[Judge Red]

The honeymoon period is over.

And we’re still winning.

 

[RepardReece]

Positives:
- Rashford, brilliant skill and goal.
- Pogba, dictacting play in the first half and dominating control.
- Convincing first half performance as per usual.
- 3 points, temporarily 5th place and temporarily 3 points behind 4th.

Negatives:
- Last 20 minutes, CP got back into the game, Mourinho-esque second half performance.
- Poor finishing, 5 shots on target from 20 isn't good.
- Defence is weak, need an RB and CB.
- Players tiring in second half, subs should have possibly been earlier.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

You have to give Brighton a Lot of credit, they're a good side and they played well.

Overall we did well and deserved the win, so I'm very happy

 

[groovyalbert]

Really poor last 30 minutes - Brighton's changes were good and we didn't really respond in any positive way.

Had a few passengers in that one. Lingard was non-existent, and Mata/Lukaku offered nothing when on.

But a win's a win, and we can now enjoy the outcome of the late game today.

 

[CA_vampire]

Should have made it 3-0 in the first half and cruise the second half.

 

[Ace of Spades]

We have no width on the right and it is a big problem. We need a new defense, FBs and CBs. We had to punt it long as passing from the back with these players was just putting us under pressure.

 

[JohnnyKills]

A win is a win, and I think it's a good thing that we are able to grind out the wins the way we have the last few weeks. That being said, I think our defence stills needs an upgrade. I thought Young was wasteful, and Jones and Dalot (for different reasons,) don't always inspire confidence. I thought Herrera was great again, and Matic for the most part, although he seems to get caught on the ball a few times. It's a shame Martial didn't score - I feel he could really do with a goal. I think Sanchez would've made a better sub than Lukaku (Alexis was on the bench, no?) Rashford is pure class, and Pogba was imperious in the first half; less so in the second.

Agree with all of this.

Martial was much better than last week. Worked hard and made some good runs. Must be difficult watching Rashford take all the glory over the last few weeks, but a goal will make all the difference.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

We were cruising until about the 60th minute and Rashford had looked like a mega star and then it was like a switch went off and we just allowed them to come to use. We did change shape to a 4411 near the end but there was a lot of sloppy passing and play going on in the final 30.
Gassed maybe?

 

[Habs]

Initially I thought slowing dow the pace a bit is not bad as long as we control the tempo and know when to play fast again. Unfortunately everything just slowed down and we lost on those 50-50 tackle as well. Complacency is the only word that I can think of.

Yep, big difference between slowing the game down and controlling it and what ended up happening. Started to sit back and defend deeper and lost the press from the forwards. Brighton controlled the last 30 minutes and neither Ole or the players did anything to change that which is worrying!

 

[RedRazor]

It's fantastic to see us having 20 shots in a game. The result might not have been as strong as we would like, but what a difference to our previous style of play. The intent to really damage our opposition is in our play, and if we can sort out our defence we are gold again.

 

[moodyred]

7 wins out of 7. 3 points behind 4th place and 4 points behind 3rd.

Go United!

 

[Patrick08]

The team lacks leadership in the dressing room who will keep the team from getting complacent. Second game in a row complacency set in. The pressing stopped, the urgency was not visible and needless long balls and losses of possession crept in.

Also de gea needs to stop playing the goal kick long everytime and mix it up according to the situation of the game, its comical we gave the ball away so cheaply from goal kicks.

 

[iHicksy]

I didn't even notice Lingard was on the pitch for most of that. I think we'll look much improved when we have Dalot on the right with a proper right winger/forward that can provide width. It seems everyone we have for that position is secretly a number 10. Ideally we'd have Sanchez there, he did make his name as a right winger for Udinese as I recall.

 

[Muppetry_man]

Solid 60+ min, but after Brighton's goal things were very shaky. Mata didn't really contribute to anything. Lukaku showed defensive composure at the right times. All in all good game, but I feel same players playing every game shows we need to diversity in midfield.

 

[Tony247]

2nd game in a row where we seem to go to sleep in the second half.

Its always like that. Our stamina is a big issue. I start to get nervous as we approach 65-70 min mark. Post that mark it is feck up or big feck up or monumental feck up.. at best hold on to whatever we have and come home.

 

[sunama]

It is worrying that we seem to be a 1-half team. This was also the case under Jose, where we could only dominate for 1 half.
In some matches were were strong in the 1st half, while in some matches were were strong in the 2nd half...but never both.
The same pattern remains.

But, in any case, 3 points is the most important thing I look for, game won, onto the next.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

You have to give Brighton a Lot of credit, they're a good side and they played well.

Overall we did well and deserved the win, so I'm very happy

Yeah, typical Hughton side. Very well organised and never gave up

 

[Havak]

Should have finished them off within about 65 minutes when we were in cruise control, but lacked a bit of cutting edge today. I think we were due a bit of a nitty-gritty one against a lesser side, so I'm not too bothered by the performance after letting Brighton back in. Obviously, it isn't ideal but as long as we keep getting over the line I'll be content as our rivals have tougher schedules than we do IMO.

I do feel like the midfield runs out of legs after an hour and our defence isn't the best despite improving as of late. Fred would be useful in these games so we can add a bit of running in that area. I didn't really agree with Ole's substitutions for the first time. They screamed keep-ball but we didn't really do that. I think Sanchez coming on to provide more pressing would have been the better call in hindsight, but again, we still won so we take those and move on.

Let's see what Chelsea/Arsenal/Spurs can muster over their next couple of games and hopefully we pump the goals past Burnley to make up for this tight one.

 

[MrSingh2002]

2nd half was back to Pogba playing selfishly, poor finishing and inviting trouble.

Hope Ole nips that in the bud post game with the players and also he needs to rotate more. I expected more of him in this regard. No use demotivating the squad just to play the first choice 11 every game.

 

[noodlehair]

Happy enough. Can't expect us to be thrashing teams every week and the intent was correct.

Problem is other teams can sit on 2-0 and pick a team off. We can't really because as soon as crosses come into our box we concede soft chances on our goal. Lindelof is absolutely diabolical at defending crosses. Jones isn't much better and unlike lindelof is also suspect at everything else.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I think we should have won by more. If we were four up, then you can go in first or second gear. We seemed to take our foot off the gas when we were 2-0 up.

Players trying to score these wonder goals as well, when they should pass it. Doing tricks as well. You can do all the tricks you want when you are four goals up and the game is as good as over.

I would say ole will be having a chat behind closed doors.

 

[Kita]

Really think we need to bring someone in to start over Jones.

 

[Chresta]

We absolutely battered them. Controlled the game most of the time. Good confident football. 2-1 doesn't justify good football Man Utd played most of the time and chances we had.

Brighton goal was on Jones. How on earth he misjump a simple clearance and concede the goal! preposterous, absolutely outrageous. He has some apologies to do to DDG
Lingard and Young both work really hard, but lack footballing intelligence. If we want to be a great side then need a very good midfield replacement of Lingard. He can be a good substitute but relying on him too much is a risk.
Dalot is promising and shows glimps of his talent but still raw and that is quite evident
Rashford is in great form and confidence. Hope nothing serious of his injury. What a goal that was!
Matic controlled his area very well and also linked up with Pogba. Both have very good chemistry
Herrera is absolutely brilliant. What a change from Jose's Herrera to Ole's! He was everywhere and his positioning intelligence is second to none. Very intillgent person he is.
Martial unlucky but sometimes you make your own luck.
Lindelof was immense. Strong presence.
DDG had no worries until Jones fecked up and invited unnecessary pressure on the entire team
Pogba had quiet game today. Nothing spectacular from him but he did very few mistakes. Good penalty!

7 out of 7 for Ole. Keep this up.

This...

 

[Tom Cato]

Team needs better conditioning. 1st half was absolutely dominance. almost 80% possession and a lot of great runs and passes to boot. Second half was not great, started off pretty well and I was sure that we'd get that 3-0 in due course, but the team more or less lost gas and just cruised in.

 

[Tony247]

If anybody who actully watched Man Utd in 90s, 2000s, we had many scrappy wins. So that is not an issue. A win is a win. You take 3 points and move on. What worrying is our stamina. This team lacks stamina to press for full 90 mins. This is a big weakness and top teams will exploit us. There hardly anything tactical Ole can do in the match when players' body give up. Although I am sure his team is working on stamina behind the scene.

 

[Njord]

Jones, Matic and Herrera need upgrading. Our lack of quality in the middle of defence and midfield makes it risky to play as high and open as we're doing.

 

[AJ10]

Not overly impressed TBH.

2nd game in a row where we seem to go to sleep in the second half.

Spurs were always going to be tough, however, at home to Brighton, we should have been looking to better our Goal difference.

Ole seemed glued to the seat, the players seem tired or half asleep in the 2nd half. Better opposition would punish us.

This is where I am starting to wonder about the ability of Ole, we seemed void of answers to our poor 2nd half.

Still, a win is a win but I think the honeymoon period is clearly over and some of our players are returning to default.

We created chances that should have been punished which we clearly didn't do, for example if lingard doesn't miss that sitter from 4 yards we'd be 3 up and comfortable. I don't under stand this nonsense about returning to default, our defenders aren't good regardless the manager but our attacking players level is way above what it was under Jose which is clear to see. The likes of matic, young had a poor game but returning to default seems way over the top, IMO none of our players are as bad as they've been under jose not saying they're world class or anything but certainly their default is definitely not what it was under Jose.

We look tired because of the high Intensity we're playing in, people seem to forget that its only been a month since jose went and It will take time to get full 90 mins of high Intensity football. IMO that's why we started doing that tikki takka crap in the second half to slow the game down and conserve energy but we F'd about too much for my liking.

 

[dave1956]

Positives:
- Rashford, brilliant skill and goal.
- Pogba, dictacting play in the first half and dominating control.
- Convincing first half performance as per usual.
- 3 points, temporarily 5th place and temporarily 3 points behind 4th.

Negatives:
- Last 20 minutes, CP got back into the game, Mourinho-esque second half performance.
- Poor finishing, 5 shots on target from 20 isn't good.
- Defence is weak, need an RB and CB.
- Players tiring in second half, subs should have possibly been earlier.

Agree with the above. However, we all know that certain players in our defence have been a problem for some time. If we can see it so can the opposition and play on those weaknesses.
We are now playing a faster and more attacking game, the players are being asked to do more, therefore our stamina and fitness levels need to catch up, this will take time and perhaps with the older players they will not be able to make that transformation.
However, I believe that Ole., and the coaching staff will address these problems in the coming games, but I think with the present defenders available there will always be that doubt whether or not we run out of steam in the last 20 minutes. Then there is the question of subs., bring them on for the last 20 minutes but who. Bring on forward players and go for more goals or defenders and shut up shop knowing that the defence is open to mistakes when hard pressed and then its down to the keeper to keep us in the game. A difficult balance to make for the coaching staff.

 

[Feed Me]

We are two-thirds of the way to being a top side.

Lots of posters are rightly pointing out that we are are dominant for an hour in games but then "gassed" after that point which is leading to squeaky bum time if we have not put enough daylight between us and the opposition.

But we are now playing a front-foot style, pressing as opposed to sitting back, and this is not something that can be implemented perfectly overnight.

When Ole was appointed, there was an interesting snippet doing the rounds that went relatively underreported at the time with him apparently telling people that United would be the fittest, most aggressive side in the league by the end of his tenure. Part of that probably relates to being able to sustain our performance level across the whole 90 minutes and not just the first two-thirds of a game.

It's also well documented that we need to improve the back line, with a commanding central defender hopefully helping us to avoid concession of soft goals that lead to unwarranted pressure. I also think our forwards, despite being in very good form as a collective, need to be a bit more clinical when it comes to choosing the right pass, plus the right time to pass and shoot.

We are seven from seven though and have three winnable league games before hopefully putting a spanner in the works for Liverpool at OT. Fancy us to do damage against Arsenal and PSG in the cups as well.

Ole needs to utilise his squad in the coming weeks. I like that he's settled on his best team, but some clever rotation is needed to keep us in good nick.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Fantastic first half, 2nd half we never got out of the blocks and looked knackered by 70.

Think we should have made all the subs at 70 mins as we clearly needed a boost.

 

[Tony247]

When your midfield and forward lose legs there is nothing much you can do with 3 substitutes. One out of which need to be saved for extra defender if we are leading. This problem will not easily go away. I blame Jose's management style for this. He had almost 3 years to get this sorted out.

 

[jem]

2nd half was back to Pogba playing selfishly, poor finishing and inviting trouble.

Hope Ole nips that in the bud post game with the players and also he needs to rotate more. I expected more of him in this regard. No use demotivating the squad just to play the first choice 11 every game.

My god, people will really find anything to get worked up about. What signs are there of the likes of Mata and Lukaku and the rest showing a lack of motivation?

 

[Havak]

Jones, Matic and Herrera need upgrading. Our lack of quality in the middle of defence and midfield makes it risky to play as high and open as we're doing.

Herrera was close to MotM today IMO, and I actually picked him for MotM myself. Don't know what game you were watching today, he was excellent.

Agree on the other two, but we've known that for a while. A long while in Jones' case.

 

[LordNinio]

Does anyone have a video of the post match interview?

Cheers

 

[Schmeichel=God]

Some players need to get their arses in gear.
Lingard, Matic, and especially Young not good enough.

Matic was fine. Apart from a couple of occasions where he got caught under intense pressure, or when he tried to be positive and break through the lines, he generally played well. His game of calmness on the ball is going to lead to some of these situations just like Pogba's game is going to lead to loss of possession. There were multiple times throughout the game where Matic's calmness in tight situations led to intricate passes where a whole host of other midfielders would have failed.

Today's performance was indeed the worst I have seen from Young in a hell of a long time. Awful use of the ball in general. He certainly suffered today and despite Dalot's assist it's plain to see that Young is better suited to the left and Dalot to the right. (Despite Dalot having filled in at LB in Portugal)

Lingard looked strangely out of it today. Still, some nice movement but no key moments for him today. These games will happen. The team still scored two, could have scored more, and he linked nicely with other midfielders.

Enjoyable game, nervy end by what seemed like a little naievity from younger players. Lukaku really struggled to hold up the ball but great keep the wins going.

Shame about Liverpool.

I'm usually one to absolutely lay into Lukaku but today he didn't have anything to be judged from. All he did was "compete" aerially but none were flick on opportunities, none could he bring down. He was thrown into the cauldron today with a midfield and a defence that couldn't cope with the Brighton sudden pressing and change in shape. The only thing I lambasted him for was not running into the right channel to offer himself for a return pass late on. He's always too central. My overall opinion of him stays the same though; absolutely must be moved on.

Feck, we don't enjoy playing Brighton do we? That was scary!

I didn't enjoy having to watch their football! Big Sam is long ball is he? Well feck me...I haven't seen such a game of long ball/set piece hoof it football since....well, Jose brought Fellaini on! No, Brighton today were worse. It's naturally hard to deal with.

What we needed was some more pace on the bench to stretch it (which we don't have) or Mata/Sanchez to be cute, but use the ball wisely and draw fouls. None of that happened today as people stopped being able to show for each other as under pressure the ball was just punted upfield leading to the gaps between our players. Horrible end to the game, but that's the Premier League.

Felt that the in game management should have been a bit better. We started dropping in tempo and should have freshened things up with Lukaku and Sanchez for Lingard and Rashford who was pretty tired. We also desperately need a cm option on the bench.

I do agree that perhaps if we introduced these two earlier then the fresh blood may have stemmed the eventual Brighton resurgence by way of upping the ante ourselves. Solsjkaer seems to like to leave his subs late. I don't necessarily disagree with this, because for the same reason I didn't want us to rotate today, I don't want the fabric of the game changed too early. I feel Lukaku especially would have had us labouring through the game today. The guy looks shot running around for 10 minutes left alone 30 or god forbid 90!

It's not helpful bringing on players who can't (Mata) or won't (Lukaku) run as hard as the tired players they're replacing.

Well Mata was probably brought on to receive the ball, make passes stick and if not draw fouls. None of that happened as all the momentum was with Brighton due to their change in formation and sudden Euro Training'esq pressing whilst we wilted worryingly! All we needed was a free kick or two up the pitch to help us get them back behind the ball so we could pass around in front of them again. Not once did this happen and instead they had all the freekicks.

Crazy how the game panned out. So very glad we got the 3 points. However there are definitely some things to be worked on and some plan B's need to be fleshed out & trained more thoroughly so Solsjkaer and the players know how to cope in these scenarios.

 

[Schmeichel=God]

Herrera was close to MotM today IMO, and I actually picked him for MotM myself. Don't know what game you were watching today, he was excellent.

Agree on the other two, but we've known that for a while. A long while in Jones' case.

COMPLETELY agree. Anyone who criticises Herrera today (and secondly Matic) needs to rewatch the game and reconsider their understanding of what a midfielder should bring to a game. No one gets through a game being perfect.

Further can someone create a thread about the Herrera contract situation. I would but don't have the privileges yet. If any of all these out of contract players needs an extension it's this man.

Doesn't look great for Lukaku at United.

Funny isn't it, how things change with a manager change.

Only a few weeks ago it looked like Pogba would be gone or going, Herrera gone end of season, Martial too, but conversely Lukaku the main man.

Now, those 3 are staying & Lukaku is looking very likely for the chop if Solskjaer continues these results all the way to getting the job!

Solsjkaer can't work his magic on every player but I know which option of the above I'd take!

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

I was honestly more concerned about how Liverpool were doing until Brighton scored, we were ultra comfortable up until that point. Wasn't our best performance but another win and top 4 looking a little more possible now.

 

[jem]

Conversation with my 8-year old son (who didn't watch because he was playing Minecraft):

Son: "Daddy, did Manchester United win?"
Me: "Yes, they did."
Son: "How did they play?"
Me: "Ok, but they need to play a little bit better."
Son: "A little bit better? Daddy they've won like 6 in a row - what do you mean a little bit better? When Jose Mourinho was the manager, you said they need to play better, and now they are."

 

[ravi2]

Some players need to get their arses in gear.
Lingard, Matic, and especially Young not good enough.

RW, CDM and RB are positions we should be looking at strenghting asap.

 

[Leftback99]

Not great but I expected a tough game when most thought it would be an easy win. We're always going to be riding our luck with this set of defenders until we can address it in the summer.

 

[DRM]

Poor performance, they were largely the better side for 60 mins