[Swearing Budgie]

Yeah. Problems today were tactical / manager-induced. Fred is not a great holding midfielder, he never will be and we clearly need a better one, but he didn't do anything terrible today and he wasn't the worst player, neither did he personally cause any major problems.

Eh? He almost cost a goal twice in the first 10 minutes!

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

I'll take the win. But we have a midfield problem, no point in pretending otherwise.

Where in my post am I pretending that we don’t have a midfield problem? All I’ve said is that we won and that’s all that matters in the end - getting the 3 points. All of us know we need a midfielder in that team that can keep possession of the football and play intelligent passes from deep. I’ve not said anything otherwise. Just that we won the game and that’s what our target was.

 

[GreatDane]

Adama Traoré is funny, he´s big and imposing but I´m never scared when he has the ball. All muscles and pace, no product.

Anyway, it´s a win and I´ll take it.

 

[sport2793]

I havent been invloved in the whole 'Ole out' brigade, but who is to blame when that amount of talent plays as badly as that?. I mean its not like it only happens once every 10 games or something.
Its the coaching thats the problem.

I have a lot of thoughts about our general issues so pardon the lack of organization below.

It's the 3rd game of the season on the road with 2 starting debuts today. If the poor misplaced passing continues then it is a real concern for me. Just because you have a lot of talent doesn't guarantee anything, no matter how good the manager is, if you don't have players to provide balance. Man City, Liverpool, and Chelsea have competency at every position on the pitch. Of those teams, we seem to want to play somewhat similarly to Liverpool, but the big difference is they can attack down both flanks while we can't. If we could then we would get 95 points, no doubt. I have always felt that Fred is not good enough in a 1 and he showed that today, absolutely incapable of keeping possession in dangerous areas, which is why Ole has always played McFred. I actually was pleased with what I saw from Pogba in the pivot and think that with the right partner (younger Matic or someone who can at least efficiently recycle possession) we should be in a good spot. Another option is to get Trippier and allow him to switch with Fred while in possession, making Fred (or McTominay) drop into a 3. Tripper will ping dangerous crosses and handle possession well, allowing for attacks to come down both flanks (what Liverpool do).

To summarize it, Ole is in a tough spot currently. He can't really play Fred in a 1 with AWB as RB, which is why he has always had to play McFred and play Pogba as an attacker. No amount of training is going to change this as plenty of more knowledgeable football people have extensively covered the serious limitations of Fred and AWB. Scouts felt at the time of the Fred transfer that he was completely out of his depth despite being a nice kid. AWB has never shown the ability to be good in build up play and I don't think even Pep would be able to fix this. One of those two need to be replaced against the lower sides to create consistent chances. I don't think you need to replace both but in an ideal world you probably would. I would of course continue to play AWB in the bigger matches or in a 3 as he is amazing defensively.

EDIT: Also, people keep on asking for Donny but he is incapable of playing in a double pivot and has shown this a couple of times (Watford FA cup last year as an example). Only good at playing 1-2s on the edge of the box and is basically Bruno's backup. Quite a confusing transfer with hindsight, probably Ole's one miss in the market so far.

 

[HaliRed]

Paul Ince is such an ABU.. crying about Paul foul

He really is. He even makes a point of saying that Bruno should have been stronger last week for the Saints goal, but ref should have called this one. At least try to sound unbiased. Both him and Sherwood going on about the Pogba tackle being a career-ender.

 

[Nobby style]

We probably should have lost that. Better in the second half but still not very good.

Varane is unreal.

Yeah, unreal on that set piece where he was totally outmuscled by Saisse who unbelievably couldn't score on two chances. Jesus, our Swedish boy would've been crucified for the same play, yet Varane is unreal. He was decent, but unreal, or man of the match as mentioned before is laughable. Hope you guys won't turn him into Darmian the second.

 

[Tincanalley]

Don’t forget AWB saving the day after Fred’s assist for Wolves

 

[Nick7]

Yeah, unreal on that set piece where he was totally outmuscled by Saisse who unbelievably couldn't score on two chances. Jesus, our Swedish boy would've been crucified for the same play, yet Varane is unreal. He was decent, but unreal, or man of the match as mentioned before is laughable. Hope you guys won't turn him into Darmian the second.

Ok

 

[RepardReece]

Yeah, unreal on that set piece where he was totally outmuscled by Saisse who unbelievably couldn't score on two chances. Jesus, our Swedish boy would've been crucified for the same play, yet Varane is unreal. He was decent, but unreal, or man of the match as mentioned before is laughable. Hope you guys won't turn him into Darmian the second.

joke. Set piece was poor we all know that but please point out another time in that match where he put a foot wrong?

 

[Flytan]

How though? From what I saw in the game, the areas we struggled with most was handling their midfield press when our CBs passed to Fred/Pogba and backing up our forwards' press by pressing in midfield to stop easy progression up the filled from Wolves. Both of those issues would be fixed by a CDM. Tell me where I'm wrong here.

Because it's clear to most people who don't have some profound attachment to Ole that we will never win anything with him as our manager. A manager needs to get at least the sum of the parts of a squad, ole gets less.

 

[Hugh Jass]

What has Ole said about the performance?

 

[tenpoless]

Yeah, unreal on that set piece where he was totally outmuscled by Saisse who unbelievably couldn't score on two chances. Jesus, our Swedish boy would've been crucified for the same play, yet Varane is unreal. He was decent, but unreal, or man of the match as mentioned before is laughable. Hope you guys won't turn him into Darmian the second.

If there was ever a time machine. I want to go back in time and watch you watch Phil Jones, Smalling and shit version of Darmian playing together. Some of you deserve it.

 

[Denis79]

DDG the GOAT!

You know by Ole logic Henderson will play the next game.

 

[NewGlory]

Eh? He almost cost a goal twice in the first 10 minutes!

They were losing a ball left and right all game. I think Fred was hardly the biggest offender, even in midfield.

 

[BlackBen]

3 points in the bag, feck Wolves .

Varane x

 

[Ferguson’s Hairdryer]

I havent been invloved in the whole 'Ole out' brigade, but who is to blame when that amount of talent plays as badly as that?. I mean its not like it only happens once every 10 games or something.
Its the coaching thats the problem.

No clearly it’s because Ole doesn’t have a CDM, that’s why Sancho, Fernandes, James were pretty terrible. If you remember last season people said a “RW would solve everything” after performances like today, now we have a £75m RW it’s become “Ole needs a CDM”

We could sign Jorginho then the defence will be “but that’s the wrong type of CDM” we then sign Verratti, so Ole has two types of CDM’s to choose from depending on the opposition and the argument will be “but they’re the wrong height, weight, eye colour etc etc”

 

[Varane around town]

First of all the Wolves fans kicking off about the 'foul' should direct their opprobrium at their strikers who missed chance after chance and their 'Keepers pathetic attempt to keep out that Greenwood shot.

There's no doubt that we nicked that off Wolves but I don't care. Varane slotted straight in and really looked a class act in what could've been a very very difficult afternoon. We got a glimpse of peak De Gea and I thought he showed a bit of grit and nous which we've lacked for some time.

We've had a decent start to the season results wise. We head into the international break and we return we're playing Newcastle at home in what should be the return of Ronaldo. Let's do it.

 

[boxykronikle]

Massive massive 3 points. Going by out records here, this was a BIG win. Shitty 1st half but we improved better in the other half.
It doesn’t help as well with Wolves keep on sitting deep and counter us with Traore and Trincao. A very good DM(Neves like) is really required.
Mike Dean was shitty too. Wolves kept throwing their bodies around to get fouls and he kept giving them but wasn’t being to friendly with us. I thought that Saiss guy was fouling Varane during the corner kick. What a performance from Varane and De Gea!!

 

[Tincanalley]

Good result but very uneven. James pitiful. Fred not great. Sancho pretty much invisible. Pogba did well out of position. Looks like Ole lacked any semblance of a strategic vision.

 

[Bilbo]

It was ugly. This has all been quite reminiscent of last seasons opening three games. Disjointed, sloppy, not yet fit. The difference is we've got 7 points instead of 3.

 

[rron10]

Quick question... That double save, wasn't that a foul on Varane?

I was thinking the same after watching all the replays.

Anyway it was a very lucky and undeserved win for us. Everything wrong from our past seasons were carried into this game:

-Can’t play from the back without loosing the ball in dangerous areas
-Lose all physical battles and 1 on 1’s
-Big space between our defense and attack
-No ideas how to get past a very organized low block
-No threat from wide areas
-Slow slow slow tempo
-Losing the midfield battle

The positives:
-in form keeper
-2 good cb’s are better than 1

 

[Ole's screen]

Because it's clear to most people who don't have some profound attachment to Ole that we will never win anything with him as our manager. A manager needs to get at least the sum of the parts of a squad, ole gets less.

It's clear to those who are determined to perceive it that way. Ole absolutely has gotten more than the sum of our parts over the last 2 seasons. I see you failed to answer the tactical points I made regarding what our issues were today as well in favor of random "feelings" based argument of "most people" who'se football knowledge could be anything.

 

[Vincent Paul 77]

With all our attacking talent we should be extremely entertaining to watch. But we need that player in midfield like a Scholes. A player who can dictate a game slowing it down when needed or speeding it up when required. I've got a good feeling about the season ahead.

 

[Sviken]

No clearly it’s because Ole doesn’t have a CDM, that’s why Sancho, Fernandes, James were pretty terrible. If you remember last season people said a “RW would solve everything” after performances like today, now we have a £75m RW it’s become “Ole needs a CDM”

Never going to change, unfortunately. Buy a CDM, a weaker position would be looked at by Ole's fanclub - say AWB and say - we need a right-back otherwise Ole can't challenge. Then maybe De Gea or whatever. It's a cycle. The fact is - Ole is simply not good enough to take this team to the next level and actually challenge for the title. If this team had Klopp at the helm, we'd be walking with the league comfortably. Hell, this might sound strange and utterly moronic, but I really wouldn't be pissed all that much if we lost to Wolves, but we actually played well and dominated them. Instead they made us look like relegation fodder and I simply can't stand by and watch that. It brings me back to the Dark Ages of Moyesy's football.

 

[Denis79]

Cudos to all those Caf posters who were so right about Greenwood long before he got a break in the first team. What a gem he is!

 

[Tyzer85]

I'm happy that we won but God our midfield is like a sieve.

 

[Redlyn]

I posted it to show the extent to which Wolves created more than us today, to underline the point that anyone who was watching the game would have realised; we were very lucky to win.

The fact that we won obviously doesn't mean we weren't lucky to win. It also obviously doesn't make xG meaningless. And I didn't mention the manager, at all. So I have no idea what point you're making or why you decided to make it in response to my post.

I don't think winning with worse xG is equivalent to luck. At the end of the day we made our own luck with a clinical finisher, good defenders and a good shot stopping goalie. They had bad finishing. Result is we won. I don't feel we were lucky, it's more like we ground that one out. The players need to actually convert the xG and the ability to do that or to defend against it is not luck. Now a ref blunder that gifted us a penno to win it would be luck. In my opinion.

 

[Darkhorsez]

He kind of inferred it - it was an over the top and emotional rant! A little uncomfortable for Robbie and Roy who were very calm about it all.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Worse performance in a long long time. Take the 3 points and move on.

 

[OrcaFat]

I just feel he's enough of an investment that even if he isn't doing well in training you still play him for a run of games at least once in two years. Ole literally played lingard over him recently. Like this feels almost personal especially since ole keeps lying to dvb about saying he will get minutes

I think he will get minutes when he earns them but I’m not against playing him in the cups and when we’re home and dry in the odd prem game, maybe that will give him the kick start he needs. But otherwise, we’re just not in a position to give guys minutes unless it’s for the purpose of winning the games.

As for Lingard, he’s not first team material but he’s shown qualities far above anything we’ve seen from VDB as yet. But honestly I still think VDB is going to take it up a notch eventually.

 

[Mentality Monsters]

3 games played, not conceded from a single corner or set piece. And that's coming up against Prowse too.

The new set piece coach earning his money.

 

[drunkmonkmeth]

this cant go on this season again. We need to learn how to play football. we lack any real tactical discipline. With these players and this team even with Fred we should easily be able to control games and string passes together. the lack of proper setup and tactical direction makes it hard for our players. to beat a press and control the flow of games. We play like a MLS side. the moment the other team gets the ball our midfield is bypassed and they are in our 3rd pressuring our CB's added to the fact that when our FB push they get no cover at all.

there is some positives.. mcguire and varane were great. greenwood is going to be a world class talent but even with the signing we've made this season not much is going to change because we cant play football and we get out coached by everyone we play. I'm starting to think that even with a world-class CDM we'd still have issues controlling games and dominating midfields

 

[kouroux]

Still whining about his leg that was either not touched or barely touched? He spent I don't know how long running around the pitch showing people his leg.

It must have been a minute scratch if there was anything because it didn't show on camera and Dean didn't seem interested. It was embarassing.

My kids do that sometimes. Come running to me to show me a minor scratch on their finger. And despite it seeming a waste of a band aid I put one on to make them feel better. I think Neves just needed a band aid and a hug!

He needs more than a hug. He needs t shirts printed, a full online campaign

 

[YikesSchmeics]

I mean, we won! Winning when playing badly is essential. We would not have won that game last season. If Lindelof was there we would have conceded at least once. It's so refreshing to see a CB who wins his aerial duels.

Couple of thoughts:


- Not a foul for me.

- De Gea looks really good so far. Coming off his line and has some of his aura back after those saves. I do genuinely feel that his wife now being in Manchester will settle him down.

- Varane looks brilliant. Bargain.

- Sancho needs games, and time. He'll be fine. He has had no pre season. Internationals coming at a good time for these players.

- Fred continues to be a complete liability. Physically bossed. Disaster in possession. If we don't upgrade at CDM then I just cant see us winning a league. I hope I am wrong.

- SURELY Donny wouldnt do any worse than Fred in that role?

- AWB was great defensively. What a clearance.

- Team needs time to gel and work combos. Anyone else notice that time Varane fizzed a pass to James who fumbled it out for a throw. He will know better after that. You could also see him realising he needs to take the reigns and bypass Fred after about 10 minutes too. Same with Sancho / Bruno / Cavani there were some linkups that I feel would end up being goalscoring chances later this season once we gel.

- Bruno needs to cut the moaning, you can see refs starting to get annoyed at him and it costs him legitimate decisions. Love his passion, but he needs to be smart and channel it.

- Finally, Mason FN Greenwood. On course for a 38 goal season! What a player he is starting to become. Seems more dangerous out right too which is good with Cavani and Ronaldo in the squad!


...


Viva Ronaldo!

 

[DON’T PANIC ™]

Pogba + Fred as a 2 clearly doesn’t work at the moment, although second half wasn’t just as bad. The number of times Fred was more advanced than Pogba and then one of them lost possession was scary.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Fred was terrible for a few mistakes early on. But can he be blamed for the rest of the team being unable to string together 3 passes or create any chances for the whole 90 minutes

Pogba spent the entire game telling him where to be positionally and when he wasn’t, it was Maguire doing that.

 

[Redlyn]

Adama Traoré is funny, he´s big and imposing but I´m never scared when he has the ball. All muscles and pace, no product.

Anyway, it´s a win and I´ll take it.

He is basically Dan James on steroids.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Over your mantlepiece

No, your mum’s here right now

 

[gorky_utd]

Poor performance, great 3 points.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Not sure Richard Keys is in any place to call Ole embarrassing.