Not a great performance and this is obviously not a vintage United side. But given the players we’re missing I’ll take a point at Old Trafford. Some rustiness throughout perhaps to be expected given how long it’s been since VdV was even on the pitch and Romero has barely trained, and the midfield was held together with parcel tape. Great to have 2 weeks now to get the new lads properly integrated into the squad, hopefully we’ll have Kulu and Maddison back for that one which will be huge. Bentancur the best player on the pitch by a mile. I thought Werner was decent. If a more unknown signing played that game we’d probably be more optimistic. Hopefully as he gets more game time under his belt he feels more comfortable running at players. I think it’s important to remember that we’ve bought him in as a wide player who can fill in at 9 rather than the goalscoring machine Chelsea thought they’d got. He gets a goal or assist every other game which is pretty decent output all things considered. Thought Skipp was decent too, on the ball. Not a starting XI player but not a bad squad option for now. Hojbjerg works so hard off it but does sometimes slow the game down a bit. Both probably not going to be at the club for years to come. Ultimately they didn’t manage to create much at all, both goals they had a little bit of fortune and the finish for the first was spectacular. Happy enough with the point and we move forwards. Good time to get fitness back in the tanks.
Johnson was our weakest link. Everyone had some impact on the game except for him. Surprised to see three CBs briefly and hope VDV is okay. 4 points from Man Utd this season is nice.
We almost tried to play to him like we do Kulu. We often play it towards feet so the RW has to come back and pop it off to a midfielder so they can spin in behind. Works with Kulu because he’s physically big and naturally comes back on that side. Johnson wants to go in behind not come to the ball. EDIT: with that said I do think he’s still very much a work in progress. Didn’t have a good game today. But I don’t think we necessarily played to his strengths especially when his FB got an early yellow card.
Postecoglou's post-match comments make it sound like we had loads of ill players this week. Kulusevski (obviously), but also Skipp, Udogie and others. ****ing lasagne.
I love the we don't whine about it. A little birdy has told me that the illness thing was a little more widespread than is being publicised...
Postecoglou also mentioned that Ryan Mason is in charge of set-pieces. I wonder if he picked anything up by working with Gianni Vio last season? Vio's at Watford now, apparently.
By the sound of it he was the only who did t get it! Which is ironic, as he also failed to GET IT on the pitch as well today!
I can understand why people are frustrated with Johnson, but he's young and it's early days. I thought he should've been replaced earlier in the game and Gil given more minutes. I doubt Johnson will be in our starting XI if we can get most of our players back.
Johnson is without question at his best when running in behind the defender for a ball over the top or a through ball. Maddison and Kulu are by a distance the best at threading those balls, followed probably by Bentancur, which is why I think the Welshman has struggled to impact games lately. There will be a big question once everyone is back and fit as we can assume Maddison will play as a 10 while Kulu with play to his right. The question then becomes who will lead the line out of Son or Richarlison. If it's the latter, Johnson (and Werner) are out. If it's the former and Richarlison starts from the bench, who fills the LF position out of Werner, Johnson and Solomon?
Hojlund claims United were the better team. Pull the other one, lad. You scored with both of your shots on target and had 36% of possession. They are a very, very expensive version of Everton, nothing more.
Not a bad problem to have. I also think he stayed out there for longer than he would have if we had more options. Werner wasn’t gonna g to last 90 though having played not a lot of football the last few months. Johnson has plenty of time to develop and will be useful in more transitional games as he is.
