Nah their backup is still much better than ours:
Keita/Milner/Ox vs Fred/McT/Pereira
Lallana/Minamino vs Lingard/Pereira/Mata
Shaquiri/Ox vs James/Mata/Lingard
Origi vs Ighalo
It's a no brainer mate.
We're comfortably the third best team in the league
- Thread starter Moby
- Start date
Keita/Milner/Ox vs Fred/McT/Pereira
Lallana/Minamino vs Lingard/Pereira/Mata
Shaquiri/Ox vs James/Mata/Lingard
Origi vs Ighalo
It's a no brainer mate.
I wouldn't call us comfortably better than Chelsea.
We're easily 3rd, time for us to push and reclaim our no1 spot.
I want to defend Mata a bit here. What he lacks is pace. But the only time I really feel like he shouldn't be out there is when Lingard is out there, too. With Bruno out there, Mata's touch and perception work just fine. Maybe not against all the fastest teams, but against low-block, slower teams, I have no problems with Mata in the lineup or coming off the bench.
I understand your point. Mata was a good footballer with great first touch, passing and vision.
Problem is now he's too weak to shield the ball under pressure. And he's too slow to try to out run any player that comes to press him. Let him play and the first thing he does when receives a ball is to pass it, but usually backward or sideway because he knowns he can't not keep it until the right moment for the forward pass. This and his defensive weakness basically makes him, sorry but a pointless player imo. He can't defend and now just can't attack. He maybe a bit useful when we want to keep possession for the sake of keeping it but that's all imo, unfortunately.
Not comfortably no. We are better though
Let’s slow the roll a bit.
Recent performances have been very encouraging. But Southampton is in really good form and it will be a tough match.
We’ve had a lot of matches recently and Ole has named the same starting 11 four matches in a row. We looked a bit tired against Villa at times. Unfortunately, our depth is so poor, and this is a match that we need to get full points from, so I suspect he’ll name the same 11.
This match will be a test of our professionalism and desire. Let’s hope we can get a great performance that moves us into the top 4.
Recent performances have been very encouraging. But Southampton is in really good form and it will be a tough match.
We’ve had a lot of matches recently and Ole has named the same starting 11 four matches in a row. We looked a bit tired against Villa at times. Unfortunately, our depth is so poor, and this is a match that we need to get full points from, so I suspect he’ll name the same 11.
This match will be a test of our professionalism and desire. Let’s hope we can get a great performance that moves us into the top 4.
I also think that we are 3rd best as of now. And today is first real test since restart. No excuses for poor performance. Ole should name the same 11. My prediction 3-1 (1-1 after first 45)
Get the 3rd spot first.
That's it.
That's it.
Sheffield and Spur's were bigger tests. Enough with the real test jargon now! It's really getting overused every time we have an important game.
Can we close this embarrassing thread until we actually do something to back the talk up.
Is City now not good?
Are we ahead of city?
Yup
I still think this is true. Ole has just gotten it wrong with his rotation and starting eleven today. Chelsea are nothing special and would have struggled against a full eleven.
Whys that? We've beat them 3 times this season. One game littered with mistakes against our second team hardly makes them better than us.
Had a feeling that this thread would not age well.
I wouldn’t read anything into this game we’ve been well off the pace. It’s looked like one team has had a week off and the other just 72hrs
Exactly
It’s what everyone wanted last week martial pogba greenwood Lindelof all rested and this is the result
Still better than Chelsea this is just a very poor Utd performance
Basically this. Obviously we dont have the legs
He shouldn’t have changed the system on top of everything else. It offered nothing going forward and isolated rashford. I agree, still better, but Ole messed up today for me, even with the required changes.
United have the best team, but Chelsea easily have the best squad, and thats been ruthlessly highlighted today.
Considering West Ham would have had a 5 days off and Leicester a week off when we play them it doesnt bode well for Top 4
West Ham will be safe when we play them.
Plus a draw is the same as a win. We still need the same result v Leicester regardless
Exactly. We should have played full strength today, rested at West Ham, full strength against Leicester.
The premise was silly. Said as much.
There were some extenuating circumstances today but the notion we are comfortably the 3rd best side is rubbish.
There were some extenuating circumstances today but the notion we are comfortably the 3rd best side is rubbish.
I think it’s used to protect our poor players and then the whole team decided to throw in a 5/10 performance at best
That team never looked like winning a game like
It's not too late to edit the title, fourth best team in the league.
Delete this thread. Embarrassing.
Chelsea have played 3 times in 9 days as have we. Many of our starting players were not even playing regular in those fixtures. Why would Brandon, Fred, Matic James, Bailly, not have the legs?
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The issue here that when others don't make movement to give option then we will struggle to make a pass, those players will also be affected. You can just tell that their passings are way off because our players weren't fluid enough and too static. Lack of movement means no flow within our play. We beat them 3x anyway this season and FA Cup isn't the most important so we will just need to move on and concentrate in the next game.
Our first XI is pretty good. But when we rest players and make changes, the majority of players that come in are far inferior to those they replace.
The thread was about us having the third best squad in the league, not third best team. I think you missed the point of the thread.
Regardless of whether or not we have a better squad than Chelsea, which is highly debatable, we are not comfortably better them which was what I was replying to.
Not necessarily. Beat West Ham by three and then we can lose by one against Leicester and still finish ahead of them, iirc.
Well in all fairness, in one of those matches they lost 3-0 in a convincing fashion to Sheffield United.
Comfortably 3rd best is a silly premise when it's such a close gap between 5th and 3rd in the league. However, I do think we are comfortably the 3rd best attacking team or at least the most entertaining to watch. Chelsea play some boring, unimaginative football at times and it showed despite the win. Not that we were any better but there were extenuating circumstances as you said and this wasn't even a league game.
Isn’t there a decent chance we will be in 3rd come Wednesday night? This thread isn’t totally embarrassing.
But we do need to stop making such claims when the team hasn’t followed through with anything, and we need to stop bumping threads every time an opinion may carry more or less weight based on the most recent result. I know football fans are fickle but the caf is getting stupid nowadays.
But we do need to stop making such claims when the team hasn’t followed through with anything, and we need to stop bumping threads every time an opinion may carry more or less weight based on the most recent result. I know football fans are fickle but the caf is getting stupid nowadays.
It's not too late to edit the title, fourth best team in the league.
I want to say "This." but.. it's not really something positive.They're ahead of us on the table, and are on the final of a cup. All of this while having a new manager, and a transfer ban. Also, they already have signed a couple of players for next season.
There ain't much between the two teams IMO.
Arguably better but definitely not comfortably better. I think there is a case to make for us though.
I would still say comfortably. I don’t see anything special in Chelsea’s first eleven and I think their squad is pretty interchangeable which is how lampard has kept them so fresh.
Rashford/Martial/Greenwood are much more exciting and threatening than Giroud and co.
Pogba/Bruno/Matic is a higher quality three than they can field in midfield.
Add to that the fact that we have conceded less goals despite not being at our best until January and I think we are comfortably ahead.
That might change now with transfers and quality they might bring in, but what we need more than ever at United is a squad now. We have very little in terms of competition for defenders or attacking threat on the bench.
A CB, creative midfielder and winger in the summer please!