[Cal?]

It was a game which showed which team was less crap. Not to sound insulting, it was terrible to watch as a neutral. I was hoping for some good football, but this was seriously bad. How can both teams make so many mistakes?

At the end, I felt irritated by both sets of players. It's safe to say Mata is non-existent. And your midfield and defence is in a terrible state. I don't think LVG made proper investment, far from convinced. The results are coming like against Arsenal. But in reality these wins/points is simply masking the bad performance the team has been putting.

15 shots vs 3. This is not a game against Madrid or Bayern. This is just a Southampton (no offence). The team should much much better. Many people might say win is a win. Well, you are likely to get stung badly if this continues.

Unlike Barcelona a few years ago, teams don't have players to pass the ball ad nauseam before scoring goals.

 

[Member 39557]

I don't even recall that 3rd shot.

RVP had a shot from the edge of the area.

 

[Member 39557]

Shall we give the points back?

I'll take the result all day, but I'm not going to pretend we deserved the win.

 

[bosnian_red]

We couldn't put more than 5 passes together, and according to Sky our lowest ever tally of shots at goal since Opta started collating stats (11 years). Pretty tumescent performance, first half especially where we could have been 3 or 4 down.

Gary Neville echoing that too on Sky just now too.

Yeah the passing was awful between the defence and fellaini but it's not like we got battered and just got lucky. Southampton did nothing really going forward, it was just our passing out from the back and Fellaini never opening up which was shite and the main problem. Saying "disgusting performance" is way over the top.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Can we not talk about the title? That was a terrible performance. We got lucky with the win.

 

[Raven Blade]

We've absolutely robbed them blind tonight. Our lowest attempts for 11 years, a defence that keeps changing and suicidal play all game. 3 points and now we're in third place. Allowing Van Persie to play himself into form has been a masterstroke. He was the brightest star for us among a whole load of shocking individual performances. I have to go back to that question Van Gaal asked earlier in the season.

What will happen when we actually play well?

 

[Cal?]

We were fortunate there too.

I'm pleased we're grinding out results. These are the sort of games we would have lost last year, but I'm not going to pretend we weren't awful.

You do realise that neither Soton today or Arsenal that day looked too clever themselves?

In fact, the fact that Soton handed us 1 of the goals on a silver platter and the other by terrible defending says as much about them deserving the defeat.

 

[untitled_6899]

Evans and Fellaini scare the hell out of me, so to win after playing so poorly was frankly amazing

We HAVE to improve against the scouse bastards

 

[Infra-red]

An awful performance, we were just abysmal, particularly in midfield. However the terribleness of the play has certainly been matched by the brilliance of this result; a huge win.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Yeah the passing was awful between the defence and fellaini but it's not like we got battered and just got lucky. Southampton did nothing really going forward, it was just our passing out from the back and Fellaini never opening up which was shite and the main problem. Saying "disgusting performance" is way over the top.

sotn had plenty of chances to score

 

[bosnian_red]

I'll take the result all day, but I'm not going to pretend we deserved the win.

Southampton can hardly say they deserved anything out of the game either though. They did nothing going forward other then hoof it, their 2 chances in the whole game came from us pointlessly giving it away like we constantly did for whatever reason.

 

[Cal?]

Can we not talk about the title? That was a terrible performance. We got lucky with the win.

I still don't think Soton deserved anything but a defeat with the way they defended for both our goals.

 

[The Mitcher]

It was a game which showed which team was less crap. Not to sound insulting, it was terrible to watch as a neutral. I was hoping for some good football, but this was seriously bad. How can both teams make so many mistakes?

At the end, I felt irritated by both sets of players. It's safe to say Mata is non-existent. And your midfield and defence is in a terrible state. I don't think LVG made proper investment, far from convinced. The results are coming like against Arsenal. But in reality these wins/points is simply masking the bad performance the team has been putting.

15 shots vs 3. This is not a game against Madrid or Bayern. This is just a Southampton (no offence). The team should much much better. Many people might say win is a win. Well, you are likely to get stung badly if this continues.

Well, I can only respond with a reaction video.

 

[MUFC > Everyone]

RVP really loves the Southampton Away fixtures...

 

[Mrs Smoker]

I'll take the result all day, but I'm not going to pretend we deserved the win.

Of course we did, we scored two, they scored one. As there was no outside influence on result or refs', the logic dictates we actually did deserve to win.

 

[Dylan94]

The match stats are hilarious, but we've won, we showed fight, we scrapped, and we've grinded out another tough win. Exactly what we never did under Moyes so that is a big improvement in itself.

 

[togg]

Ah, what the he'll, we played poorly and I'm sure LVG will admit it. But it's 3 points and we all so wanted that after the results last weekend, so, we have to be happy with that. rvp was tremendous, Rooney that typical characteristic mistimed nonentity after an injury. Watch him score against Liverpool....

 

[bosnian_red]

sotn had plenty of chances to score

Did they really? They had the Long header which was a good chance, the Pelle shot which was a half chance and their goal. Maybe one other half chance at most. The rest was hoofing it forward and us clearing it. We weren't good but Southampton was just as bad at creating anything considering how shaky our defence looked.

 

[Insanity]

We've absolutely robbed them blind tonight. Our lowest attempts for 11 years, a defence that keeps changing and suicidal play all game. 3 points and now we're in third place. Allowing Van Persie to play himself into form has been a masterstroke. He was the brightest star for us among a whole load of shocking individual performances. I have to go back to that question Van Gaal asked earlier in the season.

What will happen when we actually play well?

A better question will be, 'Will we?'

 

[RetroStu]

Can someone explain Van Gaals philosophy to me?, and i don't mean that sarcastically, i genuinely don't have a clue.
I know he likes possession football which we certainly have done this season but everything after that, i'm lost.

 

[RuudTom83]

Away from home against any team in the top half is not easy and the current defense is going to take a hammering until a settled back four can be found.

 

[R'hllor]

3 pts are vital,looking our lack of luck regarding injuries,we deserved to have some back.Massive win. Regarding match thread,people calling our players names,players being called shit,blaming a player for being injured(Oo),then in same time asking them to be sold etc.

 

[Member 39557]

You do realise that neither Soton today or Arsenal that day looked too clever themselves?

In fact, the fact that Soton handed us 1 of the goals on a silver platter and the other by terrible defending says as much about them deserving the defeat.

The fact that they wasted their opportunities doesn't mean much when we're barely creating enough opportunities to waste ourselves.

We scored 1 from a defensive mistake and 1 from a set piece. That means we actually created 1 chance ourselves and that was from outside the box.
You can sugar coat it all you like, but we didn't play well at all.

 

[CLARiiON]

Unlike Barcelona a few years ago, teams don't have players to pass the ball ad nauseam before scoring goals.

Anybody who says United played well today is deluded. That includes you.

 

[Irrational.]

I still cannot comprehend how we won that game.

Rojo, Fellaini, Mata, Rooney and Valencia all had stinkers and the passing was shocking.

Another injury, surprise surprise. We've had such awful luck this season.

I really hope ADM returns vs the Scousers and we manage to field a decent lineup, as no doubt they'll raise their game once again.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Yeah the passing was awful between the defence and fellaini but it's not like we got battered and just got lucky. Southampton did nothing really going forward, it was just our passing out from the back and Fellaini never opening up which was shite and the main problem. Saying "disgusting performance" is way over the top.

We definitely did get a bit lucky. They had some very clear cut chances. Long should have had 2 himself. They were a bit pants in the 2nd half, but the first half could have seen them 2 or 3 up.

Pick another synonym for 'disgusting' and put it before the word 'performance' then. It was. Neville described it was "unbelievably bad", so let's go with that.

 

[Cal?]

Away from home against any team in the top half is not easy and the current defense is going to take a hammering until a settled back four can be found.

We've already played City, Arsenal and Soton away and not taken a hammering anywhere, and got 2 wins, so who exactly are going to hand us that hammering?

That one game at Stamford Bridge?

 

[Sied]

MmMMMMmmmMMmMmmmm this looks gooooooooood

 

[NinjaZombie]

I still don't think Soton deserved anything but a defeat with the way they defended for both our goals.

The same can be said for us for the amount of times we lost possession at our own third. We had a better goalkeeper and a better striker. That's why we won.

In fact, it could be argued that Southampton players actually managed to execute their gameplan (their pressing of us for 3/4 of the game) and we didn't.

But, hey, I'm not complaining.

 

[rooney2009]

I did not enjoy this at all,hopefully we can only get better.

 

[Dylan94]

Steve Claridge on the BBC text feed:

"This game shows the gulf between the top two (Chelsea and Manchester City) and the rest in the Premier League."


"It was a really enjoyable game. Have I seen Southampton play better? Yes. Did they dominate and deserve to win? Yes. Manchester United got out of jail with two individual pieces of brilliance from Robin van Persie.

"Are United going in the right direction? Performance wise, certainly not. I watched Manchester City here two weeks ago and there's no comparison between Manchester City and Manchester United."

What a complete d*ckhead. Does he not f*cking realise how sh*t City have been apart from the last couple of games too. They've played better on hardly any more occasions than we have so far.

 

[Redo91]

No idea how we won that but a great result. 3 shots, 2 on target and we win 2-1!

It was more of a "smash and fumble" than a "smash and grab".

 

[Browniee]

Evans Rojo starting vs liverpool?

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Probably the worst performance of the season (excluding MK Dons) but we won which is all that matters, defence was all over the place after Smalling went off, but this 3-5-2 is too scary to watch, lucky win?Southampton weren't that great either going forward or in defence. Playing this system the defence doesn't seem to know where they should be, hope we're back to a back 4 on Sunday

 

[Spark]

Listening to Radio 5 live and it's stunning (it's actually not) how much pundits hate United. "LvG has come over here with his so called tactical genius... spent £160 million..." Moyes was better. Steve Claridge (obviously, because he's a tosser) is having a meltdown and is hating the fact United won, saying all sorts of bollocks.

Kinnell we were shite but it's one game against Southampton, the in-form team in the league (overall). Yes they got battered by City and Chelsea but that means feck all. Doesn't mean they're going to be shit for ever now. We are not a finished team, LvG needs to sort his formation business out a bit - but fecks sake we are getting better and whereas last year we would win and then lose straight away, at least this year our "2 steps back" is a shit win against Southampton.

Can't be arsed to dissect that performance, we were shit, we won, feck off Southampton. Hopefully LvG bollocks them and we get our nuts down for Liverpool. I'll take a shit win like today again, though.

 

[Cal?]

The fact that they wasted their opportunities doesn't mean much when we're barely creating enough opportunities to waste ourselves.

We scored 1 from a defensive mistake and 1 from a set piece. That means we actually created 1 chance ourselves and that was from outside the box.
You can sugar coat it all you like, but we didn't play well at all.

Anybody who says United played well today is deluded. That includes you.

Did I say anywhere that we played well?

I just disagree with the people who said we didn't deserve the win. There's no conflict between playing badly and deserving the win. Soton played even more badly (esp the way they defended the 2 goals).

 

[RuudTom83]

We've already played City, Arsenal and Soton away and not taken a hammering anywhere, and got 2 wins, so who exactly are going to hand us that hammering?

That one game at Stamford Bridge?

You misunderstood my point...i didn't mean hammering as in the result, i meant in general play, as in losts of chances and shots on goal...but i was actually sticking up for the team hehe

 

[ivaldo]

2 points from today's game

1. We sorely miss blind linking the defense to midfield, having that player confident enough and efficient enough to pick up and play in that anchor role.

2. Our fans were freaking amazing again, best support in the league right now by a country mile.

 

[.Rossi]

If those chances fell to anyone other then Shane Long, Southampton would have won with ease

 

[Cal?]

The same can be said for us for the amount of times we lost possession at our own third. We had a better goalkeeper and a better striker. That's why we won.

In fact, it could be argued that Southampton players actually managed to execute their gameplan (their pressing of us for 3/4 of the game) and we didn't.

But, hey, I'm not complaining.

The fact we have better players is exactly why we deserved to win despite playing badly. Excellent goalkeeping and finishing...