the subs worked against city this time it didnt it happens adkins is still learning and adapting to the prem. its a learning curve and lessons will have been learned.
Nobody criticised NA about his lack of tactical awareness against Man City when his two subs ran on the pitch and scored quickly afterwards, did they?
It would not matter who Adkins had put out you were never meant to win....you were playing against the best tactical manager in the world with sir Alex and he would go up a few gears if he needed to. He does it all the time against sides like yours and us. He plays to your strengths and no more unless he needs to...man u were always going to win right from the kick off and he leads teams into a false sense that they have a chance and if you look at last season you will see the same thing where he will always win in the end by the odd goal...He is the master of deception and the greatest manager of all time.....It was a good game but as for winning then that was not on the cards...
No but they did against Wigan when Nigel waited until late in the game to make changes, unlike today. So the fans can't have it both ways there. Anyone is free criticise the substitutions but they are going to have to back that up by saying what they would have done instead, and so far there's not much of that on this topic. I'll start by saying if Cork was fit, we would have won.
Punch was pooped, he had run himself into the ground, if he had started to make mistakes, you gripers would have been on his back straight away. Not sure about Lambo he didn't seem to be struggling and even if he was he would still have been a threat. Could Sebo have been given the final 15 minutes? Maybe Fonte was blowing a bit, hence the panicky clearances rather the normal tippy tappy stuff. Couldn't fault Spider today, and I find JWP's maturity outstanding. I feel that Lala had a brilliant game except for a couple of wayward finishes after cleverly getting into scoring positions, got it wrong. Foxy seemed to go missing for a while in the 2nd half, but may have been pacing himself. Clyne was good, but needs to check his footwear! That slip was costly. Steve Davis looks the business and will be a great assett. Hoover was just Hoover and I think the Pen was a bit harsh, but as KD saved it no matter. The subs, well Guly didn't do much and a weak clearing header was reminiscent of Foxies! JRod got a knock soon after he came on, not sure how serious, but it seemed to hamper him. The new kid, I don't know how you can criticise him, but I bet he is telling anyone that wants to listen that he has played against the mighty Manchester United.
What you are saying is what we all thought before the game, but during the game we started to believe, but it was all undone by some tactical substitutional errors by NA on this occasion. That won't always be the case.
Taking tired players off is fair enough. Last thing we want to do is to risk injuries. If only we'd signed Ramirez a day earlier and had him on the bench - I think he could have won us the game or at least got us a draw out of it. When Lambert, Lallana and Puncheon came off, we missed someone who could play betwen the lines, take a few touches and move the ball on to feet. Nigel's plan to play Mayuka up top when Man U were pushing up wasn't a bad one. If Mayuka wasn't so isolated, I think it could have worked. We could have maybe used Ben Reeves on the bench to add some strngth on the ball, but I don't think Nigel had many options in the circumstances.
I think NA cocked it up,Puncheon was great today,would have left him on,or Mayuka with pace out wide.If you're going to replace Lambert why not try a 7mil cf. But i'm not bitter just pissed. Onwards & upwards. COYS
I actually thought the subs came a bit late. Lambert looked gassed before he came off and our midfield was starting to sit back instead of press. The problem was we had no MF on the bench. That would have been a great spot for Cork. He could come in and be the high man of the three and keep the chase on. Hopefully with two weeks he can get back for the next game. i would have rather seen Lee on instead of Mayuka. His fitness is there and he knows the players better.
Absolute spot on. Each post above yours is so wrong. If he'd left those three on, united would have still enjoyed he possession they did. Adam was blowing big time.
I love this post. The bit that says no fans backing up the criticism with their plan. The three hentook off were knackered. I've never seen Adam look so exhausted as he'd ran his bits off. I mentioned at the time that I thought we were starting to look tired in CM but we didn't have another one tonput on. When you are tired, Paul Scholes Must be the hardest player to play against. I'm not sure what NA could have done different really. Maybe Emmanual playing wide and JayRod up top, but that's easy with hindsight.
I agree as I've just said on the match thread if we'd won Nigel would have been a hero. Had to counter Fergies subs and our players had run their socks off. We will learn from this!
As always Qwerty, I agree with you. Presumably people who didn't want three forward players on, instead wanted us to bring on Seaborne? Because it's not like we had Yaya Toure sitting on the bench. Not only would I strongly argue that Seaborne isn't good enough to play against a team like Utd, but how on earth would he have fitted in. Play him in CM? Go five at the back with over 15 mins left? I've brought Cork's name up on another forum (might have also done it on here too). It's just highly unfortunate that we didn't have him as an option from the bench.
Despite the enormous impact Scholes had on the game after he came on, the fact remains we were 4 minutes from victory with purple face having played his hand. So it's daft to say we were never going to win. Sir Alex's bum was squeeking mate, no doubt about that.
