[R'hllor]

Its actually funny to watch how some act surprised, guess gold fish mode is enabled where everything that cnuts did in the past is forgotten.

 

[Jezpeza]

Its actually funny to watch how some act surprised, guess gold fish mode is enabled where everything that cnuts did in the past is forgotten.

Was the inability to defend a cross or set piece an Ole thing, or a Maguire Lindelof thing or both? Shambles tonight.

 

[tjb]

We are a good team, but people need to understand that we aren't great. We have too many squad gaps that are papered through due to the sheer quality of our stand out features and the manager.

This season we have had a very strong sturdy defence which can be the best in Europe. Add this to the dynamism of our midfielders ( Casemiro, Bruno and Eriksen) and the brilliance of Rashford and you have what has made us good. We are a strong sturdy team that is hard to beat, can keep possession, is great on the counter and on its day can really hurt teams due to the creativity and fearlessness of Bruno, Eriksen and Rashford.

However beneath all of that, we have a lot of really hard weaknesses holding us back.

1. Licha and Varane are the bedrock of the defence. They push up our defence and are one of the reasons we have been so much better in possession this season. Most teams can live on such a dominant duo, but when you consider how injury prone Varane is, having players behind him that cannot replicate any of the skills the duo bring really hurts us. There is a chance Varane plays about 60% of games for us or even less, neither Maguire or Lindelof are temporary solutions, Shaw can't cover RCB, so it leaves us weaker.

2. Our midfield relies too much on Bruno and Casemiro. In regard to Bruno, he covers so much ground defensively, which has allowed Eriksen play competently in the pivot. In addition, he has had to support weak strikers in Weghorst and Cristiano ( pressing wise), whilst also covering for defensive lapses when either Fred or Mctominay play, due to their poor positioning ( Eriksen's positioning is actually ok). Casemiro's case is obvious, we literally have noone else who has the positional sense, tackling ability, strength or awareness to cover for him. Not simply because he's great, but more so because our backups are so limited. Their limited on the ball, their limited defensively, their limited off the ball and don't provide any confidence whatsoever. Eriksen doesn't have the legs to consistently be a mainstay imo. So we need another midfielder who is an allrounder.

3.Our forward line. Outside of Rashford, its been tepid all season. Antony is adjusting to the league, which is fair. He's clearly improving and offers defensive value and the ability to keep the ball. Outside of that, every other attacker we have had this season has been woeful. Even in poor form, watching Liverpool's attack just shows how limited our attackers have been. Consistently bodied off the ball, poor weaker foot control, poor decison making around the box, poor off the ball awareness and poor shooting ability. We don't have enough in attack to carry us when we aren't great in other positions. Bruno literally has to put the ball on a platter for anyone not named Rashford to score a goal, and that has been a running theme for the past few years. We need better forwards. Moreso than any additions in midfield or defence.

Could De Gea be better? Sure. Could AWB or Dalot be improved on? Definately. But for me, sorting out our attack and depth is what is going to take us from good to great. It's the reason we aren't blowing teams off the planet at the moment. We are kind of in that Arsenal 2010's stage, where we can play good football, but weaknesses and depth are stopping us from truly challenging. Unlike that Arsenal side, we actually have money and we have the ability to move to the next level. We just have to be a bit more calculated.

 

[DevTheRed]

Just feel like too many players lacked character tonight, and missing our two biggest personalities I think in Bruno and Martinez really hurt us.

The team just had no spine at all. De Gea, Maguire, Lindelof, Eriksen, Sancho all lack grit and heart in games like this.. maybe one or two can play but not that many away from home.

 

[wangyu]

I’m dealing with the defeat pretty well but that’s only because I expected this to happen after last week.

 

[one340]

Absolute bag of shite.

Maguire should never play for this club again.

Agree but considering our CB injuries situation this year.... ETH really doesn't have a choice

 

[Oranges038]

That was a load of crap, totally shit themselves after being 2 up. If Malacia just clears that one ball then maybe all of this is avoided, but as it is it just shines a bigger light on why the overall quality and mentality within the squad is still not good enough.

Looking long term, out of that starting 11, 3 of them are maybe good enough to keep as starters, Eriksen, Casemiro and Antony. 2 of them need to be replaced within the next couple of years. You'd probably have a hard time making case for any of the rest of them to be kept on as backup options beyond another season at his stage.

Anyway, onto to the FA cup and a smash and grab win against Brighton on Sunday.

 

[Lights Out]

DeGea, Maguire, Lindelof, Sancho & Martial.

5 of the starting 11 who are just gutless cowards who have consistently let us down.

Why should we be surprised by this result?

Hope they’re all gone in the summer.

 

[bobglory]

As dark as a day as the 7-0 vs Liverpool

.............

Hard to know what to say, that bad

i think i was even worse, have been a red since 1974 and that is one of the most gutless shower of shit performance i have ever seen .

 

[ForeverRed1]

Give the traveling reds who spent 100s on that atrocity their money back. Scandalous.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

I got 11/11 and predict all 3 subs. It's my fault, I haver never done that before.

Please, please get top 4 somehow with that defense (and offense I guess).

 

[tentan]

Awful. Embarrassing.

 

[NICanRed]

He is a far better player than he has shown at United. Something has happened in his head. He used to have a cocky swagger about him. But all that confidence seems to have been lost.

I remember that 5 years ago the Caf was demanding that we buy Sancho and that that would solve all our problems. I hadn't seen much of Dortmund so believed what I heard.
I'm afraid the Caf was very wrong. I see nothing there! So disppointed!

 

[VanHaal'sRedArmy]

No doubt EL is the Sevilla cup.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

I just don't understand how this team constantly finds ways to bottle things? It's a mentality problem and this can only be solved by replacing players. These are not cut out for these big games. Win a tinpot cup and they have this "we made it" attitude.

How many times do we have to go through the same thing again? Watch Brighton demolish us because they will want it more, they will out-passion us and outplay us.

feck this bunch of shit players.

 

[Pscholes18]

What the feck did I just watch?

 

[croadyman]

Got exactly what we deserved for that garbage last 10 mins of first leg. I thought they would have been determined to put it right but nope slack starts to both halves instead

 

[sglowrider]

Work in progress.

Getting into the CL spots would have been an achievement for me. And to only be out of the first competition, a month from the end of the season is beyond my expectations.

Next season will be to build upon this foundation to challenge in ETH's 3rd season.

 

[Marcus]

This was not meant to be over the 2 legs. So many things against us.

 

[sglowrider]

Got exactly what we deserved for that garbage last 10 mins of first leg. I thought they would have been determined to put it right but nope slack starts to both halves instead

We are running on fumes at the moment -- with the core Of the back four out.
Won'tbe surprised if we just stumble across the top 4 line this season.

 

[cybertej29]

Is anyone going to watch the game Sunday?

How do the club justify Maguire, Lindelof, AWB, Fred and the rest of those bang average clowns ever playing for the club again?

I wouldn't club Fred with the other 3. He should've started this game instead of eriksen. We took them too lightly, should've treated it like a tough European away game and fielded battlers.

 

[croadyman]

Destroyed by a team in a relegation battle in Spain; cowards the lot of them.

Never want to see DDG, Maguire and Sancho in a United shirt again.

Throw in Martial as well along with releasing Sabitzer and Weghorst from loans. While we are it I will also chuck McTominay into this list as well

 

[1988]

And people are mocking Ragnick for saying we needed ten new players over a couple of seasons.

 

[RedCurry]

There was no leadership or character on the field today. We have about 4-5 players that have any fight in them and when almost all of them are not playing, we dish out one of those performances from last season. In the hindsight, I am not a bit surprised by the performance or the result.

 

[crossy1686]

First time I’ve agreed with Carra

 

[RedPed]

I've been one of De Gea's biggest fans but today.....the tide is turning. As for Maguire? Please just leave!

 

[RedPed]

And people are mocking Rangnick for saying we needed ten new players over a couple of seasons.

Oh ffs, not this shit again. He was mocked because he was shite and the worst manager in recent history. Nobody is going to get any praise for saying we needed 10 new players.....everybody could see that. It wasn't rocket science.

 

[Castia]

To lose is one thing but these complete break downs where we get smashed for 90 minutes and can barely string 2 passes together are happening far too often I have no idea what’s going on

If Sevilla we’re a better team they was scoring 6+ last night with ease

 

[DJ_21]

Anyone seen what piers Morgan has said Never fails to mention Ronaldo in everything bad he says about us. The guy has some kind of crush on him. Sad man

 

[1988]

Oh ffs, not this shit again. He was mocked because he was shite and the worst manager in recent history. Nobody is going to get any praise for saying we needed 10 new players.....everybody could see that. It wasn't rocket science.

Yet whenever we win (with ten Hag signings too) people like to throw his statement up as smack against Ragnick.

 

[Redfrog]

Yet whenever we win (with ten Hag signings too) people like to throw his statement up as smack against Rangnick.

I think that Rangnick was abysmal but right in his statements. One doesn’t exclude the other.

 

[Roosney]

Is OGS back?

 

[Steve 007]

What an absolute shocker. However what we seen last night was Maguire, DeGea (who I normally defend) disaster class.
With Varane and Martinez out we go back to that poor defence of last season. We have to sell Maguire and replace. It doesn’t matter if we only get 30m, he has to go. De Gea had the worst performance of his life. I’m not going to mention Sancho he doesn’t even put a shift in.
It’s also really clear Martial is done, he has the resilience of a 5 year old.

 

[Son]

What has happened to our club in Europe these past 10 years. We are so poor on the continent as a club.

So bad it’s bringing our reputation crashing down as a super power no doubt about it.

People will go on about Sevilla having pedigree. Villarreal obviously had pedigree too and so did Atletico Bilbao even in Fergie’s last days.

Apart from against 3 sides PSG, Ajax and Barcelona I haven’t seen us have any sort of European performance in almost 10 years. We’ve been horrible.

Remember when we used to be feared before this last decade? What a sad state of affairs our club is these days, I could have never imagined it back then seeing the level we used to be at.

Sevilla would have got blown away by City or Bayern. Anyone on a world class level. We are nowhere near.

 

[ants7]

There's no point of us entering the Champions League with that team. Need 2-3 transfer windows (provided that EtH gets his targets) to be competing on top level. I do think that Erik is the right manager but the team needs to be reshaped by his transfer targets.

 

[Matt007a]

Our best players are Rashford, Martinez, Varane, Casemiro and Bruno. When only one of them starts and the backup are such a big drop in quality this is what happens. ETH needs another big window or two to plug the remaining gaps.

 

[Siorac]

Maguire could've turned out and taken all of those defenders out the game.

Well, no. A good defender could have done that. Maguire couldn't have and De Gea had to know that. It's not like our Harry is a new signing.

 

[justsomebloke]

We are a good team, but people need to understand that we aren't great. We have too many squad gaps that are papered through due to the sheer quality of our stand out features and the manager.

This season we have had a very strong sturdy defence which can be the best in Europe. Add this to the dynamism of our midfielders ( Casemiro, Bruno and Eriksen) and the brilliance of Rashford and you have what has made us good. We are a strong sturdy team that is hard to beat, can keep possession, is great on the counter and on its day can really hurt teams due to the creativity and fearlessness of Bruno, Eriksen and Rashford.

However beneath all of that, we have a lot of really hard weaknesses holding us back.

1. Licha and Varane are the bedrock of the defence. They push up our defence and are one of the reasons we have been so much better in possession this season. Most teams can live on such a dominant duo, but when you consider how injury prone Varane is, having players behind him that cannot replicate any of the skills the duo bring really hurts us. There is a chance Varane plays about 60% of games for us or even less, neither Maguire or Lindelof are temporary solutions, Shaw can't cover RCB, so it leaves us weaker.

2. Our midfield relies too much on Bruno and Casemiro. In regard to Bruno, he covers so much ground defensively, which has allowed Eriksen play competently in the pivot. In addition, he has had to support weak strikers in Weghorst and Cristiano ( pressing wise), whilst also covering for defensive lapses when either Fred or Mctominay play, due to their poor positioning ( Eriksen's positioning is actually ok). Casemiro's case is obvious, we literally have noone else who has the positional sense, tackling ability, strength or awareness to cover for him. Not simply because he's great, but more so because our backups are so limited. Their limited on the ball, their limited defensively, their limited off the ball and don't provide any confidence whatsoever. Eriksen doesn't have the legs to consistently be a mainstay imo. So we need another midfielder who is an allrounder.

3.Our forward line. Outside of Rashford, its been tepid all season. Antony is adjusting to the league, which is fair. He's clearly improving and offers defensive value and the ability to keep the ball. Outside of that, every other attacker we have had this season has been woeful. Even in poor form, watching Liverpool's attack just shows how limited our attackers have been. Consistently bodied off the ball, poor weaker foot control, poor decison making around the box, poor off the ball awareness and poor shooting ability. We don't have enough in attack to carry us when we aren't great in other positions. Bruno literally has to put the ball on a platter for anyone not named Rashford to score a goal, and that has been a running theme for the past few years. We need better forwards. Moreso than any additions in midfield or defence.

Could De Gea be better? Sure. Could AWB or Dalot be improved on? Definately. But for me, sorting out our attack and depth is what is going to take us from good to great. It's the reason we aren't blowing teams off the planet at the moment. We are kind of in that Arsenal 2010's stage, where we can play good football, but weaknesses and depth are stopping us from truly challenging. Unlike that Arsenal side, we actually have money and we have the ability to move to the next level. We just have to be a bit more calculated.

I think this is off the mark, at least as a response to this game. The issue with these losses aren't a lack of quality and depth. It's the wild swings in performance. Which has happened with alarming regularity all season when we play away to strong opponents.

 

[Hampshire Rec]

I don't want to get into the negative posts and singling out specific players all I can say is collectively the whole lot last night were utter gash!

Far too many, if not all off the pace last night and for me I would suggest that at least 5 maybe 6 of the starting line up should be looking for a new club by June this year!

 

[Gopher Brown]

And people are mocking Rangnick for saying we needed ten new players over a couple of seasons.

I don’t think anyone was mocking him for saying that. I think the vast majority of people on here agreed with his assessment,