Manchester United v Leeds : Official Match Thread : 8/2/23 8pm

Having to squeeze that Palace game in well and truly £#%&!ed us7pts dropped

Originally Posted by Denis Irwell

Having to squeeze that Palace game in well and truly £#%&!ed us7pts dropped

Something which should never have happened in the first place.

Originally Posted by Ethers

I think that tonight puts to bed any idea of us being in the title race tbh.

I don't think anyone seriously thought that. I certainly didn't anyway. Teams who challenge for titles score lots of goals, generally. And we don't score anywhere near enough.

But put simply you can't have the gap in quality between the first choice players and the back up ones on the bench be that big. You can't go from Casemiro or Eriksen to Fred. You just can't. It's like Lewis Hamilton going for a pit stop and them putting sainsbury's shopping cart wheels on his car.

We're relying on players like Pellistri off the bench to affect changes who couldn't even really shine playing for Alaves in the Spanish league. Garnacho, again - looked like a little boy out there tonight vs that £#%&!ing spanner Ayling.

So disappointing.

Oh and the sooner that absolute fraud martial gets £#%&!ed off, the better. £#%&!ing coward.

Originally Posted by jem

sabitzer did ok, if spending a The Scottish Playeresque amount of time in no man's land. but he was meant to replace eriksen and play with cass. tough ask to play with fred on tonight's form. there were a lot of passes putting ourselves under pressure, though. it wasn't just fred. but that was an awful game from him. I suppose you could say he was in the right places to score a hattrick. Varane should have scored his header, garnacho should have scored after going round the keeper and bruno had a couple he could have poked in, too. poor finishing all round.

I was going to write something but this is a perfect annalysis of how things panned out.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

I don't think anyone seriously thought that. I certainly didn't anyway. Teams who challenge for titles score lots of goals, generally. And we don't score anywhere near enough.

But put simply you can't have the gap in quality between the first choice players and the back up ones on the bench be that big. You can't go from Casemiro or Eriksen to Fred. You just can't. It's like Lewis Hamilton going for a pit stop and them putting sainsbury's shopping cart wheels on his car.

We're relying on players like Pellistri off the bench to affect changes who couldn't even really shine playing for Alaves in the Spanish league. Garnacho, again - looked like a little boy out there tonight vs that £#%&!ing spanner Ayling.

So disappointing.

Oh and the sooner that absolute fraud martial gets £#%&!ed off, the better. £#%&!ing coward.

Another Fred saying everything I wanted to say. £#%&!ing Fred! 90 minutes! £#%&! right off now!!

I'll take a draw after the Rangnick-like performance we put in for most of that game but that's a huge, huge missed opportunity.

Fred back to being Shit Fred without Cass to baby sit. And I said before the game, the Weghorst experiment has to stop. We've been better every game after he's come off. There's a reason he was plying his trade in Turkey.

Sancho was great though.

Originally Posted by shenwen

I'll take a draw after the Rangnick-like performance we put in for most of that game but that's a huge, huge missed opportunity.

Fred back to being Shit Fred without Cass to baby sit. And I said before the game, the Weghorst experiment has to stop. We've been better every game after he's come off. There's a reason he was plying his trade in Turkey.

Sancho was great though.

Great to see Sancho back and looking like he’s up for it.

So, has to be Antony, Rashers and Sancho. Wouldnt mind Pellistri standing by for Antony if he’s going to keep running into blind alleys. Good to have a conventional rw on hand. Thought he did ok.

I think it best to bring Weggy off the bench, if at all but it always was a desperate effort to just bring another body in and hope he’d have some effect. Nacho also looks better coming off the bench so I think we have our front 3. Shaw and as per, Lisandro both best out there.

Martial can £#%&! off, sooner the better

Originally Posted by Denis Irwell

Great to see Sancho back and looking like he’s up for it.

So, has to be Antony, Rashers and Sancho. Wouldnt mind Pellistri standing by for Antony if he’s going to keep running into blind alleys. Good to have a conventional rw on hand. Thought he did ok.

I think it best to bring Weggy off the bench, if at all but it always was a desperate effort to just bring another body in and hope he’d have some effect. Nacho also looks better coming off the bench so I think we have our front 3. Shaw and as per, Lisandro both best out there.

Martial can £#%&! off, sooner the better

Yep, Sancho-Rash-Antony is our best front three. Garnacho save for when we need something different against tired legs.

I just don't want to see Rashford out on the right ever again. Especially to accommodate a non-scoring forward.

I had us to take 7 points from the two Leeds games and Leicester. Not the order I expected but still possible.

Originally Posted by shenwen

Yep, Sancho-Rash-Antony is our best front three. Garnacho save for when we need something different against tired legs.

I just don't want to see Rashford out on the right ever again. Especially to accommodate a non-scoring forward.

I had us to take 7 points from the two Leeds games and Leicester. Not the order I expected but still possible.

Still not made my mind up about Antony. Great effort and attitude, but a non-existent right foot is cause for concern. Shaw and Sancho combo down the left looked very good last night, though. Hope to see it continue.

If this result tells us anything, it's that we have made huge progress this season but are not quite there yet. Lack of depth in terms of squad quality is the biggest problem. One or two more transfer windows and I'm confident we're going to be challenging

Originally Posted by BarryX

Still not made my mind up about Antony. Great effort and attitude, but a non-existent right foot is cause for concern. Shaw and Sancho combo down the left looked very good last night, though. Hope to see it continue.

Sancho changed the game, and Shaw very good. I hear what you say about Antony but still think that one foot or not we miss him when he's out. His ability to stretch defences and move the ball to feet is way better than when Rashford is out on that side.

honestly thought with slightly better finishing that game was won before ht . Fred gets all the hate and yes 2 or 3 times misplaced passes were shocking , but he also offers a lot , continually breaking up play winning tackles and runs all day . As for the garnacho hate not on here btw on socials i'm truly staggered , we have a proper talent there who on another day could have bagged a hat trick first half . Loved how the manager was absolutely fuming at the press conference how bad the start was how he wished we could play em again straight away . Other managers would have been drooling over the comeback he's £#%&!ing livid . This is why we are on the right path

Proper return of shit@#%&!itus that was. All out panic in and out of possession at times, and the wall for that freekick that hit the post was pathetic.

But even then, we still should have won it. Which I suppose is some sort of positive.

We need some sort of adequate backup for Casemiro in the summer. I liked what I saw from Sabi, but a like for like replacement for Casemiro he most certainly is not. We can't risk looking that vulnerable defensively any time he can't play. Varane is absolute class, but he does look a shaky without Casemiro infront of him. Would explain the difference between last season and this season in his performances. Glad we don't seem to have that problem with Martinez though, absolute butcher.

More than happy for Sabi to kick Fred the £#%&! out of that starting 11 though once the big man is back in the team.

Originally Posted by BarryX

Still not made my mind up about Antony. Great effort and attitude, but a non-existent right foot is cause for concern. Shaw and Sancho combo down the left looked very good last night, though. Hope to see it continue.

He’s started crossing with his right foot and even taken a couple of shots in the last couple of games he’s played in. I think it’s a confidence thing with him - no doubt ETH will be looking at players flaws and having them work on it/them in training too.

Originally Posted by puressence

honestly thought with slightly better finishing that game was won before ht . Fred gets all the hate and yes 2 or 3 times misplaced passes were shocking , but he also offers a lot , continually breaking up play winning tackles and runs all day . As for the garnacho hate not on here btw on socials i'm truly staggered , we have a proper talent there who on another day could have bagged a hat trick first half . Loved how the manager was absolutely fuming at the press conference how bad the start was how he wished we could play em again straight away . Other managers would have been drooling over the comeback he's £#%&!ing livid . This is why we are on the right path

Fred gets all the hate because he’s shit mate. It wasn’t just two or three misplaced passes, it was a constant barrage of shit@#%&!ery from start to finish. It’s embarrassing watching him play.

Originally Posted by puressence

honestly thought with slightly better finishing that game was won before ht . Fred gets all the hate and yes 2 or 3 times misplaced passes were shocking , but he also offers a lot , continually breaking up play winning tackles and runs all day . As for the garnacho hate not on here btw on socials i'm truly staggered , we have a proper talent there who on another day could have bagged a hat trick first half . Loved how the manager was absolutely fuming at the press conference how bad the start was how he wished we could play em again straight away . Other managers would have been drooling over the comeback he's £#%&!ing livid . This is why we are on the right path

sorry pal you're way, way off on this one. last night was a 1/10 from him. and that's being £#%&!ing generous.

the cut back from sancho where he could have easily put his left peg through it 12 yards out, and he scuffed it, just about summed up where he's at. gave the ball away repeatedly, shit out of tackles constantly. did nothing youi'd expect of a premier league footballer.

bin.

Originally Posted by Denis Irwell

GWouldnt mind Pellistri standing by for Antony if he’s going to keep running into blind alleys. Good to have a conventional rw on hand. Thought he did ok.

Pellistri is absolutely dog shit ...

It would be nice if we could start keeping clean sheets again.

Neither centre back covered themselves in glory for the goals last night, although it was a classy finish from varane (who can also be seen shitting out of blocking the ball when in the wall from the free kick that hit the post).

Great to see Sancho back and what a leap from rashers for his goal.

Need to find a way to tighten things up at the back though.

Was there a handball in the build up to their second goal? I thought any handball that leads to a goal mean it’s disallowed, or did they change that rule/law after rashers goal v Everton was disallowed?

Originally Posted by Sparky***

I don't think anyone seriously thought that. I certainly didn't anyway. Teams who challenge for titles score lots of goals, generally. And we don't score anywhere near enough.

But put simply you can't have the gap in quality between the first choice players and the back up ones on the bench be that big. You can't go from Casemiro or Eriksen to Fred. You just can't. It's like Lewis Hamilton going for a pit stop and them putting sainsbury's shopping cart wheels on his car.

We're relying on players like Pellistri off the bench to affect changes who couldn't even really shine playing for Alaves in the Spanish league. Garnacho, again - looked like a little boy out there tonight vs that £#%&!ing spanner Ayling.

So disappointing.

Oh and the sooner that absolute fraud martial gets £#%&!ed off, the better. £#%&!ing coward.

There were always going to be moments this season where we needed the squad players and….well, we know know how that ends. I can live with it because it’s purely a recruitment issue that can’t be solved with one window. I’m fully confident that ETH knows who he can rely on and who he can’t. These players who have continually let us down through the years won’t be doing so in a few windows time.

We just have to make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves in the meantime. There will be more sobering moments like this in the season (and we still showed character to come back), but if someone had said we’d be 3rd in the league and in a cup final this time last year I’d have bitten your hand off for it.

Originally Posted by AK14

It would be nice if we could start keeping clean sheets again.

Neither centre back covered themselves in glory for the goals last night, although it was a classy finish from varane (who can also be seen shitting out of blocking the ball when in the wall from the free kick that hit the post).

Great to see Sancho back and what a leap from rashers for his goal.

Need to find a way to tighten things up at the back though.

Was there a handball in the build up to their second goal? I thought any handball that leads to a goal mean it’s disallowed, or did they change that rule/law after rashers goal v Everton was disallowed?

It can be handled accidentally if that player then doesn’t go on to score.

people begging for squad players yet when they play absolutely £#%&!ing hammer them

Originally Posted by AK14

It would be nice if we could start keeping clean sheets again.

Neither centre back covered themselves in glory for the goals last night, although it was a classy finish from varane (who can also be seen shitting out of blocking the ball when in the wall from the free kick that hit the post).

Great to see Sancho back and what a leap from rashers for his goal.

Need to find a way to tighten things up at the back though.

Was there a handball in the build up to their second goal? I thought any handball that leads to a goal mean it’s disallowed, or did they change that rule/law after rashers goal v Everton was disallowed?

No, there was no real handball, it was a scrappy 50/50 which yet again we £#%&!ing lost. There were several opportunities to clear the ball and get up the pitch which we continually failed to do

Originally Posted by puressence

people begging for squad players yet when they play absolutely £#%&!ing hammer them

I was going to reply to this with something about Fred not being good enough (long term) to be a “squad player”, but I’m not sure you even understand what you’re trying to talk about, so I won’t bother.

How was Sabitzer last night?

I was watching it on replay this morning so ended up forwarding most of the game (at least until we scored) as I was getting PTSD.