Manchester United Banter Archive February 01 2018

01 Feb 2018 16:56:46
Not seen anywhere ozil new wages just dat he signed new deal lol.

01 Feb 2018 17:10:57
Sanchez was all set to join the pep revolution at city, instead city's big cross city rivals came in splashed the cash making him the highest paid player in EPL history .

One of the best players in the world signs for one of the biggest teams in the world and one of the best managers in the world.
With a back story of pulling out off a move to city, pep and all the interest that brings .

Are people really surprised it was a big story, start to worry when United are not in the headlines.

01 Feb 2018 15:56:10
Sorry gents forgot to add that DeGea had a very ordinary game last night by his standards anyway, have to say without him your mid table.

01 Feb 2018 20:26:09
please if you are a spurs fan and not a troll remind me when you last won the league next you will be like the scousers it is are year this year.

01 Feb 2018 15:15:18
Hi fellow reds
If any of you lot get a spare 5 mins give "rare pitch camera of 1999 champions league-The last 3 minutes" "a look at on you tube. All I'm saying is WOW 😆😆.

01 Feb 2018 18:43:12
That is brilliant! Encapsulates, in three minutes, what the game and Manchester United are all about. Got to feel for Bayern players, just brutal bloody-mindedness.

01 Feb 2018 19:12:51
The Bayern fans were so bloody good about it after as well. Buying us drinks all night and singing with us. I dread to think what would have happened if it had been the other way round.

01 Feb 2018 21:02:37
Saw it a few years ago. Amazing.

01 Feb 2018 10:29:11
Why are we not playing pogba, matic and Herrera in midfield we could totally dominate gamesand have a super front 3 ok f martial, lukaku and Sanchez. I also feel Shaw should play every game if fit.

01 Feb 2018 10:54:34
Burke. it was Pogba's lack of defensive awareness that was the big problem last night which is why Mourinho subbed him.
Pogba should not be playing as a defensive midfielder along side Matic. It's a complete waste of his talents but when he is asked to play there he needs to take responsibility. He was absolutely shocking last night.
Matic was completely on his own in that central midfield area and he couldn't cope with the floods of attacks from Spurs.
I've been saying it since that start of the season, we need another top central midfielder!

01 Feb 2018 12:54:47
Simo1975, I understand that but Herrera would have done that work and pogba could have roamed free. I am not happy with pogba not doing his duties but he is better with more freedom.

01 Feb 2018 13:11:37
Is Sanchez not the player to be given a free Role.

I'm a fan of Herrera but to be honest for various reasons he has struggled a bit this season .
Why to people assume he would of been great yesterday?

Had a good team out yesterday, didn't really play well tho .

01 Feb 2018 13:28:27
Herrera isn't the answer. HE's simply not good enough.

{Ed025's Note - i agree simo..

01 Feb 2018 13:29:53
Pogba needs a 3 man midfield jred. That's the problem, he needs to be given a bit of freedom.

01 Feb 2018 13:49:53
The problem Jose has with playing the extra man is that we don't have 1 good enough, it would have to be Herrera who really is not good enough or Fellaini who has been struggling with injury and none of us would want there. The other option is McTominay but he doesn't have the experience just yet.

I think Jose expected to be able to play Carrick, Matic and Pogba in these games but obviously with Carrick out that has been a bigger loss than people realise. I assume this is why we tried to do a deal for Jorginho yesterday and will be going all out for that centre mid to replace Carrick in summer.

Funny how people just forget how good Lingard has been as well.

01 Feb 2018 14:20:05
Leahy
So pogba isn't good enough to play in a 2 man midfield?
Like he does for France
If Jose wants to play 4231 does he need to buy a player that can play in there instead of pogba?

I think pogba just had a poor game and is good enough to play there he just needs to be a bit more disciplined.

01 Feb 2018 14:47:29
Pogba has the ability and attributes to be the complete midfielder .
He needs to start doing it tho, he needs to improve the defensive parts of his game and also learn to dictate a game with the ball . if he is going to reach the levels, he wants to and the levels he is capable of he needs to make a step up .

Yes he played in a 3 for juventus, but he was a nice to have, he wasn't the star or the driving force behind that team or midfield .
If he wants to be that player he wants to be running games etc (and he is good enough to be ) he needs to play centrally and develop his game .

01 Feb 2018 15:19:52
Pogba can play anywhere in the midfield but we need a Carrick replacement urgently we should of bought Eric Dier on the same day we bought Matic no messing about 😆😆.

01 Feb 2018 13:42:45
Not saying Herrera the answer but at this moment he is our best option, as Leahy said pogba needs a 3 man midfield especially against big teams we should be playing with 3.

01 Feb 2018 09:02:53
Mourinhos Away Record so far against top 6.

Wins - 1 (Arsenal - could of been any score! )

Draws - 3 (Liverpool x2, Man city)

Loses - 5 (Ars, Spurs x2, Chelsea x2)

If he wants to win the title then this is where he needs to improve!

Home Record - W3 D2 L2.

01 Feb 2018 10:18:10
We lack control in the big games all the time, get dominated and looks like we're playing with 10 men. Jose has to start playing with a midfield 3, especially against the top teams. Pogba and Matic in midfield just doesn't work vs the top teams.

01 Feb 2018 10:23:00
I think there have been two issues with our performances against the other top six sides.

The first is our midfield gets over run far too easily. Matic doesn't have the athleticism to cover two midfielders and Pogba doesn't have the discipline of the defensive game to help out. This can be fixed by bringing in an extra midfielder to stop us being over run in the middle.

However, when we do that we end up with the second issue we have against the other top six sides. We lack creativity in the final third.

Now we have Sanchez we shouldn't lack creativity, and last night's game was crying out for an extra midfielder to slow Spurs down and stop them dictating the game.

As much as I am a fan of Martial I think he should have been dropped for Herrera. Midfield three of Matic, Pogba and Herrera or even Fellaini with a front three of Sanchez left, Lukaku through the middle and Lingard right.

I also agree with the poster down the page saying how we look stronger defensively with Shaw at LB rather than Young.

01 Feb 2018 10:36:01
I don't think matic is mobile enough and pogba needs to work harder off the ball .
It's been the same all season but you can get at our cm even when we play 3 .
Jose has played 4231 most his career a lot if teams have and do a lot of teams do, but you have to have the right pair .

01 Feb 2018 11:08:23
Got post Shappy totally agree pal. I hope lessons have been learnt for the Champs League!

01 Feb 2018 11:27:58
We also seem to be conceding stupid goals against the top teams, the two goals City scored at OT resulted from mistakes as did the two y'day, maybe our players just can't handle pressure? They seemed scared every time spurs started running at us. Matic was exposed in midfield, you can't expect him to single-handedly contain the likes of Eriksen and Alli, even Son, on his own. Its annoying playing like that with that formation, the solution (433) to the problem is right there yet its not being used.

01 Feb 2018 11:28:50
You can't just go out and play do what ever you want .
Pogba had a defensive responsibility last night, didn't fulfil it so got subbed .
Against the better teams you some times have to do things a bit different .

01 Feb 2018 12:56:34
If we play 3, matic, Herrera an pogba then what midfield options do we have on the bench?

Carricks been out awhile with health issues.

McTom is just starting out.

Fellaini I wouldn't trust to change a light bulb never mind a game.

We really need two signings in the summer.

01 Feb 2018 13:16:18
I think we should be playing 3-5-2 against big sides away!

Bailly-Smalling-Jones

Valencia-Herrera-Matic-Pogba-Young

Lukaku-Sanchez

I remember playing it against chelsea in FA cup last year and looked good until herrera got sent off!

01 Feb 2018 07:01:23
The game last night proved a couple of things beyond any doubt:

1. We are inept when it comes to playing against sides who are energetic and press high. If teams go at us, several of our players seem to lose all ability and just go backwards. City, Liverpool and Spurs are the 3 teams who play this way every week and funnily enough we have struggled to play much good football against them over the past couple of years. Against teams like this, the most important thing is keeping the ball once you win it back. We don't do this and the best sides do not start making daft mistakes as soon as they are pressurised which does happen with a few of our players.

2. Chris Smalling might be the only player in the Premier League who is genuinely terrified of having a football at his feet. Unless he is grabbing shirts or committing unnecessary fouls he is extremely uncomfortable. Needs to go asap.

3. Paul Pogba cannot play as one of only 2 Cm's against anyone half decent. On his day Pogba is our best player and we should be working to make sure he is given the chance to be at his best more often. I've posted about this before but he is expected to do too much in this team which last night led to him doing nothing. He is poor defensively and until we play 3 in the centre of midfield, when Pogba plays against good teams we willl struggle badly. It's great that Martial and Lingard have been in good form, however, Mourinho seemed to completely abandon his general tactics against Spurs which is to ensure Eriksen has no room. Dropping one of Lingard or Martial may not have been a popular move but to add another midfielder, Carrick would have been my pick, it would have been the right move. Hindsight is 20/ 20 but this seemed fairly obvious before the game. Carrick would have provided protection for the back 4 as well as some much needed composure on the ball. Ideally Lindelof could have started at the back as well as he has a bit of ability on the ball.

4. Shaw is our best left back

5. We need to get support to Lukaku quicker. Mourinho tactics tend to see us retreat into our half before applying pressure. However, this leaves Lukaku isolated. His hold up play has actually been quite good over the last couple of months but there is only so good you can be when up against 2 good centre backs and a defensive midfielder at one time.

Much of the above is already fairly clear in my opinion but the yesterday was one of the poorest performances I've seen from United in a long time. I still think we will finish top 3, however, if we have aspirations of winning the top prizes again, we need more composure throughout our team, need to play 433 and while I don't see us adopting a high press tactic similar to Liverpool or City, Mourinho needs to be a little bit braver to pressure an extra 10/ 15 yards up the pitch.

01 Feb 2018 08:12:27
I agree with most of what you say but in my opinion Carrick would not have been the right choice either. I agree we needed to play three in midfield but what we lacked was a player who is quick of the mark and able to keep up with spurs’ movement. Carrick at 36 would not of suited that game either. We seem to be lacking in that area so out of the options we have I would probably have opted for Herrera alongside matic and pogba.

01 Feb 2018 08:52:46
I agree we've struggled against the top teams. Hit and miss at home against them but mourinho record away to them has been poor since he joined united. Been outplayed in the majority of those games.
Our form against the lesser sides has been very good however which is why we are where we are in the league table.
It's worth noting we had a very good record home and away against the big sides under van gaal who liked posessopn but his tactics meant we struggled to break down the lesser sides.

01 Feb 2018 15:15:29
Can one game prove all that?

01 Feb 2018 04:40:38
There's plenty of blame to go around, but immediate reaction is that the vast majority of goals we've come ceded in recent months have come from Ashley young being incompetent as a defender. I don't blame him, he's a mid table winger nit a top four fullback, but both goals were on him today. Yes even jones og. He doesn't even think of tracking his man eriksen on the openerand then follows not his man inside on the second goal giving all the space for the cross. WHY did we just have a string of clean sheets sheets? HE was out injured. I'm not saying the reason set of things the defemse has been great but the actual goals that have been scored since mid December have been on his head an sure amount of the time. He doesn't close down quickly, his positioning is poor and he loses focus and doesn't do his job marking.

01 Feb 2018 06:48:30
Harsh. I don’t know why You’re ing s being picked instead of Shaw but to blame him for Phil Jones’s cack handled attempt to clear witht the wrong foot is a bit much. I think there was a lot more wrong last night than Ashley Young.

01 Feb 2018 02:48:30
So funny looking at sports headlines.
Spurs won 2-0 against ManUtd.
But Chelsea losing 3 to nothing is a smaller news. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
What can I say about the media? Just confirmed my view that they are just pure anti ManUtd or we are really a very big club or news attraction 🤣🤣🤣.

01 Feb 2018 09:59:19
Maybe opposition Spurs who also carries some weight. Surely Spurs VS Manchester United is a big game compared to Chelsea ones.