[Esquire]

I'm replying since you quoted my post. How about you stop dictating other people how they should feel about the game and act like everything is rosy and nice. You can either ignore a lot of people or skip the forum altogether if you can't stand the "negativity" on here. Nobody is stopping you from enjoying the win, least of all a few stranger posters in an internet forum.
Or trying creating a Let's enjoy the win thread and ask specifically not to post negative commets with a ban warning or something( Hmm..where else have we seen that ).

Regarding the game, it wasn't a horrendous performance, but it wasn't great either. We rely on pieces of individual flair and skill rather than team play. We take a lead and let the opposition dictate terms from then on. We retreat when they run at us with the ball with almost zero pressing. All of which we saw last season too. Hence, my post about how things haven't changed much by the look of it.

The game was dogcrap first half, much better the second. I think the polarisation of how we play (especially style wise) will always be here as long as Mou is manager. This is pretty much how we will play rest of the the year, same as last year.

Midfield is not a problem anymore and Andreas will be a good squad player rotating with Matic. Think Herrera will probably be back up for Fred and Pogba.

Sanchez is the one who looks like he just came back from 3 weeks’ holiday with no training. He better get back on par fast. Martial deserves a chance.

 

[simonhch]

A predictably awful performance, albeit with some mitigating factors. It’s truly disturbing how uninspiring and negative we are in our approach. After going a goal up we just ceded possession and tried to counter. Unsuccessfully. Very lucky win tbh.

The positives:

Fred
Andreas
Academy presence
Pogba
Lindelof
Shaw
The crowd
3 points

The negatives:

Sanchez
Mata
Our style of play
Mentality

 

[Rash Decision]

A predictably awful performance, albeit with some mitigating factors. It’s truly disturbing how uninspiring and negative we are in our approach. After going a goal up we just ceded possession and tried to counter. Unsuccessfully. Very lucky win tbh.

The positives:

Fred
Andreas
Academy presence
Pogba
Lindelof
Shaw
The crowd
3 points

The negatives:

Sanchez
Mata
Our style of play
Mentality

I thought we played a lot quicker than we normally do, which has to be a positive stylistic change, no?

 

[Red-Jeff]

Given how shite pre-season was, I'll take that. Some good spells, but some awful ones too. Such a shit goal to concede in what should have been a totally comfortable win. But it'll do.

Fred looks fun. Went through spells of being our best and worst player. Total lunatic.

Was going to say he had an up and down game but that is more apt

 

[dmode]

As I said before, this team has the ability to progress even win the premierleague, we have good players, it's a matter of attitude and a bit of luck.

 

[SlothIsLove]

I think we haven't known how to press as a team yet. They bypassed our first pressing line quite easy. Need to improve that if we want to change our style.

 

[simonhch]

I thought we played a lot quicker than we normally do, which has to be a positive stylistic change, no?

I would agree with you, if I had noticed the same thing.

 

[simonhch]

I think we haven't known how to press as a team yet. They bypassed our first pressing line quite easy. Need to improve that if we want to change our style.

Two years in and we can’t press as a team. That’s just part of the basics. Alarming poor coaching.

 

[Selbourne]

After going a goal up we just ceded possession and tried to counter.

Hate that. It's my biggest pet peeve about football, It's just asking for the other team to invite pressure to score, than to play normally.

 

[simonhch]

Hate that. It's my biggest pet peeve about football, It's just asking for the other team to invite pressure to score, than to play normally.

Completely agree.

 

[Canagel]

Definitely there are a lot of positives to take. But also negatives. We shouldn't be so defensive at home because we have the quality to strangle teams and not them breathe. Just need to let the horses run free...
Was slightly disappointed with our right wing because Darmian and Mata were getting dominated and neither were doing their job. Darmian getting skinned and showing no composure. Mata with no pace to get out of his own half and not covering defensively. He was a passenger out there. I mean even Fred had to compromise to drop and help Darmian. Going forward I still think we need someone with pace to beat players there. Either Rashford or Lukaku. Without anyone on the RW with pace or strength we will continue to be vulnerable. Our midfield strength is obvious but players like Fred and Pogba will be limited if they have to cover for weak defenders and weak wingers.

Sanchez needs to move upfront and focus on finishing. He can't create. Doesn't have the final ball. Struggles to even keep the ball sometimes let alone the final ball.

 

[SlothIsLove]

Two years in and we can’t press as a team. That’s just part of the basics. Alarming poor coaching.

Maybe because we've never really been setup this way before, most of the time our tactic was to sit deep and invite pressure. Against better opponents I think we will revert to the old style.

 

[ijc]

Pogba's caption on his post-match Instagram post is so cryptic though ...

For those who cant see it it says:

"'ll always give my best to my fans and my teammates no matter what's going on. #pogfeelings "

 

[Varun]

Definitely there are a lot of positives to take. But also negatives. We shouldn't be so defensive at home because we have the quality to strangle teams and not them breathe. Just need to let the horses run free...
Was slightly disappointed with our right wing because Darmian and Mata were getting dominated and neither were doing their job. Darmian getting skinned and showing no composure. Mata with no pace to get out of his own half and not covering defensively. He was a passenger out there. I mean even Fred had to compromise to drop and help Darmian. Going forward I still think we need someone with pace to beat players there. Either Rashford or Lukaku. Without anyone on the RW with pace or strength we will continue to be vulnerable. Our midfield strength is obvious but players like Fred and Pogba will be limited if they have to cover for weak defenders and weak wingers.

Sanchez needs to move upfront and focus on finishing. He can't create. Doesn't have the final ball. Struggles to even keep the ball sometimes let alone the final ball.

Yet your entire post is just listing negatives.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Agree. I also said in Sanchez that with his erratic passing he's shite at playmaking. He has to change his style to adapt to him losing a yard of pace and that's by putting him in a position close to the goal as possible and expect him to finish not to create.

I think Young on the right and Shaw on the left can provide good width in the diamond formation. It just suits almost every other player in the team.

That's the way I would go until the others are fit. Really interested to see how Dalot performs. The comment from Jose about having to change his plans due to signings not being made. I wonder if he was thinking of playing 3 CB's?

 

[Pavl3n]

Yet your entire post is just listing negatives.

He did say our midfield strength is quite obvious.

 

[NotQuiteManc]

Lucky goal, but sometimes that’s what we all need. A good bit of luck to spur him on, to Shaw that is. Hope he regained back some confidence that might be holding him back all these while.

The team showed but lack that cohesiveness. At times decently brilliant but most of the off timed passes. Either way, 3 points that’s what matters.

 

[redIndianDevil]

He was pretty crap apart from that play in the goal.

No attacker is going to look good in the entire 90 minutes under Mourinho, it's all about who comes up with a moment of brilliance and Mata did today.

 

[redIndianDevil]

Eh what? Mata moves with the pace of a snail and will be lucky if he scores 3 league goals this season. And what's the point of having the ability to control and rotate possession when he hardly gets that chance, as he will be bullied off the ball? He's completely over the hill and beyond.

Despite being snail paced, he could have had a goal today and provided an assist, it's better to have him than another headless chicken like Rashford or Lingard in the right wing, Valencia or Dalot should provide the pace and width in the right side. Mata is the best option we have for the right side.

 

[Escobar]

Pereira was great, so id we want to play proper football he needs to start. Pogba did well considering he just came back as did Shaw and Bailly. Mata and Sanchez were poor, both had one scene where they showed theor quality. Rashford is a question mark, but I think his attitude is a bit of an issue as well

 

[prath92]

I thought we did well yday. We didn’t dominate for the entire game but we were largely the better side imo

It was great to see a midfield and defence with ability to play themselves out. Especially midfielders who have the vision to see passes and execute them well. Last year it was mainly Pogba who could do that. Matic could execute passes but his vision wasn’t particularly great. Herrera Fellaini and McTominay aren’t great passers themselves. Yesterday Fred and pereira both were able to see runs down the flank and find the players with accuracy. Also they along with lindelof could keep the ball ticking

Going forward it’s only going to get better in that aspect with lukaku making runs instead of Rashford. I think Matic should start because pereira isn’t defensively as assured as Matic is (understandably so considering Andreas isn’t a DM). If shaw continues this way it’s hard to displace him

Sanchez’ criticism isn’t warranted. That’s just his game. Even yday he created good chances (mata and lukaku ones come to mind). He was always someone who lost possession easily. Also De Gea was a bit iffy yesterday. So was bailly towards the end

Edit - I’d be inclined towards playing Andreas as a RW too. I don’t think we’d miss Mata if we play him instead

 

[Joseunited]

Shout out to Mata too. Only attacker with a good vision. He should nail down that RW spot and no more rotating that position constantly, Mata will come good if he gets a continuous run in that position. Yes he is not pacy or dribbly but he is the only one with control and the ability to rotate possession.

Drifted far too often,even all the way over to the left I saw once or twice.Mourinho even swapped Mata and Rashford over for a while in the first half because Leicester were getting to much joy down our right flank.Goal apart I didn't see to much to shout out about to be honest,but none of the front three did enough really,it was the only downside to the game.When Leicester got on top none of the front three could hold on to the ball.

 

[Pavl3n]

Thought Darmian & Mata were very poor. Sanchez also extremely wasteful in possession. Rashford (without pre season) against Maguire was never going to be easy. However, he can and should do better. Hopefully Martial will come into the team soon. DeGea, SHAW, Lindelof, Bailly, FRED,POGBA & Pereira were very good.
The head coach needs to get a little class!

Sanchez looked far from his top form and that's been the case ever since he joined. Now we know Jose has his favourites and it would take quite a few games of poor form to bench them (Pogba's first season) compared to others who he would bench after 45 min.
My point is that even if Alexis had glimpses of great footballing mind during this game, he is far from what we need and I really hope Martial understands that only fighting for the spot would give him game time. Competition for starting spot is what we need across the pitch to bring the best out of our players. If Martial has given up, we could only pray Sanchez hits form, since lack of minutes want be the thing to motivate him.

All in all, under the circumstances this was a great result and good performance. There were many positives to take out of that game.

Firstly, defence looked strong and solid, apart from when Darmian got caught out a few times, partly thanks to Mata literally being inept defensively, which to be fair isn’t really his fault. Also, us Football Manager nerds are looking to be right here, Lindelöf and Bailly could really form a proper top partnership. Lindelof can be the calm and composed Rio while Bailly is the tough tackling, commanding Vidic. Shaw scored as well which will boost his confidence to attack more and in general. Oh, and needless to say De Gea was class.

Following on, i really like this midfield. As we all know, Pogba is brilliant but Fred and Pereira too bring discipline yet some extravaganza as well. The chemistry between these three and some of the feints, flicks and passes from all three players were class today.

Lastly, on to the attack. Simply put, they were not good enough. Sanchez while having one assist and definitely should have had two (Lukaku chance which he should have buried) was not good enough today. Lost the ball way too easily a lot. After that, Rashford was hardworking and had his moments of brilliance but had no end product, which sums up his entire game basically. Mata tried to create and is still very intelligent and good at passing but is clearly too slow to play RW and he too was not good enough today. And then, as said before Lukaku should have scored that chance, all day every day.

If I had to give this match a rating, I’d go as high as 8/10 as all our World Cup players, while most such as Pogba played well all had less stamina than their leicester counterparts, while some aren’t even on the bench yet.

Of course, for today its 10/10 for the fans, good atmosphere right from the start and tens of thousands of people uniting to chant Jose’s name was something I found brilliant.

Well done everyone, and now on to Brighton with fitter, more confident players. Come on United!

Good points. Must agree that Darmian looked shaky and had nothing to offer going forward. Not sure Valencia has more to offer either, even though he is a former winger and attacking should come natural to him.
Lukaku - don't know what to say. Hard worker, has the talent, but these chances have to be taken. It's what separates the good from the great.
Fred looked off IMO. Showed a lot of promise and desire, but had a lot of wrong passes and lost the ball a few times in dangerous areas - mostly in the first half. I think he'll take a few games time to bed in.

 

[Canagel]

Yet your entire post is just listing negatives.

I mentioned in an another post some positives.

 

[RoadTrip]

Decent enough. But key is the 3p. Given all the negativity in the press and the poor pre season and the apparent atmosphere in the squad, this was a real easy bananaskin which could have begun a big downward spiral. Which we avoided is good.

 

[Member 113277]

There was a clear difference to me - between our 'passive' and 'aggressive' states - when we sat back, we made Leicester look like a good team, because they had plenty of time to compose themselves and string some possession together, but when we put some pressure on, they looked exactly like what they are - a mid table team. Hope we learn the lesson, since you can beat a mid table team by pressing them for part of the game, but risk losing to a top four team, who will punish a team that gives them too much time.

Last night, someone posted a question about how Vardy scored (in terms that may have caused a deletion), let me answer that (a) good fortune, when you consider the probability of the ball hitting the post at an angle that presented perfectly and (b) Vardy is possibly the most instinctive striker in the EPL at the moment and was in the right position and had the necessary quick reactions. I don't like the guy's behaviour, either, but let's acknowledge a formidable opponent for what he does well (which is not being graceful to Ruud vN, when he beat his record).

 

[moodyred]

Pogba, Bailly, Pereira, De Gea and Shaw were good.

Fred, Lindelof, Mata decent.

Rashford (constantly caught offside), Sanchez and Damien need improvement.

I thought I rather enjoyed the 2nd half. Some nice attacks.

 

[Jacob]

Rewatching the game in an hour. Stay tuned for my professional opinion

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

We got the 3 points and obviously it was absolutely vital to get that first win under the belt.Lindelof looked reasonably assured,and Bailly looked solid at times...Shaw had a good game,but Darmian was all over the place.I thought that Perreira looked quite assured but it’s obviously far too early to judge him...Fred looked sharp at times,but he needs to get used to the pace of English football and he also needs to put on some muscle.At times he looked a bit lightweight in the middle...

Pogba put in a commanding display but the front 3 were unfortunately dissapointing.Mata And Rashford were just about average,but Sanchez was a big dissapointment.Obviously it’s just the first game,but Sanchez needs to hit the ground running this season...

All in all,the performance was below average but I think we need to get used to these kinds of performances.The manager needs to get the best out of Shaw,Lindelof,Pogba,Sanchez and Fred.If he can get the best out of these players,then we will have a successful season...But I”m willing to put up with such performances(even though I feel asleep for 15 minutes!) As long as we keep getting the results...

 

[Tincanalley]

A lot here are in the habit of slagging off Darmian, but I think he did reasonably well in a tough spot vs Gray. That's a decent Leicester side, in a process of change themselves. I thought Bailly was amazing, Lindelof has found his groove at last. The back four were all good, thrilled for Luke Shaw. Midfield was a bit of a mixed bag; Pogba immense, Fred, umm.... Pereira promising. If we can get those attackers to click should be great. Mata classy. Sanchez, well he was fouled a lot, and there was a lack of unity in the play, he will improve. I just can't love Rashford, something about the way he runs; he always seems slightly off-balance. Pity Lukaku didn't get off the mark, it was soo close. Fellaini was great, too, when he came on.

 

[Seanus]

Haven't read all posts so apologies if it has been said but the ref was garbage. After the (correct) decision on the penalty he was shocking, Pogba, Fred and Pereirra all penailsed for what were not fouls-a couple were blatant dives and he fell for it. We must have gone 30 mins without a decision in our favour.

 

[sunama]

Anyway.... Jose .. like Ive said since the day he went to Old Trafford is not taking you forward. He's quick fixer these days and has no longevity which if I remember correctly was the Moyes plan.

Moyes was hired to be a long term manager but the guy was a disaster and since then, Woodward has realised that in modern football, there is no such thing as a long term manager.
The best clubs in the World all change their manager roughly every 3 seasons and Jose fits in with that.
I do hope Jose stays, because if he does, it means that we are doing well.

There are some people on this forum who would love us to save money, but it brings me no joy to see that money go into the pockets of the Glazers, so they can get richer. I'd much rather see new players in the team, who might take us to the next level.

 

[minoo-utd]

Not bad. Second half was better and faster.
Actually I expected us to draw ot something after all the negativity from Jose comments about the team and the summer and so.

We have to keep Pogba here no matter what.

 

[SambaBoy]

3pts against a strong Leicester team with a disjointed team is always a decent result. I thought we looked very good in the first 15 minutes, moved the ball quick, Shaw was getting forward and we were creating decent openings but after that, Leicester just dominated us for the rest of the half which is worrying. It's a reoccuring theme of sitting back and soaking up the pressure which ok is sometimes a necessity but not for the whole half/not a home and not against Leicester.

We should be getting on the front foot, and trying to put the game to bed. It's this type of tactic that cost us top four first season under Jose, sitting back and hoping to score 1 and shut up shop, resulted in loads of 0-0's or draws because our defence isn't good enough or our strikers weren't finishing their chances. Last season, it was the reason we went out the Champions League, sitting back at Seville, happy to concede the majority of possession and hoping we put away 1 of our few chances.

 

[TheReligion]

Are you kidding? If West Ham give Liverpool a game like Leicester did to us, how on earth can you stop watching??

I wouldn't watch Liverpool in the first place. I'm a United fan and hate the cnuts.

 

[redIndianDevil]

Drifted far too often,even all the way over to the left I saw once or twice.Mourinho even swapped Mata and Rashford over for a while in the first half because Leicester were getting to much joy down our right flank.Goal apart I didn't see to much to shout out about to be honest,but none of the front three did enough really,it was the only downside to the game.When Leicester got on top none of the front three could hold on to the ball.

I've come to terms with the fact that none of our attackers are going to look good consistently and Mata is the best option for us in the right wing as he is capable of popping up in the right areas to score some goals and provide good passes like he did for Shaw yesterday besides Valencia should provide a better defensive cover for our right flank once he is fit.

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

Pogba, Bailly, Pereira, De Gea and Shaw were good.

Fred, Lindelof, Mata decent.

Rashford (constantly caught offside), Sanchez and Damien need improvement.

I thought I rather enjoyed the 2nd half. Some nice attacks.

I think he did very well with updates and quotes after the game!

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

Sanchez started like he is on fire, had that chat with Pogba, and he turns to crap for the rest of the game.

 

[trevor newnham]

I thought we did well yday. We didn’t dominate for the entire game but we were largely the better side imo

It was great to see a midfield and defence with ability to play themselves out. Especially midfielders who have the vision to see passes and execute them well. Last year it was mainly Pogba who could do that. Matic could execute passes but his vision wasn’t particularly great. Herrera Fellaini and McTominay aren’t great passers themselves. Yesterday Fred and pereira both were able to see runs down the flank and find the players with accuracy. Also they along with lindelof could keep the ball ticking

Going forward it’s only going to get better in that aspect with lukaku making runs instead of Rashford. I think Matic should start because pereira isn’t defensively as assured as Matic is (understandably so considering Andreas isn’t a DM). If shaw continues this way it’s hard to displace him

Sanchez’ criticism isn’t warranted. That’s just his game. Even yday he created good chances (mata and lukaku ones come to mind). He was always someone who lost possession easily. Also De Gea was a bit iffy yesterday. So was bailly towards the end

Edit - I’d be inclined towards playing Andreas as a RW too. I don’t think we’d miss Mata if we play him instead

i disagree that Matic should replce Pereira. If he does then Pereira should then replace Mata. I love Mata but he is too slow if we need to counter - as that seems to be JoMo's preferred style apparently. Pereir HAS been playing DM in Spain on loan, I think, so he has had plenty of practice there. But I think more than anything else we need pace, which Matic and Mta do not have. Right back is certainly a problem. Dalot will probably be the one to replace Valencia as T. F-M is out on loan, but we havent seen him yet (inj.). I really hope that this will be Shaw's year. fred is a nutter so that could be interesting, especially if he is disciplined enough to release Pogba further forward. Dave had a poor WC so dunno whats going on there.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

I thought we played a lot quicker than we normally do, which has to be a positive stylistic change, no?

Yes. We have a load of unfit and missing players and new central player in Fred despite playing well will need some games to fit in.

Can’t wait for Dalot to steam down the right

Think their may be some Jan reinforcements. Try to Ignore the trolls