Match thread v Man Utd.

[FenwayFrank 2,456]

5 minutes ago, TIL 1010 said:

The Happy Clappers have already booked it for a crisis meeting.

Like a lot of your mates posts, it’s only funny in your head

[king canary 7,578]

24 minutes ago, Indy said:

Can’t disagree with that, certainly not consistent enough for this level, Amadou certainly not looked great at this level either. My remark was on their day, once in a blue moon if you like, but I don’t agree with lots of people who purely blame our defence, yes they’re certainly still young but had we got a strong midfield pairing in front of them they wouldn’t look so exposed at times as they have this season.

Agree this is an area which we have plenty of players but probably one of our weakest in truth.

Don't disagree at all that this isn't just on the defence. Someone posted an interesting heat map on twitter showing where teams were starting doing their defending and we're doing far too much in and around our own box, suggesting the midfield is not pressing an engaging attackers high enough up the pitch.

[TIL 1010 4,718]

45 minutes ago, ricardo said:

 

more games next season, more midweek involvement, hopefully more wins and far fewer stupid kick off times.

What's not to like about that?

Most importantly of all ricardo no VAR.

[duke63 541]

I’d still like to see us try Godfrey in DCM. Tettey’s legs are giving up. 

[TIL 1010 4,718]

8 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

Like a lot of your mates posts, it’s only funny in your head

A bit like you keep mentioning St Andrews Hall then as i make that twice on this thread.

[FenwayFrank 2,456]

[Herman 9,711]

43 minutes ago, king canary said:

I don't agree our first xi is good enough though. I don't think any of McLean, Tettey, Zimmerman or even Byram get regular starts at any other team in this league, and I don't think Steipermann, Trybull, Hanley or Leitner get into many 25 man squads.

Doesn't this highlight the fact that we would have had to invest Villa amounts of money just to get to a level of just surviving?

[duke63 541]

Whilst I understand everyone wants to see City play at the highest level, it has to be said that many of the so called big clubs, the support of their team on the pitch is awful. 

The huge sums of money has actually taken the heart out of many of these clubs. Today was probably the biggest example of that. 

[Darth Canary1 91]

We took a punt on players stepping up and rewarded them with improved contracts. We took the approach I wanted in terms of giving players a chance. It just turns out that a lot of the players just arent good enough, especially the midfield at prem level. We move on and see where we are for a another championship push.

[Aggy 752]

16 minutes ago, Herman said:

Doesn't this highlight the fact that we would have had to invest Villa amounts of money just to get to a level of just surviving?

Yep, and I think to be honest we got promoted a season too early (obviously not financially etc.)... but had we had another season in the championship, bringing in one or two additions to the spine of the team (perhaps ones with a little bit more physicality as well), then I think we’d have been better placed. Unfortunately now if/when we go back down, a few of our better players are likely to be snapped up. We’ll need to re-invest wisely. 

[Dame to Blame 95]

1 hour ago, Making Plans said:

Yes they're a shrewd bunch. Nothing much gets past them.

LOL  🤣🤣🤣  Brilliant 

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

1 hour ago, JF said:

If they offer him the job then he will be gone as quick as Lambert was to Villa. Not a chance that he would turn down that role and no one would expect him to

True,  but not because  hes been misled/ shortchanged by the board/Weber as some have suggested.  He knew  exactly what the situation was when we won the league last season. 

[daly 500]

1 hour ago, ricardo said:

A great shame, but let us keep playing with style and hope a little more thought is given to recruiting players with more defensive acumen. It can't all be flashy football, you need some grafters to make a team. That much should be obvious to the management team by now. Had Klose been fit we might have made a better fist of it but in our heart of hearts we all knew that what we had would struggle at this level.

more games next season, more midweek involvement, hopefully more wins and far fewer stupid kick off times.

What's not to like about that?

And we get the derby back

[Surfer 1,547]

We might well be playing Derby, but I'm not sure we'll that "that lot" back to play a derby against. 

[Herman 9,711]

5 minutes ago, wcorkcanary said:

True,  but not because  hes been misled/ shortchanged by the board/Weber as some have suggested.  He knew  exactly what the situation was when we won the league last season. 

Precisely.👍👍👍

[ricardo 7,340]

17 minutes ago, daly said:

And we get the derby back

I sincerely hope not🙄

[king canary 7,578]

51 minutes ago, Herman said:

Doesn't this highlight the fact that we would have had to invest Villa amounts of money just to get to a level of just surviving?

No, not hugely.

A central defender, a defensive midfielder and a number 10 would have been what we needed (along with Byram) and I think there are players out there that could improve on what we have without costing the earth.

[Nuff Said 5,088]

1 hour ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

On the plus side, Jacob Murphy bought a round of drinks at the annual 'Leeds are falling apart' party. That at least raised a smile.

I’ve run out of reactions, so 🤣😂😅

[Nuff Said 5,088]

2 hours ago, The Great Mass Debater said:

Ondrej Duda after watching that performance...

 

 

 

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

The thing that’s hurt the most this season is that aside from today, and very much recently, we’ve been so close to getting results.  

We lost 14 points from winning positions in December. In all of them it was fine margins that lost us the points.

Against Wolves we could have finished it if Pukki had put away his chances.

In all of them it was defensive mistakes that cost us goals.

If we had spent a bit of money on a decent striker, could he have filled in when Pukki was clearly not fit? It’s fine margins and gobbling up one of those chances by a fully fit striker could have made such a difference. Today we had to play a rookie.

Defensively, could we have splashed out on a dominant and experienced centre back to make us a bit more solid?

As I said earlier, it’s fine margins and investing more in the squad in the summer  wouldn’t have guaranteed improvement, but it certainly would have given us a better chance.

I’m so gutted that after last season we’re not making a decent go of it. We’ll finish bottom but I genuinely thought we’d perform much better. So sad and a missed opportunity.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Hoola Han Solo

[Nuff Said 5,088]

I *still* struggle with the argument that we should have bought a better CB. With Godfrey and Zimbo/Klose, and Hanley as additional backup we would have had to have bought someone at least as good as Klose to be offering them any chance of regular playing time. They also would need to be relatively experienced, otherwise we’d have rookies in all four defensive positions. We either would have to be incredibly lucky scouting a hidden gem, or to pay a huge amount of money. I just can’t see it happening.

[Branston Pickle 3,633]

I pretty much agree with Hoola, we’ve been competitive in 90% of games and it feels we perhaps haven’t got what we deserved, but it’s a pretty ruthless business.  There were always going to be games where it didn’t work out like today, and the injuries just caught up with us home to Villa, most other games have been close.  But very often it’s been pretty fine margins…then again I suppose it always is, if you bear in mind some of our late shows last season.

I can’t help but think that a bit of a minor overhaul in defence or tweak in tactics and things would have worked out much better; I harped on about it all summer but we didn’t address our clear Achilles heel…we saw 58 goals conceded last season and with the same personnel this time out it just wasn’t really going to be any better without a few changes or tactic tweak. 

Edited January 11, 2020 by Branston Pickle

[Number9 272]

4 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

I *still* struggle with the argument that we should have bought a better CB. With Godfrey and Zimbo/Klose, and Hanley as additional backup we would have had to have bought someone at least as good as Klose to be offering them any chance of regular playing time. They also would need to be relatively experienced, otherwise we’d have rookies in all four defensive positions. We either would have to be incredibly lucky scouting a hidden gem, or to pay a huge amount of money. I just can’t see it happening.

You sound very much like someone who was happy to concede so many goals in the championship last season and with the belief that it'll be ok to keep doing that in the Premier League. 

Our defence and or tactics aren't working. 

[duke63 541]

I suspect it’s defensive midfield where we are lacking defensively, not the defenders themselves. 

[Monty13 2,229]

I’m confused why everyone’s losing their **** over being comprehensively beaten by   Utd when they were bound to rebound after midweek and our most influential and truly Premiership level quality player was missing.

I don’t want to get on Idah’s back at all, lads come in to do an impossible job making your PL debut at 18 at old Trafford as a lone striker, but we simply couldn’t get out of our own half today and without someone to hold up the ball this was always going to be a struggle as we weathered the pressure.

Any other time a trip to United would be written off yet for some reason  people expected a result with the above in mind?

Other than that nothing has changed, we were bottom before, we still are, and we got schooled by a team with far more fit talent than we will ever likely have in their ranks. We are likely to get relegated due to previous results and I can’t for the life of me think why people expected today to change anything?

 

Edited January 11, 2020 by Monty13

[Nuff Said 5,088]

1 hour ago, Number9 said:

You sound very much like someone who was happy to concede so many goals in the championship last season and with the belief that it'll be ok to keep doing that in the Premier League. 

Our defence and or tactics aren't working. 

I agree with your final sentence, but the answer to the question what realistic way could we fix it is not necessarily with a better CB.

[Nuff Said 5,088]

And of course I’m not happy to concede lots of goals, but I’d rather score lots more than draw nil nil.

[Number9 272]

12 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

I agree with your final sentence, but the answer to the question what realistic way could we fix it is not necessarily with a better CB.

The answer has proved to be different to Farkes Plan A, lets try and outscore everyone, and see how many attacking midfielders we can get. 

[Il Pirata 249]

Just back from the game. 

In summary, dreadful. Not even second best today, Manchester United pressed us to death and forced mistake after mistake. We lacked EPL class in every department today, and never got a foothold in the game. 

Cantwell and Mclean terrible, offered nothing all game. Vrancic and Tettey slow and cumbersome, Byram needed too long to get the ball onto his stronger foot and Aarons couldn't get to grips with the attacking Williams. Zim and Hanley defended with heart, but ultimately were fire fighting throughout and their distribution was abysmal. Krul's decision to challenge for the penalty was clueless and killed the game. 

Adam Idah offered Harry McGuire the easiest 90 minutes of EPL football he'll ever get. To be in a position whereby we have to throw an 18 year old in for his first league start at Old Trafford is criminal. Are we taking this league seriously? 

The only player deserving of any credit was Buendia. The only player Manchester United showed a yard of respect to. 

Men against boys, in some circumstances quite literally. 

As for the away fans.. compared to recent away game we were poor too, and from the get go. 

Rubbish, horrible, and thoroughly depressing day of football. 

 

Edited January 11, 2020 by Il Pirata

[Midlands Yellow 3,926]

Just now, Il Pirata said:

Just back from the game. 

In summary, dreadful. Not even second best today, Manchester United pressed us to death and forced mistake after mistake. We lacked EPL class in every department today, and never got a foothold in the game. 

Cantwell and Mclean terrible, offered nothing all game. Vrancic and Tettey slow and cumbersome, Byram needed too long to get the ball onto his stronger foot and Aarons coudnlt get to grips with the attacking Williams. Zim and Hanley defended with heart, but ultimately were fire fighting throughout and their distribution was abysmal. Krul's decision to challenge for the penalty was clueless and killed the game. 

Adam Idah offered Harry McGuire the easiest 90 minutes of EPL football he'll ever get. To be in a position whereby we have to throw an 18 year old in for his first league start at Old Trafford is criminal. Are we taking this league seriously? 

The only player deserving of any credit was Buendia. The only player Manchester United showed a yard of respect to. 

Men against boys, in some circumstances quite literally. 

As for the away fans.. compared to recent away game we were poor too, and from the get go. 

Rubbish, horrible, and thoroughly depressing day of football. 

 

But the away fans took it on the chin and all’s not lost ?