[johannes_fd]

Evans had a great game, but he was never put into any 1v1 situations or any situations where his lack of pace could be exploited. Both McTominay and Casemiro stayed mostly deep to protect the area in front of our CBs, to avoid exactly that.

I think any other team in the league would exploit our CB line up better than Burnley did yesterday. They are going straight down again.

 

[TMDaines]

There was a moment when he tried to thread Højlund through but he was blocked and you could see Rashford cursing himself for passing the ball.

Yeah. Not sure how anyone can have watched our last two matches and be arguing that Rashford is still greedy and isn’t looking to supply teammates. If anything the balance has gone a bit too much the other way.

 

[MZX7]

Who knew that in an extensively constructed backline, a 35 year old Johnny Evans will be the best defender we have.

 

[Maticmaker]

Yeah. Not sure how anyone can have watched our last two matches and be arguing that Rashford is still greedy and isn’t looking to supply teammates. If anything the balance has gone a bit too much the other way.

Rashford isn't greedy. just not using his brain as he was last year.

For the last few games Marcus has been our danger man, our only danger man in truth because although Hojlund has arrived he is still trying to 'bed in'; oppositions realise this and mark him out as the main threat.Therefore as soon as Marcus gets on the ball, 2 or 3, or sometimes more opposition players immediately surround him, these actions slow or delay him, sometimes to a complete standstill; however, this must leave space for others and helps to break defensive lines.

Marcus needs to know how to escape this 'personal press' by looking to laying off rather than trying to burst through by sheer pace and end up coming to a complete stop... but to do this he needs others to be on the same wavelength and making the runs.
We saw that potential a couple of times last night with both Bruno and Rasmus trying to do exactly this, although Marcus did respond, his decision making was not good, shooting when he should have passed and passing when he should have taken on the shot.
He/they will start to get it right!

 

[justsomebloke]

I’m not suggesting Rashford is a bad player, but he shouldn’t be untouchable.

Garnacho showed enough last season to get chances, this isn’t a Pellistri situation where people are in love with the idea of a player without any evidence he can actually deliver, but I can’t see where they’re going to come from with Rashford owning that LW spot.

Last night Rashford was doing the same old nonsense as usual, trying to take on about 5 players and not seeing/ignoring opportunities to play in team mates.

There’s a great player there but I’m concerned we’re not doing a great job of managing him, and it creates an issue with Garnacho who deserves chances.

I disagree. I think Rashford has played well enough to warrant continued selection, Garnacho hasn't.

 

[justsomebloke]

There was a moment when he tried to thread Højlund through but he was blocked and you could see Rashford cursing himself for passing the ball.

Also, one hopes, for passing the ball on the wrong side of the defender.

 

[justsomebloke]

Rashford isn't greedy. just not using his brain as he was last year.

For the last few games Marcus has been our danger man, our only danger man in truth because although Hojlund has arrived he is still trying to 'bed in'; oppositions realise this and mark him out as the main threat.Therefore as soon as Marcus gets on the ball, 2 or 3, or sometimes more opposition players immediately surround him, these actions slow or delay him, sometimes to a complete standstill; however, this must leave space for others and helps to break defensive lines.

Marcus needs to know how to escape this 'personal press' by looking to laying off rather than trying to burst through by sheer pace and end up coming to a complete stop... but to do this he needs others to be on the same wavelength and making the runs.
We saw that potential a couple of times last night with both Bruno and Rasmus trying to do exactly this, although Marcus did respond, his decision making was not good, shooting when he should have passed and passing when he should have taken on the shot.
He/they will start to get it right!

The other side of that though is that he has in fact set up a few fantastic goals this season exactly by bursting through to the goal-line and then delivering a precise cut-back or centering pass, from positions where that shouldn't really be feasible.

 

[Maureen-yo]

Yeah. Not sure how anyone can have watched our last two matches and be arguing that Rashford is still greedy and isn’t looking to supply teammates. If anything the balance has gone a bit too much the other way.

You’ll still get the masses on the match day thread cursing him if he shoots and then cursing him if he doesn’t. It already looks like a certain section of the Caf have him marked as the scapegoat this season if things don’t pick up…

 

[Maticmaker]

The other side of that though is that he has in fact set up a few fantastic goals this season exactly by bursting through to the goal-line and then delivering a precise cut-back or centering pass, from positions where that shouldn't really be feasible.

Yes, of course, what attracts opposition overload defensive attention is the idea that is exactly what Rashford is capable of doing. I am not suggesting he stops doing that, but he has to get his decision making better in such situations. Hopefully in time he and Rasmus can share that role.

 

[Dominos]

Another bad performance, but at this point we have to take any win however it comes. We have 3 winnable league games now before City, have to accept grinding out wins until the injury situations improves.

 

[Blood Mage]

Another bad performance, but at this point we have to take any win however it comes. We have 3 winnable league games now before City, have to accept grinding out wins until the injury situations improves.

I'm not sure it's possible for us to play well with the team we currently have. We've blown so much money on absolute shite. Let's see if Amrabat can add some quality to the midfield when he's properly fit.

 

[doomy20]

I'm not sure it's possible for us to play well with the team we currently have. We've blown so much money on absolute shite. Let's see if Amrabat can add some quality to the midfield when he's properly fit.

It’s literally a mystery how many millions ETH spent in the last 15 months and now below the line there’s so little here

 

[The-Mezzala]

Evans and Hannibal positives wins a win. But wow we have looked bad this season

 

[lex talionis]

Three narrow wins now over relegation fodder.

 

[Partridge]

I remember fergies last game against WBA. Ended in a 5-5 draw. I'd take a few more of them over the horrid losses we've suffered thus far. Also, although the win was horrible to watch, it's a win..

 

[JediSith]

He wasn’t free on goal at all, this is nonsense. Rashford is also a much better striker of the ball and accepted the responsibility.

No… he was genuinely lacks the awareness to realise that 1) 4 players were in front of him 2) a player in a better position was to the right of hi.

 

[Ubik]

It’s literally a mystery how many millions ETH spent in the last 15 months and now below the line there’s so little here

It's not really mysterious at all - we know we had a bad squad when he arrived, we know we've spent a lot of money on trying to improve the first team (some of which has worked, some of which hasn't, and some of which is too soon to tell), and we know that the squad is being filled in by youth team players that we hope can step up and other players that we've already deemed not good enough.

 

[M Bison]

Huge relief to get the 3 points and a bloody brilliant goal from Bruno. Hannibal looked the part and more minutes for Rasmus, he’ll get better and better, good bit of analysis on him on MOTD.

 

[Hughie77]

Imo it was a good win. Evans goal was very good shame about it being disallowed keeper wasn't saving it even if he could. Bruno goal was top draw, the pass the run the shot ..
Defended well got lucky with them hitting the post.. dug in and good win Rashford again could pass it again late on.. Hojlund ran and ran and ran great positions he got into without getting his goal. Varane back plus .. just need a few more back ASAP..

 

[pascell]

Woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning pal? I might of mis read it as I’m allergic to reading crap..

The irony, spits his dummy out over a performance then cries when he's told hes wrong.

 

[Yanited__]

It's pretty simple. Performance was not good but given the situation at the club and the form we've been in, we will take the 3 points.

Before our goal, Burnley were all over us. Again, the running theme in all of our games is that we seem to lack control in periods. Our first phase buildup has been poor, Onana is on the ball for what feels like forever cause no one wants to show for it. No one wants to be the player receiving under pressure. Second half was much better after the goal, we looked more in control of the game.

I won't fully judge these performances since we have got several players injured. I expect things to improve with players coming back and hopefully we will grow into the season. I have maintained it's going to be a see-saw season with good/bad moments.

My only worry is that the tempo of the season might have already been set. Liverpool were in a similar situation last year with injuries. It was only after the world cup did they find their form, but it was too late for them. We have to kick on now before the table is set.

 

[DJ_21]

The irony, spits his dummy out over a performance then cries when he's told hes wrong.

Sad man.

 

[Andrew Richmond]

Awful performance. Yes 3 points, lots of injuries but the football is just awful, horrible to watch. Watched Spurs tonight, being from Oz, terrific football, 60% possession away to Arsenal. Great game overall. Great to watch. Compare this game to us against Burnley, 38% possession, can barely string two passes together. It’s shameful, it’s embarrassing.

 

[Theo88]

Awful performance. Yes 3 points, lots of injuries but the football is just awful, horrible to watch. Watched Spurs tonight, being from Oz, terrific football, 60% possession away to Arsenal. Great game overall. Great to watch. Compare this game to us against Burnley, 38% possession, can barely string two passes together. It’s shameful, it’s embarrassing.

I'd say you have every right to be annoyed but realistically speaking, if you take Rash and Bruno out of that team, is there anyone who is genuinely so impactful our floor is raised ? Hell the likes of Mcsauce, Hannibal, Holjund, Evans wouldnt be starting right now for most PL teams (ignore potential and where they could be 3 years from now just think immediate impact).

We have no RW, our main forward is 19, our RB is average, our CBs are injured, and Mount hasnt produced yet.

Casemiro has been bad too.

We can hate on E10H but every single difference maker we have is hobbled or hasn't reached any proper standards yet.

 

[SirScholes]

Awful performance. Yes 3 points, lots of injuries but the football is just awful, horrible to watch. Watched Spurs tonight, being from Oz, terrific football, 60% possession away to Arsenal. Great game overall. Great to watch. Compare this game to us against Burnley, 38% possession, can barely string two passes together. It’s shameful, it’s embarrassing.

Chelsea have had the most possession of any team all season I heard …

 

[ken11]

Awful performance. Yes 3 points, lots of injuries but the football is just awful, horrible to watch. Watched Spurs tonight, being from Oz, terrific football, 60% possession away to Arsenal. Great game overall. Great to watch. Compare this game to us against Burnley, 38% possession, can barely string two passes together. It’s shameful, it’s embarrassing.

Agreed. That Arsenal Spurs game is the football I thought we'd be playing. Maybe our players aren't smart, precise, energetic enough to do quick passing movements like that.

 

[black country red]

I'd say you have every right to be annoyed but realistically speaking, if you take Rash and Bruno out of that team, is there anyone who is genuinely so impactful our floor is raised ? Hell the likes of Mcsauce, Hannibal, Holjund, Evans wouldnt be starting right now for most PL teams (ignore potential and where they could be 3 years from now just think immediate impact).

We have no RW, our main forward is 19, our RB is average, our CBs are injured, and Mount hasnt produced yet.

Casemiro has been bad too.

We can hate on E10H but every single difference maker we have is hobbled or hasn't reached any proper standards yet.

Mount has hardly played

 

[United Hobbit]

Apparently Bruno gave his man of the match trophy to Evans, lovely stuff

 

[TheRedHearted]

There was a moment when he tried to thread Højlund through but he was blocked and you could see Rashford cursing himself for passing the ball.

Rashford was upset that he passed the ball? That’s not a good sign, and that’s one example.

You‘ve been told repeatedly what Ten Hag wants, by himself no less. Press and attack with speed, and he wants us to become the best transition team in the world.

The Bruno goal is not a one off, we play balls like that all the time when teams defend high against us. It frequently gets us a one on one or at least a dangerous attack.

This one did drop deliciously and Bruno had the balls to try a difficult volley. Well done Evans for the pass.

We had some easier attacks to create a goal from, but fecked them up.

We need that Bruno goal to not be a one off. We need him to start scoring again, it overlooked his poor pass completion rate.
Our RW slot is too slow to be the best transition team in the world, same with our midfield. Bruno used to speed through on the break, we saw it with his goal and we need more of it.

i could see Reguilon helping on the break and Amrabat

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Evans had a great game, but he was never put into any 1v1 situations or any situations where his lack of pace could be exploited. Both McTominay and Casemiro stayed mostly deep to protect the area in front of our CBs, to avoid exactly that.

I think any other team in the league would exploit our CB line up better than Burnley did yesterday. They are going straight down again.

He’s like a 5th choice CB. It was a brilliant performance for someone with that role in the squad not to mention having been out, first start etc

 

[sglowrider]

Interesting take on some of our poor adjustments without the ball esp in the middle of the park:

 

[mitchmouse]

The game can't in any way be described as exciting: seeing other teams move of the ball and play at pace shows up our deficiences even more, but Rasmus did find space at times (we just aren't good enough to find him) and evans was excellent.

It was a shock to almost score a header from a corner - can barely remember when we last did that

 

[Utd heap]

Awful performance. Yes 3 points, lots of injuries but the football is just awful, horrible to watch. Watched Spurs tonight, being from Oz, terrific football, 60% possession away to Arsenal. Great game overall. Great to watch. Compare this game to us against Burnley, 38% possession, can barely string two passes together. It’s shameful, it’s embarrassing.

Nothing about it was shameful or embarrassing you drama queen. We were a centimetre away from winning at Arsenal two weeks ago also .

 

[Craig Ward]

Is there such a thing as a terrible win. Jesus.

For me, it's always the basics i find the most frustrating. The lack of workrate, energy is shocking.

The body language of players is abysmal, with one of the worst culprits our captain.

We let Burnley play, didnt track runners and made them look good. They didnt play well, we just played poorly. McTominey is a disgrace of a footballer, just awful. Rashford just looks like he cant be bothered and Fernandes just moans and moans and then moans some more.

If the highlight and one big positive is Jonny Evans, then we are doomed. Yes he was half decent, but lets think of the bigger picture here.

Hannibal showed more in this game than the majority have all season and then some. Hojlund will score bucket loads, just need our wingers to actually supply him.

We simply do not work hard enough or with any togetherness. We are always reacting when it's too late rather than being proactive.

 

[Gator Nate]

A bit more perspective;

Shaw, Martinez, Varane, Wan Bissaka, Malacia, Mount, Amrabat, Mainoo, Antony, Sancho, Maguire all unavailable.

The team just played an away game in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The team isn’t in form and quite disjointed.

This. I mean, look at the starting lineup on Saturday. Anyone expecting much more than what we got is delusional. We were a team that just needed anything, and we got something. And some folks have pointed out some bright spots that came out of the mess we're in. Hannibal appears ready, we kept a clean sheet, Evans can still do a job.

Oh, and Spurs and Arse both dropped points on Sunday.

 

[justsomebloke]

This. I mean, look at the starting lineup on Saturday. Anyone expecting much more than what we got is delusional. We were a team that just needed anything, and we got something. And some folks have pointed out some bright spots that came out of the mess we're in. Hannibal appears ready, we kept a clean sheet, Evans can still do a job.

Oh, and Spurs and Arse both dropped points on Sunday.

People are going more than a little overboard on that point, in my opinion. There were only two players on that team who aren't expected to feature pretty regularly for United and only one of them - Evans - was playing because all other options were unavailable. Eriksen was on the bench, Mejbri was picked ahead of him, not as a stopgap solution.

So, was this our peak XI? No, certainly not. But it was a more than respectable one, and if anything is delusional it is to suggest that no one could possibly expect more from that lineup than desperately eking out a narrow win against the last-place team in the PL.

By all means, let's stay positive and hope this was a turning point that can soon be forgotten. We got the points, it's no disaster. But I really don't see the point in sugarcoating things with such poor excuses.

 

[DJ_21]

The game can't in any way be described as exciting: seeing other teams move of the ball and play at pace shows up our deficiences even more, but Rasmus did find space at times (we just aren't good enough to find him) and evans was excellent.

It was a shock to almost score a header from a corner - can barely remember when we last did that

Ye that was frustrating. Score of a corner for like the first time in a year and it gets ruled out. Evans passing was pretty decent to be fair aswell. I was dreading the game with him playing but he impressed.

 

[Borninthe80ts]

Interesting take on some of our poor adjustments without the ball esp in the middle of the park:

I agree with every word. Especially the last 5 mins. Also over the next month those teams above us play each other too. Mentality will be key.

 

[Maticmaker]

The thing that worries me about recent games, including the Burnley game, is the lack of skills in both concentration and confidence of many United players. Leaving aside the youngsters coming in who generally play 'without fear,' it seems many of our so called top players are 'riddled' with it.
Yes, they are 'under pressure', but "if you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen..." as the saying goes , or don't join United.

Concentration and confidence go hand in hand, being able to concentrate for long periods boosts confidence, displaying confidence, on the ball, off the ball, making runs, or simply not standing still, all help concentration. It appears though we can only play like this 'in certain moments' within a game. Against Burnley, for around twenty seconds this happened when Evans looked up saw where Bruno was and had the confidence to play the long ball, Bruno displayed fantastic concentration watching the ball right onto his boot.

Please can we have these elements of skill combined much more regularly

 

[Borninthe80ts]

The thing that worries me about recent games, including the Burnley game, is the lack of skills in both concentration and confidence of many United players. Leaving aside the youngsters coming in who generally play 'without fear,' it seems many of our so called top players are 'riddled' with it.
Yes, they are 'under pressure', but "if you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen..." as the saying goes , or don't join United.

Concentration and confidence go hand in hand, being able to concentrate for long periods boosts confidence, displaying confidence, on the ball, off the ball, making runs, or simply not standing still, all help concentration. It appears though we can only play like this 'in certain moments' within a game. Against Burnley, for around twenty seconds this happened when Evans looked up saw where Bruno was and had the confidence to play the long ball, Bruno displayed fantastic concentration watching the ball right onto his boot.

Please can we have these elements of skill combined much more regularly

The thing that worries me about recent games, including the Burnley game, is the lack of skills in both concentration and confidence of many United players. Leaving aside the youngsters coming in who generally play 'without fear,' it seems many of our so called top players are 'riddled' with it.
Yes, they are 'under pressure', but "if you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen..." as the saying goes , or don't join United.

Concentration and confidence go hand in hand, being able to concentrate for long periods boosts confidence, displaying confidence, on the ball, off the ball, making runs, or simply not standing still, all help concentration. It appears though we can only play like this 'in certain moments' within a game. Against Burnley, for around twenty seconds this happened when Evans looked up saw where Bruno was and had the confidence to play the long ball, Bruno displayed fantastic concentration watching the ball right onto his boot.

Please can we have these elements of skill combined much more regularly

I fully agree we are a team that lacks consistency and I think this is where we are currently growing, however it’ll take time to change old habits. As others have pointed out we are still adding the new players the manager brought in so I’m hopeful. For me there was definitely progress in possession play and attacking intent last season, however it’s hard to see it right now.

The result and clean sheet was imperative and good attacks are based on a cohesive team. The players are capable.