Do you still watch when we're 3-0 down?

Yes, given up all hope of winning at that point of course but there's always a little hope of seeing a goal. Partly tuned out though.
 
Depends on how the game has gone. In recent years no, I don’t like seeing my club embarrassed and toyed with. Watching players pass with the proficiency of a Sunday league pub player while the other side knocks it about and rondos us to death is depressing, would rather do something else with my day.
 
Under ten Hag it feels like we are 3-0 down when the opposition scores their first.
 
Yeah, I'm guilty of hate watching.

I'm even ashamed enough to say that when we're truly playing awful and we're under a manager I have no faith in, I'm sometimes willing the opposition to run up a cricket score just to see our players pissed off and try to get a reaction, or to hasten the removal of a manager.
 
Always! I don't continue watching because I feel there might be hope. Sometimes there's not, ie the 7-0 loss against Liverpool.

The main reason I'll watch until the end is because (sounds cliché) you cheer when your team is winning, you support them when you lose. It's part of being a fan. If you were playing a game of football you wouldn't walk out on your teammates.

The other reason, there will be a point in time when United are a force again. And by sticking through the bad, the good will be sweeter.
 
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simonhch said:
To be perfectly honest, United have always been a huge emotional anchor for me. They are the only thing linking me to my long deceased father, and the only happy memory I have of a childhood with a man that otherwise did me irreparable and untold harm.

For almost my entire life I have had an emotional connection with the club that transcends any rational explanation. They have carried me through the bleakest of times in so many different ways, and it has been my privilege to suffer with them even when things weren’t going well on the pitch.

Some years back I had a daughter. She’s still young (9), and at some point I had to recognise the hold the fortunes of the team had over my moods at the weekend. There’s no excuse for skipping time playing with your kid to watch the game, only then to be cranky and moody for the rest of the day if the performance and result was horrible. My family themselves commented on the fate of the weekend resting on the result of the game.

It didn’t take me long to realise how sad and pathetic that was. I’ve given a lifetime of emotional investment to this club, but my daughter coming into my life has completely changed where that energy goes. As it should be. She deserves the best of me, all the time, not just when United win.

So, a few years back I took a significant step back from allowing United to unbalance me emotionally. I now view the club through much more objective and analytical eyes, and I couldn’t be happier for it. I’ve only watched one game so far this season, the home opener, and I saw enough there to know what this season would hold. A dispassionate assessment that saw an inevitable repeat of the same mistakes as last season, with no midfield, baffling instructions, and a manager embarrassingly out of his depth. I played Lego with my daughter this morning instead of watching the match. It was great. I don’t owe the club any more than what I’ve already given them, which emotionally is everything, and financially quite a lot.

I’ll always love and support United but I’ll never let them affect my life again. The stakes are too high now, and at the end of the day, it’s just football. Less enthralling, less romantic by the hour. I spend more time talking about amortisation schedules these days, than I do any artistry in the game - which has all but been eradicated by modern coaching.

United will, in my humble opinion, continue to make excellent strides off the pitch in terms of recruitment, and infrastructure development under Ineos - an interesting case study to follow that will take shape and yield fruit over the course of several years. United will also, again in my humble opinion, continue to be a proverbial laughing stock and debacle on the field for as long as Ten Hag remains manager. There will be the odd false dawn, there will be endless circular debates about injuries, patience, structure, scapegoating players etc etc, but my assessment is that under his leadership United will be a complete non-entity in the league. We’ll score a frightening low amount of goals, we’ll experience several more chastening humiliations against rivals, and we’ll continue to operate with a tactical naivety that beggars belief.

Hence, I will likely watch only a very small percentage of games this season, subject to convenience, opponent, and form. I’m not getting invested, or letting myself be affected by an exercise in futility. I follow games remotely, through here, mbm’s, highlights etc; but I’m not fully checking back in until we have a new manager. I am THAT convinced that it’s a waste of time to do otherwise.

If I am wrong, and he turns it around and comes good, humility is in no short supply in this household and I will hold my hands up, say I was wrong and get back to enjoying watching United. But, as a simple risk assessment exercise, all rational logic points to the outcome I have bet on. It’s a sad and depressing outcome and I want to be clear that I take no joy in it, but quite simply for the sake of self preservation and having a healthy, happy home environment, the decision to divest myself of emotional connection to current outcomes, seems the only logic choice.

I’m too old, given too much, and have too many other responsibilities - practical, moral and emotional - to do differently at this point. Time is my most precious commodity. I’m mid forties, work in a high pressure job, have little free time, am a single parent, and I have to make use of almost every free minute I have, and moreover, use it wisely. Watching United under Ten Hag, and getting bent out of shape when the predictable becomes actual, doesn’t meet the criteria.

I do advise that some people who take this stuff really hard - that used to be me too - learn to step away and take a breath. Nothing is forever, and if Ineos keep doing the right things, then better times lay ahead. What you don’t want to do, not really, not in your heart, is turn on individuals and become toxic and hateful towards players. It’s ugly and we are better than that. They are in an impossible situation under leadership that is fundamentally unequipped and catastrophic for consistently competitive performances. Nothing on the field will change, until the manager changes. No amount of signings, no amount of abuse thrown at players, none of it will change that.

And what definitely won’t change that, is allowing your anger, frustration or despair over abject and humiliating performances like today, to spill over into your personal life. To the decisions you make, to what you feel inside, and to how you treat those around you. So a caring word of advice from me to you all, is to remember not to carry that negative emotion with you out into your world. It’s never worth it.
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Excellent post. I find myself watching dispassionately nowadays. Conceding a goal barely generates a “tut” from me. This team is hard to like never mind love.
 
Of course I watched the whole game. Is walking away during a United match really a thing?

I understand leaving the stadium early to beat the traffic, but there is no traffic in one's living room.

What does amaze me, and I'm not going to start a new thread to discuss this, is how many YouTube videos there are analyzing this one match. It's as though this were the most-watched match of all time...I counted at least 20 YT videos dissecting this match and it could well be over 50.
 
Yeah, I still watch until the end. I am very quick to turn it off afterwards though, don't need any pundit to tell me how shit we are.
 
It's kinda sad how this thread is relevant once every couple of months.
 
Yes. I feel like I don't deserve the privilege of savoring every moment of us being great again (if that happens), if I don't grin and bear us at our worst.

It's part of the deal. Balance of the universe and all that, can't have the good without the bad.
 
Turned it off as soon as the second went in on Sunday. I knew exactly where the game was heading. I actually missed the first 15 minutes too and couldn't have cared less. But, I've been here so much over the past 10+ years.
 
NinjaZombie said:
It's kinda sad how this thread is relevant once every couple of months.
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:lol:

Just had a look and last season we had at least 1 game we conceded 3+ every month pretty much, other than August but obviously less games and then Jan where we only played 3 games, 2 of which were against Newport & Wigan.
 
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I normally just whack on the porn once we're about 2 down and you know we aint going to salvage anything from the game. Amount of self harm I done during the Van Gaal years was exhausting.
 
Santos J said:
:lol:

Just had a look and last season we had at least 1 game we conceded 3+ every month pretty much, other than August but obviously less games and then Feb where we only played 3 games, 2 of which were against Newport & Wigan.
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That was January, not February.
 
I always watch the games to the end , admittedly its a lot harder than it used to be these days.

And yes I do still hope they can turn around even the worst of scorelines its all part of the package for me.
 
What’s the difference? We’re a hard watch even when we’re winning these days
 
It's not the number of goals we concede for me; it's the quality of play. I'll still watch if some goals are a possibility or if there's an exciting youngster to keep an eye on, but these days, I find myself on my phone more often than not while the game is going on, and on Sunday, I was switched off by half-time. Went to have a kick about with the boys instead and that was great.
 
I love this club. I've loved them through thick and thin. I'll continue watching every minute I can because I'm getting on a bit and I might not be able to watch them soon.
 
I watch until I think the team isn't putting the effort in

Which is almost always the reason we are 3-0 down. But I can't even watch at 0-0 if United aren't trying.
 
I was watching in a bar full of Liverpool fans and got up and left at 1 nil :lol: it was a beautiful day on the Aegean coast so I took a nice sunset stroll on the beach instead.
 
2 goals and a man down and I'm out. At home as well. I'll try to turn it into a positive, maybe hit the gym or something.

Worst case scenario now is we continue to get dominated and I force myself to sit through a 1-0 loss
 
I'm off. Throwing on a podcast and playing PS5.

I've sat through hammerings but that 45 was something else. It's not worth my time.
 
I gave myself a chance to watch until the second was scored. Didn’t think it would be that quick. Still had vague hope of something
 
Decided to have a shower and a sh!t instead. Don't judge me, I like spoiling myself.
 
I’m still watching but I just feel numb to it all now. That arsehole has killed any hope I have for this club and the sooner INEOS get him out the better.
 
Yes because a loss like this can actually be progress, its so obvious that ten hag isnt the one that once we do start losing, i celebrate when we get battered. Be it a better manager or better player performances,its all progress.
 
Gave up watching it after the second goal and went out to give some time to the stray cats that live in an outdoor shed that I've made into a little 'home' for them.

It's currently cold, windy and pouring down here. Sat in an outdoor shed in this weather pretty much sums up being a United fan for the last decade. :(
 
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