[BringNaniBack]

Pogba was crucified v Liverpool absolutely correct that Mata receives the same treatment.

Please tell me you are joking. Everything Pogba did in the Liverpool was awful. Ridiculous hand ball to give away the penalty, got completely dominated in midfield, lost possession repeatedly, could barely pass the ball to a team mate without losing it, it was one of the worst performances I have ever seen from a United player. Mata, missed a decent chance which was actually very difficult given how the ball was bobbling and the defender sliding in and for the own goal the ball deflected off him which was pure bad luck. The rest of the game he did reasonably well. It was nothing like the Pogba performance.

 

[Butty19]

Thought we played pretty well. We're not clinical enough in front of goal and haven't been for most of the season, especially in the league. Thought Zlatan had probably his worst game for us. I'd like to see Rashford used through the middle more especially when we're chasing the game.

 

[Sereques]

Am so pissed off. We missed a great chance today.

 

[BringNaniBack]

Thought we played pretty well. We're not clinical enough in front of goal and haven't been for most of the season, especially in the league. Thought Zlatan had probably his worst game for us. I'd like to see Rashford used through the middle more especially when we're chasing the game.

We did play well. Same story all season. Play well and don't finish our chances. Zlatan was poor.

 

[illReD]

We really should be 3rd today.

Edit: Taking into account the two dropped points against Liverpool.

 

[AlwaysRed66]

Our biggest problems are we are slow & static especially up front, don't put away enough chances, & are easy to play against. Whilst our rivals punish lower ranked sides, we struggle to get past them, & make hard work to win games even when dominating. You only have to look at our goal difference at 12, whilst the top four is at least double that. I can see us falling way short at this rate.

 

[mav_9me]

We are back to results not matching the performances.

Have to say I do like how we are back to completely dominating games. It played out like one of our home games.

 

[SwansonsTache]

Love Zlatan, but feck me I would love a striker that would do runs in behind the opposition defence. It is too easy to hold a defensive line against us.

 

[Sereques]

I still don't understand why we start games with Fellaini.

 

[El Zoido]

That Mata miss gets worse every time I see it.

 

[Born2Lose]

I still don't understand why we start games with Fellaini.

I still don't understand why not playing him would mean we would have scored more than 1 goal with 25 attempts.

 

[whatwha]

Still mystified by why Fellaini started ahead of Carrick. No Carrick no win. Any comment from Jose? And Mata ahead of Martial.

 

[Camy89]

I still don't understand why we start games with Fellaini.

I still don't understand why people can't see we're a small team, and against a huge, physical side like Stoke, need tall CDM's.

 

[Frank Grimes]

I actually think we we played well today, our expectations have gone up and that is a good thing but we deserved the win today more than the West Ham game.
We do have an obvious problem though in scoring goals and it goes beyond unlucky, our midfield does not chip in near enough for a side who should be competing for the league and Zlatan's influence as our focal point is deminished because of this. Big summer ahead.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

Couldn't watch the game, but glad to hear that we at least played decently even if we didn't manage the win. It's true that we won't win all our games and, though it's frustrating, it's better to lose or draw while still looking like we should win than lose or draw due to playing poorly. Still well in the hunt for a top 4 spot.

 

[Jonno]

What I love is when we don't win these days, we have usually battered the opponent and deserved to win.

When we drew under LVG, we didn't even try to win.

Major progress has been made, I'm happy

 

[ash_86]

We need to go with a better mindset when going into games. Moment i saw Fellaini in the lineup , i knew this would end bad. Jose keeps predicting a tough game and tries to play it safe with Fellaini. He doesn't seem to understand how much this affects our game in the midfield. Instead of imposing our game on them, we try to counter their play. This is fair against Liverpool or Chelsea, but i have no clue why he is doing this against the likes of Stoke. We could have finished our chances and all of these statement would be false, but its not just a coincidence that we couldn't string two passes to each other in the first 20 minutes.

 

[Cantona_Forever]

We're still top of the table!

..the "worst finishing" table.

And with a form like this I don't see anyone catches us up anytime soon.

No wonder our records in big matches were so shit ..by kept wasting chances after chances like that. Now even with open goal we're still able to fluff it. Luckily Stoke didn't punish us.

Our plays were lovely at times though. How beautiful it will be if we CAN finish those.

 

[DrRodo]

A point at stoke is a golden point... Remember not even Messi could do it there on a cold wednesday night, nor in a saturday evening (maybe)

 

[Natener]

Love Zlatan, but feck me I would love a striker that would do runs in behind the opposition defence. It is too easy to hold a defensive line against us.

Which he does do? Not at great regularity but the Mata miss was an example of such runs. It also doesn't help that runs in behind the opposition defence won't happen too often for us because of how deep teams sit against us.

 

[Vida5Nick]

I still don't understand why people can't see we're a small team, and against a huge, physical side like Stoke, need tall CDM's.

Hogwash. Teams of mainly Small flair players have held thier own against bigger opponents, see Barcelona. It is not about the size, but fluidity and how teams break them down.

Fellaini is just a lump that offers nothing. We were playing 10 against 11 with him on.

 

[arthurka]

A point at stoke is a golden point... Remember not even Messi could do it there on a cold wednesday night, nor in a saturday evening (maybe)

Ahhh
Yeah thats it.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

What a goal by Wazza. I just watched all the angles on that vid from the club. Very cool.

Too bad we were wasteful, but man, many on here need to get a grip.

 

[Billy Blaggs]

We still need a Keane and a Romario.

 

[goin4glory]

Mourinho saying in the post match presser that Martial wasn't selected, awful decision.

 

[CG1010]

Please tell me you are joking. Everything Pogba did in the Liverpool was awful. Ridiculous hand ball to give away the penalty, got completely dominated in midfield, lost possession repeatedly, could barely pass the ball to a team mate without losing it, it was one of the worst performances I have ever seen from a United player. Mata, missed a decent chance which was actually very difficult given how the ball was bobbling and the defender sliding in and for the own goal the ball deflected off him which was pure bad luck. The rest of the game he did reasonably well. It was nothing like the Pogba performance.

Mata's chance was hardly very difficult. The ball wasn't bobbling. He made an elementary mistake of assuming that the defender would clear it, instead of being ready in case he didn't. It really is a chance that should go in 10 out of 10 times. And its uncharacteristic of Mata to miss it.

 

[Redlyn]

I still don't understand why people can't see we're a small team, and against a huge, physical side like Stoke, need tall CDM's.

We are not that small with the likes of pogba ibra and Smalling. Fellaini really just gives us height but thats not nearly good enough for him to be a starter as a cm or a forward.

 

[Sereques]

I still don't understand why people can't see we're a small team, and against a huge, physical side like Stoke, need tall CDM's.

Oh really? that will explain us conceding a goal after he came off compared to when he was on the pitch.

 

[Relfy]

Disappointing result as we could have gained some ground on those above us. We didn't play too badly and created enough to win the game, just lacked the finishing. At least we got out of there with something to show for the effort.

 

[Esquire]

Thought we played pretty well. We're not clinical enough in front of goal and haven't been for most of the season, especially in the league. Thought Zlatan had probably his worst game for us. I'd like to see Rashford used through the middle more especially when we're chasing the game.

Zlatan is bullet proof at the moment. But I agree he should have come out yesterday with Rashford given a chance in the middle. That said, Rashford gave Glen Johnson a pretty torrid time on the wing.

 

[Treble_Winning]

at least we drew

Mata cost us. Ibrahimovic was abysmal.

Both of these players also happen to be our most influential and consequential players this season - in terms of goals / assists / end product.

Who would you have rather had upfront instead of Zlatan?

Rooney's goal was unbelievable, a real stunner, and he has now got the record. We have gained a point on Liverpool. Let's focus on the positives.

 

[marukomu]

We're all gonna die.

 

[shield]

Thought we played pretty well. We just failed to convert the chances we had created. Think we created about 4 very good clear chances from which we should have managed to put it at least 2.

Lots of room for improvement, but we really should start scoring.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Usually after sleeping on dropped points I wake up much less bothered. I'm waking today a bit more annoyed. It's piss poor to take so long to score in a game with so much possession.

Fellaini is (of course) getting loads of stick but our midfield was fine. Not great but good enough. It's the players ahead of him that let us down. And not for the first time.

Ibra's doing it all on his own. Mata, Rooney, Martial, Rashford, Lingard and now Mikhitaryan are just not creating/scoring as often as their equivalents in the teams above us in the league. Despite consistently playing for a team that dominates possession and territory. So long as almost every goal we score continues to be created or scored by a 35 year old striker then we haven't a hope of making the top four.

 

[AgentP]

We should not start both Mata and Mkhi on the wing. We need one of Martial or Rashford to run at the full backs.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Some made the comment that we didn't deserve anything from the game. Well yes we did. We were the better side, were trying to actually win the game, had them pinned back. We deserved even more from the game.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Some made the comment that we didn't deserve anything from the game. Well yes we did. We were the better side, were trying to actually win the game, had them pinned back. We deserved even more from the game.

We didn't work their keeper enough to win. We arguably deserved to win in our home game against them but yesterday, not so much.

 

[K2K]

Stoke City 1-0 Manchester United - Mata (19' OG)

Spoiler

Stoke City 1-1 Manchester United - Wayne Rooney (94')

Spoiler

Always loved Alan Parry on commentary.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

We didn't work their keeper enough to win. We arguably deserved to win in our home game against them but yesterday, not so much.

The not working the goalie is the one bugbear I do have. We had them under pressure which should lead to goals, yet they were either not taking a shot when it was on, taking shots when they weren't on, missing sitters and of course our old favourite, hitting the bar. They need to be clinical. I cannot explain why some teams can put teams away yet we cannot.

 

[AgentP]

It's all about scoring the first goal. Once the opposition score, they start defending even deeper and we will have to score 2 before they start pushing forward. Conceding these silly goals (penalty and own goal) is only making it even more difficult for us.