[David Bartley]

This and the forest performance shows with some physicality and some more quality (which we know we need) we should really improve next year.

Players understand the system. That wide switch is always on, we need some players but I can see progress and that’s all we could ask for

We desperately need a striker, and for me a proper ball playing centre back

yep

 

[David Bartley]

Never really felt we were going to score, though we were the better team by far today. Just nobody who knows how to score up there.

Garnacho had good moments but fizzled out 2nd half. Dorgu is incredibly average. Hojlund non existent as usual.

Bruno, Dalot, Mazraoui, Yoro all quality today. Casemiro and Ugarte did a good job in the middle too.

Yep

 

[David Bartley]

3 best United players today:

1) Bruno
2) Maguire
3) Yoro

3 worst United players today:

1) Ugarte
2) Højlund
3) Dalot

I thought DD had good game today, growing into the wingback role?

 

[David Bartley]

We were the better team. Things are moving in the right direction.

Yep

 

[Waynne]

Played very well today.
I’m happy and impressed.
Well done lads, should have won today

This is ALL I care about this season. The silverware will come

 

[DJ_21]

Yoro was very good today. His passing out from the back was class.

 

[Stig]

Performances are improving, i think the wing back roles are learning in the team just missing a little up front but we're looking better

I definitely think that was one of our most organized and comfortable looking performances. Yes, it was weak upfront but we looked like a team with some confidence and organization.

You mention the "wing backs are learning" - Amorim is always talking about having to learn and adapt, yet every Saturday night at least once when discussing a team's lineup the commentator will say " They've going with 3 and the back and wingbacks as opposed to the 4 4 2 from last week" or "They are now playing 4 at the back since scoring" or something. Amorim seems to treat it like it's quantum physics, and other teams seem to slip in and out of wingback or no wingback formation without any difficulty.

Is this a fair comment ?

 

[U-N-I-T-E-D]

Just read Pep is mad about some chants about Foden from United supporters, anyone know what that is about?

Called his mum a slag

 

[Stig]

I think we're alright at everything except scoring goals.

That's a good post.

 

[Stig]

I heard a stat yesterday that Cunha has spent the highest amount (or proportion?) of minutes in the league at walking pace. Kinda puts me off.

He also has a penchant for getting sent off.

 

[foolsgold]

Obvious progress is being made, glad to get through without a major injury. Felt the least important derby I can recall, the Lyon match is all that really matter for this week.

 

[Stig]

The comments are shocking really. Think we played pretty well and should habe won the game. But its clear we need someone instead of Garnacho and a striker that would completely change the results of such games. Garnacho needs to be sold as soon as possible, horrible player really. How often this season has he cut in from the left and tried to shoot with his right foot? Like 150 times? And scored like 1 or 2

But we are clearly improving and luckily players are coming back from injury.

I understand why you say this and his effectiveness upfront and goal scoring has totally disappeared. But I think he tries, and has some skills- but the main point is what is his alternative? Against Forrest he was shooting every time, but his alternative was a single striker in the box with 4 or 5 defenders surrounding him.

What real options did he have today to set someone up? I didn't really see him be greedy when there was a better option. Maybe I am just trying to like him as I think he's a "United style" fast tricky winger and maybe I'm wrong.

 

[DRJosh]

Quite a few positives. But Hojlund would benefit from a loan move with an obligation to buy so we can salvage some of his transfer fee no matter how small that figure might be.

 

[NZT-One]

Rather uneventful match. I thought City mostly slept through first half and didn't really challenge us, while we looked organized and focussed which was encouraging to see. 2nd Half a little more open and frantic with us getting a little more comfortable without generating noteworthy chances. We looked alright but I am a bit skeptical to draw too many conclusion from todays game. City was expected to dominate the ball, which they did. We could take the simpler route of staying compact and hit it in behind them which created a few openings.

 

[Marwood]

How anyone can watch football today and say it's quicker than 20 years ago is beyond me.

The fans of both teams deserve a refund after that. Horrible game to watch.

 

[George The Best]

Thought we did well until anywhere near their goal, which is the norm for us recently. Desperately need a goal scorer in the summer. Also thought Mason Mount showed some good touches when he came on. He’s also the best presser we’ve got at the moment.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Good game and excellent in some phases. Pep is a lucky bastard

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Feel sorry for Dorgu, he is quality at overlapping and cutting it back. The one time Garnacho used him down the left he put in a great ball and we nearly scored. Weird decision making and lack of quality going forward. Really hope mount stays fit he looked good when he came on.

City looked absolutely crap by the way, which is really weird. Also I can't remember a season where I've cared less about the premier League in April.

 

[Giggs' right foot]

How anyone can watch football today and say it's quicker than 20 years ago is beyond me.

The fans of both teams deserve a refund after that. Horrible game to watch.

MUTV showed our 3-1 win against City from september 2006.

I think we looked so fast - Scholes almost never taking more than a touch or two - Giggs in his thirties taking players on - Carrick passing through lines - and i don't need to mention Rooney or Ronaldo. Rio and Vidic constantly on the front foot in defence and both quite fast as well.

Much faster and technical than today's squad.

 

[antohan]

I definitely think that was one of our most organized and comfortable looking performances. Yes, it was weak upfront but we looked like a team with some confidence and organization.

You mention the "wing backs are learning" - Amorim is always talking about having to learn and adapt, yet every Saturday night at least once when discussing a team's lineup the commentator will say " They've going with 3 and the back and wingbacks as opposed to the 4 4 2 from last week" or "They are now playing 4 at the back since scoring" or something. Amorim seems to treat it like it's quantum physics, and other teams seem to slip in and out of wingback or no wingback formation without any difficulty.

Is this a fair comment ?

First paragraph is.

As far as the second goes, I reckon the rocket science part comes from the reliance of Amorim's 2-2-1 spine on the wingbacks stretching play. Agree it's quite common to see sides switch from 4-2-3-1 to 5-3-2 (I deliberately don't say 3-5-2 because more often than not it is fullbacks "becoming wingbacks", which we've seen is easier said than done with Dalot and Mazraoui).

 

[Oranges038]

How anyone can watch football today and say it's quicker than 20 years ago is beyond me.

The fans of both teams deserve a refund after that. Horrible game to watch.

I've often thought this, when I watch games from 20 years everything seems like it's done much quicker, it's combative and the game swings end to end more frequently. I watched Utd vs Real Madrid where Ronaldo scored the hat trick a while back. A relentless game of football.

The game now is more controlled, more considered approach, probably is more high intensity running and bursts, but overall all the football doesn't feel much faster.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

Missed the game but watched the extended higlights - our forwards are so so poor in the final third. Any version of Rashford instead of Garnacho and we score at least one goal - Rashy loves his big game moments.

 

[Raoul]

Missed the game but watched the extended higlights - our forwards are so so poor in the final third. Any version of Rashford instead of Garnacho and we score at least one goal - Rashy loves his big game moments.

Indeed. Its painful watching Rashford at Villa while we're stuck in reverse with these two. An out of form Rashford is still better than anything we've seen out of Hojlund this year.

 

[pocco]

Yoro was very good today. His passing out from the back was class.

He’s quality. I really hope we can turn this club around soon and see him develop into a top CB here. Be gutted if he were to move on before he hits his prime because, injuries permitting, he looks like a top class CB in the making.

 

[kerrygold]

I thought DD had good game today, growing into the wingback role?

This is ALL I care about this season. The silverware will come

They are starting to get it. With some quality in certain spots this team could really do some damage.

 

[DRJosh]

This will be an unpopular opinion, but I reckon the modest progress we made this season feels a lot more sustainable and purposeful than any of our previous ‘false dawns’.

 

[Posh Red]

This will be an unpopular opinion, but I reckon the modest progress we made this season feels a lot more sustainable and purposeful than any of our previous ‘false dawns’.

I agree

 

[Judas]

City were so poor. Think we were the better team, but once again, as it has been all season, up front we were just so bad.

 

[simonhch]

We just need some attackers. Desperately and urgently. Amad will help when he comes back but next season I’d like to see him at RWB. Him and Dorgu as our wide players will give us some proper threat from out wide, and helps our build up enormously.

Ugarte, Mainoo, Fernandes, Casemiro and Mount are fine for the two CM spots. We’ll likely shop out Casemiro and bring in a replacement too.

At one point we had Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Ronaldo, Tévez and Berbatov for the front 3/4 slots. So much pace and technical ability. So much threat. Our offerings now are miserable in comparison. First thing we need to do is bring in Osimhen, or someone similar. A player with pace, movement and actual goal scoring prowess. He’ll be available at a reasonable fee. But we can’t stop there we need at least one, and really two, fast and skillfull forwards who can play in that 10 role.

The rest of the team seems to be adapting to the new system well and we are looking reasonably solid and competent. We just lack forward threat. Bruno is our only real goal threat and his future is likely in CM. If we could only sign 3 players I’d take a striker and two flexible forwards/attacking midfielders.

United in their pomp have always had a bag load of goalscoring ability in their squad, but you look at the squad now and you just can’t see where the goals will come from. Zirkzee and Hojlund have their place, but as squad players. Hojlund should be developing as a back up to a more experienced striker, and Zirkzee is a player I like a lot but think the best will come from him when he has fast runners around him. I quite like the way he can drop deep and link up the play.

 

[Tallis]

This will be an unpopular opinion, but I reckon the modest progress we made this season feels a lot more sustainable and purposeful than any of our previous ‘false dawns’.

Too early in my view to say that.

But the progress is definitely there in a variety of ways - we are getting better at playing out, not as open in midfield, players are working a lot harder, physicality has improved, can see a system.

 

[Chungy]

I understand why you say this and his effectiveness upfront and goal scoring has totally disappeared. But I think he tries, and has some skills- but the main point is what is his alternative? Against Forrest he was shooting every time, but his alternative was a single striker in the box with 4 or 5 defenders surrounding him.

What real options did he have today to set someone up? I didn't really see him be greedy when there was a better option. Maybe I am just trying to like him as I think he's a "United style" fast tricky winger and maybe I'm wrong.

I think Garnacho was definitely better this game, but he was taking the micky in the Forest game though.

While yes, I agree, that options are limited, the "single striker in the box with 4 or 5 defenders surrounding him", but it's not so limited that he needs to shoot every single time he's on the left. And while Dorgu was poor in the Forest game and inconsistent against City, it's the overlapping run that he could look for a bit more, or even just step on the ball and recycle the ball back (yes, everyone else does it too much, Garnacho's been doing it too little this season.

We all love pacy wingers running at the full-backs, but he's cutting in and shooting just too much right now. We all wanted Sancho, Dalot, etc.... to run more at the defenders, well, Garnacho can definitely benefit from slipping in the overlap and running in, or laying it off back to the no. 8 or 10s, a wee bit more often. Hell, it might drag the defenders out more so the next time he shoots, he may get more space and get one of those on target some time soon!

 

[pascell]

That was one of the worst City teams we've played for a while. The lack of pace in their attack allowed us to play a much higher defence line, as we knew they wouldn't be able to run in behind.

We won't have that privilege against Newcastle this weekend, so I expect it to backs against the wall and try to counter them.

The lack of killer instinct in our attack is embarrassing at this point, I've never seen such a toothless United attack.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Was that a penalty? Given they showed only 1 reply i think it was.

 

[#07]

What's that saying about history rhyming?

We are back where we were after Van Gaal: our squad lacks the pace and power to compete in English football.

Yesterday there were so many opportunities for switches and fast breaks that we just couldn't maximise, because we don't have anyone of even Dan James level athleticism nevermind Tony V.

In so many areas we are just patching up holes, trying to cope with players just being too slow or too weak to hold off pressure and break the opponent's structure.

I guess we will have to see what we can do in the summer to address it.

 

[Mmm-Qatarian]

This will be an unpopular opinion, but I reckon the modest progress we made this season feels a lot more sustainable and purposeful than any of our previous ‘false dawns’.

I agree with this too.

Whilst the results haven't picked up that much, our style of play is just so much more coherent now than it has been at any point this season or throughout basically the entirety of last season as well.

What truly gives me hope that you're correct is that, unlike many of our prior "improvements" that have turned out to be short-lived, this one isn't built on a foundation of one or two attacking players hitting a purple patch. You could argue that Bruno has been playing out of his skin recently but it's not particularly out of the ordinary for him. If anything, what's letting us down right now is the quality of our forwards.

 

[MalaysianRed7]

It absolutely destroys the atmosphere in the ground. They’re more concerned with getting selfies than chanting on cheering the team on.

Not only that, I know people 10 mins from the ground that couldn’t get a ticket for today’s game but a ton of foreign tourists can.

We don’t often sit in the East stand but we did earlier this season for the Rangers game and it was bouncing and everyone was stood for the full game.

Today it was dead and everyone was sat in their seat, half of which wearing their half and half United/City scarves.

I get that there will be some international fans because we’re a big club but for me they should be WAY more limited and local fans that grew up at least in the North West should be able to get tickets easier.

We didn’t get accepted in the ballot and only managed to get tickets though the CAF. How are so many tourists getting tickets when I usually wound be able to?

Two pennies worth. As a foreign fan who’s fortunate enough to have attended Old Trafford and Wembley for United multiple times, I’ve been upset when watching on TV and seeing infrequent match goers not chant, wear half-and-half scarves etc. Even worse, I’ve seen rows of people sat down during “stand up if you hate Glazers”. I believe that many United fans who attend OT on a game-by-game basis don’t even know who the Glazers are, and that’s absolutely rubbish.

Personally, I’ve made it my mission every time I’ve been to converse with the locals, who have been utterly excellent with me to a man. The old man, who’s been going to games since the 80s, sat next to me in the Stretford End when we beat West Ham 3-0 last year was one of the nicest people I’ve met in England. I also try to support the team to the best of my ability. After the final against City last year, I genuinely thought I had messed up my lungs. It felt like I was being punched in the chest every time I tried to swallow my curry the next day.

However, we are by far the biggest club in England, and through my red-tinted glasses, marginally the biggest in the world. As such, you have to accept that there will be people from overseas who are willing to pay more than you to watch a game, regardless of whether they are doing it as a fan who watches every game and loves the club as much as you like myself and my family, or tourist with the sole intent of getting a good Instagram post after the game. Also, I categorically disagree with you that international fans should be limited, almost like a quota. That part of your post is the one bit that’s wound me up. At best, it makes you sound like you either have a closed shop mentality. At worst….I have absolutely no desire to accuse you of anything sinister, but the worst case scenario really does make you look bad. Your passport does not automatically make you a better fan than ANYONE else, your actions do.

Probably the wrong thread for all this, but it had to be said.

 

[moodyred]

Overall a disciplined performance. There is much positive to draw from this game. Players seem to have settled into Amorim's style of play. I dont think we were sitting back as much as some claims we were. I counted 6 united players in the city half when City was building from the back.

There are alot of rooms for improvement though.
1. We are toothless in attack. I think we did create chances, but having a striker (Hojlund) that is literally doesn't know how to pull the trigger is a huge liability. Garnacho, Dorgu, Ugarte had good chances too, but can't shoot for their life. We need a proper striker.
2. Misplacing simple passed. Maguire, Casemiro and a couple of others were misplacing simple passes under no pressure whatsoever.
3. Onana doesn't distribute the ball well. I thought he was brought in for his ability to distribute the ball, but i haven't really seen this part of his play. Definitely not in this game.

We were 100% the better team.

 

[moodyred]

Hojlund doesn't just have trouble scoring. I am irritated by his play acting when he is unable to win for balls lobed towards him. He just goes down to the ground instead if staying strong and trying to win it.

 

[Ludens the Red]

I was okay with that, thought it was better than Forest.
Core of our team were all 6 and above, Maguire, Yoro, Mazraoui, Bruno, Casemiro. Which tells you the problem was those going forward.

Good energy levels towards the end of the game like the Arsenal game which is more pleasing than anything.

 

[U-N-I-T-E-D]

Two pennies worth. As a foreign fan who’s fortunate enough to have attended Old Trafford and Wembley for United multiple times, I’ve been upset when watching on TV and seeing infrequent match goers not chant, wear half-and-half scarves etc. Even worse, I’ve seen rows of people sat down during “stand up if you hate Glazers”. I believe that many United fans who attend OT on a game-by-game basis don’t even know who the Glazers are, and that’s absolutely rubbish.

Personally, I’ve made it my mission every time I’ve been to converse with the locals, who have been utterly excellent with me to a man. The old man, who’s been going to games since the 80s, sat next to me in the Stretford End when we beat West Ham 3-0 last year was one of the nicest people I’ve met in England. I also try to support the team to the best of my ability. After the final against City last year, I genuinely thought I had messed up my lungs. It felt like I was being punched in the chest every time I tried to swallow my curry the next day.

However, we are by far the biggest club in England, and through my red-tinted glasses, marginally the biggest in the world. As such, you have to accept that there will be people from overseas who are willing to pay more than you to watch a game, regardless of whether they are doing it as a fan who watches every game and loves the club as much as you like myself and my family, or tourist with the sole intent of getting a good Instagram post after the game. Also, I categorically disagree with you that international fans should be limited, almost like a quota. That part of your post is the one bit that’s wound me up. At best, it makes you sound like you either have a closed shop mentality. At worst….I have absolutely no desire to accuse you of anything sinister, but the worst case scenario really does make you look bad. Your passport does not automatically make you a better fan than ANYONE else, your actions do.

Probably the wrong thread for all this, but it had to be said.

I respectfully disagree. I wouldn’t expect to get a PSG ticket easier than a Parisian, or a Barca ticket easier than a Catalonian.

I would fully expect the games to be filled in the majority by locals with a limited number of seats available to those using it as a tourist attraction (not including yourself in that if you make the effort to join in).

That’s not a racial thing, for me it applies to people from the South who have season tickets and sell them all season to day trippers. Other than the money they spend, most offer nothing in the ground on a game day.

Edit: To clarify, I have no problem with any fan if they actually support the team and improve the atmosphere. It’s selling higher priced tickets to tourists that come fore the spectacle or Instagram posts. I’d rather have passionate, singing fans in the ground