[2 man midfield]

I think that'll do more for our confidence than the last couple have. We've proven we can play nice, attacking football. Now we've proven we can keep plugging away, be patient, take our chances and grind out a win at a tough away ground. The players will take a lot from that.

 

[RedIan]

Thought we were poor but won the game cause of our quality. We moved the ball too slowly.[/QUOT
Agree to an extent, rather slow in the first half almost Jose like with safe passes rather than the forward pass and move we have seen in the last 3 games. A tougher game of course. Valencia not involved at all, no one seemed to want to pass to him even when he was in space. We mised Young,s running. Looked far better in the second half, scored 2 and should have had 4.

Overall decent rather than poor, but not spectacular. 4 out of 4, big up Ole!

 

[Massive Spanner]

Rafa with a little dig at Mourinho on Sky Sports.

"They have expensive players that can win games, well.. except for the defenders".

 

[Random Task]

I am always happy when Lingard isn't playing....

He was sorely missed tonight.

His movement, work rate and willingness to sacrifice himself in order to create space for others cannot and should not be ignored. What is your problem with him?

 

[Random Task]

Rafa with a little dig at Mourinho on Sky Sports.

"They have expensive players that can win games, well.. except for the defenders".

He's not wrong to be fair

 

[Iowred]

At 0-0 under mourinho he would have put on fellani as the ‘plan B’ and instructed the team to go route 1. All 3 subs today were positive attacking substitutes who enabled us to have more power and pace on the counter. Good solid professional win.

 

[Random Task]

Great result.

And Chelsea dropped points I believe?

Yup.

The gap has been closed from 11 points down to 6 over the 4 games Ole has been in charge.

 

[Judas]

I am always happy when Lingard isn't playing....

Imagine being happier when the team you supports leaves out an important player.

 

[Joseunited]

Good away win,played in 3rd gear for most of it but always looked like the goals were going to come.Valencia looks out of his depth in this type of team, every time he tried to get forward he seemed to put the brakes on.

Top 4 here we come.

 

[The Hacker]

We were playing like Newcastle not long ago. All behind the ball, slow build up and especially snatching at chances.

Tough to break them down today. Gotta be happy with the win. 4 games perfectly dealt with.

 

[VP89]

Thrilled with this so far. Hopefully other results continue to swing our way.

 

[Dyslexic Untied]

Great win from a decent performance.

Lindelof MoM. Newcastle are a horrible side.

 

[Tincanalley]

Definitely didn't look as good as we have the previous few games. I felt it was partly tiredness (I'm surprised we haven't rotated a bit more than we have over this busy period) and partly the line-up. We only had the two hard workers in the front six (Herrera and Rashford), and Valencia on the right provided nothing like what we get from Young. As such we just didn't show anywhere near as much energy as we have previously, but it was enough to get us over the line.

Excellent points. Valencia had a poor day at the office. Pogba not great. Herrera and Magic were the key men tonight

 

[Berbaclass]

Neville

 

[Deleted member 101472]

Not sure if it’s fair or not to put the knife into Valencia’s career here but it wasn’t encouraging was it?

Genuinely think we’ll struggle to deal with a top attack, but can’t get carried away this period is about returning the clubs identity and we are doing that. Just Fancy son and Kane to make mincemeat of any back 4 we put out

 

[crossy1686]

Going to try and not pick any bones here but, that's 4 from 4. We look like Fergie's back in charge, we're playing good football and grinding out wins when needed. We're a cohesive attacking unit and we would have 100% lost this game under Mourinho.

Some said Chelsea and Arsenal wouldn't drop points, some say that Ole is a fraud because of Cardiff. I know it's been a tough couple of years or 6, but dare to fecking dream again will you? We might come crashing to Earth against Tottenham but in the mean time, we're 6 points off 4th and still have to play Chelsea.

Come on!

 

[crossy1686]

Not sure if it’s fair or not to put the knife into Valencia’s career here but it wasn’t encouraging was it?

Genuinely think we’ll struggle to deal with a top attack, but can’t get carried away this period is about returning the clubs identity and we are doing that. Just Fancy son and Kane to make mincemeat of any back 4 we put out

He's finished, shades of Neville against Stoke. He was scared to go forward because he knew he'd get caught out. His last season for sure.

 

[Tony Banta]

Lindelöf played very well, my MOTM. Looking stronger, looked better in the air at times as well. Herrera as industrious as ever. Valencia was well off the pace, Mata ineffective.

The final game, after a busy Christmas period, you’d always expect a tired performance, but we kept going, that game would’ve been awful to watch under Mourinho.

Time for Matic, Pogba, Rashford, Herrera to rest up, and get ready for Spurs away.

Loved Ole at the end, the gesture to the away fans, that connection is real, you can’t buy that.

 

[MyDevil]

At 2 - 0, Ole has chosen to bring in Lingard. Mourinho would have brought in Darmian. That's very positive action from Ole.

 

[RedIan]

Ole only second ever manager of Utd in history to win first 4 games, only other Sir Matt !

 

[crossy1686]

Seriously how did newcastle keep 11 men on the pitch?

Through a complete absence of any form of refereeing.

 

[klsv]

Newcastle are the new Stoke, glad we won't have to face the feckers again. Can't believe they managed to get away with just one yellow.

 

[Shiva87]

Great result, and the players should take a huge amount of confidence from that. Clean sheet - check, Goals scored - check, chances created - check, subs looked hungry - check, game management with 1-0 up - check.

That's a lot of positives. I used the hate the way the team used to game manage after going 1-0 up. Today, it was great to see the players pass the ball confidently at that point. Keep it short and simple and move it around the field. With this approach, inevitable gaps open up - and we took one of them. Could have scored a couple more - but that wouldn't have been a fair reflection of the game. There were a few times we reverted to Jose type and just booted the ball up the field and invited pressure, but that's required.

The team has a lot of minutes played over the last 12 days, and good to see them manage a professional performance!

We've made up 5 points on 4th! Onwards and upwards...

 

[crossy1686]

Great result.

And Chelsea dropped points I believe?

0-0!

Told you they would drop points! You can't play the same 11 players week in week out in the PL.

 

[RAVred]

We didnt play great.. Hope to see most of the starters vs Spurs get rested vs Reading otherwise we will be very knackered

 

[buckooo1978]

great win given the defensive numbers Newcastle use - the first goal was absolutely crucial and when Newcastle had to attack we really should have scored 4 - overall we weren't at our best in attack and Martial/Pogba were 6 and 7 out of 10 instead of the 9/10 out of 10s we've seen recently

Jones was never in control of situations and Valencia looks a quarter of the player Young did vrs Bournemouth

I felt Matic/Herrera was a bit of overkill and whilst both were very good (especially Herrera) we could have really benefited from a playmaker in one of their roles (Matic's for me)

Mata was tidy but didn't have a great impact

The game seemed to highlight the 4 areas we are most in need of improvement - CB, CM, RW and RB

 

[ColvaleGoa]

Enjoyed that a lot. Needed to grind a win out like that. Makes the win even more sweet. Clean sheet is a bonus too. Need De Gea to go back into Beast mode so whenever we have Jones/Smalling Brainfarts, we have got a cover to fall back.

Special Mention to Lindeloff who I thought was Majestic.

Rashford turning into our very own Cristiano. Hopefully we can rest him soon. He absolutely runs himself into the ground every match.

 

[bosnian_red]

Was actually really pleasing to see how strong our starting front 3 was, and then see a completely new front 3 at the end of the game and it still be brilliant on paper. Crazy to think that Mourinho was so insistent on playing defensively.

 

[Tincanalley]

That was compelling? Effective, yes. Dreary, yes. Grind, aha. Onwards and upwards.

The sort of game a month ago where with ten minutes left and no one looking like they had a clue, we'd be Humping long balls to Fellaini. And it would have finished 0-0.

Whatever, Ole is saying and doing, the players are responding and watching United is compelling again, not a wearisome ritual.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

2-0 win. Benitez is a difficult manager to play against as his teams are always hardworking and with some pacey players out wide and big players in the central line.We deserved the win, but could easily have ended as a draw. United needs to start creating something on the right side against a balanced defense, if not we become to predictable and easier to defend against.

Ref: not good, cowardly. 3 50% situations where we got the bad end of the deal(Lascelles tackle vs Herrera could have been red, Rashford penalty situation in the first half could/should have been a pen, Pogba/Shelvey could have been red). Reckon it were some situations going in our favour as well.

Players of note.:
Rashford/Martial: Good linkup play and overall a good performance by both. Martial suffers from the lack of play on the right side as Newcastle moves all the people over to our left and Martial gets 3 people on him and little room.

Pogba: Newcastle put 2 people on him when we were close to their goal. Struggled.

Mata: Some decent situations with quick short passes. Should be benched against Tottenham as he offers nothing when we press.

Valencia: Did not do anything positive of note. Nothing happend on the right side as usual...

Lukaku and Sanchez: Both were involved in the goals. Did not do anything else in the general play. Still contributed to our goals, but neither should start against spurs.

Jones: His compilation video with errors lengthens, then comes with a risky but successful tackle.

 

[Moiraine]

Positives:

• 12/12 points (only team so far)
• Clean sheet finally.
• Only 6 points to Chelsea
• Mini break for the 1st X1 from now with no injuries
• United healing from the infection that is Jose
• I wear a smile now

I'll leave the negatives to you.

Valencia ....

 

[kundalini]

Looked a lot better once Lukaku scored but up until then it wasn't that much different to a typical Mourinho performance.

Pogba poor. Matic not great either. The pressing didn't seem as convincing as in previous matches. The lack of rotation will have had an impact on the amount of energy we could put into the game.

Valencia a lot deeper than Young and Dalot had played as right-back.

Herrera worked hard in the first half, didn't notice him as much in the 2nd. Martial, Rashford and Mata with some nice moments. Far more space for Sanchez and Lukaku.

The left side bias of our play is ridiculous at times. Perhaps that was inevitable given the team selection.

 

[AndyMUFC]

A very different type of win to the last few games but just as satisfying.

Wasn’t a vintage performance by any means but when you keep a clean sheet, you’ve always got a chance with the quality we have. Great awareness from Lukaku to take advantage of the mistake and then a nice counter attack finished off by Rashford.

Can give most of the players a rest for a couple of weeks now.

 

[Janson]

That's a good win. I feel we never would have won a game like this under Mourinho.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Decent performance to grind out a win against a frustrating and unforgiving referee

 

[Moiraine]

Seemed our hardest game so far. Bit selfish in the end, could've knocked a few more in. All in all great result playing with 10 men for all ninety plus minutes.

Who do you think was absent ?
Valencia ?

 

[Paxi]

This was a big problem tonight.

 

[manichester]

Excellent result and some good play on the break, players worked hard and deserved the result. There were some bad challenges from Newcastle players that deserved harsher punishment.

 

[Ulterion]

Four straight wins, 14-3, and 12 points racked up, and people still keep saying "it's just Newcastle. I don't care which teams it is, four straight wins in PL is plain old rock solid!

Now, big test against Spurs coming up next week, after the cup fixture on Saturday. Excited and anxious for that one, but loving the way we look at the moment. Just reckon its about time the naysayers start acknowledging Ole, and giving him some credit. Glory, glory!

 

[Sing you a song]

He's finished, shades of Neville against Stoke. He was scared to go forward because he knew he'd get caught out. His last season for sure.

Can’t believe he still gets picked when he is fit , let’s hope Dalot can establish himself quickly or else it’s a big money signing required at RB as well as CB