Rosenborg vs Manchester United (Mon 15th July, 17:00 UK time)

I don’t care about the result. I care about the performance. I know it’s only the first game of preseason but I’d still expect to see something positive. Either patterns of play or the ability to string more than a few passes together. I just didn’t see any positives in that game at all. And we also conceded 22 shots.

I’m not going to worry off the back of this game, but ETH will need to start showing improvements to our overall play. Particularly when more first teamers start playing.
 
TrebleChamp99 said:
Yeah I mean first game of pre season but it didn't look good did it.

Same issues as last season and looked clueless in attack.

First half had half the first team squad in and I felt like I'd gone back in time.

Look let's give it the benefit of the doubt as it was mostly kids and the first game of pre season but let's be honest Liverpool city and arsenal would look somewhat like how they'd like to play even in the first game and with the youth.

Let's hope it improves significantly.
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The result was never the issue. The real problem is the chaotic display and the lack of a clear game plan after 2 years. How many more times are people going to trot out the same tired arguments? "It took Klopp this long, Arsenal gave Arteta that much time." It's boring and COMPLETELY irrelevant. Why? Because as most folks have said before, you could clearly see that those clubs, even when they had bad results for months or years, were progressing. You'd watch them and in 5 minutes you'd get what and how they were trying to play.

As for United, you could watch them for two weeks straight and still be left wondering, "What the hell is this coach doing? What's the setup? How are they trying to play? Why are they still making the same mistakes? Why are they still clueless in attack and sloppy in defense?"

These are all valid points that have been raised for over a year. That's why at one point, more than 80% of the fans wanted Ten Hag out, and many still do. (Yes, including me.)
 
leontas said:
I don’t care about the result. I care about the performance. I know it’s only the first game of preseason but I’d still expect to see something positive. Either patterns of play or the ability to string more than a few passes together. I just didn’t see any positives in that game at all. And we also conceded 22 shots.

I’m not going to worry off the back of this game, but ETH will need to start showing improvements to our overall play. Particularly when more first teamers start playing.
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We shouldn't be lining up next season with a single one of those players in the team. It's just a run out for the kids and those who've had the summer off. Fairly irrelevant result.
 
Feyenoord lost a preseason friendly to Kopenhagen 8-0 a few seasons ago. Kopenhagen even made a complaint, because we didn't provide enough challenge (really). We went on to win the league that season.

These early preseason friendlies mean feck all. So calm down silly geese.
 
saik said:
Nah, I'm not one of those. I'm one of those guys who's willing to give even Antony time because he shows his effort on the pitch even if he lacks quality.

What Rashford could have done is kept quiet and tried to show his work on the pitch and you wouldnt hear a thing from me. It's that simple.
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But we all know that's not true is it? If you're willing to deliberately misunderstand match fitness and physical fitness to have a pop at someone a little thing like a news article isn't going to stand in your way.
 
The game is irrelevant as I don’t think any of them will be starting games. Maybe one or two.

But I'm just amazed at how bad professional footballers can be. They couldn't string three passes together.
 
Marwood said:
The game is irrelevant as I don’t think any of them will be starting games. Maybe one or two.

But I'm just amazed at how bad professional footballers can be. They couldn't string three passes together.
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They look bad when there's no structure or a bad structure. Look at England. Or, you know, United under Ten Hag.
 
Dion said:
If this was true it wouldn't happen to elite players on a semi-regular basis.
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Yeah but it doesn't.

The vast majority of teams can knock it about a bit. Get some decent crosses in. Just the basics at least.

Like I said, yesterday's game doesn't really matter but the standard of just the basic control and passing was terrible.

You can't blame "structure" for everything.
 
Judas said:
I pity anyone genuinely rattled by the result yesterday, it can't be much fun living like that.
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I don't think anyone is 'rattled'. It's more that we were reminded of what happened last season and our expectations are low for the upcoming season.
 
Mickson said:
I don't think anyone is 'rattled'. It's more that we were reminded of what happened last season and our expectations are low for the upcoming season.
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But the context of the game, it's.....mental to read too much into it? The players have been back in training for what a week? And half of the match were children playing.

Expectations should be low after last seasons horror show, but taking too much out of yesterday's game is a choice that doesn't need to be made.
 
I didn’t watch this game but I think people forget how bad the last few months before the cup final were. It’s imperative that the team starts the season well or things will turn ugly again within a few weeks, new contract or not but if we start the season and are like outside the top 6 after the first 8-10 games his head will be on the line
 
Most teams will have poor results and performances at some point during pre-season, bizarre to read too much into one game barely a week after training started, with a line-up that is not remotely close to one that will ever play a proper match, against a side mid-season.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
I didn’t watch this game but I think people forget how bad the last few months before the cup final were. It’s imperative that the team starts the season well or things will turn ugly again within a few weeks, new contract or not but if we start the season and are like outside the top 6 after the first 8-10 games his head will be on the line
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No one's forgotten about last season.

Plenty have people have completely lost their minds over a meaningless pre-season friendly.
 
I didn't see the game but I've read a few reports and it seems that our GK was MOTM and Collyer was the pick of the outfield players.
Is that wide off the mark?
 
Marwood said:
Yeah but it doesn't.
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Of course it does, Messi himself had an absolute stinker of a touch vs Canda.

Marwood said:
The vast majority of teams can knock it about a bit. Get some decent crosses in. Just the basics at least.
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The vast majority of teams don't play with 4 first team players and half a youth team after not kicking a ball competitively for a month.

Marwood said:
Like I said, yesterday's game doesn't really matter but the standard of just the basic control and passing was terrible.
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Rusty players and players who are nowhere near good enough to ever make it as a professional at United will do that.

Marwood said:
You can't blame "structure" for everything.
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I can definitely blame anyone for thinking there would be structure to a team that consists of a handful of first teamers and a bunch of youth players, 2 groups who certainly have never played together and have likely had about a week of coaching, almost all of which will have been conditioning to make sure they can run around without getting injured.
 
Good grief. Sometimes I despair. One week into training, minds still probably on the beach. If any of you have ever played any team sport, you would know that the first game pre-season of any sport (mine was rugby) was invariably a disaster. Just calm down
 
trevor newnham said:
Good grief. Sometimes I despair. One week into training, minds still probably on the beach. If any of you have ever played any team sport, you would know that the first game pre-season of any sport (mine was rugby) was invariably a disaster. Just calm down
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Being an unfit feck, I was always completely shattered from all the running you'd do in the first weeks
 
For me. The only thing I’m thinking about is fitness and no injuries. If Mount survived without breaking toe nail or broken hair on his head I’m not that unhappy with this trip to Norway.
 
Bondi77 said:
I didn't see the game but I've read a few reports and it seems that our GK was MOTM and Collyer was the pick of the outfield players.
Is that wide off the mark?
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No that's pretty much spot on. Ennis looked quite lively as well and Mount had a few nice moments.
 
Glorio said:
We might have made him look better than he is though
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Not sure. He played an 8.5 the other week when his team won and he scored. He was playing against Casemiro and Mount first half. Who obviously wasn’t match fit or fit enough but their still 100 times better than the players he usually plays against week after week.
 
Dion said:
But we all know that's not true is it? If you're willing to deliberately misunderstand match fitness and physical fitness to have a pop at someone a little thing like a news article isn't going to stand in your way.
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Meh whatever dude. I'm not one to have a moan for moanings sake. Feel free to check my post history if you think that way. There's other players who had equally terrible games and you don't see me going off about them. I already agreed that it's foolish and is only reserved for our beloved Rashford.
:lol:

And as I keep repeating in this thread, I blame him for setting up that expectation in me. As a result I will judge him that much more harshly. Supremely fit my arse. Just looking a bit more sharper would have shut me up. But hey here's hoping he resembles a footballer again on Saturday.
 
Dion said:
Of course it does, Messi himself had an absolute stinker of a touch vs Canda.


The vast majority of teams don't play with 4 first team players and half a youth team after not kicking a ball competitively for a month.


Rusty players and players who are nowhere near good enough to ever make it as a professional at United will do that.


I can definitely blame anyone for thinking there would be structure to a team that consists of a handful of first teamers and a bunch of youth players, 2 groups who certainly have never played together and have likely had about a week of coaching, almost all of which will have been conditioning to make sure they can run around without getting injured.
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I think you've misinterpreted my point as me saying no player should ever have a bad touch.
 
While its understandably a pre-season fixture I think it's reasonable to anticipate more from the manager in performances given the premise of his management over the 24 month period. We all heard England amass critique for their performance levels and it resembles this United team with Erik.

The only justification is he's won two trophies but it's at the detriment of the team competing on a higher level (European competition and domestic league) which are areas that will determine the success of his role.

I actually think there's little notion for things to improve aside the raising of the quality throughout the squad. So it's not a surprise the youth look out of sorts when seniors were terrible for consecutive months in the previous season.

I think the team will look below average in all upcoming games but the only hope this season is no different to England, results being the penultimate factor behind success over performance metrics.
 
DJ_21 said:
Not sure. He played an 8.5 the other week when his team won and he scored. He was playing against Casemiro and Mount first half. Who obviously wasn’t match fit or fit enough but their still 100 times better than the players he usually plays against week after week.
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Not the game they played yesterday! You and I might have given them a game the way they were playing :lol:
 
Glorio said:
Not the game they played yesterday! You and I might have given them a game the way they were playing :lol:
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True. But you could also say we made the city midfield look poor in the FA cup final as they wasn’t able to do anything. Even though there obviously quality players. I think that 17 year old is decent though in my opinion. And I’m sure he’s been linked with bigger teams before.
 
Still amazed that people are concerned that our reserves (if they can even be called that) got beaten....
 
saik said:
Meh whatever dude. I'm not one to have a moan for moanings sake. Feel free to check my post history if you think that way. There's other players who had equally terrible games and you don't see me going off about them. I already agreed that it's foolish and is only reserved for our beloved Rashford.
:lol:

And as I keep repeating in this thread, I blame him for setting up that expectation in me. As a result I will judge him that much more harshly. Supremely fit my arse. Just looking a bit more sharper would have shut me up. But hey here's hoping he resembles a footballer again on Saturday.
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Again, you're just deliberately misunderstanding match fitness with physical fitness so you can have a moan about a player you have an agenda against. It's silly.
 
Dion said:
Again, you're just deliberately misunderstanding match fitness with physical fitness so you can have a moan about a player you have an agenda against. It's silly.
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Once again, Mount appeared significantly sharper despite having spent the majority of last season injured. Strangely, I didn't come across any articles from Mount boasting about he was supremely fit. Whether it's match fitness or physical conditioning, I will hold Rashford to a different standard solely due to his PR articles. It's not about having an agenda; it's simply about having higher expectations for Rashford, which naturally leads to more harsher judgments from me.

Alternatively, he could simply let his performance on the pitch speak for itself. Then, like with the other players, I would move on, dismissing it as just a meaningless pre-season game.
 
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