[UnofficialDevil]

Such doom and gloom in this thread. I thought we dominated and put them under immense pressure, but lack of composure in the final third and some lapses in concentration led to their two goals.

We're missing 4 starers in Casemiro, Eriksen, Antony and Martial - and despite them ten Hag is making it work. We can beat these clowns at Elland Road.

It’s not doom and gloom it’s being objective. Leeds also have 9 players injured, two of them having to be subbed in the first half of the game. We should be beating Leeds at home even with Injuries.
But we did fight back to a draw and ETH is looking like the best we’ve had since SAF.

 

[Jeffthered]

Great comeback. The best team in the league lost to Everton on the weekend, we are going to have blips against poor teams, it's a fact, especially when we are at a level where we are fighting for top 4 and not titles.

We don't have the squad to push for the title or win every single game, we are going to have slips, especially with our best midfielders out. Consistency is what's important for us and that's what we have at the moment. If our form drops off from here then we can moan, but for now, with the comeback in mind and the players we were missing we can accept that result.

Good post. It's about perspective, and the realism of having a limited (re quality) squad. This is a difficult period for our season.

The level of fight and resilience in the squad is superb, this is what stands out for me. We'll need it.

This season will flush out those who are happy to wear the shirt, pick up massive wages, and continue to be wonderfully average.

 

[grahamo]

I was watching Sabizer running around the middle of the pitch shouting for the ball but Varane wouldn't pass to him. He kept playing the ball wide. Why?

 

[Harry190]

An extra 3 days of rest and we would have won this game.

 

[IRN-BRUno]

Missed the game, looks like a good comeback but still a poor result. If we take the 3 games without Casemiro I think 7 points would be a decent return, this was the easiest on paper but we're still capable of getting the 2 wins.

Nice to see Sancho back and making an impact

 

[1988]

de Gea to Varane to Dalot triggered me a little after a while.

 

[Fabio Rochemback]

Great game to watch! I was feeling very sleepy and ready for bed before kick-off, and when the full time whistle I was wide awake. Really scintillating stuff.

Credit to Leeds for coming out as bold and aggressive as they did, that took guts. Every time the ball broke into the middle of the park it was a total free-for-all, very little poise or control and Fred and Sabitzer were often far too close to the backline and too far away from each other. Again credit to the energy and movement of the Leeds midfield for dragging them all over the place but last night clearly demonstrated how reliant we are on Casemiro.

Sabitzer's passing was usually nice and crisp and he evaded pressure nicely a few times - a very difficult game for him to make his debut given how chaotic it was generally and that he was playing next to Fred who is chaotic at the best of times and had an absolute stinker last night. I don't even blame him for the chances at the end, two of them were decent efforts for a DMF and the other one came at him fast. When we desperately needed a calming influence in the middle he invariably did the total opposite and tried weird flicks and first time passes.

Martinez, Shaw and Sancho were all pretty good.

 

[Maticmaker]

We didn't really wake up until about 50 mins in.
Everybody knows what Leeds lack in skill they make up for in running, they will run you to death unless you up the tempo and they nearly accomplished that. What I cant understand is we seemed surprised by it and even when they scored a very good goal a minute or so in, we still kept sleep walking with virtually every United player wanting the ball played to feet, or they couldn't be a**ed.
A good fightback and subs especially Sancho made an improvement. Rashford scored a great goal, but in truth did little else until he had scored.
Varane and Martinez are looking like two of the best buys the clubs made in many a year.
We've got to be better prepared for Sunday

 

[Bilbo]

I was watching Sabizer running around the middle of the pitch shouting for the ball but Varane wouldn't pass to him. He kept playing the ball wide. Why?

It might have looked different on TV, but from the stands Fred and Sabitzer were very rarely available for a pass. They were also usually 30 yards apart from each other, Fred playing as practically a false 9 for some reason

Honestly we just didn't really turn up. The atmosphere inside was great but the team, for the first time in ages, looked like they turned up expecting an easy night and it showed

 

[noodlehair]

I actually enjoyed reading that. Cheered me up. And we somehow still managed to get a point out of this mess of a performance.

The biggest worry out of yesterday was the line-up up front. Fred and Sabitzer were our only options in midfield so no complaints there. But why oh why does EtH insist on playing Weghorst up front when he offers pretty much nothing at this point.

Great to see Sancho get on the scoresheet however. Also I hope Antony will be fit for the next game so we can see a Sancho-Rashford-Antony trio up front which would make much more sense than what we saw yesterday.

Yeah we had little choice with the midfield and Sabitzer, I mean I was underwhelmed but then I'm not sure what type of player he is, and expecting to freely loan someone who can adequately replace Eriksen or Casemiro is just blatantly unrealistic. So it just is what it is.

Rashford on the right however...I don't get it. We didn't need an entire half to realise this was a terrible idea. When he was playing terribly last year it was less relevant, but you don't sacrifice your (by a country mile) best attacking player, just so a teenager and loanee from the championship can play in their preferred positions. You don't do it full stop but especially not in a key game where another area of your team is already severely weakened. This is nothing against either Weghorst or Garnacho, but it is just common sense.

 

[NotQuiteManc]

Leeds managed to nullify passes from defense to midfield for chunks of the game, which I think made the offensive players impatient and hence less teamplays than normal. Plus, Fred being weird and erratic again, as if he hasn't learned anything from EtH. Overall, good team spirit to come back from 2 goals down, and unlucky not to score more. Let's hope EtH gained something from this match, and improve his tactics against such team.

 

[djembatheking]

Great game. After getting caught cold in the first minute I wasn`t too worried but to then do the same at the start of the second half really threw a spanner in the works. Showed great character to come back though and thought we should have won it. Good to see Sancho back too .Looking forward to Sunday now.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I just saw the game and while we should be beating Leeds at home, our football is coming along really nicely. Even when things are not going our way we aren’t looking clueless in moving the ball forward like we used to. We are able to consistently pass through teams and create threatening situations for out opponents.

 

[mitchmouse]

Not seen the highlights yet but radio made Fred sound appalling, Bruno very poor, Rashord (apart from the goal) anonymous, Shaw poor. they couldn't make their mind up about garnacho, kept saying he was missing chances but seemed to be the only one doing anything at all in first half: Mataface seemed to like him, pundit (Gray?) felt he was very wasteful.

Given this was Talk Bollox radio, I expect to see the absolute opposite later...

Pundit also went on about us not being title contenders... whoever said we were? It's miracle that we are where we are

 

[justsomebloke]

Not seen the highlights yet but radio made Fred sound appalling, Bruno very poor, Rashord (apart from the goal) anonymous, Shaw poor. they couldn't make their mind up about garnacho, kept saying he was missing chances but seemed to be the only one doing anything at all in first half: Mataface seemed to like him, pundit (Gray?) felt he was very wasteful.

Given this was Talk Bollox radio, I expect to see the absolute opposite later...

Pundit also went on about us not being title contenders... whoever said we were? It's miracle that we are where we are

Bruno and Shaw were both great - Bruno especially in the first half, Shaw especially in the second. Rashford anonymous in the first half, much better in the second. What Sancho did in his cameo would have been a very good performance even if you spread it over 90 minutes. Fred rubbish, Varane with some very good and some very bad contributions, Martinez dominant, Dalot very rusty defensively but not bad offensively, Sabitzer very decent, Garnacho kept trying but didn't have much success. Weghorst just.....no real impact.

 

[georgipep]

Bruno and Shaw were both great - Bruno especially in the first half, Shaw especially in the second. Rashford anonymous in the first half, much better in the second. What Sancho did in his cameo would have been a very good performance even if you spread it over 90 minutes. Fred rubbish, Varane with some very good and some very bad contributions, Martinez dominant, Dalot very rusty defensively but not bad offensively, Sabitzer very decent, Garnacho kept trying but didn't have much success. Weghorst just.....no real impact.

It was so sad to see De Gea's attempt to play from the back, a.k.a. passing to Varane, who was then pressed immediately and having to give the ball back to De Gea to just repeat this...

De Gea's inability to find players further than 10 meters from him with an accurate pass that doesn't put them in immediate danger is holding us back in our evolution and path to becoming a dominant top team.

 

[FujiVice]

On reflection the day after, not losing the game was a good result. I think back to August against Brighton where we simply couldnt create chances at 2-0. The fact we made changes, and got the two goals was fantastic. Its clear we still need more and in the Summer we will hopefully get them. Two many people in the squad just sailing along.

 

[darko]

Bruno having many attempts on goal and not hitting the target once cost me £60 !

Him also not scoring cost me a further £95.

Moral of the story ... dont bet on Bruno

I thought defensively he was dire. On Leeds second goal, Dakota has thd ball carrier and Bruno rushes him and ignores the second Leeds player. Plus there were a few times he carelessly kept thd ball in play only to give Leeds possession in United's half. Then there's the turnover for goal number one, but there were other players who were shocking on that goal.

 

[TsuWave]

Thought we’d have them under siege last 20 minutes, but it didn’t really happen. I think Varane’s header was the last chance we had IIRC

 

[croadyman]

Yeah, in all his starts I don’t get why he is more than just a squad option.

Because weetabix can't stay off injury list

 

[croadyman]

The bashing of certain players was inevitable, because they played shit. That's how this works, you know. If they played well, we'd praise them. Crazy, isn't it?

And we are crying about missing Casemiro, because, well, we missed Casemiro.

Sorry we're all so predictable. Next time we'll only concentrate on the positives so that we don't disturb your equanimity.

Yeah people on here aren't like them soft fan cammers afraid to bash players for diabolical performances. Also much as I love Casa he behaved like a prat on Saturday and will say it.

 

[croadyman]

An extra 3 days of rest and we would have won this game.

Not giving them that get out excuse

 

[Unam333]

This is what happens when fred starts, he may look good in his 20 minute sub cameos but we have seen how dreadful him and mctominay are as starters for years, not all his fault as others had stinkers but it was night and day between him and casemiro

Fred definitely is a player for the last 20 minutes. I agree. Good squad player though. You also need those kind of players.

 

[croadyman]

Fred definitely is a player for the last 20 minutes. I agree. Good squad player though. You also need those kind of players.

We don't need him with new owners

 

[The Corinthian]

Some thoughts on yesterday's game -

1) We're without our first choice central midfielders, our first choice right winger and our first choice centre forward. Furthermore, Sabitzer was playing his first game for us, Dalot was back after a lengthy injury layoff, and we had reshuffled our wingers, putting Garnacho as a LW and Rashford as a RW. There was bound to be a drop in performance and some difficulty.

2) Having said that, both their goals came down to sloppiness (fatigue?) and making silly errors on the ball in our own half (again, this could be fatigue). The opening goal, not sure what Bruno is trying to do, but once the ball is lost, Varane and Dalot are a little lax getting into the right position and in pressing the ball. It was a simple one two with Bamford that created the space and fair play to Gnonto, it was a good finish (although I think DdG could have done better...maybe I'm being a bit over critical).

3) The rest of the first half we really should have got level - Garnacho missed an easy chance, we had a couple from the edge of the box that could have flown in, but our overall play was encouraging.

4) On Garnacho - the talent is there but his decision making is really costing the team. There's times where he needs to pass but he shoots, times where he passes when he needs to shoot, times where it's better to play it safe. But I can forgive him considering this is his debut season, he's still very young, and we all know of another winger from a couple of decades ago that had poor decision making but bags of talent.

5) It also didn't make sense to play him on the left and move our most dangerous and lethal player to the right. I think we should always be playing our best players in their best position - and maybe it would have made more sense to keep Rashford left, move Garnacho to the right and ask him to put in crosses or hold the width. Instead we tried to make the best of both worlds, but really it didn't make much sense.

6) Their own goal again came from being sloppy in our own half - Garnacho losing the ball in our half and then some shoddy defending resulting in the own goal. It wasn't Varane's best game either, but I don't think he was helped with a very porous midfield. In fact, it felt like an 'Ole' midfield - easy to play against and susceptible to conceding from literally just running down the centre.

7) It was great to see Sancho back - fit, firing and happy. It's exactly the lift a tired team may need going into the second half of the season. With Rashford maybe moving more centrally, we can still have a lot of threat coming from that left flank. I'm hoping he can do the business across the front (in a #10 or RW) as well. I'd love to see a front three of Rashers - Martial - Sancho as that has potential to be devastating.

8) We really missed Casemiro, and we really missed Antony as well. There was no threat on the right hand side the whole game, but he also is very good and holding the ball and moving our players up the pitch. The sooner we get Antony back the better (and he was also developing a good rapport with AWB on that side too).

9) Wout isn't the answer, but I guess he will do considering Martial's continued fitness issues, and he occupies space for our wide players to get closer to goal. It was interesting to see that we began crossing it in the moment he went off (and Rashford scoring a typical #9s header). Why not cross it in with Wout on the pitch?

10) Bruno and Fred both have their merits, but they are just too chaotic. It's a shame that some of the big chances in the last 10-15 fell to Fred, who isn't the most natural of goalscorers. It also shows why a partner as disciplined and intelligent is vital in getting the best out of Fred. Without him he's a bit all over the shop. With Bruno, you have to take the rough with the smooth I guess. I'd like to see a more disciplined game from him, as I think he has it in him.

 

[DSG]

Another two non-Casemiro games. We could be clinging onto top four for dear life by the time he returns.

This. He makes such a difference. Hopeful that Sabitzer will provide a decent approximation of Eriksen. Without Casemiro and Eriksen, we are truly lost as a team.

 

[DSG]

Some thoughts on yesterday's game -

1) We're without our first choice central midfielders, our first choice right winger and our first choice centre forward. Furthermore, Sabitzer was playing his first game for us, Dalot was back after a lengthy injury layoff, and we had reshuffled our wingers, putting Garnacho as a LW and Rashford as a RW. There was bound to be a drop in performance and some difficulty.

2) Having said that, both their goals came down to sloppiness (fatigue?) and making silly errors on the ball in our own half (again, this could be fatigue). The opening goal, not sure what Bruno is trying to do, but once the ball is lost, Varane and Dalot are a little lax getting into the right position and in pressing the ball. It was a simple one two with Bamford that created the space and fair play to Gnonto, it was a good finish (although I think DdG could have done better...maybe I'm being a bit over critical).

3) The rest of the first half we really should have got level - Garnacho missed an easy chance, we had a couple from the edge of the box that could have flown in, but our overall play was encouraging.

4) On Garnacho - the talent is there but his decision making is really costing the team. There's times where he needs to pass but he shoots, times where he passes when he needs to shoot, times where it's better to play it safe. But I can forgive him considering this is his debut season, he's still very young, and we all know of another winger from a couple of decades ago that had poor decision making but bags of talent.

5) It also didn't make sense to play him on the left and move our most dangerous and lethal player to the right. I think we should always be playing our best players in their best position - and maybe it would have made more sense to keep Rashford left, move Garnacho to the right and ask him to put in crosses or hold the width. Instead we tried to make the best of both worlds, but really it didn't make much sense.

6) Their own goal again came from being sloppy in our own half - Garnacho losing the ball in our half and then some shoddy defending resulting in the own goal. It wasn't Varane's best game either, but I don't think he was helped with a very porous midfield. In fact, it felt like an 'Ole' midfield - easy to play against and susceptible to conceding from literally just running down the centre.

7) It was great to see Sancho back - fit, firing and happy. It's exactly the lift a tired team may need going into the second half of the season. With Rashford maybe moving more centrally, we can still have a lot of threat coming from that left flank. I'm hoping he can do the business across the front (in a #10 or RW) as well. I'd love to see a front three of Rashers - Martial - Sancho as that has potential to be devastating.

8) We really missed Casemiro, and we really missed Antony as well. There was no threat on the right hand side the whole game, but he also is very good and holding the ball and moving our players up the pitch. The sooner we get Antony back the better (and he was also developing a good rapport with AWB on that side too).

9) Wout isn't the answer, but I guess he will do considering Martial's continued fitness issues, and he occupies space for our wide players to get closer to goal. It was interesting to see that we began crossing it in the moment he went off (and Rashford scoring a typical #9s header). Why not cross it in with Wout on the pitch?

10) Bruno and Fred both have their merits, but they are just too chaotic. It's a shame that some of the big chances in the last 10-15 fell to Fred, who isn't the most natural of goalscorers. It also shows why a partner as disciplined and intelligent is vital in getting the best out of Fred. Without him he's a bit all over the shop. With Bruno, you have to take the rough with the smooth I guess. I'd like to see a more disciplined game from him, as I think he has it in him.

After watching Wout for several games now, I prefer a Sancho — Rashford — Antony front line. Marcus’ hold up play isn’t as good, true, but he asks so much more from the opposing CBs, and the swapping of the front three during the match really causes organizational problems for the opposing defense.

Bruno has endured quite a bit of criticism from the Caf, but in my mind, most of it is unwarranted. He is a true competitor. He wins a lot of free kicks. His work rate is phenomenal, he’s all over the pitch, supporting in all areas. Does he go for the home run ball too much? Yes. But the trade off is that he’ll hit some sublime, world class balls and dig us out of holes with his play. When he has other playmakers behind us, it really mitigates his weaknesses. He’s not in his best form right now, but ETH clearly values his contributions as he rarely is rested, even in the domestic cups.

 

[MyBloodIsRed]

Bruno looked off it and to be fair to him, he's played almost every minute plus WC games. With Eriksen out now he won't get any rest until Summer. The games this month might do us in... At least Case is getting a breather!

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

This. He makes such a difference. Hopeful that Sabitzer will provide a decent approximation of Eriksen. Without Casemiro and Eriksen, we are truly lost as a team.

I think people underestimate it - as soon as Casemiro was suspended, with Eriksen already out, I felt that we’d struggle to beat teams like…well, any team.

 

[Maticmaker]

Wout has received stick but his one big asset is his height, yet throughout the whole ninety minutes I didn't see one ball played directly for him to challenge for, from De Gea or the back four and there was no one close enough to pick up on any knock downs or second balls he might win. It's pointless playing him if we don't try to use his height, at least occasionally.
Without Casemiro or Eriksen, watching us try to play out from the back has me squirming.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

Unfortunately the last night's game had Ole vibes all over it, losing the ball in dangerous situations, in our own half, inviting pressure at home, not being able to bypass the opp press. But there are reasons for that of course, mentioned before.
I am sure we will be better prepared for the away game, I don't think anyone expected Leeds to press us that much.

 

[Houdini]

Sancho was a very nice surprise. Happy for him. He looked better than Antony to be honest.

 

[b20times]

There was never a title push.

Really? If we win on Sunday we'll only be four pts behind Arsenal.
We have to be in the mix for the league surely?

 

[tjb]

There's some proper hysterics on display, here.

Ten Hags United are no where near the finished article and players he's inherited didn't perform at the necessary standard. It's going to happen. Let's have some perspective here, United are further along putting a team together than we were this time in any of the 5 previous seasons.

Thought the lads showed resilience, character and effort even if the quality of some was crap.

I actually think tactically we aren't far off where we are meant to be. You can easily see the structure and intricacies of our team when watching.

However, particularly in attack, we struggle with consistent quality. It's a bit less obvious in today's game to spot differences in attacking quality at times, but in comes in the form of time, space and control rather than simply trickery. The inability to create space to create the final pass, the hesitations in decision making that leads to the opposition recovering the ball, the level of ease an opposition finds in winning back possession etc. These are all signs of that. This happens to every team who attacks, but the frequency in occurence determines the level of quality the attack has. Right now, we have two strikers who struggle to move and are very specific in their route to goal. We have a winger struggling with adapting to the time and space of the league (Antony), we have a young player who can easily be outmuscled by defenders, with only Rashford showing consistent quality.

For the most part, we can get away with this due to having control of games and bludgeoning opponents to submission. Our defence is so good ( particularly with the cover of Casemiro) that teams are barely going to get a sniff against us, and even when they do, we have the defensive solidity of Martinez, Varane and Shaw to consistently snuff out attacks. However, in games where we have moments of shock or bad conditions that lead to us not being able to fully control games and sustain a credible structure ( which happens to all teams outside of Barcelona and City), our firepower in attack is too light to be trusted to mount comebacks or go head to head. In addition to this, we don't have the depth in midfield to ensure that those bad conditions don't occur all the time.

 

[croadyman]

Really? If we win on Sunday we'll only be four pts behind Arsenal.
We have to be in the mix for the league surely?

So they are losing to Brentford on Saturday (no chance at Emirates) and we're beating Leeds at Elland Road which looks unlikely looking at us away without key players

 

[mitchmouse]

Having now seen the highlights, Bruno was poor for their first goal as was the defence for backing off but I have no idea why the commentator said DDG had no chance of saving it. Looked saveable to me. In fact DDG had a pretty poor game, flapping at crosses a few times - at the other end Meslier looked so much more composed and secure in general. He very possibly should have stopped Sancho's goal although it's possible he saw the ball very late.

I didn't think Bruno had a great game and actually had a pretty good (half) chance to win the game and fluffed it. I didn't think anyone really stood out enough to get MoM although I thought all the subs made good contributions. I'm glad Sancho got a goal although maybe it should have been saved, a I said above.

I know Garnacho missed chances (he was unlucky with one) but I was impressed at the way he was the one always in the right place and his speed troubled their defence. I'd start him again on Sunday, but I don't think ETH will.

No idea why we dind't put a single cross into the box when we a tall striker on the park and only seemed to do so after he had gone off. To be fair, Weg didn't exactly shine...

All in all, it's two points dropped even if we did "rescue" a draw. Need to play much better on Sunday. We can't really afford to drop points again given that Spurs and Newcastle have eminently winnable games on Saturday

 

[Deleted 112447]

Horrific first 10 or 15 minutes and generally bad. Made a good few chances but we looked broken and made Leeds pressing look like prime Barcelona. We need quality back up for nr. 6 and nrr. 8 more then we need a striker IMO. For goals at least we can look to Rashford, Antony, Sancho, Bruno. But in mid...nothing.

 

[NLunited]

I was watching Sabizer running around the middle of the pitch shouting for the ball but Varane wouldn't pass to him. He kept playing the ball wide. Why?

Because Leeds was shutting down the middle and the space was on the flanks.

 

[justsomebloke]

Having now seen the highlights, Bruno was poor for their first goal as was the defence for backing off but I have no idea why the commentator said DDG had no chance of saving it. Looked saveable to me. In fact DDG had a pretty poor game, flapping at crosses a few times - at the other end Meslier looked so much more composed and secure in general. He very possibly should have stopped Sancho's goal although it's possible he saw the ball very late.

I didn't think Bruno had a great game and actually had a pretty good (half) chance to win the game and fluffed it. I didn't think anyone really stood out enough to get MoM although I thought all the subs made good contributions. I'm glad Sancho got a goal although maybe it should have been saved, a I said above.

I know Garnacho missed chances (he was unlucky with one) but I was impressed at the way he was the one always in the right place and his speed troubled their defence. I'd start him again on Sunday, but I don't think ETH will.

No idea why we dind't put a single cross into the box when we a tall striker on the park and only seemed to do so after he had gone off. To be fair, Weg didn't exactly shine...

All in all, it's two points dropped even if we did "rescue" a draw. Need to play much better on Sunday. We can't really afford to drop points again given that Spurs and Newcastle have eminently winnable games on Saturday

You get all that just from the highlights?

 

[lex talionis]

Could be a false nightmare on my part, but we seem to be particularly vulnerable early in matches. We have to be sharp the moment the first whistle is blown and not just get our paces in the game and measure up the opponent first.