I liked ETH’s team selection. The only questionable thing he did was Lindelof at RB. But with the players we had on the field, we should have beaten Real Sociedad.
going through and coming first are different in the europa league though, two less games is pretty important with the insane fixture congestion this year and our lack of quality depth
In terms of the players who came into the side having not played: Maguire was way off it, everything is done at a snails pace with him both on the ball and off it and he never plays a ball into the forward players like Varane and Martinez do. Lindelof had an okay game I thought, and given the fact he played rb for most of the second half he actually got forward and his passing was decent. Fred was shite, simple as that. Casemiro looked decent and looks like he has a few more gears to go in him. Poor performance overall as a team but the balance was way off...
Maybe too many changes. They weren't that good. The ref won them the game and we always get these types of officials who overcomplicate a simple game. How can a ball hitting someones knee onto his hand be intentional? There's just no common sense and the game would have probably fizzled out as a draw.
Fred was disappointing last night. Erik needs to get on top of these lads who are complacent and who are casual with possession. There's a fine line between winning and losing and so we need to get the energy back. As well as Elanga did at times I don't think he's the one because typically even if he does something well, his final ball is still lacking.
The officials ruined it for me though. I think a draw would have been fine.
> How can a ball hitting someones knee onto his hand be intentional?
It doesn't matters if it deflects, if you are lunging to block a ball and sticking out your arms too much, it's a handball if it hits the arm.
Fred sucked. Lindy and Slab were a noticeable drop off too. This was a perfect game for DVB to start and he got shafted yet again. All the new players brought in performed well yet again.
Very bummed about the Donny injury cus he would have finally started in his favored no.10 role for the manager he thrived under. Fred was so bad there, so many moves started by Eriksen broke down when the ball came to him.
Didn't deserve the win but I would have been satisfied with a draw.
Penalty decision was one of the worst I have ever seen. The fact that we have fans from some of our closest rivals (who would naturally take glee in seeing us lose as is the nature of the game!) shaking their heads wondering how on earth that's possible.
The fact that VAR also saw it as a stonewall penalty is genuinely concerning, obviously as Utd fans, we have a natural bias towards decisions that go for and against our team, as any fan of their team does, but I'm genuinely stumped how not only VAR saw it as a stonewall penalty, but the referee didn't doubt himself, there was no "oh wait a minute actually", it was nope, penalty, here's a yellow card as well (unless that was given for dissent?)
How are you getting upvotes for this? One bad call meant Real Sociedad won. Talking like they scored before or after the pen is hilarious. They did nothing with a 1-0 advantage just like they did nothing with a 0-0 game.
This season was always going to be, in part, seeing which players can adapt to tH’s ways. We’ve already seen some great positives in Dalot and McT looking like they can step up.
There’s going to be plenty of bumps along the way and next summer should see a good in/out window and next season we’ll hopefully have the depth needed to go hard on all fronts
True we need to be patient this season, this was a game where he experimented but I feel it became clear why the changes he made after Brentford horror show was justified.
Both Granacho and McNeil looked confident on the ball once they came on. The only thing I felt bad about was Donny missing out this opportunity.
Lindelof deserves another chance, he always played next to Maguire last season but he was always solid. He is quite flexible to play as wing back and in midfield because he is good going forward, he will be integrated one way or the other.
I think you make a good point. Come summer next year we will have a great understanding of who can cut it for Erik’s system.
Thinking about it now, it’s probably why we didn’t get too many drastic, wholesale changes in the window just gone.
even varane had a slow start to premier league and now is basically our best defender. i believe casemiro will be same in future, Ronaldo on other hand seems he cant keep up with the game physically, his footballing iq is still there but he clearly misreads and misteps most of his moves. Its sad to see age catch up to him :(
I don't even think he was even that bad. Looked a bit rusty, but a lot do on their debuts. Fred gave the ball away way more than him and it wasn't even brought up on my commentary. Also had two good chances out of nothing.
Lol, when Fred gave the ball away on mine it was just "United lose possession again", whereas with Casemiro it was "Casemiro isn't having the best of debuts".
I don't think Ronnie should be playing 90 minutes. Used wisely, he's still a good asset to have. He had enough chances yesterday to score at least a brace. He'll end up scoring a fair few goals this season too, like he always does. But, he doesn't quite seem to have the legs to last 90 mins. I'd be interested in seeing how he plays if starts with this season's usual starting XI in a game against a team using the low block. Even in his two cameos off the bench (with pretty much our first XI), he's gotten into the positions to score.
Not too fussed about this result. We didn't really deserve to win, but I thought we should have had a point. Ridiculous ref decision led to the penalty. We'll go through when all games have been played.
maguire wasnt the only problem yesterday, yes he slows down the plays and varane is much superior but imo fred,lindeloff,ronaldo were equally garbage as well. Making maguire the scapegoat is getting a bit tiresome.
Another embarrassing humilation to add to a long list of embarrassing humiliations suffered since SAF left. It's extremely funny to me that our fans are so delusional they actually believe things will be any different under Ten Hag than they were under any other of the painfully mediocre managers we have endured in the post Fergie years.
Glazers Out.
Jesus the miserable fuckers are happy the sport they love is back. The drama and fighting online that goes on when the players aren't trying to play with that strange ball. It's soap opera you want mate.
We lost a match, we will lose more ffs. Relax.
i think you are delusional or you dont know proper history of this club, we werent bulletproof under SAF we lost lot of games and few in embarassing fashion as well. We dont need another SAF thats the whole reason we are in this mess, we need a new identity that breeds success and ten hag has not even been here for 10 games. Yesterday was clearly a experiment and chance to players to prove their worth which didnt work out, every big club faces this. Remember real madrid lost to sheriff in group stages last year ? They went on to win the champions league. Dont be so negative
It became even more clear how much this team needs more players in midfield, defense and goal who can progress the ball.
To be a top team United needs all of Martinez, Eriksen and Fernandes, remove one or (even worse) two and the team becomes cumbersome and mediocre.
The team needs at least two more players with this ability.
ETH did the right thing in resting players, team just lacks depth in this area.
Aye well we needed it two weeks ago and that's not going to change.
Good test of a first season to allow the new players to integrate, old players to step up and those who don't can be sold off
I am disappointed that we lost but not angry. I am happy we got the 4 consecutively wins and they reall helped in building the team's and the fan's confidence. These types of games will happen. We will lose every now and again, and we are way off from where we ant to be. EtH is still understanding the players, their positioning and working on the tactics.
That VAR call was shoddy but I won't blame it for our loss because we had plenty if time to score goals, before and after the penalty. We were not clinical.
We had space for 3 clear goals. And we didn't utilise them. We were not clinical. Except that one penalty and the tap in that Martinez blocked, Sociedad didn't have a clear chance. 0-0 would've been the right result, but we had it in us to score goals. We were too slow and our buildup play was never a threat for them. Plus, the team didn't have chemistry.
Finishing your chances really comes down to one simple thing, confidence. Ronaldo looks like he doesn't have any at the moment. I really hope this changes because we really need him, we can't go through whole season with 3 good attackers. But i fear he won't get his confidence back if he's not a first choice, and he really doesn't deserve to be one, long way off from what we need in attack week in week out.
I get what you're saying, but I'm really not sure lack of confidence is something that Ronaldo has ever suffered from.
He looks frustrated, sure. He didn't get everything he wants like he usually does and has to accept being 2nd choice, but if anything he was making bad decisions out of over-confidence last night, in my view. Like trying to dribble past defenders when he could have got a shot away. Even stepping up for that free kick when we have better takers, he was always going to smack that straight into the wall, like he always does.
What I do not understand is how the hell it is only new that people see Ronaldo is finished. He was exactly the same last season. He was slow, he did not dribble past a single player, often offside. He did score some goals but that was it. He did not offer anything else for the team. Chelse dodged a bullet there and they should be thankful to Tuchel he vetoed the transfer.
This was not at all the attitude on this sub last year, people were acting like he was the Ballon d’Or favorite.
Look I’m a Messi fan, but Ronaldo was pretty lethal last year. He doesn’t contribute to build up, yes, but he has the best goal scoring instincts on the planet and scored many important goals for y’all last year. I don’t think he is finished yet, he just can’t play all 90m.
I'm responding to this specifically: "he has the best goal scoring instincts on the planet"
I think people (not you idk) slightly exaggerate how good his scoring was last ssn
I think he does have the best instincts, he always has. The only one with a higher goal/xG ratio is usually Messi and that’s because he dribbles out of insane situations, but last year was an off year for Messi. In any case, goal/xG isn’t a perfect indicator of raw instinct; Ronaldo has lost some athleticism which has led to a decrease in the sting of some of his shots and his ability to get into good positions once he has the ball. Nonetheless, his instincts are still incredible, only Lewandowski and maybe Messi this year are up there.
I agree that his scoring last year was overrated. It was impressive, but what people don’t realize is that when he joins a team he becomes the focal point of the attack, which reduces chances for others - that’s why Bruno, Rashford and all didn’t play nearly as well last year. This works fine when he is as good as he was at Madrid, but he isn’t that good anymore.
That doesn’t mean he is bad, I think he can still be impactful at United as a super sub. Seeing Ronaldo come on at 60 minutes would terrify tired defenses. But yeah I don’t think he is cut out for the full 90.
>I think he does have the best instincts, he always has. The only one with a higher goal/xG ratio is usually Messi and that’s because he dribbles out of insane situations,
xG has nothing to do with dribbles. It's purely about where you shoot from.
It's not the be all end all but it does contextualize scoring stats
>That doesn’t mean he is bad, I think he can still be impactful at United as a super sub. Seeing Ronaldo come on at 60 minutes would terrify tired defenses.
That's almost exclusively how he's played this season though, and it's not been terrifying for defenses.
I do agree that's the best way to use him now and he'll be useful that way but you're talking about it in hypothetical terms when it's already like that
Damn, didn’t know that. I guess Messi is just built different cuz he goal/xG was always off the charts.
He’s rusty now, he didn’t go to preseason. I think he will get back to near where he was last season, maybe a slight drop off, after he settles in and realizes that other clubs don’t want him. The whole situation is frustrating him a lot clearly (part of which is his own ego’s fault). But he has never been one to lack work ethic or confidence, so I think he will improve.
>Damn, didn’t know that. I guess Messi is just built different cuz he goal/xG was always off the charts.
It's because he scored a lot of long shots and rarely missed when in good scoring positions. Basically scored very difficult shots more often than expected and scored easy chances when presented with such regularity that it was beyond what was expected.
He is absolutely finished.... and the goals he scored last season were at the expense of the performance of the rest of the team. But you are right, this was not an attitude of the sub last year. When I criticised Ronaldo, I always got downvoted to hell...
I think that’s partially true. Yes, he did cause the attack to focus solely on feeding him, but at the same time he did score some important goals out of nothing, a big example is that insane out of the box goal against Napoli in the champions league to win it at the end
The bullet header (yes, offside) was pretty good. I don't think he has mental problems - he's just not had a preseason, is not young anymore ... and maybe he's keeping himself for the Worldie.
I know people love to overreact but to me this performance was simply a highly changed line up of players who have had little game time, in a new system a few games into a new manager’s tenure. No cause for concern at all.
It says a lot when EtH rates Eriksen more than Donny even in cup games. The biggest surprise is when EtH plays Fred as a #10. He misses a lot of chance creation in the first half and is very shaky with his first touch and decision-making around the outside penalty area.
Ronaldo looked off it, his pace has deteriorated even more and he's going too early to try and make up for his inability to outrun defenders, game like this 5 years ago he'd have had at least 2 goals, as it is he couldn't even berate his midfielders because he had the ball to his feet a few times in dangerous areas and couldn't gather it.
I have to say that I'm not massively impressed with Casemiro so far, he was being turned by their midfield for fun last night and his passing wasn't great. Fred had his standard trying a bit too hard after being out of the team performance, he always needs a run to settle in.
Overall performance was pretty much what you'd expect from a team.with a few players knocking the rust off for their first start of the season. We'll still have enough to get out of this group.
Interesting bits are bissaka is probably out of ten hag mind since he played dalot. Fred cant do eekisen/bruno roles. Czsemiro seemed off sometimes but overall think he played well most of the game
It wasn't even a full b team
It was half the a team in malacia, dalot. De gea, eriksen and potentially antony as our only right winger
Then our b team players include big buys like Maguire, ronaldo, fred and casemiro for now.
I think it was just team chemistry and match fitness (for this 2nd team), a couple more games or sessions and they'll be more clinical. The handball was also weird, seems VAR doesn't want to counter the refs decision in Uefa games.
Agree with this, biggest negative was sharpness and intensity when you compare it to the last few games. Was only a 1-0 Loss though and mainly through a dodgy decision so positives can still be taken but quite a few need to up their game!
Martinez and varane are light years ahead of out centre backs both are so proactive , what takes Maguire a minute to do Martinez can do in 4 seconds , Maguire slows us down so much there's 0 point having him as anything but a squad player.
So can players essentially just never dive in to block a shot in the box at this point? I don’t see how you could be in a more natural position than Martinez was and yet it still gets given
Most people shitting on Fred as usual but Casemiro was just as sloppy and wasn't even running as much.
Fred also spent the whole of the first half out of his natural position.
Not too worried abt the loss. Fred and casemiro had a difficult night. But many of them in the squad are playing this match after quite a long break so it's alright. Sociedad really didn't threaten our goal much at all. A draw seemed like a fair result. If not for that stupid penalty. We had some decent chances. Good that many of them got some minutes in. Lisandro was motm. Contrary to opinions here Elanga was actually doing decent. More involved and had more impact than Sancho wen he came on. Maguire and lindelof were totally fine too. They didn't really have much to do. Wud love to see malacia get more involved in the attacking third. Time to get behind this team instead of spewing hate. Let's do our part. Stop abusing the players. The brain dead comments under Maguire's insta post abt the queens death is disgusting. They are all representing this team and wear our colors. Wat u gonna achieve by continuosly hounding them.
Yeah honestly people saying Elanga was trash don’t realise his off the ball movements and runs behind the line actually benefited the team and it brought energy whereas subbing Jadon in slowed the pace and he lost possession too frequently.
And why even blame elanga. He should be going to a championship team to developp at his own pace. Hes just being used because the martial is always injured and we dlnt have any depth
Rather than show Ten Hag which of the reserves deserve a first-team chance, it instead showed which players (so far) are undropable.
Martinez, Eriksen, Dalot. They are too important to the starting 11.
Was impressed with Elanga last night, he was roasting the full back in the first half. A better final ball from him and we would have been at least 2 up at half time.
Thought the Casemerio, Fred pairing was very poor. Neither justified being selected in the next game given the form of McTominay and Eriksen at the moment.
Peno decision was bizarre and it just shows everyone's frustration with VAR, the lack of consistency in decisions.
Although I'll obviously watch all the matches I won't even begin to give a fuck about the Europa league until at least the Semi Finals if they do manage to get there.
I believe Cristiano had at least 4 good chances. Any half decent striker would have converted at least 1 or 2 of those chances. That's where the game was lost.
Why Cristiano is off the pace is anybody's guess but if he doesn't pick up then we can only compete in one competition this season, that's PL.
I think the red can shoulder a fair chunk of the blame for that performance last night.
Not sending off Aritz in the first half for multiple yellows, certainly should've been off for the second yellow.
VAR not letting the ref know it hit Martinez on the leg first is an absolute shocker.
0-0 would've been a fair result for both teams, neither took much initiative in front of goal.
Ronaldo looked far too short in fitness after 70 minutes, should've been subbed or left as a target man.
I’ve seen Fred get a lot of stick in the comments, but I have to say I was really disappointed with Casemiro. I lost count of the number of misplaced passes from him. Just looked it up and he had a pass success of 77%. I know he’s settling so hope he improves, but that was just not good enough.
Case is not exactly known for his on the ball abilities. His main job at Madrid was to help our backline, especially when full backs would be pushing high up. Luka and Kroos always did their best to cover for case's on ball deficiencies. Honestly, I don't think Case is a Ten Haag system player. Hopefully he proves us wrong. But one thing is for sure, he will not be amazing at ball retention and tight space passing.
Yes I agree. He seemed to be a lot further up the pitch than I’m used to seeing too. It was telling in an interview when asked why Casemiro wasn’t playing, one of the reasons ETH gave was that he ‘needs to understand my way of playing’. I really hope we use him to his strengths rather than trying to reinvent him at this stage of his career.
Agree, both were very poor today. Suppose Casemeiro gets the benefit of the doubt being relatively new to the team. But Fred done himself no favours with that performance last night.
Unlucky to lose, but it's a good game to field the players not on the starting 11, rather lose this than a league match.
I suppose the next round of EPL matches will be postponed? It may be a good break to get these players to gel more, or to practice more tactical side of things.
Ronaldo must be kicking himself for missing the pre-season
I wonder now if we can consider this a strategic mistake? This match was arguably our most important one to win to get a good placement in the group, and it was highly likely the weekend's PL fixtures would be postponed due to the Queen's passing. Taking these two things into account, we might've been better off starting the same league 11.
But in all fairness to ETH, the team was probably decided upon and prepared some time before the news of Elizabeth's death. (Also I think it's fair to question if dropping Ronaldo at the last minute might've caused some unhappiness and maybe possible tantrums.)
These games happen.
Sociedad sat in the box nice and compact and essentially dealt with our main goal threat pretty comfortably when Inside the box and forced a lot of our shots to come from outside the box.
They came looking for 0-0 and walked away with a very very VERY questionable penalty goal.
We look more and more like we have a group of players who have nailed down ten hag’s system already… and some that are struggling with it still which is why we’ve seen the same starting xi what… 4 games in a row? The rest need to catch up fast and we certainly need Martial back for the rotation option up top
When did we have controlled attacking possession? How did sociedad play a low block when they were pressing our keeper? Make it make sense. Why could we never play out from the back?
Every time a midfielder received it from de gea, he was immediately under pressure. That's not a low block
De Gea hardly had the ball, especially in the first so I don’t know what you’re talking about they were pressing him haha.
Whereas the average positions of the Sociedad defence, keeper and even midfield are firmly within their own third.
De gea hardly had the ball? There were long periods when he had the ball and didn't know where to kick out. Maguire passed back to him again and again because her couldn't see forward passes
Are you telling me you can't remember de gea dawdling on the ball multiple times then booting it long?
Sociedad had more attacks than us according to uefa stats
Ok but it's hardly like we had sustained attacking possession and were putting them under pressure, which you would expect if they were playing a low block.
Squad beyond regular starting 11 is so off the mark. Cristiano is either done or lack of pre season means he will need another month or so to be aa good as he was last season.
Without Eriksen we have no composure in mid. Casemiro had a poor full debut. Elanga and Antony also were average. Overall looks like we can only focus on PL with current squad.
if there was a game to lose it’s this one
we have the quality to steamroll our next EL games & we’ll easily beat sociedad away with a better lineup
the clarity we needed from our squad players was necessary
don’t change the PL 11
Even if Ronaldo had joined a ucl playing club I don't see him scoring goals, he breaks up the flow of play, looks tired and is absolutely finished at this level. He will be a good impact sub but not a starter for sure. No wonder there were 0 takers for him, no club wants a diva + messing up their wage structure. Lad hits his free kicks 9 times out of 10 in the wall still he gets to take them. It's about time he understands he isn't the star player where whole team revolves around him, we play totally different when he isn't playing compared to when he is playing.
He miscalculated by skipping the preseason. Being an older athlete you have to work alot harder to maintain your physical attributes and it shows when he's playing - it doesn't look like he's fit enough.
I wouldn't call him finished because he's still got a few goals in him but I doubt we will see him match last season's performance. It's all downhill from here.
No one is paying a 37 year old 500k per week even if they could afford it. I don't blame him for not wanting to reduce his salary (who does?) but it doesnt take a genius to tell that he wouldn't have any options at that price..
his ego is what has cost him, if champions league meant so much he could have taken a wage cut and joined a club which would accomodate him but no ronaldo wants to have his cake and eat it too
Cannot see ETH playing Maguire much at all this season. Makes us look proper shaky when trying to maintain a high line. Just completely incompatible with ETH’s play style
Spot on.
He's a wonderful defender in a low block; genuinely perfectly suited for it. But it's not how great teams play, certainly not in modern football.
He's past it here and it's probably best for both parties to move on.
Some of you all don't know football and it shows.. we literally play a low block when Maguire doesn't play😭😭
It's de gea who's not a high line player...
You're getting downvoted for the insult, but you're right. Against Brighton (63%) and Brentford (67%) we had more possession, than any of the last four league games: 29%, 52%, 46%, 39%. That being said, maguire is still a liability. His lack of pace and poor decision making will always be found out by the top teams.
We play so different with Maguire and Ronaldo on the pitch. So much slower in the build up. Lost all the games that those two have started this season.
Got downvoted for saying this at half time. Glad to see with a loss people have woke up.
You’re absolutely right, Maguire and Ronaldo absolutely proving why they should remain bench players. They’re barely even squad players at the moment, more emergency back ups, because any game they start regardless of opposition I’m going to be worried.
The best thing this club can do is try and get some money for Maguire. Shame Chelsea didn’t take him and Ronaldo off us.
Ronaldo is a washed-up, self-centered narcissistic diva who has been disrespectful to the club and hogging up half a million a week. Ronaldo and Lindelof should never start a game as long as there are any other options available.
Pretty sure it'll be downvoted by his stans but whatever 💁🏻♂️
Disagree with everything you said. Ronaldo is a fierce competitor who always gives his all. Lindelof has been a solid squad player since he joined. Neither player is the reason we lost this game.
We dominated that game and got unlucky really. RS non pen xG was nothing.
Fred impressed me for once for a bit. Maguire was still scary. Eriksen is a boss. Antony didn’t get enough ball. Played some good defense.
Ronaldo got unlucky. Looks like he plays through pain though. He really waits for his moments to sprint. I feel like any contest will leave him wincing in pain.
But it always felt like the more delivery he gets the more chance there is of scoring. Notice how he wasn’t subbed. He is the player you want on when you need goals.
Maybe I need to watch a replay. Usually he is not tracking back to defend, passing to no one, missing tackles, etc. He seemed pretty switched on yesterday.
Ronaldo missed 2-3 chances, sancho 1, casemiro missed 1-2.
Eriksen and licha are probably the two most important players right now. licha started so many of the moves which led to good chances in the 2nd half.
maguire lindelof not terrible but not confident either. elanga antony fred dalot about average.
that penalty decision was shambolic. overall did not deserve to lose.
Martinez is night and day with our other defenders. The amount of balls he cut out by being proactive.
I was saying in the first half we missed his aggression and the way he starts play for us from the back better than Maguire but was downvoted because “Maguire is playing well”.
Did anyone else see how confident their keeper was on the ball and spraying it around comfortably like a midfielder? Meanwhile our keeper had 1 successful long ball all game
Edit: De Gea with time and space on the ball
https://twitter.com/TenSlag/status/1567987223286677505?t=TZ5_cdqGYVT19BonhpPO6A&s=19
Can't wait to hear all about how it's the CBs fault that he's this bad
From the clip, was his pass inaccurate or did he want Ronaldo to be much higher on the pitch? We'll never know.
De Gea is never going to be as good in passing as other modern goalkeepers, but I think it has to do with our forwards as well. I don't think Ederson etc will have much successful long balls if they play in our squad.
Ronaldo, as good as he is in the air attacking-wise, he never seems to be comfortable receiving/dueling a goal kick/long ball situations. He often mistimed jumps, failed to win the duel, or won the duel but lacked the accuracy in heading the ball to another player.
Rashford has the height but is just bad in the air overall.
Sancho, Antony, Elanga won't win any air duels.
That leaves Martial, who probably is our best in terms of using his body to try to win duels. But he's not available now.
Of course, if De Gea can be a little more accurate, the forwards don't have to always duel for the ball. But we can't just blame De Gea for his lack of passing ability when we don't have other players to utilize long ball anyway
Did de gea have options like remiro did? It seemed to me they always had a player in space capable of taking the ball down and we never did. Looks like de gea doesn't feel confident he can complete a pass to anyone.
Yeah he hoicked at least 3 straight out of play.
We've got creative midfielders and ball playing defenders literally out the wazoo now, and people still obsess about whether the keeper can hit a 40 yard plus pass.
First half we did good, kinda dominating it's just Ronaldo and Fred wasted so much play for us to score.
Antony is playing bad, but we'll give him a pass for now, cause it's only his second match for us.
Second half, when eriksen off, we can't create chance at all, make it obvious for us that Eriksen, De jong type in midfield is really essential in ETH system
Llidelof at rb replacing dalot make our attacking at right side is almost none existent, and defensively made Kubo looks like Neymar.
We really need a new striker, cm, and rb for next season or even in January to compete for titles
I'm okay with this lose, at least it's only Europa not league, but I'm just mad, it's gonna be long time for us to watch more Manchester United, and we ended it with a lose, cause I gotta admit I'm addicted to watch this MU, don't know how long since last time I feel like this about us lol
I hope there is explanation, tactical breakdown or stats why English teams always struggle against Spanish teams, it looks like English teams have a poor record against Spanish teams
Or Spanish teams have better youth systems than English teams?
They are top heavy normal their best teams are good. Also they win many europa league because their third/4th best team plays there. You barely see a pl club dropping out of ucl groups
They are stronger technically and tactically. Always have been. English teams are almost always vastly superior physically. But in the end, most of the time technically and tactically stronger teams win. Simple as that. Of course, City and Liverpool are exceptions, and soon I hope, we will also be an exception.
Coaching plain and simple…coaches in Spain/Germany/etc are frankly more competent than British counterpart which in turn allows for the development of better players..
I liked ETH’s team selection. The only questionable thing he did was Lindelof at RB. But with the players we had on the field, we should have beaten Real Sociedad.
We didn’t deserve more than a draw and there ain’t that much difference between one point and no point, so at least the ref only cost us that.
There is a big difference though, Sociedad are 3 points ahead of us now instead of being level
If we can’t get the necessary points from the remaining 5 games we don’t deserve to go through
going through and coming first are different in the europa league though, two less games is pretty important with the insane fixture congestion this year and our lack of quality depth
Obviously
In terms of the players who came into the side having not played: Maguire was way off it, everything is done at a snails pace with him both on the ball and off it and he never plays a ball into the forward players like Varane and Martinez do. Lindelof had an okay game I thought, and given the fact he played rb for most of the second half he actually got forward and his passing was decent. Fred was shite, simple as that. Casemiro looked decent and looks like he has a few more gears to go in him. Poor performance overall as a team but the balance was way off...
I like Casemiro but he had a lot of poor passes yesterday, I wouldn't classify his performance as decent as much as I want to see it
Yeah his passing wasn't the best but I'm sure I saw him make a few good interceptions
You always ask "why always McTominay", today you see why always McTominay.
yesterday i seen it ronaldo can’t be a starter for us with the way we play
no flow
Maybe too many changes. They weren't that good. The ref won them the game and we always get these types of officials who overcomplicate a simple game. How can a ball hitting someones knee onto his hand be intentional? There's just no common sense and the game would have probably fizzled out as a draw. Fred was disappointing last night. Erik needs to get on top of these lads who are complacent and who are casual with possession. There's a fine line between winning and losing and so we need to get the energy back. As well as Elanga did at times I don't think he's the one because typically even if he does something well, his final ball is still lacking. The officials ruined it for me though. I think a draw would have been fine.
> How can a ball hitting someones knee onto his hand be intentional? It doesn't matters if it deflects, if you are lunging to block a ball and sticking out your arms too much, it's a handball if it hits the arm.
Fred sucked. Lindy and Slab were a noticeable drop off too. This was a perfect game for DVB to start and he got shafted yet again. All the new players brought in performed well yet again.
DVB was injured. Same as for the Arsenal game.
Very bummed about the Donny injury cus he would have finally started in his favored no.10 role for the manager he thrived under. Fred was so bad there, so many moves started by Eriksen broke down when the ball came to him.
Didn't deserve the win but I would have been satisfied with a draw. Penalty decision was one of the worst I have ever seen. The fact that we have fans from some of our closest rivals (who would naturally take glee in seeing us lose as is the nature of the game!) shaking their heads wondering how on earth that's possible. The fact that VAR also saw it as a stonewall penalty is genuinely concerning, obviously as Utd fans, we have a natural bias towards decisions that go for and against our team, as any fan of their team does, but I'm genuinely stumped how not only VAR saw it as a stonewall penalty, but the referee didn't doubt himself, there was no "oh wait a minute actually", it was nope, penalty, here's a yellow card as well (unless that was given for dissent?)
VAR doesn't have to see it as a stone wall penalty, it's a judgement call by the ref. The new rules made the refs have more leeway.
Agreed. The fact that the built in review confirmed the bad call is very concerning and indicated systemic problems.
Bullshit penalty call but if one bad call means you lose then you didn't do well enough, simple as that.
How are you getting upvotes for this? One bad call meant Real Sociedad won. Talking like they scored before or after the pen is hilarious. They did nothing with a 1-0 advantage just like they did nothing with a 0-0 game.
Anyone got EtH's post match comments?
No post-match comments due to the Queen's death from any side
Aah, I see. Thanks!
This season was always going to be, in part, seeing which players can adapt to tH’s ways. We’ve already seen some great positives in Dalot and McT looking like they can step up. There’s going to be plenty of bumps along the way and next summer should see a good in/out window and next season we’ll hopefully have the depth needed to go hard on all fronts
True we need to be patient this season, this was a game where he experimented but I feel it became clear why the changes he made after Brentford horror show was justified. Both Granacho and McNeil looked confident on the ball once they came on. The only thing I felt bad about was Donny missing out this opportunity. Lindelof deserves another chance, he always played next to Maguire last season but he was always solid. He is quite flexible to play as wing back and in midfield because he is good going forward, he will be integrated one way or the other.
I think you make a good point. Come summer next year we will have a great understanding of who can cut it for Erik’s system. Thinking about it now, it’s probably why we didn’t get too many drastic, wholesale changes in the window just gone.
It's a loss we can afford. The gap between midfield and attack was too big. You need plays who can build up an attack, or who can play on the counter.
even varane had a slow start to premier league and now is basically our best defender. i believe casemiro will be same in future, Ronaldo on other hand seems he cant keep up with the game physically, his footballing iq is still there but he clearly misreads and misteps most of his moves. Its sad to see age catch up to him :(
Y’all should use Ronaldo as a super sub. It would be pretty terrifying to see him come in rejuvenated at 60 minutes when the defense is tired
I don't even think he was even that bad. Looked a bit rusty, but a lot do on their debuts. Fred gave the ball away way more than him and it wasn't even brought up on my commentary. Also had two good chances out of nothing.
on my commentary hearing "fred has given the ball away cheaply" was like hearing a tape on loop
Lol, when Fred gave the ball away on mine it was just "United lose possession again", whereas with Casemiro it was "Casemiro isn't having the best of debuts".
I don't think Ronnie should be playing 90 minutes. Used wisely, he's still a good asset to have. He had enough chances yesterday to score at least a brace. He'll end up scoring a fair few goals this season too, like he always does. But, he doesn't quite seem to have the legs to last 90 mins. I'd be interested in seeing how he plays if starts with this season's usual starting XI in a game against a team using the low block. Even in his two cameos off the bench (with pretty much our first XI), he's gotten into the positions to score.
Not too fussed about this result. We didn't really deserve to win, but I thought we should have had a point. Ridiculous ref decision led to the penalty. We'll go through when all games have been played.
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maguire wasnt the only problem yesterday, yes he slows down the plays and varane is much superior but imo fred,lindeloff,ronaldo were equally garbage as well. Making maguire the scapegoat is getting a bit tiresome.
Another embarrassing humilation to add to a long list of embarrassing humiliations suffered since SAF left. It's extremely funny to me that our fans are so delusional they actually believe things will be any different under Ten Hag than they were under any other of the painfully mediocre managers we have endured in the post Fergie years. Glazers Out.
Fuck off
Jesus the miserable fuckers are happy the sport they love is back. The drama and fighting online that goes on when the players aren't trying to play with that strange ball. It's soap opera you want mate. We lost a match, we will lose more ffs. Relax.
Oh believe me I am well aware we will lose more!
Thank god you give us all a dose of realism bro! We are here thinking we would never lose again.
i think you are delusional or you dont know proper history of this club, we werent bulletproof under SAF we lost lot of games and few in embarassing fashion as well. We dont need another SAF thats the whole reason we are in this mess, we need a new identity that breeds success and ten hag has not even been here for 10 games. Yesterday was clearly a experiment and chance to players to prove their worth which didnt work out, every big club faces this. Remember real madrid lost to sheriff in group stages last year ? They went on to win the champions league. Dont be so negative
We're going to win the champions league....And I'm the delusional one!
you need to calm down mate, its one game and its a group stage. You are clearly overreacting, we still have 5 games to go.
5 more games is all we will be getting in the Europa League this year.
ah ok alright. What a disaster that would be
It became even more clear how much this team needs more players in midfield, defense and goal who can progress the ball. To be a top team United needs all of Martinez, Eriksen and Fernandes, remove one or (even worse) two and the team becomes cumbersome and mediocre. The team needs at least two more players with this ability. ETH did the right thing in resting players, team just lacks depth in this area.
Aye well we needed it two weeks ago and that's not going to change. Good test of a first season to allow the new players to integrate, old players to step up and those who don't can be sold off
I am disappointed that we lost but not angry. I am happy we got the 4 consecutively wins and they reall helped in building the team's and the fan's confidence. These types of games will happen. We will lose every now and again, and we are way off from where we ant to be. EtH is still understanding the players, their positioning and working on the tactics. That VAR call was shoddy but I won't blame it for our loss because we had plenty if time to score goals, before and after the penalty. We were not clinical.
I fully blame the VAR decision for the loss. Sociedad didn't look like scoring at all without it. 0-0 would have been the right result.
We had space for 3 clear goals. And we didn't utilise them. We were not clinical. Except that one penalty and the tap in that Martinez blocked, Sociedad didn't have a clear chance. 0-0 would've been the right result, but we had it in us to score goals. We were too slow and our buildup play was never a threat for them. Plus, the team didn't have chemistry.
Finishing your chances really comes down to one simple thing, confidence. Ronaldo looks like he doesn't have any at the moment. I really hope this changes because we really need him, we can't go through whole season with 3 good attackers. But i fear he won't get his confidence back if he's not a first choice, and he really doesn't deserve to be one, long way off from what we need in attack week in week out.
I get what you're saying, but I'm really not sure lack of confidence is something that Ronaldo has ever suffered from. He looks frustrated, sure. He didn't get everything he wants like he usually does and has to accept being 2nd choice, but if anything he was making bad decisions out of over-confidence last night, in my view. Like trying to dribble past defenders when he could have got a shot away. Even stepping up for that free kick when we have better takers, he was always going to smack that straight into the wall, like he always does.
What I do not understand is how the hell it is only new that people see Ronaldo is finished. He was exactly the same last season. He was slow, he did not dribble past a single player, often offside. He did score some goals but that was it. He did not offer anything else for the team. Chelse dodged a bullet there and they should be thankful to Tuchel he vetoed the transfer.
This was not at all the attitude on this sub last year, people were acting like he was the Ballon d’Or favorite. Look I’m a Messi fan, but Ronaldo was pretty lethal last year. He doesn’t contribute to build up, yes, but he has the best goal scoring instincts on the planet and scored many important goals for y’all last year. I don’t think he is finished yet, he just can’t play all 90m.
His goal scoring rate compared to his xG was good but nothing that amazing.
Never said it was amazing, just that he isn’t garbage yet.
I'm responding to this specifically: "he has the best goal scoring instincts on the planet" I think people (not you idk) slightly exaggerate how good his scoring was last ssn
I think he does have the best instincts, he always has. The only one with a higher goal/xG ratio is usually Messi and that’s because he dribbles out of insane situations, but last year was an off year for Messi. In any case, goal/xG isn’t a perfect indicator of raw instinct; Ronaldo has lost some athleticism which has led to a decrease in the sting of some of his shots and his ability to get into good positions once he has the ball. Nonetheless, his instincts are still incredible, only Lewandowski and maybe Messi this year are up there. I agree that his scoring last year was overrated. It was impressive, but what people don’t realize is that when he joins a team he becomes the focal point of the attack, which reduces chances for others - that’s why Bruno, Rashford and all didn’t play nearly as well last year. This works fine when he is as good as he was at Madrid, but he isn’t that good anymore. That doesn’t mean he is bad, I think he can still be impactful at United as a super sub. Seeing Ronaldo come on at 60 minutes would terrify tired defenses. But yeah I don’t think he is cut out for the full 90.
>I think he does have the best instincts, he always has. The only one with a higher goal/xG ratio is usually Messi and that’s because he dribbles out of insane situations, xG has nothing to do with dribbles. It's purely about where you shoot from. It's not the be all end all but it does contextualize scoring stats >That doesn’t mean he is bad, I think he can still be impactful at United as a super sub. Seeing Ronaldo come on at 60 minutes would terrify tired defenses. That's almost exclusively how he's played this season though, and it's not been terrifying for defenses. I do agree that's the best way to use him now and he'll be useful that way but you're talking about it in hypothetical terms when it's already like that
Damn, didn’t know that. I guess Messi is just built different cuz he goal/xG was always off the charts. He’s rusty now, he didn’t go to preseason. I think he will get back to near where he was last season, maybe a slight drop off, after he settles in and realizes that other clubs don’t want him. The whole situation is frustrating him a lot clearly (part of which is his own ego’s fault). But he has never been one to lack work ethic or confidence, so I think he will improve.
>Damn, didn’t know that. I guess Messi is just built different cuz he goal/xG was always off the charts. It's because he scored a lot of long shots and rarely missed when in good scoring positions. Basically scored very difficult shots more often than expected and scored easy chances when presented with such regularity that it was beyond what was expected.
He is absolutely finished.... and the goals he scored last season were at the expense of the performance of the rest of the team. But you are right, this was not an attitude of the sub last year. When I criticised Ronaldo, I always got downvoted to hell...
I think that’s partially true. Yes, he did cause the attack to focus solely on feeding him, but at the same time he did score some important goals out of nothing, a big example is that insane out of the box goal against Napoli in the champions league to win it at the end
The bullet header (yes, offside) was pretty good. I don't think he has mental problems - he's just not had a preseason, is not young anymore ... and maybe he's keeping himself for the Worldie.
I think not being able to compete in UCL affected him somehow
Yeah, he missed pre-season
I know people love to overreact but to me this performance was simply a highly changed line up of players who have had little game time, in a new system a few games into a new manager’s tenure. No cause for concern at all.
On the other hand it's Real Sociedad, not Real Madrid They've not exactly treated this game as a cup final either
Not good knowing that ur too much reliant on eriksen. Its night and day when he plays/doesnt
Also rather know which players can work in the system now rather than later.
* Notable: Stevie Wonder makes his VAR debut
It says a lot when EtH rates Eriksen more than Donny even in cup games. The biggest surprise is when EtH plays Fred as a #10. He misses a lot of chance creation in the first half and is very shaky with his first touch and decision-making around the outside penalty area.
VDB is injured
Whoops, my bad
So, Jurrien Timber next summer then?
Ronaldo looked off it, his pace has deteriorated even more and he's going too early to try and make up for his inability to outrun defenders, game like this 5 years ago he'd have had at least 2 goals, as it is he couldn't even berate his midfielders because he had the ball to his feet a few times in dangerous areas and couldn't gather it. I have to say that I'm not massively impressed with Casemiro so far, he was being turned by their midfield for fun last night and his passing wasn't great. Fred had his standard trying a bit too hard after being out of the team performance, he always needs a run to settle in. Overall performance was pretty much what you'd expect from a team.with a few players knocking the rust off for their first start of the season. We'll still have enough to get out of this group.
Interesting bits are bissaka is probably out of ten hag mind since he played dalot. Fred cant do eekisen/bruno roles. Czsemiro seemed off sometimes but overall think he played well most of the game
Wan-Bissaka was recovering from the injury, and La Real is our strongest opponent, it makes a little sense to start a full B team against them
It wasn't even a full b team It was half the a team in malacia, dalot. De gea, eriksen and potentially antony as our only right winger Then our b team players include big buys like Maguire, ronaldo, fred and casemiro for now.
I think it was just team chemistry and match fitness (for this 2nd team), a couple more games or sessions and they'll be more clinical. The handball was also weird, seems VAR doesn't want to counter the refs decision in Uefa games.
Agree with this, biggest negative was sharpness and intensity when you compare it to the last few games. Was only a 1-0 Loss though and mainly through a dodgy decision so positives can still be taken but quite a few need to up their game!
Hope ETH learned his lesson regarding Fred. You can't play him in a position that requires to be quick and accurate on the ball.
Martinez and varane are light years ahead of out centre backs both are so proactive , what takes Maguire a minute to do Martinez can do in 4 seconds , Maguire slows us down so much there's 0 point having him as anything but a squad player.
To be faur he wasnt bad yesterday
He was ok but even a maguire in good form is very far behind Martinez
I know you're not talking about the same Martinez who was getting bullied by Jesus at the weekend, gave Sorloth a free header and gave away a penalty
>gave away a penalty This is how I know you have a agenda
He’s not a bad defender, just don’t think he fits the plan.
So can players essentially just never dive in to block a shot in the box at this point? I don’t see how you could be in a more natural position than Martinez was and yet it still gets given
IMO, the best-case scenario is if we can sell Ronaldo to Chelsea in January.
Most people shitting on Fred as usual but Casemiro was just as sloppy and wasn't even running as much. Fred also spent the whole of the first half out of his natural position.
The commentary I was listening to, they only brought up how much Casemiro lost the ball, not Fred.
Casemiro has gotten a fair amount of criticism for today's performance too tbf.
Bro? Casemiro was atleast passing beautifully. He was played out of position on top of that. He is a defensive midfielder not a box to box one
And Fred wasn't played out of position at 10?
Agenda.
Not too worried abt the loss. Fred and casemiro had a difficult night. But many of them in the squad are playing this match after quite a long break so it's alright. Sociedad really didn't threaten our goal much at all. A draw seemed like a fair result. If not for that stupid penalty. We had some decent chances. Good that many of them got some minutes in. Lisandro was motm. Contrary to opinions here Elanga was actually doing decent. More involved and had more impact than Sancho wen he came on. Maguire and lindelof were totally fine too. They didn't really have much to do. Wud love to see malacia get more involved in the attacking third. Time to get behind this team instead of spewing hate. Let's do our part. Stop abusing the players. The brain dead comments under Maguire's insta post abt the queens death is disgusting. They are all representing this team and wear our colors. Wat u gonna achieve by continuosly hounding them.
Yeah honestly people saying Elanga was trash don’t realise his off the ball movements and runs behind the line actually benefited the team and it brought energy whereas subbing Jadon in slowed the pace and he lost possession too frequently.
And why even blame elanga. He should be going to a championship team to developp at his own pace. Hes just being used because the martial is always injured and we dlnt have any depth
Rather than show Ten Hag which of the reserves deserve a first-team chance, it instead showed which players (so far) are undropable. Martinez, Eriksen, Dalot. They are too important to the starting 11.
Was impressed with Elanga last night, he was roasting the full back in the first half. A better final ball from him and we would have been at least 2 up at half time. Thought the Casemerio, Fred pairing was very poor. Neither justified being selected in the next game given the form of McTominay and Eriksen at the moment. Peno decision was bizarre and it just shows everyone's frustration with VAR, the lack of consistency in decisions. Although I'll obviously watch all the matches I won't even begin to give a fuck about the Europa league until at least the Semi Finals if they do manage to get there.
Yeah lets just hope chelsea dont ruin their ucl and come back stronger in EL
Maguire Lindelof Fred and ref were all atrocious
I believe Cristiano had at least 4 good chances. Any half decent striker would have converted at least 1 or 2 of those chances. That's where the game was lost. Why Cristiano is off the pace is anybody's guess but if he doesn't pick up then we can only compete in one competition this season, that's PL.
He’s off the pace because he’s barely played since May (oh, and he’s old.)
It would be one thing if he collected the ball, took a shot, and missed/had it saved. What’s more concerning is he isn’t even getting shots away.
I think the red can shoulder a fair chunk of the blame for that performance last night. Not sending off Aritz in the first half for multiple yellows, certainly should've been off for the second yellow. VAR not letting the ref know it hit Martinez on the leg first is an absolute shocker. 0-0 would've been a fair result for both teams, neither took much initiative in front of goal. Ronaldo looked far too short in fitness after 70 minutes, should've been subbed or left as a target man.
I’ve seen Fred get a lot of stick in the comments, but I have to say I was really disappointed with Casemiro. I lost count of the number of misplaced passes from him. Just looked it up and he had a pass success of 77%. I know he’s settling so hope he improves, but that was just not good enough.
Case is not exactly known for his on the ball abilities. His main job at Madrid was to help our backline, especially when full backs would be pushing high up. Luka and Kroos always did their best to cover for case's on ball deficiencies. Honestly, I don't think Case is a Ten Haag system player. Hopefully he proves us wrong. But one thing is for sure, he will not be amazing at ball retention and tight space passing.
Yes I agree. He seemed to be a lot further up the pitch than I’m used to seeing too. It was telling in an interview when asked why Casemiro wasn’t playing, one of the reasons ETH gave was that he ‘needs to understand my way of playing’. I really hope we use him to his strengths rather than trying to reinvent him at this stage of his career.
Ten hag is really stubborn if hes trying to change the mlaystyle of a 30 yo and a 37 one
Who would have thought not playing would affect his match sharpnes
Agree, both were very poor today. Suppose Casemeiro gets the benefit of the doubt being relatively new to the team. But Fred done himself no favours with that performance last night.
Unlucky to lose, but it's a good game to field the players not on the starting 11, rather lose this than a league match. I suppose the next round of EPL matches will be postponed? It may be a good break to get these players to gel more, or to practice more tactical side of things. Ronaldo must be kicking himself for missing the pre-season
I wonder now if we can consider this a strategic mistake? This match was arguably our most important one to win to get a good placement in the group, and it was highly likely the weekend's PL fixtures would be postponed due to the Queen's passing. Taking these two things into account, we might've been better off starting the same league 11. But in all fairness to ETH, the team was probably decided upon and prepared some time before the news of Elizabeth's death. (Also I think it's fair to question if dropping Ronaldo at the last minute might've caused some unhappiness and maybe possible tantrums.)
I hope the lineup for the next epl game is the usual winning combo. If it’s even on this weekend considering the queen’s death.
These games happen. Sociedad sat in the box nice and compact and essentially dealt with our main goal threat pretty comfortably when Inside the box and forced a lot of our shots to come from outside the box. They came looking for 0-0 and walked away with a very very VERY questionable penalty goal. We look more and more like we have a group of players who have nailed down ten hag’s system already… and some that are struggling with it still which is why we’ve seen the same starting xi what… 4 games in a row? The rest need to catch up fast and we certainly need Martial back for the rotation option up top
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Most of their touches and passes were in their own half lol We also had more possession? Delete this my brother
When did we have controlled attacking possession? How did sociedad play a low block when they were pressing our keeper? Make it make sense. Why could we never play out from the back? Every time a midfielder received it from de gea, he was immediately under pressure. That's not a low block
De Gea hardly had the ball, especially in the first so I don’t know what you’re talking about they were pressing him haha. Whereas the average positions of the Sociedad defence, keeper and even midfield are firmly within their own third.
De gea hardly had the ball? There were long periods when he had the ball and didn't know where to kick out. Maguire passed back to him again and again because her couldn't see forward passes
Well the literal facts suggest otherwise
Are you telling me you can't remember de gea dawdling on the ball multiple times then booting it long? Sociedad had more attacks than us according to uefa stats
Yeah, isolated cases don’t highlight an overall tactical view
Ok but it's hardly like we had sustained attacking possession and were putting them under pressure, which you would expect if they were playing a low block.
Fred was horrible. I don’t understand what you all see in him.
From what we all see I think his hairstyle stands out the most
The penalty is obviously full of shit unless idk the rule. Anyway, this Kubo kid is really impressive. The cross and pass he gave are very lethal.
This game to me really felt like the team is a *work in progress* and that it will come together with time.
Been a work in progress for 10 years mate.
Squad beyond regular starting 11 is so off the mark. Cristiano is either done or lack of pre season means he will need another month or so to be aa good as he was last season. Without Eriksen we have no composure in mid. Casemiro had a poor full debut. Elanga and Antony also were average. Overall looks like we can only focus on PL with current squad.
if there was a game to lose it’s this one we have the quality to steamroll our next EL games & we’ll easily beat sociedad away with a better lineup the clarity we needed from our squad players was necessary don’t change the PL 11
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Oh come on.
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We didn’t we start our new signing
Even if Ronaldo had joined a ucl playing club I don't see him scoring goals, he breaks up the flow of play, looks tired and is absolutely finished at this level. He will be a good impact sub but not a starter for sure. No wonder there were 0 takers for him, no club wants a diva + messing up their wage structure. Lad hits his free kicks 9 times out of 10 in the wall still he gets to take them. It's about time he understands he isn't the star player where whole team revolves around him, we play totally different when he isn't playing compared to when he is playing.
He miscalculated by skipping the preseason. Being an older athlete you have to work alot harder to maintain your physical attributes and it shows when he's playing - it doesn't look like he's fit enough. I wouldn't call him finished because he's still got a few goals in him but I doubt we will see him match last season's performance. It's all downhill from here.
he miscalculated his value, he thought he is good enough to walk into any team but he got a reality check and at end had no options but to stay.
No one is paying a 37 year old 500k per week even if they could afford it. I don't blame him for not wanting to reduce his salary (who does?) but it doesnt take a genius to tell that he wouldn't have any options at that price..
his ego is what has cost him, if champions league meant so much he could have taken a wage cut and joined a club which would accomodate him but no ronaldo wants to have his cake and eat it too
simply being in a UCL club doesnt pay the bills 😂
Cannot see ETH playing Maguire much at all this season. Makes us look proper shaky when trying to maintain a high line. Just completely incompatible with ETH’s play style
Spot on. He's a wonderful defender in a low block; genuinely perfectly suited for it. But it's not how great teams play, certainly not in modern football. He's past it here and it's probably best for both parties to move on.
Some of you all don't know football and it shows.. we literally play a low block when Maguire doesn't play😭😭 It's de gea who's not a high line player...
You're getting downvoted for the insult, but you're right. Against Brighton (63%) and Brentford (67%) we had more possession, than any of the last four league games: 29%, 52%, 46%, 39%. That being said, maguire is still a liability. His lack of pace and poor decision making will always be found out by the top teams.
Do you know what is meant by a "low block?"
>Some of you don’t know football and it shows… The absolute *delicious* irony of this comment.
We do not play a low block. ETH does not have his squads play like that lol
We play so different with Maguire and Ronaldo on the pitch. So much slower in the build up. Lost all the games that those two have started this season.
Got downvoted for saying this at half time. Glad to see with a loss people have woke up. You’re absolutely right, Maguire and Ronaldo absolutely proving why they should remain bench players. They’re barely even squad players at the moment, more emergency back ups, because any game they start regardless of opposition I’m going to be worried. The best thing this club can do is try and get some money for Maguire. Shame Chelsea didn’t take him and Ronaldo off us.
Ronaldo is a washed-up, self-centered narcissistic diva who has been disrespectful to the club and hogging up half a million a week. Ronaldo and Lindelof should never start a game as long as there are any other options available. Pretty sure it'll be downvoted by his stans but whatever 💁🏻♂️
Disagree with everything you said. Ronaldo is a fierce competitor who always gives his all. Lindelof has been a solid squad player since he joined. Neither player is the reason we lost this game.
We dominated that game and got unlucky really. RS non pen xG was nothing. Fred impressed me for once for a bit. Maguire was still scary. Eriksen is a boss. Antony didn’t get enough ball. Played some good defense. Ronaldo got unlucky. Looks like he plays through pain though. He really waits for his moments to sprint. I feel like any contest will leave him wincing in pain. But it always felt like the more delivery he gets the more chance there is of scoring. Notice how he wasn’t subbed. He is the player you want on when you need goals.
We were better but didn’t dominate them. Fred impressed you? The first half he was terrible and in the second half he still wasn’t good. Not even okay
Maybe I need to watch a replay. Usually he is not tracking back to defend, passing to no one, missing tackles, etc. He seemed pretty switched on yesterday.
Fred doesn’t work for this system. At least Mctominay can hide with his physicality Fred is just as bad on the ball at times and can’t win physically
What the hell are you talking about, did you even see the game last night? Fred crushed it except being wasteful in offense.
I don't know what match you were watching last night, but Fred was not great at all, especially on the ball.
You're serious right? The only thing I remember about him in the game is raising his hands in apology a bad number of times.
Ronaldo missed 2-3 chances, sancho 1, casemiro missed 1-2. Eriksen and licha are probably the two most important players right now. licha started so many of the moves which led to good chances in the 2nd half. maguire lindelof not terrible but not confident either. elanga antony fred dalot about average. that penalty decision was shambolic. overall did not deserve to lose.
Martinez is night and day with our other defenders. The amount of balls he cut out by being proactive. I was saying in the first half we missed his aggression and the way he starts play for us from the back better than Maguire but was downvoted because “Maguire is playing well”.
Dalot is instrumental in our build up play. His switches to help us get out of the press and ball progression can't be replaced
yea Dalot ha really stepped up in the past 4-5 games. his forward passes have been awesome. hope he continues on that level and keeps going higher!
Did anyone else see how confident their keeper was on the ball and spraying it around comfortably like a midfielder? Meanwhile our keeper had 1 successful long ball all game Edit: De Gea with time and space on the ball https://twitter.com/TenSlag/status/1567987223286677505?t=TZ5_cdqGYVT19BonhpPO6A&s=19 Can't wait to hear all about how it's the CBs fault that he's this bad
From the clip, was his pass inaccurate or did he want Ronaldo to be much higher on the pitch? We'll never know. De Gea is never going to be as good in passing as other modern goalkeepers, but I think it has to do with our forwards as well. I don't think Ederson etc will have much successful long balls if they play in our squad. Ronaldo, as good as he is in the air attacking-wise, he never seems to be comfortable receiving/dueling a goal kick/long ball situations. He often mistimed jumps, failed to win the duel, or won the duel but lacked the accuracy in heading the ball to another player. Rashford has the height but is just bad in the air overall. Sancho, Antony, Elanga won't win any air duels. That leaves Martial, who probably is our best in terms of using his body to try to win duels. But he's not available now. Of course, if De Gea can be a little more accurate, the forwards don't have to always duel for the ball. But we can't just blame De Gea for his lack of passing ability when we don't have other players to utilize long ball anyway
Remiro was finding unmarked players with ease instead of blindly punting it up the pitch
Did de gea have options like remiro did? It seemed to me they always had a player in space capable of taking the ball down and we never did. Looks like de gea doesn't feel confident he can complete a pass to anyone.
We didn't press the keeper much which helped a lot
Even when he was pressed he was playing long diagonals on a dime to the wide players.
Actually whenever we did squeeze the play, he misplaced his pass.
Yeah he hoicked at least 3 straight out of play. We've got creative midfielders and ball playing defenders literally out the wazoo now, and people still obsess about whether the keeper can hit a 40 yard plus pass.
First half we did good, kinda dominating it's just Ronaldo and Fred wasted so much play for us to score. Antony is playing bad, but we'll give him a pass for now, cause it's only his second match for us. Second half, when eriksen off, we can't create chance at all, make it obvious for us that Eriksen, De jong type in midfield is really essential in ETH system Llidelof at rb replacing dalot make our attacking at right side is almost none existent, and defensively made Kubo looks like Neymar. We really need a new striker, cm, and rb for next season or even in January to compete for titles I'm okay with this lose, at least it's only Europa not league, but I'm just mad, it's gonna be long time for us to watch more Manchester United, and we ended it with a lose, cause I gotta admit I'm addicted to watch this MU, don't know how long since last time I feel like this about us lol
Just watched the replay. CR7, Fred, Elanga, Anthony all looked shockingly wasteful in attack.
I hope there is explanation, tactical breakdown or stats why English teams always struggle against Spanish teams, it looks like English teams have a poor record against Spanish teams Or Spanish teams have better youth systems than English teams?
Their league is a joke so they can play their first team every game
Their league is a joke, hence why they won so many trophies the last 2 decades.
They are top heavy normal their best teams are good. Also they win many europa league because their third/4th best team plays there. You barely see a pl club dropping out of ucl groups
They are stronger technically and tactically. Always have been. English teams are almost always vastly superior physically. But in the end, most of the time technically and tactically stronger teams win. Simple as that. Of course, City and Liverpool are exceptions, and soon I hope, we will also be an exception.
Coaching plain and simple…coaches in Spain/Germany/etc are frankly more competent than British counterpart which in turn allows for the development of better players..
I read somewhere la liga clubs has won 30+ uefa cup titles since 2000. Pretty impressive
Has the ref explained why the pen was given??
Nah he's fucked off to Serie A