There's no shame in losing to United but it was annoying that we scored the only goal for them. Walker was poor as was Bentaleb. Kane isolated and the whole team looked tired and rusty - passing accuracy and first touch were generally bad throughout the team. I expected a loss so not surprised. Must now sort signings. We must sign a striker and winger to avoid pushing eriksen out left and nullifying his creativity. We also must sign a DM to help in the middle.
Oh well, at least Kyle Walker's the top scorer in the Premier League. The bookies will be happy, anyway!
Pigclimber and Rooney both kicked the ball away after being penalised but obviously no yellow cards for them or red in Schweinsteiger's case
For the first portion of the game, the team seemed very well set up. A few errors but nothing major. Then - an error that led to something significant, and once United (or rather, Spurs!) had scored we seemed to really loose the rhythm of the game. Refereeing didn't help as it needlessly broke up the play. Bentlaleb was poor today although I'm sure we'll see improvement, and we definitely need another midfielder unless another youngster is going to be thrown in. Dier worked reasonably well dropping in deep between the CBs and broke up play very well indeed (as you'd hope from a CB plying in there) but he was too easily pressured into mistakes that a player used to playing there wouldn't make. I liked how having Dier really sit deep with Verts and Toby meant that we got both FBs up the pitch well and we created opportunities with them. Dembele also had a decent game. Alderweireld impressed. We pressed well high up the pitch when we were having good spells.
Moss having a **** day against us in Manchester? Exactly what happened in last season's game at The Etihad. He also failed to give the Rooney penalty on Kane at WHL last season. His old colleague Halsey slaughtered him when they gave him the FA Cup Final, pointing out how bad he'd been all campaign. Why give him the high-profile opener? We didn't do enough to force the issue against a pretty flat and leggy looking Man Utd side, but he really didn't help. The offside just before their goal wasn't his fault, but it's another poor decision that went their way. I think that a lot of this result has to be attributed to those above Pochettino in the pecking order, though. We're short on player and both our pre- and post-season preparations have been poor. I'm hoping for at least a couple of signings before our next game and a few more out the door, too.
A pretty good effort, I thought, except for Bentaleb and perhaps Chadli as well--and all the backpassing. But we seemed to cut that out at halftime. We lost for four immediate reasons: 1. Eriksen missed a gorgeous goal by inches. 2. The referees stepped in and turned the game Man U’s way, making a half dozen calls in succession for them, including a clearly wrong offside when we were on the break. 3. All our backpassing, as against Real, made it a matter of time till someone made one backpass too many. 4. Bentaleb, who was poor otherwise, made the critical error. We were better bombing balls forward and into the box in the second half, and had a few decent chances. We have a very tall team of mostly good ball winners. It’s clear to me we need to send it forward when in doubt, preferably high balls. If we can keep knocking it forward when in doubt, and can keep playing that well, we’ll do well this season, especially if we get Rose back soon and start Trippier. We had Man U scrambling when we crossed the ball in quickly. Lamela was much better than Chadli, as well. Dier after all the criticism, was our best player for me, edging Eriksen. They didn’t have a shot on goal till past the 70th minute. Dier + Mason looked like a good 2. Starting Dembélé at Old Trafford looked well-judged. The first 20 minutes I thought we looked like a coherent team in a way we rarely did last year. If we can combine that level of play with knocking it forward being our option when in doubt, we’ll improve considerably on what we did last year. IMO. 1:4 shots on target. Ouch. We lost despite having the better chances. I should credit Pochettino who (again, apart from the backpassing, which he seemed to cut out) got our team better set up than LVG. The Beeb agrees with me, which it usually doesn’t, I think. "However, Pochettino will have been pleased by the overall performance of his team, with £12m debutant Toby Alderweireld looking strong next to fellow Belgian Jan Vertonghen in the centre of their defence."
They didn't really have to, though. Got the lead and held onto it, despite only having one shot on target and it wasn't the goal. I imagine that van Gaal would be getting rather a lot of stick if we'd have got anything out of this game. Utd looked pretty poor going forward and rarely troubled the defence, with virtually anything that they created coming from a mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a crap game overall. Neither team played very well, or looked very good, apart from us in the first 20 minutes. But we got one point out of away games against the top six last year and got destroyed at OT. That point was a result of sitting back. We looked pretty astute tactically today, and that has not been a Pochettino strength (and more so when we started booting it forward rather than backward, but I’ve mentioned that). Two big, tough players in the middle of the pitch in Dembélé and Dier made it into a bit of a slogging match where we had a decent chance to win or get a result. We didn’t, but that was despite having the better chances. I’d like to see more of the same against top teams away.
It's exactly the same as last year. You just can't see where a goal is coming from. Total lack of creativity!...
Game wasn't anything special but what matters is the 3 points. Simply couldn't lose today and give others a head start like last season. Some good individual performances, Darmian, Smalling and Romero in particular. Schneiderlin a mixed bag, good pressing but a little to reserved. Herrera and schweinsteiger seemed a better pairing when they came on. As for you guys, bar the start and end of match, you didn't offer anything. You desperately need signings and quick because if not, you could be way off the pace by the end of the month.
As opposed to you, who didn’t offer anything the entire game. One shot on goal to our four, and nothing like the Kane to Eriksen sequence early on for us. I agree it was a crap game overall, though.
[QUOTE="UnitedinRed, post: 8217112, member: 1021215"As for you guys, bar the start and end of match, you didn't offer anything. You desperately need signings and quick because if not, you could be way off the pace by the end of the month.[/QUOTE] I Agree re Darmian and Smalling who both played well, but you offered nothing either in a poor match. Looking at the complete performance of both teams I would be happier with Tottenhams game than with Uniteds, yes you did get the points and can be happy with that but thats about as good as it gets from that performance
All the Man U defenders played well, but Darmian stood out, for me. I thought Alderweireld and Dier played well in our end. Vertonghen had one bad mistake. Davies isn’t bad, but Rose makes such a difference. I’d take Trippier over Walker as well. We edged the play but it was a bore draw at heart. We didn’t create enough to win, but United created absolutely nothing. I’m pleased we looked coherent for a bit, especially after a ridiculous two weeks, and that we may just have a Plan B.
As I said earlier, it was uninspiring. Is was lacklustre on a hot day on a big pitch. Both teams lacked any energy and tempo as a result. But it doesn't tell us much about how either team will fare as the season progresses. It's too soon to judge teams after one game, however disappointing it was. For a number of Utd players, it was the first time they had played at OT in front of a big crowd and some tried too hard to impress and didn't show the range of skills they possess. Spurs played the game Pochettino likes, but looked passive at times, lacking both the creativity and pace to have a go at a potentially vulnerable back four and 'keeper. Players like Lamela and Chadli don't seem to run at and beyond defenders. I'm sure they can if they tried. Both teams need the magic of a player like Bale to run at opposition defenders and open up space. The game was crying out for someone who could breathe life into it. Depay might be that kind of player if he plays wider and is allowed to be selfish. Old Trafford was tailor made for fleet-footed wingers like Giggs, Kanchelskis and Ronaldo. When Smalling is the most accomplished player on the pitch, you know it's been forgettable.
Like last season, our football in midfield looked good on the eye at times but toothless where it counts because a) we lack the ability to provide service and b) we lack anyone who is willing to make decent runs and press. But the most important ingredient missing of all was believe because frankly, I thought that United side today was plain ordinary and they just got lucky. More belief and we would have got at them for longer periods instead of the last five minutes when we had nothing to lose. It's just day one so no point in making any knee-jerk judgements but I think we can all see where we lack quality and leadership, so something has to be done about it soon, otherwise our season could be another rollercoaster ride with the kids trying to carry us when experience and quality is required in key positions.
Didn't get to see the game but from the albeit brief MOTD highlights it seemed to be an error-strewn game from two teams whose managers haven't quite figured out their strongest set-ups. I like the idea of playing Dembele further up the pitch as it pressurises the hell out of all but the calmest defences. The idea of Dier dropping into a back 3 when we attack is an excellent one, but that doesn't necessarily make him an effective DM when the opposition are attacking. We'll be much stronger when Lloris and Rose come back into the team. Other than that, not much to say other than: Toby's cross-field diagonal to Eriksen was superb. Dawson is probably sitting somewhere watching that pass in slow motion with a box of kleenex at the ready.
The whole thing was a bit of a none event really, bit like a pre-season affair. Both teams gave the ball away too easily and both looked toothless in attack. To be honest you had the better chances but that isn't saying much.
Not sure how Vertonghen didn't get sent off for kicking Rooney in the head and the nonce was already on a yellow card.
