Crystal Palace v Manchester United : Official Match Thread 18.1.23 8pm

He was a Wan Bissaka tackle away from losing that record last night tbf.

Wan Bissaka was probably our best player on the night imo. Incredible turnaround from the lad.

Originally Posted by dunk

He was a Wan Bissaka tackle away from losing that record last night tbf.

Wan Bissaka was probably our best player on the night imo. Incredible turnaround from the lad.

He carries the ball forward very well. Seems to want to always ply it forward first rather than back. Last few games would do wonders for his confidence and we will need him against le arse.

Originally Posted by Big Norm

Bit of perspective required here. We were a shit refereeing decision and last minute worldy away from going second in the league after a ridiculous schedule of fixtures.

If you'd said at the start of the season in mid January we'd be third in the league, 6 points clear of the team in 5th and have beaten City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs you would have been called a mentalist.

A push for the title is beyond us this season but a decent summer and more months under Ten Hag and we'll be up there.

On another note, Sky showed a stat last night that Ten Hag has never lost a league game in his career where his team have been leading at half time, which is incredible really.

We haven’t lost a league game where we have been leading at HT for about 126 matches going all the way back to 2014

Originally Posted by programmes?

qpr?

yes. 1 Jan 1992, ruined my entire Christmas holiday.

Originally Posted by shenwen

The excitement of the derby made me greedy, but would definitely take that.
My biggest worry is that as Arsenal drop points (and they will), it'll be to city's advantage. But who knows? Already been an unpredictable season so far.

Aye. Made me a bit giddy tbh. Still, remember where we started this season and know Erik is the real stuff.

New owners, and we’ll be good

Hate the thought of Arse winning it but a bit less bad than the other 2x alternatives. The two media darlings and the Massives reborn.

https://twitter.com/sandfoga/status/1615835761957380106?s=46&t=RKUC1iOJwWgmGUv-QD9UNg

That’s 4 points lost to penalties not given. £#%&! VAR.

Penalty or not we shouldn't be relying on that to turn over a poor team like Palace. We can't seem to score more than one goal away from home which is our biggest problem at the moment. What was more concerning was just how cheaply we gave the ball away time and time again, some real lazy, sloppy, tired passes in the 2nd half. We didn't work their keeper at all. If we do that against Arsenal on Sunday it'll be another 4-0 job.

Hardly relying on a penalty. If he’s not fouled, there’s a very good chance we score from there.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Penalty or not we shouldn't be relying on that to turn over a poor team like Palace. We can't seem to score more than one goal away from home which is our biggest problem at the moment. What was more concerning was just how cheaply we gave the ball away time and time again, some real lazy, sloppy, tired passes in the 2nd half. We didn't work their keeper at all. If we do that against Arsenal on Sunday it'll be another 4-0 job.

Yeah. I said it before the game: we are yet to win convincingly away from
Home in the league. With how the fixtures have worked, 6 of our 7 games since the World Cup have been at home.

Earlier in the season, we weren’t beating anyone by much, home or away. Recently, we’ve turned that around at Home and started to more of the weaker teams look poor. Critics have been pointing out we’ve ‘only’ beaten shit teams, but it’s the type of teams most of the league consists of and it’s teams we’ve fallen foul of in the past.

Teams are happy to stay in the game and then you face a late flurry and run the risk of the small margins going against you. We allow that to happen by not being clinical enough. Four times now we’ve taken the lead in an away game and failed to make it comfortable beyond that. It’s definitely a weakness and something we’ll work on as the next part of our development.

On current form and confidence, that game should have been put to bed long before the need for penalties or desperate Casemiro lunges. We brought it all on ourselves.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Hardly relying on a penalty. If he’s not fouled, there’s a very good chance we score from there.

Exactly that.

We weren't planning our game around a penalty that may or may not arrive. It did arrive, was stonewall and it wasn't even looked at by the referee (monitor).

It's the narrative that "Boo hoo, a team winning titles would've been 4 up by then" - which is utter bullshit. How many 1-0 wins do you see from title winning sides and the commentators always say "they didn't play well, but they got the win and that's all that matters"? Not for United though.

If the referee gives the penalty, its 2-0, Casemiro gets subbed off for Fred and its a whole different story. Huge moment.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Hardly relying on a penalty. If he’s not fouled, there’s a very good chance we score from there.

Exactly. Palace defended well and it was hard work breaking them down, we did it and were prevented from shooting/scoring by foul means. End of story.

Away games are tough. Particularly when they’re sandwiches in between games with your title rivals. Not sure where this idea that you should automatically be strolling to comfortable wins away from home comes from, you often have to grind out results and see things through. We’ve done pretty well so far this season, last night we didn’t. No biggie.

City have scored a massive 2 goals more than us away from home tbf. I don’t think we’re doing badly at all.

Originally Posted by magic_cantona

Exactly that.

We weren't planning our game around a penalty that may or may not arrive. It did arrive, was stonewall and it wasn't even looked at by the referee (monitor).

It's the narrative that "Boo hoo, a team winning titles would've been 4 up by then" - which is utter bullshit. How many 1-0 wins do you see from title winning sides and the commentators always say "they didn't play well, but they got the win and that's all that matters"? Not for United though.

If the referee gives the penalty, its 2-0, Casemiro gets subbed off for Fred and its a whole different story. Huge moment.

It can be both. We were unlucky and should have had a pen. No doubt. But we had also played poorly second half and didn’t create or do enough to kill the game off. We were also conceding too many set pieces. We’d had a warning with the corner that De Gea save. The Casemiro booking came from Bruno giving the ball away. Penalty calls are sliding doors moments and you’re right, we’re a correct call away from going 2-0 up and it’s being comfortable, but those moments become more noteworthy, the more you need them. We’re also not giving a dumb free
Kick away from winning 1-0 too.

This is the talk we used to get into when Ole was here. He used to discuss the small margins every time we failed to beat some shit team because we needed to.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Away games are tough. Particularly when they’re sandwiches in between games with your title rivals. Not sure where this idea that you should automatically be strolling to comfortable wins away from home comes from, you often have to grind out results and see things through. We’ve done pretty well so far this season, last night we didn’t. No biggie.

City have scored a massive 2 goals more than us away from home tbf. I don’t think we’re doing badly at all.

The fixtures recently have been ridiculous and it was a big ask this week to win all three games. I don’t think anyone is suggesting we should stroll to away wins, it’s merely pointing out a pattern this season. It’s a few times now we’ve been comfortable in games, taken the lead, but then not been able to kill it and make it easier for ourselves. It can’t happen every game, but it hasn’t happened once yet. ETH said as much a few weeks ago wjere he alluded to the fact we don’t make things as comfortable as our dominance suggests.

As you say, it’s no biggie and it’s a far cry from being a chaotic mess we’ve been in recent years. It’s just an observation, a frustration in the context of the game and something I’m confident we’ll improve.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Away games are tough. Particularly when they’re sandwiches in between games with your title rivals. Not sure where this idea that you should automatically be strolling to comfortable wins away from home comes from, you often have to grind out results and see things through. We’ve done pretty well so far this season, last night we didn’t. No biggie.

City have scored a massive 2 goals more than us away from home tbf. I don’t think we’re doing badly at all.

Yup.

What year was it where we struggled to win many away games but still managed to win the league?

Going away from home is tough and sometimes you need the officials to pick up on blatant penalties to see you over the line.

Originally Posted by AK14

Yup.

What year was it where we struggled to win many away games but still managed to win the league?

Going away from home is tough and sometimes you need the officials to pick up on blatant penalties to see you over the line.

2010/11

we were unbeaten until February iirc and then we lost away at wolves.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

2010/11

we were unbeaten until February iirc and then we lost away at wolves.

That was it

Draw after draw after draw away from home iirc?

Originally Posted by AK14

That was it

Draw after draw after draw away from home iirc?

Champions it is then 👍😎

Originally Posted by Dr Stranger

Champions it is then 👍😎

2 seasons ago we set a record for away games in the history of football .. Google it

Originally Posted by AK14

That was it

Draw after draw after draw away from home iirc?

yeah pretty much. We only dropped two points at home all season though which sealed it

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Penalty or not we shouldn't be relying on that to turn over a poor team like Palace. We can't seem to score more than one goal away from home which is our biggest problem at the moment. What was more concerning was just how cheaply we gave the ball away time and time again, some real lazy, sloppy, tired passes in the 2nd half. We didn't work their keeper at all. If we do that against Arsenal on Sunday it'll be another 4-0 job.

this. apart from the 4-0 bit.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Hardly relying on a penalty. If he’s not fouled, there’s a very good chance we score from there.

if he tries to score, there's every chance he's not fouled.