[justsomebloke]

What are we then mate?

We're a team hoping to be in a position to aim at the top before too long. Aiming for the top right now, that's just empty words.

 

[noodlehair]

It doesn't necessarily follow that if a team sits back in a low block that it will concede a lot of great chances. No one begrudges Omonoia from sitting back deep of course, but it wouldn't be quite right to deny them the honor of actually having defended against us very well. They closed gaps inside their own box and quite a few of our shots were from outside the box. Despite the praised being heaped on their keeper, we really didn't get that many great looks on goal. Enough to have expected to score 1 or 2 goals in the first 90 minutes, but not more than that.

But only part of it was the mediocre finishing. Most of the keeper saves you'd have to say were comfortable saves. The other part of the breakdown in attack was the final ball. There really wasn't that much for our finishers to work with. Balls going into the box were aimless and often floaters. Nothing seemed well worked. It seemed labored and at times desperate. One player had the ball and the other three or four players in position had no idea what that player -- I'm talking primarily about Bruno but also Rashford -- was going to do with the ball.

Useless twattery is a bit harsh, but I can't object too strongly to how you've described our play yesterday. We have to do much, much better against Newcastle if we're to take all three points.

The point though is they didn't defend well. They were very determined but they weren't doing anything to make it that difficult for our players. I mean they weren't even particularly compact as until the last 15 minutes they were pushing out to press the ball and then getting passed around with relative ease.

Our players instead just seemed bafflingly determined not to score. I mean even in spite of us constantly ignoring the final ball or spaces available to us, we actually did have a lot of good chances. Rashford had two 1v1s and a near open goal from 4 yards out, Ronaldo fumbled a chance from more like 2 yards out, Antony had a free shot on goal from 8 yards, Fred missed an easy header, Casemiro should have scored from a header, Fernandes fumbled a chance over from 6 yards. This is ignoring all the times we could just shoot at will or where we ignored a ball into space, or the chances I've probably forgotten about.

We will literally never get an easier game than this, but it's like our players HAVE to find a way to make every game a problem.

The Everton game I thought was another example. Somehow a game which we dominated, played very well, and created numerous openings in, ended with us desperately defending on our own goal line to stop the opposition goalkeeper from scoring.

We need to start being a lot more ruthless before a few games like that go against us and all the belief saps away again. Its almost like our players are scared of winning a game comfortably or panic at the mere thought of it.

 

[lex talionis]

The point though is they didn't defend well. They were very determined but they weren't doing anything to make it that difficult for our players. I mean they weren't even particularly compact as until the last 15 minutes they were pushing out to press the ball and then getting passed around with relative ease.

Our players instead just seemed bafflingly determined not to score. I mean even in spite of us constantly ignoring the final ball or spaces available to us, we actually did have a lot of good chances. Rashford had two 1v1s and a near open goal from 4 yards out, Ronaldo fumbled a chance from more like 2 yards out, Antony had a free shot on goal from 8 yards, Fred missed an easy header, Casemiro should have scored from a header, Fernandes fumbled a chance over from 6 yards. This is ignoring all the times we could just shoot at will or where we ignored a ball into space, or the chances I've probably forgotten about.

We will literally never get an easier game than this, but it's like our players HAVE to find a way to make every game a problem.

The Everton game I thought was another example. Somehow a game which we dominated, played very well, and created numerous openings in, ended with us desperately defending on our own goal line to stop the opposition goalkeeper from scoring.

We need to start being a lot more ruthless before a few games like that go against us and all the belief saps away again. Its almost like our players are scared of winning a game comfortably or panic at the mere thought of it.

You’ll get no argument from me that we should have performed much better against Omonoia, but I can’t agree with the assertion that we were determined not to score. We had half chances, and we should have scored on several of those half chances and we should have been able to bring on 4-5 subs by the 70th minute, but we really didn’t carve Omonoia’s back line wide open. They packed their box with bodies and we struggled to open them up — as we almost always have against parked buses going back to long before ETH.

In my humble opinion, our most serious deficiency is the inability to create great chances on goal against parked buses. Our second worst deficiency is finishing on the chances we create. Perhaps xG stats say otherwise, but that’s how it appears to me and that’s very clearly what we saw again against a club which is in 6th place in the Cyprus league.

 

[MZX7]

To be fair, Sociedad only beat them by a late goal in Spain, and still have to play them in Cyprus. They’ve been decent for minnows in this group stage, despite 0 points on the board.

Yea, but again Sociedad is a mid-table team. And we just have to accept that we are pretty mid-table too. And not feel as dejected as we felt when the mighty city beats us convincingly every now and then. I mean, I can't imagine it would be too tough for the current City team to beat Omonia. Right?

We have ways to go. But, I think we need to stick with Ten Hag and back him up in the transfer market.

 

[TheArse]

This game reminded me of the South Park episode where the directors of a conglomerate cut the heads off the chickens and they run around and fall on a certain category and that is the direction and result. It was absolutely bizarre and I'm now left thinking what the hell even happened.

Uzoho did well, but at the same time didn't have to produce world class saves to make it competitive.

United really need a world class # 9.

 

[Member 125288]

Yea, but again Sociedad is a mid-table team.

They‘re currently 4th behind only Barca and the Madrids - not sure how much more you can expect from them, but they’re better than you’re giving them credit for here.

That said, I think they’ll have a tough game in Cyprus, unless our late winner has knocked the wind out of Omonia’s sails.