[Massive Spanner]

Rojo looked great in the middle and seemed happy to boss the others around, that was probably the most pleasing thing for me, aside from winning, obviously.

 

[the hea]

We played some very exciting football for the first 30 minutes.
I liked the way we defended our lead after the red card we actually defended like a team and if we had played like that against Leicester in the second half we would have won that match to.

 

[LARulz]

Didn't catch the game. 3 points. Above Liverpool. Ecstatic.

I am indeed a fan of that but let's be honest, they've played a few tougher games than us.

 

[bosnian_red]

As if we needed more injuries and suspensions. Hopefully it's just a short thing for herrera and he was only out for today. We need him.
A bit shit though, the result is what matters. A good thing is that a win like this will do wonders to our confidence about the resilience and defence imo, gives us faith that we can see out tight games.

 

[OneUnited24]

LVG tactics and substitutions have been poor so far, he really needs to get off his fat arse at times.

I admit the Falcao one was odd because i thought he was more involved than RvP. But he clearly trusts Robin to hold the ball up for the team. Bringing on Valencia was pretty smart because he knows how to keep the ball (ie going back)

 

[Manchie]

3 points it doesn't matter how we got it, but what a disgraceful act by our so called Captain. Still we are may be the easiest team to play against. We seem to concede on every attack.

 

[Smores]

Very important 3 points.

I still can't believe our form given the kind fixture list, not confident at all going into the tougher games immediately ahead. A win at Everton would do us all the world of good by demonstrating some actual progress.

 

[JUPITER]

Was so impressed with Mcnair, that was a high pressure debut and he was fantastic. Was also impressed with Rojo and Shaw.

I stand by my oft repeated stance on Rooney, RvP and Falcao all starting together - particularly RvP and Falcao starting together - it doesn't offer any balance and we give up possession too easily in final third.

Wayne Rooney is a poor captain and I'm glad Mata is going to get a run in the team - that said, no matter how well Mata plays you know the moment Rooney's available again Mata will be back on the bench.

Oh, and we're above Liverpool - when was the last time we could say that!?

 

[OneUnited24]

I am indeed a fan of that but let's be honest, they've played a few tougher games than us.

True but i fancy our chances against the likes of Villa, Southampton and Tottenham. They've had a tougher start on paper but i think as Swansea have shown so far its going to be a hard league this season...

 

[Nate Dogg]

I admit the Falcao one was odd because i thought he was more involved than RvP. But he clearly trusts Robin to hold the ball up for the team. Bringing on Valencia was pretty smart because he knows how to keep the ball (ie going back)

My only gripe with that is RVP looks so unfit and for me he would've the first player off.

 

[Jagga7]

Absolutely delighted we held on! The players should great character especially after last week, this is better than a 4-0 for me.

 

[Raoul]

We are obviously a work in progress. Shades of brilliant, sexy football as well as barren spells where we lose focus. Once the latter improve, we will be quite a handful for any opposition we face.

 

[Anduin]

Dug deep and won, well done to the defence. Still idiotic to not have the game wrapped up by half time, West Ham were atrocious and only got back into the game due to a De Gea blunder. Won't complain today though, three points, excellent resilience shown.

 

[Raven Blade]

Nerves are shredded. I was watching those last 25 mins though my fingers.

But we finally got another win. This could be one of those results that is the making of this squad. They've suffered together and come out unscathed. Things surely have to improve as we get more injured players back.

 

[kouroux]

Down at 10, RVP was basically pointless, why not take him off ?

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Rooney what a tool … I keep defending him against the haters then he goes and does that!
Is there a Paddy McNair 2014/2015 performances thread?

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I enjoyed the first half alot. It wasn't perfect, but there's signs of world class players gelling. Herrera, before being forced off, was a machine. He was the heart of everything. Great signing.

2nd half was hellish. Ridiculous decision to kick so high. It would never have been a red if he clipped his ankle, or even gave him a shove in the back.

I thought Eder Valencia could have seen red as well. He was already on a yellow, then he fouled Rafael twice.

McNair and Rojo were solid. That header from McNair when he was running towards his own goal line was different class. Really impressive. Rojo never seemed to lose a one on one. Always managed to nick the ball away. We invited a lot of pressure by being down to 10 men (and being terrible at playing with 10 men), but I thought we defended very well.


Not so sure Nolan's goal was offside. Haven't seen a freezeframe of it.

 

[Sid234]

Rooney's going to miss the West Brom, Everton and Chelsea game now.. Lets see if Mata can show LvG why he should be ahead of our Captain at #10

 

[Ferguson]

Two mistakes from two of our leaders.

I think De Gea was overcompensating for his defenders by trying to come out aggressively. Rooney tried to protect the defense with his foul too.

Basically a lack of trust in our defenders being able to do their job.

 

[Pyroblazer]

Good first half and after that we shouldn't get in trouble but we saw again that we are weak on the mental side and don't have much confidence right now. Every time we concede a goal nowadays we are in danger to throw a game away. And you don't get a easy ride like QPR every week.

 

[LARulz]

True but i fancy our chances against the likes of Villa, Southampton and Tottenham. They've had a tougher start on paper but i think as Swansea have shown so far its going to be a hard league this season...

They've also played City and Everton.

We just aren't good enough at the back. And I've said in the match thread several times, we cannot pass around at the back. It's suicide. We can't cope under pressure and our defenders aren't good enough as it is. We have to keep the ball in the final third to control games

 

[CantonaVeron]

I think thet this is performance will do us good it will show the team they can get a result when things go against us, we showed the resiliance a Utd team should be showing. We still need to get better at keeping the ball and go on the attack for more time in the match. We seem to start like a house on fire then drop of when we are two goals ahead just keep going should be the message drilled into the players. What we need now is to get a settled defence together, Shaw was a big plus today and Rafeal I thought was excellent too especially after what happened to him last week. I think Rooney makes a bad decision today he needs to just clip him not volley him into the crowd, frustration from decisions or not its unacceptable to do that and I think he should be captain and he is one of our best players but today after playing excellent in the first half he just loses his head and he has teammates to thank today for getting him out of jail.

 

[Kostur]

But Rooney was our best player in the first half and worked his bollox off. It was just a retarded moment

I couldn't care less to be fair, this retarded moment could've easily costed us, you know, I'd probably try to 'understand' if he retaliated at somebody if somebody stepped on him or been nasty to our players, you know, but it was Steven fecking Downing that was 'charging' at our goal. He could've just caught him by his shirt or trip him, but no, let's do a knee high kick for some idiotic reason.

When he was picked as a captain, I've said that I'm not too happy about it but give him a benefit of a doubt. As poor as we might be in the material-for-captain-area, I'd happily deprive him of the band right now, in favour of Carrick when he's back, either Jones, Evans, RVP or even DDG right now. He's done nothing to say 'yea, Rooney's a good captain after all' and went full retard today.

And he's playing in #10 when it's basically Mata's position no matter what time of the day you ask me about it. Move him to a striker or feck off situation for me.

 

[Sid234]

I enjoyed the first half alot. It wasn't perfect, but there's signs of world class players gelling. Herrera, before being forced off, was a machine. He was the heart of everything. Great signing.

2nd half was hellish. Ridiculous decision to kick so high. It would never have been a red if he clipped his ankle, or even gave him a shove in the back.

I thought Eder Valencia could have seen red as well. He was already on a yellow, then he fouled Rafael twice.

McNair and Rojo were solid. That header from McNair when he was running towards his own goal line was different class. Really impressive. Rojo never seemed to lose a one on one. Always managed to nick the ball away. We invited a lot of pressure by being down to 10 men (and being terrible at playing with 10 men), but I thought we defended very well.


Not so sure Nolan's goal was offside. Haven't seen a freezeframe of it.

I think it was Sakho, not Enner Valencia who was involved on both occasions?

 

[Winrar]

+ Shown grit in adversity which was nowhere to be seen against Leicester last week
+ Great debut by McNair. Arguably MOTM
+ Great performance by Rafael, just hope he stays injury free
+ Solid debut by Shaw
+ Solid performance by Rojo at CB
+ 3 Point

- Mistake from De Gea to get West Ham back in it
- Silly challenge by Rooney to give the ref incentive for a red, especially as a captain
- Ugly, nervy viewing after the red

 

[jojojo]

Loved it. Wild ride, heart racing. Pleased with McNair. Not too chuffed with Rooney. I hope Herrera's OK, his connection with Rafael (and Rooney, but it'll be a few games before we try that again) looks like it can really turn into something good.

 

[Sied]

Two mistakes from two of our leaders.

I think De Gea was overcompensating for his defenders by trying to come out aggressively. Rooney tried to protect the defense with his foul too.

Basically a lack of trust in our defenders being able to do their job.

Hardly a surprise given the circumstances. The whole team almost certainly had instructions to do everything possible to help out the defence.

 

[Ole's_toe_poke]

The pleasing thing was that instead of caving in like last week we actually dug in and hung on.

The defensive side of our game still really worries me though.

You'd assume better teams will punish us.

 

[stu_1992]

So relieved we were able to hang on. Wow that was tense. What in the feck Rooney was thinking? There's so many ways to foul him there and not get a red. To just kick him was insane. He was doing well before that as well. Anyway first half was a good watch until they scored. I thought the approach was wrong for the second half, we should have come out at a much higher tempo than we did. The disallowed goal was probably just about right.

 

[Galactic]

I really hope we learnt our lessons before facing the bigger teams.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I think it was Sakho, not Enner Valencia who was involved on both occasions?

Ah was it? I was watching a godawful foreign stream, and the commentator mentioned Valencia. It was like watching PPV boxing highlights at times, where they just show the still photographs. Painful lag.

 

[Mister_Stubbs]

Scrappy win, wasn't good for the health to watch.

LVG could do a lot lot worse than to bring in another coach to work with this defense we have because we look clueless at times.

 

[Raoul]

Good confidence builder this. One of those games where we may look back at as a turning point.

 

[DevilRed]

Reminiscent of the performances we used to put in when we won titles under Fergie.

Now that we have come away with the win, this will do us a world of good. Really showed a lot of backbone and resilience today.

If we can put two and two together for the next one against everton then we might be looking at a team poised to make a run.

The loss of Rooney for 3 matches is going to hurt us but is it possible to appeal? I thought the red was a bit harsh all things considered. Nonetheless, Mata has a chance now to step into the team and work his magic. Goals aren't the issue for us and this match actually confirms that we CAN defend when necessary.

The back four played very well and clearly Rojo is a more accomplished centreback than left back.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

We know what we are capable of in attack, so that we played brilliantly in the first half wasn't that surprising. But credit goes out to our defense today, who has been under the scrutiny (deserved, though) since the start of this season. McNair had a very good debut. A bit slow and weak, but he still managed to play very well and that header in the second half. Wow. Rafael revenged himself from the Leicester game (although that was all about the ref). My MOM. Rojo looked solid for the first time. Happy to see Shaw in action. Herrera was great too. Very dissapointed in Blind today. Sloppy passing and all about the backpass.

 

[Everest Red]

We are obviously a work in progress. Shades of brilliant, sexy football as well as barren spells where we lose focus. Once the latter improve, we will be quite a handful for any opposition we face.

We defended well today, so that's bit encouraging.

 

[Sid234]

Ah was it? I was watching a godawful foreign stream, and the commentator mentioned Valencia. It was like watching PPV boxing highlights at times, where they just show the still photographs. Painful lag.

Haha, I know what you mean! Luckily, I got a decent river today.. Rafael was the MotM for me, was exceptional at the back. Was everywhere attacking superbly in the 1st half and then defending his socks off in the 2nd

 

[SonnyTheHaloPro]

I was more scared and nervous watching this, than I was during the CL Finals we played.

Well done boys, brilliant bus parked in the last 30 mins

 

[R'hllor]

First time our defenders held their lines and looked like a unit,thats important imo,for that alone i can not say a single negative thing about our game.

 

[jojojo]

Brilliant call from Van Gaal on McNair.

It was. He looked young and inexperienced, and you could see he was getting tired, but mentally he was absolutely bang on and he maintained that concentration all the way through. Really pleased with him.