Team news - two changes in defence from midweek, otherwise same old, same old. Hopefully we can hope for a better result this time around in what is ETH's 50th game as manager, it is, of course, a must win game or else the media will have us relegated. .
Interesting stat from SKY - ETH is the 17th manager to reach 50 top-flight games with the Red Devils, while a victory would see him become the only one to win as many as 30 of his first 50 with the club.
Varane doesn't get a game, with every justification. So how the **** does Dalot stay in ahead of AWB? Things like that baffle me. Everything else, fine. Ish.
Decent bench too - Subs: Bayindir, Amrabat, Mount, Martial, Varane, Antony, Pellistri, Mainoo, Hannibal.
1 - 0 win at home to lowly Luton. Let's not get carried away, the performance was piss poor and yet again we spurned too many chances on goal. No visible improvement any where on the pitch, no sign of an upturn in energy or drive, same old, same old week in week out. Something/someone has to change, we can't keep playing the same way and expect different results. Hopefully Hojlund being subbed was precautionary, Eriksen looks like he'll be out for a while though. Mind you, how we can be playing so badly yet still be in 6th and only 6 points of the leaders is a complete mystery
You read my mind, Treble. lol Importantly, we got the three points. We kept a clean sheet. Onwards and upwards! We have to keep things in perspective in this current cycle. Good results, regardless of how they are achieved, will give the team more latitude to start playing better. This was a good game to watch and the stadium was absolutely buzzing! You would think that we are top of the table. Great to see that there’s still so much energy even with the challenges we’ve had this season both on and off the pitch. We had enough clear cut chances to have scored more goals. I have to say that I’m very happy for Harry Maguire. It has to be the turnaround story of the year. He has used all the negativity thrown at him extremely well and it’s great to see him performing at high level again. Even as our forward players struggle to consistently score goals, we are seeing the defensive players pitching in. For anyone that will be quick to dismiss the game as “it’s only Luton”, my respond is - I don’t think any match day in the league is easy. If that were the case, we would be seeing a number of 5-0 games every weekend. Sir Ratcliffe starts next week or so. I believe that this will bring material positive influence football operations. I like the questions that he’s been asking of the club. So, if we can keep getting results to stay in touch with the top 4, things should get better when the new administrators start making adjustments.
So we beat the team the mighty Liverpool scraped an injury time draw against last week, while are five whole points behind super awesome Ange ball title contenders, with 26 games to go. Stop ****ing moaning. To be where we are with such a fractured club currently is ok at this stage. Once we have a fit defence, it can only improve. January window not too far way, when one or two can **** off out of here if Ratcliffe is to be believed.
I pulled out those two nuggets in bold. I doubt today's result has any bearing on the next. And it certainly won't be giving the players any latitude to play better. It hasn't in the past. But hey ho, we've beaten Burnley 1-0 and now Luton 1-0 so things are looking up. I haven't seen the game (only caught bits of it on the radio) so I'll take your word that it was a rip roaring performance.
^^^^^^^ I don't think it was anywhere near that, but we seemed to squander a lot of chances again. But at least the chances were there. The impression I got is that we started well again and then it all became a bit nervy because we hadn't scored. It's a confidence thing. I don’t care what the likes of the BBC and Sky are telling me because I know it's agenda based exaggerated bollocks. It's difficult to really say we were **** without having watched it tbf.
That’s impossible!! I mean, looking at the table with negative goal difference yet on 21 points above the reformed Newcastle too. Why is ETH the only one under pressure? Think what could happen if the goals start coming from the frontline and the defence retains relatively stability. And I agree that January will help getting rid of players that are not up to it.
One thing I will add. Now that Spurs and Newcastle have turned to **** I wonder if the media will ignore their injuries like they have ours. Unsurprisingly they've all been quick to point this out this week and today, for both already, yet have gone out of their way not to mention it when our makeshift back 4 is literally changing every game and has been for 3 months.
I watched the second half and apart from half chances that Luton had, the back four was up to the task of nullifying anything that came at them. I thought we were in control throughout the half that I watched but we certainly could have done better yet again in the box. With confidence being where they are, I thought the team gave good account of themselves. The results are progressively getting better, I think. It’s fair to say that winning a match day game certainly helps the next game given we’ve been rock bottom and already relegated according to several portrayal of the season by the media.
Maguire had an excellent game, so did Hojlund. Rashford is playing with his earpods in, listening to some **** that's taking his mind completely off football (again). One thing that is noticeable is how the home crowd are as nervous as the players, it was really noticeable, even on US TV, they should calm the **** down, perhaps the club should be dishing out free double drinks ahead of kick off to calm their nerves. We've dragged ourselves over the line, its now the international break - if we can regroup and return without injuries, we're set to go again. We're 6th FFS, two wins away from the top of the world......
In the past 2 weeks we've got comfortably beat by City, we've been knocked out the league cup by Newcastles 3rd team and all but knocked out of the CL by an average Copenhagen side. But apparently our results are getting progressively better... oookay We beat Luton 1-0 today that was all. One result. On its own means fck all. Fck knows why we're extrapolating it to mean anything more than that. My comments are on today's game. It means absolutely nothing on its own. And it very much is, on its own.
