Club Friendlies - Aston Villa vs Man United on 12/09/2020

Watched the match last night on MUTV

First half created loads of chances but couldn't finish them off, Martial and/or Greenwood would have had a field day.
Shaw did well and getting back some fitness.

Maguire and Rashford were poor for first teamers.
McT and Van de Beek were quite good.
Fosu-Mensah and the youngster Mengi both look more solid at the back than Lindelof.
Henderson very little to do.

The rest mixtures of second third choice and youth players.

Main purpose of the match seemed to be to get a few minutes for those not involved in the internationals and get VdB integrated into the team. Most of the first choice players not involved.
 
Having just watched the highlights I have to say I'm really disappointed with Ighalo, supposedly signed as a poacher/target man and yet nowhere to be seen each time a dangerous ball was whipped into the box. He has been useless since that away tie against LASK.

New striker in January maybe?
 
Blood Mage said:
Having just watched the highlights I have to say I'm really disappointed with Ighalo, supposedly signed as a poacher/target man and yet nowhere to be seen each time a dangerous ball was whipped into the box. He has been useless since that away tie against LASK.

New striker in January maybe?
Click to expand...

On his first start for how many months?
 
Himannv said:
Strange take on TFM. I actually thought he had a good game at CB, I think he can actually be an option for us there. It was at CM where I felt he didn't quite do enough.....

....Galbraith didn't impress me much and lost the ball a couple of times in dangerous areas. I suppose it didn't help that VDB played the same way he did when McT was on.
Click to expand...

That was Galbraith only in the first 10 minutes after coming on at the start of the 2nd half, but he soon sorted himself out and started to grow in confidence and looked a lot better after that, especially when Ole changed things around.
You’re dead right about VdB, that’s why Ole brought on Mengi and pushed TFM into midfield to add a bit of physical presence alongside Galbraith, pushing VdB further forward Into the AM role.
Even if limited in a midfield role, TFM was the only option available to add some muscle, so that was a good tactical move from Ole.

Take aways...
1. VdB is not a defensive midfielder and once Scott left the pitch at half time, it left us exposed, hence our struggle to get going again after the break. That’s why Ole made the changes and pushed him into his more familiar utility and AM role.

2. Galbraith is still a young kid and physically and experience wise, still a way off being ready, but you could see a real prospect there.
He was playing against experienced, physically superior, first team opponents, even if Villa are shit.
We need to cut him some slack as he did very well in the circumstances and came within a whisker of getting our equaliser.

3. We badly missed Shaw at the tail end of the season. Today confirmed it.
We saw some of the old Shaw in this match, getting to the byline and putting in dangerous low crosses etc.

4. We desperately need another forward, preferably an out and out striker with goal poaching qualities.
We can’t just rely on Tony continuing to bang in the goals and Greenwood is still very young.
Ighalo is a temporary fix and Rashford is way off the pace and I don’t believe he’ll ever made the top grade, even if he regains a goal scoring run. It’s a shame we didn’t grab Aboomerang before the Arse got him.

5. Apart from Maguire, Lindelof and Bailly, we’ve now got TFM, Mengi and Axel coming through as CB’s. Never mind Smalling (who’s on his way) and the deadwood of Jones and Rojo.
I can’t see a CB being a high priority at the moment.
I know it’s a one-off, but TFM did well yesterday at the back and Mengi impressed too. ........Mind you, it was Villa !

6. It looks like Dalot is being given a chance. Maybe a last chance to try and get back into form.
He’s spent a long time injured and his confidence has long been shot.
Don’t forget he’s only 21 and first came into the Utd 1st team at 19. A youngster.
He’s still one of the youngest members of the 1st team squad.
I suspect he hasn’t settled well in the U.K. and found it difficult fitting in. He often looks a bit lost.
Sometimes moving to a foreign country as a very young player, with high expectations put on your shoulders, doesn’t work out well.
 
Last edited:
Himannv said:
Strange take on TFM. I actually thought he had a good game at CB, I think he can actually be an option for us there. It was at CM where I felt he didn't quite do enough.
Click to expand...
Can you honestly say hand on heart that you would want Fosu-Mensah anywhere near the team against good Premier League opposition? He had a couple of moments yesterday where he used his strength and pace well but really that's all he's got. He's not good enough technically and he's still a far weaker option than all our other CBs so I don't see how he plays. I would sell him now so we can get a fee, anyone thinking he has a serious future here are being a little fanciful I think.
 
Against a full strength Villa side, that was a decent run out. Should have had at least 3 goals in the first half alone.
 
i just watched this and yes it was a weak side but we did not play well.

VDB looked very good but others were poor and did not make enough, lets hope not many of these are the starters for next week. Really hope the Sancho deal gets done as it adds so much quality to our bench and squad depth.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
Can you honestly say hand on heart that you would want Fosu-Mensah anywhere near the team against good Premier League opposition? He had a couple of moments yesterday where he used his strength and pace well but really that's all he's got. He's not good enough technically and he's still a far weaker option than all our other CBs so I don't see how he plays. I would sell him now so we can get a fee, anyone thinking he has a serious future here are being a little fanciful I think.
Click to expand...
This is just one game and the first one he's had in a long while as a starting CB, so obviously it's far too early to say if he's a first team starter. It was a very good performance in my view and he showcased good physicality, pace, decision making, and also was decent on the ball. All I'm saying is he had a good game, and I'd give him a higher grade for this particular game than I would to Maguire (who incidentally is our first choice CB).
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
We could have brought the senior players back earlier had we rested them in Europa. Could have had 2 or 3 friendlies by now too.
Instead we went to win it, didn't even get to the final and its just caused the start of the season for us to be an absolute shambles like I said it would.

Half our starting team next weekend won't have played a game since Sevilla. Palace will be licking their lips.
Click to expand...
Yeah but we can’t change what we did against Sevilla at this point. So what I’m saying is that considering what we did we did the right move by resting the others for the friendly. Let palace lick their lips- well do the best that we can.
 
Banana Republic said:
He was actually making a positive effort and showing some drive and determination for a change, instead of his usual pointless, half-heated, headless chicken running around show.
The gormless cheeky chappie smile wasn’t there either and he looked quite focussed for a change.
I thought he made himself very busy and looked nothing like the usual useless player we’ve come to hate.
I can’t see it lasting, but I hope I’m wrong.
Click to expand...
Cheers! I think he can be a useful squad player against low table teams and Champs league groups etc if and it’s a big IF he doesn’t get carried away with his own self importance.
 
Last edited:
Himannv said:
This is just one game and the first one he's had in a long while as a starting CB, so obviously it's far too early to say if he's a first team starter. It was a very good performance in my view and he showcased good physicality, pace, decision making, and also was decent on the ball. All I'm saying is he had a good game, and I'd give him a higher grade for this particular game than I would to Maguire (who incidentally is our first choice CB).
Click to expand...
But that’s where I would disagree. Maguire was miles better he’s just judged by different standards.
 
savais said:
Not sure I agree. First of all, he replaced Mctominay, so not sure about your second sentence. He did lose the ball a couple of times, but otherwise was very impressive.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that was my bad. He did replace McTominay and played as the deepest midfielder then. On the ball, whilst he did lose the ball a few times, he slowed down our attacks quite often in order to get more time on the ball. He wasn't necessarily nervous or showing poor touches, but he was playing it quite safe when players like van de Beek were calling for a quick pass to be played.

Having said that, he did show a good passing range and good control, so there's something in him, but this match isn't a demonstration of Galbraith at his best.
 
Tom Cato said:
This deal is 99% happening (leaving out 1% since you should never deal in absolutes)

Sancho not being done yet is down to a couple things that we know of:

The agent fees had to be negotiated, these are very substantial and agents are becoming increasingly greedy. The fee sums into millions so the club can't just pay up whatever they want. - Reportedly, this has now been settled this past week.
Dortmund want a wild amount of cash upfront. The club is very wise to not simply cave in but attempt to restructure if at all possible.
Sanchos wages are 200k+ reportedly. Putting off completing the transfer until they "have to" is smart from a financial perspective. The club saves up to £2m by doing this.

There's also the question of if the club even can walk away from this deal. One signing in the summer transfer window while our nearest competition have strenghtened, and Chelsea having the biggest transfer window in football since Roman bought the club in 2003, will be looked at as somewhat of a PR disaster. We did more business in the January transfer window (Youth team excluded) so far.

Manchester United chose to keep paying wages and all staff in full during the pandemic outbreak, donating to the local community throug the MUFC foundation, citing the clubs robust financial capabilities as a reason, where other clubs chose to cut wages. They made a significant statement that the club is foundationally solid and do not need help to survive, or even thrive.

Today the club finds itself on the cusp of a new season, in year 2 of a 3 year rebuild for a title challenge, with a outspoken goal to support the manager in the transfer window, and a fanbase that is more than hungry for a new golden era. Walking away from the Jadon Sancho deal while it being such a publicly known 'secret' that the club is after him would be tantamount to admitting financial and ambitious weakness. The ramifications is that it can impact negotiations with the new rumored main shirt sponsor in China (The Haier Group) if the club shows weakness in the transfer market now. Haier is sponsoring a global brand and about to pay a record fee for the pleasure. What will they think if their sponsor money are being given to a club so easily outmatched by several teams in their home league? Who the owners are is irrelevant, Haier are paying for global branding. Success is paramount to achieve this over a 3-5 year deal.

This is one transfer Manchester United do not have the luxury of walking awy from. Expect Sancho at Carrington by Friday.
Click to expand...
Let's hope you"re right. Make a brilliant start to the weekend.
 
RedPed said:
Against a full strength Villa side, that was a decent run out. Should have had at least 3 goals in the first half alone.
Click to expand...

Everytime we play a B-side with added youth and change half the players during the game, we get journalists writing ‘Man Utd in suprise loss shocker’ and a few of our own saying ‘See, I told you so about [manager, GK, CB, LB, CM, LW or just ad what you will]’
 
devips said:
My take from this match. In Lingard, James, McTominay and Mengi we have very good squad options. Lingard will just have to re-find his scoring touch. Dalot looks demotivated for some reason. The way United played in the first half was good to watch.
We can now look forward to the season ahead.
Click to expand...
He needs a loan move while we use TFM/Williams/Laird as back up RB. If we don't get another LB thatis.
 
Watched the match. Good signs!
Dan James showed again hes a left sided player. Really hope he fixes a few areas of his game this year. His number 1 issue seems to be when he is positive and direct, finds space and looks up to see no one in the box, he still goes ahead with a nothing delivery/shot. Needs to learn to keep possession and not waste time on the football.
 
Grande said:
Everytime we play a B-side with added youth and change half the players during the game, we get journalists writing ‘Man Utd in suprise loss shocker’ and a few of our own saying ‘See, I told you so about [manager, GK, CB, LB, CM, LW or just ad what you will]’
Click to expand...

I know, right. We were actually running them ragged in the first half. And the kids held their own in the second. That was Villa's first team out there. Our starting XI would have destroyed them. We just couldn't put the chances away. And I'm sure Solskjaer has definitely made his mind up about a few more now too.
 
RedPed said:
.......That was Villa's first team out there. Our starting XI would have destroyed them. We just couldn't put the chances away.......
Click to expand...
Unfortunately that is our problem, in fact one of our most glaring problems, our starting XI have struggled to put the chances away on too many occasions.
Contrary to what many on here believe, our forward line is weak and lacks natural and dangerous predators.
 
Banana Republic said:
Unfortunately that is our problem, in fact one of our most glaring problems, our starting XI have struggled to put the chances away on too many occasions.
Contrary to what many on here believe, our forward line is weak and lacks natural and dangerous predators.
Click to expand...

Isn't that just the last two games?
 
Idxomer said:
Isn't that just the last two games?
Click to expand...
No, it’s been a problem throughout, including our good spell before and immediately after the lifting of the EPL lockdown.

The games drawn, were mostly games where we created lots of opportunities and even goal scoring chances, but failed to get the goals.
The opposition in many of those games equalised or took the lead either against the run of play, or against our overall dominance throughout the 90 mins.
Even when we won by scoring 3 or 4 goals, in almost all those games we failed to capitalise by either wasting other chances, or by not creating many goal scoring opportunities even though we were bombarding the opponent’s 18 yard box.

As Fergie used to say, he didn’t care if the other side scored 3, as long as we scored 4 (or whatever the numbers were).
What he really meant was we should totally dominate and score as many as possible, to smother the opposition. He didn’t really like us conceding.
I suspect this is where Ole wants us to be, but we don’t quite have the tools to do that yet.
 
Banana Republic said:
Unfortunately that is our problem, in fact one of our most glaring problems, our starting XI have struggled to put the chances away on too many occasions.
Contrary to what many on here believe, our forward line is weak and lacks natural and dangerous predators.
Click to expand...

That's a bit harsh. Give me one forward line that's really firing at the moment. We only tailed off a bit towards the end of the lockdown but we've been pretty good.
 
Ok, I just found out the league has already started and United only just played their ONE friendly before kicking off this weekend. With half the team a bunch of kids.

I'm very very worried, not because the team lost, but because I don't know if the squad is ready? Liverpool have played 4 games before the season even started.

Is this really optimum preparation? Anyone have any ideas how prepared the team is?

And from the videos, it looks the same old, same old continuing from last season. We can be good, but we can't finish teams off. We make a couple of mistakes, the opponent scores their one chance and we either lose or draw again. We're not going to be so lucky like last season during the post lockdown games to have so many penalties awarded every other game. I just hope the team is at least fresh like how they started those post lockdown games.
 
Idxomer said:
Isn't that just the last two games?
Click to expand...
Yep. It was just our last 2 games but since this is the Caf they've made it sound like it's a recurring issue we've had since forever. They've completely skipped the part where we were blowing teams away after the restart and scoring for fun.

But of course it's when the team get leggy and tired after an accumulation of games that some choose to think that's what reflect our true level. Not the many games we showed that we were capable of destroying teams but the last 2 games we didn't.
 
Actually, if I remember correctly, we've had quite a lot of penalties last season. At least from Jan onwards, anyways. Especially in the post lockdown period. IINM, 7 penalties during the post lockdown period. I think 6 of them were our first goals in the match or match winners. 4 penalties from Jan to Mar. 2 of them in February were first goals.
 
just seen the goal... non-existent marking. think we've seen that before somewhere
 
Tiber said:
I have seen that story before! Haaland would have transformed our team. Should have thrown everything at him when we had the chance

We played some great stuff against Sevilla
Click to expand...
For about 15 minutes at the start of the second half.

We were played off the park in the first half. And after they went ahead in the second-half we were toothless and created nothing.
 
Sea-Cow said:
For about 15 minutes at the start of the second half.

We were played off the park in the first half. And after they went ahead in the second-half we were toothless and created nothing.
Click to expand...
No, we weren't. Played off the park, Jesus wept.
 
Sea-Cow said:
In the first half against Sevilla we were played off the park. We couldn't get near them.
Click to expand...
I've just rolled my eyes so hard I nearly fell off my chair.
 
AltiUn said:
I've just rolled my eyes so hard I nearly fell off my chair.
Click to expand...
From the Guardian's recap --


Sevilla were unbeaten in 19 and showed why when Lucas Ocampos moved in behind and forced David de Gea to beat the ball out for a corner. This initiated a raising of temperatures that barely cooled until the end. Brandon Williams and Carlos were booked – the latter somehow having escaped the same fate for the spot-kick.

A Fred shot apart Sevilla were seeing far more of the ball near United’s goal. Each time Solskjær’s men tried an out pass Martial or Rashford could not make it stick. This presaged the concession of a defensively disastrous equaliser: Wan-Bissaka lost Sergio Reguilón and after the left-back coasted past him his cross was smashed home by Suso.

This had Rashford reviving a complaint about a throw-in not given ahead of the move but the real issue was a lack of control from United. Paul Pogba’s outing had thus far been anonymous: when he did finally link up to square a ball to Martial, the Frenchman blazed over but the difference this made was obvious.

Tempers again frayed when Maguire was penalised for a challenge on Youssef En-Nesyri and Julen Lopetegui accused United’s captain of an elbow. This had Brych warning Sevilla’s manager and Solskjær telling his opposite number to be quiet.

A swerving Rashford 30-yard free-kick tested Bounou and Fernandes’s volley did the same as United ended the half pinning Sevilla back, with Pogba having an extended word with Brych as the sides wandered off.


So we started the match well and scored early, were then dominated and gave up an embarrassing equalizer, and then ended the half well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.