[Wheato]

Casemiro and Bruno looked dead on their feet in that second half. Luke Shaw was playing balls into the corners to no one, just to get some temp relief from Wolves attacking us. We couldn’t keep the ball for more than 2 passes, there was no support or cohesion. The gaps through the middle of the pitch were alarming. And even when our fullbacks came inside to narrow the space, they just took it wide and went around us with absolute ease. If we were playing anyone decent, that would have been a massacre. We were like sitting ducks with no plan. I hope that all of them are on the treadmill today and getting a strip torn off them.

 

[Telsim]

Our midfield is dogshit, but for a team that struggled so much to score last season, starting the next one with no striker is incredibly conceited.

 

[E-mal]

Hmm, I guess we're expecting different things from Mount. And from the bolded part it would seem as if you're going to run a little hetz on our new signing.

I am however expecting a lot more from our established players.
But it was the first game of the season. I am worried with our fitness level. We did not seem ready at all. We got beat in intensity and pace.

Why should I? I already knew what he was and exactly how best to use him, an option for Bruno or the wings.
There is a reason he didn't play often in central midfield for Chelsea and was more favoured on the wings. He simply does not have the skill set to play there despite having an injured Kovacic and regressing Kante to content with. Heck RLC was considered ahead of him in central midfield.
His best season for Chelsea came playing in attacking positions but ETH( who admittedly knows far more about football than any of us) and the rest of the fan base felt he should be played differently here.
I have gone on record and say a midfield of Casemiro, Mount and Bruno will not work, we will remain vulnerable in midfield and teams will exploit it. The only steel in that midfield is Casemiro whose legs are on borrowed time and the only creativity is an erratic Bruno. There is no real steel, no accomplished passer and no runner in that midfield.

We will struggle if he sticks to it.
I reckon against Spurs he will bring Eriksen and move Bruno/Mount to the right which will make us even worse in attack. I hope I am wrong but I don't think we have signed wisely this season.

 

[mitchmouse]

Well, that was pretty awful and, worse still, boring. Someone explain to me what Mount adds to the side, I saw nothing. Bruno was poor too and rashford almost anonymous. There were flashes from Antony and he tracked back well which is new, but Garnacho was disappointing. Only Casemiro in bursts and Luke Shaw had anything approaching good games. I'd like to see a stat on how often we gave the ball away. And the laboured build up was the same as at times last season, giving the opposition a week-and-a-half to get back into position...

We should have been at least three down by the time Varane scored and I'm amazed the penalty wasn't given - we can expect refs to give ones against us now if the wind blows too strongly in response.

But most of all, as I pointed out well before kick off, we have no firepower. And we saw the benefit from Wolves of having a midfielder who can drive forward with the ball and have defences back-pedalling.

I also hate it when we sit back and defend a lead for 10+ minutes. We've never been good at it, even in our pomp. That said two excellent blocks late on from Shaw and Scotty

 

[trevor newnham]

We're three points better off than we were at this stage last season......and that's the only positive thing to say about last night. Wolves deserved at least a point and how they didn't get that penalty at the end is beyond me. Hopefully it was a blip....hopefully

 

[Relfy]

Very poor showing last night, but I am trying to look on the bright side and a win is a win. It's a better start than last season, so there's that too. Expecting a significant improvement next time out.

 

[troylocker]

Extremely lucky win. Our midfield was too easily overrun with 2 hybrid 8/10s and a rusty Casemiro on the pitch. Attack was untidy and without rythm. We were lucky not to concede any of the many chances they created and not get that stonewall penalty awarded against us in the end.

I'll take the result any day. On to the next one and hopefully the machinery is a lot more gelled next week.
Way too early to make any conclusions.

 

[mitchmouse]

can you imagine how many Liverpool would have scored against us... Salah would have had seven on his own

 

[Buster15]

Well that was a pretty fortunate 3 points against a side that played like a team. It was like we had no pre season and as has been said above, our midfield was both ineffective and overrun far too easily.
There is a great deal of work to be done.

 

[Crimson King]

It was a very poor performance, against a team of very physical players who looked a lot more up for it.

There's far too much teeth gnashing on this forum today though.

 

[Lights Out]

I wish people would stop saying “3 points better off than last season” as some positive fallback.

In terms of opening day fixtures it’s true but regarding the opposition it isn’t. It’s -1 in goal difference if anything.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Tactical analysis of the game.

A couple of points to pick up on from above: firstly, we needed our wingers, Garnacho and Antony, to be more careful in possession because they were frequently our only out-ball. Secondly, our pressing shape was all over the place, particularly Mount and Bruno, leading to overloads that Casemiro couldn't deal with on his own.

Nothing revolutionary in the video. But it's a nice visualisation of what went wrong (and also right) in the game. It's easy to forget we were actually creating good chances in the first half. So the match wasn't a complete bust tactically-speaking.

So we need to tweak our pressing so that that Bruno and/or Mount start a little deeper (something both have shown they can do in the past). We also need to give clearer instructions to our wingers about what to do with the ball in possession.

A lot of fans love to believe that the only answer is transfers. The reality is that sometimes, the players are good enough but haven't been coached adequately. I know that's sacrilegious to say about Ten Hag on this forum. But it's obviously true. In his defence, this is the first competitive game of the season trying to play a new way. He'll get it right soon enough.

Agree with this, a top coach can sort this without signing anyone, spending more money isn’t the answer. He’s made his bed with these signings so has to make it work. Although we do need to replace Fred.
Sacrilegious maybe but it’s true, Ten Hag isn’t the tactical/coaching wizard he was advertised as and that is where this might stumble.

 

[Strangest Tribe]

3 points against a horrible opposition, already two ahead of the dippers and Chelsea….


let us never speak of this game again.

 

[miliebrowndivorceattorney]

Casemiro and Bruno looked dead on their feet in that second half. Luke Shaw was playing balls into the corners to no one, just to get some temp relief from Wolves attacking us. We couldn’t keep the ball for more than 2 passes, there was no support or cohesion. The gaps through the middle of the pitch were alarming. And even when our fullbacks came inside to narrow the space, they just took it wide and went around us with absolute ease. If we were playing anyone decent, that would have been a massacre. We were like sitting ducks with no plan. I hope that all of them are on the treadmill today and getting a strip torn off them.

Even more worrying were all those wasted opportunnities for Rashford. How many times did he had to stop an attack or got swamped by Wolves defenders? In itself a good quality for them, they defended really well but I felt Rashford couldv bagged at least one or two and would make all the difference for the game.

 

[Amir]

Good teams know how to win when they play badly, but there was no knowledge in yesterday's match. Just luck. Also, before good teams learn how to win when they play badly, they learn how to play really well.

So three points very little consolation. They won't take us anywhere like that.

Still, it's just the start. Still plenty of time to get it right.

 

[Xaviboy]

Quite telling when we need to put McTominey on as CF to replace Rashford to see out the game. We really need another out and out CF with Hojlund. Rashford offers nothing in central postions can't play with his back to play. Needs to be running at people so LW is his spot.

Lack of options in squad especially attacking threat and midfield balance is concerning.

 

[justsomebloke]

That was I think easily the worst performance in a competitive game since the thrashing at St James Park last spring. No precision, no composure, no structure, no invention. Key issue, as EtH identified in the post-game interview, was how frequently we gave the ball away. Also, couldn't deal with Wolves' high press, which I thought was something we had become rather good at and where you'd have thought Onana would improve us further.

Much too early for alarm bells, but clearly things have to improve. There's got to be better balance in the midfield. And perhaps we need a bit more poise and calm in there? If so, EtH will be looking at Sancho and Eriksen over Garnacho and Mount.

 

[Trigg]

Crazy performance. Looked nothing like they did in preseason. Wonder why it went to shit?

 

[Ibrahimorich]

Year on year massive improvement. We lost 1-2 to Brighton last year remember

 

[matherto]

Crazy performance. Looked nothing like they did in preseason. Wonder why it went to shit?

They looked exactly like they did in pre season?

 

[sugar_kane]

The most positive thing I can say about last night is that there's no way we we can possibly be as bad as that performance suggested. That, and a decent start for Onana.

The biggest worry was how disinterested Rashford looked. I know he was played out of position but he didn't even look like he was trying most of the time.

The rest of the players were mainly working hard and just having bad games eg. Garnacho, Bruno, or just rusty eg. Shaw. The only player who looks like he might be in terminal decline (the next few games will tell) is Casemiro.

I'm a bit worried that we were hasty in selling Fred, while he is prone to having 0/10 games on occasion, he can cover up a lot of our midfield's deficiencies by doing the work of two players. Would have much rather we sold McTominay.

 

[big_jeffstar]

Where do you start with that?
It was pretty worrying from kick off, you could see our players almost moving in slow motion compared to wolves, the zombie passing was back, Onana was throwing his hands up asking for movement and they just stood there staring at him, so he had to launch it up the pitch to nobody instead, I don’t understand why Ten Hag wasn’t ripping them a new one on the touchline tbh.
The midfield concerns me, it’s a gaping hole in there that every team can just walk through at will, we lost pretty much every duel with a wolves player and every second ball, the second half was almost embarrassing,
But the most concerning thing of all was that out of every team that played this weekend we comfortably looked the worst, there was just a lack of urgency from everyone except the goalkeeper.

I think it’s time the board to a long hard look at pre-season, understand what the actual aim of it is, and realise that we’re currently going out of our way to sabotage preparing the team for a new season in the pursuit of a bit more money.. next year they should play some behind doors games against lower league teams, and then ramp up the quality of opposition with time to recover in-between as we get closer to the start of the season, keep everything in the UK, nobody cares about the results anyway, why are we travelling halfway round the world to play our teenagers against Wrexham ffs.. how is that helping?? just get them ready to go.

 

[GiveItToGi...nowait]

Wolves were tactically spot on, refusing to commit players forward to press Onana and then waiting for the ball to go wide. Our front three didn't have the quality or composure to recieve the ball or pick a pass in tight spaces which allowed Wolves to counter when Mount and Bruno were pushed up. We desperately need Hojlund to hit the ground running so we can put Rashford on the left. I don't see it with Anthony I'm afraid, he has the willingness and aggression but no cutting edge, no one is on the move when he picks up the ball and our opponents aren't scared of his quality (I would be over the moon if he manages to change my mind this season).

Worrying that a team who, in theory, would have had less time with their new manager to implement a game plan, were either able to absorb a tactical plan quickly, or were able to figure us out on the pitch. The worst scenario is that we have barely improved since last season and they knew how to play against us.

3 points in the bag and lots of room for improvement.

 

[sincher]

We were very poor in midfield. Some of it looks easily solvable (play a no 8 as a no 8 and not two 10s for a start, tell Shaw to play in his position... which I think ETH did for the 2nd half), some is more worrying (Casemiro does not look fit enough). Shame for Garnacho as he didn't do well but had very few touches and sometimes young players need more to get into the game, he will probably be dropped for Sancho and fair enough but it could have been very different with a functional midfield.

Thought all defenders and keeper made a decent start, Onana's foul at the end aside. Can't really judge Rashford as he was so starved.

 

[El Zoido]

Where do you start with that?
It was pretty worrying from kick off, you could see our players almost moving in slow motion compared to wolves, the zombie passing was back, Onana was throwing his hands up asking for movement and they just stood there staring at him, so he had to launch it up the pitch to nobody instead, I don’t understand why Ten Hag wasn’t ripping them a new one on the touch line tbh.
The midfield concerns me, it’s a gaping hole in there that every team can just walk through at will, we lost pretty much every duel with a wolves player and every second ball, the second half was embarrassing,
But the most concerning thing of all was that out of every team that played this weekend we comfortably looked the worst, there was just a lack of urgency from everyone except the goalkeeper

It just feels endemic to the club at this point, regardless of who the manager is.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

It might seem knee-jerk, but we don't seem to ever really make any progress. This was a very typical United performance and nothing ever seems to change, regardless of the playing staff or management. Terrible passing, easily bypassed midfield, nervous defending, toothless attack, and no real style that's obvious to see.

 

[matsdf]

People seem to forget that we're at the start of the season and that the players aren't match fit yet. We're very rarely good at the start of a season.

 

[CantonaManc]

We won but we were fecking horrendous. Trying to be excited about it but if we play like that for the rest of the year this will be a seriously difficult watch. Saved by Wolves being allergic to scoring and PL officials being allergic to competence. Can’t think of anyone who played well.

Bruno, Mount, Eriksen & Casemiro are key players of our Midfield and they all look lost out there. Mount staying upfront is okay if Bruno drops back especially since he can cross the ball over from the back. Eriksen needs to find his way again, really dunno what happened to him ever since the injury. You can see glimpses of old Casemiro occasionally but he too lost his way ever since reds. These lads need to get their shit together. They're the glue ffs.

Helping to fund Chelsea's pursuit of players we should've been all over and taking a player from them who does sweet feck all to solve our midfield issues is really peak United isnt it? This two high 8s nonsense isnt going to work with a 31 year old Casemiro being left to fend for himself. Bruno and Mount do not complement each other whatsoever and neither have an ounce of ball retention in them. Thats fine in Bruno's case because his output is incredible, but you're not going to ever have any control over a game of football when 2 of your 3 mids cannot keep the ball for any meaningful amount of time.

Bruno misplaced a lot of passes , Casemiro is losing his pace (amrabat tbh more important than pavard at this moment) , Mount had an average display to be very honest had his moments but mostly a ghost .

Rashford isn't receiving the ball, so we cannot get anything outta him. This was a dead game for him, and its not his fault, let him play in LW consistently and we can get results.

Garnacho is better as a sub, he's only capable of outrunning players who’ve been playing 70+ mins. Otherwise he gets bodied and can't win a duel at all. Same for Pellistri.

Onana played very well, saved us multiple times but almost got threw it away with that jumping dive which ended in a clash. He got lucky.

Overall i saw that we are shitty. Garbage football.

 

[ShamrockD]

When we signed Mount for a starter this summer I was very troubled, since I could not understand how he would work. Now I am officially concerned.

I do not understand our plan. Yes, ETH is a pragmatic manager, but still adheres to some basic philosophies. One of these should be to play out from the back, be able to keep the ball calmly, and being press resistant.

Bruno could not offer that. We signed Casemiro who can not offer that, since other world class players did that job in Madrid. And what do we do? Instead of trying to help them by bringing a different profile who possesses these qualities, we bring Mount. He is good, tidy player who can offer goals and assists, but how will he fit with them?

I love ETH and he is my only hope currently in a team held hostage by the Glazers, but I am really concerned that he got this totally wrong.

Positive conclusion: I think the only solution if we still have problems would be to transition Bruno as deep lying. Do anyone of you remember the home game with Everton last year? He was Scholesque that day. I hope we try that again.

Genuine question. I did not see their match. How Arsenal made it possible with midfield of Rice, Havertz, Odegaard? Havertz is not a midfielder. Yes Odegaard is more composed, but is he able to start from that deep?

 

[madmrf]

It just feels endemic to the club at this point, regardless of who the manager is.

To me the lack of urgency was due to not knowing what to do with the ball.
Onana and Martinez would hold the ball for a few seconds, then pass it sideways or go long because there was no one linking up play between defense and attack.
Not going to lie, I was expecting more fluid football at the start of ETH's 2nd season.

Fernandes was very poor until Mount substitution. Will need to watch the game more closely on why he was so ineffective. Ten Hag has a plan and I hope we see it improving quickly as games are coming thick and fast.

He wasn't involved at all before the Mount substitution, as if he didn't know where to position himself effectively in the new formation. I'm sure it'll get better as they learn to play in the same team.

 

[swissgenius]

I told myself that the performance won't matter, as first games are always difficult, I would be happy with any kind of a win and the 3 points.
So I have to stick with it and be happy, although those 90 mins felt like a truck crash.

It's not like our play was just boring and not creative, it was flat out a horrible performance, starting from all those midfield duels we lost, the constant passing to the opponent. We actually did have numbers up front but no one wanted to have the ball in den final third of the pitch.
We didn't even deserve one point, let alone a win. Wolves were much more passionate and progressive.

Ok so there's that. Let us be happy that this game somehow got us 3 points and hope for a drastical improvement going forward.

 

[RuudTom83]

Communication and in game awareness was non-existent (as per usual) when the game gets stretched and becomes end-to-end, instead of trying to control the possession for a few minutes, they do the opposite and go into overdrive with 5/6 players bombing ahead of the ball.

Against Tottenham they need to communicate and hold the shape. Sadly Casemiro isn't really a communicator on the pitch and Bruno's solution to every problem is to just try and speed everything up and go full on Hollywood mode.

Mount is going to have to sacrifice himself here and try to mimic Eriksen.

 

[Funkenstein]

Thought the players really didn't look fit, was like they were still in the middle of pre season. Wolves were faster and stronger all over the pitch. Pretty poor if so but something that can easily be fixed in the coming games. Hoping that's the case at least cos it's better than them just being that shite

 

[Gopher Brown]

Very poor. I know it’s the first game but there’s always excuses - when are we supposed to play the football we are supposed to if not right now?

1) I don’t know where Mount was playing and what his role is.
2) We were wide open in midfield because Casemiro turned into Pogba and was trying to do everything himself despite looking slow and unfit
3) Wolves players were fitter, stronger and more comfortable on the ball than ours - why were they winning every 50/50? Why could they waltz through our team at will be when we had opportunities to do the same we didn’t have the players to do this?
4) Simple decision making from Garnacho and Anthony was appalling - Nani and Welbeck at their worst.

 

[Trigg]

They looked exactly like they did in pre season?

I disagree. Individual performances of the likes of Shaw, Martinez, Case, Bruno, Garnacho and Rashford all looked a lot sharper in the pre season gamesI saw.

 

[Zed 101]

I refrained from commenting last night in my moment of disappointment, I do not want to get carried away, it is one game of many to come and basically it looked like they were still in preseason mode, none of the players looked on song, probably the player who looked most at it was Sancho...oh the irony....

We will be much better than that but my one major concern is that Casemiro looked even more isolated than he did last season, if we are playing Mount and Bruno either one of them needs to sit deeper or the defenders need to be smarter providing no support, last night it seemed we played almost without a midfield, a weird 4-1-5 formation, we also played far too slowly, when we stepped up the pace things happened for us.

Big shame both Mainoo and Amad are injured, feel either would have been useful last night

 

[MUFC OK]

Don't want to jump the gun but we looked very lethargic out there yesterday - Wolves were faster, stronger, fitter. Over 60 games last season.. having seen Liverpool last season, hope that's not the story for us this year.

 

[superdry]

Very poor. I know it’s the first game but there’s always excuses - when are we supposed to play the football we are supposed to if not right now?

1) I don’t know where Mount was playing and what his role is.
2) We were wide open in midfield because Casemiro turned into Pogba and was trying to do everything himself despite looking slow and unfit
3) Wolves players were fitter, stronger and more comfortable on the ball than ours - why were they winning every 50/50? Why could they waltz through our team at will be when we had opportunities to do the same we didn’t have the players to do this?
4) Simple decision making from Garnacho and Anthony was appalling - Nani and Welbeck at their worst.

I'd give Rashford the Welbeck mantle

 

[El Zoido]

Hate to say it, but this team looks well capable of taking another walloping from City/Liverpool this season. Too many games when we just aren’t there.

 

[kouroux]

Well, that was pretty awful and, worse still, boring. Someone explain to me what Mount adds to the side, I saw nothing. Bruno was poor too and rashford almost anonymous. There were flashes from Antony and he tracked back well which is new, but Garnacho was disappointing. Only Casemiro in bursts and Luke Shaw had anything approaching good games. I'd like to see a stat on how often we gave the ball away. And the laboured build up was the same as at times last season, giving the opposition a week-and-a-half to get back into position...

We should have been at least three down by the time Varane scored and I'm amazed the penalty wasn't given - we can expect refs to give ones against us now if the wind blows too strongly in response.

But most of all, as I pointed out well before kick off, we have no firepower. And we saw the benefit from Wolves of having a midfielder who can drive forward with the ball and have defences back-pedalling.

I also hate it when we sit back and defend a lead for 10+ minutes. We've never been good at it, even in our pomp. That said two excellent blocks late on from Shaw and Scotty

Antony tracking back well isn't new. It's his best skill which is nuts considering his price. We overpaid for the Brazilian JSP