[sglowrider]

6 down. 34 more to go.

 

[Semper Fudge]

Indeed. Also nearly 7 months since we last won two league games in a row. I’ll take whatever signs of progress there are, no matter how small.

Yeah this is all I care about at this point. Consistent improvements no matter how small are exactly what we need right now.

 

[sdb4884]

City and Liverpool tonight showed us how high the bar is.

 

[cj_sparky]

Wasn't the best performance, but it was nice to see us grind a result out in the end.

 

[Tragically Hip]

We did not seem to value possession after the goal. Why?

 

[superdry]

Too many passengers in the front line.

 

[tombombadil]

Review of some of the tactics played today.

 

[Jippy]

Surprised we ended the match with more possession, as per the graphic on the right. Looked like they had way more, certainly in that second half.

 

[SATA]

City and Liverpool tonight showed us how high the bar is.

We just beat one of them the other day? Let’s see how we do against City when we play them. And it’s Bournemouth, they are going to get beat by a lot of teams

 

[Red_Aaron]

Over the moon with 3pts and clean sheet

Not vintage by any means but you could at least see the defense we're desperate not to concede and we're commited for 90mins
The players ran their hearts out again, if they stick to that minimum we'll continue to improve just fine

In a lot of ways it's perhaps the ideal reality check after Liverpool in that we still won but we can still see the improvements required.

Main issue for me is still midfield and its inability to retain possession and assert some control, they regularly get over run and lack composure in key moments but hopefully casemiro can play a big part in fixing that.

 

[A-man]

Happy with three points but thought we were quite poor and a bit lucky.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Any stats on how many times one of our passes went straight to the other team? It seemed we just made life difficult for ourselves needlessly.

With 5 subs also wondering why it took so long to change it up, especially as we were in a shell after we scored. Maybe not exactly well stocked in game-changers off the bench, but Eriksen and McT at minimum needed changing. ETH is right to be after Antony, we are missing something extra on the right. Dalot had a decent enough game, great cross for the goal, but he's got to be on the 'must upgrade' list.

Signs of getting it together. Great 3 points, 2 in a row, first away win in ages, no injuries, team functioning without Ronaldo, Maguire, Shaw, new boys bedding in. Can't wait for the season to start.

 

[Butty19]

Great win without being a great performance. Nice to see us defending well however at times we certainly rode our luck. We’re still lacking a quality midfielder, right back and striker. Hopefully we can address this in the next week but we’ll probably just spunk 100mill on a RW.

 

[RedEM10]

Too many passengers in the font line.

Spot on. Rashford the invisible Man again.

 

[Kopral Jono]

Very important win but you could see why Ten Hag wants De Jong so much. That said, McTominay had one of his better games. Casemiro steadying presence. Martinez imperious. Bruno excellent. Rashford needed to run more and Ronaldo clearly not match fit.

 

[captaincantona]

Rashford really is a counter attacking player. Poor control, poor movement and invention in tight spaces, really not cut out for pressing it seems. He is very much a squad player imo. Sancho and Eriksen are the only names that should be on the first team sheet for those front 4 positions. I’d have Eriksen at 10. We need two new attackers minimum.

 

[Igor Drefljak]

We got 3 points, the most important stat.

To be honest, at half time, I downbeat.
We have absolutely no team cohesion going forward. Players isolated and slow build up.
At half time, I'm thinking, with such a poor performance, we've got so much more we could offer, we should be positive. If it were City or Liverpool, I'd be expecting them to find a way. With us, I just don't have that belief.
We were the second best team in that first half, and if we went behind at any point in the second half, I didn't see us coming back from it. The pressure on us is huge.

I was even thinking, we need to be 1-0 up for us to be effective. Means the opposition has to push up a bit more, but even then, we showed hardly anything once we went ahead.

 

[Todd]

A win and a clean sheet away, I didn't think that type of thing existed anymore.

The attack pretty much looked toothless as usual so it's surprising that we strung a moment of pure class together for that very lovely finish by Bruno.

Varane and Martinez are looking good together. Of course they didn't press very hard.

Elanga gives the ball away more than Rashford, and that's saying something.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

6 down. 34 more to go.

Did you go to the Harry Redknapp's Dog's School of Maths?

 

[SirScholes]

City and Liverpool tonight showed us how high the bar is.

Just as well we cleared it last Monday

 

[SirScholes]

I was for once hoping Fred would come on earlier because Eriksens legs had gone
And then with 1 minute to go Fred gets the ball in their half and rather than run to the corner decides to cross it, lose possession and then give away a free kick allowing them another attempt at launching the ball into the box.
Just shows the depth is not good, any signing we make is likely to improve this squad

 

[justsomebloke]

Happy with three points but thought we were quite poor and a bit lucky.

That about sums it up, I reckon.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Happy with three points but thought we were quite poor and a bit lucky.

Were we lucky? Southampton weren't up to much themselves.

 

[Santoryo]

Too many passengers in the font line.

Absolutely. These guys up front aren't helping the already meh midfield to relieve pressure or keep the ball. When you have Elanga and Rashford as your forwards, you're guaranteed to lose the ball all the time, especially with Elanga. Then you have Bruno the guru of giving away the ball and that's a formula for no ball retention.

 

[Sandikan]

It was always going to be a tricky game after the highs of the Liverpool game.
But a really good test, as we could easily have dropped points here.

Win and clean sheet the only things that matter.

Hopefully get Martial fit, get Casemiro bedded in, and maybe Anthony too, and we'll be on the up.

 

[MileStolar]

Absolutely. These guys up front aren't helping the already meh midfield to relieve pressure or keep the ball. When you have Elanga and Rashford as your forwards, you're guaranteed to lose the ball all the time, especially with Elanga. Then you have Bruno the guru of giving away the ball and that's a formula for no ball retention.

I reckon if we played Casemiro behind Eriksen and VDB and Sancho Martial and Rashy upfront that would be our best team for some possession based football. All of them are good at ball retention and Rashford wouldn't give it away as much in that environment where he has options and movement around him.

 

[tjb]

I reckon if we played Casemiro behind Eriksen and VDB and Sancho Martial and Rashy upfront that would be our best team for some possession based football. All of them are good at ball retention and Rashford wouldn't give it away as much in that environment where he has options and movement around him.

What has VDB done to get put in some of these teams. If Mctominay hides, so does VDB. Yet you'd like us to replace our best player over the last few years for one of the biggest flops we've ever had.

 

[RedorDead21]

Desperately need afew more upgrades to put us anywhere near top 4 this season. But these wins will massively help confidence in the manager and lift individual performance levels. The games are already coming abit too quickly for our squad depth. Fingers crossed another 2 or 3 in next week. Antony and FDJ would be massive and the best we could hope for.

 

[MileStolar]

What has VDB done to get put in some of these teams. If Mctominay hides, so does VDB. Yet you'd like us to replace our best player over the last few years for one of the biggest flops we've ever had.

No I meant in terms of ball retention and possession based football. Donny doesn't do much but rarely loses the ball and always keeps it in circulation. I don't think we should bench Bruno permanently but I rather proposed the best set of players for possession based football if we were to set up that way in any particular game.

 

[Volumiza]

Made hard work of it today but good to see us get 3 points and keep a clean sheet when not on song. Days like this are just as, if not more important as the days when we beat teams comfortably.

Looking forward to seeing Casemiro grow into his role. Some good signs in his short outing today.

 

[matt10000]

It’s Southampton, arse end of the country, never an easy away game but we won.

 

[matt10000]

City and Liverpool tonight showed us how high the bar is.

Screw them, just worry about what we are doing

 

[Amanda Hugginkiss]

Looking at today's performance we'll be best of the rest.

 

[simonhch]

Fecking woeful.

Lack of ability and lack of composure are terrifying.

3 points but overall fecking dreadful

We won. Awful performance but somehow got it. Needed confidence booster and hopefully get a couple new signings in before next week.

Really fortunate to get away with that. Southampton created a lot of chances and our decision making in attack was pretty poor

I picked these messages because they were in the first couple of pages, but I easily could’ve picked 50 more in the following 8 pages. Some fairly dire analysis there.

While no one will argue it was a vintage performance, and that we badly missed Martial’s ability to hold the ball, turn and bring others into the game, the performance on the whole was very comfortable.

For the first 60 minutes we looked like the only team capable of scoring. Somehow we missed that triple chance in the first half and it was frankly a miracle that Southampton didn’t go in behind. Second half we started brightly and scored a superb team goal with some intelligent movement, crisp passing and a delightfully clinical finish from Bruno. At that point we were enjoying 60% possession and looked extremely comfortable.

After that the criticism is that we didn’t hold the ball well enough and we lacked an out ball. Sancho tired and went off, but had been terrific up until then. Unfortunately Rashford really didn’t offer much today and that was a great disappointment. I saw one post saying that Elanga is like playing with ten men. But he played a vital role in the goal with excellent interchange and movement between him and Dalot.

Despite retreating to a low block for the last 30 minutes, I thought we looked extremely comfortable. Aside from the odd scrappy set piece, I don’t remember a single Southampton chance and the only save of note from De Gea in the 90, was a simple one from A quick turn and shot straight at him from Che Adams.

Varane and Martinez were superb again, as were the fullbacks. This is exactly the sort of game we’d have drawn or lost last season, but there was a clear resilience and composure to our defending this time around. Delighted personally to see solid foundations being shown. This was the sort of mature, rather than lucky, away win that we haven’t seen for a while. Some ways to go until we are playing the sort of free flowing, dominant, attacking football we all want, but a really excellent follow up to the Liverpool game, in the sense that we showed we can win another way, and do so without riding our luck.

Bringing in a forward or two is frankly essential. Ronaldo offered nothing when he came on. Rashford is not a CF. Martial was badly missed as he knits that front line together. I hope we get the Antony deal over the line because we need quality reinforcements, but on current evidence, we also desperately need a CF that can hold the ball up and bring others into play, to rotate with Martial.

Eriksen dictated play beautifully, but his influence waned as we went deeper and deeper. Fernandes never stopped running and produced another Captain’s performance. McTominay has put in two disciplined performances at 6, back to back. Well done him. Nevertheless, Casemiro will be a huge upgrade with his positioning and reading of the game.

Not everything has to be fireworks. Very satisfied that we are headed in the right direction. Excited to see what we can do in the last week of the window, and getting Casemiro and Martial into the team.

Cheer up. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

 

[A-man]

Were we lucky? Southampton weren't up to much themselves.

I think that 1-1 would have been the result reflecting the match best. So yes, we were a bit lucky.

 

[hellhunter]

I think that 1-1 would have been the result reflecting the match best. So yes, we were a bit lucky.

Pretty much, yeah:

 

[A-man]

Pretty much, yeah:

Always good to get it confirmed

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Good win.

Really poor after we went ahead though. We just forgot how to string a few passes together and gave them the ball way too often from losses of possession.

 

[Sea-Cow]

I think there can be some slight differences, but it looked like the pitch was tiny and super congested compared to Old Trafford. There just didn't seem to be any space at all.

Overall it was an awful match between two average sides. But I guess 3 points is all that matters. I wish I saw some hint of a change in our football with ETH, but I'm struggling to see it. Only 4 games in I guess.

 

[M Bison]

Do we have the running/sprint stats?