Only a pre-season game to give the kids a run out I know, but feck me Rashford still looks atrocious. He's fallen off a cliff.
Rosenborg vs Manchester United (Mon 15th July, 17:00 UK time)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Tough on the young United lads, seconds away from a clean sheet but can't say the hosts didn't deserve to win
That Cantona snapdragon advert is banging
How has Aljofree done?
Eric better be paid handsomely for that ad
Bloody de Gea. Grrrr...
He came in with a big rep having scored lots of goals for the under 18s at Liverpool. Played in our under 21s and was okay, scored some goals but didnt look very impressive technically and is often looking down and a bit selfish going it alone. He can score a goal sometimes though. Then he got injured, came back and looks a bit more physical - stronger and more robust. But still the same weaknesses. Today we saw more of it, he could run and dribble, he pressed and won the ball, a decent long shot due to the power but also times when he just needed to play an easy pass and he was selfish.
In the 2nd half he was still our best player going forward, but slim pickings
If he fell off a cliff at least he'd have an excuse for not being able to run.
Definitely a baptism of fire, especially that second half. Guess it’s just more minutes in the legs
So, you are keeping Ashworth? 
Terrible performance bar Vitek and some of Collyers involvement. Created nothing and struggled to defend. Such a 2023/24 performance continuation, will be on the sack watch if the players don't start looking like they know what our tactics actually are?
Thanks, good analysis. Decent prospect then.
it was important not to get blown away in the first leg. early goal back at old trafford and it’s a different tie.
Disgraceful and unacceptable performance.
If this was CM 02, I would click “release player” and send all these kids packing.
Yamal is younger than all of them, its not good enough, folks, we’re in different time now, this isn’t the 90’s, 16 is the new 19, and 19 is the new 22.
Vitek was wonderful, should be playing cups ahead of the Turkish fella.
How do you even concede 22 shots on target against literal farmers?
My day is ruined and my disappointment is immeasurable.
If this was CM 02, I would click “release player” and send all these kids packing.
Yamal is younger than all of them, its not good enough, folks, we’re in different time now, this isn’t the 90’s, 16 is the new 19, and 19 is the new 22.
Vitek was wonderful, should be playing cups ahead of the Turkish fella.
How do you even concede 22 shots on target against literal farmers?
My day is ruined and my disappointment is immeasurable.
Sensational advert!
... When's the international break?
Blackett was hyped more for the fact he was picked at a young age at CB for us by our first team manager
He didn't play for our U21s before his injury. He scored 10 in 19 for the U18s with 3 assists pre-injury. He's only played 280' odd minutes for the U21s in his career and they all came this season.
They had 22 shots compared to our 5 and more possession. It’s going to be another shit season.
should hurry up the first team players who shouldn't be on holiday back. The kids were an eyesore. I did not see any sort of sparkle with any of them.
In the way he finds good spaces to take the ball off the keeper or centre backs, plays simple passes and then moves into pockets to receive the ball back.
I wasn’t expecting perfection in the first game of preseason, but I saw movement from him that we don’t see in players far more senior in the squad.
Not sure if sarcasm. They are 15 games into their domestic campaign.
Atleast Nypan looked good
Amazing how every year without fail someone takes preseason, especially the very first match with a youth squad, way too serious
Not very interesting to watch. Basically the U21 squad with a few first team players. Hopefully more players from 1st team will play on Saturday.
Yeah he did have a good attitude running back to work for the team. Although thats obviously also the responsibility of the player playing as a 6 so of course hes going to do more of it than others.
He just wasnt very good at it when the ball came to him and some poor outcomes from his challenges and involvements.
What do our resident youth watchers think of Will Fish? Can he step up to fill the role Kambwala had last season as first team cover with Johnny Evans?
Vitek superb. Thought Mount was ok in the first half. Rest was pretty rubbish, but Casemiro & Rashford were even worse.
I think he had far more good touches with the ball than bad ones. Yes he had a couple of poor touches and possession losses - but so did everybody else and it’s always going to happen with zero match sharpness after a break.
You're correct. It was a good run out against a Rosenborg team who are much fitter and sharper due to being half way through their domestic season. It was a good test as far as improving ourselves from a stamina and fitness perspective. And in games like these it's about seeing who shows up from the younger players and I thought Vitek played well along with Toby Collyer who again demonstrated the ability to receive passes on the half turn which is a very important trait against teams who close off space.
Even for the Caf standards I can't believe what I'm reading after a friendly for our youth players
Ten hag not happy with the performance, good to see high standards
Bit of a warm-up with no injuries. It'll do.
Cannot believe I wasted two hours on that. Rashford. Christ Almighty.
Again we struggled very badly building out of the back and he was one of the reasons for that.
Even Ten Hag is saying it wasn’t good enough. It’s not the end of the world but there are still standards.
If we put out that team I would agree.
It's not just about the poor performance for me, it's about how everyone was playing it safe. No one was showing for the ball, no one was taking any risks and it's pre-season. Make big mistakes, concede goals, who cares? They pressed high and no one wanted to drop deep and take responsibility for moving the ball forward. We just kept passing it between the centre-backs and the goalkeeper until one of them got bored and passed it to a full-back, which ended in either losing the ball or just hoofing it forward and losing the ball.
If you're not attempting things in pre-season, if you're not taking risks now, then when?
If you're not attempting things in pre-season, if you're not taking risks now, then when?
Exactly, we've seen us in first season games but this was particularly horrid