[daveoliver91]

9 points out of 9, so really happy with the lads.
Not the best game last night, but we did the job.
Gutted for the Benfica GK, looked so devastated after the game.

 

[Kapardin]

Until we get our injured players back, its' going to be shit-on-a-stick for the most part. Need to grind out the wins. I am quite happy with our CL performances so far.

My bigger worry is that in the absence of these injured players, we could struggle to attack and score goals, much like last season. Sure, the sample size is small (one game so far) but if this trend continues against Huddersfield as well, it is concerning.

The two biggest culprits in my opinion are Mkhi and Herrera. One plays like a pub player and the other one offers nothing in midfield (no matter what his fans say). As a result, the form of players like Lukaku is also affected when he is starved of proper service. Both need to step up while others are absent and start delivering.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Yes I do, and if a performance is dire to watch, having difficulty to string 2-3 passes together without losing possession or having to play the long ball and then losing possession, I am not going to praise it as a job well done. If we are needing lucky goals to get past teams like this, then we are heading down the wrong path and could have a long and difficult season ahead us. That is my opinion but apparently it is the wrong one.
Can you really say with all confidence, after the last 2 games, that we are going to Huddersfield this weekend and will be returning with 3 points in the bag and a couple of goals?

Firstly I'm not asking you to praise it as a job well done, but you specifically referenced the fact that Benfica had been beaten 5-0 by Basle - you talk about our 'lucky' goal (which I'd say was a clever goal actually) here, and say that is a sign of us heading down the wrong path. Well by that logic surely the fact that we beat Basle 3-0 (who spanked Benfica 5-0 as you put it) could be taken as a sign that we are very much on the right path? Similarly what about our 0-4 away win at CSKA? there needs to be a bit of balance.

Can you really say with all confidence, after the last 2 games, that we are going to Huddersfield this weekend and will be returning with 3 points in the bag and a couple of goals?

Absolutely! Look, nobody can predict for sure what will happen, but I don't see any reason whatsoever why we shouldn't be confident about the Huddersfield game - we're 2 points off the top of the league, loads of goals scored and 3 out of 3 in the CL. Cheer up.

 

[KirkDuyt]

3 points, but that'l be the last tough United away match i'll be watching for a while. Lots of stuff to do that's less boring, like filing taxes, or staring at a brick wall. My god.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Agree. People moan non stop, repeating the same thing again and again.

sunama said: ↑
Some of our fans have become so used to moaning, unless we are beating teams 5-0, they won't stop.
I remember when we were scoring 4 goals per game, some people were moaning.
We win 1-0 and yet again, moaning.
Unbeaten all season, moan some more.

I do wonder that if these fans are so negative and miserable, almost everytime we play, why do they even watch football?


Yes and yes.

 

[KirkDuyt]

sunama said: ↑
Some of our fans have become so used to moaning, unless we are beating teams 5-0, they won't stop.
I remember when we were scoring 4 goals per game, some people were moaning.
We win 1-0 and yet again, moaning.
Unbeaten all season, moan some more.

I do wonder that if these fans are so negative and miserable, almost everytime we play, why do they even watch football?


Yes and yes.

Moaning can be very therapeutic to be honest. Moaning is one of the defining characteristics of the British as far as I know. Though I'm not British myself, I can immensely enjoy a good bout of moaning. Or hating for that matter. I love hating on Real Madrid or Barcelona. Negative emotions are emotions too

 

[botond]

im not a moaner , but did you find the last 2 games entertaining ?

 

[Annihilate Now!]

im not a moaner , but did you find the last 2 games entertaining ?

I was entertained last night...

But then I did start watching the game about 30 minutes late, and so got to fast forward through lots of bits... So i'm probably not the best person to judge.

 

[breakout67]

im not a moaner , but did you find the last 2 games entertaining ?

When that goal from Rashford went in I forgot all about the performance. The next thing I thought about was with 10 minutes to go and wanted to see if we could hold on to the lead or bottle it like we did all of last season.

I was definitely invested in the 1st half vs Liverpool, because I kept on shouting at the ref for being a cnut and we had a few attacks and had a good chance to score. The 2nd half, both managers accepted the draw quite quickly.

 

[iHicksy]

I'm really starting to lose faith in Miki. When he came I thought he looked a level above everyone in the team technically and seemed to glide around the pitch. Now he seems to lose possession more often than not and he's not getting into goal scoring positions. He's our main attacking fulcrum (supposedly) but he's too hot and cold, and much more cold than hot. I really don't think he's going to make it here.

We seem to have gone a little LVG esque at times when we used Fellaini as an out ball but now with Rom and it's painful to watch. I don't mind it being used if there's absolutely no pass on but it seems to be our Plan A a little too often.

On the plus side, our defence is solid and Matic and Martial are superb, the latter does things whilst dribbling i've seen few other players do and at speed too.

 

[Acole9]

Nine points from the first three games, really pleased.

 

[RoadTrip]

No ones winning the trophy yet. Getting through is all that matters. Our 0-1 means as much as Liverpool’s 0-7. In this context there is little to complain about.

 

[Marcky411]

No ones winning the trophy yet. Getting through is all that matters. Our 0-1 means as much as Liverpool’s 0-7. In this context there is little to complain about.

I am sure we are all very happy with the end result, 3 played 3 won. People aren't complaining about the result but the execution. Everybody was on a high before the international break, since returning the performances have been dire to watch and it was this same style of play that got LVG and his philosophy kicked out of the club. Now that we have started playing like this under Mourinho it is tactical and strategic masterclass of a winner. I wonder how long people will be making excuses for these performances before they turn on him. I really hope we can shake this style of play like a bad cold and go out this weekend and score some goals and take the 3 points home.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

I wonder how long people will be making excuses for these performances before they turn on him.

Ha ha, have you read the forum since Saturday?!

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Ha ha, have you read the forum since Saturday?!

Some will always turn on him, because they didn't want him in the first place. The slightest little thing tips them over the edge. Everything he says they read their own agenda into it. We have one of our best defenders missing, three midfielders and now maybe a forward. It is bound to impact on our play.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

I am sure we are all very happy with the end result, 3 played 3 won. People aren't complaining about the result but the execution. Everybody was on a high before the international break, since returning the performances have been dire to watch and it was this same style of play that got LVG and his philosophy kicked out of the club. Now that we have started playing like this under Mourinho it is tactical and strategic masterclass of a winner. I wonder how long people will be making excuses for these performances before they turn on him. I really hope we can shake this style of play like a bad cold and go out this weekend and score some goals and take the 3 points home.

The bigger problem with LVG was also the results was poor and the way we played was poor. We got knocked out from an easier group than this one remember. Also we played a huge amount of draws. Had we won more games and won the title ahead of Leicester with 1-0 wins people would be much more positive about him.

I guess we did grind out wins in the Fa cup like 1-0 over Sheffield at home and I guess people complained with that. Although that is due to the level of the opposition. Benfica away from home is a different level of opposition.

Hopefully we can step up for the next game though and score a bit more.

 

[RedDevil@84]

I am sure we are all very happy with the end result, 3 played 3 won. People aren't complaining about the result but the execution. Everybody was on a high before the international break, since returning the performances have been dire to watch and it was this same style of play that got LVG and his philosophy kicked out of the club. Now that we have started playing like this under Mourinho it is tactical and strategic masterclass of a winner. I wonder how long people will be making excuses for these performances before they turn on him. I really hope we can shake this style of play like a bad cold and go out this weekend and score some goals and take the 3 points home.

Most of the people have called out that it was a sh***y performance with great result. I don't think people are claling it tactical masterclass.. But doing enough to get the job done.. It is group stage.. The idea is to qualify and try to qualify on top

 

[noodlehair]

I wasn't as concerned with this as the Liverpool game. We were rubbish but we were trying to win. It seemed to take us half hour to realise we weren't still playing Liverpool though.

If the same result/performance had come after we'd tonked someone 4-0 in the league, I think there'd have been a very different and more positive outlook on it. We were easily the better team, got the result and didn't expend too much energy.

Winning deservedly when you have an off night isn't the worst sign, as long as there's the acknowledgement that it was an off night.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Some will always turn on him, because they didn't want him in the first place. The slightest little thing tips them over the edge. Everything he says they read their own agenda into it. We have one of our best defenders missing, three midfielders and now maybe a forward. It is bound to impact on our play.

Tell me about it...

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

That was a good,solid professional performance.We were rock solid at the back,but we didn't have enough craft in the middle and some of our attackers were very poor.Mikhitaryan was very very poor again,I was stunned that Jose kept him on until the 82nd minute.But all in all,it was a satisfactory performance and a great result....

 

[marlowe78]

Sweeping the first 3 games is major because it puts us in great position to rest players in the last games - so long as Jose chooses to do that. I would love for players like McTominay and Tuanzebe to get time in this group, as I think it would be just the right kind of opposition to play them against.

Other than that, there really wasn't much to write home about. Our defending was solid as it always is. Offensively we did nothing and needed a teenager to literally carry the ball over his own goal line for us to score. I agree that Rashford was trying to take advantage of how shaky the keeper was but there was a real, real element of luck that got us the 3 points.

It looked like Jose tried to paint over our injuries by playing a very contained game with Mkhitaryan making plays that would help get us into the final third. Unfortunately, Henryk was awful in just about everything he did. He couldn't seem to make one good pass or dribble and looked tired, almost depleted, even. He wasn't alone, though - the entire team looked out of sync, nothing was really coming off.

Benfica were playing a ridiculously high line that I thought we could exploit but our players were never able to stay onside. The Benfica defenders worked the line very well but I think we were also mentally lazy. We should've had at least a couple of chances from timing the runs correctly. It would've helped if our attackers worked more closely together but the main worry seemed to be keeping the formation, so Lukaku and Rashford were often isolated.

Since I couldn't vote for that goalkeeper, I picked Smalling for MOTM. I was also happy with Lindelof. He made a couple of fouls that could've been avoided but he looked more animate to me and was good on the ball. Blind and Valencia were okay. Matic and Herrera were fine in MF but I thought Mata did a lot of huffing and puffing. He was obviously better than Mkhitaryan but I though he also created very little. Martial was our only real threat going forward, it might've been a different result if he started.

The approach we took and the fact there were just too many mediocre performances made it impossible to do anything besides grind something out. It was painful but it worked. On my 10 scale, I would give us about a 5, boosted by the good result.