Unless they immediately got another ball for a quick throw in and quick counter attack.
PL W FA Premier League
Manchester United 1:0 Aston Villa
Post-match discussion
Sun, 30 April 2023
When you realise our Schedule after the world cup comparing others and realise how thin of our bench, then you will understand that.
The players are not a robot
Tricky game, but I was fairly impressed with our performance. The back four plus Casemiro, looked good. On the front foot, snuffing out their attacks early. We looked dangerous, whilst failing to create anything clear cut. It was always a badly controlled ball, or sloppy pass at the wrong moment. Otherwise we should have made it more comfortable for ourselves.
Count Dracula looked annoyed his team didnt win
Liverpool’s momentum has nothing to do with us finishing in top 4.
We need to win 3 (or win 2 & draw 3) out of our next 6 games to guarantee finishing above Liverpool. If you can’t be confident of this team being able to achieve that then seems like you won’t be confident in any scenario till we mathematically qualify for the top 4.
This team has showed enough for me to believe that they can get the job done and finish in the top 4, irrespective of our result against Brighton.
Good win, we pressed Villa and won the ball back consistently. Our effort did not drop which is why we pulled it over the line.
Up front we need to make better choices. We should have been up 3/4-0. That is why it became squeaky bum time at the end.
Ashley Young is still fast at 38, I‘m feckin impressed.
Up front we need to make better choices. We should have been up 3/4-0. That is why it became squeaky bum time at the end.
Ashley Young is still fast at 38, I‘m feckin impressed.
Yes, ETH has to use his squad like this to get the best of it, unfortunately there isnt a great depth in quality at the best of times so the likes of Fred, Martial, Maguire have to be used. Hopefully we can correct this during the summer and finally get rid of the players who are simply not good enough or hungry enough.
Just take 1 game at a time. 3 wins are easily achieveable. Let win the next 3 and make tbeir fans sad. We can play reserve and kids in our last 3 remaininy games.
I think he looks like that because his favourite drink is the blood of a virgin and unfortunately he moved to Birmingham.
A lot were saying we would lose and are still moaning when we don't.Yep and some seem have ignored the good form Villa was in coming into that game today.
It was a good win yesterday, and I thought as a team we played well. I agree with most on here about Lindelof, Shaw, Casemiro but also think Sabitzer had a really good and important game for us.
As for top four, people seem to only be looking behind us. Win our game in hand and we are above Newcastle, who still have to play Arsenal. All of our fixtures are winnable, as are Liverpool's. My gut feeling is that Newcastle will miss out
As for top four, people seem to only be looking behind us. Win our game in hand and we are above Newcastle, who still have to play Arsenal. All of our fixtures are winnable, as are Liverpool's. My gut feeling is that Newcastle will miss out
That was a great win, yesterday. Villa have been great, as shown in Always Hoping's post. The last time they lost was in February, last time they failed to score was in October. I agree that with a little more quality in the final third, we really should have scored more goals and the second half performance was, again, less than what we could wish for.
BTW, they only really had ONE good chance in that half, which came from crossing into the box. Maguire came on and the did not happen again.
BTW, they only really had ONE good chance in that half, which came from crossing into the box. Maguire came on and the did not happen again.
Despite only one goal to show, I thought the first half one of our best home displays of the season. Having Bruno out on the right and Sabitzer ready to 'break in behind', as well as Rashford, added problems for Villa that they had not apparently reckoned on.
Shaw and Lindelof looked solid in the centre of defence, Sancho began to look something like, although his decision making is still somewhat dubious, and Casemiro looked to be back up close to his imperious levels of performance at various points, in defending and in popping up with a few very close efforts on goal.
Good day at the office, now for Brighton!
Shaw and Lindelof looked solid in the centre of defence, Sancho began to look something like, although his decision making is still somewhat dubious, and Casemiro looked to be back up close to his imperious levels of performance at various points, in defending and in popping up with a few very close efforts on goal.
Good day at the office, now for Brighton!
Pretty much agree with all of this. Brighton will be our toughest fixture in the run-in, but I am confident of winning the other five.
I feel like our subs are still sitting in the dug out when they’ve come on lately . Fred was woeful v Spurs . Antony wasn’t much better yesterday. They seem to come on and seem to be lacking in intensity and far too casual.
Probably because they are beginning to feel like 'footstools' brought on to give a rest to the others.
This is a worry for ETH because Maguire and Fred must know now they are 'squad' members, not regular first choices, but with a Cup final end of season showpiece (with added local interest) looming as well, then such as Antony should be feeling he's in with a chance of starting and he should be showing he is willing to 'battle for the shirt' even if he comes on with only minutes to go?
Earlier in the season ETH's substitutions worked extremely well, but just lately the subs are causing late chaos. Maybe some of them now believe (or maybe even know) the 'trapdoor' is looming at the end of the season.
Tactical breakdown:
Good win - Emery has turned them into a pretty good side. 13 wins since he took over, Slippy G managed about f@ck all!
Another excellent performance from Lindelof. I\m not going to say "I told you so"... oh wait, yes I am: I told you so. He will never be the giant CB who wins every header, he's more the read-the-game-and-sweep-up sort and can do that when he doesn't have to do Maguire's job too.
Sancho continues to annoy andI'm not 100% convinced either Eriksen or Rashford are totally fit; possibly rushed back as we have nothing else. I hope Garnacho recover enough to get a full 9- minutes somewhere down the line. But all in all, a good tam performance and we finally held on to a slender lead.
Thursday is going to be one of the toughest games of the season, I reckon. Win there, and I can't see us failing to make top four
Another excellent performance from Lindelof. I\m not going to say "I told you so"... oh wait, yes I am: I told you so. He will never be the giant CB who wins every header, he's more the read-the-game-and-sweep-up sort and can do that when he doesn't have to do Maguire's job too.
Sancho continues to annoy andI'm not 100% convinced either Eriksen or Rashford are totally fit; possibly rushed back as we have nothing else. I hope Garnacho recover enough to get a full 9- minutes somewhere down the line. But all in all, a good tam performance and we finally held on to a slender lead.
Thursday is going to be one of the toughest games of the season, I reckon. Win there, and I can't see us failing to make top four
At this point of the season, I don't care how it looks as long as we win. 3 more points in the books.
The magic number v. Pool is 9 and the magic number v. Brighton is 11. And Brighton has all four of the top four yet to play, along with Villa.
The magic number v. Pool is 9 and the magic number v. Brighton is 11. And Brighton has all four of the top four yet to play, along with Villa.
Yes. I understand the need for sub. And as you rightly pointed out, the bench is thin. Those 3 players I pointed out, are liabilities even on the bench.
True.
Martial, I haven't seen him really add anything to the team whenever he plays.
Maguire, adds to anxiety to everyone.
Fred, inconsistent. Recently as a sub, he runs around like a headless chicken. Out midfield isn't playing as smoothly when he comes on.
Antony, has been good recently when he starts. Isn't as effective as a sub so far.
The Europa loss was the best thing to happen in April. Without it, we were looking at 10 more matches in 4 weeks.
You'd have to see this as a good one. We not only beat the league's most in-form team, the result flattered them. They were roundly outplayed in the first half. Our finishing and ability to maintain dominance for stretches of the second half may be gripes, but all in all, there's no reason not be happy here.
Come on. Martial a liability? He's had a pretty strong season, to the extent he's been playing. Maguire and Fred have, at worst, been mixed. There's plenty of examples of strong team performances with them in the starting XI. Yes Martial's fitness issues make him a no-go going forward and yes Maguire should be moved out and yes with Fred you always wonder if you're getting Good Fred or Bad Fred on any given day, but they are not bad players.
And sorry, but all this talk of our bench being "wafer thin" is bollocks. Injuries aside, it'd contain something like this: Malacia, Maguire, Lindelof, AWB, Fred, Sabitzer, Garnacho, Sancho. Do you see a lot of teams out there with benches who match that? The truth is, we have one of the deepest squads in the league. I'd like it to be better, yes, but this is not an area that is a clear competitive disadvantage for us.
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I do not know about 3rd choice, maybe on the right back side but certainly Shaw looking solid to come in on the left back side.
In fairness to Lindelof I do not know how much his reputation has been tarnished by playing alongside Maguire, as a pair they are mud but who knows, would certainly be happy to give him a Maguire free season not like we will not need the cover, Varanne is a bit of a sick note and we should have lots of games again.... however I still see him as little more than an average defender who has obvious weaknesses in his game.... but like I say if he is willing to play 3rd fiddle then give him another season
A very tricky opponent and coped well with the disadvantage. Job well done. I'd take 1-0 till the rest of the season even if we play conservatively. Important to have a strong finish
Martial has a strong season? I have to disagree. I can't wait to see him exit the club. As for Maguire, I definitely prefers he doesn't play, even as a sub. If we are to challenge for the league, we definitely need a stronger bench than what we have currently.
He pretty much has, yes - with the proviso, as mentioned, that he hasn't played much. EtH says so, his stats say so, his goal output says so, as far as I'm concerned the eye test says so. I want Maguire gone too, all I'm saying is have a sense of perspective here - our bench is neither short or weak by comparison with other PL clubs.
It is definitely true that Real Madrid made a huge mistake in moving on Casemiro and what's worse he has moved to Old Trafford, the best football club in the world. What an amazing player!! I hope he stays with us and stays healthy like Kroos/Modric because we need him to win a title or more in the coming years. He's had just one off night except for the red cards and that was against Liverpool at Anfield but frankly it wasn't just him on that day either.
Oh come on, Our bench is definitely weak. I think your comparing our bench to the teams mid-table and below but if we need to win titles earlier rather than later, we need a bench better than that of City's and for that we need better players than Martial and Maguire. Martial was good initially when he signed but over time he seems uninterested and loses possession of the ball more often than not. He has tried hard this season i agree but that doesn't seem enough. I'm a huge Martial fan as well but always club above a player. I'm a huge Ronaldo, Pogba fan too but when the time came, i wanted them to leave.
Been injured for half the season doesn’t deserve the word strong season . He’s done feck all since he’s returned from injury. There’s an acceptance that he’s doing well because he hasn’t been out injured since his return and our only other option is Weghorst. He was decent at the start where he had a decent goals v minutes played until he got injured.
I'd argue our bench is better than Liverpools or Arsenals, much better than Spurs' or Newcastles, and deeper than City's, if not better (or equally good, for that matter). There's Chelsea, but that's because they have a monstrosity of a bloated squad.
EDIT: Actually, I'll take that down a notch, on second thought, having exaggerated the fullness of my recall on how other teams' benches are composed. I'll say better than Spurs, more balanced than Arsenal and Newcastle (who outdo us for attackers, but are pretty thin on defensive depth).
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Martial has in no way had “a strong season”. What he had was incredible potential 4-5 seasons ago and he did have that one strong season two or three years ago, but whatever his physical or mental issues may be, that footballer is long gone. What we saw from v Villa was the least application humanly possible while still officially having played in the game.
That's simply not accurate. He has been good for us this season, on the sadly far too few occasions when he has been able to play. He's been much better than the sorry spectacles we've had from him the previous two seasons, and really at more or less the levels you'd expect from a good forward on a top team, if you look at it overall. But people will stick to the impressions they have already formed, and jump at individual performances to confirm them - with recency bias thrown in.
This is also not true. He reappears and has a good game, and everyone remembers how good he can be. Then he has a couple of games where he drifts and looks disinterested and everyone remembers why they want him gone. Its a long, long time since he delivered more of the first type of performances.
Or you could consider his stats, which are actually very good - and particularly important to accurately gauge a player who hasn't had long stretches of continuous play.
Is he? I’m not really sure I think Bruno is a smart player. He’s a good player. He’s a creative player. But he has the same propensity as say, a Fred, to leave you scratching your head at times. Lots of unforced errors.
BTW, Bruno’s sitter in the 6 yard box, could’ve iced the game. Should’ve been an easy finish to make it 2-0.
It's certainly possible that my impressions of his current outstanding form are clouded by his past horrifying form, but it's also possible that your impressions of his past oustanding form -- which was three seasons ago -- cloud your impressions of his current horrifying form.
No one will argue that Martial has the heart that Bruno so perhaps it's an unfair question, but regardless of what you might type here in defense of Anthony Martial can you, in your heart of hearts, ever see Martial put in the kind of effort that Bruno did to score the goal that Bruno scored for the lone goal of the match to ensure victory we badly needed?
Never in a million years, mate.
Bruno is no striker and does not have the dribbling DNA that Martial has, but he fights for his meals and puts his back into his living. Whatever the reasons may be, Martial wants his meals served on a platter to him and puts his back on a hammock.
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 216 ratings.
Score Predictions
107,24,31
- Man Utd win
- Aston Villa win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 33% Man Utd 2:1 Aston Villa
- 15% Man Utd 2:0 Aston Villa
- 12% Man Utd 1:1 Aston Villa
- 9% Man Utd 3:1 Aston Villa
- 6% Man Utd 2:2 Aston Villa
- 5% Man Utd 1:0 Aston Villa
- 4% Man Utd 0:2 Aston Villa
- 3% Man Utd 1:2 Aston Villa
- 3% Man Utd 3:0 Aston Villa
- 2% Man Utd 2:3 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 4:0 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:1 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 1:3 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:3 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 1:4 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:0 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 5:5 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:4 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 3:2 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 0:5 Aston Villa
- 1% Man Utd 3:3 Aston Villa
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Aston Villa
- Possession
- 57% 43%
- Shots
- 14 7
- Shots on Target
- 6 1
- Corners
- 1 4
- Fouls
- 16 7
Referee
Jarred Gillett
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Fred
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replaced by Harry Maguire
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replaced by Anthony Martial
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replaced by Antony
