U23s - Manchester United vs West Ham

Whipping boy? Have you seen lingard play? He gets an england call up ok , so what?
I think he is getting a call up because he plays for united. Incase he is sold to any other team out of the top 6 it's curtains for lingard.

No assists or goals in 2019 and still fans keep giving us sacred knowledge about how lingard is everything that no normal person can see

No, you're doing that with Gomes. Lingard's not great and everyone knows it, but Gomes is young and he hasn't done it in the PL, those are the current facts!
 
No, you're doing that with Gomes. Lingard's not great and everyone knows it, but Gomes is young and he hasn't done it in the PL, those are the current facts!

Gomes hasn't done himself any favours with his performance today. A superb goal, but he was really poor the rest of the game.
 
Good play - Traore uses O'Connor on the overlap and Ramazani heads home his cross.
 
Well there were some seriously poor performances the first 30 mins of that second half. Glad we got something out of that, we deserved to. Lot of promise from some players. West Ham will be delighted with that.
 
No, you're doing that with Gomes. Lingard's not great and everyone knows it, but Gomes is young and he hasn't done it in the PL, those are the current facts!
Hasn't done it in the PL? So we don't give a player a chance to play in the premier league because he hasn't done it in the Premier league.

Brilliant logic that.
 
2-2 FT. Very good first half performance - very poor second half performance.

Quick player rating:

Woolston - 6 - could not do anything with the goals - very ittle else to do.

Williams - 8 - the best United-player on the pitch. Solid defensively and the natural leader on the pitch
Mengi - 5 - shaky perfomance with a few horror mistakes
Ercolani - 6 - solid but unspectacular. Did his job
O'Connor - 5 - both goals came from his side. Should do a lot better on the second. Good assist for the 2-2 goal

Gomes - 6 - superb goal - but the rest of the match was not good
Levitt - 6 - good before the break with one superb pass that deserved better. Did very little after the break
Traore - 7 - the only midfielder who did well in the 2nd half. Took a lot of surging runs and worked his socks off
Galbraith - 5 - a couple of awful ball-loses in dangerous positions. Not good enough if you are the defensive midfielder
Ramazani - 6 - created very little but got the all important equalizer

Elanga - 4 - a very poor performance. Looked nervous and to add to everything he lost his man for the 2-1 goal. Will come back a lot stronger
 
Does Ramazani not have a thread? I like the lad. Very understated, hard working, rapid. Seems to be netting a fair bit as well now.
 
Well there were some seriously poor performances the first 30 mins of that second half. Glad we got something out of that, we deserved to. Lot of promise from some players. West Ham will be delighted with that.
Do you think the loss of some good players to the 1st team affected them or were they just off their game
 
Hasn't done it in the PL? So we don't give a player a chance to play in the premier league because he hasn't done it in the Premier league.

Brilliant logic that.

No, that's not what we were discussing. We weren't discussing whether to give him a chance, it was a response mainly to your line that
"5) Gomes. He is just miles ahead of lingard and looks way above this level. Kids gonna be a superstar."

We have no way to prove Gomes is "miles ahead of Lingard", and when he gets PL minutes we'll be able to have a look at him. At the moment though this is pure speculation, PL players would bully the guys in this match too. Gomes has a lot of talent, but he is very young and he hasn't done it yet.

From what I can tell Gomes hasn't done a great deal apart from score in this match.
 
Does Ramazani not have a thread? I like the lad. Very understated, hard working, rapid. Seems to be netting a fair bit as well now.

Has taken huge steps this season yes.
 
Disappointing second half, but brilliant response to going a goal down. Good to see the youngsters having that spirit to keep going and not settle for a draw late on.
 
Has taken huge steps this season yes.
I think he’s got a way to go, but will be interested to see him this season.

Do you think the loss of some good players to the 1st team affected them or were they just off their game
Well yes and no. Galbraith was poor and was garners replacement, but Gomes really went off the boil as well. I thought Elanga fell off a cliff after a decent first half, he was awful - maybe argue he’s Chong’s replacement? Everyone’s ball retention went out the window, even Williams made some silly mistakes.
 
I think he’s got a way to go, but will be interested to see him this season.


Well yes and no. Galbraith was poor and was garners replacement, but Gomes really went off the boil as well. I thought Elanga fell off a cliff after a decent first half, he was awful - maybe argue he’s Chong’s replacement? Everyone’s ball retention went out the window, even Williams made some silly mistakes.

Elanga didn’t have a decent first half - all he did was scuff 3 shots (one of which was an absolute sitter).

The lad is very talented and will come back stronger but sadly, nothing about his performance was decent.
 
Williams - 8 - the best United-player on the pitch. Solid defensively and the natural leader on the pitch
The first goal comes down to him being brain dead. If he wasn't mindlessly throwing himself into a challenge for no reason then their break never even happens. He was called out on it after the game by Danny Webber saying that the staff won't be happy with that and he needs to do far better and just drop to his position because he had no business doing that.

For the second he has tucked in leaving the crosser for Elanga and yet still failed to actually cover the low cross because he didn't position himself properly, effectively contributing absolutely nothing for their second. It was basic defending to cover the front of the 6 yard box but he was caught covering nothing.

That is hardly solid defensively.
 
Enjoyed that at OT earlier. Bright first half with some nice football and great goal from Gomes followed by a really poor second but kept going and got the rewards. Williams and Gomes definitely have a chance of making it.
 
The first goal comes down to him being brain dead. If he wasn't mindlessly throwing himself into a challenge for no reason then their break never even happens. He was called out on it after the game by Danny Webber saying that the staff won't be happy with that and he needs to do far better and just drop to his position because he had no business doing that.

For the second he has tucked in leaving the crosser for Elanga and yet still failed to actually cover the low cross because he didn't position himself properly, effectively contributing absolutely nothing for their second. It was basic defending to cover the front of the 6 yard box but he was caught covering nothing.

That is hardly solid defensively.

Yepp. He had a terrible game really..
 
The first goal comes down to him being brain dead. If he wasn't mindlessly throwing himself into a challenge for no reason then their break never even happens. He was called out on it after the game by Danny Webber saying that the staff won't be happy with that and he needs to do far better and just drop to his position because he had no business doing that.

For the second he has tucked in leaving the crosser for Elanga and yet still failed to actually cover the low cross because he didn't position himself properly, effectively contributing absolutely nothing for their second. It was basic defending to cover the front of the 6 yard box but he was caught covering nothing.

That is hardly solid defensively.
Reading in between the lines, what you're saying is he should start ahead of Ashley Young?
 
An enjoyable watch, but then when both teams want to play football is usually is.

Not going to be overcritical about any of our lads, certainly not about lads some who are still 17/18 playing on a massive energy sapping pitch for the first time at this level against a far bigger much older West Ham side, i'll leave that to others.

Williams and Galbraith probably our best performers over the entire 90 minutes.

Nice to see Hannibal Mejbri and Bjorn Hardley watching on last night, Lauren James too

And finally for those bashing senior players and the Manager in this, an u23 thread, getting a friggin life.
 
Elanga didn’t have a decent first half - all he did was scuff 3 shots (one of which was an absolute sitter).

The lad is very talented and will come back stronger but sadly, nothing about his performance was decent.
Yes his finishing was poor, but I thought he led the line well and made some good runs.
 
The first goal comes down to him being brain dead. If he wasn't mindlessly throwing himself into a challenge for no reason then their break never even happens. He was called out on it after the game by Danny Webber saying that the staff won't be happy with that and he needs to do far better and just drop to his position because he had no business doing that.

For the second he has tucked in leaving the crosser for Elanga and yet still failed to actually cover the low cross because he didn't position himself properly, effectively contributing absolutely nothing for their second. It was basic defending to cover the front of the 6 yard box but he was caught covering nothing.

That is hardly solid defensively.

For the first he goes into a duel almost the halfway-line which he shouldn't have. But there were still 4 United-players in defense and noone who picked the guy on the left. Hardly Williams' fault. For the second - Elanga should easily have that guy, Williams must have faith in his teammate to pick up one guy. And then O'Connor doesn't track his guy who has an easy tap-in

Hardly Williams' fault
 
Really some dullards can't even spare this thread from the Lingard/Mata/Ole bashing.
 
For the first he goes into a duel almost the halfway-line which he shouldn't have. But there were still 4 United-players in defense and noone who picked the guy on the left. Hardly Williams' fault. For the second - Elanga should easily have that guy, Williams must have faith in his teammate to pick up one guy. And then O'Connor doesn't track his guy who has an easy tap-in

Hardly Williams' fault
The first is break straight to our box. Hardly his fault? He caused the whole thing. Hence why he was called out for it by Danny Webber who said the staff won't be happy with it at all. If it was hardly his fault it wouldn't have been brought forward by someone involved with the club for criticism. He was terrible on the first.

Can you read? Did I say Elanga can't have the man? That doesn't mean Williams stands there doing nothing. Elanga must also have faith that Williams will actually apply some elementary positioning and cut off the space. Once again basic positioning and he'd be cutting out a very simple cross.
 
The first is break straight to our box. Hardly his fault? He caused the whole thing. Hence why he was called out for it by Danny Webber who said the staff won't be happy with it at all. If it was hardly his fault it wouldn't have been brought forward by someone involved with the club for criticism. He was terrible on the first.

Can you read? Did I say Elanga can't have the man? That doesn't mean Williams stands there doing nothing. Elanga must also have faith that Williams will actually apply some elementary positioning and cut off the space. Once again basic positioning and he'd be cutting out a very simple cross.

I can't see what Williams is doing really wrong for the first goal. I have looked at it a few times. A long kick from the keeper - the United-player (Ramazani I think) is backing, but is never going to reach the ball. Williams goes into the duel and loses it. He could have backed off but there is no guarantee that would have been the right decision.

What happens next is a combination of poor lucky, decent play and poor defending. The flick-on ends perfectly for one of the West Ham-players. O'Connor makes a poor decision by going centrally to block the run of one West-Ham player. This was not necessary as Galbraith did a solid job defensively and had him covered. By leaving his space, O'Connor leaves Coventry all alone - and we we re in trouble. It's not a big mistake in my book. As for what Webber thinks - he is entitled to his opinion. Do you always agree with pundits or experts?

Goal number 2 - once again don't agree with you. When the ball is played over Williams and the guy he is tracking - he gets in the way of any low cross to that player. You could argue that he should cover the near post - but that would leave his man all alone. But the main mistake in this situation is : a) Elanga not tracking his man. He is actually pretty far away from doing it. and b) There are 3 United-defenders standing around Scully when the ball is crossed to the right. Every single of them stands still while Scully makes that run. Ercolani, Mengi and especially O'Connor - they all stop running. It was also a brilliant low cross - on the volley.

I am not saying Williams did everything right - but they were not major mistake as I see it.

PS! I doubt Williams is brain-dead and yes I do know how to read!
 
So Gomes didn't have a good game? What did he do wrong?

First half he was good and controlled the pace of game. The second half he was calling for ball but we fell apart as a team. Then injured. Holland was good for them who I believe is Mancunian.