[don't sign old players]

1): we have 3 great CB options in Bailly, Blind and Smalling.
2): Valencia is in cracking form.
3): the forward line has better depth now with Rashford, Mata, Mkhitaryan off the bench.
4): Rojo is better at LB than CB.
5): Lingard is awesome.

 

[buckooo1978]

Rooney didn't look anywhere near fit. Carrick didn't look anywhere near fit. It is the same with these two every single year and it is a fecking embarassment. If it's so hard to get back to full fitness, don't spend the summer letting yourself get unfit in the first place. What DOES Rooney do when he's not playing football? He's always so unfit when he goes more than a week without a game.

Fellaini is so bad he almost makes you want football to go away again. I wanted him to get sent off.

I thought it was a pretty scrappy/rusty looking game but I liked Bailly's maniac performance. Blind was pretty good. Valencia was pretty good and Shaw had a good 45 minutes before forgetting what team he was on and also suddenly looking like he'd run a marathon.

Martial's been taking first touch advice from Rooney and needs to not do that.

Leicester were flat. We sat off and took their counter attack tactic away and they had nothing else to offer. I think this will happen to them a lot this season now teams take them seriously and it'll be interesting to see if they have an answer.

Can't decide if Lingard's goall was some piece of Messi-esque brilliance or Leicester's defence haviing a collective brain spasm. Looked like the sort of thing that would happen when I play Fifa and panic and start mashing the tackle button.


Enjoyed BT's coverage. Particularly when a picture of a random empty goal appeared obscurring part of the screen for about 10 seconds...and their interesting idea of making the camera brightness greater than staring directly at the sun.

Spot on assessment

I wonder how much of the issues are down to a lack of sharpness due to a lack of games

 

[ZAGREB RED]

This game falls somewhere in between pre-season friendlies and the real thing, good to win it but agree with previous posters there were some good signs, some bad and some of the same old thing.

 

[Backrow Singer]

Good day out yesterday, always enjoy going to Wembley. Not our best performance but I didn't think they created any chances really and they didn't trouble us a huge amount. We've not had the best pre season so getting minutes under the legs is a positive and we ground the win out.

With the way the game was going, I thought the first goal would have completely changed the game but Leicester hung in there. Good feet from Lingard for his goal but sliding into a tackle should only ever be a last resort IMO and Lingard made the most of it. Showed lots of composure and is a good sign of his development. Hopefully he can keep it up.

New signings. Bailey looked dominant and confident at this level. Big step up for him and is one that I thought would take time but he did a good job. I expect he'll be relatively inconsistant but he's a young guy who will learn what it takes to succeed at this level and a little patience towards him would be nice to see IMO. Looked good yesterday though, he's got some nice attribues. Zlatan was Zlatan. Was quiet all game but leaps up and gets the winner. Was good to see Luke Shaw back as well and looking good, gave us some width down the left and will, again, improve the more he plays.

Fellaini was poor. They didn't look like scoring all game and if you had to sum his game it could be done in that goal. He made the effort to get back and make the challenge but he has no technical ability. Just looks uncomfortable with the ball at his feet.

Positives there though. I'm looking forward to the season.

 

[Halfaworldaway]

Nice to get another trophy, now hopefully we can get a good start from our first 3 games to set us up for the City match.

 

[mitchmouse]

Not brilliant. We have to accept it may never be the Fergie era ever again but some positives: Bailly looked very good, Blind looked very comfortable next to him, Shaw seems to be raring to go. We were more entertaining than in the LVG era but there's still a long way to go. I don't see us winning the title and Jose may need at least two more windows to get the team he wants. But at least we shouldn't drop points to sides who go on to be relegated!

 

[Beachryan]

Quick note on Leicester: are they trying to be the most British-style team ever this season?
1. Sit 9 men behind the ball and lump it a fast guy
2. Threaten most from corners
3. Get a long throw option going
4. If goal is needed, get another fast guy on, and lump it at those 2

There was virtually no midfield attacking play from them at all - everything was direct as f*ck. They're going to tear some teams apart with that style imo. As will Liverpool.

 

[RedCurry]

Quick note on Leicester: are they trying to be the most British-style team ever this season?
1. Sit 9 men behind the ball and lump it a fast guy
2. Threaten most from corners
3. Get a long throw option going
4. If goal is needed, get another fast guy on, and lump it at those 2

There was virtually no midfield attacking play from them at all - everything was direct as f*ck. They're going to tear some teams apart with that style imo. As will Liverpool.

They did win a title doing just that.

 

[ChaddyP]

1): we have 3 great CB options in Bailly, Blind and Smalling.
2): Valencia is in cracking form.
3): the forward line has better depth now with Rashford, Mata, Mkhitaryan off the bench.
4): Rojo is better at LB than CB.
5): Lingard is awesome.

PO6)BA

 

[don't sign old players]

PO6)BA

Nice.

 

[Shark]

Not brilliant. We have to accept it may never be the Fergie era ever again but some positives: Bailly looked very good, Blind looked very comfortable next to him, Shaw seems to be raring to go. We were more entertaining than in the LVG era but there's still a long way to go. I don't see us winning the title and Jose may need at least two more windows to get the team he wants. But at least we shouldn't drop points to sides who go on to be relegated!

Did people honestly expect us to be great? Leicester are the PL champions and a very solid side, it was always going to be a tightly fought match, and we have to add on the fact we've had a disruptive pre-season. It was never going to be the spectacle, it'd be daft to think that.

 

[gerdm07]

TBH I was bored. It would have been nice to see a few nice passing sequences that get you excited. Leicester showed some nice linkups that could have been threatening. Even though we won, I think Leicester and Liverpool (4-0 Barca) are further along than we are going into the season. I saw LC vs Barca and they showed some good play there too. I have not watched Chelsea, MC, Arsenal or TFC and can't comment. Mourinho has much work to do and I'm pretty sure he knows this.

 

[Borys]

Rooney didn't look anywhere near fit. Carrick didn't look anywhere near fit. It is the same with these two every single year and it is a fecking embarassment. If it's so hard to get back to full fitness, don't spend the summer letting yourself get unfit in the first place. What DOES Rooney do when he's not playing football? He's always so unfit when he goes more than a week without a game.

Fellaini is so bad he almost makes you want football to go away again. I wanted him to get sent off.

I thought it was a pretty scrappy/rusty looking game but I liked Bailly's maniac performance. Blind was pretty good. Valencia was pretty good and Shaw had a good 45 minutes before forgetting what team he was on and also suddenly looking like he'd run a marathon.

Martial's been taking first touch advice from Rooney and needs to not do that.

Leicester were flat. We sat off and took their counter attack tactic away and they had nothing else to offer. I think this will happen to them a lot this season now teams take them seriously and it'll be interesting to see if they have an answer.

Can't decide if Lingard's goall was some piece of Messi-esque brilliance or Leicester's defence haviing a collective brain spasm. Looked like the sort of thing that would happen when I play Fifa and panic and start mashing the tackle button.


Enjoyed BT's coverage. Particularly when a picture of a random empty goal appeared obscurring part of the screen for about 10 seconds...and their interesting idea of making the camera brightness greater than staring directly at the sun.

I think Rooney problem isn't on fitness level, he looks like it's his early days with a ball.

 

[carlosp]

Confirms Pogba!

Blames the pitch for Fellainis mistake. Even praises LVG!

"Fellahenee"

0:54s

 

[peridigm]

1): we have 3 great CB options in Bailly, Blind and Smalling.
2): Valencia is in cracking form.
3): the forward line has better depth now with Rashford, Mata, Mkhitaryan off the bench.
4): Rojo is better at LB than CB.
5): Lingard is awesome.

Eric Wynalda on Fox during pre-match saying Valencia may be sold. Those guys are idiots. He's obviously our starting RB until we can sort a replacement.

 

[carlosp]

some sort of coping mechanism.

• Great to have Luke Shaw back. I want to buy his pomade or whatever he used on his hair. How did it stay in style throughout the game and yet be so bouncy?

Hair gel or hair mud(or whatever they call it).

 

[carlosp]

Tunnel cam

Was that Kasper's agent in at 1:13?

Good to see Giggs around.

Love Gill introducing Sir Bobby around to others.

 

[carlosp]

Eric Wynalda on Fox during pre-match saying Valencia may be sold. Those guys are idiots. He's obviously our starting RB until we can sort a replacement.

Never mind the idiots saying we should get rid of Blind.

 

[GifLord]

MUTV Post match celeb,interviews,etc

 

[carlosp]

Also here he says 'Fellahnee' then corrects to Fellaini.

3m06s onwards

 

[marlowe78]

I have to agree with the previous posts that it was tedious. The first 45 were understandably nervy and the crowd sounded pretty quiet with so little happening. Still a good win for us, though, and I was happy that Ibra was able to make a statement.

I was actually quite surprised by how well we defended. I expected Leicester to rip us one through the midfield and they did have their moments but I thought our back 4 held up well. Bailly looks like a great talent and I'm impressed by the athleticism he has. He and Blind seem to make surprisingly good partners, although Bailly-Smalling looks like our best pairing going into the season. Valencia is keeping good form from the end of last season and Shaw was solid for the first half before he seemed to get tired and was skinned a couple of times.

Offence is a different story to me. We simply cannot go into the season with a setup like this. By having Fellaini, Carrick, Rooney, and Ibra on the pitch at the same time, there are too many players whose lack of speed will keep breaking our attacks down. Carrick can still play a brilliant ball through but Fellaini and Rooney are both poor with the ball, which make them pretty worthless for the fast style we're trying to achieve. I laughed when Ibra and Rooney were trying to playing these short 1-2s about two feet from each other and they ended up with no way out of the defence's trap. I don't care to see much more of that.

I'm also concerned about how out of sorts Martial looks at the moment. Besides the issues with his fitness, it seems he's being used only as a point man for Ibra rather than as the attacker of goal he was last season, which ATM he doesn't seem comfortable with. This could change as the players learn to play with each other but I hope that gets worked out soon. I've already agreed with others here that 433 would be the way to go, rather than having the one isolated striker.

Aside from that, I was glad that De Gea didn't have to do much and we defended our free kicks pretty well for a change. I would give us a 6 out of 10.

Musa looks immense, by the way.

 

[DevilRed]

Possession stats: Manchester United 58% - 42% Leicester City.

Somewhere in Portugal, a Dutchman has a half smile on his face.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Possession stats: Manchester United 58% - 42% Leicester City.

Somewhere in Portugal, a Dutchman has a half smile on his face.

Maybe but he can take no credit for those stats, seeing they're the same in almost every game Leicester play.

 

[noodlehair]

This is pretty much right on the money.

I suddenly have quite a lot more faith in our defence. Stats-wise (yawn) we were quite formidable last season, but when it mattered most (see West Ham away) they folded like a futon. There's much more to them with Shaw back and Eric Bailly's introduction, who I've already decided is our signing of the season.

I still think we're short of numbers...particularly at fullback, but Bailly and a fit Shaw do make things look significanty better. Valencia has also improved quite a lot as a fullback.

Bailly's rough edges will be exposed quite a bit over the course of the season I think, but the potential is very obvious. The most amusing thing is people saying his weakness was his composure on the ball...yet compared to our other centrebacks he looks like Pirlo. Allso when he destroyed that Leicester player near the end. I have no idea why he did that or why it helped at all, but the fact he looked so pleased about it was for some reason quite satisfying.

I feel the same about Rooney. He doesn't look after himself. I bet he goes on holiday and just drinks beer and stops any exercise, doesn't even go for a run in the morning or do some proper swimming. His failure to stay fit is a joke. He looks fat as feck and about a million miles off the pace.

Yeah. He must just spend the time abusing his body. Generally you can go a few weeks not doing any real excercise and you wont lose THAT much fitness as long as you're still looking after yourself in other ways. He is so obviously out of shape every time though. It's almost like he must see it as a challenge to cram as much fecking himself up into his time off as posssible. Football in general baffles me for this. Look at City...Guirdiola literally had to tell half their squad they were too fat//out of shape to be professional athletes. That's amazingly bad considering what they're paid.

I wonder how much of the issues are down to a lack of sharpness due to a lack of games

I'd put a lot of the poor passing, lack of cohesion and general scrappyness down to that, as well as a few players looking like they need a bit more work. Also the fact it's a new manager, different looking team etc. It was never going to be a perfect performance in the circumstances...nor will it be for the next few weeks at least I think.

It doesn't excuse looking like you've run a marathon 5 minutes after kick off though, which some of our players did. The only one I'd give any leeway there is Luke Shaw, who is obviously going to take longer than everyone else considering how long he's been out for and the work that goes into rebuilding muscle strength etc...and I wouldn't say he was even the worst one.

I think Rooney problem isn't on fitness level, he looks like it's his early days with a ball.

I dunno. He's had much worse games than that in terms of his ability to play football. I mean at least he didn't keep tackling himself like in the Iceland game.

 

[noodlehair]

Also, did anyone notice that when Leicester had a corner or set piece, this thing happened where our players would try to defend it or head it away? I mean they weren't always particularly good at it, but it is a noticable and immediate change from last season's tactic of avoiding the ball at all costs and hoping the opposition players all miss it.