PL W FA Premier League

Manchester United 2:1 Brentford

Post-match discussion


Sat, 07 October 2023

I still can't believe that we won the game. Incredible comeback. Was watching the Beckham documentary earlier today and almost teared up when they showed us winning the Champions League in 99. Lovely coincidence later today.
 
I still can't believe that we won the game. Incredible comeback. Was watching the Beckham documentary earlier today and almost teared up when they showed us winning the Champions League in 99. Lovely coincidence later today.

Any team can win the Champions League, as the minnows last season proved. But beating Brentford in such a fashion? Priceless.
 
Absolute dog shit game if we're being honest.

Loads of the ball but doing nothing with it, the lack of movement and positional rotation amongst the players in the attacking third is annoying. Almost like they are playing in boxes, a bit like LVG's football by numbers. It's unbelievable that these players can be so static when in possession, no off the ball movement, beyond the most simple moves by the closest players towards the ball. I might be wrong here, but it seems the most obvious easy pass is the one we see played 7/8 times out of ten. Unless it's Bruno, who goes for the least obvious one and executes it terribly.

Only when Garnacho and Antony came on did we really start to see more movement into areas to drag players out of position and create spaces. That's when the best chances started to be created. The goals were a bit of luck and the last one was just a hail Mary that comes off once every now and again. But, it shouldn't have come to that, they did nothing and still got the 3 best scoring chances handed to them on a plate.
 
Surreal finish, still grinning from ear to ear.

Hope that finally ignites our season.
 
almost every foul was yellow card against us but similar fouls by your lot were left unpunished. He blew up seconds after the restart from your second goal despite you celebrating two goals in injury time. The second included one of your donkeys going down injured. Is what it is, a tough mid table clash that wenr the way of the home team.
I do think you’re viewing the memory of the game through Brentford spectacles. I thought the referee gave you most of the benefit of any doubt, and while you were leading your players were perfecting time wasting into an art form. Your team also fouled endlessly and were seldom punished for it.

Fans always see things from their own perspective, me included. But I think you’re really pushing it in your post.
 
I still can't believe that we won the game. Incredible comeback. Was watching the Beckham documentary earlier today and almost teared up when they showed us winning the Champions League in 99. Lovely coincidence later today.

haha, i have just done the same. Watched it late last night, very funny coincidence. Also. Made me remember that beckham was bloody good, his role in the CL final had kind of faded for me. I mostly remember Solskjær, my country man, creating the corner that led to his goal
 
We get in each others way too much. Need slightly better spacing… that and players back from injury with some reps could/ should fix a lot of our problems.
 
You wouldn't call it luck, but it is reasonable to observe how unexpected those two moments of inspired play were. We didn't deserve to win but as Bill Munny put it to Little Bill in Unforgiven, deserve's got nothing to do with it.
 
Was at the game today so here's my summary.

Dalot and Amrabat were everywhere and were our best two players. Constantly winning the ball back or moving the team in the right direction. Dalot didn't quite manage to pick out our players from his crosses or cut backs but the athleticism was something for sure.

Onana's long balls were quite good and Hojlund was always there for the ball to feet however there wasn't enough quality on the crossing for him to get anything out of.

The build up was very slow which allows the opposition to get into defensive shape. Reminiscent unfortunately of LVG build up. Allow the opposition to retreat but don't lose the ball in your own half. Must be a Dutch thing!

Rashford or Casemiro looked like they had no conviction so it's good to see them taken off. Bruno would be more dangerous in the middle providing through balls for Hojlund and Garnacho now.

Amrabat would have been our man of the match had McTominay not completely stole the show. We only made Brentford panic on 3 or 4 occasions today. The two McTominay goals definitely came from that panic, where we had two strikers in the box plus McTominay told to be there.

Otherwise we didn't threaten them anywhere near enough. It's only Hojlund between the posts and when he runs into the channels there's actually nobody between the posts. Our wingers need to make way more of an effort to get into positions near the 6 yard box or between the posts when the opposite winger is out wide.

Hojlund won't be able to do it on his own. For that reason I want to see this after the international break.

Onana
Dalot Varane Lindelof Reguilon
Amrabat Mainoo
Antony Fernandes Garnacho
Hojlund
Bayinday
Maguire
Evans
Casemiro
Eriksen
Hannibal
McTominay
Mount
Rashford
Pellestri
Martial

Slowly slowly the starters are making their positions clearer. And the subs are making their positions home too. That's a solid, mobile, team with energy. With experience and players who can make an impact from the bench but don't deserve to start this season.
 
Surreal finish, still grinning from ear to ear.

Hope that finally ignites our season.
Yeah me too, actually cannot wait to watch it back on MOTD

i see some comments on here and folks still pissing and moaning. People just cannot enjoy the good moments even though yes we are in the midst of a very very bad spell.

maybe it’ll come to nothing and ETH will be gone by Xmas but you have to still enjoy it when something good actually happens. I don’t care where or how bad we are. Winning a game in injury time never ever will not be an unbelievable moment
 
Yeah me too, actually cannot wait to watch it back on MOTD

i see some comments on here and folks still pissing and moaning. People just cannot enjoy the good moments even though yes we are in the midst of a very very bad spell.

maybe it’ll come to nothing and ETH will be gone by Xmas but you have to still enjoy it when something good actually happens. I don’t care where or how bad we are. Winning a game in injury time never ever will not be an unbelievable moment
Well said mate, people just love to fecking moan.
 
I still can't believe that we won the game. Incredible comeback. Was watching the Beckham documentary earlier today and almost teared up when they showed us winning the Champions League in 99. Lovely coincidence later today.

Yeah, exactly same thing happened to me earlier today.

Also nice to win for Sir Alex after news of Cathy passing away
 
almost every foul was yellow card against us but similar fouls by your lot were left unpunished. He blew up seconds after the restart from your second goal despite you celebrating two goals in injury time. The second included one of your donkeys going down injured. Is what it is, a tough mid table clash that wenr the way of the home team.
Your team time wasted from 30 mins in, to an embarrassing level, against a struggling Utd. You set up shop in your own half and swapped every thrower and free kick taker you could, every single time, you can piss off if you think you deserve any extra time after that nonsense :lol:
 
Come on lad don't be bitter. You were probably the better team and didn't deserve to lose but there wasn't a single controversial decision.

They weren't even the better team. They tried to shithouse their way to a win which is fine and expected. Dont moan when the team trying to win manages to win.

We aren't great and have lots of problems but there was nothing controversial as you said.
 
A fun end but lord almighty are we poor right now.
Whatever Erik wants the players to do, it is not working.
We are fragile without the ball, our pressing is awful.
We are poor in attack, we basically need to throw the kitchen sink to create something in the chaos.
We should pack our midfield for next game with Scott, Hannibal, Amrabat, Mount, players that have legs.
No wonder we've been crap, playing players with no legs is sure gonna be problematic
 
That was for Lady Cathy. Sir Alex will have been proud especially both goals coming in Fergie time :devil: . Would have no doubt brought back unforgettable memories of his wife celebrating all those late goals we used to score when he was the manager.
 
Come on lad don't be bitter. You were probably the better team and didn't deserve to lose but there wasn't a single controversial decision.
They absolutely were not the better team, they scored a comedy of errors goal and then did sweet feck all for the rest of the game, clinging to their 1-0 for dear life. If they had tried to actually beat us they probably would have, given how shite we are, which makes the late win all the more enjoyable.
 
Get Rashford out the team pronto. The guy is just a deadweight. He’s reverted right back to the Rashford of old. I keep saying it but his football intelligence is awful. Once he loses that pace he will have nothing.
 
I was nearly crying for the 90 odd minutes of crap football we produced and then I was nearly crying for the way we won it. My brain is just full of mixed emotions. Suppose I should just enjoy the win and hope this is the start of something.
 
I think our issue isn't who starts the game but the need to pass the ball upfield faster and play with more urgency. I really hate watching us allow the opponent to get the entire team back defending before we start any attack.

We only start to play with more urgency towards the end of the game. Why can't we play like that every time?
 
That would have been a very long international break had the result stayed the way it was.

The despair and agony was unbearable, the kind you feel when you know the decline is terminal and outcome inevitable. At least we have a thread of hope to cling on to now.
 
Can't complain about the 3 points, I nist admit I had no faith in this team to win at all. Its so frustrating that it took 87 mins for us to have more than 2 or 3 people in the box. If we attack like that in numbers and get people in the box we would create a lot more and score more.

For MoTM was Maguire. I've slated this guy for years but he didn't put a foot wrong, defended well, distributed well and this is a guy with immense pressure on his head. To top it off, an excellent assist, he needs to be in them positions a lot more to lay the ball off from a set peice. He actually did this 2 or 3 times during 90 mins.

Mctominay could also be contender for player of the game, right place at the right time is not luck, that's awareness. Hopefully we never see him in the 8 position again, I'd rather he come off the bench and play higher up, I'd even have him over Martial.

Dalot was decent, but he needs to produce much more from right back, especially being inverted. Onana despite another horrific error kept us in the game with two solid saves and some of his distribution was very good. Lindeloff was average for me. Evans was really good, can't believe he's 35 but did make one very bad mistake when he passed the ball to Muapay. Bruno is average in my opinion, some good positions balanced out by some sloppiness. Amarabat never stops running, he has to be ahead of Casemiro now. Rashford was useless, I mean he had chances but was useless. Its time for him to be dropped. Mount was average, ran a lot, did a lot off the ball but final ball was sometimes rubbish. Hojlund was really good but he needs service. He needs to be running on to balls more and getting more through the middle of the box.

The subs were good Garnacho was direct, tracked his man well and gave width by going outside and inside the fullback. Antony was similar but not as good.

I hope this is confidence, we had to win before internationals.
 
Saw someone on my local club's forum saying it's a sign of how far we've slipped we celebrate wildly about a scraped win v Brentford.
Why do fans do this nonsense? If you can't celebrate a late winner, what's the point?

Yeah it’s silly. We scored an injury time against Sunderland at OT back in 2009 and celebrated like crazy. Going by his logic, we were in the doldrums then.
 
Amazing comeback! Finally, the spirit of winning is back! The hard work finally paid off. Mctominay also proved everyone wrong.
 
Me, still do.

We all do but we could be wrong :D If Maguire and McT provided us with turning point of the season then they worth every penny. I can't believe I said this.

They still have bit part roles to play for the team especially Maguire because we have injury prone Martinez and Varane. I think Maguire will start a lot game with Lindelof.
 
Saw someone on my local club's forum saying it's a sign of how far we've slipped we celebrate wildly about a scraped win v Brentford.
Why do fans do this nonsense? If you can't celebrate a late winner, what's the point?

Some people just like moaning and if that person wasn't a United fan, they may just take any excuse to criticise us.

We were losing 92 minutes in and won. That's worth celebrating.
 
Wonderful day, my first ever in the Stretford End! Incredible atmosphere as always with United fans, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt a dopamine rush as large as the one I did when McTominay’s 2nd goal went in.

In terms of the game, Ten Hag’s in game management was expert today. We improved markedly when Eriksen came on for Casemiro, because, as Ten Hag eloquently put it, the change allowed us to play “more football”. We actually got on the ball and tried to create chances. Putting Garnacho on for Rashford was a master stroke as well with the former’s energy. Substituting the underperforming big name players for tactical reasons early on takes a lot of courage, when he could very easily have taken off less well known but better performing players like Amrabat and the back 4 instead and just made the team lopsided.

A little word on Maguire and Evans as well - no, they won’t work when thrown in together against the likes of Arsenal and City, but there’s a reason they were once a very competent Premier League defensive pairing for a team challenging for Europe. They complement each other very well because Maguire’s more aggressive style can come to the fore as he knows that Evans will always be covering (and hating Scousers :D).

Finally, to Scott McTominay, on the off chance you or one of your team reads this, thank you for making my year. We can’t rate you on the forum’s player ratings, so let me say here that you played a 10/10 today, as good a 10 minutes as any player in history could have had in those circumstances.
 
Last night's match was truly memorable. Look at the fight in the players! The full dominance during the second half and the accurate passes and shooting, eventually leading to goals (including a disallowed goal)
 
Saw someone on my local club's forum saying it's a sign of how far we've slipped we celebrate wildly about a scraped win v Brentford.
Why do fans do this nonsense? If you can't celebrate a late winner, what's the point?

We have had very little to celebrate for the last decade as Man Utd fans. This makes me more appreciative of moment like this. It was magical to celebrate 2 last minute goals considering the circumstances we are in. Hope this is the turning point of our season.

Having said that, the person in your local forum is not entirely wrong. Club like Man Utd should be celebrating like City do, the PL champion, CL champion and etc. Until we change owner and DOF, we are not going to be a top club anymore.
 

Player Ratings

5.1 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 298 ratings.

Score Predictions

151,80,24
  • Man Utd win
  • Brentford win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 21% Man Utd 2:1 Brentford
  • 14% Man Utd 2:0 Brentford
  • 11% Man Utd 1:2 Brentford
  • 7% Man Utd 1:0 Brentford
  • 7% Man Utd 1:1 Brentford
  • 7% Man Utd 3:0 Brentford
  • 6% Man Utd 3:1 Brentford
  • 6% Man Utd 0:2 Brentford
  • 5% Man Utd 0:1 Brentford
  • 4% Man Utd 1:3 Brentford
  • 2% Man Utd 2:2 Brentford
  • 2% Man Utd 0:9 Brentford
  • 1% Man Utd 4:0 Brentford
  • 1% Man Utd 4:1 Brentford
  • 1% Man Utd 0:3 Brentford
  • 1% Man Utd 0:5 Brentford
  • 1% Man Utd 3:2 Brentford
  • 1% Man Utd 2:4 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 0:0 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 0:7 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 2:3 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 5:1 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 0:4 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 5:2 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 9:7 Brentford
  • 0% Man Utd 0:6 Brentford
Compiled from 255 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. Brentford
Possession
64% 36%
Shots
21 11
Shots on Target
8 3
Corners
7 5
Fouls
10 17