[Brightonian]

Martial, Mata, Lingard and Rashford all look better penalty takers than Pogba.
His jog up annoys me.

I'm not sure, he's got all the right ingredient to be a good penalty taker. Simply needs to be told to stop doing the run up and keep it simple. Power and accuracy, ignore the keeper, don't telegraph it but tuck it just inside either post and you'll score every time. No mind games or gimmicks.

Martial is also pretty nerveless and a great finisher and would be an equally good option. Oddly I've never really seen Lingard take them but on paper he should be rock solid too. Mata and Rashford I don't like so much for it - Mata isn't someone who hits the ball consistently with power, despite being a good finisher in general. Rashford's finishing, as good as it can be, isn't consistent. When he gets it wrong, it's because he doesn't catch the ball cleanly, which is obviously a bad flaw in a penalty taker.

For me the pecking order should be:

Pogba, told to stop messing about.
Martial
Lukaku
Lingard

 

[Red Dreams]

I'm not sure, he's got all the right ingredient to be a good penalty taker. Simply needs to be told to stop doing the run up and keep it simple. Power and accuracy, ignore the keeper, don't telegraph it but tuck it just inside either post and you'll score every time. No mind games or gimmicks.

Martial is also pretty nerveless and a great finisher and would be an equally good option. Oddly I've never really seen Lingard take them but on paper he should be rock solid too. Mata and Rashford I don't like so much for it - Mata isn't someone who hits the ball consistently with power, despite being a good finisher in general. Rashford's finishing, as good as it can be, isn't consistent. When he gets it wrong, it's because he doesn't catch the ball cleanly, which is obviously a bad flaw in a penalty taker.

For me the pecking order should be:

Pogba, told to stop messing about.
Martial
Lukaku
Lingard

I forgot Lukaku.
Pogba misses too often.

 

[Will Singh]

They scored 2 top goals and ours were just as good, job done 3 points. BUT the game for me was over shadowed by Pogba and he's antics, he's meant to be Lukaku's mate and he denied him a hatrick. Not a fan of he's pen taking style but that aside you give the ball to Lukaku and he scores that for me. What would that do for Lukaku's confidence is 3 points at Emrites which not could be but will be vital. Luckily Lukaku is flying and I hope he scores a hatrick at the Emirtes and we rip AFC apart.

 

[Frank Grimes]

They scored 2 top goals and ours were just as good, job done 3 points. BUT the game for me was over shadowed by Pogba and he's antics, he's meant to be Lukaku's mate and he denied him a hatrick. Not a fan of he's pen taking style but that aside you give the ball to Lukaku and he scores that for me. What would that do for Lukaku's confidence is 3 points at Emrites which not could be but will be vital. Luckily Lukaku is flying and I hope he scores a hatrick at the Emirtes and we rip AFC apart.

He's our penalty taker. It's up to to the manager to decide who takes our penalties pre game . I don't like the run up but you can't give the penalty away to someone under the proviso he is on hat-trick. Personally I'd take penalties off Pogba but that's a different story.

 

[roonster09]

Too much about penalty decisions that Southampton didn't get but barely any mention about one Sanchez should have got. His shirt was tugged by Valery (after Bertrand's kung fu tackle), Sanchez didn't go down, that's the only reason why he didn't get the decision.

It actually encourage players to go down easily, you barely get any decision if you don't go down.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Too much about penalty decisions that Southampton didn't get but barely any mention about one Sanchez should have got. His shirt was tugged by Valery (after Bertrand's kung fu tackle), Sanchez didn't go down, that's the only reason why he didn't get the decision.

It actually encourage players to go down easily, you barely get any decision if you don't go down.

I thought MOTD got it spot on. Young was lucky with one pen shout, the other, and this Sanchez one were never pens.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I thought MOTD got it spot on. Young was lucky with one pen shout, the other, and this Sanchez one were never pens.

MOTD said the Young one wasn't a penalty, but the Smalling got lucky?

I thought there wasn't enough in all 3 of them to be honest, but if any of them were, it was Smalling's.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

He's our penalty taker. It's up to to the manager to decide who takes our penalties pre game . I don't like the run up but you can't give the penalty away to someone under the proviso he is on hat-trick. Personally I'd take penalties off Pogba but that's a different story.

I agree. It shouldn’t matter if any player is on a hat trick, if they are not the penalty taker, they don’t take it. Simple as that.

 

[roonster09]

I thought MOTD got it spot on. Young was lucky with one pen shout, the other, and this Sanchez one were never pens.

Yeah, I mean if you give one, you should give other one too (think 1 out of 2 was penalty, forgot which one). Sanchez just didn't go down for ref to make decision.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

MOTD said the Young one wasn't a penalty, but the Smalling got lucky?

There were two incidents with Young were there not? In addition one with smalling that I’d forgotten, might have got it wrong. In any case, most were not pens.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

There were two incidents with Young were there not? In addition one with smalling that I’d forgotten, might have got it wrong. In any case, most were not pens.

There was only one Young incident that MOTD review (with Bertrand where he put his hands on him a bit, but didn't really pull him back or do anything and Betatnd just fell over) - can't remember what the other one would be?

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I'm not sure, he's got all the right ingredient to be a good penalty taker. Simply needs to be told to stop doing the run up and keep it simple. Power and accuracy, ignore the keeper, don't telegraph it but tuck it just inside either post and you'll score every time. No mind games or gimmicks.
a
Martial is also pretty nerveless and a great finisher and would be an equally good option. Oddly I've never really seen Lingard take them but on paper he should be rock solid too. Mata and Rashford I don't like so much for it - Mata isn't someone who hits the ball consistently with power, despite being a good finisher in general. Rashford's finishing, as good as it can be, isn't consistent. When he gets it wrong, it's because he doesn't catch the ball cleanly, which is obviously a bad flaw in a penalty taker.

For me the pecking order should be:

Pogba, told to stop messing about.
Martial
Lukaku
Lingard

Rashford takes a mean penalty... he smashes them low and hard, though with the power he puts behind them, I think he has a higher margin for error possibly?

 

[DocRockter]

These cnuts better perform as well against Spurs as they did against us.. And score at least one from a corner...

 

[pascell]

Anywhere I can watch the match highlights?

 

[Alemar]

Anywhere I can watch the match highlights?

At official ManUtd website

 

[pascell]

At official ManUtd website

Ah yes, thanks very much!

 

[Samid]

Since they got promoted I swear we either draw against them or win 3-2.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Since they got promoted I swear we either draw against them or win 3-2.

We've beaten them 8 times in all comps since they were promoted - 4 games finished 3-2 to us. We've drawn 5 times and lost 2. It's rarely a boring fixture.

 

[cyril C]

Not really. They barely created anything and have zero threat up front. Can't score wonder goals every week.

No, I think he was referring to why Southampton is struggling at the bottom.

It is a big puzzle to me as well, they can defend, they can create chances on the flank, they can score goals. In fact, 2 cracking goals. I just don't see their proximity to Fulham, Huddlesfield, Brighton.

 

[trevor newnham]

Makes me laugh that two weeks ago, pereira was not good enough for United. Then he scores a worldie and is the best thing since sliced bread. Lukaku is a lumbering oaf then scoresfour goals in two games. The time to assess these guys is after a full season in the team - like an extended run of games - not after one or two games. Everyone has an off day, everyone has a spectacular day. You have to take the rough with the smooth.

 

[kps88]

No, I think he was referring to why Southampton is struggling at the bottom.

It is a big puzzle to me as well, they can defend, they can create chances on the flank, they can score goals. In fact, 2 cracking goals. I just don't see their proximity to Fulham, Huddlesfield, Brighton.

To be fair they are 10 odd points ahead of Huddersfield and Fulham so I wouldn't call that their level.

And they are struggling because they really can't score goals; don't let the two wonder goals fool you. Their top scorer is Ings who spends half his time injured. They've improved off the ball and defensively under the new manager but still struggle to score goals, which is to be expected when you're relying on Redmond and Austin to score every week.

Only reason they aren't in deeper trouble is because Huddersfield are even worse at scoring goals while Fulham and Cardiff can't stop conceding.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

To be fair they are 10 odd points ahead of Huddersfield and Fulham so I wouldn't call that their level.

And they are struggling because they really can't score goals; don't let the two wonder goals fool you. Their top scorer is Ings who spends half his time injured. They've improved off the ball and defensively under the new manager but still struggle to score goals, which is to be expected when you're relying on Redmond and Austin to score every week.

Only reason they aren't in deeper trouble is because Huddersfield are even worse at scoring goals while Fulham and Cardiff can't stop conceding.

Don't forget that they sell their best players.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Fair enough. Also, seems from a post above that Pogba might have offered it to Lukaku who turned it down. Pogba needs to sort his penalty taking out though, not consistent enough for the number one penalty taker. I remember every time we got a pen with RVN in the team it was, Arsenal aside, a guaranteed goal.

I know what you mean , when RVN stepped up you always felt he was going to score, same went for Cantona and Irwin.I know everyone eventually misses but you believed in those guys.I always think too much can go wrong with Pogba's technique.

 

[Litch]

Makes me laugh that two weeks ago, pereira was not good enough for United. Then he scores a worldie and is the best thing since sliced bread. Lukaku is a lumbering oaf then scoresfour goals in two games. The time to assess these guys is after a full season in the team - like an extended run of games - not after one or two games. Everyone has an off day, everyone has a spectacular day. You have to take the rough with the smooth.

In fairness Rom's always scored goals irrespective of his technical ability....

 

[Canagel]

Rashford takes a mean penalty... he smashes them low and hard, though with the power he puts behind them, I think he has a higher margin for error possibly?

Rashford strikes me as someone who might blaze it over the bar. I would be worried if he stepped up.

 

[shamans]

I cant visualoze mata missing penalties.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I cant visualoze mata missing penalties.

He's missed one for us. I think we still won the game in the end though.

In fact, most of our missed penalties come in games we end up winning weirdly enough. The last I can recall a missed penalty costing us is when Carrick took one ages ago?

 

[rotherham_red]

To everyone in here saying it was a poor performance - how? We'd have been out of sight before Valery's wonderstrike if the strikers didn't stumble at the final hurdle. Granted Southampton were the better team for that 20 minute stretch until HT, but the 2nd half was 75% dominant from us again and it was only JWP's wonder free kick that got them back in the game because it didn't look like they were getting back in the game otherwise. After that goal, it was a lot of endeavour but not much to show for it until Lukaku came up with the winner.

Also, bearing in mind the context of all those injuries, to a team that has had an established history of getting results at OT in the post-Fergie era, that was a great performance and of course, result in the circumstances.

 

[Silas]

Yes but he isn't that good at defending either. He gets back ok, he just seems to start daydreaming once he's there.

Can't remember any real brainfreezes, to be honest.

I think we need to stop using this diamond midfield thing as it doesn't seem to suit any of our midfielders. Mctominay is left isolated, Pereira and Pogba seem to drift too far wide and struggle to make an impact...I'm not even sure what Sanchez was supposed to be doing.

It was little different when we had Mata, Matic, Herrera etc. as part of the same system.

Yeah, works fine with our first team, as you say, but with less disciplined midfielders coming in, it it naturally won't be as effective. Although, how did you figure that we were playing a diamond? Definitely seemed like a standard 433 to me, with Sanchez and Rom on the wings initially.

If it's going to be four in midfield I think you need Pogba as the furthest advanced, and the two wider midfielders need to be a lot less wide than they currently are. We struggle for options on the ball and end up sat very deep when we don't have it because there's no one there to stop opposition players advancing through the middle with the ball.

I actually thought the players performed really well for the most part yesterday, but they were clearly struggling with the system, particularly in the first half. Second half we seemed to tweak something because Pogba and Pereira were popping up in much more useful areas.

I think Pogba could work fine as the LCM in the diamond, provided a well-drilled structure is there. Agreed regarding the midfielders needing to tuck in more. I think the main issue was that both Pogba and Pereira were playing similar roles of a a kind of roaming playmaker, but what was needed was for one of them to sit as a true #8 when the other floated to ensure the centre of the pitch remained compact, which wasn't happening initially. Personally, I don't even think that it's too different from our usual 433, as long as the two of the three advanced players help to defend the wide positions when tracking back. Yeah, definitely seemed like we switched to more of a 4231 in the second half, with Pereira playing in the hole.

Hang on, if Scott McTom isn't any good at defending, what the heck is he in the team for?
Is tackling etc not defending?

He certainly isn't any sort of creative force or ball player.

He's alright when it comes to tackling, but his positioning needs work. I'm not exactly a fan by any means, but there aren't many other options right now.

 

[Will Singh]

He's our penalty taker. It's up to to the manager to decide who takes our penalties pre game . I don't like the run up but you can't give the penalty away to someone under the proviso he is on hat-trick. Personally I'd take penalties off Pogba but that's a different story.

Well it's being reported Lukaku wasn't happy and an argument took place but that's another story, Messi is Barca pen taker and didn't he let Courtinho take a pen because he hadn't scored in a while? If Messi can do it anyone can.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

Well it's being reported Lukaku wasn't happy and an argument took place but that's another story, Messi is Barca pen taker and didn't he let Courtinho take a pen because he hadn't scored in a while? If Messi can do it anyone can.

I personally don't mind Pogba wanting to get his name on the score sheet given what he had contributed in that game and the games leading up to it, especially considering he is the designated penalty dude.

Fortunately the miss didn't affect the result of the game, but even if it did, would you really slate a player for taking the responsibility [whilst being the designated man] and having the misfortune of missing it? Bit harsh imo.

 

[Sereques]

Can you elaborate? Why do some posters respond with such confusion but provide no counter argument? Are you ok pal?

Pogba started in his normal advance role, we were creating chances but couldn’t finish, it was clear Pogba has some defensive duties because he was always quick to fall back the moment Soton have the ball.

Second half, Pogba played deeper, sitting next Mctominay and Andreas pushed forward. I reckon it’s to gain more control of the midfield. Towards the end, Fred took his place in deeper role and he pushed forward.

Pogba was not shit, his job against Soton was different from when Matic and Herrera was playing along side him. If you disagree with any of this, watch the match again.

 

[kouroux]

Well it's being reported Lukaku wasn't happy and an argument took place but that's another story, Messi is Barca pen taker and didn't he let Courtinho take a pen because he hadn't scored in a while? If Messi can do it anyone can.

Anyone can doesn't mean anyone should or has to.

 

[buckooo1978]

Makes me laugh that two weeks ago, pereira was not good enough for United. Then he scores a worldie and is the best thing since sliced bread. Lukaku is a lumbering oaf then scoresfour goals in two games. The time to assess these guys is after a full season in the team - like an extended run of games - not after one or two games. Everyone has an off day, everyone has a spectacular day. You have to take the rough with the smooth.

was thinking about this myself in terms of Lukaku and he's obviously had long runs over the last 2 years

even if the next 9 or 10 games bring 7 or 8 goals you couldn't call it a good season

I think he needs to be more consistently good if he is to start regularly for us - his mean rating for the season would be a 5 or 6 - more 5 than 6 though