[Jibbs]

I hope it is the start of a winning streak of 7,8 games. Please make the end of this godawful year a little more cheerful.

 

[Plymouth Red]

How much do you put that down to the lack of crowds?

It lends an air of a training ground fixture to proceedings and I wonder if this affects some players ability to focus as much as they would ordinarily.

Once crowds are back properly we'll know I suppose but we do have to take into account that the games are being played in an artificial environment.

I think the lack of crowds is a material factor, which on balance benefits the away team.
When playing at home, it removes the 12th man effect and levels the field appreciably.
Playing away, there's no added pressure from opposition fans, which is especially helpful if a player is low on confidence or making errors.

 

[Tapori]

Frightening counters

 

[justsomebloke]

No problem with a hard fought away win against what I will always maintain is a decent side short of confidence. Liverpool and City could easily have dropped points to these this season as well and both scored less than us in their games. What I do have a problem with though, is Lindelof. The table says we are in a title challenge, but we are not unless we sign a new CB in January to replace him.

Also, Henderson with a top save at the end. Start him in the next game please. DDG has made loads of mistakes over the past two years already. The fact that Deano made that save shows his excellent mentality.

All in all, good result with some good football on display. But please Ole, make the team start well in games, especially this weekend, or Leeds will fly out the blocks as they always do and be out of sight by the time we wake up.

The unfocussed start thing. It's really weird, isn't it. I mean, it happens in nearly every game. It's not like the coaching staff won't have addressed it. Surely they must have been all over that again and again - Ole is even blunt about it in post match interviews, which is unusual. And even if no one had said a word about it to the players, you'd think each and every one of them would have figured it out by now, just from their own direct and repeated experience. And still it keeps occurring.

Same with our full backs' propensity to get drawn too far inwards, and leave a man free on the opposite side. Wan-Bissaka did it again, for the umpteenth time this season, on the big SU chance that nearly gave them 2-0.

Henderson gave away the first goal, and dawdled on the second - if there's one game he doesn't deserve to start this season, it's the next one. First shaky performance we've seen from him. Lindelöf on the other hand I thought had an excellent game. Fantastic assist on Rashford's first, and lots of sterling defensive work throughout. The best of our defenders, I thought.

All of the goals were great, but the second one really had an amazing sequence of movements behind it. I would never have noticed it, but they had an analyst on Norwegian TV who showed it. Just watch a replay and see how several forward runs draws the defence and creates space, first for Bruno to turn and find Pogba, and then for Pogba to hit Martial.

 

[Ferguson’s Hairdryer]

Great win. And shows the the benefit of playing with two creative CM’s vs 2 holding, look at the 2nd and 3rd goal both came either directly or started from Pogba being deeper and in the place that would otherwise be occupied by Fred, McTomminay or Matic none of who would have started the move or played the assist that he did.

 

[Ferguson’s Hairdryer]

Unless we drastically improve, we are getting turned over by Leeds.

Leeds are just as likely to concede 5 against us. Should make for a great match

 

[RyRoc]

Some great attacking play but it's seriously amazing how much that defence has cost considering what it is...

 

[Marcus]

We rested key players, subbed some starters, and won. This is the way to win the league in this congested schedule during the pandemic. Super result overall. No complaints from me.

 

[croadyman]

Great win. And shows the the benefit of playing with two creative CM’s vs 2 holding, look at the 2nd and 3rd goal both came either directly or started from Pogba being deeper and in the place that would otherwise be occupied by Fred, McTomminay or Matic none of who would have started the move or played the assist that he did.

I see Ricky from United Stand is fuming in his post match fan cam about how attacking Ole was,he much prefers the measured performance against Chelsea & City.

 

[FrankDrebin]

You wont see Sheffield United run as hard as they did today.

 

[Icemav]

We are such a weird team.

Yep. Lethal on the counter. Controlled the game amazingly for a short spell when 3-1 up. Large chunks of the game looked like Sheffield could play right through us due to our very disorganized defense and midfield holding play. So we have a mix of extreme confidence combined with looking like we could shit the bed at any moment. Weird as you say.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Who ever told Sheffield United to play a high line against us, needs sacking from their POV. As soon as we got a few of those offsides, I thought yep we are going to get in behind a few times today.

 

[DickDastardly]

If we win every single game, who cares

You score 2 we will score 3

Back to 2013 then is it?

Fine by me

 

[FrankDrebin]

Back to 2013 then is it?

Fine by me

More like 2001-02

 

[Ferguson’s Hairdryer]

I see Ricky from United Stand is fuming in his post match fan cam about how attacking Ole was,he much prefers the measured performance against Chelsea & City.

Haven’t seen it. I hate us playing 2 holding CM’s. We become too dependent on Bruno, but then the problem is that there’s no one behind Bruno who can supply him so he drops deeper and then resorts to trying to play direct balls to our forwards.

When we play with Bruno Pogba/DVB and one CDM we’re so much more fluid and attractive. The problem won’t even get fixed by playing 2 CDM’s (unless if we sign a proper Pirlo style CDM) and have Pogba and Bruno as part of attacking 3 behind the 9...because our lack of creativity and most frustrating part of our play over the past many seasons even during last years of SAF has been the deeper midfield connecting play to attacking midfield.

 

[Gator Nate]

You wont see Sheffield United run as hard as they did today.

Credit to the Blades, they NEVER quit playing today.

 

[utdalltheway]

Both of Rashford's goals today were great in different ways.
The pass from Lindelof and Rashford's takedown of the ball before he smashed it is a thing of beauty.
The buildup to his 2nd was really nice team football.

The Pogba pass to Martial was pretty good too for his goal.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Thought the score flattered Sheffield. We hammered them. 2 extremely lucky goals. Rashford could have had a hattrick at the very least

Yeah, his finishing still isn't what it should be. Even his second, he didn't catch it right. That first goal was brilliant af though.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Just playing devil's advocate, you know, but De Gea made an almost identical mistake at Everton last season, remember?

Yup I do. The relentless nonsense posted here against De Gea about him becoming useless and saying he is on must be sold list is what I am talking about. Some posters talk as if he is like Karius when the fact is yes he is making errors, but every GK does. There is this narrative created as if De Gea is the only one who makes mistakes.
Unfortunately everyone does. Ter Steven made howler the other day

 

[HowYouDoin]

We have awesome individuals but also by far the worst manager in the league. We"lll see how this goes.
We likely concede early and then win in the 2nd half. 3:2 United.

How good was my prediction?

 

[RedDevil@84]

Why because a youngster on his second start made a mistake? Come on

Because some of the posters shit posting about De Gea are mostly posting nonsense because of the shiny new toy on bench.
Hendo is a good gk and I really hope he does very well and becomes a permanent gk here and in english NT, but there is absolutely no need to throw dirt on De Gea to big up Hendo. Both can very well coexist.

 

[tomaldinho1]

How good was my prediction?

Hope you put a bet on that!

 

[Sean_RedDevil]

Not the fault of the coaching staff or the players that i thought we could finally get an easy win

 

[croadyman]

Haven’t seen it. I hate us playing 2 holding CM’s. We become too dependent on Bruno, but then the problem is that there’s no one behind Bruno who can supply him so he drops deeper and then resorts to trying to play direct balls to our forwards.

When we play with Bruno Pogba/DVB and one CDM we’re so much more fluid and attractive. The problem won’t even get fixed by playing 2 CDM’s (unless if we sign a proper Pirlo style CDM) and have Pogba and Bruno as part of attacking 3 behind the 9...because our lack of creativity and most frustrating part of our play over the past many seasons even during last years of SAF has been the deeper midfield connecting play to attacking midfield.

Yeah definitely need to sign a top class CDM to operate with one of our creative midfielders

 

[noodlehair]

I thought we were poor tbh.

Luckily for some reason Sheffield United thought it was clever to play a high line for the whole game and then bring on Phil Jagielka 10 minutes in.

Pogba summed us up. The odd moment of undeniable brilliance scattered into 90 minutes of general, occasionally absurdly bad rubbish. No other team would concede that first goal and then in the same game play the bit of football that led to our third...and I don't even know if that's a compliment or a critcism.

Also picking Matic next to Pogba against a pressing side should be a sackable offence at this point. If you have to play Pogba you can't play Matic. I don't get why it's even a consideration at this point.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Pogba is by far our best CM. None of the other options can run a game like he can.

When he works hard

 

[hobbers]

Bare minimum performance and result required there. Somehow giving Sheffield 30% of all of the goals they've scored this season. We'll have to be much, much better than that against Leeds and every other team.

When he works hard

And when he's playing against the worst side in the league by a mile.

 

[Foxbatt]

I thought we played well. Ole needs to play Bruno and `Pogba together but get Fred to sit behind them. Stop AWB and Telles from joining the overlap and let the attackers attack and the defenders defend. Our attackers are as good as any in the PL. We should always start with Martial, Rashford, and either Cavani or Greenwood and `Bruno and Pogba and then Fred.

 

[Ferguson’s Hairdryer]

Pogba is by far our best CM. None of the other options can run a game like he can.

Pogba is out most talented CM, Bruno is our best.
A player who can produce a 10/10 moment once in a while vs a player who puts in 8/10 performances on a regular basis

 

[cyril C]

Great win. And shows the the benefit of playing with two creative CM’s vs 2 holding, look at the 2nd and 3rd goal both came either directly or started from Pogba being deeper and in the place that would otherwise be occupied by Fred, McTomminay or Matic none of who would have started the move or played the assist that he did.

On the contrary, it demonstrated how shaky the pairing of Pogba + Matic were. If it was Leeds or any other teams with more energetic MF, we would be 2 goals down by half time

 

[cyril C]

Look at this from another angle, good to rest our better MF pairing for the bigger game.

 

[acnumber9]

On the contrary, it demonstrated how shaky the pairing of Pogba + Matic were. If it was Leeds or any other teams with more energetic MF, we would be 2 goals down by half time

How? Their goals came from a keeper dawdling on the ball and a set piece our centre backs couldn’t defend. Sheffield United barely had a sniff most of the game.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Wow, people actually getting carried over a win vs a shit team. Wow!

3-2 is a trash scoreline. Giving them cheap goals.

Thankfully they are so shit at finishing that they only managed to get 2 goals. We let them bypass our midfield and defense plenty of times it's embarrassing.

That said, good comeback win and an important win. The football is boring though, and once again, I got distracted doing other things while this game is live. It suck the joy out of you watching it seconds by seconds. Watching highlights is the only fun thing of this shit.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

How? Their goals came from a keeper dawdling on the ball and a set piece our centre backs couldn’t defend. Sheffield United barely had a sniff most of the game.

They had plenty of enough chances in open play, but thankfully their finishing is so repetitively shit, it's forgettable like flies.

 

[smi11ie]

Both keepers were rubbish. Utd are so shaky at the start of every game which I find a bit pathetic because they have had loads of time to sort that out. Lots of errors passing around in defence but did play some nice passes to get in behind.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Sheffield playing a way high defensive lines suit us it's suicide. Just why? Is Sheffield always play this way? No wonder they're so shit, it's embarrassingly easy to exploit and have a go, free attacking. We only score 3 is just trash.

 

[SpanishMain]

What we learned today:
De Gea is still our #1, Henderson is the future, but not yet.
Our center backs are still slow, not very good in the air, only Lindelof is good on the ball, Maguire is no captain, But: they are not terrible and are always ready to play.
Telles is an improvement to back up Shaw, but Shaw is better. This is the type of match to use Telles.
WBA is good in defense (no one slides better), but in an attacking match comes up a little short.
They really need to spend some training time on defending set pieces.
Pogba is great on the long passes, but does he get lost (along with the ball) when he gets in a crowd of two or more opponents.
Most the others were good and steady, with Rashford as MOM.

 

[Dansk]

We rested key players, subbed some starters, and won. This is the way to win the league in this congested schedule during the pandemic. Super result overall. No complaints from me.

I don't know if a one-goal win (after being behind) over a team that has earned one point in 13 games can be called a "super result." Ten years ago, we'd have strolled to a 6-0. Conceding first in practically every game is not the way to win the league.

 

[cyril C]

How? Their goals came from a keeper dawdling on the ball and a set piece our centre backs couldn’t defend. Sheffield United barely had a sniff most of the game.

First goal had nothing to do with MF. It was Lindelof long pass to Rashford, regardless of how creative our MF was. 2nd goal involved MF alright in the build up. On the 3rd goal, it kicked off with a beautiful Zidane turn by Pogba, then a couple of 1st time passing, although finishing was a bit weak. However, how many time have we seen Pogba being robbed in MF while he performed his beautiful movement? Against Sheffield no problem. Against Leeds, Liverpool, or any team with energetic MF and quick counter-attack? Ion fact, even Arsenal's MF beat ours.

 

[Red_toad]

Happy with the 3 points. But Ole’s substitutions were Feckin terrible decisions. I hope he learns from those awful decisions, as we were cruising along until his changes.