We all know why Rooney wasn't disciplined for feigning injury to stop a promising Tottenham break. If he had a head injury he should have left the pitch for assessment by a doctor.
Excellent points. Every time I look at our squad the words 'experience' and 'leadership' are the last that come to mind. Your point about belief is so true. We are a team more than capable of chasing a game into the 94th minute; what's worrying is a pattern that was present last season in every game barring the Chelsea hammering; if we concede, it takes a heck of a long time for our tails to come out from between our legs. And if the opposition puts us under sustained pressure, a goal begins to look inevitable rather than avoidable. This is down to, I believe, the lack of a vocal and respected leader on the pitch who can coach the youngsters through the nerves and self doubt as they happen. Since Dawson left we haven't had that player. Thinking back to Hansen's famous 'you don't win with kids' comment, people forget that the double winning United team of 95-96 had players like Schmeichel, Bruce, Pallister, Parker, Cantona, Robson playing alongside the 'kids' who 'couldn't win anything'. We have nothing like that amount of knowledge and experience coaching our kids, and it really is a huge worry. It's like we've become pathogically obsessed with proving to the world that you can get top 4 with a team averaging 22 years old. Rant over.
I see no change from where we left off last season:- No strikers accept maybe one young inexperienced trier, who will be burned out by Christmas at this rate., mark my words. No midfielder paring(s) or any kind of understanding of the mechanics of team philosophy. No organisation throughout the defence, which at times last season, looked like the choir boys from St Bartholomews Church... second eleven (under 12s). Our only strength appears to be in our own goal. But hey!, at least we are playing to our strength there, judging by the amount of back passing going-on these days. So here we are in August, New season..The same old issues and I'm sitting here asking myself, 'why haven't things been sorted out' Where is the first team striker(s) ? Where is the proactive system in midfield ? In what place, is the cohesion throughout the defence ? Last season was not pretty, this season potentially, could be positively ugly. Sort it..now.
Pretty boring game if I'm honest, arriving back late from Munich probably didn't help things. We were too inconsistent during the game, if we could've kept up the intensity like we had in the first 20 mins and the final 5-10 mins then chances are we wouldn't have lost but there's no point dwelling on what ifs. Bentaleb cost us the game, sloppy pass (which was one of many) and ultimately Walker paid the price for it, he was deservedly subbed and I thought Mason was a vast improvement when he came on. Some encouraging signs, the defence looked a decent unit for the most part and Toby in particular was very good, our MOTM in my opinion, has a great range of passing for a CB. Alli looked lively in his cameo. The team worked hard but there wasn't a cutting edge though that will hopefully be a bit of ring rust which we'll rid against Stoke. Losing at Old Trafford by an own goal isn't a travesty, although annoying that we could've finished a couple of chances against what looked a bang average Utd side who were there for the taking. I'd be concerned if I were a Utd fan, another £60m-£70m spent on new signings and they still look well behind Chelsea and City in terms of quality.
Not sure how Young stayed on the pitch either, a ref with a good eye would've spotted a good 2-3 dives from the Tom Daley's School of Diving graduate.
Most of the world's game changers play for the Spanish giants and Bayern Munich. It's these teams all the top English clubs seem to be falling behind because there are few here. Apart from Hazard and Aguero on his day, there are no really outstanding players who can do something special to change these attritional games. The PL is increasingly a place for strong athletes who can run all day, rather than players with great talent and skills. I don't see Chelsea being greatly superior. Last season, they relied heavily on Hazard for inspiration, but a lot of the time they just made themselves hard to beat with a strong defensive set up. City can be a bit more fluent when Silva and Aguero hit it off, but that isn't as often as in the past. Most of the players who have done well for City in the past 5 years are 30ish now and the truth is that they need an injection of youth and pace too.
http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/...d-vs-tottenham-hotspur-highlights-full-match/ I saw the same team as last year too.
Reading this, I found myself nodding in agreement with everything you have said. Frankly, yesterday was only marginally better than what AVB was giving us. I am not really interested in how average United were on the day, I am more concerned with our perpetually sideways and backwards style of play. The middle hour of the game, we were so passive it was astonishing, and in any PL game that is not good enough.
Enjoyable weekend in Manchester, aside from the football. The game itself was very poor, neither side looked in good shape and there was a lack of urgency throughout. Bentaleb had a very bad game, Dier spent most of the game dropping into the back 4, Charlie faded after 20 minutes. Eriksenn should of scored early on. Far too much passing backwards or sideways, didn't seem to be much attacking intent from us, reminded of the days under Santini- boring & safety first. Young dived a few times, the ref gave a lot Utd's way but neither of these contributed to the defeat. Only highlights were the away support which at times was awesome and seeing Micky Hazard in our end singing away with the rest of us- top man who clearly is a passionate Spurs fan.
I can't believe the negativity on here. Their team cost may times ours and won due to a lucky break. We lost 3-0 at Old Trafford last season. Surely this was an improvement?
We definitely lack some pace in attack and that really needs to be sorted out quickly but I do feel we've got a good squad here. Neither side did well yesterday but we did look good for periods and kept United very quiet(Bentaleb aside). We might not have had a great game but we were competitive and really unfortnate to lose against a side that finished last year in the top 4, so that's promising.
Any performance would have been an improvement on last seasons debacle at OT. If I had posted my feelings last evening, then I would have been far more vociferous in my criticism than I am today. If constantly passing sideways and getting nowhere is your idea of an improvement, then we might just as well go back to the pre Martin Jol days of settling for 8th or 9th. I haven't really enjoyed watching us since the days of Jol and Redknapp, and to be perfectly honest, I was bored by our style of play yesterday. If we play like that all season then we will lose more than we win. That's not being negative, it's being realistic.
I saw an extremely young team that looked more coherent in the first 20 minutes than they had for almost all of last year--and a coach who continues to look like the right man to continue to take them forward. defending which prevented 230 million worth of signings from getting than one tame shot off in an entire game, which was an absolutely shocking turnaround from last year, when we were one of the worst defenses in the league. Spurs outplay the opposition in the place where they got most badly outplayed last year. a Plan B for the toughest oppositions which looked well-judged a good DM, something I didn’t see last year another fade under pressure. Somebody does need to grab games like this by the scruff of the neck and no one seems able to do it. Eriksen or Kane has to step forward, as they did often enough last year, or someone else has to. the continuation of a worrisome new trend this year, a tendency to lose games where we outplayed the other team. a team that missed Rose badly, and would have been improved with Trippier, IMO. the team of the future in the last ten minutes or so, maybe, with Dier protecting the back four, Mason getting the ball forward quickly, and the attackers shooting and crossing first and asking questions later.
There was nothing whatsoever yesterday to suggest that Poch is the right man to take us forward. And at no time did we "outplay" United during the first 80 minutes. When we conceded, it was probably against the run of play, but did anyone seriously believe we would pull it back, even though there was over an hour of the game remaining ? Poch's system is too rigid, he doesn't allow forward moving players to express themselves, so Kane is left exposed, there is little threat from the wings and in yesterday's squad there was only one forward. And everyone at the club cannot understand what the hell playing Dier in midfield is all about, why Verts was captain when he is never ever a leader of men and why oh why was Lloris on the bench when every man and his dog knows he is fully fit.
My main concern at the moment lack of depth of squad / game changing options. If Kane gets injured, we're screwed. Totally. For this reason I'd like Soldado to stay, even if we get two more forwards. It's all about options. With a different midfield or a clever substitution, we could have clawed a draw. I also think Eriksen becomes a better player if he has competition. (Soldado behind Kane might work with Trippier making crosses and a solid midfield.) We managed to get champions league because we had a strong squad. Hopefully we'll see the right signings made soon. Stoke will be no easy game, as we know.
Sorry. Didn't see this when I posted. You know better than me O.Spurcat, but I do think if Eriksen takes his chance, we have a different match altogether. I agree with the one forward situation, it's actually quite worrying how that can happen at such a high level. Who would you choose to captain that side with Lloris out? Why do you think Lloris was out?
One game and people start writing off players and the team. Too much traveling and chasing money makes it unsurprising that we should turn in a lacklustre performance. We have another 37 games to play it's not all over yet.
I think Shearer summed it up well last night on MOTD. It was a typically Spurs-like performance. We started off great for fifteen minutes, then conceded a sloppy goal. You look around that team for someone to lead, pick up the team and roll their sleeves up and there's no one. You look to the bench for someone to come on and there's little options. We're desperate for a striker and leadership. Can only hope the club has a master stroke or two waiting to be concluded in the next few weeks. I have everything crossed.
