Chivas vs Manchester United - Pre season friendly

Why did you feel the need to kick that ball 10 feet in front of you, Nani?
 
feck. It's 6.30, and I stayed awake for this? Oh well. Chicarito looked lively, Cleverley was allright in the first half. Second half something something, good night all.
 
Well to be fair this was half the 2nd string, 3rd string members against the Chivas first team.

It does leave a concern regarding the depth of the squad though.
 
Well to be fair this was half the 2nd string, 3rd string members against the Chivas first team.

It does leave a concern regarding the depth of the squad though.

Why?

Is it so strange that our 2nd/3rd string side should look poor and lose to a top Mexican side?

Individual performances might have been poor tonight, basic mistakes, but I don't think this result reflects badly on our squad.
 
The tour has been up and down but the major concern has to be Smalling.
Can't we just pretend we didn't sign him?

Why would we want to?

He's been good when accompanied by good defenders and a good keeper, he is obviously still learning the game at the highest level and has plenty of time to develop at only 20. Physically he looks like a monster, he gonna be a great athlete and he has pace on him.

Its stupid to suggest that he won't given time prove to worth alot more than what we spent on him.
 
I think Smalling will be fine with the right teachers to guide him. He'll be training along side two of our best ever and his confidence will come once he's settled. He's not gonna be the player we want right away(This season), but in the long run I'd say he'll play out and grow into a sound investment.
 
Once again, we lacked inventiveness in the middle. Booting long balls from the defence isnt what I call United football.
 
The middle of the pitch is always going to be a concern with United. Sadly we just try to hold but hardly ever control the middle of the park. All the investment is with the wide players. That is how we are set-up.
 
I think Smalling will be fine with the right teachers to guide him. He'll be training along side two of our best ever and his confidence will come once he's settled. He's not gonna be the player we want right away(This season), but in the long run I'd say he'll play out and grow into a sound investment.

He is incredibly raw but he still did better then experienced heads like Wes.
 
When was the last time we lost two pre-season friendlies in one tour?


When was the last time we got a pre season work out as good as that?

Walking about playing Kaizer chiefs or Chinese pharmaceutical or whoever they are was didn't seem to be as hard as Kansas or certainly Chivas weather and work rate was. Just finished watching the game on MUTV, wasn't the best from us but as a caller is saying now there is no Vidic, Evra, Rio, Neville, Park, Carrick, Anderson, Rooney. The positives are that Cleverly and Welbeck among others have had a really good tour but also our new signings Hernandez and Smalling have scored, showing good moments.

Good work out, result doesn't matter, well it did to some of those teams.
 
When was the last time we got a pre season work out as good as that?

Walking about playing Kaizer chiefs or Chinese pharmaceutical or whoever they are was didn't seem to be as hard as Kansas or certainly Chivas weather and work rate was. Just finished watching the game on MUTV, wasn't the best from us but as a caller is saying now there is no Vidic, Evra, Rio, Neville, Park, Carrick, Anderson, Rooney. The positives are that Cleverly and Welbeck among others have had a really good tour but also our new signings Hernandez and Smalling have scored, showing good moments.

Good work out, result doesn't matter, well it did to some of those teams.

Quoted for truth and common sense.
 
I usually hate to succumb to hyperbole, but Javier looks really really really fecking good.
 
Smalling will only get better. Our midfield was completely anonymous today. We couldnt link the defence to the forwards -- barely string two passes together. The forwards were starved of any supply.

And I was surprised to learn that Gibbo played today. Found out from the "Ratings vrs Chivas" thread. An odd goal here & there just doesnt justify a midfielder's slot in the team especially someone who is as limited with his passing as he is.
 
When was the last time we lost two pre-season friendlies in one tour?

Before the 06/07 season, which if you can remember correctly, we didn't end up doing too badly that season.

This has been a very competitive pre-season, against some teams who were actually trying to play and prepared to give us a game. It's been a great workout for the team to get their fitness up to scratch. We've scored some great goals and some of the young lads have impressed. We've still to get the big guns back yet in the next few weeks.

Overall I think it's been good.
 
Before the 06/07 season, which if you can remember correctly, we didn't end up doing too badly that season.

This has been a very competitive pre-season, against some teams who were actually trying to play and prepared to give us a game. It's been a great workout for the team to get their fitness up to scratch. We've scored some great goals and some of the young lads have impressed. We've still to get the big guns back yet in the next few weeks.

Overall I think it's been good.

Agree with this, I'd much rather face tougher opposition and lose a couple of pre season matches, than play some 3rd rate chinese club side, and smash them 9-0.
 
As other people have said, these games have featured mainly our backup and young players, and probably done them the world of good. What I'm more concerned about is the fact that our main players won't have had any game time, when the competitive matches start. I wouldn't be surprised to see us start slowly this season, and expect some suicidal threads on here when we drop points in the first few games.
 
They'll have the friendly in Ireland and the Community Shield. Not a great amount of prep but better than nothing.
 
I think that this is one of the very few pre season tours that had actually done us good. Our players could train and play in world class facilities and under a stress free enviorement against good opposition who didn't mind giving us a run for our money. The results of such tour would be useful for SAF to assess his team and see the fitness condition of his squad and whether we should be buying or not. In my opinion the team had shown ample promise (ex Hernandez, Welbeck, Macheda, Cleverley and Smalling (who is still raw but he has talent) but also a weakness in midfield that should be addressed. It also shown that certain players are a week or two from full fitness. Im sure that players like Wes and OShea could do better then they actually did.
 
Yeah the tours been good. Lets not forget the traveling factor too. Yesterday would have been perfect if Hernandez didn't skew his shot wide for United in the second half. A 3-3 with him scoring for both would have been ideal but it weren't to be

It's not nice to lose, especially when you stay up crazy times but while the wizards were average, Chivas looked a threat on the break. It's no shame losing to them. We have to sort out the midfield, get our defenders back and move on.

I think Diouf has been unfortunate and I think he's getting subconsciously written off which is unfair. His play outside the box is of a pretty decent standard but we had no creativity in midfield or outwide and he so he had to look for the ball instead.

happy days
 
The middle of the pitch is always going to be a concern with United. Sadly we just try to hold but hardly ever control the middle of the park. All the investment is with the wide players. That is how we are set-up.

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Better to have these defeats now against a decent side and figure out what needs tweaking, than beating some far east side 8-1 and get lured into thinking some of the players are better than they actually are.
 
Better to have these defeats now against a decent side and figure out what needs tweaking, than beating some far east side 8-1 and get lured into thinking some of the players are better than they actually are.

good point. The fact is as well there are lots of factors to why we lost. The back four yesterday was fabio oshea smalling and de laet.....and that's just the defence. As good talents as they are, they've never played as a group before.

Also the positive for me is the responce in America. After what happens last time, bringing the squad we did this was a risk - they might not 'understand' -or like the number of young players but I think the mls all stars was the main one and we did well

Yesterday i'm sure a lot of those chivas players were looking to improve and saw it as an opportunity where as it's pre season for us