[Ramshock]

He might be right, by playing Maguire as #9? I would choose mcTom instead.

No he isnt fecking right

 

[RedRonaldo]

Something wrong with our midfield in 2nd half, we can’t seem to be able to string a few pass together. Firs half was good though.

Why play Maguire as striker though? It looks like the weirdest decision ever made by ETH, and it clearly didn’t work.

Eriksen is having a mare. Rashford is trying to do everything by himself but end up running into defenders leg every time.

Happy with Garnancho debut good.

 

[nikineil]

Thankfully Atletico have fecked up their chance of fecking us over in the next round too.

We would almost certainly have drawn them in the next round! I am so happy Simeone "Cholo'd" himself to the bottom of their group/

 

[nikineil]

We can't win the Europa League with these forwards in the squad. Not enough goals in us.

Like under Jose, we could possibly shithouse our way to 1-0 wins all the way to win the league. Dont really think we need to be prolific. Not conceding goals is far more important.

 

[Stack]

Like under Jose, we could possibly shithouse our way to 1-0 wins all the way to win the league. Dont really think we need to be prolific. Not conceding goals is far more important.

The trouble is that in reality the teams winning the league for the most part are the teams with the best goal difference and end up being a team that has scored the most number of goals or very close to it. The four teams above us in the league all have healthy positive goal differences and its a very very very rare thing for a team to win the league with an even or only just over even goal difference. We need more goals. We need to be more prolific

 

[croadyman]

United and Sociedad both scored 9 goals against Sheriff and Ommonia. It was conceding one more goal that proved the difference.

Goal difference wouldn't have come into it had the game against Sociedad in Old Trafford had finished 0-0 like it should have with clued in match officials.

Was shocking it took us virtually the whole game to break down Ommonia at home,sorry but with our squad that's unacceptable

 

[croadyman]

United and Sociedad both scored 9 goals against Sheriff and Ommonia. It was conceding one more goal that proved the difference.

Goal difference wouldn't have come into it had the game against Sociedad in Old Trafford had finished 0-0 like it should have with clued in match officials.

Feels a little bit when we lost to Leipzig where our points tally would generally have been enough to qualify,happy to still be in competition but seriously concerned over these unnecessary two extra games

 

[DSG]

The real group standings:

W. D. L. pts
Utd. 5. 1 0. 16
Soc. 4. 1. 1. 13
Sh Tir. 2. 4. 6
Nicosia. 0. 0. 6. 0

Uefa, mother fecking awful officiating. A horrendous, probably corrupt official in the first match and an obviously completely wrong handball call. The second match v Sociodad, the officiating was equally bad, just incompetent all the way around.

Ronaldo is done. Cooked. He has no more confidence.

Ten Hag really fecked up the subs. Not taking Sancho and Antony (injured?) with a bunch of youngsters on the bench. Either go for and play your first 11 with a stacked bench or play the kids. Now you have an exhausted squad that need to recover for the weekend match. I really rate Ten Hag, but he was out coached in this match. Moving to a back 3 didn’t work and the Maguire thing was a disaster. Rashford as a 10 doesn’t work. Manager 3 out of 10 for me.

 

[mitchmouse]

The real group standings:

W. D. L. pts
Utd. 5. 1 0. 16
Soc. 4. 1. 1. 13
Sh Tir. 2. 4. 6
Nicosia. 0. 0. 6. 0

Uefa, mother fecking awful officiating. A horrendous, probably corrupt official in the first match and an obviously completely wrong handball call. The second match v Sociodad, the officiating was equally bad, just incompetent all the way around.

Ronaldo is done. Cooked. He has no more confidence.

Ten Hag really fecked up the subs. Not taking Sancho and Antony (injured?) with a bunch of youngsters on the bench. Either go for and play your first 11 with a stacked bench or play the kids. Now you have an exhausted squad that need to recover for the weekend match. I really rate Ten Hag, but he was out coached in this match. Moving to a back 3 didn’t work and the Maguire thing was a disaster. Rashford as a 10 doesn’t work. Manager 3 out of 10 for me.

from what I heard, Antony indeed injured and sancho ill

 

[mitchmouse]

We were the better side but we simply didn't do enough - especially in the second half. Rashford was totally ineffectual when he came on and is, as I've said repeatedly, never going to be a natural goal scorer (and still tries to plow through defenders rather than go past/round them). We paid for not having a proper no.9, something I first warned about more than two years ago.

Bruno also didn't have a great game and Eriksen and Donny were anonymous.

I'm afraid this is why I don't think we'll win a play off unless we are lucky enough to get either Sporting, or Saltzburg (or possibly Ajax and Shaktar). Unless of course we somehow find someone in January...

On the flip side, the defence was excellent again as was DDG (except for one horribly clearance)

 

[GreatDane]

Shit game.
Sociedad er cnuts.
We really, really need a striker in Jan.

 

[mitchmouse]

The real group standings:

W. D. L. pts
Utd. 5. 1 0. 16
Soc. 4. 1. 1. 13
Sh Tir. 2. 4. 6
Nicosia. 0. 0. 6. 0

Uefa, mother fecking awful officiating. A horrendous, probably corrupt official in the first match and an obviously completely wrong handball call. The second match v Sociodad, the officiating was equally bad, just incompetent all the way around.

Ronaldo is done. Cooked. He has no more confidence.

Ten Hag really fecked up the subs. Not taking Sancho and Antony (injured?) with a bunch of youngsters on the bench. Either go for and play your first 11 with a stacked bench or play the kids. Now you have an exhausted squad that need to recover for the weekend match. I really rate Ten Hag, but he was out coached in this match. Moving to a back 3 didn’t work and the Maguire thing was a disaster. Rashford as a 10 doesn’t work. Manager 3 out of 10 for me.

I never thought I'd see the day Ronaldo lacked confidence. I do think of he could get a couple of wonder goals he might still be good enough for the rest of the season.

The refereeing has, somehow, got worse. Some of these guys make Michael Oliver look competent. The penalty at OT was disgraceful and the lack of punishment for time wasting in Spain was a joke - although totally unsurprising

 

[mitchmouse]

We would almost certainly have drawn them in the next round! I am so happy Simeone "Cholo'd" himself to the bottom of their group/

Have to admit I hadn't seen they'd managed that! I mean that was actually the easiest looking group in the draw - and possibly one of the softest of all time

 

[Real Name]

Something wrong with our midfield in 2nd half, we can’t seem to be able to string a few pass together. Firs half was good though.

Why play Maguire as striker though? It looks like the weirdest decision ever made by ETH, and it clearly didn’t work.

Eriksen is having a mare. Rashford is trying to do everything by himself but end up running into defenders leg every time.

Happy with Garnancho debut good.

Ronaldo was the worst player on the pitch by a mile.

 

[Real Name]

from what I heard, Antony indeed injured and sancho ill

Antony had a knock before last game, right?

Should be available for Villa I guess.

 

[Swordsman]

Won the battle but lost the war, one of the rare cases in which a win felt like a loss.

Funny how it's so easy to think that lob was the easiest of chances.

And just like how it doesn't matter how a goal is scored, a goal is goal, it doesn't matter how the ball is prevented from going into the goal, a save is a save. If you want a sweeper keeper with our bunch of defenders who make more awful passes than they do good ones, and get intercepted more than they dribble past, I'd say good luck to us. So frustrating to look at the 2 wingbacks this morning.

Bruno F's crossing is also so inconsistent. Still not the best place to play him at the right midfield though, waste of his abilities. When we don't have crossers, route one football becomes our only choice for a plan B. Give me one-trick pony David Beckham and one-use Marouane Fellaini anytime. :X

 

[Swordsman]

We have to play 2 extra games because of the teams' inability to score and widen the goal difference. I'm afraid this might hurt us again if we end up the season missing out on UCL due to goal difference again. There will be no 2nd chance by then.

Usually winning by 1 goal is fine, but in this competitive season where other teams have no problem scoring more goals than us, it may not be enough.

 

[justsomebloke]

Performance-wise; if West Ham was the first time in a while where we looked less good than the previous game, this was a full-fledged regression to where we were 6 weeks ago - defensively solid, but unable to dominate the game or control the midfield and no sustained offensive game at all. You got the feeling RS got the game where they wanted it. Is tiredness setting in?

I see there's a lot of focus on the striker in many comments. I think that's a misplaced focus for this one. We didn't have any sort of effective attacking game - a better striker would have had pretty much nothing to work with.

So far things haven't gone that well when ETH has decided to experiment, and yesterday's move bringing McTominay on for Lindelof was no different. As far as I could tell it just gave us less attacking momentum, because it meant Shaw and Dalot had to stay back.

Positives - The back 4 came out of it looking good again, Garnacho's wonderful goal (with no small credit due to Ronaldo too) and De Gea's incredible save in the second half.

 

[Strelok]

Performance-wise; if West Ham was the first time in a while where we looked less good than the previous game, this was a full-fledged regression to where we were 6 weeks ago - defensively solid, but unable to dominate the game or control the midfield and no sustained offensive game at all. You got the feeling RS got the game where they wanted it. Is tiredness setting in?

This is probably beyond my knowledge of the game to prove but yesterday I was wondering the same thing and some posters told me that it's because of Ronaldo. Sounds about right you simply can't deny the fact we've never been able to dominate against anyone with him playing unless it's some minor sides like Ominia or Sheriff.

 

[Rams]

Difficult match, especially the 2nd half where Sociedad spoiling tactics and poor officiating stop us from playing football. Disagree with the subs, ten Hag tired to bypass the midfield and play opportunistically because we were getting no where. The squad clearly lacks another no. 9 as target man. We still won the match in very challenging circumstances, so that’s definitely a plus.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Ronaldo was the worst player on the pitch by a mile.

Erm I would say Eriksen and VDB is clearly the worst, at least he has made a good assist and work hard for the team.

 

[shaggy]

Unfortunately we were kind of robbed by the ref in both legs, an appalling penalty, and then the timewasting nonsense in the second game. That said we should have put several past Omonia.

 

[arthurka]

Ronaldo playing as a forward and not scoring is becoming all to apparent. Not scoring enough goals is hindering this team. Can't wait until we sign a fecking forward who can move about without a fuzz and scoring the occasional goal. Love our team spirit and defending but we are far from a fully functioning football team. Not winning this group is all on our forwards squandering chances again and again.

 

[Pjisared]

The real group standings:

W. D. L. pts
Utd. 5. 1 0. 16
Soc. 4. 1. 1. 13
Sh Tir. 2. 4. 6
Nicosia. 0. 0. 6. 0

Uefa, mother fecking awful officiating. A horrendous, probably corrupt official in the first match and an obviously completely wrong handball call. The second match v Sociodad, the officiating was equally bad, just incompetent all the way around.

Ronaldo is done. Cooked. He has no more confidence.

Ten Hag really fecked up the subs. Not taking Sancho and Antony (injured?) with a bunch of youngsters on the bench. Either go for and play your first 11 with a stacked bench or play the kids. Now you have an exhausted squad that need to recover for the weekend match. I really rate Ten Hag, but he was out coached in this match. Moving to a back 3 didn’t work and the Maguire thing was a disaster. Rashford as a 10 doesn’t work. Manager 3 out of 10 for me.

Dont you just love a really positive post

 

[Real Name]

Erm I would say Eriksen and VDB is clearly the worst, at least he has made a good assist and work hard for the team.

Nice assist yeah but if working hard for the team means arguing with the ref and laughing ironically yeah he worked really hard.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Nice assist yeah but if working hard for the team means arguing with the ref and laughing ironically yeah he worked really hard.

He did chase back the ball couple of times, and works harder than VDB. Anyway I am not saying he is good, but there are players who are clearly even worst.

 

[Real Name]

He did chase back the ball couple of times, and works harder than VDB. Anyway I am not saying he is good, but there are players who are clearly even worst.

DVB works hard too, he runs a lot, it's just he's invisible.

 

[LordSpud]

He might be right, by playing Maguire as #9? I would choose mcTom instead.

Actually I think we shifted to the 3 CBs when Lindelof went off to attempt to push us further on to get the goal. Maguire was literally the last roll of the dice. I think his thoughts were that if we keep pinging the balls in then surely Ronaldo or Maguire would win them. Unfortunately he forgot Maguire has a head shaped like a 50p coin and nothing is guaranteed when he heads it.

Anyway, if we do indeed end up scoring the goal then the team was already then set up for Maguire to drop back alongside Martinez with the 3 defensive mids in Casemiro, Fred and McTom in front to see the game out.

If we score the goal its an absolute genius but it is what it is, I cant fault Erik for trying something mad.

 

[the_cliff]

The league and Europa should be priorities no?
The EL is more glamorous than either domestic cup and the winner qualifies directly for the CL, unlike the fa or league cups.

Usually I would agree with you but due to the world cup, our squad and fixture congestion I think playing Thursday Nights then again on Sunday will eventually hurt any team over the course of the season. Unless you have City's squad.

We already have key players out, hopefully they'll be back against Villa because if we're relying on the same 11 we may have a problem.

 

[mitchmouse]

Antony had a knock before last game, right?

Should be available for Villa I guess.

Let's hope so - no doubt they'll suddenly turn into the best defensive team in the PL...

 

[Maticmaker]

United's performance last night was bit like the 'curates' egg', good in parts, but overall, not satisfactory!

At the start it looked like ETH was saving some players for this weekend, with DVB in the team, presumably instead of Rashford. Fair enough, but what position was Donny playing, a 10, or a shadow 9, he got a few good touches in but basically, he was a no show?

Good goal (and assist) from Garnacho/CR, but we didn't really 'squeeze' hard enough when we had the chance, and they always looked capable until they got to the edge of our box. Always thought, in our present position, beating them by 2 goals on their own pitch was a bit too much of a stretch, but once we went a goal up fairly early in the game, it did become 'doable'.

Somehow though our performance overall became mundane and the 'go for it spirit 'only registered via the performance of Garnacho.

Apart from Rashford's inclusion, don't know what any of ETH's substitutions were about... and neither it seemed did the players?

 

[serxyo]

I don’t want to point finger at anyone, but we lost all our chances when EtH subbed off Lindelof. There was no balance in the team with Dalot, Martinez and Shaw at the back, maybe too much midfielders.

Couldn’t believe my eyes when Maguire came in as a target man for long balls. Would rather see Elanga or Pellistri at that point.

Even though we have to play one of the “big teams” in play-off I’m confident of coming through.

 

[mitchmouse]

United's performance last night was bit like the 'curates' egg', good in parts, but overall, not satisfactory!

At the start it looked like ETH was saving some players for this weekend, with DVB in the team, presumably instead of Rashford. Fair enough, but what position was Donny playing, a 10, or a shadow 9, he got a few good touches in but basically, he was a no show?

Good goal (and assist) from Garnacho/CR, but we didn't really 'squeeze' hard enough when we had the chance, and they always looked capable until they got to the edge of our box. Always thought, in our present position, beating them by 2 goals on their own pitch was a bit too much of a stretch, but once we went a goal up fairly early in the game, it did become 'doable'.

Somehow though our performance overall became mundane and the 'go for it spirit 'only registered via the performance of Garnacho.

Apart from Rashford's inclusion, don't know what any of ETH's substitutions were about... and neither it seemed did the players?

I'd hoped McNeil would get a look in if, as happened, we needed a second goal. Was he out injured? Other than him, no goal-scorers for ETH to pick from. I presume the wind blew again so Martial got injured...

 

[moodyred]

Not a great game but let's look at the positives.

1. Clean sheet
2. We won
3. Garnacho

Bring on Barcelona!

 

[Real Name]

Let's hope so - no doubt they'll suddenly turn into the best defensive team in the PL...

They have Emery in charge. Hopefully he's still adapting.

 

[justsomebloke]

This is probably beyond my knowledge of the game to prove but yesterday I was wondering the same thing and some posters told me that it's because of Ronaldo. Sounds about right you simply can't deny the fact we've never been able to dominate against anyone with him playing unless it's some minor sides like Ominia or Sheriff.

I think it's fair to say we've been looking better generally without Ronaldo than with him, but yesterday I think it was more a midfield problem. They managed to disrupt us in the midfield in a way we haven't seen in a while, and also were able to play through us quite frequently.

 

[justsomebloke]

I don’t want to point finger at anyone, but we lost all our chances when EtH subbed off Lindelof. There was no balance in the team with Dalot, Martinez and Shaw at the back, maybe too much midfielders.

Couldn’t believe my eyes when Maguire came in as a target man for long balls. Would rather see Elanga or Pellistri at that point.

Even though we have to play one of the “big teams” in play-off I’m confident of coming through.

Would be interesting if it was Ajax, wouldn't it.

 

[LuckyScout78]

Lost the first 1 spot because of the first group match. Over 2 matches this Real Soc team is so bang average.

Lost to this team in first match. Just told United level at that current time. Lack of clinical, sharp and potential goalscorer.

 

[bosskeano]

He might be right, by playing Maguire as #9? I would choose mcTom instead.

guys...bare in mind he didn't do that until the 83rd minute. It was a bit of desperate times and quite honestly how many times have we seen teams push a CB up to CF knowing they were going to launch it long. It happens all the damn time so not sure why this is being made into such a big deal

 

[bosskeano]

that's brilliant on his part to specifically point that out and call out them for their shithousery