When will we next not look like a pub side in the first half of a game?

V.O.

Last Man Standing finalist 2019/20
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
10,118
We've scored a grand total of one goal in the first half of any our last 17 games. That's 765 minutes worth of football. It was a penalty in a game we were already losing and went on to lose.

It's hard to fathom how consistently shit that is, when we've at least been capable of moments and comebacks in second halves.
 
No chance. The Liverpool game was about the ONLY game that we played with formation and consistency throughout 90 min, although only managed a draw. The entire season was poor on defence and toothless in attack. Relying too much on individual talent
 
Was going to make a thread on something similar about the importance of the first goal but this has been a problem since the days of Ole. Fightbacks and the never say die attitude are essential to Manchester United's identity, and its a huge part of the romance of the club and its resilience but the last few years in particular have been taking the piss. So many games under Ole, EtH and Amorim where you think 'this just isn't sustainable', you can't wait to go down one or two goals and then suddenly spark into life in the last 20 minutes. Something is really wrong if you need that to happen to play football.
 
Irwin99 said:
Was going to make a thread on something similar about the importance of the first goal but this has been a problem since the days of Ole. Fightbacks and the never say die attitude are essential to Manchester United's identity, and its a huge part of the romance of the club and its resilience but the last few years in particular have been taking the piss. So many games under Ole, EtH and Amorim where you think 'this just isn't sustainable', you can't wait to go down one or two goals and then suddenly spark into life in the last 20 minutes. Something is really wrong if you need that to happen to play football.
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Yeah, we were definitely second half FC for a good while under Ole, but I'm sure it was nothing like at this level.

It's gone on long enough to be beyond what could be a bit of a statistical quirk, and we've carried so little attacking threat until half time in basically every game for the last three months that somebody in the general even suggested that it could be tactical. I don't understand what could go badly enough in the physical or mental preparation for games that would lead to us being this poor so consistently. I can see where that poster in the general is coming from, in that it's bad enough to almost seem intentional.

I don't know if there are any stats to back it up, but it felt like we had the opposite problem under Ten Hag, where we'd look bright quite often for the first 20 or so minutes and then fall away. Maybe the players just don't have either the stamina or concentration to do anything at a reasonable level for longer than that in any given game.
 
V.O. said:
We've scored a grand total of one goal in the first half of any our last 17 games. That's 765 minutes worth of football. It was a penalty in a game we were already losing and went on to lose.

It's hard to fathom how consistently shit that is, when we've at least been capable of moments and comebacks in second halves.
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When is the last time we scored in open play in the 1st half?
 
We have to be brave. We start so conservatively and are very circumspect. Again, I think it has to come from the manager. The players are not confident in the system and are afraid to make mistakes which leads to this. The same used to happen under VG too after we got a pasting against Leicester. We became more conservative and the games became a borefest as we'd just be afraid to take any risks.
 
Insanity said:
We have to be brave. We start so conservatively and are very circumspect. Again, I think it has to come from the manager. The players are not confident in the system and are afraid to make mistakes which leads to this. The same used to happen under VG too after we got a pasting against Leicester. We became more conservative and the games became a borefest as we'd just be afraid to take any risks.
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100% this. We don’t dare anymore.
 
V.O. said:
We've scored a grand total of one goal in the first half of any our last 17 games. That's 765 minutes worth of football. It was a penalty in a game we were already losing and went on to lose.

It's hard to fathom how consistently shit that is, when we've at least been capable of moments and comebacks in second halves.
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Red00012 said:
When is the last time we scored in open play in the 1st half?
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V.O. said:
Hojlund vs Forest, 7th of December.
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That is truly shocking, and scandalous.

Amorim's "slowly slowly" style of football is putting us in a hole every f**king game.
 
in our own build ups, we love to cluster 7-8 players in our own final third. We make it a congested passing game in our own final third around our own box, with 7-8 of our players vs 5-6 of opponents' pressing players.
We either (1) keep passing in our own final third until it got intercepted and turn into a dangerous attack by opponent or (2) our players clear/pass the ball to our front 2-3 players (zirkzee/hojlund/garnacho) on panic, who can't retain possession (and outnumbered anyway) and lose possession accordingly.

There is a very easy solution to this: push the players forward
 
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It’s a battle to get possession past the half way line.

Every team initiates a high press against us, because we aren’t effective at creating space and moving the ball forward.

When we do have possession, more often than not we pass it around the 3 CBs, moving back towards our penalty area, and then to the keeper.

Onana’s favourite out ball is sideways putting our wide defenders under real pressure and stress before we can even get past the penalty area.

This was happening under ETH as well.
 
I think partly teams start fast against us, often we grow in the last 15mins or so as they tire after pressing much more aggressively.

Also there’s just something amiss with our mental prep, it’s like every game comes as a surprise to the players, like they are playing together for the first time every week. The modified setup simply doesn’t work.
 
It looked like the players had never played on a wet fast surface before. Their turning and touch was awful as was the passing.
 
Well we can't really afford to replace our current pub standard players, so maybe in 3-4 seasons if we stick with the manager. By then he should surely have been able to buy at least a handful of players.
 
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