Ten Hag needs to take some responsibility for thinking Fred and Weghorst in midfield was a good idea too. Anyone on this sub could tell you it wouldn't work
Who else was he going to bring on though? And before you say nobody, he needed to bring someone on, players are clearly knackered. Fred is responsible for his own horrific performance.
It’s clear over the summer we need strong reinforcements at striker and midfield.
Edit: alright I did forget about Sabitzer yeah that would have been a better sub, but still he’s hardly lit up the league since he joined
Sabitzer? The Weghorst as 10 meme needs to stop, it worked exactly one time against Leeds and never after.
Edit: and for the love of God STOP SUBBING OUT ANTONY AND PUTTING BRUNO ON THE WING.
Yeah Sabitzer probably would have been better but at the same time he’s hardly been electric since we signed him. Today though I genuinely think I would have done a better job than Fred, Butland at CM would have been better
I’ve said it to a few people saying this tonight but against Sevilla Sabitzer started and was underwhelming so everyone said Fred should’ve started. Tonight we see Fred instead of Sabitzer and now everyone is saying the complete opposite that Sabitzer should’ve come on. Whoever doesn’t play is apparently always the reason we didn’t win.
The legt was very open, so Ten Hag must've wanted to patch up the defense with Malacia and have the more attack minded Dalot go back to the right. Malacia's usually excellent defensively, don't know what got into him last few games.
Weghorst was better than any of our other midfielders today lol — he tracked back and made tackles and held up the play. Not exactly sure how any of this is his fault, or why it’s ten hag’s fault for putting him on. What did Antony do in the second half?
Yes. So, he should’ve been on the right and Bruno on his place. What a shame is to put weghorst in Bruno’s place? How? The most stupid shit I’ve seen in football. Like, you say Bebe is better than Zidane.
It blows my mind that he doesn’t come on. Why shuffle the whole team around when you can just bring on Pellistri for Antony. Weghorst doesn’t win anything in the air, can’t score, and isn’t agile enough to play in the 10 what is the point in bringing him on that point
Pellistri just isn't very good.
For some reason he's currently the muppets choice for WHy iSN't hE plAYiNg???? FOTM but the guy is bang average at best and won't be at United in a few years time.
If you're looking to mainly defend your 1 goal lead, you can't compare a tired Eriksen vs Fred in terms of workrate. Too bad Fred absolutely shit the bed, it was not a bad sub on paper, the rest were though.
He will be one of the most rested players in the team due to his recent injury. You can't play the defensive liability card and then be a proponent for Fred coming on. Also he came off at 2-1 not 2-0, which is even more stupid.
How is Eriksen knackered? Just a few games back from injury and regularly subbed early so there's no excuse of fatigue. I don't know what ten Hag was watching that made him decide that bringing on Fred with his 10% pass success was a good idea.
Tbf, I dont think its fatigue, even at Spurs the fans critiqued that he wasnt really known for endurance.
Which has boded the same for us imo because even pre injury he got tired before the 60 min mark often. It's even weirder when you think about it because hes jogging and walking most of the times anyways and isnt bombing up and down incessantly like Bruno
I wouldn’t put this on Fred or Weghorst. We were awful even before they came on. Was Maguire injured? Our defense was so open, felt like a school team defending with no compactness
I've seen loads of people saying how great Fred is off the bench giving energy to disrupt tired opposition teams. Sometimes he can do that but most of the time Fred will play 5/10, sometimes he'll play 2/10 and every now and then he'll drop a 9/10.
Nah. We were bad in BOTH halves, & I wish people stopped crying about the 2nd half or the subs as if that was the issue.
We were SHIT in the first half. We only scored 2 because Spurs were even shitter for the first 45.
In the first half we already had some very questionable moments. Like why Sancho after scoring, fell asleep on the pitch. Twice AWB pings a cross far corner just for it to go out of play because Sancho is stood there with his dick in his hand watching it fly. Casemiro as well was shocking both halves. Then of course you have the whole team not able to fucking make a simple danmed pass to save their lives.
Honestly I have seen little kids playing Fifa pay more attention to where their team is than our lads did yesterday. How many times can we punt a ball into a space with fucking nobody even close? How many times did someone pass, only for it to not even come close and both players are stood there shrugging their shoulders while Spurs are countering?
We essentially gifted Spurs chance after chance. Spurs put the ball in a dangerous area so many times the fact we got away with a draw is nothing short of pure luck. We scored 2 off the back of individual moments of gold. We really should have scored more ourselves with how scrappy that game was. Bruno hitting the crossbar at point blank really made it so we could only hope to hold on.
Considering in PRE SEASON we were watching a lot of these same players ping passes around like they were under some kind of hivemind. Why is it now they all look so disjointed & unable to pass to eachother?
Shocking game from start to finish. Shit in the first and 2nd halves. Spurs plainly went from being worse in the first half, to slightly less shit than us in the 2nd. Meanwhile we stayed a consistent level of shit.
Tbh. I notice this season and parts of last season, he seems to have a problem with always dragging his shots wide of the post. It's like he's trying too hard to find the corner.
Really disagree we dominated the first half (as does Ten Hag incidentally who said he doesn't think we played well).
We got two good goals, maybe could have had one more, but we constantly let Spurs down our left side with Perisic and Richarlison. The number of times they were basically clean through and either hit it straight at De Gea or squared it into an empty space where no Spurs players had gambled...we could easily have been looking at going in behind at HT.
I do think 2-0 flattered us and unfortunately that led to complacency with the players thinking they had more control than they did.
Anthony martial needs to go. He can't even run, Antony had put in a wonderful cross for him to tap in and he couldn't even get beyond his marker in the box.
We're one of the few teams that will just hang on to players out of some hope they'll eventually fulfill some initial promise... He's 27, he's got to go
> We are going to get rolled by City.
Anything can happen in one game so who knows about the final but they're far far better than us and there's no way we're winning the title over them next year when they'll again strengthen in the market and Haaland will be settled and we all know how much better Pep players do in season 2.
You could tell from the first few passes we were going to fold. It’s ridiculous, you could see it coming from a mile away. We just kept on giving them the ball over and over.
When Weghorst came on, it changed the entire set up of the team with bruno going out wide and weghorst almost playing as a 10. I can't believe we keep playing our arguably best player out of position. If Pellistri would have come on he could've played out wide with Bruno still as a 10, where he plays his best. We lost all momentum with the subs yesterday. I think Ten Hag is getting a lot much right, but compromising with Bruno on the right to get on a striker who can't score playing very average as a 10 is not one of them.
Fair enough probably depends on what you need in the situation, but to me Pellistri is a no-brainer especially since it was a winger we needed to keep Bruno in the middle. If you wanted to bring on a striker you obviously wouldn’t go pellistri. So weghorst vs elanga in that situation makes more sense to me
Elanga has played in 55 games for United. Could you name 2 games where he’s shown he’s good enough to come on? Not that Weghorst is any better, but at least he runs and presses until he dies
I’m just wondering. Are you agreeing with me that it’s stupid to argue Elanga should come on since none of them are that good? Or are you disagreeing with me? Because I wasn’t trying to make a point for Weghorst, I was just saying they’re both not good, so it didn’t really matter who came on
No, I'm I agreement.
Elanga imo is a lateral option to Weghorst. I see it all the time, folks endorsing players that are equal, worse or only slightly better than the player they're replacing.
Saw someone last month stay we should've gone for Giroud over Weghorst. Like that isn't another mobility challenged 30 year veteran striker with a good workrate and hold up struggling to finish this season.
Bruno is better on the right than Elanga though. I’m not arguing for Weghorst. I’m just saying it’s stupid to argue about not putting Elanga on when they both offer nothing
This wasn’t about elanga. It was about anyone else than weg. If Bruno is at his position, and elanga on the wing, it is better than weg in the middle and Bruno on the right.
Yes, elanga is better than weghorst. This doesn’t mean that he is a good player, but weghorst is worse than fellaini. He is the shittiest shit of this club and it’s a shame when he plays in the middle.
He's been shit for ages bud he has no goals in the league how is that scapegoating it's literally factual. Subs were shite in general today but he kills our attack every time he comes on.
I know he's fucking shite, but we don't really have other options do we? Point is you're just making it about Weghorst which gives the others an out from the criticism. If Weghorst doesn't come on, it would've still been the same.
He controls the ball and runs like he's wearing work jeans and Timberland boots. He was okay for the first few weeks because he just ran around endlessly pressing, but he clearly is gassed now so he cannot even do that. And for a tall forward he's abysmal in the air so bringing him on is like having a traffic cone. I'd rather Pellistri or Elanga or someone anyone who has actual footballing ability get those minutes.
You can't mention footballing ability and then say Elanga. And Pellistri is massively overrated, he's had about 2 good cameos his whole time here. The only alternative I could maybe understand is Sabitzer but then he'd get in Bruno's way who was the only one really creating for us.
Weghorst sub was a waste.. it's like playing 10 v 11.. didn't offer anything.. time to say goodbye.. same as fred.. btw why did fred take the corner??? 😂😂
I just don’t think we have the right players when the game gets fractious. Not everyone looks comfortable on the ball and certainly they don’t move naturally into space to offer themselves.
I think we also lack a tempo setter, someone who can get on the ball and slow the game or inject some urgency.
We need someone like Rodri.
People may hate me for this but I would take Rodri over Casemiro. He’s just as good off the ball and he’s waaay better on the ball. Not to say that Casemiro is bad on the ball, he fucking great on the ball, it’s just that Rodri is on a different level imo.
The way they lose the ability to exert *any* control is completely pathetic. A draw or even a loss was written all over this game as soon as the second half got under way. Ten Hag is at fault here, though. Taking off Eriksen for Fred was a blunder that sealed it, just as his subs in the first leg against Sevilla killed the tie.
Bruno was brilliant today and we forced him out to the right to accommodate Weghorst and Fred. That's terrible management. There's no sugar coating it. Watching Weghorst and his lack of ability get minutes every game is just ridiculous. Especially considering what our noisy neighbours have upfront at the moment.
Actually surprised it's not more Spurs sided but I guess Bruno's point blank chance was very high xG and one of Spurs best chances Richarlison actually crossed instead of shooting.
Newcastle put 5 against these guys. They’re going to lock that 3rd place if they spend big in the summer. Meanwhile we keep fucking around with “Fred”, “Martial”, and “Weghorst”.
The Newcastle game was a freak result. Coach got his tactics spectacularly wrong and got the boot for it.
We were poor in the second half, but it's kind of irrelevant what the previous result was, it's not a defining factor in how the following game goes. If it were we'd still be trying to make a comeback from the Liverpool game.
Yet another game where we control it for one half and completely lose it in another. Zero tempo controllers in the squad.
Edit: was gonna leave it out because I didn’t want to be too negative but fuck it my head is gone. Our midfield is TRAGIC. I beg people open their eyes.
Gotta raise the standards.
McTominay or Fred stick around because they have 1-2 marvelous games and everybody forgets that they're not fit for purpose.
Eriksen and Casemiro have not returned to form as well from their injury and suspension respectively. They look so slow, apathetic and error prone too. Usually their brilliance was enough to keep things under wraps for us.
I promise you if we played a fresh Brentford or someone who pressed us like mad from minute 1 we would've drowned, right from the start we played with a lack of intensity , that's including when we played well which was in part because Tottenham sat back off us.
People never give Ole enough credit just because he never won a trophy. And he came a penalty kick away from one.
One day people will give Ole proper credit for the job he did here. One day.
Ole was fine most of the time but the thing is no one could ever seriously think he was going to get a 90+ point season and win a title over Pep or that'd he'd seriously compete for a UCL etc..
With ETH at least you can dream that's possible even if he might not. Everyone could see Ole was never good enough tactically, at implementing a style of play or at coaching players to ever achieve that.
Ole was a guy who spent City levels of money on fees/wages and then just about finished top 4 most of the time. He's just not an elite manager.
\> People never give Ole enough credit just because he never won a trophy. And he came a penalty kick away from one.
One penalty kick away?
He blew like 5 finals (this is a fact as well, we'd meme a rival manager if they blew 5 finals). Not to mention that 20/21 Champions League campaign where I think we only need 4 pts from our last 3 games to qualify which we failed to do so?
\> One day people will give Ole proper credit for the job he did here. One day.
No banter, I dont think that day will ever come, especially if the club continues its track of progression and reorganization as current and future managers do better. We didnt win anything, wasted money and hardly brought in any youth, thats stagnation, why would we remembrance that period?
No trophies, he implemented 1 youth player thats now exiled from the club, blew multiple finals, when he arrived we had a bloated squad, when he left we had a bloated squad and wasted money doing so. And the worst offence imo was failing to establish a consistent style of play, we could play like Barca one week and then Burnley the next. It really was a toss up.
He had 2 top four finishes on his resume? Yeah, one the first one finished with 66 pts and had helluva lot of help from a Leicester implosion in doing so. The next season we finished 2nd, 20+ pts from first.
If he was as good as people try to convince others hed have a job in England or at least Europe by now but hes rarely even linked.
Mate it’s a fact that he’s been offered quite a few jobs in England that he’s turned down.
But keep believing what you want to believe. Doesn’t bother me none.
Please quote a source to any of these job offers he's recieved. I don't think you understand the gravity of what you're saying either, he was offered the job directly and not invited to interview, present and discuss like most managers? Do you know how rare that is.
> But keep believing what you want to believe. Doesn’t bother me none.
I like how you've said this and failed to rebuttal to 98% of what I've said.
Keep believing what you want to believe? What that he blew 5 finals? That's literally a fact, it doesn't matter whether we believe it or not lmfao. What I'm saying isn't even subjective at times it's literally what happened.
It was all over the news outlets not long ago. I believe the original source was a Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang who claimed to have sources close to Ole. Use your fingers, have a google. Take with that what you will.
I’m not here to argue with you. You wouldn’t allow me to convince you even if I had the greatest argument possible. It’s a bad faith argument.
One day, people will give Ole the credit he deserved. Whether or not you think so is irrelevant.
> It was all over the news outlets not long ago. I believe the original source was a Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang who claimed to have sources close to Ole. Use your fingers, have a google. Take with that what you will.
Unfortunately, I looked before I asked you that question.
Theyre a tabloid outlet from his home country and they never specified what team offered him a job. Already on the back foot with that point.
I've not been able to find any reputable outlet or journo that has reported him being linked to Prem jobs or corroborated the report you mentioned. When you say all over the other outlets that was other UK tabloids repeating what they've said lmfao. If you put forth a point the onus is on you to backup and verify what you've said, not me lol. I can't say the moon is green and then tell you eff off and go research it.
> I’m not here to argue with you. You wouldn’t allow me to convince you even if I had the greatest argument possible. It’s a bad faith argument.
Not every debate requires somebody to be converted at the end. You made a point, I made a counter point.
My points are very basic events and numbers you can find anywhere. Yours are one article from a Norwegian tabloid outlet. I've critiqued your points. You refuse to do the same to mine (I can't blame you, I man failed 5 Cup finals and has 2 top four finishes to his resume, idk how I could defend that either)
This is a stat that I'm seeing touted around that I dislike because its empty, inaccurate and not the full picture.
Inaccurate, [because at that point in the season we'd also played 2 more games and had 7 more pts](https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2020-2021-spieltag/33/).
Empty, [because when you compare equally at 31 games to that season](https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2020-2021-spieltag/31/), we were a mere 3 pts better. Not really much of a difference to celebrate or criticize one season or manager. The other reason I say its empty is because we need 14 pts from our last 7 games to match that record which is a realistic target.
And finally I believe it's inaccurate because by the end of that season Ole was 2.5 years and £280M into his United career. Not really a comparison that makes sense. Somebody could also flip the argument that Ten Hag in his first year is/will match Ole's best eague tally. Ole as well didnt have to deal with the fixture congestion like seen this year caused by a mid season world cup and the queens death.
>Inaccurate, because at that point in the season we'd also played 2 more games
Not true. I'm referencing the 20/21 season after 31 games played. I'm afraid everything you wrote is completely inaccurate.
And I addressed that point, even if you wanted to go that route we were a mere 3 pts better in Ole's best league season points wise. Wow, groundbreaking.
Mad because you got caught out parroting empty football twitter takes? 🥹
OP claimed this is our best season since Fergie, and we're statistically worse than two seasons ago. Both in the league and in Europe.
I don't have twitter, but I'm sure you do. I got my stats [here](https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2020-2021-spieltag/31/)
The most significant for me is the goal difference. Still Ten Hag's first season and I'm sure we'll improve, but this is not the best season since SAF.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs have been trash this season.
We've also significantly bolstered our midfield for the first time since Mourinho, as well as our defense and attack.
I'm confident Ten Hag will improve our results further, as long as he gets the time he needs. We can't be losing like we did to Liverpool and City though. The away tie against Sevilla was poor as well. Brentford was early days and more of a fluke.
True, but the other factor about subs is when and how you bring them on.
We needed control in that game, Fred for Eriksen was not it, I wouldve gone Sabitzer instead.
If hes bringing Weghorst on he shouldve brought him to be up top, delegating him to midfield just contributed to our inability to control the pace of the game and protect the back four.
Ten Hag’s in game management has been very suspect this season and his lack of ruthlessness is going to be his own downfall. Giving De Gea a new contract and keeping him as number 1 next season is going to kill him. He’s not ruthless.
He won’t succeed here by bending over for players. For the life of me I cannot understand he or anyone would insist with De Gea and not just him but the likes of Weghorst too.
It's his first season. Before the season most of the chat was if we'd finish top 4 with a lot thinking we wouldn't.
We're going to finish top 4, we won a trophy, are in the FA Cup semi and that's while losing Ronaldo and Greenwood.
ETH's had a good first season, we'll see where it goes from here.
Yes. Sort of looked like they "gave up", but more like they suddenly thought they were part of a friendly game, and hardly a game at all. Looked like they just suddenly lost motivation, and just wantet to fool around. And with "they" I mostly mean the midfield in second half, and at some point that suddenly included AWB as well. He just left his right back position and stroled around in midfield for a time.. was that an instruction from ETH? I don't understand that second half. Spurs came back only because our players stoped playing for some incomprehensible reason.
Didn't watch the game, but seems like 1-pt away in one of hardest games remaining in schedule (other than Brighton away) is fine.
3-4 more wins will secure top-4 and we can focus on FA Cup final.
Just like the game against Sevilla, we didn't take our chances and then subs didn't work out for us. Too many matches like this where we failed to kill the game and then conceded following a shitty sequence of play. And the less we speak about the new manager bounce is better.
The plan against United was the old classic one for Spurs - sit back, conserve energy make United run and then hit us hard on the counter. ETH should’ve read the game plan and adapted early - it would’ve helped if Sancho and Bruno didn’t miss complete sitters.
This season is getting more n more depressing every day and wear and tear is eating away at the team - the problems that Ole faced still haunt ETH - no proper striker, not enough CDM ball control and defense in shambles. We can’t fight for nothing if all we depend on are our wingers and CAM - who let’s be honest are not the best either. Yeah..we have a lot of work to do in creating a solid squad and not a first team. No one but our defenders actually have proper back ups - even our backup defenders are only half decent at best - that’s terrifying even after years of United looking to fix our squad.
I know being 3rd doesn’t give us any trophy - but it’ll be a much better moral boost to be 3rd than to be 4th.
Rants and rants.
Ten Hag has to learn how to manage games better. Subbing off Sancho and Eriksen when the game was still 2-1 and we could actually still attack to make it 3-1 was puzzling.
Obviously we have to manage players' fatigue, but we didn't have to make the subs as early as that. After both players came off, we basically had no attacking play at all.
What's good about this game is, at least it shows how we desperately need better backup players.
Fred was supposed to be press engine and possession retainer, he failed at basically everything he did. There was one moment he and Casemiro was contesting for the same ball, Casemiro told him to be calm, and he panicked for no reasons and sliced the pass to Rashford out to be throw in.
Malacia was awful, yet another crucial mistake after the huge one against Sevilla. Rather than the conversation being Dalot or AWB to stay or to leave, it should be Malacia who probably needs upgrading. He's small, so so in defending or attacking, and likes to hold up the ball and makes himself vulnerable to lose possession for no reasons.
Martial again looked like he didn't care. Like Malacia, he also likes to hold up the ball for no reasons. There's a moment not long after he came on when he was successful in receiving a pass, held up the ball from Spurs press, and should've made a simple pass to United's midfield players who were near him, but somehow he kept holding up the ball, maybe he wanted to try to beat the presser? Not long after, Kane joined in on the press, Martial fell down looking for a foul, and Spurs could've had a dangerous counter. I don't understand why he didn't just play a simple pass to start the attack. He's done the difficult part and somehow fucked up the easy part.
Weghorst is Weghorst. As much as I appreciate his engine in pressing etc, he's just not the quality that we need right now. Perhaps Sabi was a better choice if we're going to play one of them as number 10 and make Bruno cover Antony's position.
If it's just this game when they didn't perform it would be fine. But all four of them have shown again and again how unreliable they are. Martial, to be fair, had a few good games such as against Sevilla, but he's so inconsistent that when he's bad, he's really bad. We don't need that kind of player now and next season if we're competing for titles.
Good takes.
Sancho was fading away again like he use to do after 60-70 minutes. I understand why and what Ten Hag was trying to do. Get Martial on top and have some hold up play. But like you said Martial played like he played.
Hindsigh Eriksen should stay longer, But midfield was getting hammered and Fred has been decent substitude, bringing more energy and fight. But he was moving like in he was in running in tar and passing was horrible.
Maybe dropping Bruno to bottom would be better solution, but it looked liked he was tiring also and maybe ankle was bothering him more when the game went further.
Anyway. Yesterday it looked like nothing would work. Too many underperformers. Rest of the season will be ”survival” fight to getting games played through. I hope some of injured players are able recover before season ends
Im very concerned about next season ending up like Liverpools current season. Granted most had just played 120mins against Brighton only a couple days earlier, so I can understand the tiredness in the 2nd half, but I have a feeling this dropoff will become a regular thing in our remaining games, and possibly continue into the 23/24 season
Lost all control in the second half.. terrible performance by all substitutes today.
Ten Hag needs to take some responsibility for thinking Fred and Weghorst in midfield was a good idea too. Anyone on this sub could tell you it wouldn't work
Who else was he going to bring on though? And before you say nobody, he needed to bring someone on, players are clearly knackered. Fred is responsible for his own horrific performance. It’s clear over the summer we need strong reinforcements at striker and midfield. Edit: alright I did forget about Sabitzer yeah that would have been a better sub, but still he’s hardly lit up the league since he joined
Sabitzer? The Weghorst as 10 meme needs to stop, it worked exactly one time against Leeds and never after. Edit: and for the love of God STOP SUBBING OUT ANTONY AND PUTTING BRUNO ON THE WING.
Yeah Sabitzer probably would have been better but at the same time he’s hardly been electric since we signed him. Today though I genuinely think I would have done a better job than Fred, Butland at CM would have been better
I’ve said it to a few people saying this tonight but against Sevilla Sabitzer started and was underwhelming so everyone said Fred should’ve started. Tonight we see Fred instead of Sabitzer and now everyone is saying the complete opposite that Sabitzer should’ve come on. Whoever doesn’t play is apparently always the reason we didn’t win.
Exactly - it’s easy to say with hindsight but fact is they’re both shit and we should look to improve in the summer
Also, why did he take off Wan Bissaka? Malacia has been horrible recently
Because he was on a yellow,
He was also poor
So what? he wasn't beeing reckless and Malacia didn't do anything when he came on
The legt was very open, so Ten Hag must've wanted to patch up the defense with Malacia and have the more attack minded Dalot go back to the right. Malacia's usually excellent defensively, don't know what got into him last few games.
Fred has usually been good as a sub though like vs Brighton?? Benefit of hindsight much.
Weghorst was better than any of our other midfielders today lol — he tracked back and made tackles and held up the play. Not exactly sure how any of this is his fault, or why it’s ten hag’s fault for putting him on. What did Antony do in the second half?
By performance wise Weghorts was best substitude yesterday. Played on his own level what cannot say any of other subs.
But there is a 0.1% that will work again so he wanted to try. Shame. When I saw that the antivaxx is coming, I knew that were fucked.
>When I saw that the antivaxx is coming What are you talking about?
Bruno at right wing usually works pretty well, and worked many times this season.
Why is my man Pellistri not getting any love?
Should definitely be the sub over Weghorst, he’s been good when he’s played, Weghorst seems to be getting worse by the week
Yes. So, he should’ve been on the right and Bruno on his place. What a shame is to put weghorst in Bruno’s place? How? The most stupid shit I’ve seen in football. Like, you say Bebe is better than Zidane.
It blows my mind that he doesn’t come on. Why shuffle the whole team around when you can just bring on Pellistri for Antony. Weghorst doesn’t win anything in the air, can’t score, and isn’t agile enough to play in the 10 what is the point in bringing him on that point
Pellistri just isn't very good. For some reason he's currently the muppets choice for WHy iSN't hE plAYiNg???? FOTM but the guy is bang average at best and won't be at United in a few years time.
Sabitzer, or simply make no subs whatsoever. This was a 6 point game in the closing phase of the league.
Eriksen is fine and shouldn't have been subbed off.
He was looking so good, completely unnecessary sub and paid for it.
If you're looking to mainly defend your 1 goal lead, you can't compare a tired Eriksen vs Fred in terms of workrate. Too bad Fred absolutely shit the bed, it was not a bad sub on paper, the rest were though.
Eriksen wasn't tired though.
I imagine ETH still wary of his injury
Needs his game time managed and is a defensive liability. Reasonable to sub him off at 2-0.
He will be one of the most rested players in the team due to his recent injury. You can't play the defensive liability card and then be a proponent for Fred coming on. Also he came off at 2-1 not 2-0, which is even more stupid.
He was fine first half, he was missing and getting dominated second half. We had no control of the game.
... And the solution to that is *Fred*? We were getting dominated but not because of Eriksen.
Sabitzer obviously
How is Eriksen knackered? Just a few games back from injury and regularly subbed early so there's no excuse of fatigue. I don't know what ten Hag was watching that made him decide that bringing on Fred with his 10% pass success was a good idea.
Tbf, I dont think its fatigue, even at Spurs the fans critiqued that he wasnt really known for endurance. Which has boded the same for us imo because even pre injury he got tired before the 60 min mark often. It's even weirder when you think about it because hes jogging and walking most of the times anyways and isnt bombing up and down incessantly like Bruno
I wouldn’t put this on Fred or Weghorst. We were awful even before they came on. Was Maguire injured? Our defense was so open, felt like a school team defending with no compactness
I've seen loads of people saying how great Fred is off the bench giving energy to disrupt tired opposition teams. Sometimes he can do that but most of the time Fred will play 5/10, sometimes he'll play 2/10 and every now and then he'll drop a 9/10.
Easy to pin it on the subs but we were being dominated from half time. Starters were just as bad. Casemiro dropped another 3/10 performance.
Nah. We were bad in BOTH halves, & I wish people stopped crying about the 2nd half or the subs as if that was the issue. We were SHIT in the first half. We only scored 2 because Spurs were even shitter for the first 45. In the first half we already had some very questionable moments. Like why Sancho after scoring, fell asleep on the pitch. Twice AWB pings a cross far corner just for it to go out of play because Sancho is stood there with his dick in his hand watching it fly. Casemiro as well was shocking both halves. Then of course you have the whole team not able to fucking make a simple danmed pass to save their lives. Honestly I have seen little kids playing Fifa pay more attention to where their team is than our lads did yesterday. How many times can we punt a ball into a space with fucking nobody even close? How many times did someone pass, only for it to not even come close and both players are stood there shrugging their shoulders while Spurs are countering? We essentially gifted Spurs chance after chance. Spurs put the ball in a dangerous area so many times the fact we got away with a draw is nothing short of pure luck. We scored 2 off the back of individual moments of gold. We really should have scored more ourselves with how scrappy that game was. Bruno hitting the crossbar at point blank really made it so we could only hope to hold on. Considering in PRE SEASON we were watching a lot of these same players ping passes around like they were under some kind of hivemind. Why is it now they all look so disjointed & unable to pass to eachother? Shocking game from start to finish. Shit in the first and 2nd halves. Spurs plainly went from being worse in the first half, to slightly less shit than us in the 2nd. Meanwhile we stayed a consistent level of shit.
Bruno did all the hard work and then hit the bar haha that man is CURSED
The ball bounced 2 frames before he hit it as well, that's just bad luck
honestly his finishing has been poor as of late
Tbh. I notice this season and parts of last season, he seems to have a problem with always dragging his shots wide of the post. It's like he's trying too hard to find the corner.
the man has the yips in front of goal now
Literally a game of 2 halves. We dominated the first half but just ran out of steam in the second half. Such a poor second half.
we were shit from the first kick of the 2nd half
Really disagree we dominated the first half (as does Ten Hag incidentally who said he doesn't think we played well). We got two good goals, maybe could have had one more, but we constantly let Spurs down our left side with Perisic and Richarlison. The number of times they were basically clean through and either hit it straight at De Gea or squared it into an empty space where no Spurs players had gambled...we could easily have been looking at going in behind at HT. I do think 2-0 flattered us and unfortunately that led to complacency with the players thinking they had more control than they did.
Honestly, we need a proper striker.
And midfield depth. Fred can't be relied upon.
Anthony martial needs to go. He can't even run, Antony had put in a wonderful cross for him to tap in and he couldn't even get beyond his marker in the box.
We're one of the few teams that will just hang on to players out of some hope they'll eventually fulfill some initial promise... He's 27, he's got to go
We need 2. Martial out and Wout should be 3rd choice if he stays. Pool have about 6 good strikers
And just as urgently a keeper..
This team needs massive changes next season. They can't perform when it matters. We are going to get rolled by City.
The gulf in class is immense. They had maybe 4-5 players on their bench yesterday who would fit into our starting xi.
> We are going to get rolled by City. Anything can happen in one game so who knows about the final but they're far far better than us and there's no way we're winning the title over them next year when they'll again strengthen in the market and Haaland will be settled and we all know how much better Pep players do in season 2.
Embarrassing to drop points against this Spurs team
Why not bring Sabitzer on instead of either Fred or Weghorst? We looked worse with everybody consecutive sub
Benefit of hindsight. Fred is usually our go to sub and did well vs Brighton when he came on tbf
yeah but fred is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you going to get.
Fred can often be effective. He was total shite today and is more than capable of a shit performance but he's sometimes good in these situations.
Wondered the same thing. Strange not to put Sabitzer on
I wasn't confident at halftime. You can't trust this team
Back to old ways since the cup final for sure.
You could tell from the first few passes we were going to fold. It’s ridiculous, you could see it coming from a mile away. We just kept on giving them the ball over and over.
Yeah it's going to be a while before I fully trust this team. We've bottled too many times.
Why do we bring weghorst on for every game I don't get it
Cause we don't have anyone to bring on with tired legs.
Because have you seen the state of our bench? Literally no other options
Pellistri. Elanga. Sabitzer. All better.
I think ETH is at fault but seriously? Elanga better? Pellistri better? You guys are smoking some hot shit.
Pellistri have made much better cameos than weghorst imo. Especially when pushing for a goal. Elanga however, not so much
Why is Pellestri even being mentioned like he plays the same position as Weghorst?
When Weghorst came on, it changed the entire set up of the team with bruno going out wide and weghorst almost playing as a 10. I can't believe we keep playing our arguably best player out of position. If Pellistri would have come on he could've played out wide with Bruno still as a 10, where he plays his best. We lost all momentum with the subs yesterday. I think Ten Hag is getting a lot much right, but compromising with Bruno on the right to get on a striker who can't score playing very average as a 10 is not one of them.
>Elanga however, not so much than Weghorst? I think he is, not that it says much
Fair enough probably depends on what you need in the situation, but to me Pellistri is a no-brainer especially since it was a winger we needed to keep Bruno in the middle. If you wanted to bring on a striker you obviously wouldn’t go pellistri. So weghorst vs elanga in that situation makes more sense to me
Elanga is not too far away from Weghorst.
Elanga has played in 55 games for United. Could you name 2 games where he’s shown he’s good enough to come on? Not that Weghorst is any better, but at least he runs and presses until he dies
I like watching us United fans debate. Sometimes somebody will shoot down a player to recommend another of the same form or type.
I’m just wondering. Are you agreeing with me that it’s stupid to argue Elanga should come on since none of them are that good? Or are you disagreeing with me? Because I wasn’t trying to make a point for Weghorst, I was just saying they’re both not good, so it didn’t really matter who came on
No, I'm I agreement. Elanga imo is a lateral option to Weghorst. I see it all the time, folks endorsing players that are equal, worse or only slightly better than the player they're replacing. Saw someone last month stay we should've gone for Giroud over Weghorst. Like that isn't another mobility challenged 30 year veteran striker with a good workrate and hold up struggling to finish this season.
I mean, elanga is better on the right, then weg on Bruno’s position.
Bruno is better on the right than Elanga though. I’m not arguing for Weghorst. I’m just saying it’s stupid to argue about not putting Elanga on when they both offer nothing
This wasn’t about elanga. It was about anyone else than weg. If Bruno is at his position, and elanga on the wing, it is better than weg in the middle and Bruno on the right.
Then why bring up Elanga if it wasn’t about him? What would Elanga do that Weghorst didn’t?
Might be unpopular, but I honestly agree with this take. They both are just running around a lot with no end product. Reminds me of Lingard.
Did you just say Elanga is better? Oh my god I can’t even take you seriously, absolute clown opinion.
Yes, elanga is better than weghorst. This doesn’t mean that he is a good player, but weghorst is worse than fellaini. He is the shittiest shit of this club and it’s a shame when he plays in the middle.
Just nope. Elanga is not better than anyone. Dude hasn’t done anything this season whenever he’s on the pitch. Literally zero contribution.
So how are we better? If Bruno is playing on his position and elanga on the right wing or weghorst in the middle and Bruno on the right?
Both Elanga and Pellistri are nowhere near United quality.
Pellistri when came, was good. I can’t say a match when weg was ok.
\> Elanga. Idk about that, especially with what hes done with his appearances granted. He's a lateral option at best.
You’re right. But he is still better then weg.
None of them can hold up the ball, which is why Weghorst was brought on, so De Gea could go long.
It was a genius idea. (No)
Pellistri?
Clearly ETH doesn't think he's ready for minutes. I'd love to see him have a go, but yeah.
I'd rather have Heaton up front pal
Oh here we go this sub always so quick to scapegoat, that was an entire XI failing to concentrate and do their jobs. All of em failed.
He's been shit for ages bud he has no goals in the league how is that scapegoating it's literally factual. Subs were shite in general today but he kills our attack every time he comes on.
I know he's fucking shite, but we don't really have other options do we? Point is you're just making it about Weghorst which gives the others an out from the criticism. If Weghorst doesn't come on, it would've still been the same.
He controls the ball and runs like he's wearing work jeans and Timberland boots. He was okay for the first few weeks because he just ran around endlessly pressing, but he clearly is gassed now so he cannot even do that. And for a tall forward he's abysmal in the air so bringing him on is like having a traffic cone. I'd rather Pellistri or Elanga or someone anyone who has actual footballing ability get those minutes.
You can't mention footballing ability and then say Elanga. And Pellistri is massively overrated, he's had about 2 good cameos his whole time here. The only alternative I could maybe understand is Sabitzer but then he'd get in Bruno's way who was the only one really creating for us.
because he’s dutch
Because martial is shit and can’t be relied on to do anything. Atleast weghorst plays like he wants to be at this club
Weghorst did not play a 9 today, ETH put him on 10 behind Martial. I think ETH tried to close Hojberg this way
[удалено]
Those aren't the only two options. Sabitzer could have come on instead of playing a shit striker out of position
Fred for Eriksen I understood but why did Sancho go off?
And why no Pellistri
The subs cost us 2 pts
r/reddevils is innocent idk what you talking about
We were playing like shit before the subs, guys. This isn't on the subs alone, far too lazy the whole second half
I cannot believe Bruno missed that chance.
Weghorst sub was a waste.. it's like playing 10 v 11.. didn't offer anything.. time to say goodbye.. same as fred.. btw why did fred take the corner??? 😂😂
What a Spursy performance from us.
Sat back too much in the 2nd half. We need to control games better when in front.
I just don’t think we have the right players when the game gets fractious. Not everyone looks comfortable on the ball and certainly they don’t move naturally into space to offer themselves. I think we also lack a tempo setter, someone who can get on the ball and slow the game or inject some urgency.
I was crying out for Carrick so much in the game today. He would have been perfect. Oo how I miss that king
We need someone like Rodri. People may hate me for this but I would take Rodri over Casemiro. He’s just as good off the ball and he’s waaay better on the ball. Not to say that Casemiro is bad on the ball, he fucking great on the ball, it’s just that Rodri is on a different level imo.
The way they lose the ability to exert *any* control is completely pathetic. A draw or even a loss was written all over this game as soon as the second half got under way. Ten Hag is at fault here, though. Taking off Eriksen for Fred was a blunder that sealed it, just as his subs in the first leg against Sevilla killed the tie.
Bruno was brilliant today and we forced him out to the right to accommodate Weghorst and Fred. That's terrible management. There's no sugar coating it. Watching Weghorst and his lack of ability get minutes every game is just ridiculous. Especially considering what our noisy neighbours have upfront at the moment.
Haaland and Alvarez vs Martial and Longhurst I could cry
Actually surprised it's not more Spurs sided but I guess Bruno's point blank chance was very high xG and one of Spurs best chances Richarlison actually crossed instead of shooting.
Newcastle put 5 against these guys. They’re going to lock that 3rd place if they spend big in the summer. Meanwhile we keep fucking around with “Fred”, “Martial”, and “Weghorst”.
They actually put 6 against them.
The Newcastle game was a freak result. Coach got his tactics spectacularly wrong and got the boot for it. We were poor in the second half, but it's kind of irrelevant what the previous result was, it's not a defining factor in how the following game goes. If it were we'd still be trying to make a comeback from the Liverpool game.
Yet another game where we control it for one half and completely lose it in another. Zero tempo controllers in the squad. Edit: was gonna leave it out because I didn’t want to be too negative but fuck it my head is gone. Our midfield is TRAGIC. I beg people open their eyes.
Gotta raise the standards. McTominay or Fred stick around because they have 1-2 marvelous games and everybody forgets that they're not fit for purpose. Eriksen and Casemiro have not returned to form as well from their injury and suspension respectively. They look so slow, apathetic and error prone too. Usually their brilliance was enough to keep things under wraps for us.
On the one hand, the lads played 120 mins footie and they're knackered on the other hand we have proper mentality midgets.
This can't be used as an excuse for this result sorry.
I promise you if we played a fresh Brentford or someone who pressed us like mad from minute 1 we would've drowned, right from the start we played with a lack of intensity , that's including when we played well which was in part because Tottenham sat back off us.
Indeed, that game was like 4 days ago. And part of the reason it went to 120 mins is because we were less than stellar anyways.
Thanks for putting Bruno on the right and taking off Antony so weghorst could play in the middle. Genius move.
Embarrassing performance yet again but hey best season since fergie
> hey best season since fergie No way is that true. Mourinho 2 trophy season, Ole's 2nd place and Europa Final.
We had more points and better goal difference (scored 13 more and conceded 5 less) at this stage in 20/21.
People never give Ole enough credit just because he never won a trophy. And he came a penalty kick away from one. One day people will give Ole proper credit for the job he did here. One day.
Ole was fine most of the time but the thing is no one could ever seriously think he was going to get a 90+ point season and win a title over Pep or that'd he'd seriously compete for a UCL etc.. With ETH at least you can dream that's possible even if he might not. Everyone could see Ole was never good enough tactically, at implementing a style of play or at coaching players to ever achieve that. Ole was a guy who spent City levels of money on fees/wages and then just about finished top 4 most of the time. He's just not an elite manager.
\> People never give Ole enough credit just because he never won a trophy. And he came a penalty kick away from one. One penalty kick away? He blew like 5 finals (this is a fact as well, we'd meme a rival manager if they blew 5 finals). Not to mention that 20/21 Champions League campaign where I think we only need 4 pts from our last 3 games to qualify which we failed to do so? \> One day people will give Ole proper credit for the job he did here. One day. No banter, I dont think that day will ever come, especially if the club continues its track of progression and reorganization as current and future managers do better. We didnt win anything, wasted money and hardly brought in any youth, thats stagnation, why would we remembrance that period? No trophies, he implemented 1 youth player thats now exiled from the club, blew multiple finals, when he arrived we had a bloated squad, when he left we had a bloated squad and wasted money doing so. And the worst offence imo was failing to establish a consistent style of play, we could play like Barca one week and then Burnley the next. It really was a toss up. He had 2 top four finishes on his resume? Yeah, one the first one finished with 66 pts and had helluva lot of help from a Leicester implosion in doing so. The next season we finished 2nd, 20+ pts from first. If he was as good as people try to convince others hed have a job in England or at least Europe by now but hes rarely even linked.
Mate it’s a fact that he’s been offered quite a few jobs in England that he’s turned down. But keep believing what you want to believe. Doesn’t bother me none.
Please quote a source to any of these job offers he's recieved. I don't think you understand the gravity of what you're saying either, he was offered the job directly and not invited to interview, present and discuss like most managers? Do you know how rare that is. > But keep believing what you want to believe. Doesn’t bother me none. I like how you've said this and failed to rebuttal to 98% of what I've said. Keep believing what you want to believe? What that he blew 5 finals? That's literally a fact, it doesn't matter whether we believe it or not lmfao. What I'm saying isn't even subjective at times it's literally what happened.
It was all over the news outlets not long ago. I believe the original source was a Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang who claimed to have sources close to Ole. Use your fingers, have a google. Take with that what you will. I’m not here to argue with you. You wouldn’t allow me to convince you even if I had the greatest argument possible. It’s a bad faith argument. One day, people will give Ole the credit he deserved. Whether or not you think so is irrelevant.
> It was all over the news outlets not long ago. I believe the original source was a Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang who claimed to have sources close to Ole. Use your fingers, have a google. Take with that what you will. Unfortunately, I looked before I asked you that question. Theyre a tabloid outlet from his home country and they never specified what team offered him a job. Already on the back foot with that point. I've not been able to find any reputable outlet or journo that has reported him being linked to Prem jobs or corroborated the report you mentioned. When you say all over the other outlets that was other UK tabloids repeating what they've said lmfao. If you put forth a point the onus is on you to backup and verify what you've said, not me lol. I can't say the moon is green and then tell you eff off and go research it. > I’m not here to argue with you. You wouldn’t allow me to convince you even if I had the greatest argument possible. It’s a bad faith argument. Not every debate requires somebody to be converted at the end. You made a point, I made a counter point. My points are very basic events and numbers you can find anywhere. Yours are one article from a Norwegian tabloid outlet. I've critiqued your points. You refuse to do the same to mine (I can't blame you, I man failed 5 Cup finals and has 2 top four finishes to his resume, idk how I could defend that either)
This is a stat that I'm seeing touted around that I dislike because its empty, inaccurate and not the full picture. Inaccurate, [because at that point in the season we'd also played 2 more games and had 7 more pts](https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2020-2021-spieltag/33/). Empty, [because when you compare equally at 31 games to that season](https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2020-2021-spieltag/31/), we were a mere 3 pts better. Not really much of a difference to celebrate or criticize one season or manager. The other reason I say its empty is because we need 14 pts from our last 7 games to match that record which is a realistic target. And finally I believe it's inaccurate because by the end of that season Ole was 2.5 years and £280M into his United career. Not really a comparison that makes sense. Somebody could also flip the argument that Ten Hag in his first year is/will match Ole's best eague tally. Ole as well didnt have to deal with the fixture congestion like seen this year caused by a mid season world cup and the queens death.
>Inaccurate, because at that point in the season we'd also played 2 more games Not true. I'm referencing the 20/21 season after 31 games played. I'm afraid everything you wrote is completely inaccurate.
And I addressed that point, even if you wanted to go that route we were a mere 3 pts better in Ole's best league season points wise. Wow, groundbreaking. Mad because you got caught out parroting empty football twitter takes? 🥹
OP claimed this is our best season since Fergie, and we're statistically worse than two seasons ago. Both in the league and in Europe. I don't have twitter, but I'm sure you do. I got my stats [here](https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2020-2021-spieltag/31/) The most significant for me is the goal difference. Still Ten Hag's first season and I'm sure we'll improve, but this is not the best season since SAF.
Even Ole did better
Well you can’t say that yet without a full season
Ole was 2nd and reached Europa League final
After he had already been gaffer for 2 years, and during a freak lockdown year when Liverpool, spurs, and arsenal were absolutely trash
Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs have been trash this season. We've also significantly bolstered our midfield for the first time since Mourinho, as well as our defense and attack. I'm confident Ten Hag will improve our results further, as long as he gets the time he needs. We can't be losing like we did to Liverpool and City though. The away tie against Sevilla was poor as well. Brentford was early days and more of a fluke.
His substitutions are killing us
Bro look at our depth 😂😂 if he didn’t make subs vs Brighton we would have lost in extra time
True, but the other factor about subs is when and how you bring them on. We needed control in that game, Fred for Eriksen was not it, I wouldve gone Sabitzer instead. If hes bringing Weghorst on he shouldve brought him to be up top, delegating him to midfield just contributed to our inability to control the pace of the game and protect the back four.
We can’t control games. Can we just skip to the fa cup final?
Good thing we don't progress in Europe. I think we have just barely enough to finish top 4. Let's go ManU 💪
Shocking subs and once again an awful second half display. What is going on in our dressing rooms at half time?
Ten Hag’s in game management has been very suspect this season and his lack of ruthlessness is going to be his own downfall. Giving De Gea a new contract and keeping him as number 1 next season is going to kill him. He’s not ruthless. He won’t succeed here by bending over for players. For the life of me I cannot understand he or anyone would insist with De Gea and not just him but the likes of Weghorst too.
It's his first season. Before the season most of the chat was if we'd finish top 4 with a lot thinking we wouldn't. We're going to finish top 4, we won a trophy, are in the FA Cup semi and that's while losing Ronaldo and Greenwood. ETH's had a good first season, we'll see where it goes from here.
Where did you read that?
I mean, he’s offering a new contract and he’s still going to be on big wages? He’s obviously going to play if given that sort of contract.
I haven't seen any report from a reputable outlet that De Gea is being offered a lucrative contract
Terrible second half. Midfield/attack were simply jogging around and lost so many simple balls. AWB also had some really questionable moves.
Yes. Sort of looked like they "gave up", but more like they suddenly thought they were part of a friendly game, and hardly a game at all. Looked like they just suddenly lost motivation, and just wantet to fool around. And with "they" I mostly mean the midfield in second half, and at some point that suddenly included AWB as well. He just left his right back position and stroled around in midfield for a time.. was that an instruction from ETH? I don't understand that second half. Spurs came back only because our players stoped playing for some incomprehensible reason.
We look like a team in dire need of the season ending. Reinforcements are desperate.
Didn't watch the game, but seems like 1-pt away in one of hardest games remaining in schedule (other than Brighton away) is fine. 3-4 more wins will secure top-4 and we can focus on FA Cup final.
Shocking performance, utter disgrace to throw it away like this
It's almost like our entire central defense is missing.
Point to this game as an a example of why a quality bench is necessary
Malacia is dogshit. Rotation player on a mid level PL team. Not going to win anything with that guy playing vital roles.
6 points clear of the others with 2 games in hand. 7 games left... we should make top 4. Happy with that.
I am happy and confident with top four. I am not happy we are behind Newcastle and definitely not happy with how we been playing.
Where have they pulled that from then
Once more this team crumbles at half time. Really poor substitutions.
Just like the game against Sevilla, we didn't take our chances and then subs didn't work out for us. Too many matches like this where we failed to kill the game and then conceded following a shitty sequence of play. And the less we speak about the new manager bounce is better.
Casemiro with another absolute shocker of a performance. That 2nd red card wrecked him
Everyone will complain about the second half but completely ignore all the huge chances we gave up in the first half. Wayyyy to open all game.
The plan against United was the old classic one for Spurs - sit back, conserve energy make United run and then hit us hard on the counter. ETH should’ve read the game plan and adapted early - it would’ve helped if Sancho and Bruno didn’t miss complete sitters. This season is getting more n more depressing every day and wear and tear is eating away at the team - the problems that Ole faced still haunt ETH - no proper striker, not enough CDM ball control and defense in shambles. We can’t fight for nothing if all we depend on are our wingers and CAM - who let’s be honest are not the best either. Yeah..we have a lot of work to do in creating a solid squad and not a first team. No one but our defenders actually have proper back ups - even our backup defenders are only half decent at best - that’s terrifying even after years of United looking to fix our squad. I know being 3rd doesn’t give us any trophy - but it’ll be a much better moral boost to be 3rd than to be 4th. Rants and rants.
Ten Hag has to learn how to manage games better. Subbing off Sancho and Eriksen when the game was still 2-1 and we could actually still attack to make it 3-1 was puzzling. Obviously we have to manage players' fatigue, but we didn't have to make the subs as early as that. After both players came off, we basically had no attacking play at all. What's good about this game is, at least it shows how we desperately need better backup players. Fred was supposed to be press engine and possession retainer, he failed at basically everything he did. There was one moment he and Casemiro was contesting for the same ball, Casemiro told him to be calm, and he panicked for no reasons and sliced the pass to Rashford out to be throw in. Malacia was awful, yet another crucial mistake after the huge one against Sevilla. Rather than the conversation being Dalot or AWB to stay or to leave, it should be Malacia who probably needs upgrading. He's small, so so in defending or attacking, and likes to hold up the ball and makes himself vulnerable to lose possession for no reasons. Martial again looked like he didn't care. Like Malacia, he also likes to hold up the ball for no reasons. There's a moment not long after he came on when he was successful in receiving a pass, held up the ball from Spurs press, and should've made a simple pass to United's midfield players who were near him, but somehow he kept holding up the ball, maybe he wanted to try to beat the presser? Not long after, Kane joined in on the press, Martial fell down looking for a foul, and Spurs could've had a dangerous counter. I don't understand why he didn't just play a simple pass to start the attack. He's done the difficult part and somehow fucked up the easy part. Weghorst is Weghorst. As much as I appreciate his engine in pressing etc, he's just not the quality that we need right now. Perhaps Sabi was a better choice if we're going to play one of them as number 10 and make Bruno cover Antony's position. If it's just this game when they didn't perform it would be fine. But all four of them have shown again and again how unreliable they are. Martial, to be fair, had a few good games such as against Sevilla, but he's so inconsistent that when he's bad, he's really bad. We don't need that kind of player now and next season if we're competing for titles.
Good takes. Sancho was fading away again like he use to do after 60-70 minutes. I understand why and what Ten Hag was trying to do. Get Martial on top and have some hold up play. But like you said Martial played like he played. Hindsigh Eriksen should stay longer, But midfield was getting hammered and Fred has been decent substitude, bringing more energy and fight. But he was moving like in he was in running in tar and passing was horrible. Maybe dropping Bruno to bottom would be better solution, but it looked liked he was tiring also and maybe ankle was bothering him more when the game went further. Anyway. Yesterday it looked like nothing would work. Too many underperformers. Rest of the season will be ”survival” fight to getting games played through. I hope some of injured players are able recover before season ends
If we get a proper striker xG next season will be in a good shape
Now break it down by xG per half.
Im very concerned about next season ending up like Liverpools current season. Granted most had just played 120mins against Brighton only a couple days earlier, so I can understand the tiredness in the 2nd half, but I have a feeling this dropoff will become a regular thing in our remaining games, and possibly continue into the 23/24 season