JWP was doing well but I understood the substitution. 13 minutes to go and more space appearing in midfield, so he brought on an attacking flair player. That player nearly undid United three times in that time. Ok, it didn't work, but for people to sigh let alone boo, shoes an ignorance of football to me. Did it ever cross your mind, that Puel might have thought he didn't fancy another 0-0? It hasn't been as exciting this season, but stop looking for things to moan about. Perfectly acceptable decision to make. If you or anyone think JWP has suddenly become our match winner then good luck with that. *note to my Dad - this goes for you too! He moaned like **** at the substitution and I asked him if he'd rather we kept tight and went for the 0-0. He said its better than losing Fans moan at dull football and then moan when the manager tries to change that. ****ing ridiculous.
I'll add to this that the first three or four times Boufal got the ball (centrally too, by the way) he looked very direct and dangerous. The first time he lost it, everyone around me went mad. Clueless fans sometimes.
Did it ever cross your mind that to go win a game, a better option would be to bring on another striker and play 2 up top? I was quite looking forward to seeing Gabbi & Charlie play up top together. I sort of think they might actually compliment each other. That JWP could have put in set pieces aiming for Charlie and even if he didn't win them, Gabbi might be there to snap up the space left by defenders being drawn to Austin. But I guess we will never know. Instead, Puel did the exact same substitution he's done a dozen times before and it's never worked before and it didn't work again. One dimensional thinking from a one dimensional manager.
You must be disappointed a lot in life about things that, really, aren't worth being disappointed about.
I agree with all of that although there came a point near the end where I was thinking that I would be happy with the 0-0. I just couldn't stand the thought of all the happy United people jumping up and down having mugged us again.
It wasn't a bad performance. We just had our usual problems creating clear cut, tap in chances. I didn't understand why Tadic and JWP started on the wrong sides of the pitch. With Gabbiadini in the middle I would have had DT on the left and JWP on the right bending crosses in, hard and low, behind the defenders, not cutting back onto their strongest foot and hitting easy to clear, by the CBs, crosses. Targett had a decent enough return, and I don't know why he has been singled out for his crosses, when they were no worse than those from anyone else. Pretty much everyone was hitting the first defender, but you could at least see that Targett was looking to pull a lot of crosses back into the path of players running into the box, and not just hitting them aimlessly. Stephens, despite the odd error, continues to impress, and bringing the ball out adds another string to his bow, as it commits opposing midfielders into coming out of their defensive shape, creating space for us. The penalty. Sigh. For me, if you hit the ball along the ground you are giving the keeper the best chance of stopping it, because even if it is near the corner of the goal, gravity and an outstretched arm means the keeper will potentially stop a few. Top third of the goal and the ball goes over a diving keeper. Finally, have we had any shots, from outside the box, deflect into the goal, this season?
We could and probably should have won that. An exciting 0-0. I note how many people have said JWP should have taken the pen. Were you really thinking that when Manolo took the ball? I certainly wasn't. Oddly, what popped into my head was Conte's comment, "possibly the best left foot in Europe". I just assumed he was going to score. After the event, I can claim anything though that was the truth; I thought it was as good as in the net. When Boufal came on (and boy, did the crowd disapprove) he made us look a great deal more dangerous than we were with JWP on the pitch. Almost every time he had the ball he took two or three defenders out of the game. Yes, he made a mistake or two but I still thought he was the creative spark that could have made the difference. I'm surprised how many people at matches pick an attitude based on a player's form in other matches. They watch through the lenses of preconception. Either someone's playing well in this game or not. Doesn't matter if they were awful or brilliant in other games. Boufal was excellent last night. J Rod wasn't. Anyroadup, highlights at: http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/category/premier-league/ Vin
We should hire Rickie purely as a penalty and shooting coach. Despite all our shortcomings this season, beat Stoke and we are highly likely to finish 8th which is quite staggering really. That does mean we need to score though which could be a problem.
