[Andersons Dietician]

That's not really true.
Ibra missed some clear chances, but did score plenty, not only 'scrappy headers'. Since then we can't score for shit. We expect from Martial and Rashford to score from presented chances.

I did say mostly. But yeah he has scored that miss hit from outside the area and that open net volley against City. But really most of them haven't been the air of what I would describe as us having cut some one open so he has an easy finish.

Then on the flip side it's not as if Martial or Rashford have really had that many chances. Most of Martials for example have come after he has had to beat a man or two coming from deep off at an angle. Another factor is normally when he or Rashford have had a chance the build up has been so slow that they are confronted by a wall of defence.

From my perspective people blaiming them for poor finishing are using them as scapegoats, one out of pure ignorance or just someone to excuse the poor tactics, the poor team selection and the poor execution of these tactics. There is a lot wrong with this team and it's not just Jose. Certainly some combinations don't work together but that's Joses job to figure out and how to get the best out of the team.

 

[El Zoido]

This game was a dead rubber, a friendly. Not sure what you can take from it aside from both teams pottering about just trying to see the season out. I certainly find it very difficult to have any strong opinions on such a pointless game.

 

[crossy1686]

This game was a dead rubber, a friendly. Not sure what you can take from it aside from both teams pottering about just trying to see the season out. I certainly find it very difficult to have any strong opinions on such a pointless game.

I'd go as far to say there was less riding on it than a friendly. No one wanted to play the game and no one wanted to get injured.

 

[Bwuk]

Least interested I've been in a game all season.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

I've noticed that many MUFC fans are burying their heads in the sand.
The fact that we are now scoring 0.5 goals/game seems quite acceptable to them.
Just a heads up - you won't ever win a league if you score under 1 goal per game and right now, we can't even do that!
These fans can't debate/reason why this is acceptable (because they can't), so they say things like "laughable post", "disagree with everything they wrote", etc.

I'm not saying Jose should be sacked (I am a huge fan), but he needs to address this lack of goals and accept that some of our attackers won't be able to score the goals we need. If he keeps the faith in our current crop of attackers, next season could be his last, with us.

Hang on, do you really think this 0.5 goals thing is going to carry on next season? Have you seen how many goals Mourinho's teams usually score? Feckloads. Using the last 10 games as a projection of how we'll play next year is madness - we've had our top scorer injured and have been concentrating fully on keeping players fit for the final.

Next season the following will ensure that we'll be scoring far more regularly than the second half of this one:

A) Rooney will be gone
B) Rashford will have put his difficult second season behind him and will build on his encouraging performances of late
C) Martial will be able make a fresh start. He even looked like a shadow of his former self for France in the Euros - it's clear that the off the field stuff with his wife meant that he didn't start the season in the right frame of mind and has found it difficult to shake off
D) we will sign one or more proven goalscorers...for argument's sake let's say Griezman and Lukaku.
E) Mkhi will have a better feel for the league and will hopefully benefit from better movement from his fellow attackers

I seriously think you're worrying too much! However, we need to win the final next week or some of the above points may not come to pass

 

[RedEM10]

Absolute snoozefest... ZZZZZzzzZZzz

 

[sokol11]

The only less interesting game that this game will be the match vs Palace. Relevant only as the De Gea/Rooney/Zlatan Old Trafford farewell occasion. I bet at least two of those will not be here next season.

 

[Robertd0803]

That penalty decision was comical, hard not to question the standard of referees and officials even in a pointless game like last night. Romero was very good.

Gabbadini really hasn't done anything since the Cup Final has he?

 

[William_Meredith]

Only Mourinho could ruin a Mike Dean game.

 

[mitchmouse]

Have awarded a United player a 10 out of 10 for the first time this season: Sergio, of course. Absolutely faultless display plus showing actual passion. Not much else to write home about. Dull beyond words. Needs to be a huge turnover of players in the summer

 

[mitchmouse]

The only less interesting game that this game will be the match vs Palace. Relevant only as the De Gea/Rooney/Zlatan Old Trafford farewell occasion. I bet at least two of those will not be here next season.

Jose should play Under18 and academy players to see how they react to big crowd and big (well, sort of) occasions

 

[mitchmouse]

That penalty decision was comical, hard not to question the standard of referees and officials even in a pointless game like last night. Romero was very good.

Gabbadini really hasn't done anything since the Cup Final has he?

from the very first view of it, it was blatantly obvious that it was outside the area. probably more blatant than that it was a handball. Dean must been sent to the championship for yet another appalling display

 

[mitchmouse]

Hang on, do you really think this 0.5 goals thing is going to carry on next season? Have you seen how many goals Mourinho's teams usually score? Feckloads. Using the last 10 games as a projection of how we'll play next year is madness - we've had our top scorer injured and have been concentrating fully on keeping players fit for the final.

Next season the following will ensure that we'll be scoring far more regularly than the second half of this one:

A) Rooney will be gone
B) Rashford will have put his difficult second season behind him and will build on his encouraging performances of late
C) Martial will be able make a fresh start. He even looked like a shadow of his former self for France in the Euros - it's clear that the off the field stuff with his wife meant that he didn't start the season in the right frame of mind and has found it difficult to shake off
D) we will sign one or more proven goalscorers...for argument's sake let's say Griezman and Lukaku.
E) Mkhi will have a better feel for the league and will hopefully benefit from better movement from his fellow attackers

I seriously think you're worrying too much! However, we need to win the final next week or some of the above points may not come to pass

and do you think Chelsea, City and the rest won't buy big. We need a huge clearout - so may here think just getting of rooney is the answer...

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

and do you think Chelsea, City and the rest won't buy big. We need a huge clearout - so may here think just getting of rooney is the answer...

Of course the others will buy big too, but they can only field 11 players. The difference is that our main competitors have already functioned well up front for the most part. I don't think they have the scope to improve as much as we do so I expect the gap between us and them to close considerably.

No idea why you've said the Rooney thing, I doubt anyone believes that 'just getting rid of him' will solve all our problems, but replacing him with someone like Griezman or Lukaku will sure help....

 

[mitchmouse]

Of course the others will buy big too, but they can only field 11 players. The difference is that our main competitors have already functioned well up front for the most part. I don't think they have the scope to improve as much as we do so I expect the gap between us and them to close considerably.

No idea why you've said the Rooney thing, I doubt anyone believes that 'just getting rid of him' will solve all our problems, but replacing him with someone like Griezman or Lukaku will sure help....

I mention Rooney because pretty much every second comment here blames him for everything from the Fire of London to killing Diana!

 

[William_Meredith]

and do you think Chelsea, City and the rest won't buy big. We need a huge clearout - so may here think just getting of rooney is the answer...

You're right, there is much more to do.

Carrick is not a viable first team starter, anymore. Smalling and Jones have exhausted their chances to prove themselves worth of being first team players. Fellaini is borderline embarrassing on a good day. Lingard should leave, but given he is now being paid twice what he would at any other club, MUFC would have to pay another team to take him off their hands.

Personally I think there has to be a choice made between Mkhi and Mata, and I'd go for the former. Mata is very good technically and a 'nice guy', but his lack of dynamism can be painful when teams sit off.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

I mention Rooney because pretty much every second comment here blames him for everything from the Fire of London to killing Diana!

Bottom line is that for his wages we could be paying a top 10 in the world type player but we're getting the on-field value of a Championship level huffer. It's not much of a stretch to see the difference that could be made if those two scenarios were reversed.

 

[Yagami]

Looks like my decision to not watch was the right one. To think I thought José would be more attack minded in these games seeing as they were dead rubbers.

 

[Jaxdan]

We're now one game unbeaten

Start of another streak! Kind of hard to expect much, when the manager is on record saying the game is meaningless.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Blah. The main thing I am pissed about is Fosu Mensah has been hurt and unable to get some good Premier League experience at the end of the season.

 

[Briman63]

Of course the others will buy big too, but they can only field 11 players. The difference is that our main competitors have already functioned well up front for the most part. I don't think they have the scope to improve as much as we do so I expect the gap between us and them to close considerably.

No idea why you've said the Rooney thing, I doubt anyone believes that 'just getting rid of him' will solve all our problems, but replacing him with someone like Griezman or Lukaku will sure help....

Obviously I can only speak from a Liverpool point of view but I don't see how you can say we don't have the scope to improve as much as UTD, we are joint 2nd highest scorers in the Prem this season and that's without playing a Striker up front for a majority of the season, if we add a top Striker next season our attack will vastly improve, our defence has certainly got plenty of room for improvement and hopefully will.

Personally I don't think UTD adding 2 or 3 top quality player is going to make the difference you are expecting, yes you may improve but that's not guaranteed, you bought 3 top quality players this season, Zlatan being one of them and he's been on fire, you paid a record fee for Pogba yet in the League you haven't improved at all and you are about to finish 2 places lower than last season with possibly the same points total and like you say other teams will also buy big and yes they can only field 11 players but that also applies to UTD.

 

[Jaxdan]

Looking at the player ratings, granted none of them were very good other than Romero, but does everyone really think Rooney was worse than Mkhitaryan among a few others?

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Obviously I can only speak from a Liverpool point of view but I don't see how you can say we don't have the scope to improve as much as UTD, we are joint 2nd highest scorers in the Prem this season and that's without playing a Striker up front for a majority of the season, if we add a top Striker next season our attack will vastly improve, our defence has certainly got plenty of room for improvement and will hopefully improve.

Personally I don't think UTD adding one or 2 top quality player is going to make the difference you are expecting, yes you may improve but that's not guaranteed, you bought 3 top quality players this season, Zlatan being one of them and he's been on fire, you paid a record fee for Pogba yet in the League you haven't improved at all and you are about to finish 2 places lower than last season with possibly the same points total and like you say other teams will also buy big and yes they can only field 11 players but that also applies to UTD.

Obviously that's what you want to believe as a Liverpool fan! My point is though, regardless of who you guys have played up front (and hasn't Klopp chosen not to play Sturridge a lot of the time?) you have scored a lot anyway. You put a world class striker into the mix and you might get a few more goals, but your supporting cast may score a few less as well.

Klopp will be going into his third season and therefore it's much more 'his' side than Jose's is. I expect us to sign more players than he did last summer. The point is that our attack has massively underperformed this season - just look at our chances created/missed stats. I don't think yours has, and I think if we can sort that out and ally it with our strong defence then we will improve more than you guys will if you sign a decent striker and shore up the defence.

That's just my opinion obvs but do you really not think we'll close the gap on you guys? If so then that's fair enough, but if you do concede that we probably will be closer then that's what I'm referring to in terms of 'bigger scope for improvement'.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Looking at the player ratings, granted none of them were very good other than Romero, but does everyone really think Rooney was worse than Mkhitaryan among a few others?

The hate is strong. The best play of the match was his perfect touch then perfect pass that Martial, as usual for this season, dragged wide.

 

[Jaxdan]

The hate is strong. The best play of the match was his perfect touch then perfect pass that Martial, as usual for this season, dragged wide.

Agreed. He had several nice touches and passes early, that were wasted. He then petered out and appeared to just say "Eff it" like the rest of our attacking players. I actually thought our defensive players played decently for the most part, with Romero, the only silver lining.

Mkhitaryan has been the most disappointing player this season to me. I expected much better from him.

 

[Briman63]

Obviously that's what you want to believe as a Liverpool fan! My point is though, regardless of who you guys have played up front (and hasn't Klopp chosen not to play Sturridge a lot of the time?) you have scored a lot anyway. You put a world class striker into the mix and you might get a few more goals, but your supporting cast may score a few less as well.

Klopp will be going into his third season and therefore it's much more 'his' side than Jose's is. I expect us to sign more players than he did last summer. The point is that our attack has massively underperformed this season - just look at our chances created/missed stats. I don't think yours has, and I think if we can sort that out and ally it with our strong defence then we will improve more than you guys will if you sign a decent striker and shore up the defence.

That's just my opinion obvs but do you really not think we'll close the gap on you guys? If so then that's fair enough, but if you do concede that we probably will be closer then that's what I'm referring to in terms of 'bigger scope for improvement'.

No mate its not just because i'm a Liverpool fan, I'm basing my comment on what I have seen of UTD this season, you spent a lot of money last season and brought in some quality players yet you haven't IMO improved, if anything I think UTD has regressed, Next season UTD will improve, I have no doubt about that but I don't think you are going to close the gap on the teams above you as much as you would like to think, I see a lot of UTD fans on here saying how much of a rebuild UTD need, to rebuild a team and close the gap in the same season will be very difficult especially as the teams above you will also be improving there teams.

As far as Liverpool adding a Striker I don't see how you can say by us doing this it will only add a few more goals, a top Striker you would expect at least 20 goals a season, if we had that this season I think we would have challenged Chelsea for the title, that's how much that 1 addition could have made to us, Sturridge has been injured for the majority of the season so no Klopp didn't have the option to play him and when he was fit, he wasn't match fit.

You say "Klopp will be going into his third season and therefore it's much more 'his' side than Jose's is." that's not entirely true, this will be Klopps 2nd full season with us, the same as Mourinho with UTD, Klopp first season he joined us during the season and bought no players,

As far as UTD closing the gap on us, I think you will improve next season but I don't think you'll improve to the extent some of your fans think you will,

This is just my opinion and it may sound biased but its not my intention, I have read on here and spoke to many UTD fans and they all say the same thing, UTD need to rebuild and IMO Mourinho is not the Manager for that, he's not that type of Manager.

 

[nore1975]

Very impressed with Romero. Utd look out on their feet at the moment. Martial unlucky.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

End of season game with nothing to play for, we just need to avoid any more injuries.

Very few talking points
Romero saves penalty that shouldn't have been and made a couple of other good saves
Martial hit the post and Rooney was ineffective

Have to be ready for Ajax.

 

[Canagel]

And mostly at home. Turn half of them I. To wins which we should have and we are right there comfortably in second or third.
Next season we will be right in there.

What is even more amazing is that we have lost only 5 games this season, the same as chelsea yet in the remaining 32 games they've won 29 times drawing 3 times whilst we've won only 17 and drawn 15. Draws are no good in this league and I can't think of one draw this season apart from swansea at home were I thought we were lucky to get one. Off the top of my head I can remember games like stoke (twice), west ham, burnley, hull, bournemouth, west brom, everton(twice) that we didn't win. I read somewhere that we scored a 1/3 of our goals at home in the first 2 games of the season against southampton and leicester. That's just unacceptable.

 

[GiddyUp]

What is even more amazing is that we have lost only 5 games this season, the same as chelsea yet in the remaining 32 games they've won 29 times drawing 3 times whilst we've won only 17 and drawn 15. Draws are no good in this league and I can't think of one draw this season apart from swansea at home were I thought we were lucky to get one. Off the top of my head I can remember games like stoke (twice), west ham, burnley, hull, bournemouth, west brom, everton(twice) that we didn't win. I read somewhere that we scored a 1/3 of our goals at home in the first 2 games of the season against southampton and leicester. That's just unacceptable.

Yep. If we win on Wednesday it will be a successful season and a really fecking shit league showing. Any improvement next season will see us compete in the top three, if one team is a good few points ahead in first we will still be good for top four. Goals goals and fecking more goals has been our issue for four seasons now. Only one player scores while nobody else chips in. I do think we have witnessed a Van Gaal hangover though. Countless dangerous runs are being made but no one makes that risky pass. Teams always set up the same against us because of a slow transition and no forward momentum. We are not losing so that should be step one, we now need the creativity and for our players to remove the shackles. I trust Ed and Jose to fix this in the summer. I would also like to weaken our direct opposition by taking a player off Spurs Arsenal or Chelsea. Money is no problem for this club so we should use it to our advantage with no shame to get back to compete at the top.

 

[Jim Beam]

What's so funny about this post? We can't score goals and we had yet a disappointing draw. Obviously there was sarcasm about Bailly playing as a striker but you do realize how disappointing it has been? We weren't exactly playing with youngsters from the academy. We had experienced individuals out there and we still couldn't score and get 3 points.

Your initial post said:

Our players can't play with mediocre sides and we plan on winning against Ajax in the Europa Final.

Yes, we plan on winning it, and you are also aware that it will be different starting lineup and approach against Ajax. It's also biggest game of the season and we have put everything in it. You could see who was playing in our midfield yesterday and figure out from the start that it will be a dull game.

We've become the laughing stock of Europe. We've got a bunch of players that are pretty much losers.

We're not laughing stock anywhere. During are rough spell we became even bigger marketing giant which is now able to exchange punches with the likes of Real Madrid for every player in Europe. Financially, we are in better position than ever before. From the trophy side we won FA cup, League Cup and have a chance of winning Europa League in the space of 12 months. That would be 3 more trophies than those magician Klopp and Pep have combine since they came in England. Rough spell maybe in terms of our financial power and mostly because of our results in Fergie era but I will be still damn happy about these trophies because I don't think we have God given right to walk through the league like before. If this is our rough spell then I am sure, our competition can't wait for us to hit a good one.

Our players aren't losers. Ffs, if anything, this season, they showed they are hard to beat. They changed main objective and prioritize Europa League. They are also in the final of it, which means they are within their established goals. They didn't bottle it so far. If they manage to win it and they are one game away from it, I can't understand how they can be regarded like losers in anybody's book.

Let's wait for that final before we start make conclusions about our season and our players.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

As far as Liverpool adding a Striker I don't see how you can say by us doing this it will only add a few more goals, a top Striker you would expect at least 20 goals a season, if we had that this season I think we would have challenged Chelsea for the title, that's how much that 1 addition could have made to us, Sturridge has been injured for the majority of the season so no Klopp didn't have the option to play him and when he was fit, he wasn't match fit.

I'll give you an example mate as you seem to be struggling with the concept. In 2012 United signed Van Persie and he scored 26 goals, however overall the team scored 3 goals fewer than we had the previous season. Now he proved to be a great signing and gave us what we needed to win the league that year (although City were weaker than they had been the season before when they'd pipped us to title on goal difference), but it didn't mean that we scored an additional shitload of goals. As I said in my earlier post on the subject your attackers have functioned pretty well this season even without a recognised centre forward, and signing one might not make as much difference as you think as it will likely mean fewer goals from the supporting players. It all depends upon who you sign obviously - you had a good CF last season in Benteke and it didn't work. Similarly we've had one of the best CFs in the world playing for us this season who has top scored for us, but as a team we've scored a terribly low number of goals.

At the end of the day time will tell, at the moment we're both just speculating, but I stand by my original statement that even though all the top sides will buy big United have the most scope for improvement - largely based on how wasteful we have been this year in terms of chances created/scored. You guys won't create/score huge amounts more next season imho, regardless of who you sign, because there is a natural ceiling for those figures and you are closer to it than we are. Your biggest gains will likely come from tightening up at the back imho.