[matt23]

I like Rooney, but if he is going to continue like this we really really really need another striker asap.
Love that Januzaj got the goal and our defence looks good.

Rooney was shocking again tonight, but history tells us he'll come good. Needs to do it quick though, there was something very awkward about the captain playing like that.

 

[sammsky1]

Given the pre season instabilities and large no of incomings, im absolutely delighted! 6 points, no goals conceded and at least some semblance of an identity, even if it is boring to watch.

If we can get into the CL proper, win our next league match and keep De Gea, I'd say we'd have had as perfect a start to the season as we could have dared hope for.

I'll take tumescent 1-0 wins til the end of the season if it ensures a really competitive attempt of winning the premier league.

 

[antsmithmk]

After all that panicking about Gestede beforehand, I don't think he won a single header against Smalling! Even Blind didn't look that fazed by him.

He is an even shitter version than a shit version on Andy Carroll.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

I don't remember the last time we were this solid. Villa huffed and puffed but couldn't get past our solid defense. Going forward, though, it's the same old, same old. Can't have it all; very good win.

 

[littlepeasoup]

After all that panicking about Gestede beforehand, I don't think he won a single header against Smalling! Even Blind didn't look that fazed by him.

He had that half chance when Shaw did just enough to get his body in the way and put him off. Other than that, you're right, didn't do too much. Villa looked knackered after 30 minutes first half and after 65 minutes second half. Think they'll struggle this season,

 

[Sereques]

Did you miss that time when Mata won the ball immediately after he lost it? That was sheer determination.

Defending your fav player I see. He could have cost us 3 points today, lost the ball about 4 times easily. A stronger opposition would have scored from one of them.

 

[Ixion]

- its beyons obvious that Herrera should play over schneiderlin

What games are you watching?

 

[Borys]

Considering we’re playing a keeper I’ve never seen before, those two 1-0 wins are pure gold for our confidence.

Villa are very energetic and fast, I’d say it’s the kind of game you don’t want to play Carrick from the start. The improvement when Schweinsteiger replaced him was huge.

Most of the game it seemed like we miss one midfielder, there was nothing happening in central areas. We looked much better with Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin behind Herrera. A proper 4-3-3 and we play much better, who would’ve thought?

Memphis is exactly what I expected in early days. I’ve never seen worse game from Rooney, he turned everything into shit. Also, I hope he stays up front instead of running around because it’s not working for the team when his first touch is like today.

 

[Born2Lose]

If we win all our away games like that I couldn't care less, most teams in the league just try and rough us up anyway. It's easy to knock the team and say they don't play good football but it's not easy when your getting hacked down whenever your near the ball.

The standard of refereeing has really gone downhill..

 

[sammsky1]

Given the pre season instabilities and large no of incomings, im absolutely delighted! 6 points, no goals conceded and at least some semblance of an identity, even if it is boring to watch.

If we can get into the CL proper, win our next league match and keep De Gea, I'd say we'd have had as perfect a start to the season as we could have dared hope for.

I'll take tumescent 1-0 wins til the end of the season if it ensures a really competitive attempt of winning the premier league.

 

[Danny Boi]

Lots of positives:

Our fullbacks were both brilliant
Smalling was very solid
Romero reads the game very well and had excellent, accurate distribution
Bastian is the scholes replacement we have looked so long for
Schneiderlin's forward runs and general contributions to the game were much improved since last week
Mata should have had at least another assist to add to his first
Januzaj starts and makes the difference
Even Memphis I thought showed lots of potential, once he it clicks it should be a lot better


Six out of Six points. I'm happy.

This essentially sums up my thoughts.Considering it's only the 2nd game of the season and we have 4 new signings in the line up, it wasn't bad.Massive improvement over last season and even over some of our rivals this season.

Defence was very solid again,Mata and Depay showed glimpses of what they can do in attack and Januzaj got a much needed goal.We also looked a lot better with Herrera and Schweinsteiger on, should start them on Tuesday.

Rooney is the only real concern for me.Totally off his game and contributed nothing to the attack.We are in big trouble if he consistantly performs like this.

 

[Coxy]

Our defense is godly and if we get a better partner for Smalling, I feel we can achieve the best defense in Europe this season.

perhaps a touch of hyperbole??

 

[Raven Blade]

Can't complain about the result. We're starting the season well without producing the goods. Our defence looks pretty solid at the moment. Shaw and Darmian are giving me a lot of reassurance in their abilities, while Smalling and Blind haven't made any major errors yet. With our possession and attacking play we simply must improve though. When we decide to move the ball quicker we actually start to pose a threat. Carrick and Schneiderlin got a bit careless at times while Schweinsteiger showed a range of quality forward passing. For long periods we didn't do enough to score goals and the time will soon come when we need more than 1 to win.

Rooney and Memphis are hurting my fantasy team.

 

[Everest Red]

Defending your fav player I see. He could have cost us 3 points today, lost the ball about 4 times easily. A stronger opposition would have scored from one of them.

My favorite player is Fellaini, but continue assuming.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Our defense is 1-4 in MOTM voting currently. Not ideal, that.

- mata showing again why he should be the 10
- rooney showing again why he should be benched
- its beyons obvious that Herrera should play over schneiderlin[/QUOTE]

Madness. Herrera should play more but Schneiderlin is essential to our current formation.

 

[Sereques]

- mata showing again why he should be the 10
- rooney showing again why he should be benched
- its beyons obvious that Herrera should play over schneiderlin

How is Mata showing this?

One of the reasons we look solid is because of Schneiderlin.

 

[Dominos]

Can't believe so many think that was an excellent performance. 2 chances created in 90 minutes against one of the worst teams in the league. There were definitely some positives, we controlled the game very well 2nd half to see out the game, we never looked in danger - defence was excellent.

Attack still looks awful, and it seems popular to blame that solely on Rooney (who admittedly was shite today), but I think the problems must run a bit deeper than that.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Not bad. Workmanlike. Good phases of play, and some good forward passes which split them open. Away to Villa is always a sticky game. We've taken better teams to Villa Park and dropped points in the past. It's nearly always a bore draw, so I'm very happy with the win. And a nice goal to settle it too.

 

[Dante]

Carrick + Januzaj had 67 touches in 60 minutes

Bastian + Herrera had 72 touches in 30 minutes

Says everything, imo. The latter two combined add a swagger that we've lacked for years.

 

[IrishRick]

The back line looks very solid. The passing is good just needs more zip. But Rooney was horrific. He did nothing of note. His first touch was non existent and he constantly gave it away. How he lasted the 90 is beyond me. Still two clean sheets and 6 points. I'm happy with that

 

[antsmithmk]

If we win all our away games like that I couldn't care less, most teams in the league just try and rough us up anyway. It's easy to knock the team and say they don't play good football but it's not easy when your getting hacked down whenever your near the ball.

The standard of refereeing has really gone downhill..

Ref tonight was ok. Let most things go for 20 mins then started to pull up fouls. He could have given Villa a penalty...

 

[The Hacker]

Oh, and Jamie Carragher is a proper bell end.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Schweinsteiger + Herrera = better football

They have to start

Agreed.

 

[Dominos]

How is Mata showing this?

One of the reasons we look solid is because of Schneiderlin.

He created our only 2 chances in the game with through balls from central areas - the goal and Memphis' miss.

If I was going to drop anyone for Herrera it'd probably be Carrick before Schneiderlin - we need his engine.

 

[caid]

That was more encouraging.
A lot of very good performances and some pretty ... rusty ones.

Really impressed with Darmian. Didn't do much going forward (or much wrong to be fair) but was brilliant defensively. Swept up a lot of loose balls and didn't put a foot wrong whole match. Great decision making throughout.
Shaw and Smalling had very good games again. Romero and Blind are no hacks defensively and i dont see us conceding too much this season.
Adnan and Memphis were both promising. Really nice surprise to see Januzaj start and a very well worked and taken goal.
Memphis looked a bit more comfortable and effective on the left.

Mata was brilliant and shit. Every thing he did was either a ridiculous pass that a handful of players would see let alone be able to pull off or giving the ball away cheaply over and over again. I would have taken him off despite the assist tbh, looked our most dangerous player despite that so a weird performance

Schneiderlin was everywhere always. The odd loose pass but i'll put that down a lack of familiarity with teammates.
We looked better when schweinsteiger and hererra came on and rooney looked rusty and a bit shit ... but i think he just needs minutes and will be banging in goals in a week or two. It was a bad performance but mostly a rusty one imo.

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

I love Dwight Yorke, a voice of reason in a sea of Liverpool madness.

 

[kundalini]

Defensively impressive. Attack poor. Players caught in possession far too often. Substitutions gave us more control. Memphis looks like he will be a goal threat given the number of attempts he has, though the execution was poor tonight. Rooney was comically bad; we have to take a look at alternative options. Mata was interesting in that he created two chances in an otherwise underwhelming display.

 

[MDFC Manager]

Rooney had only one touch in the box... in the last minute of the game.

 

[Sad Chris]

Another awful performance from our forwards but three points and top of the table.

Actually, Rooney aside, our forwards weren't as bad as it seemed. They made a couple of good anticipating runs where our midfielders were too slow or just unaware of the gaps.
Mata found Memphis with a beauty, but Schneiderlin for instance should've slotted through to Young.
Imo in general a nice and solid performance with a few minor shaky spells without real danger.

 

[siw2007]

Two sides to the game today. We had the absolutely terrific performance from the back 4, who did not give that Villa side a sniff at goal and for me Smalling is starting to establish himself as a top class centre back. Credit to the two full backs who were both great as well.
The attacking side was pretty poor. Rooney was struggling to make an impact while Memphis was wasteful and should have put Villa to bed with that chance in the second half. Januzaj played well and deserves to start in that 10 position again, however he does need to be stronger on the ball.
Special mention to Schweinsteiger who made a great difference. At the start of the second half, we were getting battered and he came on and calmed it all down.

Again not an entirely convincing display but happy with a solid display and i'm sure we will get better.

 

[Jippy]

Souness is so better. He was praising Liverpool for their 'efficient' performance after their tumescent win against Stoke.

 

[buckooo1978]

Superb control of the game

Delighted with everything up until the final third - in particular the defence were outstanding and Mata passed very very well

Think put Mata at 10 and you give him more options for those passes

Rooney was very poor.... is it a case of him learning how to be a number 9 again?

Early days and I expect Depay, Rooney, Adnan etc to improve how they link up

Satisfied

 

[Charlie Foley]

We had 2 clean sheets after 10 league games last year. Huge improvement defensively. (Interestingly the only time we had consecutive clean sheets last year was Sunderland (H) 2-0, Newcastle (A) 1-0 and Spurs (H) ).

 

[Amadaeus]

perhaps a touch of hyperbole??

No, I have always believe Smalling has been a top defender and now with support from Darmien and our team looking more organized as a unit, that is a possibility.

The only hindrance for me might be Blind and Romero.

 

[Born2Lose]

I love how Red knap said before the game that he would want more than a work in progress for £230m, bet he doesn't feel the same about Rodgers.

 

[hbgreg]

2 games = 6 points
---
14/15
5 games = 5 points.

 

[Mockney]

I thought that was alright myself. We were well in control for the last half hour or so. If Memphis had slotted away his chance for 2-0, it'd go down as a comfortable, dominant, Fergie era-like win. A definite improvement on Spurs, and away to boot.

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Souness and redknapp are laughable, when united scrape a 1-0 its lacking flair and boring but when Liverpool do it against Stoke then they have showed great spirit, feck off.

 

[nick2004]

Rooney wasn't very good today. But he always had patchs were he was mediocre and then a few months when he is amazing and he carries the team. I believe he will be fine.

And we won anyway!

 

[littlepeasoup]

2 games = 6 points
---
14/15
5 games = 5 points.

Add to that we only got a draw against Villa away last season.

 

[Sandikan]

We had 2 clean sheets after 10 league games last year. Huge improvement defensively. (Interestingly the only time we had consecutive clean sheets last year was Sunderland (H) 2-0, Newcastle (A) 1-0 and Spurs (H) ).

not to mention 2 solid defensive displays,, perhaps gave 1 decent chances away over the 2 games.

6 points from 2 games this season, versus 13points from 10 games last year?!