[DonDarmian]

A midfield 3 consiting of Pogba, Fellaini and Rooney...

..never again

 

[Carolina Red]

One thing I would say about those pointing the finger at Mourinho. He can't account for individuals making the most basic of errors.

But he can stop picking certain people in the team...

 

[MadDogg]

We desperately need a playmaker in midfield. Someone who will control the team around. In the last two matches it hasn't been as obvious, but it was incredible how much we needed one in this match. I ended up just hoping that Carrick would come on. He's not the player he used to be, but he's still simply the best we have for that role. Hell, even try Blind there. I wasn't a fan of Blind in midfield during his first season, but his overall performances have improved enough since then that he's worth giving a chance to.

Things improved a bit once Mata came on as he was dropping in and doing that role at times, but he's needed further up the pitch.

 

[Mr. Ant]

It's like watching us last season except now we are shit at defending. Also it's finally time to drop Rooney and never start him again. He can't pass, cross and is scared to shoot, what's the point in him playing then?

Team lacks balance and cohesion, it's just horrible to watch.

In my opinion we are out of the title race because we will drop points very easily imo. Top 4 is gonna be a challenge this season.
Jose will hopefully turn this around.

 

[Revan]

Question. If things go epically wrong (think worse than Moyes), where do we go if Mourinho got canned?

For a young manager, I guess. Pochettino, Howe or Ryan Giggs.

Lets hope it doesn't happen though.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

I am still not convinced with Smalling.

Me neither. I don't think he's top class. We have too many average players hanging around the club.

 

[OohAahMartial]

I'm concerned that we got last year's Mourinho, and not the year befores. That's concerning as we could do as badly as Chelsea. We can see what he's trying to do and its no better than what we've had, no better looking nor effective. Pressing and movement off the ball are entirely absent which shows fundamentally being out of touch with modern developments in football and bodes poorly for the season. He doesn't know his best team or formation, and is getting the tactics wrong again and again. It's easy to blame Rooney as being arguably the worst player in the league, but LVG was an idiot for always playing him and if Mourinho cannot see what the rest of the country can then he's being just as idiotic. The honeymoon is well and truly over, and he needs to adapt and quick.

 

[JustinC00]

DDG
Valencia-Bailly-Blind-Shaw
Herrera-Carrick-Pogba
Miki-Ibra-Rashford/Martial

Needs to be the starting 11 going forward if we want top 4

 

[littlepeasoup]

*eagerly awaits Mourinho's interview with morbid curiosity*

 

[welshmanc75]

Make that complete shower of shite play against Northampton. Some of them will actually be finding their level

 

[Ballache]

Question. If things go epically wrong (think worse than Moyes), where do we go if Mourinho got canned?

It will be Giggs IMO. No other options unless we can get Tuchel which is unlikely.

 

[Jinn]

Its pointless picking on individual errors. This will always happen. Whats concerning is when we go behind and theres no creativity, passion, and proper shots on goal. The best attempt in the second half was ibra's header from a fellaini cross. That says it all. Its like a disease with no cure.

 

[JB08]

If we had a fully-fit team in a 4-3-3 with Rooney nowhere to be seen, I think we'd attack a lot better. I'm not really concerned as it's 5 games into the league season, and I think we have good enough players and a good enough manager to start winning again.

It's been a tough 3 games, I didn't predict us to win any of them, and we lost them all unfortunately. I do think that he can (hopefully) drop Rooney and we will see immediate improvements in the players around him, alongside a 4-3-3 which will allow Pogba to shine. I also hope Rashford is demoted to the bench, he is far superior when running in behind tired defenders, and is a much better finisher than anything else.

 

[Mr.Kaya]

Dire, fecking dire. We need Rooney out of the team asap, we need Pogba to move forward with two behind him to control the midfield. Get Herrera and Fellaini in there. Play with proper wingers if we can, but we don't have them so feck. Aargh.

Agree in everything you wrote, except I'd replace Fella with Carrick.

 

[Theonas]

I find it really strange that other teams with new managers can get going so quickly whilst we take some time to gel and get used to the new approach introduced by the new manager. It's not like we have that much of a squad turnover anyways. Most of the players we play are from van Gaal's era, so why is it that the players still look like they don't understand each other?

We completely lost it in the first half when our passing was too sloppy and our movement almost nonexistent. It's as if the players aren't sure about what the player on the ball will do, so they just stick to their area and hope for the best. Rashford and Pogba seem to be the only ones who are willing to get themselves available for the ball or move around to stretch the opposition, but the rest don't seem to want to do that. Too often have I seen our players get double-teamed/isolated by the opposition, and that's down to a lack of understanding between the players.

This isn't something new, either. It's been happening ever since Sir Alex left the club: the players just don't adjust to the new manager's methods as quickly as players do for other teams.

That's because our manager doesn't have a specific approach. He is reactive and sets his team to adapt to the situation instead of building a team that plays with a clear style like Klopp, Wenger, Pochettino, Pep or even LvG. So there was never going to be any detectable stamp stylistically at least. I did think however that we'd be more competitive considering his CV and ability to motivate and read the game.

 

[Jazz]

Mourinho needs to go back to the drawing board. First of all figure out what the feck he wants, then set up with the right formation and personnel to achieve that. Stop shoe horning players - it's killing us. Strip Rooney of the captaincy now and get a fecking proper bastard to lead us! Kick the players off social media and get their arses focused!

Ok after my rant - it's clear most of the players are trying hard, but the system and some personnel are not working. Jose needs to sort this shit out.

 

[ChaddyP]

We played far better with LVG as manager. Had better understanding of the opposition too and more consistency. I have no idea what it is we are trying to do other than lump and hope. Aweful stuff, embarrassing.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Th first goal was a disaster to give away. Just clear the ball. The whole thing about Mourinhos tactics is that you be defensively sound and then nick a goal, especially away from home. That then goes out the door when you concede a simple goal because of Martials mistake.

We have to be winning these games because you have about seven teams going for four spots. We will struggle now.

 

[Devil may care]

A shoehorned team selection, horrible substitutions, no game plan, and zero brain in midfield or defense to organize things. Only Pogba, Shaw, Ibra and Rashford put in the amount of fight that should be deemed mandatory.

 

[redshaw]

Looked as bad creatively as the last 2-3 years. Our only salvation is Ibra can gives something by himself but it's same old outside of that.

While we can look to refs and bad luck, our forward play is pitiful. Last season we relied on Martial beating 2-3 players as we could barely create anything. We know Mata can produce a good ball once in 5-7 games. We can't put teams under real pressure and our passing breaks down too often. Rooney was criminal today.

I still think the likes of Fellaini, Mata and Rooney plus some others are to blame, we're still shit and we still have these bad Moyes buys killing the club. Not saying they can't do well on occasion but we have a weird collection of players.

We need a Moyes LVG cleansing. We seem to be accommodating 40 million Mata and 30 million Fellaini.

I still have faith in Mourinho to change a few things and even get us playing better than the previous managers but how long do keep this rabble of part timers.

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Carrick and Schweini would not make us better one bit.

I am not a fan of dissing any of our Players but I do not think that Rooney, Ibra and Fellaini are good enough to Play on the highest Level.
Would like to see a midfield 3 with Blind in front of the defense and Pogba being the most offensive one. I would try Herrera and Schneiderlin to see who might fit better.
And a front 3 of Martial - Rashford - Mkhitaryan.

 

[Revan]

i've absolutely no complaints with Zlatan. 5 goals in 7 games and almost scored a magnificent header today.

Not to mention that he created Rashford's goal.

 

[dove]

I think we have quite a big problem here. We have Rooney who offers absolutely nothing to the team but we can't drop him. We have our record signing Pogba who can't control midfield at all and he must have another world class midfielder alongside him. It's obvious it's not working but imagine the scenes if Rooney would be benched. His mates at the media would instantly jump on the manager and we will have even more problems.

 

[KirkDuyt]

Rooney makes 300k a week.
I can't describe the rage boiling up in my soul when I think about that.

I'm at a loss for words. Be a man and quit your job. Or donate the rest of your salary to charity, pr just piss off to China.

 

[Successful]

At the same time somewhere else:

 

[Irrational.]

I'm rapidly falling out of love with the game. I feared a time like this after Fergie retired.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Maureen is past his expiry date. Either there was no game plan for the past 3 matches or Jose has been found out.

Im afraid you might be right

 

[Ventura]

The best team won today. We should have bought a few more stars to have a chance against this lot!

 

[Feed Me]

There's a shocking lack of backbone and technical ability in the squad. For all of the bluster, we just aren't very good. This is compounded by having a a manager who appears to be past his best. There's an amazing amount of hype around the club, but bugger all to back it up on the pitch. I'm beyond wasting my time being angry any more.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I am still not convinced with Smalling.

One of the most consistent PL defenders over the last few seasons and this was his first start...we need to stop this knee jerking!

Quite a few people have pointed out Bailly & Smalling are similar so you feel the lack of a 'ball-playing' defender. If you had Carrick in front this might not be a problem but so far fellaini/Pogba have been awful at dictating. Given what we have I would probably just go back to Blind Smalling/Bailly. Bailly is awful on the ball for an elite level player - great defender though.

 

[Jaapster]

Disappointed really , I don't listen to the pundits because you get more sense out of a speed bummed llama , we just played poor, Rooney does what he always does naff all Fellani was good didn't do much wrong , rashford works his socks off , it will take time for this team to gel , where's my next beer lol

 

[MooseTheMooche]

This match is just as bad as the WBA away game last season under LVG. Team bereft of ideas, and not giving a flying feck about the result. The way we start the games is just terrible, wandering about, waiting for some miracle to happen. I don't know what is happening to Mourinho, but tactically he is just plain wrong. First half there was so much space between the individual formations that it is no wonder we have to resort to the hoofball tactics, or passing it to DDG, who will then hoof it to the front. However, I do think that, apart from bad managerial decisions, the players are letting Mourinho down. They simply do not care (with few exceptions of course), and are happy to collect their massive paychecks regardless of how they play (then they of course will say something along the lines of how sorry they are, and that the focus is on the next game, which we will undoubtedly win). Getting sick of these passengers, and the spineless cnuts that wear the red shirt. I will not even mention Rooney, because we all know that he is a guaranteed starter no matter how he plays.

 

[An Irish Red]

We need rid of Rooney and Fellaini; both absolutely terrible footballers.

It really says it all about him that Rooney is the worse of the two as well. And the pair of them are in our first choice midfield... shambles.

 

[Mister_Stubbs]

Shambolic. Watford are an average team who have made us look like amateurs. The players at times looked as confused as us as to what we were trying to do. A vast improvement needed as this week hasn't been good enough.

 

[Kag]

This just won't work. You can play one dumb defender without any technical ability, but you can't play two of them. Blind for one of them, Carrick for Blind and it might well work though.

Also, Pogba and Herrera should be swapped. Both of them play better in the opposite sides you put them.

Bailly is dumb without technical ability? What a half-witted reply.

 

[hirotan69er]

our squad is not top drawer. but I refuse to believe we don't have enough about us to play a reasonably decent passing game Watford looked technically better than us today ffs. Get carrick/basti in there, get micki integrated asap, sell rooney, fix martial and jobs a good 'un

To be fair...it is Walter Mazzarri managing the team. He's like the OG 3-5-2 worshipper in Serie A before Conte followed.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

Rooney needs to be dropped. Totally made us disjointed all game.

 

[ManRant]

In before blaming it on one player. The blame is on the whole team. I thought in the 1st half we were ok as in we can build on the performance but in the 2nd half everything went south. Apart from the goal and good 10 minutes after that we were all over the place in the 2nd half.

I hope Blind will get his place back in thhe place of Smalling or Bailley. Both of them are just too rash and seems like lacking with football intelligence. In midfield, the partner for pogba is the key. Doesn't matter if we put 2 or 3 or even 4 midfielders, but if no proper movement, space would not be open for utilization.

In attack, we have too many players who are off form at this moments. Most here will blame Rooney but others haven't put themselves in pedestal as well except for maybe Ibra with his contribution. Rashford is exciting and all but too many wrong decisions made by him tonight but he is one player I would starts other than Ibra.

Martial to me needs to be properly rested and Valencia no matter how good he is in running can't put even 1 good cross. Rooney needs to perform better than just his average self, just as Martial his head is not in the right place IMO.

To me, United's problem is something bigger than just 1 or 2 players. Though it might be hard but the manager must get the players to be playing for the team rather than themselves. Too many players are playing with the notion of having to impress the manager and we can see that from some players who are trying to hard while playing.

 

[Creepy]

It's Rooney

Didn't even think he was bad today, per se.. By that I mean he only got caught out of position once iicr? The problem, in my opinion, is that he offers no balance to the team, in fact doesn't offer anything - he's a complete passenger. One of Pogba, Rooney or Ibra got to be dropped and it's fecking obvious who the elephant in the room is.

 

[Jacko21]

But he can stop picking certain people in the team...

He can, but when he has rotated and picked others, those who've come in have made school-boy mistakes.

You just can legislate for that. He's not here to coach the Under-18's. For whom mistakes are a part of learning.