[RedDevil@84]

Also we got "lucky" that Nunez wasn't available, and instead they used awful Firminho

They were lucky not to be 2 or 3 down with TAA sent off at HT

 

[Isotope]

But he wasn’t present & we won.

They got lucky Casemiro wasn’t playing.

They got lucky we haven’t signed Antony yet.

They got lucky Elanga hits the post on a chance a better player would bury.

They got lucky Trent didn’t get a yellow for his first foul because Michael Oliver is incompetent.

Just enjoy the fecking win man.

What does "feeling lucky" have to do with "not enjoying the win"?

 

[Isotope]

They were lucky not to be 2 or 3 down with TAA sent off at HT

Sure.

 

[Bondi77]

Also we got "lucky" that Nunez wasn't available, and instead they used awful Firminho. Those free headers on corners/set pieces could be different if Nunez was present.

WTF would that headbutting donkey do????
Little Lisandro would have kept him in his pocket all game

 

[suhaylah]

For me, Martial up top was the game changer.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

What does "feeling lucky" have to do with "not enjoying the win"?

Would Darwin have changed the outcome? Potentially but you mention it as if that was the only element of misfortune. We were no more lucky in him missing the game then they were that Trent was to stay on the pitch.

Why would you feel lucky he didn’t play more so than unluck Trent wasn’t sent off & Elanga didn’t score? Again, enjoy the win.

 

[suhaylah]

WE have a chance. Still think without another winger and creative midfielder we'll struggle.

We still have De Jong to get

 

[RoyH1]

We looked so much more in control at the back without Maguire. This might be the beginning of the end for him at the club

 

[always_hoping]

For all the talk of Liverpools injuries (Klopp was even using that excuse) they only made 3 changes to the starting 11 from last seasons 5-0 win in Old Trafford

Gomez for Konate
Elliot for Keita
Diaz for Jota

That to me highlights how poor united was in that game last season and tonight what a few new signings and what a bit of intensity, aggression can achieve when applied.

 

[Member 58925]

Scott McTominay played a good game I thought. Positioning was much better and at times he showed some composure with the ball when he won it back. The idea shouldn’t be to make him a regular starter, but after a nightmare start it says a lot about his character that he answered the call in a pressure cooker of a match against Liverpool.

 

[MalaysianRed7]

Did you watched it on astro or in some mamak shop with liverpool fans? I did, and it was GLORIOUS!

Astro, although I think doing the latter would have been hilarious

 

[Darkhorsez]

Scott McTominay played a good game I thought. Positioning was much better and at times he showed some composure with the ball when he won it back. The idea shouldn’t be to make him a regular starter, but after a nightmare start it says a lot about his character that he answered the call in a pressure cooker of a match against Liverpool.

Agree with this. There is a good reason why all the previous managers had faith with him. What he lack in technical abilities, he makes up for in mental strength and attitude. Also Erik recognized him in the post match interview which should hopefully be a boost for him to do even better going forward.

 

[Zlatanator]

Thailand century cup win is not a fluke

 

[Steve 007]

Really, really happy with this. This wasn’t easy post Brentford. ETH earned his money this week lifting the team and getting a bounce back.
The confidence the defence will get, DDG playing more of a sweeper, Varane class and the little man proving he can defend and play against quality.
Bruno was superb, the confidence Rashford and Sancho will now get cannot be underestimated.
A few more players and we could easily fight for top 4. On this performance the title is a one horse race unless Arsenal can keep it up. 2nd is anybody’s.

 

[hellhunter]

Scott McTominay played a good game I thought. Positioning was much better and at times he showed some composure with the ball when he won it back. The idea shouldn’t be to make him a regular starter, but after a nightmare start it says a lot about his character that he answered the call in a pressure cooker of a match against Liverpool.

Good point, but it has the be said these kind of matches are what McT lives for. Running on adrenaline and fight is where he brings out his best play, I think.

It doesn't always work of course, but in a time where we lack characters and get called mentally weak by everyone including our own fans, I'm always surprised a guy like McT isn't appreciated more

 

[Sgreddevil]

De Gea - 7 did what is required and came off to sweep a few times. Not troubled much and well protected
Dalot - 7 Well disciplined and did well in the defensive role. Still lack the attacking threat in final third.
Varane - 9 the real champions league varane who ate the strikers for lunch with grace. Hope he stays fit and keep maguire out. Let maguire play the cup games and save him for league games.
Martinez - 9 He is what have been lacking since Vidic left. Played tough and hard. At the same time he can recycle the ball fast and beat the press by passing out accurately.
Malacia - 9.5 not hyping him but he really reminds me of Evra. If he can keep it up, Shaw can start finding another club if he doesnt want to be backup role. He literally kept Salah quiet the whole game.
McTominay- 8 best performance in a while. As much as I don't think he is a first teamer, he will be a very good backup and he has the never say die attitude. Can't wait for Casemiro to replace his position. A good opportunity to be understudy for one of the best holding mid in history.
Eriksen- 7.5 have a few misplace passes but has been quietly slotting in gaps in midfield and defence. Seems to be underrated for that but is important to keep the team tight.
Elanga- 7 for the effort. Don't think he should be starting yet if we have options. He can't be missing the sitter at this level.
Fernandes- 7.5 did not contribute much in attack but put in high effort in game and was infectious to the rest. This was the kind of drive we saw when he just joined. Hope he keeps it up.
Sancho - 8 ice cool finish and played generally well. Could have taken more risk in attack.
Rashford - 7.5 very good goal. Apart from the goal and the 1 successful dribble, thought he was quite meh. Glad to see improvement but need a lot more to secure his place. Garnacho is knocking on the door and is eager to take any chance given.

 

[Beans]

Good point, but it has the be said these kind of matches are what McT lives for. Running on adrenaline and fight is where he brings out his best play, I think.

It doesn't always work of course, but in a time where we lack characters and get called mentally weak by everyone including our own fans, I'm always surprised a guy like McT isn't appreciated more

We always looked good under Ole in the big games, and it was especially true of McTominay.

He did defend well. But we also had 30% possession, and he’s a big part our inability to play triangles through defenses.

If you can attack well enough you can get away with 1 defensive midfielder and 2 attacking mids, that’s what we need to aim for.

 

[hellhunter]

We always looked good under Ole in the big games, and it was especially true of McTominay.

He did defend well. But we also had 30% possession, and he’s a big part our inability to play triangles through defenses.

If you can attack well enough you can get away with 1 defensive midfielder and 2 attacking mids, that’s what we need to aim for.

Yeah of course he's limited, and I'm not sure you can win a title with him as a starting midfielder, but he brings a lot to the team with his mental and physical presence, at least in games where we spend a lot of time fighting and not dominating

 

[rimaldo]

6-1 on aggregate so far this season. annoying to concede a goal as it doesn’t accurately portray our dominance.

 

[hellhunter]

6-1 on aggregate so far this season. annoying to concede a goal as it doesn’t accurately portray our dominance.

Also counts twice, which sucks double. Literally

 

[rimaldo]

Also counts twice, which sucks double. Literally

at least we got those 1.5 neutral goals.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Please No more Maguire, Shaw, Ronaldo in the first XÎ.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Can't believe how aggressive we were today. So good to see.

Malacia and Martinez

 

[justsomebloke]

Yeah of course he's limited, and I'm not sure you can win a title with him as a starting midfielder, but he brings a lot to the team with his mental and physical presence, at least in games where we spend a lot of time fighting and not dominating

Lots of fight and a gameplan like this with zero build-up play suits him. But I didn't think he played well. Idiot backpasses straight to the feet of a running oppo, at least twice. Gets lost carrying the ball. And he's a big part of our maddening habit of not bothering the ball carrier when the oppo has posession around our box. Granted, at this stage you know which bad things to look for and there's a risk you notice them too much and the good things too little. But still.

 

[Beans]

Malacia and Martinez

I'm thinking Tyrrell "Mr. Fantastic" because he wraps you up like Reed Richards.

Shades of Evra and Vidic, as someone else pointed out.

 

[Daengophile]

Thailand century cup win is not a fluke

Haha!

 

[fergiewherearethou]

We looked so much more in control at the back without Maguire. This might be the beginning of the end for him at the club

I really hope Lindelof will be available soon to be our 3rd choice CB and Maguire should only be used as a 4th option.

 

[swissgenius]

Also we got "lucky" that Nunez wasn't available, and instead they used awful Firminho. Those free headers on corners/set pieces could be different if Nunez was present.

Lucky how?
Martinez would've him sent off before HT.
He even got Milner to the limit, Darwin doesn't have the nerves when little Licha steps on his feet all night.
Would've been fun to watch though.

 

[Real Name]

Lots of fight and a gameplan like this with zero build-up play suits him. But I didn't think he played well. Idiot backpasses straight to the feet of a running oppo, at least twice. Gets lost carrying the ball. And he's a big part of our maddening habit of not bothering the ball carrier when the oppo has posession around our box. Granted, at this stage you know which bad things to look for and there's a risk you notice them too much and the good things too little. But still.

Yeah, noticed that too. Lots of times when he can make a forward pass, sometimes risky but has an option, he just passes back.

 

[Real Name]

For all the talk of Liverpools injuries (Klopp was even using that excuse) they only made 3 changes to the starting 11 from last seasons 5-0 win in Old Trafford

Gomez for Konate
Elliot for Keita
Diaz for Jota

That to me highlights how poor united was in that game last season and tonight what a few new signings and what a bit of intensity, aggression can achieve when applied.

@Amadaeus

 

[RopersReturn]

With the excitement and energy particularly in first half, it honestly felt as though we’d turned a corner. I hope the players can draw some confidence from last night, it was special.

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Wow, really did not see this coming. Very good energy at times. Still a lot of work to do and we absolutely need more top quality players.

However, I was surprised how poor Liverpool were. Of course they had a long list of absent players, but their midfield looked like McFred, the defense was overwhelmed (should have been 3-1 or 4-1 easily) at times and they seemed quite exhausted. To be fair I have never heard of any of their bench players bar Fabinho and 1 or 2 others.

And they really miss Mane. He was so vital for the flow of their attack and while Nunez might score a ton of goals he cannot replace these abilities.

Let's not get carried away. I would not be surprised to be back to cold harsh reality on Saturday.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

I loved seeing the team spirit so high. A lot of high fives on defensive plays, a lot of geeing each other up over and over. The whole team demanded intensity.

Elanga so unlucky to hit the post, and Allison made a great save from Rashford. Easily could have been 4-0 before Salah’s goal.
McTominay had a great game too. He was everywhere, knocking feckers over, breaking up play, recycling the ball, a lot of vertical passes too. He deserves a lot of credit today, especially after the abuse he gets on here.
Stoked for Rashy to get the winner. You couldn’t fault him today or doubt him. Ran his balls off and took his goal like a boss. Cool as ice.
Malacia is a better player than Shaw. Still a role for Shaw to play, especially at this intensity, but Malacia is first choice.
Varane played like we expected him to when he signed. He’s so far above Maguire it’s sick. I don’t see a role for Maguire after this. He just can’t process at the speed required. Maguire is 4th choice now.
Bruno was a menace today, a windup merchant, shithouse artist, and capable of the sublime and the woeful. Can’t wait to see him with Casemiro locking shit down.
Sancho was isolated and wasn’t involved enough. He took his goal with aplomb though. Calm and cool.
Martial looked sharp, fantastic assist for Rashford’s goal. Looks hungry, looks like he cares again.
Eriksen had less influence than I would have expected. Some close free kicks, some good long passes, but chased the game. We need to get him on the ball more.
I loved this game today. So good to see United playing like a real team again. So good to be enjoying football again.
UTFR!!

 

[Judas]

I can't get over how brilliant Malacia was. First start in such a massive game, young kid, and he was sensational. That should be the LB spot sorted now.

Martinez fantastic, thats why we bought him, thats the player he can be. Absolutely hilarious how so many wrote him off already.

Overall amazing performance, Liverpool were shit, but we didn't crumble at the end, we showed actual character and determination.

I hope we build on this.

 

[Nevilles.Wear.Prada]

Do wonder if we are seeing a really big fall off from VVD. He actually looked drunk today, not at the races, but this is not the first time. TAA What is it with the indulgence of his attempted Hollywood balls all the time to compensate for lack of defensive frailties.

Eth targetted him. First half i think elanga pinned him down well. With malacia covering salah, he couldn't ping those passes. I always been saying this for years now. BLOCK POOLS FULLBACKS!!! Its infuriating watching teams go defensive against those fullbacks, it plays right into their hands. RM did it to perfection in CL final. They also seem quite lost without Mane.

But tonight i hope they will copy that template.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Dalot was good today too. He reminded me of a motor winding out from being over used, like he was really operating at 110% today. He gave everything he had today. He might be not be the modern fullback we need but he fecking gave it his all today.

 

[Laurencio]

Still Buzzing this morning. What a great feeling, been a while since a United display left me feeling like this

 

[largelyworried]

Watching the first goal again, its interesting how much of a ETH kind of goal it actually is.

The ball gets cleared by Liverpool, but the left-footed left-sided CB pays a first time pass back into the danger zone. Exactly why he wanted Martinez in the team.

The full back is in the inside left channel instead of out wide, which draws the Liverpool midfielders in and makes space on the outside for the wide attacker Elanga to collect it unmarked.

Elanga then one-twos it round the full back with a couple of one touch passes via Eriksen.

The pass is a cut back to the penalty spot instead of across goal, where we actually had 2 players waiting. Nice finish from Sancho.

That was something they'd clearly been working on and I suspect ETH will be highlighting that to the players when they next get in to the training ground. Hopefully it something we see repeated many times.

 

[Lentwood]

Brilliant performance last night and there were plenty of positives - I think it was far more than we could have expected. The energy and effort was terrific from the entire team, the new signings all contributed and we got the rresult.

That all being said, we really need to take this into Southampton now. I know that's a cliche but it's one thing being hyped for a game against your biggest rivals, at home, against the backdrop of all of the criticism they have had, and another entirely taking the same energy into a game against a bottom-half team on a Saturday lunchtime.

One swallow doesn't make a spring and I want to see us tearing into opponents with the same energy week-in, week out. We talk about tactics and squad selection but that effort and energy is the most important thing for me and we MUST see it every single week

 

[newgiz]

Huge result. A fantastic performance.

A lot of credit to EtH in the way he managed the game. Every player on the pitch performed well. The standouts being Lisandro and Martinez.

The back 4 performed admirably and should not be tinkered with except for rotation. Martinez and Varane completed each other quite well. I hope Varane can stay fit throughout the season because that could be huge for us.

Dropping Maguire, Ronaldo and Shaw was completely justified and we got a sense from the pre-match press conference that something like this was on the cards. We outfought and outperformed Liverpool. The energy and intensity was spot on. If we play with that level of intensity every game, then we will be a very hard side to beat.

Excellent in-game management as well from EtH. The Martial sub at half time was an excellent call and his performance was great. He got every substitution right as well. Liverpool produced very little in terms of chances. We could have had at least another goal had Elanga finished that great chance in the first half.

The injuries in Liverpool's midfield didn't help, but still we could see that EtH was able to motivate the players to put in a performance like that. I said in the EtH when the team sheet came out that this could be the start of something good for us, regardless of the result. Now we can see what this team is capable of. The challenge is to keep the same level of intensity for every game. Southampton next would be a real test. If we get a win there and I can see we could if we play with the level of intensity we played with today, momentum and confidence would build and that could do wonders to this team.

Still buzzing after that result!