[Jaxdan]

They scored a flukey goal which ruined our tactics, couldn't see them scoring, Martial needs to time his runs better.

The tactics were alright, we ended up with a midfield 2 of Rooney and Carrick, let's hope for the last time

Herrera has been excellent for the most part, but I have no idea what he was thinking there. Turning his back and ducking, trying to save his modeling career or something.

 

[SirScholes]

Herrera has been excellent for the most part, but I have no idea what he was thinking there. Turning his back and ducking, trying to save his modeling career or something.

Meh yer, still tho, it hit him at the perfect pace and angle to give it the max trajectory, 1/1000.
I do agree with you but you still have to curse the luck

 

[Jaxdan]

Meh yer, still tho, it hit him at the perfect pace and angle to give it the max trajectory, 1/1000.
I do agree with you but you still have to curse the luck

Oh no doubt about that. It was a fluke for sure. But for all the grief we give Rooney, I doubt he'd be ducking out of the way. It just befuddled me. Like something you'd see kids do at soccer school.

 

[Ramshock]

The stats:

http://www.espnfc.us/match?gameId=450650


I was wondering what the pundits were on about as well. Jose was right on in his post game, they acted as though he was daft.

Koeman came out with the same shite after the 1-1 when the stats clearly showed we were better.

 

[Hugh Jass]

They scored a flukey goal which ruined our tactics, couldn't see them scoring, Martial needs to time his runs better.

The tactics were alright, we ended up with a midfield 2 of Rooney and Carrick, let's hope for the last time

Pretty much and Rooney missed a glaring chance. Had he scored we would have won.

 

[SirScholes]

Pretty much and Rooney missed a glaring chance. Had he scored we would have won.

Needed more composure, mata was free, he normally chooses the right option as well which was disappointing

 

[SirScholes]

Oh no doubt about that. It was a fluke for sure. But for all the grief we give Rooney, I doubt he'd be ducking out of the way. It just befuddled me. Like something you'd see kids do at soccer school.

Agreed

 

[Crashoutcassius]

So you would have played Rashford Valencia and Pogba?

He gets slated for resting and rotating his players and he would have got slated if he had run those three into the ground.

We've also lost the least amount of games in the entire league, with an average squad.

I'm not a football manager so close to irrelevant what I would do.

I'm having a hard time buying this whole narrative though. First of all, how likely are we to lose to celta bigo at home? Honestly it isn't very likely, we don't need to rest half the squad.

Second of all, the top 4 was actually in our hands. All we needed to do was to win 4 games and we were guaranteed top 4, and actually winning 3 could well do it.

Finally, we actually had good team out there. How can mourinho not put in a respectable performance with jones smalling carrick herrera martial mhikitarian mata forming the core of the team. Why are people acting like that wasn't a competitive 11? LVG won games with 3-4 players within a couple of games of their debut and nobody was saying then that it was impossible to win with a weakened team. Nobody said that LVG having rooney in the team made it impossible to win. Absurd narrative running around this game that a) resting players 4 days before a game versus La Liga 10th which we are 1-0 up in is actually necessary b) that its acceptable to give up on top four because we don't think we can win 4 or 3/4 games and c) we couldn't win the game with the team put out there. So small time

 

[tekkers3]

The reason the stats show we didnt park the bus is because when United had possession, Arsenal shifted in to a 5-4-1. When Arsenal had possession, United were in a 6-3-1. So both teams sat deep and played at a low intensity. Xhaka's goal was more about individual errors than team shape, as was the second.

The story of our season is not scoring enough goals / converting our chances. Defending deep / playing the wingers deeps is a side issue

 

[Jonno]

I'm not a football manager so close to irrelevant what I would do.

I'm having a hard time buying this whole narrative though. First of all, how likely are we to lose to celta bigo at home? Honestly it isn't very likely, we don't need to rest half the squad.

Second of all, the top 4 was actually in our hands. All we needed to do was to win 4 games and we were guaranteed top 4, and actually winning 3 could well do it.

Finally, we actually had good team out there. How can mourinho not put in a respectable performance with jones smalling carrick herrera martial mhikitarian mata forming the core of the team. Why are people acting like that wasn't a competitive 11? LVG won games with 3-4 players within a couple of games of their debut and nobody was saying then that it was impossible to win with a weakened team. Nobody said that LVG having rooney in the team made it impossible to win. Absurd narrative running around this game that a) resting players 4 days before a game versus La Liga 10th which we are 1-0 up in is actually necessary b) that its acceptable to give up on top four because we don't think we can win 4 or 3/4 games and c) we couldn't win the game with the team put out there. So small time

I get your points, I do, but how can you compare the following:

WIN Away to Arsenal
WIN Away to Tottenham
WIN Away to Southampton
WIN Home to Crystal Palace

With

DRAW Home against Celta Vigo
Win Final against Ajax

Let's be honest here, one route is much much easier than the other.

Fact is we are severely short on attacking options. We had no option to take Rashford out and couple that with no Zlatan we're as blunt as a butter knife. If it wasn't for Zlatan coming in and bagging 28 goals and Rashford stepping up, we would be fecked.

The Rooney situation has been severely miss-managed, he should have been out 1-2 years ago minimum to make room for another 350k per week striker. Van Persie never got replaced, Hernandez got replaced by Martial, who whilst is very talented, isn't consistent enough yet.

So the problem is obvious. If Zlatan and Rooney go, we need at least 2 world class attacking players to complement Rashford and Martial.

Against Arsenal we were poor going forward. We were also shakey at the back, but what do you expect when you throw Jones and Smalling back into the team along with a youth player? Jones and Smalling haven't played properly for 2 months and looked well off the pace, Axel did well but he is still only an academy player, we were always going to concede in these circumstances and we were always going to struggle going forward. Mata wasn't ready either and did well to contribute after it was feared he would be out for the season. Herrera has played every 3 days for pretty much the whole season, he was overrun.

I think United fans are too critical and should realise that we have been challenging on 5 fronts most of the season, we've played something like 20 more games than Liverpool, which when slotted in between PL games DOES make it tough.

The argument with that is "We've been doing it for years why are we struggling with that amount of games now?" Difference now is that we have probably 10-15 players in our squad of 25 that aren't of the standard of winners/challengers. We used to have about 5-6 players not up to the standard but the rest of the squad would carry them. As a result Mourinho has been deploying containing tactics against the big teams, because rightly so he does not trust this squad. How could you trust Rooney, Fellaini, Jones, Smalling, and hot and cold players such as Martial, Lingard, Mhiki, an untested academy player, an injury prone Luke Shaw... you just can't trust players like that, so as a result, he deploys safer tactics. Lets not forget we have attacked lots this season against the smaller teams, we've had around 20-30 shots a game most of the time. It's only now, with an average core squad, full of injuries, suspensions, having to play in so many big games that we're seeing how average we are and how little he trusts them. I don't blame him.

How do we combat this? We give our world class manager who is excellent in the transfer window MORE TIME to improve this average squad. The decay set in when Moyes and LVG panic bought for 3 seasons. If he brings in 4 quality players this summer and 4 quality players next summer, you will have seen a total transformation of a very badly managed (in terms of purchases), average squad into an aggressive, pacey attacking team challenging for the Premier League Title, and you won't see tactics like we've been seeing against the top sides.

That's what I think anyway.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

I get your points, I do, but how can you compare the following:

WIN Away to Arsenal
WIN Away to Tottenham
WIN Away to Southampton
WIN Home to Crystal Palace

With

DRAW Home against Celta Vigo
Win Final against Ajax

I guess I don't think they are comparable, I just don't think united should give up finishing as high as possible when top four is so achievable.

And I suppose then the argument that we don't have the squad to do it I don't agree with, or at least I wonder why the squad wasn't an excuse for LVG or Moyes while it is for Mourinho. LVG mopped up the big games for the most part with a worse squad. These are just the things hat bother me about the narrative, and it seems a bit small time to say mourinho couldn't have done better against arsenal

 

[el3mel]

I guess I don't think they are comparable, I just don't think united should give up finishing as high as possible when top four is so achievable.

And I suppose then the argument that we don't have the squad to do it I don't agree with, or at least I wonder why the squad wasn't an excuse for LVG or Moyes while it is for Mourinho. LVG mopped up the big games for the most part with a worse squad. These are just the things hat bother me about the narrative, and it seems a bit small time to say mourinho couldn't have done better against arsenal

Easy question : because LVG was the one who chose and built the squad in such a way. He has a full first season to asses the squad and see its needs, then he decided the deplete the squad that much in summer, selling all our strikers to leave Rooney alone upfront. He put an excuse for this himself saying he depleted the squad heavily to give chance for youth (which is lame excuse from him btw), very fine then, when injuries happened and you didn't find any players to play with because you sold half of the squad in summer then don't complain much as it's your own problem only ! No one told you to sell Hernandez, RVP and Di Maria in summer for Captain Rooney to lead the line !!

If Mourinho did the same next season he'll hold full responsibility for this too.

 

[RAVred]

I feel like Mourinho's post match against Celta indicated he realises we need to score and win the game if we want to guarantee going through. Hope he sets out to score early, maybe even two, then dont care if he shuts up shop, Celta will become desperate and hopefully that just means a lot of space for Marcus to destroy them on the counter.


I dont think starting Mata is best idea cus of this, I think we'll want to counter for a lot of the game and he isnt great for counterattacking football imo.



hopefully he doesnt bitch out and drop his balls though and decides parking a bus is the best idea, will definitely be very very bad in this situation