Why isn't our never say die attitude praised more?

[Vidyoyo]

Seems we're showing a strong ability to get back into games and given what happened tonight, which is fecking brilliant obviously, I'm starting to think Mourinho and the team deserve a bit of credit for it.

They've clearly got it in them to know that football isn't won in the first 30 minutes alone. We might not always start well but we're doing a great job not letting our heads drop if we go behind.

What do you think? Can't just be a coincidence can it?

 

[Skills]

It's in the fabric of the club. Man Utd special.

 

[FootballHQ]

It's in the fabric of the club. Man Utd special.

Lost it for a few years after Fergie retired. Can remember very few late comebacks under LVG, Moyes or indeed Mourinho first two years (think Boro at home in his first season is one rare instance).

It's certainly a huge plus. Can tell opposition start to have fear factor in last 10 minutes if only a goal up.

 

[mark_a]

2 reasons. 1. Cos it's Us and 2. Cos it's only really recently started to come back

 

[Raw]

Cos it's only really recently started to come back

This. Pretty sure there was a long period of time where we never came back to win from a losing position. I think the 2-1 at home to Boro in Jose's first season was the first time in ages or something.

 

[Yorkeontop]

Our results ain't exactly sparkling. I think this group of players need to get more credit for not downing tools on José, they have maintained a level of professionalism that is commendable.

 

[Womp]

Our results ain't exactly sparkling. I think this group of players need to get more credit for not downing tools on José, they have maintained a level of professionalism that is commendable.

Or maybe, shit really isn't as bad behind the scenes as the media suggests? You would think half the squad wanted out if reports were to be believed, but if anything their performances and comments have suggested anything but.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

It’s not exactly like it used to be where we would just lay siege to people until they break and even now I’m not sure I would call it a fighting spirit or never giving up. It kind of just seems like the actual quality of our players shining through at times.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Because mostly we haven't actually showed any proper never say die attitude.

Waking up from a sleep walking state isn't never say die attitude of the sort we were known for in years past.

Tonight was different, though - that felt like a proper win.

 

[sunama]

I agree with the OP.
In the last few weeks our team have showed a fantastic (never say die) attitude, which makes us a very difficult team to beat, even when we are behind with 15 minutes to go.
The last time I saw what I am seeing now, is when SAF was in charge - we'd dominate the closing minutes of the match when we are chasing it and that's what we are doing right now. It's got a point where I am hoping that we are 1-0 down at half time, if only to see our team blitz the opponent in the 2nd half.

I am not sure if this is a tactic being employed by the team - conserve energy (1st gear) in the 1st half and concede as few goals as possible, then at some point in the 2nd half, move into 5th gear and score goals.
This was most evident against MCFC last season and has resumed in the last few weeks.

 

[CA1]

Lost it for a few years after Fergie retired. Can remember very few late comebacks under LVG, Moyes or indeed Mourinho first two years (think Boro at home in his first season is one rare instance).

It's certainly a huge plus. Can tell opposition start to have fear factor in last 10 minutes if only a goal up.

I think we've done more comebacks in Mourinho's 2 and a bit years than we did for a lot of periods under Fergie.

Palace and City last year both away, 2-0 down dead and buried.

 

[Antisocial]

The City win last season certainly should’ve gotten more attention then it did really, but as ever it’s tough to get much positive praise for United so it’s for us the fans to celebrate amoungst ourselves.

 

[VeevaVee]

It used to be amongst generally playing very well. Now it's having to recover from always playing bad.

Tonight was different though.

 

[Imperious]

Mourinho deserves praise for instilling this never-say-die attitude.

 

[SportingCP96]

One thing I really miss from when Fergie was here was I remember even if it was he 90th minute and United were losing their was a chance to tie or win. Even if we went 2 goals down I knew we could win. Nowadays that isn't really their besides tonight of course.

 

[Treble]

Because of the context. If/when it leads to trophies, it will be praised. If/when it leads to nothing, it's difficult to get enthusiastic. The context right now is about survival - in the battle for top 4 and in the CL, not about winning the EPL and the CL. This is why.

 

[The Boy]

Maybe sticking with Jose after the so-called third season meltdown, will unlock a new beast-mode Jose

I think we've done more comebacks in Mourinho's 2 and a bit years than we did for a lot of periods under Fergie.

Palace and City last year both away, 2-0 down dead and buried.

Glad someone remembers that City game!

Still your best come back for me was 3-0 down at Spurs under Fergie and you lot winning 3-5 (think Veron scored a couple!) there was a story in the tabs the next day about a Spurs fan who put his families life savings on Spurs to win at half time and lost 12 grand, imagine going home to explain that to the wife and kids!

 

[haram]

The media have tried to spin the narrative that all our players want out and that they all hate Mourinho while we are the worst team in England.

Because of the context. If/when it leads to trophies, it will be praised. If/when it leads to nothing, it's difficult to get enthusiastic. The context right now is about survival - in the battle for top 4 and in the CL, not about winning the EPL and the CL. This is why.

Spurs and Liverpool have won nothing and all they get is praise.

 

[kouroux]

The media have tried to spin the narrative that all our players want out and that they all hate Mourinho while we are the worst team in England.



Spurs and Liverpool have won nothing and all they get is praise.

Because I think it's still mixed with our poor football in general. Our bad football makes people harsh on our good resilience recently

 

[Treble]

The media have tried to spin the narrative that all our players want out and that they all hate Mourinho while we are the worst team in England.



Spurs and Liverpool have won nothing and all they get is praise.

The expectations about Spurs are different and they are doing better in the league (and because of their English core are media darlings), while Liverpool played a CL final several months ago and are challenging for the title. The context is different.

If/when those comebacks put us in contention for trophies, they will be praised and rightly so. As I said above, the comebacks are now about survival, about keeping the head above the water.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

For me, the difference between United of old and United now, is that in the past, we may go down but we started off on the front foot 99% of the time and sometimes we would get unlucky and find ourself behind and have to play catch up. But we were always going for it from the opening whistle. With our team now, we don't seem to wake up until we go down a goal. I just wish we could find the formula to play with the same kind of urgency in the first 10 minutes as we seem to play with in the last 10 minutes...

 

[VP89]

It’s not exactly like it used to be where we would just lay siege to people until they break and even now I’m not sure I would call it a fighting spirit or never giving up. It kind of just seems like the actual quality of our players shining through at times.

Or Jose is managing his games well to turn them on its head. Changes like Fellaini yesterday and Herrera vs Bournemouth are what made real differences. He didn't bring on mavericks or world class players. Just very good squad uses that suit the opposition better at certain times of the game.

Its laughable how many posters refuse to actually credit Jose for shifting games of late. They just say bullshit like "we have quality shining through" or "players want to show more pride" and leave it there.

 

[sugar_kane]

The City win last season certainly should’ve gotten more attention then it did really, but as ever it’s tough to get much positive praise for United so it’s for us the fans to celebrate amoungst ourselves.

Only one team beat city at home in the league last season and of the 14 goals they conceded at home 3 were scored by us, and from being 2-0 down at half time at that.

Combine that with it being on their coronation day and it was an astounding result which, as you say, we barely get any credit for.

If Liverpool (for example) had managed that you’d never hear the end of it.

Same applies to the result last night, coming from behind to beat one of the best teams in Europe at their fortress of a ground.

Any other English team does that and the commentators and pundits would be wanking themselves silly. As it’s us it barely got a flicker of acknowledgement when the goal went in.

feck em.

 

[Wheato]

Because we should be beating the likes of Newcastle and Bournemouth all day long. Last night was a total fluke, but I will take it.

 

[Greck]

If you don't kill us in your period of dominance you will likely lose. Pundits have already taken note. I'm just surprised opponents haven't caught on and still get complacent in 2nd halves.

 

[Revaulx]

Sticks head above the parapet:

Having Ashley Young as captain helps the team’s mentality no end.

Ducks down rapidly...

 

[Camilo]

I don't think we've shown much of anything recently. We've beaten a couple of teams you'd expect us to beat, but not in the classic "laying siege to the opposition goal until we score" way that I'd classify a "never say die" attitude to be. We've been a little better overall during the last few games. Which is progress at least.

Last night could've been 4-0 Juve on another night - we got very lucky. We worked hard all through the game, sure, but two freekicks got us that win. A win's a win is a win, yep, but some wins are more winny.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Dear god.

 

[Gasolin]

I don't think we've shown much of anything recently. We've beaten a couple of teams you'd expect us to beat, but not in the classic "laying siege to the opposition goal until we score" way that I'd classify a "never say die" attitude to be. We've been a little better overall during the last few games. Which is progress at least.

Last night could've been 4-0 Juve on another night - we got very lucky. We worked hard all through the game, sure, but two freekicks got us that win. A win's a win is a win, yep, but some wins are more winny.

You have a bad memory about our European campaigns then. Yesterday was one of the best performance in Europe just like those we would get with Sir Alex Ferguson when we go face a big team. We never got praised but we did get results for those. And these are 3 very valuable points. I'm stopping here, I can't understand our own football fans not understanding how positive the game was yesterday for United. You don't go to win at Juve as you wish, these are big performances.

 

[::sonny::]

 

[Siorac]

Or Jose is managing his games well to turn them on its head. Changes like Fellaini yesterday and Herrera vs Bournemouth are what made real differences. He didn't bring on mavericks or world class players. Just very good squad uses that suit the opposition better at certain times of the game.

Its laughable how many posters refuse to actually credit Jose for shifting games of late. They just say bullshit like "we have quality shining through" or "players want to show more pride" and leave it there.

On the flip side, your bunch were desperately trying to convince everyone after the home game against Juventus that it would have been pointless to make any subs as we had no "game changers" on the bench. So if he deserves credit for the substitutions yesterday - and he does - then he also deserves criticism for not making any two weeks ago, something a lot of pro-Mourinho people vehemently denied.

 

[redIndianDevil]

Glad someone remembers that City game!

Still your best come back for me was 3-0 down at Spurs under Fergie and you lot winning 3-5 (think Veron scored a couple!) there was a story in the tabs the next day about a Spurs fan who put his families life savings on Spurs to win at half time and lost 12 grand, imagine going home to explain that to the wife and kids!

What an idiot(if it's true). He wouldn't even have gained much if Spurs had won.

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

Seems we're showing a strong ability to get back into games and given what happened tonight, which is fecking brilliant obviously, I'm starting to think Mourinho and the team deserve a bit of credit for it.

They've clearly got it in them to know that football isn't won in the first 30 minutes alone. We might not always start well but we're doing a great job not letting our heads drop if we go behind.

What do you think? Can't just be a coincidence can it?

Because they are 4 teams in the premierleague right now who are clearly playing better football week in,week out....City,Chelsea,Liverpool and Arsenal are playing a much better brand of football and they look like they are very well balanced in all departments....Obviously nobodys going to go overboard in praising our “never say die spirit” when we still have to sort out some important issues....

 

[Deleted member 101472]

It’s like praising apple for being good at making IPhones

 

[The Boy]

What an idiot(if it's true). He wouldn't even have gained much if Spurs had won.

It was a long time ago I read it, but it always stuck with me! I think he would have made about 800 quid.

 

[sunama]

Because we should be beating the likes of Newcastle and Bournemouth all day long. Last night was a total fluke, but I will take it.

We could've won 3-1 (Rashford should've scored the 1 on 1).
Jose, throughout his career, has "fluked" results in big games.
That was no fluke.

Regarding our never say die attitude - I am constantly applauding our players for this. Unfortunately, the Jose Out brigade are so blinded with their hatred for Jose, they don't give our team credit when they make an exciting comeback and make very good teams, look shell-shocked in the 2nd half.

I am beginning to suspect that maybe Jose is telling our team not to expend too much energy in the first half, while ensuring we concede as few goals as possible. Then, in the 2nd half, he tells the players to cut loose and play as hard as they can. Whatever the case, at half time, something is happening which completely changes our mentality and intensity.

 

[Aloysius's Back 3]

We could've won 3-1 (Rashford should've scored the 1 on 1).
Jose, throughout his career, has "fluked" results in big games.
That was no fluke.

Regarding our never say die attitude - I am constantly applauding our players for this. Unfortunately, the Jose Out brigade are so blinded with their hatred for Jose, they don't give our team credit when they make an exciting comeback and make very good teams, look shell-shocked in the 2nd half.

I am beginning to suspect that maybe Jose is telling our team not to expend too much energy in the first half, while ensuring we concede as few goals as possible. Then, in the 2nd half, he tells the players to cut loose and play as hard as they can. Whatever the case, at half time, something is happening which completely changes our mentality and intensity.

Dybala hit the post two times. If we really should have won 3-1 then the score would be at best 3-3

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Sticks head above the parapet:

Having Ashley Young as captain helps the team’s mentality no end.

Ducks down rapidly...

Fair point, I'm yet to hear a single United fan question his mentality. Unfortunately it's his legs and what he's bringing to the team that's the problem with Ash.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Sticks head above the parapet:

Having Ashley Young as captain helps the team’s mentality no end.

Ducks down rapidly...

I'll get you next time!

 

[Aloysius's Back 3]

It's not praised because we hardly have anything else.

SAF's team had a never say die attitude in addition to some wonderful gameplans - right now all it is is the attitude of our players & our manager adapting to the end of the game - but that is all.