It's on their turf. Watford is expected to commit more men forward after that goal. Our mistake was to try and calm the game when the 2nd half started.
But I just love that 2nd half. The defensive work is very admirable.
PL W FA Premier League
Watford 1:2 Manchester United
Post-match discussion
Sat, 15 September 2018
It's on their turf. Watford is expected to commit more men forward after that goal. Our mistake was to try and calm the game when the 2nd half started.
But I just love that 2nd half. The defensive work is very admirable.
I would probably be better off if I did get banned so I’ll jjst go ahead and say it.
Where’s the joy in that? I was sat there watching us late in the second half thinking I hate myself for having just watched this for the result only. I saw the team sheet and then the first half (our good half) and said my god that’s the most expensive squad of grafters ever assembled. So little technical ability. Couple crosses to the back posts for our sequoia trees to handle and that was the good bits.
Where’s the joy in that? I was sat there watching us late in the second half thinking I hate myself for having just watched this for the result only. I saw the team sheet and then the first half (our good half) and said my god that’s the most expensive squad of grafters ever assembled. So little technical ability. Couple crosses to the back posts for our sequoia trees to handle and that was the good bits.
While I hate living on my nerves for last 10 mins as we defend and can't seem to remember we were in control, I get the impression that something's taking shape. Last season might have looked ok at the end when you run the stats but we were never enjoyable to watch. At least today (and also the last game) we actually looked like an attacking force capable of playing with some speed.
Yes Martial is annoyingly wasteful and apparently disinterested when things don't go his way, and Valencia runs to a halt when he gets forward but there's room for some optimism here. Come on boys, the season is only starting.
Yes Martial is annoyingly wasteful and apparently disinterested when things don't go his way, and Valencia runs to a halt when he gets forward but there's room for some optimism here. Come on boys, the season is only starting.
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With Matic stupid suspension, I'm guessing it'll be Fellaini-Fred-Pogba against Wolves? I'd prefer to put Pereira in there again since Wolves at Old Trafford is completely different to our last two away games. We'll need high pressure so Moutinho and Neves can't get on the ball.
Not a Fellanini fan but credit to him, playing him in that role has maximised his utility, especially against physically aggressive teams. Good to see him playing well and getting respect.
Martial is just sad to watch (that’s for another thread). What frustrates me is that Tony V (I’m a fan) has just completely forgotten how to cross the ball or run at a defender. A couple of times he was all alone and either just waited to pass back to the middle or can’t even get his cross pass the first man. If he was more effective, with Shaw or Ashley on the left (who was pretty good yesterday) we would have a more balanced attack.
We should have bid for Doucoure. Guy's better than Dembele now.
The worst thing about yesterday's game was everytime we countered and had acres of space , martial and Valencia specifically, chose the wrong options. It could easily have been 4-1 otherwise
LOL. This is nothing new you know, he has been like this for about 5 years now. I've given up on anything from our right hand side.
He will turn to shite as soon as he steps into Carrington.
I think it's good. Aside from Matic most of the other players in our team will pass the ball right away when they get it. Having someone that's willing to keep possession and impose themselves is useful, it lets the other team know you're not afraid to do something with it. Yeah it fails sometimes but it's much better than Jesse Lingard's 'give me the ball so I can give it back to you' routine.
Also notice how he seldom ever does the ball shielding for France, because there's better attacking options and more space. For us the attack is usually quite close to him so he has to try and fashion some space first before passing the ball.
What are you on? If Pogba and Sanchez start scoring at least one of their chances it’s 4 goals up before even taking a Watford goal. And you think this is uninspiring?!? Err... what is exactly inspiring for you?
Just wait til Martial gets the Jose refurb treatment. Worked wonders so far for Young, Fellaini, Shaw who were all deemed washed up by some of you lot.
If you listened to his press conference he didn't ask them to let up. He said he was disappointed that they let up. That was down to the players.
Some really good stuff in first half again, had Pogba made it three that would have been a cracking goal. We definitely sat back a little too soon and ceded the initiative a little too easily but this notion of doing it for ‘90 minutes’ needs to die. That almost never happens in the premier league barring the few routine home fixtures you might get a season and was never going to happen away at a physical Watford side making their best ever start, it was a good win if made tougher than it looked at half time.
If expectations are set that are basically impossible to meet, then you’ll be forever disappointed. Liverpool v Tottenham was an absolute shit house of a a game for most of it, Chelsea took ages to get going v Cardiff and in recent weeks even the mighty city haven’t looked relentless. We scrapped to many many many wins under ferguson and I’d be happy to see us scrap to many more this season. The football is clearly improving and let’s hope it continues to. One of these days somebody will get a good hammering and it may be a milestone moment for this group
If expectations are set that are basically impossible to meet, then you’ll be forever disappointed. Liverpool v Tottenham was an absolute shit house of a a game for most of it, Chelsea took ages to get going v Cardiff and in recent weeks even the mighty city haven’t looked relentless. We scrapped to many many many wins under ferguson and I’d be happy to see us scrap to many more this season. The football is clearly improving and let’s hope it continues to. One of these days somebody will get a good hammering and it may be a milestone moment for this group
Agree with the above posters.
I think some people are underestimating how good a win it was; Watford are not only a good home team, but had started their campaign with four victories from four games - that's up there with City and Liverpool. They were poor in the first half, partly because we made them poor and we scored two goals, which was enough to see us through a tricky second half, where they got their act together and pressed us.
If we had gone to Anfield or the Etihad and got that win, people would be delirious, but because it was Watford, it gets written down - I think that is disrespectful to Watford - 4/4 wins in the PL is a good start and they would have fancied themselves to roll us over at home.
Whilst praising De Gea for a great save, we should also do the same for Ben Foster - he had a couple of excellent saves and we could have been three up at half time without his intervention - I thought our finishing looked sharper than for a while and I hope it continues - if we keep firing efforts on target, it's a good start to upping our goal difference.
That win (plus the Burnley win) should steady the ship and set us up for a solid Sep/Oct performance, all being well.
We're literally exactly the same as last season. We play some terrible football but somehow manage to snatch a win. God knows how we do it tbh.
That's just a brilliant summation and take of the game. This is a steadying and morale boosting performance that hopefully sands off any lingering kinks out. We've had nail-biting games like these during SAF's reign and while it's definitely nice to see its return, it may not something we want to consume regularly. Games like these will age you quick.
One return I'm looking forward to are games where we shut them down quick, hard and comprehensively.
overall its a deserved win, people tend to remember the only last 20 min of the match.
fair point , I will.
I think we're better actually. We weren't great the end of that game but on the whole our control of the ball away from home at a team on form was much improved.
Apart from that one chance Sanchez didn't seem to do a lot yesterday, but watching him running off the ball on our counters you can see where and when he wants the ball playing to, but no one is making those plays. It reminded me a lot of Forlan before he scored for us. He'd be making runs like mad into decent positions, but we'd not make the play instead of getting the ball into RVN to put the ball in the net. It doesn't look great for Sanchez, nor his effectiveness that this happens, at some point we'll feed him and he'll score and hopefully it will be take off time. He's lost a lot of confidence since he arrived, he hasn't lost his ability though.
I think it was quite a masterclass from José again, much like the Burnley game. From the powerful midfield (almost) completely shut down Watford like it did in the previous game against Burnley, to the finer details like the Fellaini injury red herring in the presser. The difference here was that Watford are actually in good form and Burnley wasn't. It was to be expected that at some point in the game they'd put us under pressure, but for some Foster heroics, we'd have been out of sight in the first half anyway.
I was really happy with the performance bar the red card and the Martial display. Shoutouts mainly to Fellaini, Smalling, and de Gea who were excellent.
I was really happy with the performance bar the red card and the Martial display. Shoutouts mainly to Fellaini, Smalling, and de Gea who were excellent.
Agree with this, Watford are a very good side and have started really well. They also came from behind to beat Spurs.
The win could/should have been far more convincing after the first half and second half, they were always going to come out with a bit more about them.
I still think we’re finding our way a bit and there’s some areas that need sorting, mainly around Alexis and at CB (Lindelöf not Mike), but I thought Pogba particularly in the first half was very good, which is encouraging following recent reports.
It’s a shame many can’t praise the team and Mou when we play well and get a good result.
You don’t need to get banned to not come on the forum you know? Odd opening to a post.
Good win against a good team in form. Of course some of the posts here would be highly critical, agenda's are always like that.
Lingard probably the only really poor player. Just wasn't his game. Sanchez was as bad as he has been.
Thought Martial was a bit lax, but he did get in behind Watford once or twice.
Lingard probably the only really poor player. Just wasn't his game. Sanchez was as bad as he has been.
Thought Martial was a bit lax, but he did get in behind Watford once or twice.
3 points was hugely important. We were good in the first half.
Second half Jose said he was disappointed we didn’t kill them off.
A team who had just won 4 games in a row, had just beat Spurs at home and full of confidence, had 2 weeks to prepare for the game whilst all of our players were on international duty, were always going to be up for it yesterday.
If you can’t enjoy these wins, you’re probably best off leaving the football alone for a while.
Second half Jose said he was disappointed we didn’t kill them off.
A team who had just won 4 games in a row, had just beat Spurs at home and full of confidence, had 2 weeks to prepare for the game whilst all of our players were on international duty, were always going to be up for it yesterday.
If you can’t enjoy these wins, you’re probably best off leaving the football alone for a while.
This. A lot of good performances from players in pink shirts, first team to take any points off Watford this season.Would anyone on here really have been surprised if United had lost or drawn this game ? What's not to like.
Now comes the hard bit - building on this performance and result and putting a run of form together and hopefully a realistic challenge for some trophies.
I think some are forgetting how good Watford have been of late (that haven't been beaten at home for quite some time either).
Also their two centre halves were brilliant yesterday. Kabasele made two last ditch challenges second half to stop us running away with things and we could have had a few more before half time.
You won't get an easy 90 minutes at Vicerage Road this season. They were always going to have some of the game and United did well overall I thought.
Also their two centre halves were brilliant yesterday. Kabasele made two last ditch challenges second half to stop us running away with things and we could have had a few more before half time.
You won't get an easy 90 minutes at Vicerage Road this season. They were always going to have some of the game and United did well overall I thought.
And it was a great 20 mins from Bale. It’s not an ‘excuse’ at all. A player cannot have been ‘very very poor’ without any significant involvement. Most of his work was simple square passes. He did have that first moment where his through pass was cut out, or when he went through on goal (and was clearly pulled back by the Watford man for my money). Again, he wasn’t great (Gareth Bale was), but he wasn’t awful either, simply because he didn’t have the chance to be awful. That would require more to judge on.
What system were we actually playing?
To me it looked a lot more like 3 5 2 with sanchez and lukaku up front. Lingard was barely on the right wing and came deep to CM a lot. Fellaini stepped up into midfield at times, like a stopper, but sat so deep. Pogba was further forward than normal.
Its a shame sanchez and lukaku just aren't working out as both good players.
To me it looked a lot more like 3 5 2 with sanchez and lukaku up front. Lingard was barely on the right wing and came deep to CM a lot. Fellaini stepped up into midfield at times, like a stopper, but sat so deep. Pogba was further forward than normal.
Its a shame sanchez and lukaku just aren't working out as both good players.
+1 the team needs to become ruthless and that will come from self belief.
I'm sure he's not telling the players to sit back and hold on for dear life for the entire second half.
But, we do it, time and time again. Thats his problem to solve. To say it's not what he wished for after the game does not absolve him from blame.
Great win in the context of the early season.
What blame? When is the last time we didn't win after taking the lead?
What did Watford do that has us holding on for dear life? We defended well ffs
This. I was at the game and can't believe what I'm reading here after it. You'd think he gave away a penalty and cost us the points with the reaction on here. He came on at a time that the rest of the team was patchy and he was one of our outlets. He did some good and some bad actions. The bad was the first one on one, the good was his cross from the right which nobody bothered to attack and his movement to get that chance which was denied by some last-ditch defending. To rake him over hot coals for it is weird.
Obviously an exaggeration, they didn't create an awful lot, but we were concentrating on defending for the majority of the second half. They came pretty close in the end and i don't think it's sustainable in the long run to sit back like this, it's gonna cost us a few points.
We saw in the first half that the guys can play some nice attacking football!
I hadn't listened to the press conference before typing that. I just assumed it to be an instruction as we have consistently taken our foot off the gas after controlling the game for Mourinho's entire tenure.
Us holding on for dear life at the end of a tight game has been going on for many many many years, it's hardly a Jose tactic. We did it under Fergie all the time. Not that it isn't frustrating.
Although it wasn't all that desperate yesterday, and we still looked a threat going forward on the break.
Although it wasn't all that desperate yesterday, and we still looked a threat going forward on the break.
Good away win against a team playing well.
Credit to Jose for going with Fellaini; it worked perfectly.
Still very vulnerable at the back; thank **** for De Gea once again. We almost blew it.
We have a run of games against lesser teams in the couple of weeks, so it's a chance to put a run of wins together.
We are nowhere near being title challengers.
Credit to Jose for going with Fellaini; it worked perfectly.
Still very vulnerable at the back; thank **** for De Gea once again. We almost blew it.
We have a run of games against lesser teams in the couple of weeks, so it's a chance to put a run of wins together.
We are nowhere near being title challengers.
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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22%
Chris Smalling
-
21%
David de Gea
-
9%
Paul Pogba
-
5%
Romelu Lukaku
-
3%
Nemanja Matic
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1%
Alexis Sanchez
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 451 ratings.
Score Predictions
405,82,86
- Man Utd win
- Watford win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 25% Watford 1:2 Man Utd
- 14% Watford 0:2 Man Utd
- 12% Watford 1:3 Man Utd
- 10% Watford 1:1 Man Utd
- 8% Watford 0:1 Man Utd
- 5% Watford 0:3 Man Utd
- 5% Watford 2:1 Man Utd
- 4% Watford 2:2 Man Utd
- 3% Watford 2:3 Man Utd
- 2% Watford 2:0 Man Utd
- 2% Watford 3:1 Man Utd
- 2% Watford 5:0 Man Utd
- 2% Watford 1:0 Man Utd
- 1% Watford 0:4 Man Utd
- 1% Watford 0:5 Man Utd
- 1% Watford 0:0 Man Utd
- 1% Watford 1:4 Man Utd
- 1% Watford 3:0 Man Utd
- 1% Watford 3:2 Man Utd
- 0% Watford 2:4 Man Utd
- 0% Watford 3:5 Man Utd
- 0% Watford 4:0 Man Utd
- 0% Watford 5:5 Man Utd
Match Stats
- Watford
- Man Utd
- Possession
- 43% 57%
- Shots
- 14 9
- Shots on Target
- 5 6
- Corners
- 6 8
- Fouls
- 9 11
Referee
Mike Dean
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Eric Bailly
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replaced by Anthony Martial
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replaced by Scott McTominay
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