Not saying our striking options are good, because they aren't, but without width you aren't gonna create much against a low block, Dalot and Maz offer little to nothing in that department, it's no coincidence that we're hopeless against teams that sit and fare better against the Liverpool's and Arsenal's who play a higher line. These players have already proved themselves to be ineffectual and prone to the same frailties(lack of physicality/inability to play a simple ball in a tight area/taking two many touches thus killing momentum, etc) whilst playing a back four, so whilst learning the new system is proving to be a problem for them, reverting to one they weren't very good at in the first place, is hardly the solution. It's terrible, the way the Ten Hag fiasco over the summer/start of season, played out and the crazy decision to bully Amorim into taking the job in November confirms that either, Ineos are no more competent than the Glazers, and/or the Glazers are still pulling the strings(despite the Ineos narrative) Amorim is obviously a great coach, very savvy, very focused, but i'm sure, even in his wildest nightmares, could ever have imagined that the club could be so dysfunctional in every conceivable way. If he makes it through this season but doesn't get better players in and starts the season after in a similar fashion, he'll be sacked before Christmas and we'll be done, because IMO, there isn't anyone out there good enough, who'd be willing to risk their reputation trying to make something credible, out of the on, and off field mediocrity that this club has been saddled with. If Ruben fails, no one is coming to save us.
PL L FA Premier League
Manchester United 0:2 Crystal Palace
Post-match discussion
Sun, 02 February 2025
Not going to loan about the system in principle. His 3-4-3 can work but you have to make the best of the personnel you have. In a home game against Palace there is no excuse for playing two defenders in the wing back roles and not starting a forward. We had too many players not contributing and no cutting edge at all and it was obvious long before half time it needed changing. Waiting until we conceded to change it up was criminally poor in game management and he has to own this result as much as the players do.
I really didn't that that we were at our worst at all today. We desperately need one real striker and a backup of relatively similar quality. But apart from our goalkeeper and lack of forward we weren't dreadful or clueless.
Total overhaul needed. Needs new striker, new WB, need AM, new CM. 5-6 new players to replace this bunch. Just start selling everyone, we won't be even close to top 4 in the next 3-4 years.
There are problems with a lack of width, and we are too cautious on the ball, but ultimately, its doen to a lack of people to put the ball in the net. We have never been so short of genuine goal threat as we are now.
It isn;t just about scoring either, without a goal threat, we never put the oponnent under pressure, the defence never really have anything to be concerned with. That is why we are constantly pushed back, their defence can push forwards with no fear.
It isn;t just about scoring either, without a goal threat, we never put the oponnent under pressure, the defence never really have anything to be concerned with. That is why we are constantly pushed back, their defence can push forwards with no fear.
Tbf, feels like every Tom, dick and Harry just comes to old Trafford ready to collect 3 points. Theatre of dreams for the opposition these days.
Amorim's squad choices didn't work. I support him fully, but today he f..ed up - simple truth
1. Kobe as false 9 was dumb esp. when we had no proper attacking wingbacks
2. Amad should have been used as wingback, not 10
3. Too much faith into Maguire for an opposition like Crystal Palace. They figured him out and eventually he played role in both goals. De Ligt may have been a better choice
1. Kobe as false 9 was dumb esp. when we had no proper attacking wingbacks
2. Amad should have been used as wingback, not 10
3. Too much faith into Maguire for an opposition like Crystal Palace. They figured him out and eventually he played role in both goals. De Ligt may have been a better choice
oh, shit. So it is your fault? Maybe stop making the annual trips, mate?
My attention drifts during games these days. I’ll tune out for minutes at a time looking at a bird outside, or a picture on the wall. They are of more interest and ease my misery at watching the team.
This is it in a nutshell and it was clearly not working from midway through the first half. Wingbacks with no idea how to use the ball in the opposition half and nobody to give it to even if they did. Losing at home playing a back 5 to Palace should never happen.
More important than the score was how awful we looked.
the team has zero attacking threat when Bruno doesnt play as 10 or when amad is marked out. defensive mistakes creeping in again , which is worrying.
i wish we could stop the season right now and start fresh in Aug - hopefully with 2-3 quality players. Its really painful to watch us in PL
i wish we could stop the season right now and start fresh in Aug - hopefully with 2-3 quality players. Its really painful to watch us in PL
Absolutely 100% total waste of time
I’ve said this repeatedly. The passing is dreadful. The ball goes nowhere or directly to the opposition. Maybe we need a new boot sponsor!
Admittedly we haven’t got decent striker(s) and our distribution in the final third is weak. The biggest problem though is a lot of the squad aren’t intelligent or preemptive enough, we’re constantly making mistakes giving the ball away cheaply. We’ve also got players who just can’t play together in the same squad. Bruno doesn’t trust anyone so is everywhere apart from where he’s meant to be leaving Ugarte isolated whilst Maguire and Onana clearly have communication issues.
This just feels exactly like where we were a year ago. Teams just have to wait until we lose patience and confidence and then just pick us off. We just have absolutely no character at all.
Until this is fixed the tactics or the players don’t matter.
I have started doing all sorts of chores during our games - why waste around two hours of your day for this? At least I get some stuff done during games now.
The lack of football intelligence is one of the most damaging aspects of this squad. If it were just since Amorim took over, you could excuse the players for still trying to get to grips with the formation and their roles, but we saw it under ETH as well.
We don't function as a unit. Everyone just thinks about their own individual role in the "team" and hopefully not fecking that up as opposed to what do I need to do or where do I need to be to support / free up my team mate.
Saw it on numerous occasions today with Dalot and Garnacho. The latter wants to play wide so ends up taking up Dalots space and inadvertently then closes a passing lane off. If Garnacho recognised this and spun away into a central area, he'll be more likely to find space as a under-lapping option in the 10 role and / or be closer to the striker or false 9 to link up. He's clearly not capable of playing that role yet but a natural LWB who wants to make those runs in behind with purpose might encourage this movement more out of him.
Hopefully the introduction of Dorgu with Dalot switching to the right will add a bit more balance and mean we're actually attacking the channels with more than just one threat (e.g. Amad or Garnacho) with the 10's more likely to drift infield to link the play as a consequence with space free'd up by said overlapping runs.
Let’s hope Dorgu is the answer on the left and Dalot is never used there again
Does anyone think that playing Kobbie up front was a signal to Ineos to get their finger out and sign someone?
I'm right on the brink of the same approach. Investing yourself in this shit is not healthy.
Amorim is a dud. Let's not keep letting him of the hook. He's been here long enough to have made a difference by now . Look at what Moyes has done in no time at all. He's inflexible to a fault and his dogmatic attachment to his one way of playing is killing us.
But other than that have things been OK ?
Anyone heard anything about Martinez? Saw a pic of him on the stretcher and very much looked like he's fearing the worst.
100% think this too. It was a huge signal that we are desperate for reinforcement up top.
Bit late to send a message the day before the transfer deadline. If that's what it was.
You know he could just tell the management
The irony of this being you’d probably be frothing at the mouth to get rid of Moyes back when he took everyone’s chips away.
Started off promising but then just turned to a bit of a meh performance.
For weeks it has seemed like people weren’t really willing to take a risk with the ball, then today at times we were being way to loose and care free with it.
They really do need to get better at making choices and then playing the pass. Too often today we would play a pass to someone that had no hope of controlling it unless they were blessed with the touch of Berba x 100.
Team is just infuriating.
For weeks it has seemed like people weren’t really willing to take a risk with the ball, then today at times we were being way to loose and care free with it.
They really do need to get better at making choices and then playing the pass. Too often today we would play a pass to someone that had no hope of controlling it unless they were blessed with the touch of Berba x 100.
Team is just infuriating.
Hoping they'll turn a corner before the City game in April. Taking my son to OT for the first time... probably should've waited!
- Here's the main thing I didn't get - We played well in the second half the other night, by having a striker up top and Mainoo/Garnacho in behind, with Amad as a wing back on one side. Now, I get that we might not be able to do exactly the same thing in each game, or might want to try something different, but we were shite for all of this game, and, despite having the same personell available, at no point did we even try or revert to anything remotely resembling how we set up in the second half the other night. Instead we tried Mainoo as a striker, which is nothing like role he was in on Thursday...and then when that didn't work instead of moving him back into the advanced role, we hooked him off and brought two strikers on at once? and them I'm not even sure who was in what position after that? So either Amorin is deliberately ignoring things that work well, or for some reason didn't think it worked well when it pretty clearly did, or doesn't understand the difference between playing a midfielder as an advanced midfielder, and playing them as a striker, or just thinks the performance in one game is completely irrelevant tothe next. Two of these explanations are confusing to me and the other two I would put more under "alarming"
- Yoro is costing us goals due to his lack of experience and physicality. I would not be too harsh at all on a defender his age as its inevitable regardless of how much talent he might have, but we should ideally be using him more sparingly while he builds his experience, rather than throwing him to the wolves week after week.
- I am bored of discussing formations, but when are we going to start seeing any evidence that this formation, with these players, isn't a bad idea? I can't name one player who looks like it suits them. Amad has been the best player and we can't even decide which position in this system to play him in. He has also only really been effective when there is another attacking player is on the same side of the pitch as him, and we've loaned all our spare ones to other clubs now.
- Why wasn't Hughes given a second yellow for having such an annoying face?
- I know we were told it would get worse before it gets better (it was actually Ratcliffe that said this ages ago, although people have now decided Amorim said it to, I dunno, make themselves feel better?), but, why does it have to get worse? I mean, even if it did get worse, why can't there be a line between this and being soundly outplayed at home by every single team in the league? We haven't replaced all of our squad with a bunch of turnips, and even if we did, you'd kind of have to question if we should have.
- Yoro is costing us goals due to his lack of experience and physicality. I would not be too harsh at all on a defender his age as its inevitable regardless of how much talent he might have, but we should ideally be using him more sparingly while he builds his experience, rather than throwing him to the wolves week after week.
- I am bored of discussing formations, but when are we going to start seeing any evidence that this formation, with these players, isn't a bad idea? I can't name one player who looks like it suits them. Amad has been the best player and we can't even decide which position in this system to play him in. He has also only really been effective when there is another attacking player is on the same side of the pitch as him, and we've loaned all our spare ones to other clubs now.
- Why wasn't Hughes given a second yellow for having such an annoying face?
- I know we were told it would get worse before it gets better (it was actually Ratcliffe that said this ages ago, although people have now decided Amorim said it to, I dunno, make themselves feel better?), but, why does it have to get worse? I mean, even if it did get worse, why can't there be a line between this and being soundly outplayed at home by every single team in the league? We haven't replaced all of our squad with a bunch of turnips, and even if we did, you'd kind of have to question if we should have.
And there it is. Why do we even bother.
You could absolutely question if this was a good occasion to experiment with a false 9. Or play three featherweights up front against that back line. Or if maybe the time has come to set a more stable first XI and start building some cohesion.
My sentiments exactly sat on the M62, again. Don’t worry, I’ve had forty years of it, I’ll be back in a couple of weeks for more.
A little bit like this place really.
It’s the stuff we give up to go each game (like quality time with the kids who lost their mum last year, makes it harder for me to go), but they’re the choices we make as fans.
Hope we put in a top performance for your visit mate
Left home at 04:30 this morning and just arrived back. Performances & results like that really make me question my sanity wanting to go over 3/4 times a season. Fans deserve better.
I really believed we had found the magic key to winning games even when playing meh football. But no, we had not.
One thing I've noticed for the last 2 years is we look brilliant for 15 minutes then stop. It happens all the time at home, we have a bright start and a few good bits of play and then we just lose the rhythm and can't regain it. Genuinely thought we were onto a winner in that first ten minutes, we looked really good.
Another thing, is how other teams can do very little and still create 2 or 3 clear cut chances against us in a game. Palace did almost nothing in the build up today but just though mistakes and basic football they had some great chances to score. Like their left back getting that chance plus Mateta having multiple opportunities right in front of goal. We simply cannot create chances like that and it's maddening.
Another thing, is how other teams can do very little and still create 2 or 3 clear cut chances against us in a game. Palace did almost nothing in the build up today but just though mistakes and basic football they had some great chances to score. Like their left back getting that chance plus Mateta having multiple opportunities right in front of goal. We simply cannot create chances like that and it's maddening.
Man of the Match
Provisional results
Runners-up
-
23%
Manuel Ugarte
-
12%
Bruno Fernandes
-
10%
Amad Diallo
-
6%
Harry Maguire
-
6%
Alejandro Garnacho
-
3%
Christian Eriksen
-
3%
Leny Yoro
-
1%
Andre Onana
-
1%
Matthijs de Ligt
-
1%
Kobbie Mainoo
-
1%
Noussair Mazraoui
Player Ratings
Provisional results
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 132 ratings.
Score Predictions
118,16,12
- Man Utd win
- Crystal Palace win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 30% Man Utd 2:1 Crystal Palace
- 22% Man Utd 2:0 Crystal Palace
- 11% Man Utd 3:1 Crystal Palace
- 8% Man Utd 1:0 Crystal Palace
- 6% Man Utd 1:1 Crystal Palace
- 6% Man Utd 1:2 Crystal Palace
- 4% Man Utd 3:0 Crystal Palace
- 2% Man Utd 3:2 Crystal Palace
- 2% Man Utd 4:0 Crystal Palace
- 2% Man Utd 0:2 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 1:3 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 2:2 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 0:0 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 0:1 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 4:1 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 0:3 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 5:0 Crystal Palace
- 1% Man Utd 9:6 Crystal Palace
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Crystal Palace
- Overall possession
- 66.8% 33.2%
- Shots
- 17 11
- Shots on target
- 2 3
- Total touches in the box
- 59 22
- Goalkeeper saves
- 1 2
- Fouls
- 12 13
- Corners
- 11 0
Referee
John Brooks
Man Utd Lineup
-
-
replaced by Joshua Zirkzee
-
-
replaced by Matthijs de Ligt
-
-
-
-
replaced by Christian Eriksen
-
replaced by Rasmus Hojlund
-
-
