Manchester United 3:1 Crystal Palace (Tue 19th July, 11:10 UK time)

We only really struggled the season when Pogba was ruled out early on and we relied on Pereira/Lingard/Mata to create. I haven't got the stats to hand, but I don't think we had too many games where we didn't score. I always thought that criticism was a little unfounded. The big issue with Oleball was our lack of midfield and how easy it was to force our defense into a mistake.
In the end it was all just a mess under ole, no structure or organisation what so ever. A bunch of 4 year olds would of been able to get through our midfield. Don’t get me wrong we had some great games and runs under ole and played some decent football but there was only so much that could of been done by putting smiles on the players faces. You need more then that like tactics a clear style of play and structure etc.
 
And I think you rating O'Shea below McTominay is pretty absurd, and something I wouldn't have guessed anyone would do. Does that mean you're scapegoating him? I don't think so, when you have a list of players someone has to be the worst.

United have been poor for years, midfield has been United's clearly worst area on the pitch, and McTominay has been a mainstay in that weak midfield. Meanwhile, O'Shea had a hard time becoming a starter because he was competing with some of the best players in the world rather than an aging over the hill Matic. He can't even play as a goalkeeper.
The fact that he's included with such alumini is testament to his talent but why do we have to look for the worst?

Is that because some on here cannot accept the fact that McTominay is actually a decent player and so have to move the goalposts to try and claim that he's poor because he isn't as good as David Beckham or Ryan Giggs?

It's a straw man arguement as far as I am concerned.

McTominay has got into the United squad over Pogba repeatedly for example, does that make world cup winning Pogba poor?
 
Friendly reminder to manage your expectations. It's only preseason. Remember LvG? Yeah.
Yes I distinctly remember. Hope our first game of the season doesn’t go like it did after LVG’s promising first pre-season.
 
In the end it was all just a mess under ole, no structure or organisation what so ever. A bunch of 4 year olds would of been able to get through our midfield. Don’t get me wrong we had some great games and runs under ole and played some decent football but there was only so much that could of been done by putting smiles on the players faces. You need more then that like tactics a clear style of play and structure etc.

I think with Ole it was always a question of how far he could take us as nobody really knew and ultimately he couldn't take that final step and get us over the line with a trophy. Yeah it was a mess by the end but I dont think it was a mess that set us back years and years. It's just what happens at the end of a Managers reign when the players have given up. The problem was we let it play out for too long, I do feel for him though because that run of fixtures was horrific. We had a very lopsided fixture list last year.

Still, I think there's a lot right now to feel positive about. But pre season is always really difficult to gauge accurately where the teams at. But we look better playing out from the back and we certainly have more structure in our play. The big issue we're going to have imo is dealing with the elephant in the room (Ronaldo).
 
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The Portugeuse Drama Queen is going to ruin it all isn't he :lol: :(
 
Great game tonight with 76,000 in attendance (just got home from the match).

Lads played great in the first half but surprisingly the kids weren’t as good tonight as they were versus Melbourne Victory on Friday night. Martial, McT and Donny impressed me a lot across both games as did some of the kids. Overall wonderful couple of games.
 
Great game tonight with 76,000 in attendance (just got home from the match).

Lads played great in the first half but surprisingly the kids weren’t as good tonight as they were versus Melbourne Victory on Friday night. Martial, McT and Donny impressed me a lot across both games as did some of the kids. Overall wonderful couple of games.

Why were you booing our captain? :mad:
 
Great game tonight with 76,000 in attendance (just got home from the match).

Lads played great in the first half but surprisingly the kids weren’t as good tonight as they were versus Melbourne Victory on Friday night. Martial, McT and Donny impressed me a lot across both games as did some of the kids. Overall wonderful couple of games.
Kind of expected though as pre season advances and teams progress, the kids will struggle more and more against teams getting back up to fitness and playing more senior players. It's great for them to get the game time though and can see same happening versus Villa.
 
The first team was impressive. Standards dropped after the mass substitution, but that was to be expected. The squad looks focused.

As for individual takeaways, we’re seeing a renewed Martial and Sancho looks great. A De Gea mistake and the bungling by Fish that led to a clumsy last man tackle marred an otherwise solid performance, albeit against an opponent who acquitted themselves poorly.
 
The fact that he's included with such alumini is testament to his talent but why do we have to look for the worst?

Is that because some on here cannot accept the fact that McTominay is actually a decent player and so have to move the goalposts to try and claim that he's poor because he isn't as good as David Beckham or Ryan Giggs?

It's a straw man arguement as far as I am concerned.

McTominay has got into the United squad over Pogba repeatedly for example, does that make world cup winning Pogba poor?

We don't have to look for the worst, but if the question is asked then it probably has an answer. Just like you think both O'Shea and Neville are worse. You didn't have to look for worse players.

If I recall correctly you think Bailly is really bad. Maybe you just can't accept that he's a decent defender plagued by fitness issues.

When the United midfield is so exceptionally weak it shouldn't be surprising that the guy with the most games in that midfield isn't rated. Maybe it's wrong, maybe either the midfield is so poor for other reasons, maybe McTominay is good but not a good fit, or maybe the midfield is good without anyone noticing, but that doesn't have to mean that people can't accept the truth or are looking for ways to discredit him.

I think you're wrong about O'Shea, very wrong, but I don't think there's anymore in that than we judging two players differently.
 
So we dominated teams did we? We could hardly keep the ball under ole, couldn’t string 2 passes together.
Rubbish. Teams knew that a low block would stop us as we had zero creativity, movement or passing through the lines. We still had loads of possession, just horizontally and lacking penetration.
 
Rubbish. Teams knew that a low block would stop us as we had zero creativity, movement or passing through the lines. We still had loads of possession, just horizontally and lacking penetration.
Exactly yet someone thought we weren’t just a counter attacking team under ole when we was. I bet about 85% of our goals was through counter attacking. This is where I think it will change under Ten Hag, it’s so much easier to open up teams when you have movement in your play.
 
Rubbish. Teams knew that a low block would stop us as we had zero creativity, movement or passing through the lines. We still had loads of possession, just horizontally and lacking penetration.

Yeah, this.

We had possession; but lacked any semblance of how to use it in a cohesive manner, or how to create any discernible patterns of play.
 
We don't have to look for the worst, but if the question is asked then it probably has an answer. Just like you think both O'Shea and Neville are worse. You didn't have to look for worse players.

If I recall correctly you think Bailly is really bad. Maybe you just can't accept that he's a decent defender plagued by fitness issues.

When the United midfield is so exceptionally weak it shouldn't be surprising that the guy with the most games in that midfield isn't rated. Maybe it's wrong, maybe either the midfield is so poor for other reasons, maybe McTominay is good but not a good fit, or maybe the midfield is good without anyone noticing, but that doesn't have to mean that people can't accept the truth or are looking for ways to discredit him.

I think you're wrong about O'Shea, very wrong, but I don't think there's anymore in that than we judging two players differently.
Agree with a lot of what you said, however I haven't suggested looking for the worst player.

Bailly isn't a bad player, I just feel he is reckless, rash and careless at times, all claims anyone would find hard to dispute.

The simple fact is McTominay is a good player, bereft of form as were alot of players at United last season.
That has been backed up by several managers at the highest level.
 
Shame to see Fish flounder.
 
As Bruno said the front three have to be aggressive, work hard and press. Makes the defensive line squeeze up, makes the midfield work higher up meaning ball recovery is closer to the opposition goal.
 
Hopefully Villa play a strong team in the next game. So far we've faced Liverpool's D team Melbourne and Palace's B team. Absolutely pointless trying to gauge anything from beating that dross.