[VanHaal'sRedArmy]

Brilliant from EtH. Directly telling Messrs. Glazer Arnold & Murtaugh to get a f'n move on in the window.

 

[edgecutter]

Same culprits that cost us last year cost us again today.

 

[Moston Red]

We need a few transfer windows to sort this out.

Maguire, McFred and Dalot should be shipped out.

 

[Tony247]

Only good thing is second half was better. Brighton was staying back for a counter but still.

 

[acid_fuji]

Well, if we check the result from last season we can see the progress
I wish Erik had a better start thought. I had big hopes that he will improve midfield a bit.
Fred is not suitable for deep role (too electric) Shaw does provide anything there. Maguire is slow with running and even with passing. Whole team looked most of the times really dismantled, no shape etc. I saw the team from last season, some positive things from preseason were not there.

Lastly, why the feck they are so slow in exchanging those passes? Was it just me or at the end they were out of fuel?

 

[chicha14]

it needs to be the end of bruno. play eriksen, fred, and vdb while developing iqbal/savage if they are not going to get de frenkie or any other midfield signing done.

What have VDB or Fred done to be in the line up over Bruno?

 

[Knightmare7]

ETH has a legitimately bad team he has to build up. No midfield, no progressive right back, no consistent striker, a team that can’t press, and a non-existent winger at any given time (whichever side Sancho isn’t on).

Dalot is a joke of a player. He never should’ve been allowed to play outside of as a backup. He’s an embarrassment. Fred continues to be a high-energy mistake machine whose only skill is running fast so he can makeup for whatever blunder he just committed. McTominay is good for one yellow card a game before getting a few passes at his feet and not knowing what to do with the ball. Rashford is a disaster and nothing else needs to be said besides he needs to go.

 

[Black Cell]

Devestated. I mean, we all knew this was a process and that there isn't a quick fix for these lot, and of course EtH needs time, but playing virtually the same team as the last two seasons, especially in midfield is beyond insanity. Seriously, what were we expecting?
This squad is miles behind the likes of Arsenal and Spurs, never mind City and Liverpool. Heavy investment is required, but unfortunately it looks like it isn't happening any time soon.

 

[::sonny::]

Would you take Welbeck instead of Rashford?

Lamptey for Dalot

Webster/Dunk for Maguire/Martinez

Trossard for Bruno

Sanchez for De Gea

They won because they have better players or more suited for that tactic that football.

 

[Kinky Melinky]

All coaches (almost) need time, it was absolutely delusionnal to think that everyhing would instantly change with few recruits after a couple of good friendlies. Some posters on the Ten Hag appreciation thread were embarassing. He needs time and new players, there's no way around it.

I don't have a problem with ETH. My problem is the personnel on repeat when it has never worked. Why would it suddenly work now? They could have at least bought in some smaller names with a bit of feckin heart. It's just so disheartening how abysmal our Summer signings (or lack there of) have been relative to the key areas we needed strengthening in.

 

[Fortitude]

I mean, when was the last time that actually happened? Not over the past few years. That respect has gone.

They started off respecting us today, but didn’t take long to cotton onto us being soft, vulnerable and unprepared.

 

[FootballHQ]

Probably because you've got another Dutch manager but that game reminded me of Van Gaal's first in August 2014 which was a 2-1 home defeat to Swansea. Swansea dominated that day in similar manner to Brighton and you put out a mixed and match line up.

You did improve that season and finished top 4 but standard of top teams is much stronger now given likes of Liverpool and Spurs were in big transition that season.

Line up you put out today isn't getting you top 6 imo and limited options off the bench if Ronaldo isn't hanging around.

 

[Elcabron]

Dalot 2nd in MotM voting?!

I gave him a 1.

He had a hand(literally) in the goal which prevents him getting a one. He is shite and should be nowhere near our squad let alone starting 11.

ETH could have sold him and AWB and used proceeds to buy a decent right back. If he thinks Dalot is good enough then we are all in trouble.

 

[saik]

Dalot was good? Really? He was shit. Again.

I think Dalot is better than AWB and have been wanting him to get more chances but fully agree with you that he was terrible today. Everytime he got the ball he passed it straight back to Maguire or our midfielders. So scared today. So many opportunities to cross and he chose not to.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

We had some good (to very good) attacks, created a couple half chances. Eriksen and Martinez are improvements.

Same players making the same mistakes is what let us down.
McFred gave the ball away cheaply, not cutting enough with their forward passes. Maguire pointing at an opponent while he's out of position is a sight that happens so much it's actually funny. It used to enrage me. Now I just expect it. Ironically Maguire had some good passes today, but his defending is still poor. Not sure Varane would have been better, but he couldn't have been much worse.

Dalot is being asked to do more than he can handle. He's a good player, but not an exceptional one. Time and again he was asked to make 80 yard sprints in both directions, carrying the ball, showing for the ball, chasing a ball dropped into space, getting back to defend. He's not Cafu. He's not even Gary Neville. We are seeing a player operating at the very limit of his abilities. Simply put, we need a better player to implement this system. He's like a C+ player doing B- work. Expecting A+ work is our fault, not his.

Sancho looked pretty good with the ball. Need to get him the ball at the edge of the box more and let him drive at defenders.
Eriksen dropping deep like a quarterback worked pretty well but our forwards couldn't do anything with the passes.
Rashford had good "application" today (ran around, put himself about) but he's still not back to his best. Bizarrely Welbeck looked the best of the forwards today, and if he'd had some of that ball control at United we wouldn't have shipped him out so early.

This is about what we should expect with this group of players. Too many positions just need better players. I'd bring in different players already on the books if it means we can play the ETH way better, even if it's at a slower pace.
Garnacho in his brief cameo showed better touch and speed than Rashford.
VDB looked an improvement over McFred.
Bruno was hot trash, the sloppy loose Bruno showed up today.
Ronaldo was Ronaldo. Distraction.

 

[Replenish]

McTomminay and Rashford will never be good enough. Under how many managers do we have to see them given chances? Both offer nothing other than running around like bambi on ice and disrupting our patterns of play or losing the ball.

 

[ken11]

People who thought Dalot was good - are you serious? Because a ball came off his back and BHA flubbed the clearance and OGed? When you lose the ball in double digits and then fail to defend, that's not "good".

 

[mk7]

There was a massive fecking hole in the centre of our midfield ALL GAME.
The number of times Martinez and Maguire looked for a central pass and there were only blue shirts there.
Fdj or no fdj you can’t play without a central midfield.
Hugely disappointing not sure what eth was thinking in the first half but that was utter dogshit.

As soon as someone with a footballing brain and the matching feet played there, their job was easier and we got the ball up the pitch in a more decisive way.

Why can’t Rashford score this absolute sitter? Why did Sancho leave Dalot hopelessly exposed in the first half? Why did Bruno never learn to beat a man?

 

[roykent]

Once Fred came off and Eriksen played deeper they instantly become better, not a mystery to me. Mcfred needs to shelved.
They a manager to be brave enough to bench Maguire and remove the arm band.

 

[Resch]

It's ridiculous that anyone can think going to the season with a starting midfield of McTominay and Fred is fine.

The thing is, we already know this. We have all these months to prepare and we get hung up on FdJ and got no midfielder to start the season. Utter incompetence.

Thats the problem, even a blind man could see McFred is just not good enough. Fred lost the ball faster then you could shout his name.

 

[MiceOnMeth]

To be so consistently shit is actually quite impressive

 

[saik]

He had a hand(literally) in the goal which prevents him getting a one. He is shite and should be nowhere near our squad let alone starting 11.

ETH could have sold him and AWB and used proceeds to buy a decent right back. If he thinks Dalot is good enough then we are all in trouble.

The only player we managed to sell this season is Pereira believe it or not. If we wanted to sell them both, you bet they would be going on loan again. We are incompetent at selling players.

 

[DutchSerb]

Hopefully ETH benches Shaw, Fred, McTominay and Maguire next week. What a disasterclass. Second half was better but thats to be expected when a team can just fall back with a 0-2 lead.

The only thing I disagree with is benching Ronaldo when Martial isn't fit. I get that he wants to prove a point but one of them has to play. Eriksen played well in midfield in the second half, hopefully him and Donny will start together against Brentford. Might not be ideal, but you have to at this point because McFred makes every single United fan want to gouge their eyes out.

 

[ken11]

Flame away but going to watch City now to see what a good side looks like and restore some belief that good football does exist out there.

 

[pcaming]

People who thought Dalot was good - are you serious? Because a ball came off his back and BHA flubbed the clearance and OGed? When you lose the ball in double digits and then fail to defend, that's not "good".

Dalot was not the issue today, I'd say he did better than the other 3 in defense if I'm being honest. Everything ahead of him was crap, including Sancho.

 

[Speako]

The only positive, is that surely, finally, has to be the death of McFred.

 

[Loony BoB]

Not a single player played to the standard I expected of them, bar possibly Martinez. The gap between midfield and defence especially when our defence was in possession, trying to play out of defence with nobody to pass to.

Second half we played better but not nearly fast enough.

A couple of massive opportunities scuffed by Bruno and Eriksen.

Has anyone given the ball away more often than Dalot did in that game?

Price tags for some players will have gone up a little as clubs will know we're pretty desperate.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Thats the problem, even a blind man could see McFred is just not good enough. Fred lost the ball faster then you could shout his name.

Get in FDJ and play Erikson beside him in MF.

We looked much better in the second half with Erikson in MF.

Scott Mctominah has to be relegated to being a squad player. Takes about ten touches before he can pass the ball.

 

[Betson]

Groundhog day , but we should not be surprised. it is largely the same players from last season.

The early burst at the start, the lull , the defensive lapses , the lull again after we scored when we should be pushing on. Even the pointless late late last substitutes.. It is just a rewind of last season so far.

ETH is going to need time(he always tends to start slow when he takes over a team) but he is also going to need players , no amount of coaching will make a lot of our players up the standard.

Away next Saturday , then home to Liverpool. This could get very ugly very quickly pts wise.
.

 

[JohntheLawMan]

Ten Hag hopefully has learnt more today than any of the pre-season games. The realisation that there are a lot of teams in the Premier Leagues who are well organised and play really decent football. He obviously thought Fred and McTomminay would be good enough to get us through until reinforcements arrived. But now he knows for sure how desperate we are for decent midfielders.

 

[GledTheRed]

Gash

 

[Godfather]

The only positive, is that surely, finally, has to be the death of McFred.

Don't count on it

 

[SirScholes]

Same old, you can change the coach but one of the main issues is still the players

rashford is not a striker and does not know how to play the role, multiple times we had the ball out wide and he’d come out of the box to receive it

Fred is Crystal Palace standard at best, Scott is championship level.
Bruno does us no favours and won’t work until we have a midfield pair that can retain possession, he’s just another player waiting to give the ball away

we still have no balance, one wide player starting
Dalot is still shit

Ronaldo should of started with Rashford left, yes he’s asked to leave but we need to win games and be stubborn later

the only saving grace is I hope it’s shown the board or whoever has the keys to the cash draw, that we need proper players asap

 

[BusbyMalone]

They started off respecting us today, but didn’t take long to cotton onto us being soft, vulnerable and unprepared.

I'm not sure I would categorize that as respect. That was simply the game finding its rhythm in the early stages. The days of teams showing United respect have long gone. Unless we're talking about extreme situations like a League 2 team coming to Old Trafford in the league cup or something like that. And that's more a case of self-preservation.

 

[NewGlory]

Today we learned: even good coaching cannot turn bad players into good ones.

A manager and a club with any balls and some backbone would sell Maguire, Shaw, McT, and Fred. They should never play for us, ever again.

If we have money - buy replacements, if not - accept that we are a bottom half team and play youth, but these overpaid, incapable wastes of space should not be part of this club.

Until that happens - it is all just a pathetic circus.

 

[OrcaFat]

ETH didn’t do himself any favours with the selection but we see again that fundamental lack of either technique, basic positional intelligence, or both, is rife in our squad.

Many of the players don’t trust themselves or their team mates when the pressure comes. It is a Pep mantra, isn’t it, “trust your team mates”. But our guys can’t. And if they don’t, they start to abandon the game plan and the whole thing goes to shit.

In my opinion, the midfield two are 90% of the problem. We need two guys in there who are fully reliable in technique and positioning.

 

[Grizzly B]

I don’t know why anyone is surprised by the result. We still haven’t addressed the issues at CM, Bruno and Rashford still look short of confidence and the defence is a shaky as ever.

Next few weeks are going to make or break our season depending on who we sign.

 

[Prodigy24]

This match should be enough for ten Hag to realise to never start a game with Fred and McTominay. It should also be obvious that Dalot is a backup RB AT BEST. People are giving AWB lot of stick but Dalot have easily had worse games for us than AWB. Maguire, even though he played okay in the second half, was an embarrassment in the first half and shouldn't be starting games for us when Varane is fit and ready.

Massively disappointing opening game, completely destroyed the mood for the season and gave everyone ptsd from last season. This is on the board for bringing in a great manager like ten Hag and not supporting him in the transfer market. I hope that ugly rat faced bastard in the stands can take note and start spending.

 

[ThatsGreat]

Utd need a top midfielder. There's only so much a manager can do.

 

[Banana Republic]

You can’t pack a team out with too many players who have little or absolutely no physical ability to tackle, win a ball, press tightly and effectively, or win in the physical tussles.
We are stacked with too many weak players in this department.

A robust, tough, but technically competent midfield is key in this league.
The midfield are the most important defenders and the foundations of an effective attack.
If he comes, FDJ can’t address this issue on his own.