[Craig Ward]

Odd performance from me.

Wolves made it difficult for sure - but we should be rolling them over at ease, especially at home.

Such a frustrating watch. 2nd to almost everything, some woeful attempts at tackling, positionally we seemed a little lost and our forward 4 offered very very little.

Rashford is a confidence player, especially through the middle. He didnt have a sniff all game, and that wasn't cos he was brilliantly marked or marshalled. He just did not get into the game. Garnacho showed us a reminder just how raw he is. Not getting the basics right, poor decisions, lack of control, poor judgement, abysmal distribution. The worst player we had though by a country mile was our new captain. Fernandes had the worst game i've seen from him. Too high, rarely involved, sloppy backtracking. Anthony was Anthony, threatens to do something but never does. But in his defence, his support from AWB is not there so he does have 2 defenders at all times as AWB does nothing in terms of offering an overlap.

But at least we won! That's got to be the main thing. ETH cannot be happy and his plan will continue, i think bringing an Amrabat in makes a huge difference.

Rashford out left will also benefit us, Garnacho as an impact sub is great.

Sancho looked half decent when he came on.

Onana, despite the blatant error at the end looks assured already.

 

[Howl]

Thats not what I am doing? I am comparing the stats and looking at the game. In fact you are the one only looking at one stat and then using that out of context. Watch the game again or look at Tifo's breakdown of the game. Wolves moved away and let him and AWB have acres of space. Antony would then 9 times out of 10 receive the ball and move in central, which he always does, and thus make it easy to completely nulify us, whereas they had Dawson pretty much man mark Garnacho to lock him down instantly and not let him receive the ball.

Tifo's video was very suspect, I don't think people should be relying on that. They had a centre back man mark our winger? Let's look at the heat maps and see if that adds up. Nope, they did have Semedo close to Garnacho though. The heat maps also don't show this supposed 9 times out of 10 Antony comes inside that your saying. You also don't say anything about how Antony moves inside because Wan Bissaka goes on the outside rather than underlapping as he should, and did effectively to create the goal. The heat maps also show this, Shaw was far more inside whereas Wan Bissaka's heat map looks more like a traditional fullback. I also remember Wan Bissaka getting closed down when he had the ball, so did they or did they not "let AWB have acres of space". The fact is we predominately played down the left which was a mistake when Garnacho was completely off the boil, and our only dangerous periods were the two where we played down the right. The chance creation numbers also show this, with Wan Bissaka and Antony creating the most amount of chances with Bruno.

 

[Greyfog]

You would have thought United were the team with a manager that started a week before the season started. No game plan or pattern of play. I think Wolves were underestimated. Just shocking performance.

 

[rio's upper lip]

Has a win ever angered a fanbase more than us against Wolves? Never seen anything like it.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

The most analyzed game ever

 

[Chairman Steve]

I’m not down on the Wolves game. I agree the performance was awful (somehow almost all of our outfield players were bad in some way) but wait another 10 or so games before panicking. If you put that game back in March and April last season, it’d be seen as ‘Good 3 points and move on’ but because it’s opening competitive game of the season and people are probably expecting something exciting out of the gate, it’s panic stations.

It’s one game in isolation. There were games last season where we looked like world beaters. There were some where we looked totally useless. That will always happen. You could be the best team in football history and you’ll have a game somewhere in the season where you look completely shite and you can’t really explain it.

If we won 5-0 against Wolves or something, the forum would be awash with how we’re going to challenge to win the league and win x amount of trophies.

 

[Lyng]

Tifo's video was very suspect, I don't think people should be relying on that. They had a centre back man mark our winger? Let's look at the heat maps and see if that adds up. Nope, they did have Semedo close to Garnacho though. The heat maps also don't show this supposed 9 times out of 10 Antony comes inside that your saying. You also don't say anything about how Antony moves inside because Wan Bissaka goes on the outside rather than underlapping as he should, and did effectively to create the goal. The heat maps also show this, Shaw was far more inside whereas Wan Bissaka's heat map looks more like a traditional fullback. I also remember Wan Bissaka getting closed down when he had the ball, so did they or did they not "let AWB have acres of space". The fact is we predominately played down the left which was a mistake when Garnacho was completely off the boil, and our only dangerous periods were the two where we played down the right. The chance creation numbers also show this, with Wan Bissaka and Antony creating the most amount of chances with Bruno.

The heat map shows exactly what I said?? In fact its red for Antony around that little area where he always goes to. His heatmap is the most concentrated of the entire team. Garnacho was actually moving in a much larger area in their half if you look at his heat map.
Wan Bisakkas heatmap shows that he never really went wide in the final third but actually goes inside so Antony had plenty of opportunity.
Honestly it sounds like you didnt look at the heatmaps and just try to make stuff up? The Tifo video isnt suspect, its a neutral analysis of the match that fits with both heatmaps, stats and the eye test.

 

[Howl]

The heat map shows exactly what I said?? In fact its red for Antony around that little area where he always goes to. His heatmap is the most concentrated of the entire team. Garnacho was actually moving in a much larger area in their half if you look at his heat map.
Wan Bisakkas heatmap shows that he never really went wide in the final third but actually goes inside so Antony had plenty of opportunity.
Honestly it sounds like you didnt look at the heatmaps and just try to make stuff up? The Tifo video isnt suspect, its a neutral analysis of the match that fits with both heatmaps, stats and the eye test.

What website are you using? Whoscored shows exactly what I said. Compare Wan Bissaka's and Shaw's heatmaps. Sofascore also shows this. Wan Bissaka predominately goes on the outside like a traditional fullback. One of them has to cut in so do the math. The tifo video isn't actually that great. Look at Nunes' heat map and then look at Wan Bissaka's. To try and say they didn't press Wan Bissaka and instead let him have the ball is a joke. It's categorically inaccurate. Again, you said "9 times out of 10 Antony comes inside" when his heat maps show both inside and outside. You also say they stuck Dawson on Garnacho to man mark, you just going to ignore that one? Back to my original response though, I don't see why you are slagging off Antony, when our main problem was Garnacho. We were extremely tilted towards the left wing, and he consistently lost the ball. To have this whataboutism is ludicrous when one of the major reasons we were dreadful was a singular player who played in an area we predominately attacked down. You clearly have a narrative that "Antony is bad" and therefore will try to fit him into any conversation about the failings of other players.

For the record, I think Garnacho is a talented player. I have my doubts about his technical abilities, and I think he may be a player similar to Rashford who is at his best using his speed to get in behind to finish, but he's definitely talented.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Has a win ever angered a fanbase more than us against Wolves? Never seen anything like it.

It's being added to the 'burn and never mention' archives alongside.

• Ole v RBL. "Trophies are for egos" unknown. Having thumped them by simply countering their gung ho style, we setup to draw the game with 5 at the back.
• Ole vs Pool. "When Old Trafford is ashes, then you have my permission to die" Bane, Batman. No words needed.
• Jose v Seville. "I've seen more cheer in a graveyard" Gimli, LOTR. A genuinely gutless performance.
• Moyes v Fulham. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" Einstein. The game of 81 crosses.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Has a win ever angered a fanbase more than us against Wolves? Never seen anything like it.

People are still bitching about it, repeating the same bitching. Let it go and move on to Spurs thread and bitch for pete sake.

 

[Lyng]

What website are you using? Whoscored shows exactly what I said. Compare Wan Bissaka's and Shaw's heatmaps. Sofascore also shows this. Wan Bissaka predominately goes on the outside like a traditional fullback. One of them has to cut in so do the math. The tifo video isn't actually that great. Look at Nunes' heat map and then look at Wan Bissaka's. To try and say they didn't press Wan Bissaka and instead let him have the ball is a joke. It's categorically inaccurate. Again, you said "9 times out of 10 Antony comes inside" when his heat maps show both inside and outside. You also say they stuck Dawson on Garnacho to man mark, you just going to ignore that one? Back to my original response though, I don't see why you are slagging off Antony, when our main problem was Garnacho. We were extremely tilted towards the left wing, and he consistently lost the ball. To have this whataboutism is ludicrous when one of the major reasons we were dreadful was a singular player who played in an area we predominately attacked down. You clearly have a narrative that "Antony is bad" and therefore will try to fit him into any conversation about the failings of other players.

For the record, I think Garnacho is a talented player. I have my doubts about his technical abilities, and I think he may be a player similar to Rashford who is at his best using his speed to get in behind to finish, but he's definitely talented.

I used Sofascore and I maintain that it clearly shows Antony only went to his usual space.
Look at their players much higher activity on Garnacho side.
Garnacho has physical limitations but he is much more unpredictable and is more of a goal threat.
I never said Antony is bad. You are making up a narrative.
Antony has issues with his decision making which hurt us massively against Wolves. That is something that the coaches need to help him with. He is clearly talented.

 

[antsmithmk]

Just because the new keeper is meant to be nifty with his feet I doesn't mean we need to play 90% of our football solely around our own box, just to prove the new keeper is actually nifty with his feet.

 

[bucky]

 

[Howl]

I used Sofascore and I maintain that it clearly shows Antony only went to his usual space.
Look at their players much higher activity on Garnacho side.
Garnacho has physical limitations but he is much more unpredictable and is more of a goal threat.
I never said Antony is bad. You are making up a narrative.
Antony has issues with his decision making which hurt us massively against Wolves. That is something that the coaches need to help him with. He is clearly talented.

You started off with someone saying Garnacho was woeful, and then chimed in with "well Antony wasn't good either". That's whataboutism and indicates a bias. Sofascore also doesn't show Antony solely coming inside either. He has two hotspots, one on the inside and the other on the outside. Wan Bissaka's heat map shows him going down the outside more than the inside. If I knew how to embed images I would grab a screenshot. Of course their players are going to have higher activity down their right side. We predominately attacked down our left.

 

[Lyng]

You started off with someone saying Garnacho was woeful, and then chimed in with "well Antony wasn't good either". That's whataboutism and indicates a bias. Sofascore also doesn't show Antony solely coming inside either. He has two hotspots, one on the inside and the other on the outside. Wan Bissaka's heat map shows him going down the outside more than the inside. If I knew how to embed images I would grab a screenshot. Of course their players are going to have higher activity down their right side. We predominately attacked down our left.

Wan Bisakkas heatmap is clearly inside. Antony has two hot spots which are both on the edge of the penalty box, not a single move towards the backline. Nothing whataboutism about it. They where both bad.

 

[Artimities]

I wasnt happy with the performance but I will take the 3 points all day long.
I am not a fan of the added time at the end of the matches either. Seems like another way for the ref's to impact the outcome.

Having said that, I was worried all along. Something about waiting around all weekend to play and realizing that you are already playing catch up to the other teams scores. I could envision a crappy performance where the team got more and more tight as the game went on. The added pressure of playing at home... I feel made this game way way tougher than we thought it would be.
This weekend will give us a much better idea of what we are about. If we can get 3 points away at Tottenham, that is a good a start to the season as we can hope for.
Me.. I just want to see us put some goals on the board.

 

[nickm]

Well, we had a bad start to the Treble season in 99 too, as well as an indifferent pre-season. Fans looked at Dwight Yorke and thought, really? The club was mired in a takeover battle with BSkyB.

Turned out OK. Almost as if you can't read too much into the first game of the season.

 

[Nobby style]

What was it, 2009 that we began losing to Burnley and the knives were out for Ferguson.

 

[antsmithmk]

Wolves this afternoon... Just wow. How bad are we to make this team look half decent?!

 

[antsmithmk]

Wolves this afternoon... Just wow. How bad are we to make this team look half decent?!

Really bad. Really, really bad.