[Sigma]

My counter point is that goals are a part of the whole performance and are the most important part of a football match, discounting them when looking at a teams performance is absolutely ridiculous. It just seems like another way to build a narrative that is overly negative and dismisses the large strides the club has made after Moyes. The performance was not perfect but I definitely see progress when looking at the big picture.

OK so what you are saying is Chelsea played better than Barca in the 2012 champions league because they scored more goals?

 

[Red-Jeff]

But what I'm saying is IF that happened the people would think that performance as the same as this one because the way we played in both matches were very similar.

But that didn't happen so the performance wasn't the same, right?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Why do you say that about Memphis?

He's going to be quality for us. It's not all falling in place for him in the league yet but he has all the tools to be a fantastic forward for us IMO. The touch and goal in midweek, the dummy today for the goal, it's bits and blobs as it usually is with kids, but that ability to pull off those skills to get ahead of/beat a defender, combined with his obvious goal scoring abilities is not somethng you find all the time. Just needs to keep working and improving.

 

[Red-Jeff]

OK so what you are saying is Chelsea played better than Barca in the 2012 champions league because they scored more goals?

Did they win? The game is not about possession or chances created it is about scoring more than the other team and they did that, so yes. You can call it undeserved but the scoreline is all that matters at the end of the day.

 

[Sigma]

But that didn't happen so the performance wasn't the same, right?

There's a difference between playing well, and winning, you've heard of the cliche, "good teams can win when playing well". That cliche would be in use if the performance and the result were part of the same thing.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

I was scared LVG's rigidity and unwillingness to pragmatically approach games was going to cost us during the first half an hour. They were exploiting our flanks with pace and strength, and had their crosses pinged at big strong center forwards who were outmuscling Blind with ease. They were very good on the counter.

But once our first goal went in, we immediately changed the complexion of the match and controlled it till their second goal. We started upping the possession stats and rotating the ball around nicely. Of course, it helped that Martial and Depay made the other two goals happen, and that seemed to help our confidence and hurt theirs. They started coming out more, and couldn't counter effectively anymore, which was their biggest strength the first half. They had a couple of moments, but DDG stood tall, and we quickly recovered to control. We killed their tempo in the game, and asserted ours. Schweinsteiger was a key part of this again. The third goal, with the 45 pass foreplay, said it all.

Then we gave away a silly cross and a sillier unmarked goal, and they roared back into it. It looked nervy, but we watched it out.

Rooney looks better in the hole, especially that long ball to Mata. Mata looks dangerous when he cuts infield, Depay needs pace and tempo to flourish, Martial was top class, Blind was outmuscled, Darmian was error prone, Smalling was very good, Valencia pegged down their left back, McNair was sleeping for their third.
Three very good points. We're second, trailing by two points!

 

[Red-Jeff]

There's a difference between playing well, and winning, you've heard of the cliche, "good teams can win when playing well". That cliche would be in use if the performance and the result were part of the same thing.

That's just an excuse for teams that don't stick it in the net, if you don't win the game you were not the better team. Trophies aren't awarded for style, they are given to teams that win. I'm sure Chelsea are crying into their CL trophy because some people think they weren't the better team

 

[Will Singh]

That was a puzzling decision. I thought Rojo was doing relatively well at that stage of the game.

The only thing I can think of is he ain't got enough match fitness or match rythem as the *********** likes to call it, but still think Young should have come on and gone straight to LB instead of juggling about Blind!

 

[Michael T]

Ha ha, happy days. My (somewhat enforced) optimism for today's game meant I predicted a 1-4 win for us, but I'll happily take the 2-3 considering our mid-week nightmare. That said, I hate that we can be so vulnerable in just about every game we play. Personally I'm a fan of what LvG is attempting to do on the field, and as the Mata goal shows - we are getting there, albeit slowly and piecemeal.

Boy oh boy, did we get a massive break at the end of the Summer window with De Gea and Martial. *Phew*

 

[Viral United]

I will take it.
Seriously need to work on concentration.
Their 2nd goal is seriously lack of concentration of our defense.

 

[Shimo]

Playing along with the ridiculousness of pulling out the goals from today's performance and comparing against Newcastle (missed PSV game and had no desire to watch after the fact).

Newcastle was a home game against a poor Newcastle side that parked the bus and were hardly a threat. We battered them in the first 20 minutes whereas in this game we were the ones on the back foot often and could have been 2 down very early. That we were able to wrestle control of the game back after going down 1-0 away from home is a huge difference in terms of performance when against Newcastle we went the other way. Against Newcastle we were pushing for a goal whereas in this game we were holding o off significant pressure towards the end. Probably could go on but, there were some marked difference between today's performance and that one - even without the silliness of taking out the goals from both sides today.

 

[Tincanalley]

Hey holy moley feck-a-norey, I am leading in the score prediction league!! Languishing at about 2000th in the team prediction but look at that fecking table! Way hayyy.

 

[Nik70]

The only thing I can think of is he ain't got enough match fitness or match rythem as the *********** likes to call it, but still think Young should have come on and gone straight to LB instead of juggling about Blind!

Yeah good points.

 

[Adisa]

We were fantastic from the first goal till they scored their second. Right up there with anything I've seen in the last couple of years.

 

[ice-bionic red]

So glad we won! Who cares if the first goal was offside, we are due a slice of luck. It happens for other teams so why not us? What matters is the composure from our 19 year old "waste of money" striker! [feckin Mirror]

I'd like to know how many passes there were before our final goal too? That is probably the perfect LVG goal right there. Pass and move, keeping the ball and making openings. Unfortunately it's very difficult to score like that every time. We need more to our game and Martial is providing it at this moment.

Hats off to our goalkeeper too. What a player he is

 

[Nik70]

So glad we won! Who cares if the first goal was offside, we are due a slice of luck. It happens for other teams so why not us? What matters is the composure from our 19 year old "waste of money" striker! [feckin Mirror]

I'd like to know how many passes there were before our final goal too? That is probably the perfect LVG goal right there. Pass and move, keeping the ball and making openings. Unfortunately it's very difficult to score like that every time. We need more to our game and Martial is providing it at this moment.

Hats off to our goalkeeper too. What a player he is

45 passes. I agree about time we had some luck.

 

[royboy16]

We could well have struck gold with Martial,has a cool head and can finish.

 

[Stookie]

I'm as chuffed as a puff with two bums that we got three points from this fixture. Started off a bit ropey but those two cool finishes from Martial were awesome. And he's only 19!

 

[The Stain]

Just watched the game. Great win considering we played the whole game 10 v 11. Rooney was yet again invisible and poor. Martial! This lad.. He has what we've been missing. The runs in behind, the pace and the ability to sniff out chances. Memphis another so so game. He takes too long with the ball but he did have that nice move with the shot that led to Mata's goal. Maybe it's time to rotate in Young for a game or two. Mata can go missing but his runs are important.

Carrick and Schneiderlin so so. Better when Bastian came on. The Darmian/Valencia switch i still can't understand unless he picked up a minor thing. Saying that, Valencia had a great 45 mins for me and i would at this point muchly prefer him at rb with Darmian on the left, leaving Rojo on the bench. Smalling solid as always, thank feck we have him. Blind had a rather poor game. Can't understand why Soton stopped targeting him and Rojo after 30 mins, they could have won the game had they continued that strategy.. So thankful De Gea is back in goal, he is immense.

Moving forward i'd like to see a 4-3-3 with Herrera instead of Rooney but we'll see the 4-2-3-1 so this is the line up i'd choose at this point:

------------- Martial
- Memphis - Herrera -- Mata
--- Schneiderlin - Schweinsteiger
Darmian - Blind - Smalling - Valencia
--------------- DdG

 

[Raw]

Seemed to have taken offence when someone asked about the defence not doing well!

 

[Parry Gallister]

Enjoyed that, suprising how much we improved after our first goal. Am worried about playing/relying on Martial too much too soon, he's been our main goal threat since he's come in but he's so young and burn-out can happen.

 

[Eckers99]

Strange game. Dreadful for 20 minutes - laboured in attack, 2nd to everything in midfield and shaky at the back. We were lucky to still be in the game at that point.

The goal changed everything and after that we totally controlled the match. Martial looks incredibly composed and has made a massive difference.

A big 3 points.

 

[The Hacker]

Whilst Martials form just can't continue to be this amazing, we have in our team a world class GK, a potential world beating CF and a CD (Smalling) who is getting better each game. If we manage to get one of our CDMs to hit peak form, we will begin to become a force again.

I also think Bastian is starting to boss things when he's on now.

 

[Bastian]

Great result and the confidence boost we've needed for a long while. We've still got problems carrying Rooney (or at least fielding him and Mata in the same side) but Martial has given us the ability to actually attack with purpose. Can't help feeling that if we get 2-3 good performances on the trot, things will change dramatically. I'd say a lot is down to luck (though of course the balance of the team is a huge factor).

 

[groovyalbert]

So nice to win after having gone behind! I honestly can't recall when that last happened.

Really entertaining, albeit a kind of strange, match. There was never really any time when both teams played well, both Utd and Southampton kind of took it in turns to be on top, we just managed to do it for longer/score more goals during that time.

Lots of positives however and a great springboard (hopefully) going into a period of tough games.

 

[Scorpy]

How the feck didn't Mane get booked for that pathetic dive? It was one of the worst dives I've ever seen.

It's pretty simple, ref. You either give a penalty or you book the attacker for a dive. There's no middle ground.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

I'm glad we had a two goal cushion because it was appalling how easily Pellé was allowed to score his second goal surrounded by 4 United defenders.

Decent performance from us and a great result.

Rooney's loss of form is a concern, is he past it? I think so. Let's see if he can form an understanding with Martial who looks like a real gem.

 

[FC Ronaldo]

Post match presser:

 

[QuackQuack]

For the sake of the argument that I am putting forward on which performance was better, which game did we play better.

Well obviously todays match, we managed to score more. I think you are flogging a dead horse here. There have been occasions where teams have undeservedly lost after a brilliant performance yet a team sneak a goal in whilst being completely dominated. It happens, ita football. Fact is, we took our chances and actually finished them. That is something that was lacking in our previous matches.

 

[pierrethesnack]

Seemed to have taken offence when someone asked about the defence not doing well!

What a great presser

"Valencia did very well. I did not see Tadic in the second half. Did you?"

"No..."

"Ok, good. I'm glad you have confirmed that for me."

 

[Stack]

How the feck didn't Mane get booked for that pathetic dive? It was one of the worst dives I've ever seen.

It's pretty simple, ref. You either give a penalty or you book the attacker for a dive. There's no middle ground.

I didnt think he dived, he was travelling at full pace, tried a skill move to get past the defenders, screwed it up and tripped. He never made any claim of being fouled. No protestations to the ref of any sort. No dive.

 

[bucky]

Wasn't happy how easily Southampton isolated our players in their zones and we didn't help each other better out in the first 30 minutes or so. Pressing Carrick and Blind nullified us. Obviously credit to them for doing it well, but we should have reacted better and earlier. Happy with the result and the performances of Martial and de Gea.

 

[Scorpy]

I didnt think he dived, he was travelling at full pace, tried a skill move to get past the defenders, screwed it up and tripped. He never made any claim of being fouled. No protestations to the ref of any sort. No dive.

I disagree. Watched the replay and thought it was a clear dive and a pathetic one at that. He anticipated Smalling's challenge and tried to win a penalty.

 

[Sigma]

I think this sums up our game and the fact that we didn't play well like I said.
http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/95...eague-2015-2016-Southampton-Manchester-United

Most (51%) of the game was played in the middle of the park with out meaningless passing sideways and the least amount (21%) of the game was played in the third of the pitch we were attacking.

 

[dwd]

It's quite funny how everyone was opposed to buying Mane. I thought he was brilliant today.

 

[JustAFan]

I think this sums up our game and the fact that we didn't play well like I said.
http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/95...eague-2015-2016-Southampton-Manchester-United

Most (51%) of the game was played in the middle of the park with out meaningless passing sideways and the least amount (21%) of the game was played in the third of the pitch we were attacking.

The part about showing no significant weaknesses was interesting

 

[JustAFan]

Overall another step in the right direction especially the result. Now to avoid a step backward in the coming weeks.

 

[Sigma]

The part about showing no significant weaknesses was interesting

I agree that we had no significant weakness, the reason was because we normally played the risk-free pass showed by the fact that we played 0 through balls throughout the whole game.

The problem was attacking, and imo we just didn't go forward with any great intent.

 

[Dobba]

It's quite funny how everyone was opposed to buying Mane. I thought he was brilliant today.

Needs to dive better than that one today, if a top 4 team is going to sign him.

 

[dwd]

Needs to dive better than that one today, if a top 4 team is going to sign him.

Well yeah, that was a bit silly, but other than that you can't deny he was more than a handful for us?