[PaulScholes99]

I am happy that we won and I think if we had lost, it could have gotten really bad. Losing at home against the dead last, 1 point in the last 5. Pressure would have been immense and I think we could really have ended in a relegation fight. Now this should at least be done.

Still concerning and a really bad performance in the first ~60 minutes. Since the last two games were encouraging, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt though and believe/hope it was just us being incredibly tired after playing 120 minutes against Arsenal, half of it with 10 men, leaving our heart on the pitch.

 

[ThanksBoss26]

Important win though we’ll need to find a way to step it up a few notches for Sunday.

 

[westmeath]

Came home from work and switched on with 15 minutes to go. Dominant performance by United from start to finish, what’s all the fuss about??

 

[Woodzy]

I just love his honesty. He’s literally trying figure out why we are so shit game by game instead of trying to fill the fans and players with false confidence:

 

[Robertd0803]

Get in there Amad you beauty.

 

[trevor newnham]

De Ligt was a beast when he came on

didn't he start??

 

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

We found our level!

 

[Red Primus]

People really need to understand the context in which we played this game. It's pretty accurate to say that players were clearly exhausted, mentally and physically. Many just recently played 90 to 120 minutes with 10 men - that's an extra load on them. That game would have been immensely draining especially because of the 10 men situation. It takes a huge toll as it can clearly be seen today.

Playing so soon after games like that makes players less sharp, less focused, slower in reaction times or more prone to mistakes and flubs, which unsurprisingly was translated today as a less intense, and ultimately bad first half. Couple that with fact they will playing again in 2 days' time, I'm sure there were positional strategies that were in place as well as playing with a lower gear just to conserve for the next game. This will be definitely playing in their minds during the game, and it can be quite affecting.

United started playing with an extra gear with 15 to 20 minutes to go, damning fatigue and using up energy to secure the objective. Also helped that the substitutes had fresh legs to change the tide. You can clearly see this in Amad, who played for 120 minutes on Sunday with 10 men, just switching up gears in the last 15 in a do or die mission. I don't think we will see him start next Sunday. Even Bruno looked fatigued, and that guy has an engine like no other in this team. Let's take all this context into consideration before wantonly slating the team as being not committed or lazy. You clearly can see the fatigue had an effect on them.

 

[oz insomniac]

Someone, somewhere paid more for Anthony than Hojlund and Amad combined. How smart were the ETH signings

 

[RedIan]

Don't know if they were fatigued but Mainoo and Ugarte were absolutely atrocious, Hojlund needs benching, he is out of form and playing like a striker with zero confidence, Garnacho put in the effort but his decision making and finishing were awful.

Thought Zirkzee was very good, maybe as unpleasant as it was for him the Newcastle substitution was a massive kick up the arse because he has been twice the player since, thought today's cameo was the best we have seen from him, all of a sudden he has gone from lets ship him back to Italy whilst he still has some credit to this guy might actually make it.

Collyer was good and played a very controlled game, would have liked to see something more expansive from him.

Antony, wasn't awful but enough is enough.

Think is we had started with the 11 we finished with we would have been much better, but who could foresee Mainoo and Ugarte being so poor.

Amad is literally the only bright spark right now though, the next 6 matches are all winnable but we cannot keep relying sp heavily on one player

Mainoo was poor back to being off the pace and his passing was poor.
Ugarte i thought was our best player amongst a dire team. I was shocked he got subbed that said collyer did very well..

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

The relief! At around seventy minutes I thought to myself, “what if we go down?” It would have been a catastrophe to lose at home to the bottom team which had amassed six points from their previous twenty games. Psychologically it would have been crippling. Then Amad stepped up once again and saved us from that nightmare.

The first half was horrendous and we could have been further behind. It was baffling, after two really good away performances at Liverpool and Arsenal. The double save by Onana was huge. So many senior players yet again failed to show up, and poor Yoro was ripped apart by the Southampton winger.

I’m just glad it’s over and Amad came through for us. There are huge problems, but the win is everything right now. Everything else can wait until I’ve calmed down. I feel drained.

 

[FreakyJim]

Incredible Amad!

I fecking can't stand this 3-5-2 crap already, Yoro left alone vs a quick winger, no support from a full back really exposed us. The middle was overrun as well. Hoof it long to Hojlund/Zirkzee and wait for them to win it vs 3 defenders.
Is that the tactics?

 

[imonkmc]

Play awful still manage to get points, for now I will take it. A lot to improve upon

 

[croadyman]

Need to be significantly better against Brighton

 

[RedDevil@84]

Saw that a few moments ago. Shocking. He never looked confident that he would score and never truly went for it.

Its Antony. Everyone should be used to that by now. Would have been shocked if he scored.

 

[croadyman]

Wowser. We were played off the park for 60 minutes. Complete dross with Southampton looking like an in form Brighton team against a poor championship team. .

Southampton should have buried us in that first half, Onana was immense in keeping us in the game.

Zirkzee changed the game. Where has this player been hiding. Amad is a different class. A 10 from me just for that 13 minute Hatrick.

Yeah so lucky they weren't more clinical, certainly wouldn't know they only had 6 points

 

[Pickle85]

Seems like Amorim is also frustrated by our ability to show up for games like Liverpool and goons but not for the 'lesser' teams. Quite rightly.

 

[V.O.]

Incredible Amad!

I fecking can't stand this 3-5-2 crap already, Yoro left alone vs a quick winger, no support from a full back really exposed us. The middle was overrun as well. Hoof it long to Hojlund/Zirkzee and wait for them to win it vs 3 defenders.
Is that the tactics?

What do you mean "already"? You and a few others have been whingeing about it since before Amorim was even signed.

 

[croadyman]

Scholes is such a doom merchant. Feck off.

Just for telling the truth

 

[moodyred]

And De Ligt maybe?

He did perform well.

 

[Shark]

Just for telling the truth

I'm all for telling the truth, but he literally said we should be 0-3 down at half time despite us having chances of our own also. We were shite, but you don't have to make it worse for the sake of it.

 

[croadyman]

Seems like Amorim is also frustrated by our ability to show up for games like Liverpool and goons but not for the 'lesser' teams. Quite rightly.

Yeah we look like game raisers how others used to be against us back when we were feared

 

[JediSith]

Everyone going on about the bad performance and it was in first half.

But that last 10 mins reminded me of United united under SAF. Not seen that for ages, even when we’ve made late wins. What i liked most was after the first we went for the second and i genuinely knew we’d get it.

 

[Carolina Red]

Amad Diallo has it.

What a phenomenal performance

 

[tenpoless]

Just think about how massively shit we've been this season, changing managers, systems, a complete meltdown and reboot of the whole club.......and we are still two points above Spurs.

Can't perform properly when the manager is your own mate.

 

[simplyared]

Am I the only one who thought the opposition were midtable level and way better than there actual position in the league. They were agressive, strong, quick and had quality in some areas on the pitch. Certainly had an impressive attacking force. Can't understand the negativity. We kept at it and got the reward in the end. I'm over the moon if nobody else is!

 

[sparx99]

Incredible Amad!

I fecking can't stand this 3-5-2 crap already, Yoro left alone vs a quick winger, no support from a full back really exposed us. The middle was overrun as well. Hoof it long to Hojlund/Zirkzee and wait for them to win it vs 3 defenders.
Is that the tactics?

No, it’s not the tactics obviously.

 

[WPMUFC]

Amorim in the dressing room

 

[tenpoless]

Scholes is such a doom merchant. Feck off.

Bite your toenails while he talks to mock him.

 

[bgoodall]

Good tough win after running ourselves ragged for two games and an extra time. People will complain, as usual, but I thought it would be a hard one today and we still managed the win thanks to the subs and Amad.

 

[BaguetteBoy]

TalkSPORT is really a cesspit isn’t it. Was listening to sportsbar and there were United fans saying to sell Amad and sack RA. Supposedly these were fans coming from the game. Ridiculous

 

[cyril C]

how many of you given up after 70th?

 

[Charlie Foley]

TalkSPORT is really a cesspit isn’t it. Was listening to sportsbar and there were United fans saying to sell Amad and sack RA. Supposedly these were fans coming from the game. Ridiculous

Think about the sort of person that would call into talksport and it makes more sense

 

[Isotope]

A game to showcase the impact of a striker to the game. In this system (well probably in every system), it's extremely crucial to have a good striker that can hold up the ball well.

 

[343]

OK, I didn't watch the game because I was at work, but going by the highlights and the stats, it seemed that we were kind of dominant? I know watching a game can be a different experience altogether, but Garnacho in the first half and Antony in the second half missed sitters, we had more possession, more shots on goal, more big chances, twice the xG etc., while their chances seem to come from that one winger who played like prime Messi.

Is it because they scored first and all our goals were late that people are saying this was a bad performance?

 

[Squeaky_Bum_Time]

OK, I didn't watch the game because I was at work, but going by the highlights and the stats, it seemed that we were kind of dominant? I know watching a game can be a different experience altogether, but Garnacho in the first half and Antony in the second half missed sitters, we had more possession, more shots on goal, more big chances, twice the better xG etc., while their chances seem to come from that one winger who played like prime Messi.

Is it because they scored first and all our goals were late that people are saying this was a bad performance?

They had 5 shots on target in the first half, we had 1. They had more xG. Possession was evenly split. They had more passes in the opposition half and in the final third. They also got behind our defence 5 or 6 times, but squandered it, especially on our right side where Yoro got skinned multiple times.

The game changed when Hojlund, Mainoo, and Ugarte were all off (~55th minute). All three had been pretty bad except for Hojlund’s run and chance he created for Garnacho. With Zirkzee holding up play better, Collyer actually moving as opposed to Mainoo and Ugarte who were very static, and Antony actually running at people although to little effect, the game started to tip.

Also what happened is they were pressing man to man and running like mad men, they tired, especially in the last 20 mins.

Overall we deserve to win, but we looked very vulnerable for long stretches of the game. You can’t appreciate it from the stats alone, especially the ease with which they were strolling through our midfield and defence.

 

[343]

They had 5 shots on target in the first half, we had 1. They had more xG. Possession was evenly split. They had more passes in the opposition half and in the final third. They also got behind our defence 5 or 6 times, but squandered it, especially on our right side where Yoro got skinned multiple times.

The game changed when Hojlund, Mainoo, and Ugarte were all off (~55th minute). All three had been pretty bad except for Hojlund’s run and chance he created for Garnacho. With Zirkzee holding up play better, Collyer actually moving as opposed to Mainoo and Ugarte who were very static, and Antony actually running at people although to little effect, the game started to tip.

Also what happened is they were pressing man to man and running like mad men, they tired, especially in the last 20 mins.

Overall we deserve to win, but we looked very vulnerable for long stretches of the game. You can’t appreciate it from the stats alone, especially the ease with which they were strolling through our midfield and defence.

Fair enough. I just saw another set of highlights and we could have easily conceded thrice in the first half.

What an enigma this team is to follow up the Pool and Arsenal games with this.

 

[Tincanalley]

People really need to understand the context in which we played this game. It's pretty accurate to say that players were clearly exhausted, mentally and physically. Many just recently played 90 to 120 minutes with 10 men - that's an extra load on them. That game would have been immensely draining especially because of the 10 men situation. It takes a huge toll as it can clearly be seen today.

Playing so soon after games like that makes players less sharp, less focused, slower in reaction times or more prone to mistakes and flubs, which unsurprisingly was translated today as a less intense, and ultimately bad first half. Couple that with fact they will playing again in 2 days' time, I'm sure there were positional strategies that were in place as well as playing with a lower gear just to conserve for the next game. This will be definitely playing in their minds during the game, and it can be quite affecting.

United started playing with an extra gear with 15 to 20 minutes to go, damning fatigue and using up energy to secure the objective. Also helped that the substitutes had fresh legs to change the tide. You can clearly see this in Amad, who played for 120 minutes on Sunday with 10 men, just switching up gears in the last 15 in a do or die mission. I don't think we will see him start next Sunday. Even Bruno looked fatigued, and that guy has an engine like no other in this team. Let's take all this context into consideration before wantonly slating the team as being not committed or lazy. You clearly can see the fatigue had an effect on them.

I agree. Enjoyed the way you put your thoughts across

 

[Tincanalley]

Am I the only one who thought the opposition were midtable level and way better than there actual position in the league. They were agressive, strong, quick and had quality in some areas on the pitch. Certainly had an impressive attacking force. Can't understand the negativity. We kept at it and got the reward in the end. I'm over the moon if nobody else is!

I am in 100% agreement

 

[The Constant Gardener]

First half was horrific viewing. The pitch just seemed too big for us. Gaps all over the place, nobody making runs to pull defenders away. Every forward pass either wayward or intercepted. Total lack of impetus throughout the team, being carved open at will by Soton. Certainly relegation battle material on that showing.

Glad the Rim could make the changes he needed, but I'd be much happier if the starting 11 was chosen to win the game. With an apparent lack of cash he's going to have to get the best out of this squad, better teams will punish us more than Southampton and we might not be able to recover, as we did in the second half.

A new striker, one that can hold the ball up is a must.