[justsomebloke]

Not even among our 5 best, and I see it.

.....he did more creatively than the rest of the team put together in the first half. Did you not notice all those breakthrough passes that actually connected? But whatever.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Malacia picked up a harsh yellow card after 8 minutes, which obviously clipped his wings. It's the norm for United players to pick up an early booking for their first foul, when opposing players are allowed to concede several more fouls before being booked.

First part no, it wasn’t harsh at all. Deserved booking. Second part, the results do seem to let our opponents get away with murder. I would be interested to see a quantified account of this, if anyone knows of any serious efforts to determine if we are routinely hosed by refs.

 

[Wolfbot]

Yea, but I read posts saying Mainoo should always start as our No. 10, after this game.

Whereas we have witnessed games in the PL where he has been found out or not been too effective in that position.

None of our players are world class. No one owns any position right now. Maybe Amad owns Right Wing but who apart from him have claimed a position as their own? None. So, people are being a little over-excited about Mainoo being our best No.10.

He looked good in that second half but absolutely take your point. We won't know until he's played there more, and wouldn't even expect consistency given his age.

I do think it looked to suit him better, and Bruno was still creative in the deeper role. But yeah, they didn't really press us at all or attack much, so it doesn't tell us how they'll perform in these position's when faced with these things. Hopefully continued improvement though.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Pretty much think that should be curtains on Malacia’s United career. Even against lowly opposition [although FCSB did come very close to scoring two great goals] he looked out of his depth. It reminded me of when someone like Gomes got some first team minutes and just looked lost. Gomes was 16, and Malacia is 25. Gomes still needed to grow but I think Malacia is at his peak already and he isn’t good enough.

It shouldn’t even be a judgment call, compared to some of the dross we’ve offloaded he’s not far off but compared to what we need, he’s light years away. I feel the same about Zirkzee. Weghorst was better at linking play and that’s supposed to be his strength.

The clear out can’t happen soon enough.

 

[noodlehair]

We need a full summer of training, and another year of experience under Mainoo and Garnacho's belt, and maybe - just maybe - we might start looking like a team again. But we are in such a weird place right now.

Because I don't think I'm alone in thinking that Hojlund, Garnacho, Mainoo, Zirkzee and Diallo are potentially -great- players. But 4 of the 5 have had absolutely terrible seasons, and there's no doubt they've all contributed in a major way to how bad we've been, so it's hard to reconcile how I feel about these individual players, which there are a lot of, with the "frankly awful team" bit (which I agree with completely, because we really have been awful). And I don't think I'm alone in thinking that de Ligt and Martinez aren't awful players either, nor is Fernandes, nor is Dalot, nor is Rashford (despite the drama), nor is Maguire,.

And yet it feels to me like even though I've just run through a list of players who I like, think can be fantastic or at -least- good-to-very good on their day, and generally would be happy if we kept them all - we are de facto an awful team, awful to watch, easy to score against and never look like scoring. So - it's strange. For 45 minutes last night we were so bad to watch, and didn't look like we'd score in a hundred years. And then a couple of changes and it was a world of difference, so fair play to the manager because he recognised it and fixed it.

TLDR: I don't even know where our problems actually begin and end, and Garnacho is such a weird case. Could be fantastic, could be that we kick ourselves for not cashing in -now- one day, but I'd be happy to keep him and hope we do.

I think there are a number of factors.
A lot of turmoil at the club. The ownership parading negativity around constantly which in my mind 100% DOES affect the players, because they are people so why wouldn't it. A new manager with a new sytem, confidence already being low from the lead up to ETH being sacked, over reliance on young players who are never consistent regardles sof how good they are. Players returing from injury, having to play a right full back at left wing back. Players signed under one manager to suit his sytem 3 months before he got sacked.

Also though, I think there is an element of seeing a player in good form at their best, and then assuming that this is or should be their level, when actually they are just an average player having a good game. I just think back to when we were the top dogs under SAF...most teams potentially could match us or at least make things very difficult, on their day. Most would have one or two players who on the day would perform well...the difference was that this was their high ceiling, and 90% of the time they wouldn't reach it and we'd roll them over even if we were only at 6-7 out of 10.

So alothough I do think the players are a lot better than they have shown, I feel like their level is that they need to be at 8-9 out of 10 to compete favourably with anything above mid table, which just isn't realistic over a sustained period. When there's confidence and some momentum they can put a run together, but once the performance levels drop back towards normal, so do the results, and then because of the pressures at United, rather than this settling as the norm, it tends to spiral downwards to 3-4 out of 10 performances, at which point Southampton at home becomes a problem.

So I do think we need better players, and definitely should not be getting rid of players who are already good enough to be in our first team, and where their age means they have the potential for significant improvement...because those players could end up being the only realistic way to bring up the level of the team as a whole.

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

Fairly comfortable win, dunno if it proves anything though, nice to keep the winning run going.

The EL draw earlier today was a waste of time, could get Gala again (after Onana's antics last year) but there again so could Spurs, so I dunno.

 

[Hester_manc]

.....he did more creatively than the rest of the team put together in the first half. Did you not notice all those breakthrough passes that actually connected? But whatever.

I thought there were situations where he had the chance to make those passes, but he chose not to. I think that the attacking players made so many good runs yesterday, but too many times Martinez (and the other defenders) were to affraid to make the pass.

 

[wolvored]

I'm not saying we don't need a striker but we did score from 2 crosses

Both Strikers drew another blank is the point I’m making

 

[KStandBarmyArmy1993]

Best European away trip in years that. Bucharest is a fantastic place.

 

[moodyred]

Licha at this point in the season should have had at to the very least 6 assists

Licha has been very important for our past few games. Carries the ball forward, provided assists and scores goals. Bruno even let him take one of the free kicks. Says alot about his accuracy of pass

 

[Yakuza_devils]

We can't read too much into the game given the quality of the opposition. Suddenly, everyone looked world class because they have much more time and space to play. PL is a totally different ball game where every team is fast, technical, tactical and with great physicality.

It's a good win. No doubt. It's what expected of us. Let's be honest here, it's a good progress but we need to aspire for much higher standards as Man Utd.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Best European away trip in years that. Bucharest is a fantastic place.

Heard it's amazing. My daughter will be in Vienna next year and we are visiting and will for sure train over for a couple days. Glad you had fun.

 

[MZX7]

He looked good in that second half but absolutely take your point. We won't know until he's played there more, and wouldn't even expect consistency given his age.

I do think it looked to suit him better, and Bruno was still creative in the deeper role. But yeah, they didn't really press us at all or attack much, so it doesn't tell us how they'll perform in these position's when faced with these things. Hopefully continued improvement though.

Yea, we tend to jump to conclusions very quickly as fans. We need to judge based on consistently solid performances.

 

[Charlie Foley]

Fairly comfortable win, dunno if it proves anything though, nice to keep the winning run going.

The EL draw earlier today was a waste of time, could get Gala again (after Onana's antics last year) but there again so could Spurs, so I dunno.

Draw was completely unhelpful for the top 8 but it sorted out the playoff I guess

 

[Charlie Foley]

Best European away trip in years that. Bucharest is a fantastic place.

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[KStandBarmyArmy1993]

The atmosphere in the drunken lords pub in the old town on Wednesday night will stay with me for years.

Reds from all over the world congregating together and belting out United songs.

For all the shit of the last few years under the Glazers and now Ratcliffe, they'll never take that away from us.

Roll on the next round and making more memories.