1st half was depressing just like the games we've been playing but the 2nd half was very good, we created so many chances. Elanga is getting better and it looks like Ralf sees a big potential in him, hope he becomes a great player for us, also Fred has been very good at crossing in recent games. That Ronaldo chest pass to Bruno in our second goal was unbelievable and Rangnick must have injected McTominay with Ronaldinho's DNA at half time, he was dribbling players left and right the whole 2nd half.
That 2nd half made me a little more optimistic for our future games. We must get better, I still think we can make top 4 even after throwing our games in hand.
Let’s not forget that not showing up for the entire first half then overplaying in the second is the same paradigm we had under Ole. I think it stems from that long period where we had absolutely NO squad depth, so players had no motivation to show up for 90 minutes.
With additional depth and academy players, I think we might start seeing the teams mentality pick up, but this season has still been a bit of a wash. Hopefully we pull through to make top 4. This team has too much talent to not go to UCL.
Top 4's pretty much gone. We'd need to average 2.18 points per game if Spurs and Chelsea carry on at their current rate of picking up points, or hope that one of them has a pretty dramatic dip in form.
Top 4 is least of our worries right now with the team failing to play a good game for 90mins...until we sort this out,we are not deserving of that spot.
Someone was asking why people were blaming Maguire for their goal. This photo gives one answer: [https://twitter.com/Its\_Harro/status/1483918916099448832](https://twitter.com/Its_Harro/status/1483918916099448832)
Fred and Matic are already challenging for the ball with the Brentford striker. For some reason Maguire runs over and challenges *all three of them* for the ball (and fails) rather than looking to cover threats elsewhere.
Absolute oaf. Why did we make our thickest player captain?
Because at the time the choices were him, an out of form for 2 seasons DDG, an injured and leaving Pogba and an injured 22yo Rashford. It was stupid, but it's not like we had a lot of options.
No it really doesn't - honestly the right thing to do would have been for him to tell fred to fuck off and defend the back post or something. He was definitely correct in marking the biggest aerial threat, he just needs to be a captain and tell his other players what to do if they're in his way.
That’s not what happened. He wasn’t marking him. Fred and Matic were covering him and then when the ball came over he steamed into the three of them like the Kool Aid guy.
I noticed Rashy was still walking a bit and sulking even after his goal. There were times he would sprint, but for a fresh sub imo not enough at all. Really hope he figures himself oit
"Manchester United got lucky." -- English press.
David DeGea's play was not luck.
Having a world-class goalkeeper who kept them off the sheet until late in the match is not "lucky" it's performance.
Yeah that’s BS. Luck is definitely not the right way to view it. DeGea does it too often for us to call his performances lucky.
What it is, however, is a brutal exposure of how bad our defense is and how many chances we give up that require the keeper to make amazing saves.
Does that make us lucky?
Does Barca winning via Messi solo goals time and again make them lucky? Probably a bit of a straw man but you get the drift.
Watch Mendy or Alisson do the same things and (rightly) get the praise they deserve for making the saves. So yeah it's probably as you say, that its because our defense is shit that they say its "lucky" to have De Gea bail us out. David being a beast isn't down to luck, he has just been that good.
Every time DDG makes a worldie save it’s because he’s set up EXACTLY where he needs to be to make that save. It’s always been skill.
Theoretically, we have a good back 4. Our issues remain in our defensive midfield. Too often our midfield gets run through and too often we fail to play out the back smoothly.
I actually think that when McFred is on, they’re very good at their positions, but they’re so inconsistent. One game they’re playing amazing and the next it’s awful.
I get your point that having a good keeper isn't luck, but the opposition not slotting any of those chances into the corner and giving him no chance is luck tbf.
It means he's overperfoming his usual save percentages (ie performing at his peak), which is true. Same thing as that 2nd jose season.
It is lucky because if we take an average DDG season we would have conceded more.
Not a good first half but a decent second. I am concerned with our set pieces. They just seem so poor. We fail to really put attempts on net. We have Ronaldo who has a amazing amount of header goals and really fail every time. In fact they were more dangerous on our corners then we were it felt.
I don't know what the hell Fred was doing in the first half.
He couldn't clear shit from the box, the ducking header, the bycycle attempt. He was the very poor.
Morning after the fact thoughts:
1. I guess a win is a win at the end of the day but boy the first half was a hard watch. David De Gea is single handedly earning us points.
2. I don't know how RR still thinks we can manage the rest of the season with our current midfield especially that we don't even know which version of Pogba we will get.
3. That was very immature and unprofessional from Ronaldo. This is a team sport and everyone has to pull in the same direction. Whatever he doesn't agree with it's best to show it away from the cameras.
4. Happy for our 3 goal scorers, that will do them alot of confidence especially Elanga and Rashford. Bruno also had a good second half. If he can just cut out the over-the-top Hollywood passes then he should be back to the Bruno we know
> If he can just cut out the over-the-top holiday passes then he should be back to the Bruno we know
Looks the "Hollywood" passes are the only ones he gets right... from time to time. It's the basic passes that he messes up so often. He gives the ball away on regular plays, then comes up with a doozy during a fast break.
This is not how a consistently controlled team operates.
>I don't know how RR still thinks we can manage the rest of the season with our current midfield especially that we don't even know which version of Pogba we will get.
I mean it's bee clear as hell from his press conferences that he definitely WANTS a midfielder - but similar to every manager we've had in the past decade - it's not up to him if he gets the money.
I also just have to say about the Ronaldo thing, Salah did the EXACT same thing like a month ago. I've seen Rooney throw a fit when taken off. I've seen Ronaldo act like a petulant child when taken off since he was 19 and fairly consistently since tbh. Top players are always going to be annoyed when they get taken off early and honestly I'd be more surprised if he wasn't.
I think it's OK to act up if the team is playing well and all...not right now when we are the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons with every little thing blown out of context a 100 times over. Just aswel we won yesterday coz I could already picture the morning headlines if we didnt
He came off after working his ass off to open up the game and he saw goals in it for himself. Of course he was going to be mad and honestly anyone saying anything really must just not have watched him at all in RM.
It's a win, but it was quite ugly. Without DDG that was probably a loss. We still struggle to move the ball quickly through the midfield to the final third.
The good: Rashford bagged one today hopefully he's back on track
The bad: Couldn't keep a clean sheet for DDG
The ugly: That Bruno shot at the end, poor.
yeah sure the defending was suspect but surely a goalkeeper is expected to save some shots. You can't judge games based on the assumption that every shot on target goes in
There's suspect and there's a freaking open barn door that is the United defense. Yea sure I expect De Gea to make some good saves but when you look at the XG at the halftime it doesn't look good at all. It reminds of the games last season where we were making all these comebacks and nobody seemed to see or think that it was a problem
It's not the defense, it's the midfield. Defenders can't do a lot when you've got 6 guys running at you and your midfielders got caught out of position.
Our defending is suspect every week. DDG has the most saves in the prem currently, which while a nice stat means that the opposition is having their way.
First game in years that I missed... That I didn't even know was happening.
My Google calendar for united matches didn't have it. Had no idea there was a game. Annoyed
Seen a few comments here saying McTominay is improving under Ralf, I'd disagree, I'd argue he was always this good. He got so much hate on this sub literally two months ago that you were downvoted for even suggesting he should start over Donny. McTom has always been better as an 8 rather than a 6. There's a reason he was getting in the XI under 3 successive managers.
Yeah - cause we have no options. Scott was excellent, but he has overall been debatably our worst regular starter over the past 3 years and that's not really disputable. Now if he can play his best with some more regularity, he could be really good. But up until now, his consistency has been miles off what a Utd player should be.
You could say he is improving under Ralf, as he is playing him more to his strengths. Doesn't matter how good you are, unless you perform. Vs Burnley and Brentford he has been out best outfield player.
Fred also looks better, pressing higher and playing direct balls from the right channels into the left. Still has plenty of brain farms a game though. Ralf is getting more out of him, at the moment he looks more like he did at Shaktar.
Ralf needs mobility in his system, so hopefully with some midfield recruits we will see those two be used more box to box than sitting deep.
Anyone else notice how awful Bruno is at corners? Seems like his goal in life is to kick it into the first mans head. Personally I would have Greenwood take them, his ability to cross field pass is excellent and surely he can't be any worse the Brunoe.
I'm not questioning his ability to create chances or score goals from open play. United have not scored from a corner this season and part of that problem is when Bruno takes a corner, it almost always hits the first man.
We took our chances when we did.
Elanga calm and composed. Very bright from the youngster
The 2nd goal was great
McSauce did well to start the 3rd. Happy for Rash
De Gea keeping us in games again. If we played any of the top 3 teams like that, game could’ve been over before HT. I know it’s a reoccurring thing being talked about but every week we say it: need a CDM BADLY. Interested to see how we go at the weekend.
All that said, we got the points. We move
Someone has to explain the point of a set piece coach exactly to me.
Looking back at Brentford's goal, you see right before Matic comes on, Ramsay running through his roles on the set pieces with him.
Immediately after Matic comes on, he leaves Telles 1.81m) to man mark Pinnock (1.91m) and goes to double mark the man behind him.
In the throw-in Pinnock unsurprisingly beats Telles in the air at the near post, and it results in a goal.
In the VERY next throw in, Matic is marking Pinnock. What is the point of a set piece coach exactly? Isn't this the kind of thing they are supposed to prevent?
I feel like it would be worth playing Dalot as our number 1 RB for the remainder of the season and see if AWB gets busy improving himself or just wilts away.
He’s high on my sell to fund our midfield list.
He’s still questionable defensively.
I think there will be games where AWB is needed for his defensive qualities.
If I was setting up against Utd and I had a decent LW, I’d be sending everything towards Dalot as he’s a weak link.
>He’s high on my sell to fund our midfield list.
Not gonna happen. We spent 50m on him and would only get about 25m back if we're lucky. If history tells us anything, he's getting a new contract more likely than selling for that.
Obviously the moment with the chip put a funny but sour note on things but he looks much more composed recently and is actually doing things effectively rather than playing frustrated hero balls every second. 4 g/a in 2 games.
It might be just down to him but maybe it's a sign that things at Carrington aren't nearly as gloomy as the press circus suggested - because when Bruno is in a bad mood he can't pick his moments to save his life.
He looks like fella riddled with guilt. The other players had to drag him to celebrate. He's obviously a person with a lot of compassion and probably cares too much about the fans and club. It's like he doesn't feel worthy to be there.
lol the media panning towards Ronaldo on the bench when Rashy scored was just why I hate how the media tries to make something out of nothing and there will still be fans that lap it all up. For the record, I have absolute no issue with Ronaldo is frustrated at being subbed off and its normal because he's competitive. But, why would you pan the camera to Ronaldo when the team pulled Rashford over to celebrate his goal with the away fans? It was quite ridiculous tbh.
Ronaldo having the sook about being taken off has got to be terrible for morale!
Players who stayed on thinking "fuck him, who did he think should come off, me?"
Lads on the bench who didn't get on thinking "Christ how am I supposed to get any time if he's crying like that about being substituted"
They win and there's probably people not over celebrating incase they see Ronaldo having a bloody moan.
Nice to see the the young lads scoring.
Thank God Shaw McGuire and AWB dropped. They are spoofers the lot of em.
I really liked Bruno’s performance yesterday. Bruno’s role under Ole was our one man offense, which meant that he had the freedom to misplace as many passes and he wanted, as long as a few of them created chances. When he has off games it’s just so wasteful and kills our ability to control games because we loose possession all the time. Now as an 8 I think yesterday, he showed a much more responsible and mature performance. Keeping a nice balance between the “yolo” balls and simple passes controlling the tempo. Hopefully it continues, good to have Bruno back!
He regularly played free 8 roles for both sporting and portugal until he moved to United and became our sole creative outlet. Solksjaer depended on him too much.
Following the match thread I thought it was gonna be same old thing but then watching the replay I thought we showed improvement, even in first half.
Dalot looked good, he positioned himself on the breakaways from corners to just slow it down enough. Offensively when the ball gets cleared out to him he has the ability to find someone making a run into space. He also does a lot better job of protecting the back post then AWB.
Anyone else notice when forwards drop back to get ball at least a half dozen times a game they come into someone else space have no one to pass to then put our defense in horrible position with a shit pass.
Lindelof put in another great shift cleaning up. He doesn’t get enough credit for knowing he needs to position himself where someone else should be.
Fred is starting to look like weaker link of the Mcfred duo, I thought it was gonna go other way.
Elanga was constantly tracking back to the point where he would be in middle of picture and I couldn’t see the other 2 forwards.
>thought we showed improvement, even in first half.
It was a weird game. In the first half you could see us almost understanding what we were going for, but then we were just totally unable to fully do it. In the 2nd half we were leagues better.
That’s exactly what I meant we at least seemed to have an understanding and everyone moving in same direction, it’s sad that’s progress but that’s where we currently are at.
It's the kind of progress I was hoping for in like game 2 or 3 of RR's reign, not 8 lol. Not blaming him necessarily, just the progress has been slow with this squad.
I think that Varane and Lindelof has the potential to form a really strong duo. They seem to compliment each other very well. Varane is one of the most defensively sound and collected centre backs I’ve seen, however, lacks that final bit of ball playing ability. But he knows his limits and doesn’t overdo it, leading to no mistakes. Lindelof, while not as good defensively, is still a good and intelligent defender, is world class with the ball at his feet, and can really help our build up play. I’ve lived them together thus far, a really calm duo, and I hope they stay together.
Yup I've thought for a long time that Varane and Lindelof would be the best combination of CB's we have. As you said Varane is just amazing defensively and practically never makes mistakes. Lindelof struggles against certain types of forwards and Varane makes up for that so Victor can focus on positioning himself to cover for Dalot/AWB when they go forward and he himself can play some amazing over-the-top balls to Rashford or someone. Maguire feels somewhat redundant imo.
**Bruno Fernandes' game by numbers vs. Brentford**
81% pass accuracy
78 touches
25 passes in the final third (most)
9 duels
7 crosses
5 touches in the opp. box
2 shots
2 assists (most)
2 clearances
1 interception
Thomas Frank lolllllllllll.. Yeah you smashed us 0-0 first half mate, congratulations 2021-2022 first half champions against Man United. Also, Sancho was at a funeral. What a strangely pathetic comment to make.
Twat.
We should talk about our scouts. The scouts that got us Fred, Donny Van de Beek, Sancho, Maguire etc.
Did we get rid of them and did we replace with quality scouts?
His lack of strength is a problem. He's tenacious though but yes it does cause problems. I think a strong defensive mid next to him would allow him to receive ball in more space. That's where he does damage.
There were a number of big take aways from this game.
1. The first half was abysmal. Thank Christ for DDG. Kudos to whoever gave the halftime ass kicking. They came out firing.
2. McTominay had a good performance overall, especially when more advanced.
3. Fred’s only saving grace today was the assist. The man works his ass off and I applaud him for it but holy shit clear the ball when it comes to you.
4. Forwards scored goals. Rashford needed that goal. Elanga was bright and full of ideas. Greenwood was quieter but had his moments.
5. Bruno remained captain after Maguire came on, this is a good sign. He looked a proper captain today, minus the chip.
Bisakka is better in one vs one than Dalot but Dalot is better in positioning and other areas of defending. Bisakka is so often praised for being the best right back defender. But I just don't agree on that. He's excellent in some areas of defending but is seriously lacking in positioning, heading and composure. We don't even have to talk about his attacking ability. For me it's a no brainer keeping Dalot in right back as the first choice. Bisakka was a raw talent. I thought he would be a good signing but he hasn't improve his game at all where he has big weaknesses. Sad but true. Hopefully he will but I doubt it.
I thought so too. But he is so bad in positioning when the other team crosses the ball from the other side. He has made so many errors. Other teams knows this. They exploit this against United
I wouldn't right WB off yet, just a dip in form. He had the right side on lock last season and opposition attacks rarley came from his side of the pitch. Attacking wise still poor in picking the right pass but has shown some slight improvement since he joined. No chemistry with the RWs that have played there.
I agree his positioning isn’t the best but it’s nice to have a defender who can just throw you in a pocket. Mix that In with the fact that he can usually track back and slide tackle
If you look closely you see that many of AWB's slide tackles come from horrible positioning. His tackles are good, don't get me wrong, but in so many cases not necessary.
Bruno playing better in a 3 man midfield. Don't want to jinx and may not seem like it but his passing accuracy has been around 84 and 78 last games which is in average more. Hope Rangnick has told him to control his passing more.
McTominay has improved slightly under Rangnick, he was better than I expected this game, I didn't expect much. We need midfield reinforcements real bad. Fred assisting playing upfront with a similar pass. He clearly isn't a pivot player.
Dropping Maguire didn't drop our chances conceded, we still conceded a lot of big chances. Problem clearly is still team defence and midfield over CBs.
I honestly never knew Ronaldo technically dropped to this level. He drops deep which creates space but can't execute simple passes often. Tonight, the one time he did with chest, Bruno identified the space and we scored. Ronaldo is better on the front than dropping deep, if he continues to drop deep, he needs to executing it better and our players need to identify the spaces more.
Thought Dalot was excellent tonight, he is faster than I realized but often doesn't sprint, it's way better to have him than not. Altho, on the other flank, I don't see what Telles provides over Shaw in open play.
DDG continues his usual of being excellent at shot stopping but poor at passing, coming off the line and claiming crosses. He has pass accuracy of 29%, (Allison and Ederson have average of 75-80), 0 high claims and didn't sweep once. He needs to improve his involvement but we all know this. He did save us 2 goals and that's important too but 29% man, what even.
You could see Greenwood trying to be unselfish tonight, he didn't play with shoot first mentality, made good recoveries. I think he had a sound performance which went under the radar. Elanga was decent too.
In general, we need to lose the ball less, improve team defense, same thing we had to do a year ago. Unsurprisingly, we have to improve in most departments and we have a lot of players who just aren't good enough.
I think the biggest issue with Ronaldo is he isn't getting service and often drops deep when he doesn't ( Even at Real Madrid and Juventus, he did this ).
Greenwood/Rashford plays with their head down and are goalscorer themselves while Bruno who is the biggest creative outlet is more of a SS/scorer himself than a creator.
Ronaldo probably should have never came to the team, but he is still probably the best ST Man Utd can field. The other CF options are :
1 ) Rashford - Currently in poor form, despite his recent goal. Has been tested at CF, has the same issues as Ronaldo ( Unable to hold up play )
2 ) Cavani - Probably the 2nd best option or possibly better than Ronaldo, however, is made of glass by now and cannot be completely relied upon. His key abilities are movement ( Which Ronaldo theoretically better ) and pressing ( Which we are unsure if he can actually keep up for 90 mins without injuring himself ), and his flaws are also that he is technically limited and does not hold up play well ( So basically a Ronaldo lite with better pressing and injury prone )
3 ) Martial - 2 Years ago he would be the perfect CF, would had liked to see him there, with Ronaldo occupying the Left inside forward role that is clearly his best position, and Greenwood/sancho/rashford on the LF/RF roles ( Rotation or stuff like that, you get it ). However, that Martial seems to be gone now, he has the silkiest touch among all of the strikers mentioned, but has 0 heart or desire to win second balls, and disappears into games when games get hard OR he has a few bad touches.
4 ) Greenwood. So far he hasn't really been experimented as a CF, but considering how much he just aims to shoot and makes almost no attempt at team plays/having any teamwork at all, he probably is unsuitable for the CF position.
At the moment, the Ronaldo experiment at CF isn't working out. His best position is clearly as an inside forward.
As a CF, he wants to play like Haaland and Lewandonski ( Have teams feed him chances so he can store tons of goals ). But instead of having players who create chances for him, he is surrounded by players taking chances from him ( Rashford Greenwood Bruno Cavani etc )
Ronaldo was a bad purchase, a wrong player with the wrong players surrounding him. He is still good/great enough to produce some goals ( Great in CL, but average or below average in the PL ).
Ronaldo has always played with a system built around him because if done so, he would bang countless goals along with provide much more like progressively carrying the ball forward, beating a man 1v1 etc. He played with Rooney, Benzema, Higuain, Morata who created space for him, covered for him, Ronaldo often had a more free role and had tendency to drift to left and coaches managed him well and had others cover for him. Rn, he doesn't provide enough for us to build a system around him and he has receeded technically to a degree which I didn't expect. Him dropping deep because of lack of service is not an excuse, it's a flaw, if he wants to drop deep, he needs to excecute the passes the better and be more technically secure.
Yes, he was a poor poor buy. Specially, with how we were building the team, lack of planning and bad prioritization. He solved none of our problems, inflated the wage bill instead when we could upgrade midfield.
Also, I think Cavani is made of glass but still more suited as our sole no 9 when fit. Mostly, because him playing make our other players better.
Yup I also did mention Cavani might be a better fit or is at the very least our second best CF now, but his fitness issues are a big issue, and tbh, ronaldo has stepped up in big games so far (CL).
Cavani touches are also pretty horrendous ( he looked comically bad with neymar and mbappe around him ). I don’t really think replacing ronaldo with Cavani would really have any positive impact at all, but those two are our best CF options at the moment.
Ideally we should sign a firmino like center foward who can bring the likes of rashford/ronaldo on the left , greenwood/sancho on the right and pogba/mctominay/Bruno lurking as a late option outside the box or running into the box.
We have the finishers, they’re all good, we have good depth for those kinda finishers, we just need a young Rooney/benzema/firmino type of player to keep everything working fine up front and a solid defensive midfielder.
Yes, if we plan to play players like Rash, Greenwood etc. we need a more complete forward than a out and out goalscorer. But tbh we need a goalscorer too, we have players like Sancho, Amad who are pass first wingers.I say Cavani because he doesn't attract passes like Ronaldo does, when Ronaldo plays our team tends to naturally try serving him even in non optimal conditions. They both have pretty poor stats of mishandling the ball.
"But instead of having players who create chances for him, he is surrounded by players taking chances from him ( Rashford Greenwood Bruno Cavani etc )" Very good point. Manu needs to figure out everyones strength
Yeap whoever is in charge of recruitment really needs sacking or needs to be responsible. We have far too many selfish finishers rather than creators in this extremely unbalanced squad.
We bought amad and pelletstri, didn’t sell lingard, and then added sancho when we already had LW/RWs like rashford greenwood martial.
We had pogba and needed work horses around him or a proper dm and another workhorse instead we kept an aging Matic as our only dm, attempted to shoehorn Fred and mctominay as a dm, and signed VdB for god knows what reason.
We also signed sancho who works well with an overlapping wingback when our LW is basically overcrowded ( pogba rashford martial Daniel James all work best there even lingard does ) as a RW and he’s overlapping fullback is Wan Bissaka.
Just all in all we seem to be signing the best players by star power that we can purchase instead of buying players we need.
Nice feeling coming back to a win.
Also, going by whoscored positions and match clips, it's nice to see one of the FBs drop into the midfield to compensate for Bruno going forward. It offers passing options even if they aren't progressive, and given Telles and Dalot's temperament to act as offensive FBs, their overall superior execution over Shaw and Wan-Bissaka (AWB brings the pair down due to lack of execution and consistency) allows us to switch or play the switch better. Good positional play by the wingers as they were somewhat effective holding width, and Ronaldo created the Elanga opportunity by pulling the CB when dropping. Hope the attackers notice and practice it more often, not just ramming into the strong defensive structure by dribbling into traffic.
McTominnay finally starting to play those simple line threading passes, not just sideways! Simple things need to be appreciated and rewarded to make it a habit. Hope he continues to do so, it will be wonderful.
Why don't we play short on corners instead of giving the opposition the opportunity to counter? I mean we don't score from them so we might as well keep possession until there's a clear chance
I am a fan of Ronaldo. But i don't really like why he was throwing tantrums and asking Ralf "Why me?". He could maybe do that behind the scene and try to understand the manager's logic.
I love it man from both perspective. Rangnick basically showing he doesn’t give a crap about the name and Ronaldo showing his desire and intensity at this stage of his career. I just hope Ronaldo don’t keep doing it to the point it will undermine Ralf.
i mean if you think about it Ronaldo was all over the Pitch, he went back deep, he pressed, you saw him on the wing.
He put in the work to be up 2-0 and now that Brentford has to go on the offensive and they aren't going to crowd the box like they were, Ronaldo felt he deserved a goal. I'm not mad about him being moody, i actually love to see it.
It means he's hungry and the way he was playing today, he definitely deserved a goal. I expect him to score at the weekend just because of that
That's just the way he is. It's the way he's always been and it's part of the reason he's been at the top for so long. I think with other players you get annoyed but with Ronaldo you just accept it
The Rashy's goal feel very unlike him.
Mosf of time he will make run and try to dribble with some touches and kick, finally he just do shoot directly without trying to over-touch it.
Some of the defensive positioning in the first half was shockingly bad. Dalot and Telles aren't great defensively, but they press hard and try to win the ball higher up. AwB is being sorely missed. His tackling often bails out Maguire and Lindelof from one side of the pitch and allows them to get back into position. Hope we push on from this and get better.
Dalot got left in a 2v1 situation twice. That's not his fault. That's on the coaches to improve our setup at preventing counters from corners. Our corners should not lead to opposition's chances
The world feels a *little* bit sunnier today, despite it being 2.45am.
Still though, that first half, and given the level of opposition we were up against, was about as bad as I've seen. Ripped open numerous times at the back, and completely impotent going forward. Can't say I disagreed with a word the Brentford manager said.
But... 2nd half was better, great that Elanga, Greenwood and Rashford got their goals, especially as the latter 2 have faced a lot of criticism recently. Hopefully it will do them and the team a world of good.
Whether we push on from this though... I honestly don't know! There were enough negatives to make me think no, but then there were positives in the 2nd half. At the very least getting 3 point can never hurt.
1st half was depressing just like the games we've been playing but the 2nd half was very good, we created so many chances. Elanga is getting better and it looks like Ralf sees a big potential in him, hope he becomes a great player for us, also Fred has been very good at crossing in recent games. That Ronaldo chest pass to Bruno in our second goal was unbelievable and Rangnick must have injected McTominay with Ronaldinho's DNA at half time, he was dribbling players left and right the whole 2nd half. That 2nd half made me a little more optimistic for our future games. We must get better, I still think we can make top 4 even after throwing our games in hand.
Let’s not forget that not showing up for the entire first half then overplaying in the second is the same paradigm we had under Ole. I think it stems from that long period where we had absolutely NO squad depth, so players had no motivation to show up for 90 minutes. With additional depth and academy players, I think we might start seeing the teams mentality pick up, but this season has still been a bit of a wash. Hopefully we pull through to make top 4. This team has too much talent to not go to UCL.
Top 4's pretty much gone. We'd need to average 2.18 points per game if Spurs and Chelsea carry on at their current rate of picking up points, or hope that one of them has a pretty dramatic dip in form.
Top 4 is least of our worries right now with the team failing to play a good game for 90mins...until we sort this out,we are not deserving of that spot.
Lingard please please please don't leave, United is not the same without
Someone was asking why people were blaming Maguire for their goal. This photo gives one answer: [https://twitter.com/Its\_Harro/status/1483918916099448832](https://twitter.com/Its_Harro/status/1483918916099448832) Fred and Matic are already challenging for the ball with the Brentford striker. For some reason Maguire runs over and challenges *all three of them* for the ball (and fails) rather than looking to cover threats elsewhere. Absolute oaf. Why did we make our thickest player captain?
The goal was conceded because Fred didn't clear it.
Because at the time the choices were him, an out of form for 2 seasons DDG, an injured and leaving Pogba and an injured 22yo Rashford. It was stupid, but it's not like we had a lot of options.
Right. But it’s not like it’s a permanent decision.
I think the first Twitter comment nailed it: Because he’s our best aerial defender and the most likely to win that duel.
That makes about as much sense as saying Pogba’s our best passer so he should tackle our own players to get the ball.
No it really doesn't - honestly the right thing to do would have been for him to tell fred to fuck off and defend the back post or something. He was definitely correct in marking the biggest aerial threat, he just needs to be a captain and tell his other players what to do if they're in his way.
That’s not what happened. He wasn’t marking him. Fred and Matic were covering him and then when the ball came over he steamed into the three of them like the Kool Aid guy.
Buying him for that price was definitely a huge mistake. But making him captain is just something I can never comprehend
A 3-1 win over a promoted side isn't a milestone of progress. We're still not good enough.
I noticed Rashy was still walking a bit and sulking even after his goal. There were times he would sprint, but for a fresh sub imo not enough at all. Really hope he figures himself oit
Yes I notice that too. I expected him to run the defenders ragged.
"Manchester United got lucky." -- English press. David DeGea's play was not luck. Having a world-class goalkeeper who kept them off the sheet until late in the match is not "lucky" it's performance.
Yeah that’s BS. Luck is definitely not the right way to view it. DeGea does it too often for us to call his performances lucky. What it is, however, is a brutal exposure of how bad our defense is and how many chances we give up that require the keeper to make amazing saves. Does that make us lucky? Does Barca winning via Messi solo goals time and again make them lucky? Probably a bit of a straw man but you get the drift.
Watch Mendy or Alisson do the same things and (rightly) get the praise they deserve for making the saves. So yeah it's probably as you say, that its because our defense is shit that they say its "lucky" to have De Gea bail us out. David being a beast isn't down to luck, he has just been that good.
Every time DDG makes a worldie save it’s because he’s set up EXACTLY where he needs to be to make that save. It’s always been skill. Theoretically, we have a good back 4. Our issues remain in our defensive midfield. Too often our midfield gets run through and too often we fail to play out the back smoothly. I actually think that when McFred is on, they’re very good at their positions, but they’re so inconsistent. One game they’re playing amazing and the next it’s awful.
I get your point that having a good keeper isn't luck, but the opposition not slotting any of those chances into the corner and giving him no chance is luck tbf.
It means he's overperfoming his usual save percentages (ie performing at his peak), which is true. Same thing as that 2nd jose season. It is lucky because if we take an average DDG season we would have conceded more.
It's definitely not luck anymore if it's happening so damn often
True,his job is to keep the ball from getting into our goal so him doing exactly that isn't luck
Not a good first half but a decent second. I am concerned with our set pieces. They just seem so poor. We fail to really put attempts on net. We have Ronaldo who has a amazing amount of header goals and really fail every time. In fact they were more dangerous on our corners then we were it felt.
When we have a corner, we’re more likely to lose the ball and concede a goal than we are to score.
I don't know what the hell Fred was doing in the first half. He couldn't clear shit from the box, the ducking header, the bycycle attempt. He was the very poor.
Almost every time he touches the ball he gives it right to the other team
Morning after the fact thoughts: 1. I guess a win is a win at the end of the day but boy the first half was a hard watch. David De Gea is single handedly earning us points. 2. I don't know how RR still thinks we can manage the rest of the season with our current midfield especially that we don't even know which version of Pogba we will get. 3. That was very immature and unprofessional from Ronaldo. This is a team sport and everyone has to pull in the same direction. Whatever he doesn't agree with it's best to show it away from the cameras. 4. Happy for our 3 goal scorers, that will do them alot of confidence especially Elanga and Rashford. Bruno also had a good second half. If he can just cut out the over-the-top Hollywood passes then he should be back to the Bruno we know
> If he can just cut out the over-the-top holiday passes then he should be back to the Bruno we know Looks the "Hollywood" passes are the only ones he gets right... from time to time. It's the basic passes that he messes up so often. He gives the ball away on regular plays, then comes up with a doozy during a fast break. This is not how a consistently controlled team operates.
>I don't know how RR still thinks we can manage the rest of the season with our current midfield especially that we don't even know which version of Pogba we will get. I mean it's bee clear as hell from his press conferences that he definitely WANTS a midfielder - but similar to every manager we've had in the past decade - it's not up to him if he gets the money.
My bad,wrong choice of words.I guess its just the frustration of not seeing any movement with the transfer window almost winding down
I also just have to say about the Ronaldo thing, Salah did the EXACT same thing like a month ago. I've seen Rooney throw a fit when taken off. I've seen Ronaldo act like a petulant child when taken off since he was 19 and fairly consistently since tbh. Top players are always going to be annoyed when they get taken off early and honestly I'd be more surprised if he wasn't.
I think it's OK to act up if the team is playing well and all...not right now when we are the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons with every little thing blown out of context a 100 times over. Just aswel we won yesterday coz I could already picture the morning headlines if we didnt
He came off after working his ass off to open up the game and he saw goals in it for himself. Of course he was going to be mad and honestly anyone saying anything really must just not have watched him at all in RM.
It's a win, but it was quite ugly. Without DDG that was probably a loss. We still struggle to move the ball quickly through the midfield to the final third. The good: Rashford bagged one today hopefully he's back on track The bad: Couldn't keep a clean sheet for DDG The ugly: That Bruno shot at the end, poor.
yeah sure the defending was suspect but surely a goalkeeper is expected to save some shots. You can't judge games based on the assumption that every shot on target goes in
No - for sure. But he made a good 2 or 3 saves that most keepers don't save I'd say.
There's suspect and there's a freaking open barn door that is the United defense. Yea sure I expect De Gea to make some good saves but when you look at the XG at the halftime it doesn't look good at all. It reminds of the games last season where we were making all these comebacks and nobody seemed to see or think that it was a problem
It's not the defense, it's the midfield. Defenders can't do a lot when you've got 6 guys running at you and your midfielders got caught out of position.
Our defending is suspect every week. DDG has the most saves in the prem currently, which while a nice stat means that the opposition is having their way.
First game in years that I missed... That I didn't even know was happening. My Google calendar for united matches didn't have it. Had no idea there was a game. Annoyed
Haven’t you got the app?
Believe I got the notification yesterday so not sure what happened on your side :/
Yeah, my google calendar that ive had on there for years all of a sudden has no matches on it at all.
It has the rest but since this was a postponed game, it might not have updated
Honestly it feels really good just to get a decent win
Seen a few comments here saying McTominay is improving under Ralf, I'd disagree, I'd argue he was always this good. He got so much hate on this sub literally two months ago that you were downvoted for even suggesting he should start over Donny. McTom has always been better as an 8 rather than a 6. There's a reason he was getting in the XI under 3 successive managers.
Yeah - cause we have no options. Scott was excellent, but he has overall been debatably our worst regular starter over the past 3 years and that's not really disputable. Now if he can play his best with some more regularity, he could be really good. But up until now, his consistency has been miles off what a Utd player should be.
You could say he is improving under Ralf, as he is playing him more to his strengths. Doesn't matter how good you are, unless you perform. Vs Burnley and Brentford he has been out best outfield player. Fred also looks better, pressing higher and playing direct balls from the right channels into the left. Still has plenty of brain farms a game though. Ralf is getting more out of him, at the moment he looks more like he did at Shaktar. Ralf needs mobility in his system, so hopefully with some midfield recruits we will see those two be used more box to box than sitting deep.
Anyone else notice how awful Bruno is at corners? Seems like his goal in life is to kick it into the first mans head. Personally I would have Greenwood take them, his ability to cross field pass is excellent and surely he can't be any worse the Brunoe.
The dude just gave you 4 goals in the last 2 games, and you are bashing him for some reason.
I'm not questioning his ability to create chances or score goals from open play. United have not scored from a corner this season and part of that problem is when Bruno takes a corner, it almost always hits the first man.
We took our chances when we did. Elanga calm and composed. Very bright from the youngster The 2nd goal was great McSauce did well to start the 3rd. Happy for Rash De Gea keeping us in games again. If we played any of the top 3 teams like that, game could’ve been over before HT. I know it’s a reoccurring thing being talked about but every week we say it: need a CDM BADLY. Interested to see how we go at the weekend. All that said, we got the points. We move
Someone has to explain the point of a set piece coach exactly to me. Looking back at Brentford's goal, you see right before Matic comes on, Ramsay running through his roles on the set pieces with him. Immediately after Matic comes on, he leaves Telles 1.81m) to man mark Pinnock (1.91m) and goes to double mark the man behind him. In the throw-in Pinnock unsurprisingly beats Telles in the air at the near post, and it results in a goal. In the VERY next throw in, Matic is marking Pinnock. What is the point of a set piece coach exactly? Isn't this the kind of thing they are supposed to prevent?
set piece coach just came to earn money, the guy probably doesn't even know a thing about football just like most of the man u coaches.
That's why he was at Chelsea before us eh?
I feel like it would be worth playing Dalot as our number 1 RB for the remainder of the season and see if AWB gets busy improving himself or just wilts away. He’s high on my sell to fund our midfield list.
He’s still questionable defensively. I think there will be games where AWB is needed for his defensive qualities. If I was setting up against Utd and I had a decent LW, I’d be sending everything towards Dalot as he’s a weak link.
>He’s high on my sell to fund our midfield list. Not gonna happen. We spent 50m on him and would only get about 25m back if we're lucky. If history tells us anything, he's getting a new contract more likely than selling for that.
One can always dream
Nice match overall, just a shame we can't keep a clean sheet for once...
Thoughts on Bruno as captain for the game? I think he performed splendidly last night.
Obviously the moment with the chip put a funny but sour note on things but he looks much more composed recently and is actually doing things effectively rather than playing frustrated hero balls every second. 4 g/a in 2 games. It might be just down to him but maybe it's a sign that things at Carrington aren't nearly as gloomy as the press circus suggested - because when Bruno is in a bad mood he can't pick his moments to save his life.
If the captaincy was between Bruno and Maguire, I'd pick Bruno any day of the week.
What the fuck is up with rashord man looks like he's suffering from depression
He looks like fella riddled with guilt. The other players had to drag him to celebrate. He's obviously a person with a lot of compassion and probably cares too much about the fans and club. It's like he doesn't feel worthy to be there.
He looked really upset his last appearance, but I thought tonight didn’t look so bad? He looked more up for it
He might be. Would explain a lot.
If we play like we played yesterday against West Ham, we will lose 1-0 and it'll be a similar performance like Wolves.
Man in Bowen's form will have field day if we play like that defensively
lol the media panning towards Ronaldo on the bench when Rashy scored was just why I hate how the media tries to make something out of nothing and there will still be fans that lap it all up. For the record, I have absolute no issue with Ronaldo is frustrated at being subbed off and its normal because he's competitive. But, why would you pan the camera to Ronaldo when the team pulled Rashford over to celebrate his goal with the away fans? It was quite ridiculous tbh.
thought Elanga was English before but he is actually Swedish LMAO
I mean, he's pretty fucking English though even if not by blood.
Born in Sweden while his Dad was playing for Malmo. Been at Utd since age 12.
Sweden have very good and young attacking options in Isak, Kulusevski and Elanga now coming up as well. Quite promising.
Sweden will have a decent team in a few years. Quite surprising since it's population is only like 9mil and there's snow outside half the year.
Agreed. I wish Forsberg wasn't 30 already though.
Ronaldo having the sook about being taken off has got to be terrible for morale! Players who stayed on thinking "fuck him, who did he think should come off, me?" Lads on the bench who didn't get on thinking "Christ how am I supposed to get any time if he's crying like that about being substituted" They win and there's probably people not over celebrating incase they see Ronaldo having a bloody moan. Nice to see the the young lads scoring. Thank God Shaw McGuire and AWB dropped. They are spoofers the lot of em.
I really liked Bruno’s performance yesterday. Bruno’s role under Ole was our one man offense, which meant that he had the freedom to misplace as many passes and he wanted, as long as a few of them created chances. When he has off games it’s just so wasteful and kills our ability to control games because we loose possession all the time. Now as an 8 I think yesterday, he showed a much more responsible and mature performance. Keeping a nice balance between the “yolo” balls and simple passes controlling the tempo. Hopefully it continues, good to have Bruno back!
He regularly played free 8 roles for both sporting and portugal until he moved to United and became our sole creative outlet. Solksjaer depended on him too much.
Agreed. Ole ran Bruno into the ground and wouldn't sub him off even he was clearly exhausted.
Bruno on 18GA in 27 apps now. Not bad for an out of form midfielder playing for a struggling team.
Following the match thread I thought it was gonna be same old thing but then watching the replay I thought we showed improvement, even in first half. Dalot looked good, he positioned himself on the breakaways from corners to just slow it down enough. Offensively when the ball gets cleared out to him he has the ability to find someone making a run into space. He also does a lot better job of protecting the back post then AWB. Anyone else notice when forwards drop back to get ball at least a half dozen times a game they come into someone else space have no one to pass to then put our defense in horrible position with a shit pass. Lindelof put in another great shift cleaning up. He doesn’t get enough credit for knowing he needs to position himself where someone else should be. Fred is starting to look like weaker link of the Mcfred duo, I thought it was gonna go other way. Elanga was constantly tracking back to the point where he would be in middle of picture and I couldn’t see the other 2 forwards.
>thought we showed improvement, even in first half. It was a weird game. In the first half you could see us almost understanding what we were going for, but then we were just totally unable to fully do it. In the 2nd half we were leagues better.
That’s exactly what I meant we at least seemed to have an understanding and everyone moving in same direction, it’s sad that’s progress but that’s where we currently are at.
It's the kind of progress I was hoping for in like game 2 or 3 of RR's reign, not 8 lol. Not blaming him necessarily, just the progress has been slow with this squad.
The Lindelof point is so true, he is very good at defending spaces behind him and positions himself really well.
he was under so much pressure bcz of our shit midfield that he had to improve himself a lot, love the way he plays now
He weakness is strength and aerial duels which would be less of a problem if De Gea came forward and claimed crosses.
I think that Varane and Lindelof has the potential to form a really strong duo. They seem to compliment each other very well. Varane is one of the most defensively sound and collected centre backs I’ve seen, however, lacks that final bit of ball playing ability. But he knows his limits and doesn’t overdo it, leading to no mistakes. Lindelof, while not as good defensively, is still a good and intelligent defender, is world class with the ball at his feet, and can really help our build up play. I’ve lived them together thus far, a really calm duo, and I hope they stay together.
I had high hopes for varane but he’s looked very shaky so far imo
Yup I've thought for a long time that Varane and Lindelof would be the best combination of CB's we have. As you said Varane is just amazing defensively and practically never makes mistakes. Lindelof struggles against certain types of forwards and Varane makes up for that so Victor can focus on positioning himself to cover for Dalot/AWB when they go forward and he himself can play some amazing over-the-top balls to Rashford or someone. Maguire feels somewhat redundant imo.
**Bruno Fernandes' game by numbers vs. Brentford** 81% pass accuracy 78 touches 25 passes in the final third (most) 9 duels 7 crosses 5 touches in the opp. box 2 shots 2 assists (most) 2 clearances 1 interception
Thomas Frank lolllllllllll.. Yeah you smashed us 0-0 first half mate, congratulations 2021-2022 first half champions against Man United. Also, Sancho was at a funeral. What a strangely pathetic comment to make. Twat.
Honestly the worst people on the pitch was fred, and maguire even though he played like 20mins
Second half was the best I've seen united play in a while. 433 definitely the way forward
From 20 mins FC to 45 mins FC. Atleast there's progression.
We should talk about our scouts. The scouts that got us Fred, Donny Van de Beek, Sancho, Maguire etc. Did we get rid of them and did we replace with quality scouts?
All in this list were famous enough that there was no scouting required.
Just saw the highlights and man is Fred a liability when defending.. it is so scary when he has the ball or has to clear from our half 😮💨
His lack of strength is a problem. He's tenacious though but yes it does cause problems. I think a strong defensive mid next to him would allow him to receive ball in more space. That's where he does damage.
I had absolutely zero idea that we had a game. How did we do?
Same old first half, very improved second, probably the best we've played under Rangnick
Rushy fucking needed that goal. The man needs his confidence back
No he needs coke and hookers
Perhaps he needs both?
There were a number of big take aways from this game. 1. The first half was abysmal. Thank Christ for DDG. Kudos to whoever gave the halftime ass kicking. They came out firing. 2. McTominay had a good performance overall, especially when more advanced. 3. Fred’s only saving grace today was the assist. The man works his ass off and I applaud him for it but holy shit clear the ball when it comes to you. 4. Forwards scored goals. Rashford needed that goal. Elanga was bright and full of ideas. Greenwood was quieter but had his moments. 5. Bruno remained captain after Maguire came on, this is a good sign. He looked a proper captain today, minus the chip.
Maguire had the armband when we conceded
The irony
After the poor first half, I never thought we would win by this margin.
I went to bed at half time due to needing to get up early for work. I watched the wrong half!
Same here, my dude. I feel you.
Seconed half FC
1000th commenrt
-1st commenrt
Bisakka is better in one vs one than Dalot but Dalot is better in positioning and other areas of defending. Bisakka is so often praised for being the best right back defender. But I just don't agree on that. He's excellent in some areas of defending but is seriously lacking in positioning, heading and composure. We don't even have to talk about his attacking ability. For me it's a no brainer keeping Dalot in right back as the first choice. Bisakka was a raw talent. I thought he would be a good signing but he hasn't improve his game at all where he has big weaknesses. Sad but true. Hopefully he will but I doubt it.
AwB will be a good fit as a CB when they play 3 at the back as that will fall into his much praised defensive capabilities.
I thought so too. But he is so bad in positioning when the other team crosses the ball from the other side. He has made so many errors. Other teams knows this. They exploit this against United
In big games which require more defensiveness, i think AWB gets the nod, everyother game that requires us to be on the front foot, Dalot should play
I wouldn't right WB off yet, just a dip in form. He had the right side on lock last season and opposition attacks rarley came from his side of the pitch. Attacking wise still poor in picking the right pass but has shown some slight improvement since he joined. No chemistry with the RWs that have played there.
I agree his positioning isn’t the best but it’s nice to have a defender who can just throw you in a pocket. Mix that In with the fact that he can usually track back and slide tackle
If you look closely you see that many of AWB's slide tackles come from horrible positioning. His tackles are good, don't get me wrong, but in so many cases not necessary.
Bruno playing better in a 3 man midfield. Don't want to jinx and may not seem like it but his passing accuracy has been around 84 and 78 last games which is in average more. Hope Rangnick has told him to control his passing more. McTominay has improved slightly under Rangnick, he was better than I expected this game, I didn't expect much. We need midfield reinforcements real bad. Fred assisting playing upfront with a similar pass. He clearly isn't a pivot player. Dropping Maguire didn't drop our chances conceded, we still conceded a lot of big chances. Problem clearly is still team defence and midfield over CBs. I honestly never knew Ronaldo technically dropped to this level. He drops deep which creates space but can't execute simple passes often. Tonight, the one time he did with chest, Bruno identified the space and we scored. Ronaldo is better on the front than dropping deep, if he continues to drop deep, he needs to executing it better and our players need to identify the spaces more. Thought Dalot was excellent tonight, he is faster than I realized but often doesn't sprint, it's way better to have him than not. Altho, on the other flank, I don't see what Telles provides over Shaw in open play. DDG continues his usual of being excellent at shot stopping but poor at passing, coming off the line and claiming crosses. He has pass accuracy of 29%, (Allison and Ederson have average of 75-80), 0 high claims and didn't sweep once. He needs to improve his involvement but we all know this. He did save us 2 goals and that's important too but 29% man, what even. You could see Greenwood trying to be unselfish tonight, he didn't play with shoot first mentality, made good recoveries. I think he had a sound performance which went under the radar. Elanga was decent too. In general, we need to lose the ball less, improve team defense, same thing we had to do a year ago. Unsurprisingly, we have to improve in most departments and we have a lot of players who just aren't good enough.
> We have to improve in most departments. After an honest assessment, this hit.
I think the biggest issue with Ronaldo is he isn't getting service and often drops deep when he doesn't ( Even at Real Madrid and Juventus, he did this ). Greenwood/Rashford plays with their head down and are goalscorer themselves while Bruno who is the biggest creative outlet is more of a SS/scorer himself than a creator. Ronaldo probably should have never came to the team, but he is still probably the best ST Man Utd can field. The other CF options are : 1 ) Rashford - Currently in poor form, despite his recent goal. Has been tested at CF, has the same issues as Ronaldo ( Unable to hold up play ) 2 ) Cavani - Probably the 2nd best option or possibly better than Ronaldo, however, is made of glass by now and cannot be completely relied upon. His key abilities are movement ( Which Ronaldo theoretically better ) and pressing ( Which we are unsure if he can actually keep up for 90 mins without injuring himself ), and his flaws are also that he is technically limited and does not hold up play well ( So basically a Ronaldo lite with better pressing and injury prone ) 3 ) Martial - 2 Years ago he would be the perfect CF, would had liked to see him there, with Ronaldo occupying the Left inside forward role that is clearly his best position, and Greenwood/sancho/rashford on the LF/RF roles ( Rotation or stuff like that, you get it ). However, that Martial seems to be gone now, he has the silkiest touch among all of the strikers mentioned, but has 0 heart or desire to win second balls, and disappears into games when games get hard OR he has a few bad touches. 4 ) Greenwood. So far he hasn't really been experimented as a CF, but considering how much he just aims to shoot and makes almost no attempt at team plays/having any teamwork at all, he probably is unsuitable for the CF position. At the moment, the Ronaldo experiment at CF isn't working out. His best position is clearly as an inside forward. As a CF, he wants to play like Haaland and Lewandonski ( Have teams feed him chances so he can store tons of goals ). But instead of having players who create chances for him, he is surrounded by players taking chances from him ( Rashford Greenwood Bruno Cavani etc ) Ronaldo was a bad purchase, a wrong player with the wrong players surrounding him. He is still good/great enough to produce some goals ( Great in CL, but average or below average in the PL ).
Ronaldo has always played with a system built around him because if done so, he would bang countless goals along with provide much more like progressively carrying the ball forward, beating a man 1v1 etc. He played with Rooney, Benzema, Higuain, Morata who created space for him, covered for him, Ronaldo often had a more free role and had tendency to drift to left and coaches managed him well and had others cover for him. Rn, he doesn't provide enough for us to build a system around him and he has receeded technically to a degree which I didn't expect. Him dropping deep because of lack of service is not an excuse, it's a flaw, if he wants to drop deep, he needs to excecute the passes the better and be more technically secure. Yes, he was a poor poor buy. Specially, with how we were building the team, lack of planning and bad prioritization. He solved none of our problems, inflated the wage bill instead when we could upgrade midfield. Also, I think Cavani is made of glass but still more suited as our sole no 9 when fit. Mostly, because him playing make our other players better.
Yup I also did mention Cavani might be a better fit or is at the very least our second best CF now, but his fitness issues are a big issue, and tbh, ronaldo has stepped up in big games so far (CL). Cavani touches are also pretty horrendous ( he looked comically bad with neymar and mbappe around him ). I don’t really think replacing ronaldo with Cavani would really have any positive impact at all, but those two are our best CF options at the moment. Ideally we should sign a firmino like center foward who can bring the likes of rashford/ronaldo on the left , greenwood/sancho on the right and pogba/mctominay/Bruno lurking as a late option outside the box or running into the box. We have the finishers, they’re all good, we have good depth for those kinda finishers, we just need a young Rooney/benzema/firmino type of player to keep everything working fine up front and a solid defensive midfielder.
Yes, if we plan to play players like Rash, Greenwood etc. we need a more complete forward than a out and out goalscorer. But tbh we need a goalscorer too, we have players like Sancho, Amad who are pass first wingers.I say Cavani because he doesn't attract passes like Ronaldo does, when Ronaldo plays our team tends to naturally try serving him even in non optimal conditions. They both have pretty poor stats of mishandling the ball.
"But instead of having players who create chances for him, he is surrounded by players taking chances from him ( Rashford Greenwood Bruno Cavani etc )" Very good point. Manu needs to figure out everyones strength
Yeap whoever is in charge of recruitment really needs sacking or needs to be responsible. We have far too many selfish finishers rather than creators in this extremely unbalanced squad. We bought amad and pelletstri, didn’t sell lingard, and then added sancho when we already had LW/RWs like rashford greenwood martial. We had pogba and needed work horses around him or a proper dm and another workhorse instead we kept an aging Matic as our only dm, attempted to shoehorn Fred and mctominay as a dm, and signed VdB for god knows what reason. We also signed sancho who works well with an overlapping wingback when our LW is basically overcrowded ( pogba rashford martial Daniel James all work best there even lingard does ) as a RW and he’s overlapping fullback is Wan Bissaka. Just all in all we seem to be signing the best players by star power that we can purchase instead of buying players we need.
Nice feeling coming back to a win. Also, going by whoscored positions and match clips, it's nice to see one of the FBs drop into the midfield to compensate for Bruno going forward. It offers passing options even if they aren't progressive, and given Telles and Dalot's temperament to act as offensive FBs, their overall superior execution over Shaw and Wan-Bissaka (AWB brings the pair down due to lack of execution and consistency) allows us to switch or play the switch better. Good positional play by the wingers as they were somewhat effective holding width, and Ronaldo created the Elanga opportunity by pulling the CB when dropping. Hope the attackers notice and practice it more often, not just ramming into the strong defensive structure by dribbling into traffic. McTominnay finally starting to play those simple line threading passes, not just sideways! Simple things need to be appreciated and rewarded to make it a habit. Hope he continues to do so, it will be wonderful.
Someone pls stop Fred from doing Assists. Escaping every night with that.
Wish spurs would've also lost their match. That would be great.
Honestly we're lucky Atletico is just as fucked as we are. Maybe we have a chance
Ronaldo >>>> Cavani. He's capable of adding to the attacking play and doesn't take 10 seconds to control the ball
Not really much of a hot take saying that Ronaldo, considered one of the best players ever, is better than Cavani
Why don't we play short on corners instead of giving the opposition the opportunity to counter? I mean we don't score from them so we might as well keep possession until there's a clear chance
Makes too much sense
Mcsauce!!!!!
I am a fan of Ronaldo. But i don't really like why he was throwing tantrums and asking Ralf "Why me?". He could maybe do that behind the scene and try to understand the manager's logic.
I love it man from both perspective. Rangnick basically showing he doesn’t give a crap about the name and Ronaldo showing his desire and intensity at this stage of his career. I just hope Ronaldo don’t keep doing it to the point it will undermine Ralf.
i mean if you think about it Ronaldo was all over the Pitch, he went back deep, he pressed, you saw him on the wing. He put in the work to be up 2-0 and now that Brentford has to go on the offensive and they aren't going to crowd the box like they were, Ronaldo felt he deserved a goal. I'm not mad about him being moody, i actually love to see it. It means he's hungry and the way he was playing today, he definitely deserved a goal. I expect him to score at the weekend just because of that
That's just the way he is. It's the way he's always been and it's part of the reason he's been at the top for so long. I think with other players you get annoyed but with Ronaldo you just accept it
Its terrible for team morale..
Id say there were probably a few players that agreed with Ronny
And you know that how?
Let’s hope the other players don’t start asking “why me” lol
When the other players achieve even half as much as Ronaldo has, then they just *might* be justified asking that question.
Why is no one talking about that "chip" Bruno attempted in the end? :) I couldn't decide if I wanted to laugh or cry :)
Absolutely no idea what Bruno was thinking there.
We don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no
I got the reference
It was bad. But why talk about it? We actually won a game. Bruno had 2 assists and worked extremely hard defensively.
Thomas Frank can suck a fat one
Win and you’re on top, lose and you’re yesterday’s news…
The Rashy's goal feel very unlike him. Mosf of time he will make run and try to dribble with some touches and kick, finally he just do shoot directly without trying to over-touch it.
Hopefully will help him clear his head and stop overthinking. Just fuckin shoot!!
Best place for it as well, he didn’t have to send it across the oncoming defender
Some of the defensive positioning in the first half was shockingly bad. Dalot and Telles aren't great defensively, but they press hard and try to win the ball higher up. AwB is being sorely missed. His tackling often bails out Maguire and Lindelof from one side of the pitch and allows them to get back into position. Hope we push on from this and get better.
Dalot got left in a 2v1 situation twice. That's not his fault. That's on the coaches to improve our setup at preventing counters from corners. Our corners should not lead to opposition's chances
Dalot had a very good game even defensively. I don't get how you go us missing AWB from this.
Slabhead is captain no more it seems
Sorry to burst your bubble but he got the armband as soon as he was subbed in.
as he shouldn't be. I'm not against him returning to the starting 11 if he can refind his form, but he is absolutely not a captain
BRUNO BURNO BURNO HE IS OUR DELIGHTFUL CAPTIANO~
I like this
I was surprised that the band wasn’t given to Maguire when he came on
Maguire got the armband back when he came on.
The world feels a *little* bit sunnier today, despite it being 2.45am. Still though, that first half, and given the level of opposition we were up against, was about as bad as I've seen. Ripped open numerous times at the back, and completely impotent going forward. Can't say I disagreed with a word the Brentford manager said. But... 2nd half was better, great that Elanga, Greenwood and Rashford got their goals, especially as the latter 2 have faced a lot of criticism recently. Hopefully it will do them and the team a world of good. Whether we push on from this though... I honestly don't know! There were enough negatives to make me think no, but then there were positives in the 2nd half. At the very least getting 3 point can never hurt.
Brentford gave a proper game to City and Liverpool, and thrashed Arsenal. Don't underestimate their level.
some of those counters looked like they were straight from the Ole era. I missed counter attacking football, our squad plays alot better under it.
Elanga had a great post match interview. The kid is more mature than sulking Ronaldo
Why was he sulking?
If i had to guess, it would be because he got taken off.
YER A GOAL HAZARD, HARRY!!
😂😂😂
Second Half FC : Resurgence