Think people are touching on the thing that’s worrying me most, tactically we have nothing going on this season. No issues throwing everyone on when you need a goal and the clock ticks into the 80’s - Slot did it on the hour and it stinks of desperation. Heavy metal football under Klopp was quite something, but we sure as **** never looked as vulnerable as this lot and this isn’t Slots game, so no idea what’s going on.
So the coaching staff told gakpo to put a header wide from 5 yards? Told Salah to smash one wide from 5 yards out and then hit another into the ground to go over the bar?
You are conflating two entirely different issues. The fact we could wander in a few times agaisnt a bang average midtable side (at home) is not at issue. What's at issue is we are leaking goals like a sieve, and are second to most dropping balls. The pattern seems clear and arsenal.must be absolutely raging with themsevles thst they filled to even try to attack us Palace.walked through us then stopped. (Out of respect and fear fro last seasons lfc) Chelsea sat off us after taking lead. (Again why) Utd sat in shape after taking the lead, content to break. We huff and puff a bit but if we get one and the opponent actually goes at us again we concede. Again. The pattern is clear. The bucket has sprung a leak. Something has to change in how the team and staff are approaching things very quickly.
2 clean sheets from 11, conceding 2 in 6 of those matches. 'on another day we win' just isn't going to cut it with these facts.
The issue is clear. We.concede Teams have a fear of us from.previous ans sit back. We fight to get anything. If the opponent needs to they go at us and we fold. Its a pretty big pattern now. I'm just waiting to get torn apart like we have been under klopp (brighton tearing us up for example) Theres too many gaps.
Yet we still had more than enough chances to win the game. Unfortunately the players the chances are falling to look massively out of form. Was same in Chelsea game, Salah with a great chance and puts it wide then 2 more half chances and smashed them over. We’re still creating tonnes of chances but our forwards just aren’t taking them. Our defence looks awful I agree, but that’s not the reason our main players up top aren’t putting the ball away
Yes because utd are ****ing rubbish The common theme is sides sitting back comfortably and not wanting to go too hard? They concede 1 then come out and score again. We are creating a few chances, not great ones, a few. Huffing and puffing to do so. Then get suckered. Even on the break utd missed a.few sitterers The only real message here is we concede, try and fight for a draw, and we've managed 3 times in a row to convert a hard flight point into a duck egg the second we are forced to defend again The tactics are toast. The shape is toast. The subs are tearing the side asunder.
Michael Oliver didn't make Salah and Gakpo miss the chances that should have ended with goals. He didn't tell the midfield to be ineffective or the defence to be all over the place but he should 100% have stopped play when Mac Allister went down with a head injury (that required 4 stitches btw). The protocol that sees refs stop immediately for play actors week in and week out yet a genuine head injury is completely ignored. It's actually quite concerning.
Despite the good start to the season results wise, I think a lot of us could see we were not right. Slot needs to get a grip now and come up with a plan to steady the ship
I felt that way in the first half, but not so much in the second. That said, Neville was right when he said that he felt in his heart that we were open to another goal in the 2nd half due to a counterattack. And I'll say again - that goalie is no replacement for Kelleher, let alone Ally.
No but can you honestly say that despite those instances we controlled or dominated that game at any point? I'd have taken the win like any other fan but it would have just been papering over the cracks.
He missed a pen as well, but that was 50/50. But I thought the epitome of The Emeror's New Clothes that is Michael Oliver was when he allowed the goalie to release the ball, then pick it up again. There'll be the usual cover-up for him, like there will be over the head injury. Notice that they (match officials) initially said that he hadn't seen it - then, when replays showed him staring at MacAllister on the ground, they backtracked and said they never said that at all. Shades of that handball that stopped a DOGSO against Bournemouth that VAR said had come off his foot, then changed their tune after replays showed his hand moved towards ball. But you're right in that we should have won that (or at least gotten a draw) despite all the usual nefarious actions of Oliver. But they still need to be called out when he does them.
Don't forget the lino wrongly flagged isak off as he shot and Oliver blew up before macallister even shot. Isals was a good yard on.
Your point? They are ****. They certainly made the same number of big chances but scored 2 of them. A **** team, a bang average midtable version of a formerly top team, at anfield, best us. You cant keep playing the if we took our chances we'd win every game card. We never take all our chances. The last time we nearly did that I think we hockeyed palace and only missed one all game and went on a **** run right after it. Whether we take or dont take a chance is not the point. The point is we are giving sides chances and losing games as a result.
My point is you said we are creating a few chances and not very good ones. Thats just wrong. As mentioned, Salah missed 2 sitters. Gakpo missed a sitter. Isak missed a 1v1. How many more clear cut chances do you want in a game, take 2 of those before United score an 2nd and its game over.
The thing is, the players we brought in are all top quality players. In the internationals, Salah and Gakpo scored, Sbozo scored and Wirtz was reasonable in his game. Isak is still off the pace as you would expect given his lack of preseason. The players we kept from last season are good players, so there are many theories out there on why we are losing these games. Let’s see what happens against Frankfurt. I don’t think we have lost five games in a row since the 1950s. I keep hoping we will turn a corner but hopefully it will be in midweek. Sbozo has to play in midfield though
I have always been of the view that we’ve changed a lot, this is going to take time. I still am. However, this does not stop me being concerned about how easily we are carved open and at how disjointed we look. I expect us to shore it up in the short term and gradually be more expansive - I want balance more than I want a win tbh
I think part of the problem is the fact that we brought in top players. They are top players because they have played in teams that play to their strengths. Slot just doesn't seem to know where to play who. Ekitike was on fire and then dropped for Isak who can only improve by playing and therein lies the problem - dropping the in form player for the player who needs minutes when they both play the same position. Wirtz hasn't shown anywhere near his best yet but you can see that he's on another level in terms of game intelligence. I've seen calls for the team to be built around Ekitike and Wirtz and I'm thinking that isn't a bad shout. Two more things to ponder - why does Gakpo refuse to pass to Kerkez and what does Chiesa have to do to get a start?
