[EyeInTheSky]

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

To be honest I did watch pool in that Chelsea game that fecked them over under Jose.

Was very enjoyable.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

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

Need him Central just wasted on the left at times. To be fare Rashford lack of movement and experience centrally did not help. He was just always too far away hopping for a long diagonal ball over the LB.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Upside - Shaw, Pereirra, Fred (to an extent), Pogba was great, Bailley superb.

Downside - Mourinho's tactics are terrible. Sanchez was pathetic.

 

[slir32]

Why can't we play 442 with lukaku sanchez up top Sanchez is no good on the left. Then we have martial left wing mata/lingard rigth wing and Pogba Fred in the midfield.

 

[Bestietom]

Bad Things:-

1. Mata, Darmian, and Sanchez, were shite.

2. No width, no decent crosses to our play.

3. Losing possession too much ( Sanchez the culprit mostly)


Good Things:-

1. Periera

2. Shaw

3. Fred

Review:- We are still not right up front, and we must improve all down the right hand side. Stop sitting back when we take the lead. We need change for Mata and Darmian quickly, and Sanchez needs to show us more and stop losing the ball. He gets us caught, and we will get punished for this with superior teams.

 

[Casanova85]

J.H.C. Give the players/Mou a break. 3 points secured in a mid Aug match after a WC, a rusty pre-season and a disappointing/controversial transfer window.

Be a little more optimistic...

 

[Jagga7]

Missed the game but obviously glad we won and happy Shaw did well. I still have hope he could be our left back for the next ten years. He's always has had the talent.

 

[Riz]

Marcus caught some heat, but he made some food runs and never received a good pass.

Normally Shaw’s job.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

There's a lot of things to be excited about after that. As mentioned above, Pogba was immense, Bailley was dominant and showed the defender we want him to be, Fred looked like he's going to be a very good player for us, Periera was excellent and Shaw had a great game.

On the other hand, I can't quite get over just how awful Sanchez is. Our supposed talisman in attack spends all game either messing up attacks, or playing a supporting role in moves without actually having the quality to make a difference himself. Absolutely terrible.

And then there's the tactical setup from Mourinho. Manchester United sat back in their half for much of the game watching Leicester City often dominate the ball. In Jose's mind this is problem the key to great performances but it's full as feck and just seems to be counter productive to me.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Pros

We won
Andreas, Fred, Pogba, Bailly, shaw looked great

Cons

Leicester were the better team overall.
Mata, Darmian, Sanchez and rashford were awful and shouldn’t be in this team.

Mata did pretty well. His work for the second goal and the few minutes prior to it was great.

Rashford was poor for sure. Sanchez was absolutely terrible. Doesn't really deserve to start for us.

 

[GazTheLegend]

Various things I take from the game:

• Fred was excellent, but he could have been sent off easily. Don't mind a bit of fire but it could cost us.
• Pogba was the best player on the pitch by miles. The times he lost the ball seemed a bit unfortunate - there was a phase when nothing he seemed to do went right through no fault of his own.
• Not sure why everyone thinks Pereira had such a good game, but OK. I don't remember seeing him do anything, and he didn't really protect the back four so, not sure what his job was.
• Shaw was outstanding too - he had our 3rd most touches of the ball after Pogba and Fred and was enjoyable to watch. Looked dangerous too, unusually for him, very direct.
• Sanchez was EXTREMELY wasteful, but because he tries -so many- killer balls he was dangerous too. Weird. I actually think he had a good game and showed why when he's at his best he can be unplayable. But he's a bit careless at times with the ball, nothing new with that.
• Darmian was poor, Rashford had a bad game, Lindelof and Bailly were decent, de Gea as good as he always is.

 

[Luffy]

Sterile domination. It was again a reminder that if you want to dabble in the arts of possession football, you'd better make it count. Having said that they almost did end up with a draw. But I think their fans would have been heartened to see their team still being solid after the sale of Mahrez. They can also look forward to those 7 players who joined recently.

It was a very encouraging to see Fred and Andreas Pereira settling well in the team. The latter especially look really comfortable on the ball. I'm afraid I did not catch any of his games at Valencia, so didn't know what to expect. But he has a reassuring aura around him, and he could get even better with more game time. Let's hope he is afforded enough of that. As for Fred, he did have some shaky moments, but he also showed his impressive range of passing, and along with Pereira, he worked well as a midfield spoiler. I think he'll be very reliable once he gains more confidence in his role within the team.

Is it too early to give Shaw the "Most Improved Player of the Season" award? Yes. Yes it is. If only because it's only August, and he really has to work on his pressing game and his concentration. But that is no reason to blubber about his performance. I was absolutely delighted when he scored. That was a good game for him and if he manages to be consistent, I'll be saying, "Sandro who?" come May, mostly because I don't watch Juve play and am unfamiliar with their players, but also because Shaw would have taken full ownership of his flank.

Pogba was a worthy captain. After having a more than a simply decent World Cup, he didn't look rusty at all. He lead attacks with panache, combined well with everyone around him, and even contributed crucially in defence. I'm crossing my fingers while looking forward to seeing him hitting the form of his life and be the maestro we need in the midfield.

Sanchez was frustrating today. His misplaced passes were the most grating of all. But credit where credit's due: they guy has great positioning. He was involved in almost all of our best chances, from being the one whose (blocked) shot actually earned us the penalty, to his pass for Lukaku's chance, serving it on a plate for him. Even his own pathetic attempt to head the ball in the general direction of the net was preceded by a good run to latch on to the cross. He might have found it hard to beat players, was maybe a tad profligate, but he was also in the right place at the right time when it mattered.

Good on Mata for the assist, but let's work on those crosses some more, eh? Lukaku... something something World Cup fatigue. Bailly, and Lindelöf were good. As was Darmian, surprisingly so. About Rashford, I know it's only the first game of the season, but that was underwhelming to say the least. His real problem was his control. It was one of the worst I've seen of him. Was it the fact that he was in the middle and thus subject to more attention from the defenders that ruined it for him? I know that he isn't the type of player who is most suited to operate as the fulcrum of the attack, so maybe that factored. There are 37 games to go, so I'm sure he'll come good as he gets more games in his legs. I would like to see him play in his best position more though, so as to speed up his development. But if I were asked where that sweet spot was, I'd be hard-pressed to give an honest answer.

Overall, the main criticisms levelled against the team still ring true. The style doesn't produce many scoring opportunities. Even when we take an early lead, we don't dare to kill off the game by being more offensive. Our intensity just plummets, and our pressing game starts to plod, as we retreat into the trenches. But we took our chances as well as we could. And the opposition were put off, both by De Gea's brilliance and by the defensive tactics that have served us well. There is a LOT of room for improvement, both individually in our attitude. I believe we should take more risks upfront. But that will do for now, and after a disastrous transfer season, this win is a welcome uptick of positivity. Now watch as City draws against Arsenal tomorrow...

 

[Kag]

I couldn't watch the game but I'm happy with most of what I've read. Mourinho even managed a tolerable interview. We've got some bloody good players so it shouldn't be all negative around here.

 

[BusbyMalone]

I actually thought there were a lot of positives to be taken from that game. Shaw and Fred being the obvious one’s, but more generally. There were a few times last night where we were nearly there. A little misplaced pass, a 50-50 lost, one or two players on a different wavelength; it wasn't quite happening. There were a lot of opportunities for us last night, though. I really, really liked that midfield. Great energy and pace from all three of them.

I thought our intent when we did have the ball was quite positive. We tried to attack and was always looking forward for the most part. I’ve said it before, but i really don’t care about the possession stats. I don’t care if every team comes to OT this season and has more possession than us. All i care about is we use the ball wisely and positively when we do have it. And i think we tried to do that last night.

And Fred seems to have settled in really well hasn’t he?

 

[Thisistheone]

Some positives. Pogba, Shaw, Bailly, Fred, Perreira.

But we are so weak on the flanks, especially the right. And lack pace up top. City have Sane/Aguero/Sterling or Mahrez, Liverpool have Mane/Firmino/Salah. All rapid. Would love us to have that electric pace up top but last night Sanchez and Mata looked so slow.

 

[FootyGirl88]

We were a bit sloppy at retaining possession last night but I think overall we played ok. I think we will improve as the season goes on.

 

[Lash]

We were a bit sloppy at retaining possession last night but I think overall we played ok. I think we will improve as the season goes on.

especially when pogba went off, we basically gave possession up after that.

 

[Booda]

Sanchez looked quite dangerous to me, certainly should have had a least one assist maybe more, the thing with Sanchez is he never goes for the easy way out hes always trying to make things happen and thus gives the ball away alot but still he was head and shoulders above Rashford who along with Darmian was completely dreadful,. And what the hell is up with Dave's distribution he never seems to throw it and was totally 3rd rate with hes feet,.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Various things I take from the game:

• Fred was excellent, but he could have been sent off easily. Don't mind a bit of fire but it could cost us.
• Pogba was the best player on the pitch by miles. The times he lost the ball seemed a bit unfortunate - there was a phase when nothing he seemed to do went right through no fault of his own.
• Not sure why everyone thinks Pereira had such a good game, but OK. I don't remember seeing him do anything, and he didn't really protect the back four so, not sure what his job was.
• Shaw was outstanding too - he had our 3rd most touches of the ball after Pogba and Fred and was enjoyable to watch. Looked dangerous too, unusually for him, very direct.
• Sanchez was EXTREMELY wasteful, but because he tries -so many- killer balls he was dangerous too. Weird. I actually think he had a good game and showed why when he's at his best he can be unplayable. But he's a bit careless at times with the ball, nothing new with that.
• Darmian was poor, Rashford had a bad game, Lindelof and Bailly were decent, de Gea as good as he always is.

When was the last time Sanchez could be defined as "unplayable"? Unlike other great risk takers he's just sloppy and wasteful without doing the actual brilliant bits. Reminds me a little of Rooney once he started regressing. He'd end up scoring/assisting/creating enough to please some due the sheer prominence given to him in our attack but his general performance levels and sloppyness/wastefulness kept getting worse. Sanchez is like an uglier version of that. Scores less goals, creates less chances and gets fewer assists and messes up way more attacks.

His link up play as still solid but his creative/leave defenders on their bum/get fans bums of their seats/individual biabce side has left the building. And all were left with is a sloppy footballer.

Hopefully that was an anomaly this season because it's definitely not one in his United career.

 

[Irish Jet]

There was always going to be sloppiness and poor periods. Hard for a midfield to control the game when they've barely met each other.

You can see the potential with them but Pogba and Fred need to learn who stays and who goes, Pereira did well for a player making a debut at DMF and will improve his positioning at times. He was too often drawn into pressing the ball when he should just sit and cover the space. We were never going to maintain any sort of intensity with the lack of match practice/training some have done. Rashford has been pelted but he looked out on his feet after 20 minutes, he was badly off the pace and it's understandable. I'll not be harsh on him just yet.

Other players had no excuse for the sloppiness. Darmian is just terrible at everything and has no business even being a professional footballer. Absolute con artist stealing a wage.

Sanchez was atrocious - After a full preseason where he looked good he should have been the sharpest player in the side. Other than some glimpses of class he looked the same lethargic wasteman we seen in the Spring. By far the biggest concern from that game.

Shaw started poorly but grew into the game and was superb in the second half.

Another minor note which never gets picked up on - David De Gea's distribution is terrible.

Very mixed bag but it was to be expected. We'll need all of Mourinho's ability to grind out results in the coming weeks while this team gets fit and players get accustomed to each other.

 

[redmanx]

Genuinely delighted for Luke Shaw.

Me too, lets hope he builds on this, and is given the chance to make the position his own.

 

[Fully Fledged]

Upside - Shaw, Pereirra, Fred (to an extent), Pogba was great, Bailley superb.

Downside - Mourinho's tactics are terrible. Sanchez was pathetic.

He did play the pass through for the Lukaku chance that Schmeichel smothered. That was good play all around. He deserves some credit for that.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

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

I watch all of City and Liverpool's PL games which don't coincide with United games, because a goal for the underdogs is almost as good as a goal for United. If you really were a United fan you'd be pleased watching teams beat the cnuts you hate.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

He did play the pass through for the Lukaku chance that Schmeichel smothered. That was good play all around. He deserves some credit for that.

To be fair he was just lucky that the defender hesitated and retreated.

 

[StillPlayingFooty]

Pogba was sensational.

In giving the ball away you mean. So many times was dispossesed and flat on his ass waving hands towards the ref. Move the ball quicker. When he did he looked like a real deal. Whenever he tried to carry the the ball he was in trouble.

 

[jojojo]

Lots of players looking good, and bags of potential shown. Pogba, Pereira, Fred - all looked like they could become a strong midfield. Shaw, Lindelof, Bailly all looked good individually.

But it all needs time to gel. There were lots of first time combinations in there and it showed. Tactically, our version of comfortable at the back is anything but comfortable. Too many passes that do nothing except increase the risk of an eventual mistake - too many times where there were Leicester players left free. Sanchez was the biggest disappointment, after a full pre-season he should be the one looking ready, but his passing is way off.

A win and three points. Most of our World Cup players now available. Time to recover and train before Brighton. It was nice to be back at Old Trafford. The new corner singing section looked good. Not bad for day one.

 

[jmaggio]

It was not perfect by any means, but who cares? They were not playing their strongest team, and it is right at the start of the season.

It was definitely a positive night for United, we picked up three points against difficult opponents - and there is lots more to come from these lads.

Mourinho said after the game that his side showed glimpses of what they are capable of, and we made an impressive start.

Yes, they went ahead inside the first three minutes through Paul Pogba's penalty, but what was important was the way we went after Leicester right from the off.

We were outstanding in the early stages and I think the Foxes were in shock at the way they came out of the blocks and took control of the game.

It was almost as if they were saying 'look this is Old Trafford, and we are United - this is how we play'.

There was a fantastic atmosphere inside the ground because United were playing the kind of football we’ve want to see and showing them something they had not seen for a long time, which was a bit of a spark.

Their first thought when they got the ball was always to get it forward and they were trying to get their wide players high up the pitch, which is the United way.

It was very exciting to watch for the first 20 or 25 minutes but, when they took their foot off the gas, Leicester came right back into the game. Maintaining the pressure for longer should be the goal.

 

[Peyroteo]

Alexis lacked the final ball but players often either made the wrong runs or lacked the physicality to get to the ball in Mata’s case, his movement was good and he was involved in most chances and combinations in United’s attack. When he has the ball the other forwards need to both time and space out their runs a lot better than they did.

Things just didn’t come off but he had the right ideas and the right style to give a new dimension to United’s attack when he’s at his best. Even when things don’t come off he’s still very dangerous and works his ass off for the team, criticism here is way too harsh.

Rashford on the other hand deserves a lot more criticism than he got, not having a back up striker will cost United a few points this season. He makes too many wrong decisions and even his speed that’s his biggest strength wasn’t used properly. United often won the ball in the first stage of Leicester’s build up and failed to take advantage of it. Those are the moments Rashford should be lethal in but they ended up being a waste.

 

[Cassady]

We also love that you guys cant win anything. Now you have a manager that keeps losing finals.

Aaww. Thanks la.

 

[Cassady]

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.

Fair points.

 

[buckooo1978]

typically Jose

sometimes an early goal can be the worst thing for us and our tactical approach seemed to be to restrict Leicester's threat

Pogba was a class above, Fred very tidy, CBs complemented each other.....

big let down were the tactics and Sanchez was awful - Martial should start the next game

 

[edgar allan]

Alexis lacked the final ball but players often either made the wrong runs or lacked the physicality to get to the ball in Mata’s case, his movement was good and he was involved in most chances and combinations in United’s attack. When he has the ball the other forwards need to both time and space out their runs a lot better than they did.

Things just didn’t come off but he had the right ideas and the right style to give a new dimension to United’s attack when he’s at his best. Even when things don’t come off he’s still very dangerous and works his ass off for the team, criticism here is way too harsh.

Rashford on the other hand deserves a lot more criticism than he got, not having a back up striker will cost United a few points this season. He makes too many wrong decisions and even his speed that’s his biggest strength wasn’t used properly. United often won the ball in the first stage of Leicester’s build up and failed to take advantage of it. Those are the moments Rashford should be lethal in but they ended up being a waste.

If this was a one off then that would be fair, but we had 4-5 months of performances exactly like last night which is the concern. At times he seems incapable of completing a pass, all action but little quality.

 

[crazylegz]

pretty dire stuff tbh, I can't believe that with pogba, fred, pereira, mata and sanchez in your team you can't dominate a team like leicester in terms of possession, mourinho is at this point in his career a slightly better version of moyes when he took over united, am i seriously suppose to think mourinho was battling against the odds with the team selection options he had available for this match against a mid-table side?

 

[Sarni]

pretty dire stuff tbh, I can't believe that with pogba, fred, pereira, mata and sanchez in your team you can't dominate a team like leicester in terms of possession, mourinho is at this point in his career a slightly better version of moyes when he took over united, am i seriously suppose to think mourinho was battling against the odds with the team selection options he had available for this match against a mid-table side?

‘A team like Leicester’ isn’t really a bad team that you should be beating easily every single time. Last season they caused trouble to most of the top 4 teams and they were champions mere two years ago. I wouldn’t say they are an easy team to beat.

 

[Handsome Devil]

I think Jose and the lads should take some time to apologise to a certain precious section on here for having the temerity to go out and win last night. Thoroughly bad show and not part of the script.

 

[steffyr2]

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.

Why? I thought he wanted to leave? Can't see why he'd be doing anything more than dialing his agent.

Otherwise, great start!

 

[Dante]

The Pereira, Pogba, Fred midfield unit looked great. I think they could go toe to toe with the best in Europe.

 

[Esquire]

Why? I thought he wanted to leave? Can't see why he'd be doing anything more than dialing his agent.

Otherwise, great start!

Mate - Cause Sanchez was quite poor yesterday. I know Martial wants to leave and believe me I’m not one of those Martial lovers who think he can do no wrong. But if Martial can be given some playing time and earn his spot back, why not? Sanchez has been a dud and was infuriating in terms of his give aways last night.

 

[Random Task]

The Pereira, Pogba, Fred midfield unit looked great. I think they could go toe to toe with the best in Europe.

Bold statement.

You might be jumping the gun a little.

 

[Todd]

Pogba, Fred, Andreas, Shaw, Bailly and Lindelof all good

Mata, Darmian meh

Alexis, Rashford and the new kit poor