, a little lapse of concentration early on), while we had repeated good positions in that first half and looked like creating plenty of chances (and did create a good amount). Scored the goal deservedly and had a deserved lead at half time. Second half, Spurs pushed on desperate for a goal, we had the result. All this talk about they would've won 3-1 is nonsense. They had to keep pushing on because we had a lead. We were still dangerous on the break but started playing more cautious as time went on obviously. Spurs are a very good side and were at home, of course they'll have chances. They went all out, desperate for a goal and all the pressure was on them, while we had the result to hold on to. If they equalized, who is to say the game wouldn't have reversed to how it was in the first half? It happens pretty often. Goals change games.
Just like if they scored an early goal, you can be sure we would have pushed on all game and dominated and created way more than them. The difference to us yesterday and Mourinho most of the time is that we approached the game from the start to go on the front foot, took the lead, and then made sure we still had a counter after that to not let us get penned in. The last 20-30 minutes didn't go to plan with Lukaku failing to hold anything up, but Ole did perfectly.
Just like if they scored an early goal, you can be sure we would have pushed on all game and dominated and created way more than them. The difference to us yesterday and Mourinho most of the time is that we approached the game from the start to go on the front foot, took the lead, and then made sure we still had a counter after that to not let us get penned in. The last 20-30 minutes didn't go to plan with Lukaku failing to hold anything up, but Ole did perfectly.