• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

United post-match

Forums New posts
Status
Not open for further replies.
dmishra

dmishra

Very Well-Known
Member
4 draws and 2 defeats since the turn of the year. Just 12 goals in 9 games. The reason is obvious - complete and utter lack of depth behind the front 3. We've run them to the ground, and they'll be running on fumes by the end of the season.

Apparently, Bobby left Old Trafford on crutches. Hopefully that was only precautionary because if he's out for any significant length of time, we might as well pack up and prepare for the summer vacations.

Watching us play the rest of the season with the corpse of Sturridge up top isn't going to be good for my health.
 
dmishra said:
4 draws and 2 defeats since the turn of the year. Just 12 goals in 9 games. The reason is obvious - complete and utter lack of depth behind the front 3. We've run them to the ground, and they'll be running on fumes by the end of the season.

Apparently, Bobby left Old Trafford on crutches. Hopefully that was only precautionary because if he's out for any significant length of time, we might as well pack up and prepare for the summer vacations.

Watching us play the rest of the season with the corpse of Sturridge up top isn't going to be good for my health.
Click to expand...
Play origi

Play shaqiri as a false 9

Play Salah in the middle with shaq or origi wide

Play Glatzl and fucking Duncan

PLAY DUNCAN FROM FUCKING BLUE

Play any combination that doesnt let sturridge on the fucking pitch. An absolute fucking disgraceful performance
 
Re-post.

No urgency, no commitment, no passion and no drive. Just pass it around midfield for fucking ages. When we had the ball no-one was driving at their defence. This has to be on Klopp with his 'keep calm', they were altogether far too calm when what we needed was passion and to run at the cunts.

The midfield was beyond shite. Hendo, & Gini especially since he was the most advanced and supposedly attacking of our midfielders. Fabs had a decent game. At least Milner gave it a go from RB but he didn't have the legs or guile to get past Shaw, who played well.

Mane & Salah were awful.

We needed TAA on the right and Keita in the centre to at least disrupt their formation, it was all so easy for their inexperienced players. We showed no will to go out and win this game. I'm putting this on Klopp because he seems to be withdrawing into this shell as far as team selections are concerned now, he had a great chance to lay down a marker today and bottled the selection.
​
 
Yup, it's hard not to single out that performance from sturridge. It effectively reduced us to 10 men, an injured Rashford offered far more for them.

However that's fully Klopps fault, what the fuck was he thinking there.
 
Regarding this game itself, my thinking is Klopp wanted to make sure we didn't lose. Fuck knows, he's the only one in this squad who knows how to actually manage / pace a title chase - so perhaps he thought a loss was a psychological blow this squad couldn't have recovered from. I don't know - but he obviously played it safe today.

In the larger scheme of things, the title is a definite possibility - I don't buy that City is going to win every game from here. They have many things on their plate, and haven't looked nearly as invincible as last year.

It's still very much within our grasp if we want it - but I simply don't think we have the strength in attack to be able to sustain it for another 11 games.

It's the sheer predictability of it that is infuriating. Almost all us said in the summer that we needed better options behind the front three, but despite the huge outlay in the transfer window, that's one area we failed to strengthen.

I also frankly wish we had recalled Wilson. In times like these, you sometimes need inspiration from an in-form youngster to fire up the team (see Macheda). I see nothing on the bench bar Shaqiri who can produce any magic.
 
I can't believe anyone is running on empty, they've hardly played this year. I think Salah is in dreadful form and we're very reliant on him.
 
Reserves like Sturridge, Lallana, Moreno and Origi have cost us. Whether its due to their general ineffectiveness or them forcing us to play other players that are out of form.
 
There'll be more twists in the season, for sure. Back in the day we would often greet a result like this from Utd with glee and say they had thrown the title, only for them to follow it up with a 6 or 7 match winning streak.

I still believe we will win it, but it will go right to the wire, and loads of nerves will be shredded in the process.

For the first time in years I don't have a ticket for last home game of the season (Wolves), so if anyone can sort me out I'd be eternally grateful - and yes, I know that's a near impossible ask, but just throwing it out there
 
I'm fairly convinced we would have had at least 1-2 points more than we have now if Klopp had just went out to get a 40m forward in Jan to freshen things up.

The famed 3 had lost their spark and their replacements are miles worse.

Everyone have had Salah figured out.

Mane blows hot and cold. When he's cold it's like eternal winter.

Bobby is restricted by the amount of miles in his legs, which seems to burn out by March.

Studge is worse than Solanke.

Origi is just hopeless, i'll rather go 4-4-2 than him.

We are in some deep shit.
 
Yeah, I think if we had lost today, it would have felt like a knock out blow. Also I reckon if City ever get back the lead they won't let it go.

Still, with the injuries to United today, it was a missed opportunity.
 
dmishra said:
........I also frankly wish we had recalled Wilson. In times like these, you sometimes need inspiration from an in-form youngster to fire up the team (see Macheda). I see nothing on the bench bar Shaqiri who can produce any magic.
Click to expand...
I can't remember how many I said this before the window closed. Someone who can score from distance (seems no-one else we have in the team can) and is shit-hot from FKs (we have been beyond awful of late). He would have been a lovely option from the bench and our need is far greater than leaving him to get another 1/2 season under his belt.
 
Woland said:
I can't believe anyone is running on empty, they've hardly played this year. I think Salah is in dreadful form and we're very reliant on him.
Click to expand...
Salah has played every game in the league this year, and leads the league in minutes played amongst all attacking players. Mane and Firmino are not far behind either.

It isn't simply a physical issue - it's just too much pressure on 3 guys every single game to score.

Good attacks have some variety, depth and unpredictability to them. Ours doesn't.

Teams prepare for us knowing they have to shut 3 guys down, and if they're successful, we won't have anything else to throw at them. That's pretty much what we're seeing.
 
Has Salah ever scored direct from a freekick for us? He's just terrible at it.

Shaq or TAA would have worked the keeper at least.
 
dmishra said:
Salah has played every game in the league this year, and leads the league in minutes played amongst all attacking players. Mane and Firmino are not far behind either.

It isn't simply a physical issue - it's just too much pressure on 3 guys every single game to score.

Good attacks have some variety, depth and unpredictability to them. Ours doesn't.

Teams prepare for us knowing they have to shut 3 guys down, and if they're successful, we won't have anything else to throw at them. That's pretty much what we're seeing.
Click to expand...

Now is when having Shaq should have been a boost for us but it's been ages since he's had a good game.

He was ineffective today as well.
 
KopRed said:
I'm fairly convinced we would have had at least 1-2 points more than we have now if Klopp had just went out to get a 40m forward in Jan to freshen things up.

The famed 3 had lost their spark and their replacements are miles worse.

Everyone have had Salah figured out.

Mane blows hot and cold. When he's cold it's like eternal winter.

Bobby is restricted by the amount of miles in his legs, which seems to burn out by March.

Studge is worse than Solanke.

Origi is just hopeless, i'll rather go 4-4-2 than him.

We are in some deep shit.
Click to expand...

Disagree with you on salah. This is just the different between a good and an unbelievable season. He made some poor passes today which are easy for a player of his quality and he had the miss from the hendo pass last week. last season those chance were goals. He is still the top goal scorer in the league.

Agree with the rest.
 
I dont think Salah has been found out at all, were playing a totally different style of football now , a controlled , possession based one - rather than a break neck counter attacking and pressing style that suited Salahs style and pace.

I think this style of football suits firmino the least of the forwards , I actually think he's detrimental to the team against certain teams when we play like this.

Hendo gets props for looking decent in consecutive matches
 
If Firmino is fucked, we need to use the 2 playmakers (Shaq and Keita) and 2 runners (Mane and Salah) formation again.

Sturridge needs shooting behind the barn. Playing him ruins the entire attack - intensity and pressing level of the entire front third reduces to zero, which is essentially the entire x factor of our attack.
 
I would have taken a draw before the game, and I was quite satisfied with that. It was a mustn't lose game, not a must win game. So long as we go on to find our best form, this is not a negative result. If we don't go on to find our best form, then we won't challenge for the title anyway.
 
It was frustrating that Shaq came on only to regularly be our deepest of the midfield 3. WTF is the point of that?
 
On the TV coverage: that was almost as bad as BT's coverage of the away game at Arsenal, where the camera kept cutting to Emery every time he so much as twitched.

This game, the amount of cuts to the manc crowd, and the 'baby-faced' Norway-Mancunian, were ridiculous.

But worse still, TV coverage generally is still obsessed with replays even though the game is now so fast-paced it only takes about 8 seconds for a counter-attack to happen. Several times they'd have an attack, it broke down, there'd be a replay, and by the time they cut back to real time we were having a throw in by their corner flag.

What it's doing is making TV football more like rugby - a hugely frustrating stop-start-stop game. They should fill up the half time period with replays and leave most of the actual game to thrive as it happens.
 
gkmacca said:
I would have taken a draw before the game, and I was quite satisfied with that. It was a mustn't lose game, not a must win game. So long as we go on to find our best form, this is not a negative result. If we don't go on to find our best form, then we won't challenge for the title anyway.
Click to expand...

I think a point at old trafford is a decent result and psychologically enhances our title hopes. It really is a question of nerve in the run in.
 
dmishra said:
If Firmino is fucked, we need to use the 2 playmakers (Shaq and Keita) and 2 runners (Mane and Salah) formation again.

Sturridge needs shooting behind the barn. Playing him ruins the entire attack - intensity and pressing level of the entire front third reduces to zero, which is essentially the entire x factor of our attack.
Click to expand...

For all the good work in the summer transfer window, we still signally failed to address the most blatant problem: if any of our front three goes off, there's a massive decline in quality. Last season it was Studge and Solanke, now it's Studge and Origi. Surely the final last season taught us we simply can't expect to win stuff when Salah or another limps off. City can bring on Aguero, for god's sake.
 
gkmacca said:
I would have taken a draw before the game, and I was quite satisfied with that. It was a mustn't lose game, not a must win game. So long as we go on to find our best form, this is not a negative result. If we don't go on to find our best form, then we won't challenge for the title anyway.
Click to expand...
True.

For me, the big worry today was the performance and not the result.

Today we could not lose. That was the major objective. It was achieved.

Psychologically, it was massive not to be beaten by United. As the United press would have been doing cartwheels writing about how United ended our hopes.

And whilst it was a missed opportunity, if we somehow find our best form, this will be seen as a point gained. We will see at the end of the season how much all these points we've gained, whilst not playing well, matter.
 
gkmacca said:
For all the good work in the summer transfer window, we still signally failed to address the most blatant problem: if any of our front three goes off, there's a massive decline in quality. Last season it was Studge and Solanke, now it's Studge and Origi. Surely the final last season taught us we simply can't expect to win stuff when Salah or another limps off. City can bring on Aguero, for god's sake.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I have no doubt it will be addressed this summer, but hopefully we won't be left ruing that we didn't do it earlier.
 
We really need Brewster to start playing this season. It's all very well to invest in youth and be patient - that's great - but this is here and now, and we MUST have a serious attacking threat on the bench as well as the pitch.
 
The Klopp mantra of not using the winter transfer window is about to be shown up as daft as fuck, again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom