[Sultan]

Nothing more than a mid-season friendly.

RR said after the Crystal Palace game he likes players being in their natural positions. He did exactly the opposite with a number of players and even subs.

 

[captaincantona]

Nothing more than a mid-season friendly.

RR said after the Crystal Palace game he likes players being in their natural positions. He did exactly the opposite with a number of players and even subs.

The positions may not have been natural to the player but they perhaps represented the way RR sees them fitting into his line up going forward.

Take Elanga for instance, I would say positionally he is closest to what Rashford has been up till now, a pacy and direct inverted forward type who runs at players and cuts inside to get a shot off...pace to make runs in behind...but Rashford seems to be moving to a more front 2 role now with Ronny, so it stands to reason that RR needed to see how Elanga performs in that new Rashford role? Can he deputise in that role?

Donny was a no brainier, Matic I genuinely think he just wanted to rest Harry and Victor with Varane still out. Mata was an odd one granted.

 

[Rightnr]

I think the criticism of Lingard and Mata is unfair.

Mata for example has had zero minutes this season I think? To expect him to run the show is just weird. Save for a sloppy finish, he played well.

Not saying these players shouldn't be moved on, I just think the criticism is overly harsh in the circumstances.

As other have mentioned squad freshness harmony and giving young players a look is more important than winning an absolute dead rubber of a game.

Lingard was barely jogging. Shocking.

And if there ever was a player who was done at the top level, it would be Mata. Dude's looking like a pensioner without his cane.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

EditSorry was trying to reply to post about Baily)

I thought h did well but I can't believe he did not score an own goal on that clearance, and he cannot be so risky with the ball at times.

I am being nitpicky, probably because I'd love to see him start with Varane, and I hope he can clean up some things.

The other option is to let the ball run past you and watch it end up in the net. It was the same for the OG against City; if he doesn't attempt to play it, they score. I would rather a defender risks scoring an OG over doing nothing and watching the ball go in anyway.

 

[hescoresgoals1899]

Great night for the youngsters good to see some young lads getting an opportunity, players who had the most to prove VDB, Lindgard, AWB fell a little short of what they needed to do , thought Iqbal for the short time he was on looked very composed for such a young lad look forward to seeing more of him , shame Hanibal was away .

we forget also Ole’s first team got beat by this lot so the young lads did alright

I think VdB is receiving some truly harsh feedback. I looked up his stats on sofas score and they suggest he was among our best players on the night:

• 92 touches - most in the team
• 9\11 duels won
• 3\4 long passes completed
• 84% pass completion
• 6 tackles (2 more than any other player on pitch)
• 3 interceptions
• 2 clearances
• 1 block

Admittedly one stray pass did lead to the goal but lets be honest...would we be talking about this error if we had taken the other 3 or 4 clear cut chances that were squandered?

I think a lot of the criticism has been unfair consedering we've been much more lenient on much more egregious errors and performance from other players.

Stats suggest he was among our top performers last night.

https://www.sofascore.com/manchester-united-young-boys/KsVY

 

[largelyworried]

The other option is to let the ball run past you and watch it end up in the net. It was the same for the OG against City; if he doesn't attempt to play it, they score. I would rather a defender risks scoring an OG over doing nothing and watching the ball go in anyway.

The goal against city was avoidable. If you're right under your cross bar a yard from goal, that's unavoidable. But against City he was outside the frame of the goal and there was another defender between him and the nearest City player. That was just a shank.

 

[USREDEVIL]

Wasn't a great performance but if Mata and Amad had buried those really good chances it would have made a pretty different game. Otherwise, pretty meh. Looked disjointed which isn't surprising in light of them probably not playing together much and the weather.

 

[GreenHeron]

Not a great watch, and not an accomplished team performance, but nor should we have expected there to be after 11 changes and a few CL debuts.

I'm quite positive - the way I saw it everyone was audtioning for a 1st team spot and I think 4 clearly passed the test well - Henderson, Bailly, Shaw, Greenwood. Of those four, I thought Henderson might have given Rangnick the most to think about. If you're going to play a high line then having a keeper who can command his box and come out to sweep up balls in behind is massive. There was one occasion where AWB let his man in behind and Henderson headed clear - if that was de Gea it would have been a big chance. DDG is the best shotstopper in the world, but one of the worst top level goalkeepers anywhere at commanding his box.

I also thought VDB was reasonable - seen some stats above that back this up, and he was much less at fault for the goal than was Matic.

So 5 genuine first team options. Some promise from Amad and Mengi in particular. The only real losers were AWB and JLingz (TM).

 

[DSG]

It would be a bit tough to guage him on this considering Mata was his midfield partner and he's probably never played with the attackers in front of him or Matic behind him.

Just seems like it’s excuse after excuse for Donny. Makes me sad because I hoped he’d work out.

He was at fault for the goal, defensively he was pretty poor, and he didn’t add hardly anything to the attack. He’s also not physical enough.

‘Saw an article that said Mata was good… wow, not the same match I was watching. Besides the one ball out to Diallo, he was very very poor. I love the Mata of 7 years ago, but he’s too old and slow. When I saw the lineup I was shocked that Rangnick attempted a midfield of DvB and Mata. Ballsy to say the least.

 

[Beans]

Just seems like it’s excuse after excuse for Donny. Makes me sad because I hoped he’d work out.

He was at fault for the goal, defensively he was pretty poor, and he didn’t add hardly anything to the attack. He’s also not physical enough.

‘Saw an article that said Mata was good… wow, not the same match I was watching. Besides the one ball out to Diallo, he was very very poor. I love the Mata of 7 years ago, but he’s too old and slow. When I saw the lineup I was shocked that Rangnick attempted a midfield of DvB and Mata. Ballsy to say the least.

It did seem a little odd. Maybe he felt obliged to give him 90 minutes to demonstrate that he could fight for a spot in the squad? Or at least prove he couldn't. I don't see another position for him in a 4222, he's not mobile enough for either no.10 position, so it's in the center or nowhere.

 

[DSG]

It did seem a little odd. Maybe he felt obliged to give him 90 minutes to demonstrate that he could fight for a spot in the squad? Or at least prove he couldn't. I don't see another position for him in a 4222, he's not mobile enough for either no.10 position, so it's in the center or nowhere.

Agree. Rest/rotation as well. Am I crazy or did Rangnick start with a 4-2-3-1 with Lingard behind Mason? Seemed like it. Then in the second half, he went 4-2-2-2, that was obvious.

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

I think VdB is receiving some truly harsh feedback. I looked up his stats on sofas score and they suggest he was among our best players on the night:

• 92 touches - most in the team
• 9\11 duels won
• 3\4 long passes completed
• 84% pass completion
• 6 tackles (2 more than any other player on pitch)
• 3 interceptions
• 2 clearances
• 1 block

Admittedly one stray pass did lead to the goal but lets be honest...would we be talking about this error if we had taken the other 3 or 4 clear cut chances that were squandered?

I think a lot of the criticism has been unfair consedering we've been much more lenient on much more egregious errors and performance from other players.

Stats suggest he was among our top performers last night.

https://www.sofascore.com/manchester-united-young-boys/KsVY

I think both VDB & Amad are being judged on 1 poor pass each during the course of the match, VDB's for Young Boy's goal & Amad for not picking the right pass when he was bearing down on the goal & totally missed Lingard with what looked to be a very simple pass, he also had another player (Elanga, I think) totally unmarked on the back post (another easy pass to make but failed).

 

[Lee565]

Hard to to be harsh on the performance, your talking about almost an entire team that had either barely had any playing time this season or were youngsters that were have barely played any senior football before.

 

[NICanRed]

I think both VDB & Amad are being judged on 1 poor pass each during the course of the match, VDB's for Young Boy's goal & Amad for not picking the right pass when he was bearing down on the goal & totally missed Lingard with what looked to be a very simple pass, he also had another player (Elanga, I think) totally unmarked on the back post (another easy pass to make but failed).

I read that VDB covered the most ground of the players on both teams.
RR got a chance to watch more players in a game situation - different to a training day.
Good to give some youngsters (and Tom Heaton) a first opportunity on the big stage.
First teamers got a rest - we have December ahead of us and we need to be winning everything we can.
Someone referred to this team as our 2nd XI. I'm glad we weren't playing City's 2nd XI. We have some building to do.

 

[Lee565]

I read that VDB covered the most ground of the players on both teams.
RR got a chance to watch more players in a game situation - different to a training day.
Good to give some youngsters (and Tom Heaton) a first opportunity on the big stage.
First teamers got a rest - we have December ahead of us and we need to be winning everything we can.
Someone referred to this team as our 2nd XI. I'm glad we weren't playing City's 2nd XI. We have some building to do.

I wouldn't say that is our 2nd XI, our 2nd 11 when all are fit is more likely something like -

Henderson
Bissak_lindelof_Bailly_Telles
____Matic__beek
___diallo___pogba
__grennwood_cavani

Even with that second string side we still dont have room for the likes of martial, lingard, mata, jones and Heaton which shows our genuine strength in depth in the right hands.

 

[redmanc]

I think VdB is receiving some truly harsh feedback. I looked up his stats on sofas score and they suggest he was among our best players on the night:

• 92 touches - most in the team
• 9\11 duels won
• 3\4 long passes completed
• 84% pass completion
• 6 tackles (2 more than any other player on pitch)
• 3 interceptions
• 2 clearances
• 1 block

Admittedly one stray pass did lead to the goal but lets be honest...would we be talking about this error if we had taken the other 3 or 4 clear cut chances that were squandered?

I think a lot of the criticism has been unfair consedering we've been much more lenient on much more egregious errors and performance from other players.

Stats suggest he was among our top performers last night.

https://www.sofascore.com/manchester-united-young-boys/KsVY

I agree completely, VdB was always open to receive the ball in good spaces or tried to find spaces unlike McT who just does his best to get a man between him and receiving a pass, essentially hiding from the ball. One bad pass doesnt mean he had a poor game, just means he made a mistake having been put under pressure by another questionable pass.

 

[Tony247]

I think VdB is receiving some truly harsh feedback. I looked up his stats on sofas score and they suggest he was among our best players on the night:

• 92 touches - most in the team
• 9\11 duels won
• 3\4 long passes completed
• 84% pass completion
• 6 tackles (2 more than any other player on pitch)
• 3 interceptions
• 2 clearances
• 1 block

Admittedly one stray pass did lead to the goal but lets be honest...would we be talking about this error if we had taken the other 3 or 4 clear cut chances that were squandered?

I think a lot of the criticism has been unfair consedering we've been much more lenient on much more egregious errors and performance from other players.

Stats suggest he was among our top performers last night.

https://www.sofascore.com/manchester-united-young-boys/KsVY

I liked his game too. His positioning was excellent. He also made progressive passes. There is a hope.

 

[gerdm07]

Amad look good enough for me to give him more chances in the next month. There is a possibility he could be useful the rest of the season especially coming off the bench against tired sides.

 

[Halftrack]

I wouldn't say that is our 2nd XI, our 2nd 11 when all are fit is more likely something like -

Henderson
Bissak_lindelof_Bailly_Telles
____Matic__beek
___diallo___pogba
__grennwood_cavani

Even with that second string side we still dont have room for the likes of martial, lingard, mata, jones and Heaton which shows our genuine strength in depth in the right hands.

In no world is Lindelöf behind Maguire on recent and current form.