It was tbh but Fellaini should never have put himself in that position. He does that all over the pitch. He's a bumbling baffoon who gives away fouls all the time. And he has a reputation for it. All the refs know him. Tbh whatever happened I knew we were going to concede. It's the lack of goals and chances created which was frustrating today. We were **** plain and simple.
And only a moron would give the guy a chance to take a dive. He's a terrible footballer and it was a terrible decision to send him out there to "close out" the game.
Saw this on the BBC - For those keeping track of Sir Alex Ferguson's successors at Old Trafford, Jose's 21 points after 14 games with United is worse than under David Moyes (22 points) and Louis van Gaal (25). To give Mourinho a tiny sliver of comfort, they are sixth, three places above where they were under Moyes.
Jose would simply not do that at United. They have a tradition of attacking football (McGuinness, O'Farrell, Sexton, Moyes, LVG), he will be forced to do things the United way and he knows it
If there is one thing that will eventually turn me against Mourinho it's his idea that a world cup and champions league winning captain with vast experience at the absolute peak of the game can not 'close out' a game, yet he thinks this affront to Manchester United can. Fellaini should not be anywhere near a United shirt, should never have been anywhere near and should never get anywhere near one again. I've said it from the word go and nothing has changed my opinion on him. He's not ****ing good enough and never will be.
And Mourinho's after match press conference. Aghast that we don't get the "stick the beanpole in front of the back four" policy. Really? Is that where we are?
That's fair enough. To change topic a little: have you changed your opinion on Costa? Now that Mourinho has gone, he seems to be behaving himself a tad more
He's stopped partying and is fitter this season (obviously I see the irony in his hamstring injury v City). He was clearly unfit last season. Has Rooney got fitter all of a sudden too? He seems to be first on the team sheet now after years of being slagged off by many (not you tbf)
He was never the actual problem (see post re Fellaini!) but admittedly wasn't playing as well as he can. He does seem fitter, playing with some fire in his belly too. He's also in position, which is amongst the front three/four, not in midfield. Rooney is perfectly comfortable at centre forward, behind the striker or coming off the left of the striker.
Rooney's always been first on the team sheet for the past three years. He's largely been scapegoated by fans who can't get over how he handled his contract negotiations a few years back. No matter how bad the manager is getting the tactics wrong, and how poorly other players play, Rooney gets the blame. It was the same earlier in the season when Martial couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo, but it was still all down to Rooney that we were playing poorly and not getting results. It's only now Rooney is playing well and we are still dropping points that people have been forced to reassess their view.
Tbf i can see why rooney gets a lot of blame. He's been off form for about 3 years, his shooting has gone pretty dire, he's first touch is even worse than an elephants and his usual charging past players is a think of the past as he's lost that acceleration and pace and with it his dribbling skills.
This is what I meant by the "curse" of United. I have mentioned this years before the likes of Pogba, Mata, Mourinho have mentioned it. It is really not a curse more a post Fergie malaise which will linger and last for years. It was the same when Busby left. Everyone thought it was going to be simple, just taking over a winning team and adding players as older players move on or retire. It just doesn't work like that. The odds against Jose being successful are quite formidable. Yes, he has spent hundreds of millions (but that's a given as United will always pay huge amounts). He was a world class manager but now he can't scrape a win against the likes of west Ham (in the league at least) which others have brushed aside with ease. He struggled to get a win at Everton but his last minute sub to bring Fellaini backfired badly. He just cannot get anything right. Even Pogba a so called world class midfielder is struggling to put in good peformances. JM's teams have been exciting but not winning. LVG in contrast have been boring but winning (most of the time anyway). And I remember people saying that they want to see exciting football even if we do not get the three points. Well, they've had their wish answered and should be happy...
Personally, if there was one thing I hated most last year, it was hearing about "The United's Way". It quickly became buzzword for every pundit, especially ex-United players. Even when we won games, they still continued to frickn bitch about the style of play. Scholes made it his purpose to undermine LvG at every TV time. It was pathetic!! Indirectly, this worked its way into the squad where negativity that was spewed started affecting the performances. Even on this board, LvG was called a coward from day one. This tells me that we, the fanbase, have an major sense of entitlement. We demand that the team must play a certain way and regardless of result, we would b*t*h if we don't see that United Way. So yes, this is what we want. Exciting football regardless of the result. Well, we now have that and we must deal with it. At this point, we really have no choice but to stick with Mourinho, help him and the squad get through this horrible period. I wouldn't even contemplate changing the manager for the next three years if I were a board member. We now have to all sit up and back the manager and the team. We simply have no choice tbh.
You're quite right, we have to stick with Mourinho. He will get it right, if given time, and he is playing decent football. Not sure about a curse. I think it's piss poor management, and manager selection, from the top personally, which leads to these frequent management changes in chasing the success of the manager who just left. This applies to both cases; Busby and Ferguson. *just realised I used the word manager, in many variants, far too often and I apologise for this!* As for the United way, well all I can say is the United way is entertaining football. That's what it's all about. It's not bullshit, it's the reason why we watch football, to be entertained. To be perfectly frank, van Gaal did not deliver this and was rightly slated for it.
Pretty much my thoughts on the matter. We fell into the trap of trying to replaced SAF with the same type of manager in Moyes, and only ended up with an inferior version. Same as Liverpool chasing their 'boot room' in the 90s with poor imitations like Souness and Evans - it just doesn't work. Then we made the mistake of going for the most experienced manager available to try and steady the ship, and ended up with a bloke who only wanted to win one more trophy before retiring and didn't care how he did it. None of which excuses Mourinho's recent errors tho' - Fellaini was a disaster waiting to happen. From a bloke who is supposedly a tactical genius it was naive in the extreme to think that Everton wouldn't see Fellaini come on and immediately play balls to feet in and around the area to make him inevitably **** up. If he wanted height at the back, the smart thing was to bring on Mata to play AM and drop Pogba or Carrick back into DM as they have height and also the ability to actually tackle. That's the one thing Mourinho needs to realise now - he's no longer the smartest kid on the block. As with Wenger at Arsenal, the approach and tactics which worked well in the early part of his career are now well known and countered by other managers - since he peaked at Real in 2012 his performance has been on a steady decline and he's going to need to adapt if he isn't going to follow Wenger as a specialist at mediocrity. Although in his defence I think he will probably manage it given enough time and support - he is so focused on succeeding and desperate to be recognised as a great that he won't stop until he finds a new formula for success.
We have to give Jose time. Don't forget that when a new manager arrives so does his entire backroom staff and they are the ones who have the most regular contact with players and it takes time for them to develop productive relationships. If it was just the figurehead manager that changed each time it would most likely prove to be an easy, seamless transition - but it isn't. The overall dynamic will take time to evolve but the improvement is clear to see all over the pitch. Look how many chances we are creating, look at how few saves De Gea has to make each game, not to mention the much improved tempo of play and a more direct approach to goal. The vital signs are all good and with a few more tweaks here and there (Fellaini, Rojo, Darmian etc) we should be good to go next season.
