[IrishRedDevil]

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.

Scary but true. If we played a team last night that could score goals, we could have been 3 down.

 

[Longshanks]

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.

1: as a wide no 8. He was getting out wide to support garnacho on the left with Martinez/Shaw stepping into midfield alongside Casemerio. The problem was garnacho was ignoring him and running into blind alleys all night giving the ball away and then wolves could hit it to Neto in acres of space out wide. So we had to change it a little with Shaw holding his position out wide and mount playing more centrally. But he was being encouraged to press high rather than hold a position next to Casemerio and wolves defended very narrow meaning it was very difficult to influence the game from central areas.

2: we were wide open in midfield because Bruno and mount were pressing high, when they won the ball we couldn't take advantage of it and when they didn't noone was Willing or able to do the tactical foul to stop the break.

3: wolves were certainly more physical than us and they looked more comfortable on the ball because we gave them more space to play because we were pressing high rather than sitting in block trying to block the passing lanes. I think there was also a bit of new manager bounce going on everyone working the bollocks trying to impress the new manager.

4: Garnacho decision making was appalling last night. Seen it so many times with young wingers. Anthony was ok I thought but no more than that, arguably the best performer of our starting attacking players, not that it says much. Starting Sancho may have been a better option against a low block side you need to use your teammates and play triangles etc to break down low blocks which is much more Sancho's game. It was especially annoying because wolves defended very narrow and were leaving space out wide. It's why A.W.B was very much in the game as an attacking influenece because Anthony and Bruno were trying to find him whereas garnacho was ignoring teammates trying to be Roy of the rovers.

 

[tomaldinho1]

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.

Very strange way to look at it?

Let's be honest, as first games go - the win is all that matters. The performance was diabolically bad but you can't just analyse a single game and make an accurate judgement, you wait to see a few more games and then you can see at least some form of trend. My hope is ETH very simply rewards form moving forwards, Sancho should get a start, Rashford back to LW, Martial kind of has to play CF as he's the only striker. Revert back to Eriksen/Case pairing and I'd drop Bruno to give Mount a run at 10. If a player has a bad game give the chance to someone else, we have good competition for places and need to put some fire into the belly of this team.

 

[The Hustler]

Dreading the Spurs match based on this showing.

 

[Joosep_K]

I believe that Wolves players appear to be better physically prepared for the start of the season compared to the players from United.

 

[Garethw]

Why do we get outplayed by literally every fecking team we play? Hanging on against the likes of Wolves and Fulham is completely unacceptable.

After 12 months in charge ETH should have a system and style of play in place by now.

This really isn’t good enough from the management and playing staff.

 

[Garethw]

Very strange way to look at it?

Let's be honest, as first games go - the win is all that matters. The performance was diabolically bad but you can't just analyse a single game and make an accurate judgement, you wait to see a few more games and then you can see at least some form of trend. My hope is ETH very simply rewards form moving forwards, Sancho should get a start, Rashford back to LW, Martial kind of has to play CF as he's the only striker. Revert back to Eriksen/Case pairing and I'd drop Bruno to give Mount a run at 10. If a player has a bad game give the chance to someone else, we have good competition for places and need to put some fire into the belly of this team.

Bruno 100% deserves to be dropped. I’ve never seen a Manchester United captain give the ball away as much as he does.

Yes he may occasionally hit a 40-50 yard ball to feet but most of the time he stupidly gifts the opposition the ball back.

He’s a quality player but he’s also a massive liability in the midfield.

Maybe we should be looking at playing him as a false 9 as we know he’s a good finisher.

 

[mctrials23]

We were abject last night. All the issues have been covered by others but the biggest one was the complete lack of sharpness and fitness. People can say its early in the season but thats no excuse. If every team was the same it would be an excuse but Wolves were bristling with energy. Literally beat us to 95% of everything. Passes weren't making their targets because their targets just stood there. It was awful and theres no excuse.

Sometimes I wonder what the hell is wrong with the club. These are the best paid players in the country and they can't even turn up fit and give a crap at the start of the season. Embarrassing.

 

[Schweinsteiger]

Extremely concerning performance. What on earth have these players and management been doing for the last 2 months?

play like that again and we will be on the end of an absolute hammering. Just weird performance.

 

[daveoliver91]

Last night game shows how much we need a replacement for Casemiro. With Amrabat in the squad, we would have been more compact in the middle. Yesterday however Casemiro was totally alone, with no help from Bruno nor Mount and we were overrun all the time on the counters. Lerma, Cunha and Nunes were free all the time and had plenty of space for running.

I think we should get a middfielder as soon as possible, otherwise so many teams will break us. Luckily Wolves were not clinical, but you get another team (Brighton, City, Liverpool..) and they would have battered us.

Let's take the positives which are the 3 points, good performance from AWB and Onana overall.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

How did we make Cunha look like prime Mousa Dembele? That's the question on my mind this morning.

 

[Drizzle]

Why do we get outplayed by literally every fecking team we play?

Because our technical players are small, weak and slow. And our faster, stronger players don't have any football IQ. We also don't have a proper striker.

 

[GiveItToGi...nowait]

Bruno 100% deserves to be dropped. I’ve never seen a Manchester United captain give the ball away as much as he does.

Yes he may occasionally hit a 40-50 yard ball to feet but most of the time he stupidly gifts the opposition the ball back.

He’s a quality player but he’s also a massive liability in the midfield.

Maybe we should be looking at playing him as a false 9 as we know he’s a good finisher.

Drop the guy who in the end made the key pass for AWB to get in behind?

I get the concern about giving the ball away, but they were all at it and he is by far our most potent creative threat.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Bruno 100% deserves to be dropped. I’ve never seen a Manchester United captain give the ball away as much as he does.

Yes he may occasionally hit a 40-50 yard ball to feet but most of the time he stupidly gifts the opposition the ball back.

He’s a quality player but he’s also a massive liability in the midfield.

Maybe we should be looking at playing him as a false 9 as we know he’s a good finisher.

I think he's a 10 and we've obviously seen him have great games alongside the terrible ones. I just think you have to treat all players equally, might as well use the squad we have and also not let the complacency/favouritism which was part of Ole's tenure creep back in. Bruno was turd yesterday, simply give a start to someone else in his role, being captain means nothing. He'll likely play his way back into the team but much like McT, as funny as it sounds, kept Case out of the team for 5 games or so when he joined, it's better for the squad.

 

[TrebleChamp99]

We were abject last night. All the issues have been covered by others but the biggest one was the complete lack of sharpness and fitness. People can say its early in the season but thats no excuse. If every team was the same it would be an excuse but Wolves were bristling with energy. Literally beat us to 95% of everything. Passes weren't making their targets because their targets just stood there. It was awful and theres no excuse.

Sometimes I wonder what the hell is wrong with the club. These are the best paid players in the country and they can't even turn up fit and give a crap at the start of the season. Embarrassing.

Spot on, Watching the Liverpool vs Chelsea game the night before , I knew it ahead of kick off but after last nights game I am sure, there is something very wrong at United.

The fitness was well off, from what I saw we looked every bit gassed out as we did last game of the season last year.

Could it be that we are still tired from last season? if so that wont get better and were fecked.

What there is no excuse for is not being able to string one or two passes together and the lack of cohesion in the attack. Garnacho and Rashford living off their own hype and not making simple team based passes and looking to beat one or two players in tight spaces and expecting to score worldies. I am sick of it, absolutely sick of it.

 

[Gopher Brown]

1: as a wide no 8. He was getting out wide to support garnacho on the left with Martinez/Shaw stepping into midfield alongside Casemerio. The problem was garnacho was ignoring him and running into blind alleys all night giving the ball away and then wolves could hit it to Neto in acres of space out wide. So we had to change it a little with Shaw holding his position out wide and mount playing more centrally. But he was being encouraged to press high rather than hold a position next to Casemerio and wolves defended very narrow meaning it was very difficult to influence the game from central areas.

2: we were wide open in midfield because Bruno and mount were pressing high, when they won the ball we couldn't take advantage of it and when they didn't noone was Willing or able to do the tactical foul to stop the break.

3: wolves were certainly more physical than us and they looked more comfortable on the ball because we gave them more space to play because we were pressing high rather than sitting in block trying to block the passing lanes. I think there was also a bit of new manager bounce going on everyone working the bollocks trying to impress the new manager.

4: Garnacho decision making was appalling last night. Seen it so many times with young wingers. Anthony was ok I thought but no more than that, arguably the best performer of our starting attacking players, not that it says much. Starting Sancho may have been a better option against a low block side you need to use your teammates and play triangles etc to break down low blocks which is much more Sancho's game. It was especially annoying because wolves defended very narrow and were leaving space out wide. It's why A.W.B was very much in the game as an attacking influenece because Anthony and Bruno were trying to find him whereas garnacho was ignoring teammates trying to be Roy of the rovers.

A lovely dose of optimism

 

[Superunknown]

I've seen a few people compare this win yesterday with the defeat last year against Brighton for our first game of the season. It seems a bit nonsensical to compare those two, in my view. Brighton went on to finish 6th whilst Wolves finished 13th, after they had a disappointing campaign. Last year, we played a much better team and were beaten, whereas yesterday we narrowly edged out a team who have only had their new manager for a matter of days.

Comparing this match to our home fixture against Wolves last year, we beat them 2-0 last year. We also had 27 shots (9 on target) last year compared to 15 shots (3 on target) this year. Wolves had 5 shots -with 0 shots on target - last year compared to 23 yesterday with 6 of them being on target. Basically, they got at us a lot more this year than last and that's something we need to work on. We were too easily carved open in the middle.

The concern for me is just how many chances we gave away against a relatively weak opposition. Giving away 23 shots yesterday is very, very alarming. Combine that with what happened with our lack of attack at the other end, we have a lot of work to do.

 

[Doracle]

How did we make Cunha look like prime Mousa Dembele? That's the question on my mind this morning.

Had McTominay been playing for Wolves he would have destroyed us last night. It was like the matches where he looked like a world beater against Leeds. We just had no answer to someone who can run with the ball through the midfield.

 

[Telsim]

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.

But why does that happen to us, though? I watched Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton, Chelsea, and Liverpool, and none seemed like that. Why would they be fit and we wouldn't be? Think it's much more than that, as we didn't look that much different from many times over the past years. And we played Wolves, who changed managers 3 days before the start of the season and made like 1 transfer. We made them look good, and I have them pegged for relegation this season. 23 shots? At home? I don't even want to imagine if this was City with Haaland.

This needs to be fixed immediately.

 

[julianfr]

Very strange way to look at it?

Let's be honest, as first games go - the win is all that matters. The performance was diabolically bad but you can't just analyse a single game and make an accurate judgement, you wait to see a few more games and then you can see at least some form of trend. My hope is ETH very simply rewards form moving forwards, Sancho should get a start, Rashford back to LW, Martial kind of has to play CF as he's the only striker. Revert back to Eriksen/Case pairing and I'd drop Bruno to give Mount a run at 10. If a player has a bad game give the chance to someone else, we have good competition for places and need to put some fire into the belly of this team.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be much progression. This performance bore startling resemblances to many last year. I was expecting a solid win. Nothing fancy just solid. It just felt like we were back to being just above mediocre again.

 

[Maticmaker]

The fitness was well off, from what I saw we looked every bit gassed out as we did last game of the season last year.

Yes, this pre-season training is becoming a mockery of/or failed preparation, it's really a long tour or parade of United's overseas territories. When not playing with or against 'half baked' teams, the players are out signing autographs, opening stores, glad handing among the locals and of course 'selling shirts, all three variety'.
The only real preparation with a team that resembled last nights was against Lens.

 

[IRN-BRUno]

Dreadful performance, didn't really deserve anything from that as Wolves were by far the better side and should have had the penalty. If you were only told after the game that one team lost their manager last week and had a weaker squad compared to last year then you'd be very surprised to find it wasn't us.

 

[Lights Out]

Very strange way to look at it?

Why is it ‘very strange’ to compare like for like games from the previous season against the same opposition?

Yes, we have more points on the board at the same stage but it’s against much inferior opposition.

 

[miked99]

But why does that happen to us, though? I watched Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton, Chelsea, and Liverpool, and none seemed like that. Why would they be fit and we wouldn't be? Think it's much more than that, as we didn't look that much different from many times over the past years. And we played Wolves, who changed managers 3 days before the start of the season and made like 1 transfer. We made them look good, and I have them pegged for relegation this season. 23 shots? At home? I don't even want to imagine if this was City with Haaland.

This needs to be fixed immediately.

I wonder if it's connected to the final week of preseason training. Maybe we do some sort of stamina based endurance training in the final week that causes these slow starts (but presumably helps later in the season).

It's exactly the same pattern as last year - look 'normal' in the friendlies and then when the season starts we look leaden. Could explain it.

 

[EireRed_GS]

We were really poor.. apart from AWB no one really had a decent game.

Our MF and front line were rubbish. Very sloppy.

You would have thought we didnt have a pre season at all.

 

[doomy20]

Hated ETH‘s interview on MUTV, should have spoken the truth.

 

[redmanx]

Playing bad and won, we call that title omen here.

In Liverpool or in the blue section of Manchester there would be joy and celebrations at winning and optimism for the future. We have no divine right t
o win but some of our supporters seem to think that we do and indeed that simply winning isnt enough, we should crush all opposition in our path! And while I would love to think this was possible, even ordained, it isnt and pragmatism and practicality tend to colour my dreams of an all conquering United; but, should we be sitting at or near the top of the Prem come April, unbeaten maybe and with a good run in, maybe, just maybe I'll allow myself to dream again lol!

 

[tomaldinho1]

Why is it ‘very strange’ to compare like for like games from the previous season against the same opposition?

Yes, we have more points on the board at the same stage but it’s against much inferior opposition.

Because teams evolve constantly and there are so many factors to consider - if you want to simply say we beat this team last year, therefore we are worse off because we scored 1 less it is about as simplistic as you can get in my mind. They probably had 4-5 different starting players to that game, as did we.

 

[tomaldinho1]

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be much progression. This performance bore startling resemblances to many last year. I was expecting a solid win. Nothing fancy just solid. It just felt like we were back to being just above mediocre again.

Wait until game 4-5 I think so at east there's a trend. There's a very real possibility we could have another disaster season but then we could also, very easily you'd hope, put that performance behind us and dominate a very open Spurs team. ETH did well last season, most fans expectations seem quite realistic this season (top four again with better football and hopefully we have a CL run), suffice to say we need to pick things up to do that but it's Game 1, it's an ugly win, let's move on.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

 

[Giggsy13]

Calm down mate. People not aloud opinions anymore?

Yes, but they should also be prepared to be told how ridiculous their opinions are, it’s the way things work.

 

[Hughie77]

Eth has to find the CM balance back like last season... Casimero was to far forward.. Lindelof was doing a lot of CM stuff from CB last night .. Casimero was to far up .. 4-3-3 it looked like instead of two in CM like last season.. I can see him reverting back to that on Sat.. because Casimero was awful gave no protection, they ran straight through CM...

It was awful performance, the back 5 kept us in game , AWB, Varane Lindelof, Shaw and Onana .. although there shots were tame efforts.. as for there pen shout I think it was right call, Wolves players came both together and ball was headed before Onana got there... but as normal its a big debate because its UTD on the end of it...

 

[matsdf]

But why does that happen to us, though? I watched Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton, Chelsea, and Liverpool, and none seemed like that. Why would they be fit and we wouldn't be? Think it's much more than that, as we didn't look that much different from many times over the past years. And we played Wolves, who changed managers 3 days before the start of the season and made like 1 transfer. We made them look good, and I have them pegged for relegation this season. 23 shots? At home? I don't even want to imagine if this was City with Haaland.

This needs to be fixed immediately.

My best guess would be that United's tour is somewhat more "marketing focused" than other teams, and that the traveling and media/fan interaction is tougher for our players than for others. Sure it's a little bit of a stretch, but could be something to it.

 

[yamo123x]

Fitness, physicality, control and a defined style of play.

Lacking in all 4 areas last night. We started very slow and sluggish and never played through the midfield once.

The key to doing well is to control the game and we have no dictators in midfield, no composure.
Instead of buying another centre back we need 2 midfielders

 

[fallengt]

Players performance is one thing but management is legitimate a 3/10, its a real issue.
Team went with a plan, outplayed by oppo team and adjustment was late+ ineffective

 

[croadyman]

Tim Howard just said that happens all the time and it's never been a pen, regarding the onana clattering the 2 wolves players.

Goalkeepers union garbage

 

[croadyman]

Wolves just strolling through our non-existent midfield is concerning and the pressure they were mounting on us before the penalty shout was ridiculous. It was like we were a league below them at times.

Yet they haven't took action to sign Amrabat or Onana after being totally dominated

 

[sglowrider]

 

[DJ_21]

Yes, but they should also be prepared to be told how ridiculous their opinions are, it’s the way things work.

Not really. People are gonna start questioning if we put in performances like that… deal with it.

 

[Buster15]

Yes, this pre-season training is becoming a mockery of/or failed preparation, it's really a long tour or parade of United's overseas territories. When not playing with or against 'half baked' teams, the players are out signing autographs, opening stores, glad handing among the locals and of course 'selling shirts, all three variety'.
The only real preparation with a team that resembled last nights was against Lens.

It is about getting the balance between genuine commercial needs and a proper structured training outcome.
And I am sure that the manager is well aware of the problems caused when that balance is no struck. And if he wasn't he certainly is now.
But playing badly, and it was certainly bad, and winning is not a bad thing as long as it is not relied upon.