Manchester United 0:1 Atletico Madrid (Sat 30th July, 12:45 UK time)

Stats according to my botched alerter

US - THEM
13 - 7 shots
4 - 2 Shots on goal
56% - 44% Possession
481 - 377 Passes

I take it that it got the stats the wrong way around also? How bizarre
 
avgp_1 said:
Had some nice combinations, Elanga should have scored twice, Maguire from the corner. But the issue with the defence getting exposed on counters remain and will be our Achilles heel this season
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Martial had the best chance in the first half through one on one. We created plenty and should have scored at least a couple.
 
I thought we played well tbh.

The game did show up our drastic lack of depth. Particularly on the right.

I like Elanga, but he just isn't ready as a quality alternative.
 
First half was very good. We weren't as good in the second, but we still should have won the game. I'm pretty happy with what I saw. I'm worried about Bruno and I still don't think Dalot is good enough. We also have a distinct lack of quality depth upfront. If we have any injuries, we're in serious trouble. Elanga is our first player off the bench, and he's clearly not good enough. We have to bring in at least one forward. Really liking the look of Malacia. I hadn't seen him play before, but he looks good. Eriksen also had a good cameo. Nice to see.
 
Great workout for the players - hot conditions, full 90 minutes for a lot of the players and against Atleti, who will always make you work and play a physical game. Result is meaningless although Fred's red card could mean he misses the first game? Does anyone know the deal with that?

The squad is weak though, we're seriously lacking depth - some urgency is needed from the board.
 
How anyone can complain about the result when they brought on a better team an hour in is baffling. They are an excellent team, have crazy depth, and we clearly need 1 or 2 starters. Can't be anything other than happy with how the team looks at the moment, compared to what we've had the last few years.
 
Ace said:
Are you saying you’re not familiar with the last two first team players we’ve had suspended at the start of a season for getting sent off in preseason? They were relatively important players for our club, perhaps you’ve heard of them or atleast seen them referenced in this thread if you haven’t been supporting that long.
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How many years ago are you going? Pretty sure the rule changed and Gerrard didn't get a league ban the year later.

Fred is suspended for tomorrow's game, that's it. Maybe learn the rules before trying to be clever and condescending.
 
ti vu said:
Why would he leave Atletico for us? Likely he's happy in his homeland. Atletico even as bad as their last season has been in better position than us. They won La Liga just 2 seasons ago.
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Fair enough. I just don’t remember any rumours of us being interested at any point, regardless if we would be successful or not.

Anyway, hopefully we’ll get Pedri when Barcelona go bankrupt :angel:
 
Definitely not a friendly. Can't stand Atletico, siting through the last game at OT was bad enough, but we played much better today despite losing. Probably the most energetic United side I've seen for a long time, let's hope we can keep this up. Missed Sancho on the right big time.
 
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Positive overall display, we should have been more clinical with our chances, you could see why we need De Jong because we need to sustain possession do longer spell. A decent right winger is still needed in the eventuality a player Sancho is missing in action.
But overall we were the better team.
 
The takeaway from the game.

A couple of great acquisitions in Malacia and Erikson.
 
Annoying them shower of fecks get the result, but lots of positives to be taken from that game in terms of preparation for the season.
 
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Frank Grimes said:
Exactly. You can see shoots of improvement but Ten Hag is not a miracle worker. This is a 6th place squad at present, 5th at a push. The board are letting him down.
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How? We’ve went for and attained 99% of ETH’s Targets. How is that letting him down?
 
Poor performance sorry - should have won that game easily.

The manager can get them organised put them in a system and send clear instructions on how he wishes them to play but what he can't do is teach them football intelligence.

The amount of times we aren't picking the right ball, not executing the pass, not making those unselfish runs and not getting our head up is shocking at this level. The scary thing is there are at least 6 players who started today who shouldn't be playing at the highest level yet here they are starting for Manchester United.

Malacia played well.

Eriksen looked dangerous but when he has attackers that aren't clinical then its just pot luck whether it comes to anything.

Thought Dalot did okay as well.

Bruno continues to be wasteful, he is only starting now because he did well in first seasons and our squad is so poor.

Maguire, Mctominay, Rashford, Van De Beek, and Elanga all not good enough. Not just on this performance but on what I've seen.

Not a fan of Lindelof but he is looking less of a liability than Maguire atm.

Hopefully Martinez is a player, and Sancho is back soon, but we need so much more..
 
Delano said:
I thought we played well tbh.

The game did show up our drastic lack of depth. Particularly on the right.

I like Elanga, but he just isn't ready as a quality alternative.
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I was making the point in another thread, but it’s insane that broke Barcelona who have a much improved Dembele on the right, went out and got Raphinha as competition. We’re paper thin in that area, and generally in attack.

It is what it is, impossible to address all the team’s issues in one window.
 
For anyone who didn't watch the game, I have absolutely no doubt the Fred stamp was completely unintentional. Fred looked surprised and extremely apologetic the second he realised he'd landed on him.

Unlike the keeper who deliberately targeted McT with a stamp and only got a yellow because he didn't connect.

Personally I feel the first yellow for Fred was really soft for a friendly but in a real game I do think it would have been a card, so kind of sympathise bit accept it.
 
UnitedSofa said:
How? We’ve went for and attained 99% of ETH’s Targets. How is that letting him down?
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We’ll have signed four players and spent over £130m by the end of the window. That’s great in my book. There were always too many issues to fix in one window.
 
Chief123 said:
Yet some think we were awful :wenger:
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Because far too many of our fans can't seem to separate performance from results. A big part of the reason the fans were behind Ole for so long despite performances being trash so often.

If we had won that 1-0 peoples opinions would have been massively different.
 
RonaldoVII said:
How many years ago are you going? Pretty sure the rule changed and Gerrard didn't get a league ban the year later.

Fred is suspended for tomorrow's game, that's it. Maybe learn the rules before trying to be clever and condescending.
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I wasn’t aware the “rule had changed” as you’ve suggested, apparently neither have the MUTV broadcasters who said he was suspended for the start of the season. Take a deep breath.
 
Delano said:
I thought we played well tbh.

The game did show up our drastic lack of depth. Particularly on the right.

I like Elanga, but he just isn't ready as a quality alternative.
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Elanga is the number one player who literally gives the ball away every single time but no stats are ever shared after the game. He is so so bad, its not even a joke. He cant hold up, he cant pass, he cant dribble and his decision making is terrible. I dont think he will make it at manutd long term...he has foundational deficiencies in his game...the type that need years to fix. I would take playing an extra midfielder over elanga...horrible player
 
Mickeza said:
What? His key target FDJ isn’t here and he possibly wanted Nunez who we didn’t sign and definitely want Antony who isn’t here.
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Hence why I said 99%

Still time to get Antony and FDJ. Ajax want 100M for Antony and Barca are being awful to work with. We have had a bid accepted by Barca for FDJ by the way. At least a month ago.

What’s the issue here?
 
RedMilo said:
Poor performance sorry - should have won that game easily.

The manager can get them organised put them in a system and send clear instructions on how he wishes them to play but what he can't do is teach them football intelligence.

The amount of times we aren't picking the right ball, not executing the pass, not making those unselfish runs and not getting our head up is shocking at this level. The scary thing is there are at least 6 players who started today who shouldn't be playing at the highest level yet here they are starting for Manchester United.

Malacia played well.

Eriksen looked dangerous but when he has attackers that aren't clinical then its just pot luck whether it comes to anything.

Thought Dalot did okay as well.

Bruno continues to be wasteful, he is only starting now because he did well in first seasons and our squad is so poor.

Maguire, Mctominay, Rashford, Van De Beek, and Elanga all not good enough. Not just on this performance but on what I've seen.

Not a fan of Lindelof but he is looking less of a liability than Maguire atm.

Hopefully Martinez is a player, and Sancho is back soon, but we need so much more..
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Surely, you're not basing this on this game and the pre-season?
 
If Glazers has any ambition, they need to find 100 million more for 2 quality signings. Antony and striker. If they hope ETH creates a miracle of finishing top 4, then they are dreaming. It will take 3-4 years to get back there, Arsenal and Spurs looks good, Chelsea are also buying quality. 6 would be our position based on the current squad quality.
 
Kinky Melinky said:
Stats according to my botched alerter

US - THEM
13 - 7 shots
4 - 2 Shots on goal
56% - 44% Possession
481 - 377 Passes

I take it that it got the stats the wrong way around also? How bizarre
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Stats in the 2nd leg 1-0 to them last season.

United - A Madrid

Shots 11-8
Shots on goal 5-3
61% - 39% possession
Passes 573-389

Very simliar..
 
Worrying signs before the season opener. Madrid were miles behind us in their preparation and had only played their first friendly 3 days ago. A lot of their top players were on the bench also. This really should have been a comfortable win for United.

We're seriously lacking quality. The drop off from Sancho to Elanga was huge. If Ronaldo leaves we'll need 2 attackers along with another midfielder.
I was a big supporter of McTominay's but have to admit he's just not good enough to be a starter here. We badly need a proper holding midfielder which most on here already know yet we don't even appear to be in for one.
I really don't rate Bruno either and even stated this when he first signed and his stats were through the roof. The guy can't do the basics. Misplaces 6 yard passes on a regular basis and loses possession countless times. He's an annoying cnut with all his complaining also. I was laughed at when I said there was a reason we had an easy run at him with the likes of Real, Barca, Bayern, Man City etc not interested. It's because most top clubs play with progressive controlling tactics and Bruno is useless at this.
Modric, Iniesta, David Silva, De Bruyne. Bruno was getting compared to them when he's not even in the same league. A fully fit Eriksen will even be twice the player.
 
Decent performance in parts against a stronger team. Nothing has changed in my mind though about the upcoming season. 6th for me, 5th at the very best. Nothing but some very good signings in the remainder of the window will change my mind on that as we are certainly weaker than last season. EtH is a massive plus but not one that will take us higher in the league IMO, he needs better players.
 
UnitedSofa said:
Hence why I said 99%

Still time to get Antony and FDJ. Ajax want 100M for Antony and Barca are being awful to work with. We have had a bid accepted by Barca for FDJ by the way. At least a month ago.

What’s the issue here?
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Yeah. Except it isn’t 99% is it? I’d imagine the issue is that at least two of his major targets haven’t been signed in areas that desperately need strengthening 7 days before the season starts. Just a hunch.
 
ti vu said:
Why would he leave Atletico for us? Likely he's happy in his homeland. Atletico even as bad as their last season has been in better position than us. They won La Liga just 2 seasons ago.
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Homeland?

Revaulx said:
We looked a lot like we did in Ralf’s early days though: well organised, hard working, creating chances but failing to finish. Anyone saying we were “dominated“ can safely be ignored, but we need to start scoring against defences that aren’t terrible.
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Pretty much.
 
Conor said:
How anyone can complain about the result when they brought on a better team an hour in is baffling. They are an excellent team, have crazy depth, and we clearly need 1 or 2 starters. Can't be anything other than happy with how the team looks at the moment, compared to what we've had the last few years.
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The thing about it is that our season officially starts next Sunday. We should be able to play 90 minutes good enough and get result. 5 subs this season, so we don't have excuse if opposition have good depth and bringing a bunch of fresh players on to undo us.

We can play our subs too, but we can really see the issue here. Our depth sucks, with our starting options unable to easily beat a quality team, despite they're behind in term of preseason.
 
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