Aye, and with a player who, not long ago, would have been wearing red last night and not white.
Manchester United vs Real Madrid (Thu 27th July, 01:30 UK time)
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Aye, and with a player who, not long ago, would have been wearing red last night and not white.
You mean green
He wasn't sharp the last month or so last season. He is 31 and that's the age where most athletes lose a half of step for quickness. Then it becomes a full step. I'm worried and I hope I'm wrong!
Is that what it's supposed to be? Reminds me of the colour of puppy shit.
The first half stats would be more revealing and I'm sure they would show we were second best in every category.
in first half we were second best in offside goals too.
I completely agree, didn’t get to see it but I heard Bissaka also looks like a new player.
Did you get to watch- what did you think? I’m happy a double pivot was the plan, that’s why I was crying for caicedo becuase Casemiro is strong pushing the ball forward and I thought the two of them would shut down basically any midfield out there, with Mount and Fernandes further up
The first half stats had them a few shots ahead but even on possession and actual chances were even. We just missed them, they scored theirs in probably an offside goal.
So all you really saw in the first half is that RM probably was offside for the goal? You didn't see the misplaced passes, the poor defending, the inability to hold the ball and the wasteful and useless hopeful passes. We were second best to probably the second best team in the world and that's okay. Now we know where we stand.
Not sure what you're expecting from Onana to be honest. You thought he will single-handedly transform our attack? Not I, but there are many among us here who literally -- and I literally mean literally --blamed De Gea for our poor performance in attack last season (yes, including our weak chance conversion, as crazy as that sounds) and that Onana would transform -- yes, transform -- our attack. I do not agree with this insanity.
As for the second point, the word "average" has become meaningless. What is undeniable is that Dave made too many mistakes that a United keeper cannot be allowed to make. He was still making saves that your "average" keeper could never make, but when you see him fail to stop Benrahma's shot what you're seeing a lack of concentration (not ability) and that's something that the manager can't tolerate. Dave set a very high bar that Onana is unlikely to ever meet, but if he can make sure that a shot like Benrahma's will never get past him he'll be a worthy successor to De Gea, though one who is unlikely to perform at the highest level Dave was at for years.
It's Madrid, they can sign whoever they want.
There's is 24 minute highlights on the Man Utd app.
You call this "insanity" yet you made a comment about Onana first 90' in United shirt and in meaningless pre-season game that "nothing about Onana’s performance last night that looked anything like a transformation in our attack". This is the standard you will be following now, because some crazy people (I have never seen those comments so that must be like 1% of the caf) mentioned this regarding De Gea? I think you should let it go.
I probably agree about that comment. We should know better by know not to focus on one attribute of a goalkeeper, because once this declines there's not much else left. So I will be happy with all-round keeper even if he doesn't make a few supersaves a season. Plus I really value a GK who knows how to command the box, time will tell if Onana can do it.
We played against possibly the best midfield on the planet, and I didn't think we were completely outclassed first half whilst obviously being the inferior side.
We looked good in moments, but we're a level or 2 below where Real are at now with obvious holes to be plugged.
I'll start judging us when the season starts and we have a full squad in place hopefully.
We looked good in moments, but we're a level or 2 below where Real are at now with obvious holes to be plugged.
I'll start judging us when the season starts and we have a full squad in place hopefully.
By 'in minutes' do you mean they bought 3 young midfielders over a three year period? So not really minutes but actually years.
No one was sharp and he was playing centre midfield on his own
Knee jerking has started in pre season haha
EtH still hasn't figured out a shape that works for both Mount and Bruno. This should be the priority for the rest of preseason imo. It's been a 4231 every game so far and I just don't see that working longer term.
We need to start playing the likes of Urawa red diamonds in pre-season so we can twat them 9-0 and keep all the people who worry about pre-season results happy. This said, they would then be 'worried because Urawa red diamonds aren't a proper test'
Yeah I watched the whole match except last 10 mins. There were a lot of positives to take from it despite some of the meltdowns here.
I personally thought AWB played very well and was one of our better players. We started off brightly but to be honest our game plan went out of the window after Mainoo came off injured after 5 minutes. Main problem was Mainoo is a totally different profile of player to Eriksen who replaced him.
I suspect from ETH’s lineup the plan was to match the energy and numbers Madrid had in midfield. Losing Mainoo alongside Casemiro really scuppered that. Eriksen looked very leggy and ended up getting played around in most parts.
Despite the early set back I thought we still did well in the build up and transition phases. However as we all know, we were desperately in need of a focal point with a striker.
Also, I would have brought Bruno in from the right wing and brought on one of the wingers when Mainoo got injured. Eriksen against Madrids Camavinga, Tchoumeni, Modric, Bellingham diamond was too much.
It was a refreshing delight to see how comfortable Onana was in our build up and also commanding coming for a couple of situations in the air.
Attendance of 67801 in a stadium that holds 72220 - so 94%. Not too bad.
I travelled thousands of miles and spent $$$ to watch my team. I would have liked to see them play in red!!!
The stadium showed replays of many incidents but NOT the first non-goal!
I haven’t checked but I’m sure the Caf offers the usual - I could find a positive and negative comment on every player and the manager.
I enjoyed the game and thought we played well but have to agree we need a front-man.
I travelled thousands of miles and spent $$$ to watch my team. I would have liked to see them play in red!!!
The stadium showed replays of many incidents but NOT the first non-goal!
I haven’t checked but I’m sure the Caf offers the usual - I could find a positive and negative comment on every player and the manager.
I enjoyed the game and thought we played well but have to agree we need a front-man.
First half stats
Possession 51% to 49% in favour of United.
Total passes United 295, Madrid 286
Passing accuracy United 89% and Madrid 88%
Shots on goal 7-5 in favour of Madrid
Shots on target 2-1 in favour of Madrid
I'm very surprised with the first two stats.
You conveniently overlooked the beginning of my sentence, which stated that it's still early days. In the first 90 minutes of a new player's career you don't expect the transformation that was widely hailed as the primary reason we needed to get rid of De Gea and bring in Onana (even though our vastly higher priority is a proven striker and it looks like that's not going to happen). But you do expect to see the seedlings of that transformation and we most definitely did not see that last night. Still, as I wrote before, it's early days and maybe we will see the promised "transformation" -- the word that was specifically used over and over. It was always insanity that a new keeper would have a transformational impact on our finishing, which was far and away the weakest aspect of our team performance last season. Martial, Antony and Sancho -- their performances last season had nothing to do with De Gea, yet it was De Gea who got scapegoated here for our poor attack even while he was rightly flogged for mistakes such as the Benrahma goal and the second leg v Sevilla. He was also flogged for the second Gundogan goal and although reasonable minds may disagree on that, it was not De Gea's fault that Gundogan was left completely unmarked at the top of the penalty box.
I find it hard to believe that this level of insanity has been presented in the Caf, so I'd be delighted if you pointed to some evidence but don't bother. I guess you mean we lost some games because the striker missed their chances.
A keeper is against players and against chance. Sometimes there's a bit of luck, sometimes a bit of bad fortune. Doesn't matter if the striker was left unmarked or not.
Anyway, the keeper has little to do with attacking play. However, in modern football keepers have big impact on how the ball is played from the back. I am surprised you didn't see this significant change yesterday to be honest, especially since DDG play from the back was close to non existent. I don't know if you can call it "transformation", but I think it'll be a close call. One thing is for sure, there will be no transformation unless attackers start doing their job.
I don't need to bother. Just go on the De Gea Performance thread and go through the posts from mid-June to mid-July. Yes, according to several billion posts here, our woeful attack was a direct result of Dave's poor distribution, so goes the theory. Since you're 100% correct I will quote you: "Anyway, the keeper has little to do with attacking play."
In the end, Dave really did have to go since the opportunity to pick up a keeper who can do the basics both in terms of shotstopping and distribution presented itself and Onana is definitely such a keeper. This isn't the thread for a deep dive on Onana, but no one should expect Onana to be the next De Gea as a shot stopper nor should they expect Onana's distribution to have any impact on our ability to convert on chances on goal.
Oh, the word "transformation" was on the tip of the tongue of all the De Gea haters here who argued why we needed Onana...that he would be the catalyst for the "transformation" of our attack.
We lost to Real Madrid in pre-season?
Sheesh, we must be the worst team out there.
Sheesh, we must be the worst team out there.
Only just watched it.
Thought Bellingham looked a bit of an arrogant cnut asking for people to get booked 10mins into the game. And despite our blunt final third play and their 3x 100m midfielders they only led through that blatant offside goal. They are clearly a better side and have been for a decade. Their midfield is incredible and they break at great speed. But I thought our buildup with Onana was extremely promising. The second string made it feisty and looked up for a challenge, even Donny the invisible was putting himself about. It's just a shame about Antony's final third nothingness.
Also, wish football would have seen Rudiger come up against Zlatan or Duncan Ferguson in a bad mood.
Thought Bellingham looked a bit of an arrogant cnut asking for people to get booked 10mins into the game. And despite our blunt final third play and their 3x 100m midfielders they only led through that blatant offside goal. They are clearly a better side and have been for a decade. Their midfield is incredible and they break at great speed. But I thought our buildup with Onana was extremely promising. The second string made it feisty and looked up for a challenge, even Donny the invisible was putting himself about. It's just a shame about Antony's final third nothingness.
Also, wish football would have seen Rudiger come up against Zlatan or Duncan Ferguson in a bad mood.
Just seen this and the only thing I could think was… ‘why in god’s name did we play in white?’ So dumb.