I thought Man u defended well, when it mattered, apart from in the 3rd minute, they were able to clear it away. When we did put a good ball into the box, like with Yoshida's cross to lallana they had everyone well marked. I agree our attack wasn't good enough which I think can be partly attributed to Lallana and Davis being much less effective at scoring goals than Puncheon and Ramirez, if either puncheon of Ramirez had have had rickie's knock down into the box late on they would have had a good chance of scoring whereas lallana inexplicably left it. Ramirez and Puncheon give the ball away a lot but they create goal scoring opportunities whereas lallana will create goal scoring opportunities but if the ball falls to him he is far from clinical. Davis is largely ineffective at creating goals imo, although he did have a good game today. We need Ramirez and Puncheon firing to have that dynamic edge in front of goal, Lambert is a goal scorer and Rodriguez can finish but then we are left with very little other fire power. I think our crossing can be terrible in patches, particularly from corners. Clyne and Shaw need to provide that width and a good ball into the box a few times every game, like at chelsea.
We stopped scoring freely at the same time as we shored up the defence. The team are implementing Poch's style of pressing football which as in this game will give us a lot of chances. Everton and United are top teams and we enjoyed a lot of possession...we should get the points we need against teams around us. We just mustn't panic on a game by game basis (hard I know).
Out last night so only just seen highlight. V impressed and for once credit Fergie for his post match comments!
I don't feel the two are exclusive though. It's not like we're deploying QPR tactics and dropping 11 men into our own half and then trying to nick goals from the one or two shots we actually manage, we've still had a lot of attacking opportunities and I think our attacking players just haven't performed well enough. I guess I just struggle to get into the mindset of just waiting to get points from winnable games. For me the winnable games are not the ones on paper against teams around you who you should do well against, the winnable games are ones in which you perform well and have opportunities to win the game. Most people look at our games against United, our draws against Swansea, Norwich and Stoke and the like and just go 'Ah well, going into the game we would have been happy with that so never mind', for me these are points dropped regardless of the hypothetical point tally or performance level we had in our head before the game. I'm not overly worried as I think we have enough about us and I think we'll stay up, but I do fear we have settled into a pattern of complacency that our attack is just outright good enough and that we don't need to worry about dropping points because 'they will come'. Realistically right now we are not scoring enough goals or getting enough points, that doesn't mean we'll go down but if we keep not taking the points on offer to us then things could get out of hand quickly.
Mikey, you will take some stick for this view but I think you have a valid point. The Stoke game was down to being unable to defend a 3-1 lead it could be argued, but for the rest it is clear. We could have had 6 points from United this year and you are right, points need to be taken when we are in the ascendancy against teams. The "right" fixture may not come around. Look at the Wigan game. We all thought that we'd get off the mark in that game, and we were terrible. I think we'll stay up with something to spare. We were very good last night; the steward behind me was very complimentary throughout the second half (!), and United defended very well. Few teams will defend that well. It is also true that our delivery was poor, but again credit to United who gave players little time when they had the chance to make a killer pass. None of that invalidates your point though, Mikey. We need to beat teams when they are there to be beaten.
I didn't come on here last night, as I was put of by the inane moaning from about 7pm onwards. As many teams before us have done, we went to Old Trafford, did ok and got beat. All focus must now be on three points Saturday.
FLT, you are right, of course. However, I don't think Mikey is moaning inanely. His point is valid, we've had a few teams by the throat recently and let them off the hook. Last night was a case in point. My own view is that if we can play that well against QPR, Wigan et al we'll win comfortably as they won't defend as well as United did last night. None of this alters Mikey's fundamental point.
Folks......we are bound to lose some games. I think from a fans point of view it is better to lose playing a team like united as in reality at the moment we don't expect too much from teams like them. As time progresses that will hopefully not be the case. The compliments from Fergie after last nights game is in reality not a good substitute for what we should have got which was a draw or even yet a win from that game....We never played badly last time we played them....yet we still lost. It is easy possibly to pick out the reasons but maybe not so easy to over come them. The one thing from last nights game that came through to me was that we are still missing a couple of better quality players than we are currently using. Who the weak links are is a matter of conjecture. Nice too see Poch make substitutions early for a change, as I said though, we need a couple of quality players to just make that bit of difference.
Boruc was again class. Very good one on one at the far end from Rooney, then a worldly save at the sane end from evp header, almost saved the offside follow up too! Some great catching from crosses too.
I appreciate you defending me fella but I believe it may be misguided as I don't believe FLT was talking to me, rather referring to the furore that surrounded Fox's selection ahead of Shaw that consisted of twitter kids wetting themselves and some of that spilling over on here.
To be honest I think he wanted to see Fox in action against a team like United. I think you will see a few other decisions like this as he ways up what we will need in the future to progress. I also think he used Fox for his experience. Both Shaw and Fox have different attributes. Question I would like to ask though why was Rodriguez having to make the tackle (foul) that led to the goal. Where was Foxy?????? I also think that Poch is more likely to use Shaw a bit less although granted he is doing extremely well. He does however need to develop a bit more physically before he can stand the rigours required for week in week out matches. Probably this time next year he should be fully ready. I have the feeling though changing the subject slightly that Poch is not to enamoured with Puncheon nor Ramirez come to that....or is it just me?
Fox didn't have any responsibility to make the tackle on Jones, that was JRod's man all day long. Think it was just over-exuberance from Jay, trying to impress and put in a shift and got carried away. I think Shaw would have started if it wasn't for his illness. It's all very good having a look at players if you've got a fight for places between some relatively equal players, but don't see much use in looking at Fox when Shaw is ahead of him as there's just no competition there. But I guess time will tell as you say if there are a few more decisions like that in the pipeline. And what makes you think that in regards to Punch and Gaston?
Nothing I can put my finger on but he was watching Punch and Ramirez very closely in the Everton game and showed some impatience at times when they did things. True I didn't see so much yesterday but he did substitute them both very early. In Ramirez case it could have been about fitness but not so sure re Punch.
I still haven't seen the footage, was Puncheon actually playing on the right, where he does his one trick pony cut inside and hit the shot with his left foot? I got the impression from Radio Solent that when he did get involved it was on the left side? Heard Ramirez mentioned occasionally, but was ineffective and he did pinch one of Lambos free kick opportunities and blazed it over the bar. MoPo didn't hesitate to change the parts that weren't working, that is promising, but I still feel we need a couple of reasonable signings just to beef up the squad which is looking a bit lightweight.
