Man United v Liverpool Post Match

I will say it again, I do not care about a pre season friendly or friendlies in general. Of concern though is the continuation of the negative football we play, with little attacking intent. The result is meaningless, but over the summer Liverpool have definitely improved their squad, whilst we have stagnated. People keep saying Liverpool didn't win anything last season & were behind us in the table, but fail to point out they were in the Champions League final as favourites, & failed to win due to goalkeeping howlers, which has now been remedied, whilst we shockingly failed to get past Sevilla in two dreadful displays.

I will evaluate where we are after around the first ten league games, but do not feel optimistic going into this season
Say what again ? Champions league final favourites ? Which betting site do you use ? Cause I'd like to avoid it ?
 
How can we play the same way when we have Sanchez up top on his own compared to Lukaku?

I'm the last person to defend Jose's style of play. If you're going by what we've seen last season, fair enough. But we can't judge the team based on this preseason. The team will fundamentally change when Pogba, Matic, Lukaku, Rashford and Lingard come back.
But we played exactly the same way last season with him upfront? Just lump it forward and hope for the best. That doesn’t suit Lukaku either.
 
I'm aware that it wasn't our full team (that in itself is a worry given we have a game less than two weeks from now: who will be ready and match fit?), but I'm afraid I see this as a glimpse into the coming season. Too many mediocre players in a mediocre team who will finish in a mediocre position.

As much as I love Herrera's passion for the club, if he's good enough for United, I'm good enough for the Conference; ageing and failed wingers as full backs and some of the most dodgy centrebacks in the PL: Smalling and Jones are Championship material at best.

And now we hear Jose thinks we will get one more player: prepare to hear the Scousers (let alone City, Chelsea and probably Arsenal and Spurs) crowing come May. Very depressing. Just what happens, if Lukaku gets injured? What happens when Sanchez has a strop and gets bored? At the moment, we have one world-class player, I just hope DDG is well-rested after his poor World Cup because he's going to be very busy in the coming months. I simply can't see Jose being here this time next year and I can't see why the club doesn't realise it's time for a very big Spring clean!
 
How can we play the same way when we have Sanchez up top on his own compared to Lukaku?

I'm the last person to defend Jose's style of play. If you're going by what we've seen last season, fair enough. But we can't judge the team based on this preseason. The team will fundamentally change when Pogba, Matic, Lukaku, Rashford and Lingard come back.
You woud expect those players to make a difference, but it is down to the manager again. Is he going to change how we play, or are they going to just slot into a team playing exactly the same as last year with just a couple of new bodies in there? I should be excited about the start of a new season and I am full of anxiety.
 
Unless he addresses that RW and RB not sure anything will change.

Right back has already been addressed. Left back is an issue , but that too only in attacking sense. We managed to beat all 19 teams in the league last season and suffered in front of goal in some games against low rank teams due to our poor transition and lack of width. I expect the transition to be better than last season with the addition of Fred and possibly a Ball playing Cb so the situation is decent If not great , though our relative growth to the growth of the opposition teams is an issue we will face in terms of consistency in the league campaign as our evolution and the evolution of the current players as a team and individually will not be too great as the fan base and a title Romping team desires.

If we don't buy a right Wing, lingard Sanchez , Rashford can always fill in. Or may be a change in system can accommodate that if Jose is Bold enough.
 
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I was pro-Mourinho all the way until those post match comments, which are the most concerning and disrespectful things I have ever heard a United manager say. He's thrown the youth team under the bus. Completely unacceptable.
 
I was pro-Mourinho all the way until those post match comments, which are the most concerning and disrespectful things I have ever heard a United manager say. He's thrown the youth team under the bus. Completely unacceptable.
He really doesn't get how much the youth team is part of Manchester United.
 
Jaysus the overreaction in here. Lads, we were without....
  1. De Gea
  2. Romero
  3. Smalling
  4. Jones
  5. Lindelof
  6. Rojo
  7. Valencia
  8. Young
  9. Shaw
  10. Dalot
  11. Matic
  12. Fellaini
  13. Pogba
  14. Lingard
  15. Rashford
  16. Martial
  17. Lukaku
Oh and Fred only had 2 days of training with his new team and played just 15 mins to get a run-out. Technically without 18 first teamers.

So Mourinho was right when he said he had 2/3s of his squad missing. Which of course has an impact on the other 3rd as they have to play 75 mins of every friendly if the team is to maintain a semi -competent core through the match. These friendlies might be a good chance for some youngsters to mingle with the first team and try to impress, but as far as drawing conclusions about the first team go or preparing the team for the season... they are utterly useless.

I guess we couldn’t have known that England, France and Belgium would all play till the last weekend of the World Cup but we also have to question the wisdom of planning a US tour during a World Cup year with so many players potentially missing. PSG took an equally depleted squad to Singapore to get thrashed 5-1 by Arsenal. Equally pointless.

I understand the worries about our style of play or about the manager being a moany cnut. And I share them. But then we didn’t have a particular style with our first team last season (when we finished second) so expecting it from this cobbled together crew of mostly youngsters is kinda of unrealistic. And Mourinho will always be this dour, miserable, negative manager till the day he retires. We know that too.

Last year was an improvement on the year before, which itself was an improvement on LVGs last season. I’m pretty sure we all agreed on that. Let’s see if he can improve this team again this year, like he has done before. Judge him on the actual results and yes even the football played, but that of the first team. If the results and standard of football fall short then I’d be up for binning him too, seen as his demeanour is not exactly redeeming.

But we’ve not seen the first team yet or something different from Mourinho, in terms of attitude or tactics, that was unexpected. So chill the feck out.
 
I don't really but into the idea that "it's just pre season" because, you know, the whole point of pre season is to be ready for the not pre season.

This was a weird game though. Liverpool put a full strength team out, kicked lumps out of the United players all game, and salah and Mane kept diving and then claiming for penalties. They were playing with a massive chip on their shoulder against what was basically a United reserve side, in pre season, so of course they were going to win and I'm not sure what point they think they have proven. I can't remember us playing a pre season game like this before, where we play decent opposition and they come out as if they've been preparing and stewing over it for weeks like it's a cup game.

The concern for me is the same as the other pre season games...we just don't have enough players and the teams Jose is picking makes me very concerned he's actually planning to start the season that way.
 
The worrying thing is that our team don't know how to create chances.
Towards the end of last season we struggled to create chances.
in the first 2 games of pre-season we couldn't create chances and against LFC, we still couldn't create chances.

LFC brought on their reserves in the 2nd half and they kept creating chances...and they are also on a pre-season tour.

Our playing style for the last few months has been abysmal.
Aiming to score 1 goal per game, is unacceptable.
If Jose does not change, I am pretty sure that he will be sacked (or he will walk).
 
I know we shouldn’t take anything from friendlies but this was Liverpool. Winning creates confidence. This doesn’t bode well for the new season at all.
 
Jaysus the overreaction in here. Lads, we were without....
  1. De Gea
  2. Romero
  3. Smalling
  4. Jones
  5. Lindelof
  6. Rojo
  7. Valencia
  8. Young
  9. Shaw
  10. Dalot
  11. Matic
  12. Fellaini
  13. Pogba
  14. Lingard
  15. Rashford
  16. Martial
  17. Lukaku
Oh and Fred only had 2 days of training with his new team and played just 15 mins to get a run-out. Technically without 18 first teamers.

So Mourinho was right when he said he had 2/3s of his squad missing. Which of course has an impact on the other 3rd as they have to play 75 mins of every friendly if the team is to maintain a semi -competent core through the match. These friendlies might be a good chance for some youngsters to mingle with the first team and try to impress, but as far as drawing conclusions about the first team go or preparing the team for the season... they are utterly useless.

I guess we couldn’t have known that England, France and Belgium would all play till the last weekend of the World Cup but we also have to question the wisdom of planning a US tour during a World Cup year with so many players potentially missing. PSG took an equally depleted squad to Singapore to get thrashed 5-1 by Arsenal. Equally pointless.

I understand the worries about our style of play or about the manager being a moany cnut. And I share them. But then we didn’t have a particular style with our first team last season (when we finished second) so expecting it from this cobbled together crew of mostly youngsters is kinda of unrealistic. And Mourinho will always be this dour, miserable, negative manager till the day he retires. We know that too.

Last year was an improvement on the year before, which itself was an improvement on LVGs last season. I’m pretty sure we all agreed on that. Let’s see if he can improve this team again this year, like he has done before. Judge him on the actual results and yes even the football played, but that of the first team. If the results and standard of football fall short then I’d be up for binning him too, seen as his demeanour is not exactly redeeming.

But we’ve not seen the first team yet or something different from Mourinho, in terms of attitude or tactics, that was unexpected. So chill the feck out.

Good post. I agree with everything. Had Mourinho said what he did with a lighter/more happy tone, no one would disagree. But then again, thats not Mourinho.
 
Not a very happy Mourinho. Still, he has some points I agree on. That said, he could act different and people would take his message a lot better.
No not happy at all. I must admit I'm worried about the start of the season if the likes of Lukaku and Pogba are still not back in the team. I do think they need a rest though. You can't compare them to Jones and Rashford who didn't play every minute of every match in the knockout stages.
 
Guys, if you don't care then you don't care, if you care then you do care. You either care or you don't.

There's no such thing as "I don't care about preseason friendlies but...." that means you DO care! :lol:
 
I was pro-Mourinho all the way until those post match comments, which are the most concerning and disrespectful things I have ever heard a United manager say. He's thrown the youth team under the bus. Completely unacceptable.
I’ve been wobbling for a while with the Mourinho issue. One friendly doesn’t change anything but his attitude towards the job is starting to wear me down.
Why doesn’t he cheer up fir feck sake. Not Klopp happy (that’s just stupid) but somewhere in between.
The comments are getting worse, just to help Sanchez too. Tell him to bloody play better.
 
I know we shouldn’t take anything from friendlies but this was Liverpool. Winning creates confidence. This doesn’t bode well for the new season at all.

Didn't City lose to Liverpool this pre-season? Do you honestly think it'll make a blind bit of difference to them? Not bloody likely. Of course winning creates confidence, but its been proven year after year, pre-season means bugger all.
 
I just saw the presser and Jose was not out of line. He could have better defended the younger players, but ultimately he was right.

Here is the full quote of about Alexis (in the context of 80% of the first team missing) "Look, do you want me to be very happy with the players he has around him? We are not playing here to improve the team, or to improve our dynamic or to improve our routines. We are here just to try to survive and have some not very ugly results. And Alexis is the only attacking player that we have. He is the only one, we don't have another one. We don't have wingers, we don't have strikers, he is the only one that is here and the poor man is there trying his best, with the frustration of somebody that wants more."

I know we shouldn’t take anything from friendlies but this was Liverpool. Winning creates confidence. This doesn’t bode well for the new season at all.

PSG lost to Arsenal 5-1 just the other day. I know which team I`d rather support when the season starts, though.
 
The man desperately needs to have some PR lessons. He's bang on about our main squad being MIA though.
See 6:47 - the absolute contempt with which he uses the term 'soccer' :lol: he looked like he wanted to strangle the journalist with her upbeat question about promoting football in America. Poor Woman.
Haha, yeah, he said the word with such disdain :lol:
 
I don't really but into the idea that "it's just pre season" because, you know, the whole point of pre season is to be ready for the not pre season.

This was a weird game though. Liverpool put a full strength team out, kicked lumps out of the United players all game, and salah and Mane kept diving and then claiming for penalties. They were playing with a massive chip on their shoulder against what was basically a United reserve side, in pre season, so of course they were going to win and I'm not sure what point they think they have proven. I can't remember us playing a pre season game like this before, where we play decent opposition and they come out as if they've been preparing and stewing over it for weeks like it's a cup game.
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The concern for me is the same as the other pre season games...we just don't have enough players and the teams Jose is picking makes me very concerned he's actually planning to start the season that way.

Pretty much this... don't understand why everyone is flapping, it's pre-season with 1/3 of our squad, relax.
 
Haven't seen many here overreact more than mourinho though.

I have. Mourinho is overly negative and moany but the points he makes in his presser, which are mentioned in my post, are all valid. If the tone was different nobody sensible should have a problem with what he said.

Posters on the other hand are talking as if this team is doomed and the season a write off and we’ll get 3rd season syndrome all because we lost a friendly while missing 2/3s of the first team. Dunno how you can say that’s a smaller overreaction.
 
@MadMike this is very true and at least a sensible post that I agree with.

It has to improve when you look at all the players missing, yet I'm still a bit concerned.
 
I'm not too fussed to be honest. Damian was playing haha, he won't even be a United player soon. Pre season is just about fitness and kicking balls again. Doesn't everyone remember when we beat absolutely everyone including Barcelona in pre season under LVG, then lost the opening game to Swansea 2 - 0 at home? It's not a barometer, and most of our senior players are nowhere near the team atm.
 
Didn't City lose to Liverpool this pre-season? Do you honestly think it'll make a blind bit of difference to them? Not bloody likely. Of course winning creates confidence, but its been proven year after year, pre-season means bugger all.
Aside from losing it’s still the lack of creativity and chances. I know this wasn’t our first team but I still expected a little more. If, like you say, it means bugger all then what is the point in pre season? Is it just an exercise for getting the United name out there even more? One thing is for sure, It may mean bugger all to us but to Liverpool it meant everything and rightly so. From this they’ll probably hit the ground running. Let’s hope United can but do you honestly think they will?
 
Lol. I haven't read all of it but that seemed the craziest quote he came out with.
I genuinely thought it was a fake quote that some scouser had made up. Can't believe Jose basically said Sanchez wasn't happy because he was surrounded by a load of shite
 
I personally don't care about preseason. We beat Barcelona 3-1 when Van Gaal first came here and Ashley Young was man of the match. It meant feck all, We had an average season after that. We also beat Real Madrid a few times during preseasons and again, They meant feck all.

Not to mention majority of these players who got beaten 4-1 by Liverpool won't be the players that will play against Leicester. So stop about confidence bollocks, preseasons have always been about fitness and revenues, it should never be an indication of how a team would perform in the actual season. I am worried about the upcoming season as much as the next guy but not because of this particular preseason game, it's the lack of new signings. So losing 4-1 to Liverpool in preseason isn't the end of the world.

I also remember some club in China beat us during a preseason game when Fergie was still the manager.
 
I'm not too fussed to be honest. Damian was playing haha, he won't even be a United player soon. Pre season is just about fitness and kicking balls again. Doesn't everyone remember when we beat absolutely everyone including Barcelona in pre season under LVG, then lost the opening game to Swansea 2 - 0 at home? It's not a barometer, and most of our senior players are nowhere near the team atm.
So who are we going to start the season at RB as Valencia and Dalot injured? Suppose it could be just back off holiday Lindelof?