[the gafferjs]

Woah judging by some of the toys being chucked out of the pram you would think we had lost this game.

Was an exciting game to watch, one of the best in a while for me to be honest, real end to end stuff, in some respects Leeds could arguably have won it.

People need to be realistic. Leeds were always going to get the post sacking bounce and with United missing so many it was a potential banana skin, to come back from 2-0 down and be gutted not to win it shows good character, with the same fixture on Sunday it is exciting to See how Part 2 will go at a White Hot Elland Road!

One thing I knew i would find on here though was the inevitable bashing of certain players and crying about certain players being missing, it is always the same. The thing about hindsight is that it is hindsight, it is not actually real. Those moaning about it being different if Casemiro was playing need to have a day off. Also all the Fred bashing is so predictable given the bum licking he has had the last few weeks…no depth in the squad either yet the Subs came on and had impact in securing a point who would have thunk it?

 

[AndersB]

Nice of Dalot and Fred to have their own personal comtest to be the Leeds motm.

Dalot highlights
- his now trademark sideways pass to no one that puts the opposition through on goal
- hospital ball to Fernandes in the 1st minute and then standing there like a melon as Leeds scored.
- Disappearing 30 yards up the pitch to spectate as Varane spent about 40 seconds desperately trying to fend off 3 Leeds players on his own and looking for a pass. (Honestly this infuriated me beyond belief)
- Usual array of pinpoint crosses/ill advised shots to either the Vandenberg crater or somewhere in Leicester City centre.
- starting the second half with a 10 minute nap and then recovering by slipping over to let Leeds through on goal only to be let off by the Leeds player falling over the football.
- receiving the ball 40 yards from the Leeds goal, under zero pressure, and showing the composure and quality to just boot it randomly up into the air.

Let himself down with his annual assist which probably brought him up to a respectable 1/10.

Honestly I'd have hooked him off after 20 minutes and even on a good day I still have no idea what he's supposedly better at than Bissaka. I mean Bissaka isn't amazing but the problem with Dalot is that even on top form I still don't know what his strengths are. Him playing well is basically just his weaknesses being less apparent.


Fred highlights:
- Array of weord shots aimed towards the corner flags, often combined with falling over or deliberately standing off balance for no reason
- No look sideways passing made extra skillful by the fact many of them were also no team mate there passes.
- Ability to precisely and deliberately kick the ball forwards in directions or to m a aningkess empty pieces of pitch, rather than even attempting to aim at a team mate.
- Several bouts of receiving the ball in his own half and then having some kind of fit whilst tackling himself and collapsing to the floor.
- A particularly impressive spell of this after our first goal where he managed to single handedly convert team amd home fan momentum into 5 minutes of us constantly being under pressure.

Overall probably stretches to a 1.5/10.

And this is the problem with Fred. It doesn't matter if he's in good form, he always has the 1/10 outing hiding just up his sleeve amd you never know when it might appear. He can play to the level of a very good (if limited) player, but I don't think you can ever be considered a good player when there's a chance you might be as useful to your team as a plague of crop eating locusts would be to a crop farmer.


And I don't have anything more to add as these two along with us, completely bafflingly, choosing a game where we have no midfield to also to spend 53 minutes playing our only reliable goalscorer out of position to facilitate a Burnley loanee and a teenager with 2 career goals, annoyed ne too much to focus on anything else.

Maybe I've gotten too used to us being devoid of incompetence but feck me that was a lot of it to cram into one game amd expect to get away with it.

Tl;dr: I am great at parties

 

[DRJosh]

At least this result will put a stop to talk about us being title challengers.

 

[Drizzle]

One thing I knew i would find on here though was the inevitable bashing of certain players and crying about certain players being missing,

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.

 

[honirelandboy]

I think we have no choice now but to start Rashford up front, Sancho Left and Anthony right with Pellestri and Garnacho as backup. Wout isn’t good enough and hopefully Sabitzer settles more and more. Striker and two midfielders have to be top priority for Summer.

 

[RaddyRed]

Still can't understand why Rashford is played on the right. Doesn't work, has never worked, and never will. He did OK whilst on the right, tbf.

Fred had one of his famous nights where he looks like an amateur player. Dreadful last night but after his performances this season I can forgive him.

Weghorst, for such a big lad really can't win anything in the air. Decent enough player but was quiet last night.

Referee was the worst I have seen in a long time. Who was it? Was like the old Sunday league days when some random clown turns up you have never seen before and is intent on ruining the game. Gave us nothing and refused to book their players till it bordered assault.

Leeds played really well. Reminded me of ourselves against the scousers celebrating tackles, being a team, 110% effort. They were so annoying and I hate them as much as ever.

Delighted Sancho is back, looked quality when he came on.

Without Casemiro I can't see 6 points in the next 2 games at all. McTom is more than a decent back up and with him out as well it really makes a difference to our midfield. The transitions through midfield was a constant struggle last night with the defence constantly passing it too each other due to lack of options.

Annoying result as I reckon Brentford will get a point at Arsenal on Saturday

 

[SirScholes]

Think they would adapt better

Liverpool and Chelsea disagree

Newcastle have 1 player suspended and look half the team against West Ham

 

[Woodzy]

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.

 

[justsomebloke]

Still can't understand why Rashford is played on the right. Doesn't work, has never worked, and never will. He did OK whilst on the right, tbf.

Fred had one of his famous nights where he looks like an amateur player. Dreadful last night but after his performances this season I can forgive him.

Weghorst, for such a big lad really can't win anything in the air. Decent enough player but was quiet last night.

Referee was the worst I have seen in a long time. Who was it? Was like the old Sunday league days when some random clown turns up you have never seen before and is intent on ruining the game. Gave us nothing and refused to book their players till it bordered assault.

Leeds played really well. Reminded me of ourselves against the scousers celebrating tackles, being a team, 110% effort. They were so annoying and I hate them as much as ever.

Delighted Sancho is back, looked quality when he came on.

Without Casemiro I can't see 6 points in the next 2 games at all. McTom is more than a decent back up and with him out as well it really makes a difference to our midfield. The transitions through midfield was a constant struggle last night with the defence constantly passing it too each other due to lack of options.

Annoying result as I reckon Brentford will get a point at Arsenal on Saturday

Simon Hooper. And yes, he's awful.

 

[b20times]

This Qatar takeover can't come quick enough. Had to come from two goals down against Leeds who have only scored four goals since post world cup.
This has derailed our title push slightly but the oil money hopefully coming in will give us the boost we need.

 

[daveskimufc]

I thought sabitzer was good, a shame there's only 1 option to pair him with at the minute though. Mainoos been given a few minutes lately, wonder if EtH will even consider starting him Vs leeds again

 

[justsomebloke]

This Qatar takeover can't come quick enough. Had to come from two goals down against Leeds who have only scored four goals since post world cup.
This has derailed our title push slightly but the oil money hopefully coming in will give us the boost we need.

Oh, come on. Is that how's it's going to be now? Incoming oil money as the immediate cure for every ill? Let's not needlessly self-idiotize here.

 

[Mailo]

de Gea

AWB Varane Martínez Malacia

Shaw

Sabitzer Fred

Bruno Sancho

Rashford

This team against them on Sunday.

 

[Judas]

This Qatar takeover can't come quick enough. Had to come from two goals down against Leeds who have only scored four goals since post world cup.
This has derailed our title push slightly but the oil money hopefully coming in will give us the boost we need.

There was never a title push.

 

[UnitedSofa]

This Qatar takeover can't come quick enough. Had to come from two goals down against Leeds who have only scored four goals since post world cup.
This has derailed our title push slightly but the oil money hopefully coming in will give us the boost we need.

Oh calm down, it weren’t that bad

 

[Chairman Steve]

We missed 4 starting players last night (Casemiro, Eriksen, Antony, Martial). Pretty much all teams would feel the sting of those kind of absentees.

Arsenal without Saka, Partey, Xhaka and Jesus... they’d be pretty mediocre.

 

[Sammy McIlroys fan club]

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

He would just be an option off the bench if Martial could stay fit for more than five minutes, however that is looking less and less likely. Really need a centre forward in the summer.

 

[Judas]

Martial needs to be forgotten at this point, he can’t be factored in as a first choice player.

 

[the gafferjs]

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.

Sorry Samuel Luckhurst.....was not aware you had to be negative about everything. I wanted the team to win as much as the next person but no point losing your rag over it is there? a point is better than none.

I am right though, large swathes of the fanbase are entirely predictable when it comes to "instant" reactions about certain issues. That is what a forum is for but you need the positives to go with the negatives.

 

[AlPistacho]

He would just be an option off the bench if Martial could stay fit for more than five minutes, however that is looking less and less likely. Really need a centre forward in the summer.

Even without Martial, I’d rather have Rashford in the middle, Garnacho and Antony/Sancho wide with him coming on as a sub.

Don’t get me wrong I like him because he doesn’t make mistakes and does his role, but he is limited by his natural ability.

 

[georgipep]

This Qatar takeover can't come quick enough. Had to come from two goals down against Leeds who have only scored four goals since post world cup.
This has derailed our title push slightly but the oil money hopefully coming in will give us the boost we need.

Manchester United stands for more than glory-hunting, blinded by trophies fickle fans.

I sincerely hope that people have personal values that are guiding them in their decisions in life, including in their choice of football club they support, and how they support it. I'd much rather we get relegated than become the play toy of a sportswashing clique of human rights denying monsters.

No amount of titles is able to change that.

 

[Sammy McIlroys fan club]

Even without Martial, I’d rather have Rashford in the middle, Garnacho and Antony/Sancho wide with him coming on as a sub.

Don’t get me wrong I like him because he doesn’t make mistakes and does his role, but he is limited by his natural ability.

100% agree

 

[Zed 101]

Have not read through the thread, I could not bring myself to look here last night, but my ten cents:

Not one to criticise ETH but clearly Rashford should have been moved back over to the left after 10 minutes even if he and Garnacho kept swapping, the play was all down that side and Garnacho wasted multiple opportunities that I think Rashford would have done better with, not knocking Garnacho, he is still very inexperienced.

I have not seen Sancho that good for either us or England, he was unstoppable, again not knocking Garnacho, or Weghorst (who has worked really hard and not had many opportunities to shoot), but if we do not start Sunday with Rashford Centre and Sancho left I will be gobsmacked.

Thought Bruno was wasteful as ever, and Fred had a typical Fred performance, Sabitzer was a little disappointing compared to his cameo against palace, I expected more, but am not jumping on him on his first real game.

Leeds were there for the taking had we been more assertive, felt we were too passive 1st half, ETH needs to curb all the speculative shots from outside the box, I think only Sabitzer was on target and it was fairly tame

 

[norm87cro]

Giving the next few facts Im very pleased with the result and here's why:
1) We were 2 0 down
2) Leeds are, in general game rasing c... against us and meeting United is a cup final for those sorry bunch of c...
3) Fred (as people already said) is s... and loses possesion in very dangerous positions very often and yesterday wasnt his first time
4) Leeds scored in, what I would say ideal minutes. Beggining of both halves
5) Last but not least. ETH brought in the greatest defender of all time, a man that loses a lot areal duels, a man who is not quick enough, a man who is supposed to be good on the ball because he gets the occasional through pass good, a man who just survives in this squad for God knows why (Jose hated Bailly, Ole had no spine and Eth hates Maguire I guess) f... Lindelof to influence the game when we are clearly chasing the winner.

IMO a point won not two dropped

 

[SteveCoppellFan]

Its ok, we are obviously still a work in progress and some positions need improving which they will be in the summer.

Carry on the improvement, win a cup and get top 4 will be a really good season, then kick on with quality incomings in the summer.

 

[Wheato]

If we want to win games, Weghorst cannot start

Wasn't his fault, it was only after they brought him off that we starting firing crosses into the box. There was 4 decent crosses knocked into the Area while Weghorst was sat on the bench. And none when he was on the pitch. But that is because Pellestri and Sancho are very different wingers who want to provide and not just cut in and shoot.

 

[GregM40]

Just shows how porous his midfield is without a proper sitting DM. It is what it is.

Quite a few Leeds in the home end being dragged out last night too.

 

[Drizzle]

That is what a forum is for but you need the positives to go with the negatives.

Agree on that one. But to be fair there's also been plenty of positives expressed - Rashford's goal, Sancho, Sabi doing relatively OK. But we dropped 2 points at home to a relatively poor side so you'd be naive to think we'd all be bouncing with happiness about it.

 

[justsomebloke]

Have not read through the thread, I could not bring myself to look here last night, but my ten cents:

Not one to criticise ETH but clearly Rashford should have been moved back over to the left after 10 minutes even if he and Garnacho kept swapping, the play was all down that side and Garnacho wasted multiple opportunities that I think Rashford would have done better with, not knocking Garnacho, he is still very inexperienced.

I have not seen Sancho that good for either us or England, he was unstoppable, again not knocking Garnacho, or Weghorst (who has worked really hard and not had many opportunities to shoot), but if we do not start Sunday with Rashford Centre and Sancho left I will be gobsmacked.

Thought Bruno was wasteful as ever, and Fred had a typical Fred performance, Sabitzer was a little disappointing compared to his cameo against palace, I expected more, but am not jumping on him on his first real game.

Leeds were there for the taking had we been more assertive, felt we were too passive 1st half, ETH needs to curb all the speculative shots from outside the box, I think only Sabitzer was on target and it was fairly tame

EtH was interviewed on Norwegian TV after the match, and was confronted with exactly that issue. He basically just dismissed the question, pointing out that Rashford had scored twice in a game playing off the right, and that he was able to score from any forward position.

 

[Godfather]

Nice of Dalot and Fred to have their own personal comtest to be the Leeds motm.

Dalot highlights
- his now trademark sideways pass to no one that puts the opposition through on goal
- hospital ball to Fernandes in the 1st minute and then standing there like a melon as Leeds scored.
- Disappearing 30 yards up the pitch to spectate as Varane spent about 40 seconds desperately trying to fend off 3 Leeds players on his own and looking for a pass. (Honestly this infuriated me beyond belief)
- Usual array of pinpoint crosses/ill advised shots to either the Vandenberg crater or somewhere in Leicester City centre.
- starting the second half with a 10 minute nap and then recovering by slipping over to let Leeds through on goal only to be let off by the Leeds player falling over the football.
- receiving the ball 40 yards from the Leeds goal, under zero pressure, and showing the composure and quality to just boot it randomly up into the air.

Let himself down with his annual assist which probably brought him up to a respectable 1/10.

Honestly I'd have hooked him off after 20 minutes and even on a good day I still have no idea what he's supposedly better at than Bissaka. I mean Bissaka isn't amazing but the problem with Dalot is that even on top form I still don't know what his strengths are. Him playing well is basically just his weaknesses being less apparent.


Fred highlights:
- Array of weord shots aimed towards the corner flags, often combined with falling over or deliberately standing off balance for no reason
- No look sideways passing made extra skillful by the fact many of them were also no team mate there passes.
- Ability to precisely and deliberately kick the ball forwards in directions or to m a aningkess empty pieces of pitch, rather than even attempting to aim at a team mate.
- Several bouts of receiving the ball in his own half and then having some kind of fit whilst tackling himself and collapsing to the floor.
- A particularly impressive spell of this after our first goal where he managed to single handedly convert team amd home fan momentum into 5 minutes of us constantly being under pressure.

Overall probably stretches to a 1.5/10.

And this is the problem with Fred. It doesn't matter if he's in good form, he always has the 1/10 outing hiding just up his sleeve amd you never know when it might appear. He can play to the level of a very good (if limited) player, but I don't think you can ever be considered a good player when there's a chance you might be as useful to your team as a plague of crop eating locusts would be to a crop farmer.


And I don't have anything more to add as these two along with us, completely bafflingly, choosing a game where we have no midfield to also to spend 53 minutes playing our only reliable goalscorer out of position to facilitate a Burnley loanee and a teenager with 2 career goals, annoyed ne too much to focus on anything else.

Maybe I've gotten too used to us being devoid of incompetence but feck me that was a lot of it to cram into one game amd expect to get away with it.

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.

 

[Godfather]

EtH was interviewed on Norwegian TV after the match, and was confronted with exactly that issue. He basically just dismissed the question, pointing out that Rashford had scored twice in a game playing off the right, and that he was able to score from any forward position.

Rashford can have his good day on the right too, but any armchair fan can see that he is usually half the player coming from the right, so that is weird.

 

[justsomebloke]

Wasn't his fault, it was only after they brought him off that we starting firing crosses into the box. There was 4 decent crosses knocked into the Area while Weghorst was sat on the bench. And none when he was on the pitch. But that is because Pellestri and Sancho are very different wingers who want to provide and not just cut in and shoot.

We had six crosses into the penalty area. None of them came from Sancho or Pellistri. And I'm pretty sure some of them occurred while Weghorst was still on the pitch.

 

[ti vu]

EtH was interviewed on Norwegian TV after the match, and was confronted with exactly that issue. He basically just dismissed the question, pointing out that Rashford had scored twice in a game playing off the right, and that he was able to score from any forward position.

Hope ETH only putting up for the camera, not his real thinking.

Scoring is one thing. The team balance, and how to work the possession to create chances is a world difference with Rashford positioning on display just within this game.

 

[justsomebloke]

Hope ETH only putting up for the camera, not his real thinking.

Scoring is one thing. The team balance, and how to work the possession to create chances is a world difference with Rashford positioning on display just within this game.

Yeah, it looks obvious to me too.

 

[Zed 101]

EtH was interviewed on Norwegian TV after the match, and was confronted with exactly that issue. He basically just dismissed the question, pointing out that Rashford had scored twice in a game playing off the right, and that he was able to score from any forward position.

Whilst I would not disagree in general, clearly last night on the right Rashford was not getting involved in the play and it just was not happening for Garnacho.... just one of those games for him, but lost count of the times Garnacho failed and I thought Rashford would have done so much better there. And whilst he may have said that his actions of swapping Rashford and Garnacho second half would seem to undermine the statement, as would the success that Rashford and then Sancho had down the left.

It seems to me that ETH does not like his front players moving about as we have seen in the past where wingers would swap every few minutes, I feel that tactic would have been useful last night.

 

[Stookie]

Watched it with my Leeds mate. Got loads of stick off him- as you should- when they went 1 up and then 2 up. So I returned the stick when we equalised. I thought we were going to Nick it at the end.

 

[Big Andy]

At 2-0 down I'd have taken a draw, but in the end we should have put that to bed. We had a good time to score the winner and that Varane header was the big chance. Had any of those game winning chances fallen to anyone but fecking Fred, we'd have won that.

Sorely missing Casemiro and Eriksen in a game like that.

 

[AlPistacho]

Whilst I would not disagree in general, clearly last night on the right Rashford was not getting involved in the play and it just was not happening for Garnacho.... just one of those games for him, but lost count of the times Garnacho failed and I thought Rashford would have done so much better there. And whilst he may have said that his actions of swapping Rashford and Garnacho second half would seem to undermine the statement, as would the success that Rashford and then Sancho had down the left.

It seems to me that ETH does not like his front players moving about as we have seen in the past where wingers would swap every few minutes, I feel that tactic would have been useful last night.

Probably because Weighorse is anchored to the 9 spot. I think when he plays with a more fluid 3 you’ll see more interchangeability

 

[Telsim]

I'm still fuming. Diabolical display across the pitch for the majority of the game against rivals at home.

 

[SteveCoppellFan]

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