Sums up the moment really. Hence I said, you get three points, you have to take it in whatever form it comes.
The team we put out regardless of the injuries, should be able to match Burnley in our passing play. They're largely championship players and they had more cohesion about them than us. That's fcking shameful. And TH needs to own that.
You are right. The ball should have never been kicked. Just assign 3-0 to United with 70% possession. Surely, we can’t feel this entitled to some wonderful away performance “just because”, especially after the last three games. Get a win, go home, start again! Performance will get better when the team gets more bodies back and new players blend in.
Where I will defend Ten Hag is that the whole of the first choice back four and at least two of the first choice midfiled were missing for this game. What I won't defend is that he stuck with some of the players when there were alternatives on the bench. Not sure if how they train can be attributed to the amount of injuries we have mind? It's a valid question.
Garnacho aside, who else could have come on today to perhaps grab a goal or add some flair? Martial perhaps?! But we needed someone with energy and Martial won’t be that guy today. On a great day, we would have Antony and Sancho available to come in. But this day ain’t that day. I think the manager went for discipline today over flair and you can see it in the subs made. On the balance of things, I don’t think this is a game that we can use to draw analysis of anything meaningful given most of the players won’t start the next game if we had a full house.
We had Pelistrie sat on the bench instead of moving Rashford to the right side. May not be starting talent yet but is a great impact sub like Garnacho and both get back to help out in defence.
It was the midfield that needed sorting, not necessarily the 'flair'. You take McTominay and Mejbri off, give Casemiro an actual foil alongside him, and change the shape. You then have the likes of Garnacho, Pellistri, Martial to come on when Burnley legs are more tired. I do agree a win is a win though.
I watched the Forest game which I thought we showed great character and played well after going two down. Yet everyone was still negative about it and pss about on how poor we were. Turns out to be the most dominating game of the season for us so far from passes to possession and goals scored. It was truly an entertaining game but we robbed ourselves the opportunity to even enjoy it because we deserved better. I bring that up because we have a way to sht over the team regardless of the prevailing circumstances. We feel that we deserve, and we come forward to expect that which we deserve. There is no room for joy in that scenario. 1-0. Clean sheet. Away victory! 3 reasons enough to not even complain… until the next, I guess. Lol
Here's the thing Cytrax. I'm not looking at Burnley, I'm looking at the performance to see how the performance bodes for the next run of games. Was there something in our performance we can build upon and look to in our upcoming run of fixtures which we should be winning. Now you brought up the Forest game. Same thing applied. And how did we do in the games after that game?? So any criticism of that game and this one is fully justified. It's not just about the match itself but an indicator of how our style of play, passing, attack is improving. Especially with the injuries bcos we're going to have to deal with it for a month or two. It doesn't look any better after tonight. There's nothing from today to suggest we won't have a brainfart against Palace next game or the game after.
Listen Treble, I'm happy today. Please don't make me go on a rant about the things that are wrong with the team. Please, I'm begging you, sir! lol
We are now in the top half of the table and can't drop out of it untill nezt week at the earliest. Progress
The performance was poor but tonight the result was everything. Like Cytrax said earlier it allows the manager some breathing space. Even a draw would have got the knives of the ABU pundits in the press out. Some of those were already openly speculating on ETH’s potential replacement to heap more pressure on the manager and his team. We have to improve as not many opposing teams will be so powder puff in their attacking.
@Christiansmith - Maaan CS! Where have you been? At least good to see you come around every now and then. Hope all is well!
Been busy but still checking in from time to time Somehow all the preseason optimism has evaporated but injuries and players like Sancho ****ing up has made things worse. Just thinking that had Utd not conceded on the 8th minute of injury time (!) at Arsenal the whole picture wouldn’t have been so gloomy. Fine line between optimism and gloom in this game ! But back to the game, result was all. Kompany was all mini Pep with the wrong players that anything less than a win would have catastrophic for TenHag. The knives would have been out.
