[Contano]

Best performance in a long time. A real joy to watch. Match day thread posters are an embarrassment. Not United supporters.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Best performance of the season. Brighton travel poorly but I thought we got all over them for more or less the entire game, and even when they managed to get a foothold with their goal we were pleasingly quick to shut them down again. The only thing I can criticise is the finishing, we should have made our dominance count more emphatically on the scoreboard but otherwise it was a very pleasing performance. More of this and we'll win plenty of games in the PL and start climbing the table.

Add Haaland to this side and we could score for fun

 

[Zlaatan]

Best game of the season based on work ethic, pashun' and will to win the ball. More of that please.

 

[Carolina Red]

Fred had arguably his best game yet.

He finally looked like the kinda guy we paid for. Hopefully it continues. I think he’s forming a good understanding with McTominay and that’s allowing him to grow into his own role.

 

[redom]

We will need a deeper squad, so there is no reason why a player of his ability cant be slotted in

Oh he'll definitely come in I'm just wondering where, the prospect of him in that advanced position is tantalising even if we miss out on his ability to run things from deep, McT and Fred look like they may be forming a nice partnership so bringing Pogba back as the 10 makes sense right now.

 

[RedPed]

Excellent game of footie. Should have had at least 7 today. We finally managed to keep up the intensity for 95 minutes. I just hope we can take that form to Sheffield in a fortnight. Great going into a break on a high.

 

[Sandikan]

Seems pretty obvious you'd slot Pogba in instead of our underwhelming options of Pereira/Mata or Lingard.

However, you wouldn't be surprised to see him instead of Fred

 

[Handsome Devil]

Biggest gripe, it wasn't shown on British TV

 

[FrankDrebin]

Biggest gripe ? should've added atleast 2 more goals to the scoreboard.

Overall a really enjoyable match,from both teams to be fair.

Better second half,though.

 

[Xaviboy]

Need to build on that. Any team that will come out and try and play attacking style against us will be punished with pace of James who I thought was excellent today, rashford and martial. Pogba in place of Perreria and another midfielder in January to fight it out with Fred and McTominey and throw in a CF maybe in case Martial gets injured we could be on to something.

 

[Drawfull]

He finally looked like the kinda guy we paid for. Hopefully it continues. I think he’s forming a good understanding with McTominay and that’s allowing him to grow into his own role.

His price went up to £60m according to NBCSN today

 

[Bilbo]

United of old almost, in that I didn't want the match to finish. Very enjoyable 90 minutes.

Everybody played well, with notable mentions to Fred (best performance as a red), James, Maguire & Williams.

A few observations:

• We look genuinely dangerous when Rashford, Martial & James are our front three. Real potential there
• The pressing in the final third is improving
• For that matter pressing in general is vastly improved. We turn the ball over quickly so many times, often within 5 seconds of losing possession
• Stick Pogba in this XI in place of Perreira and it starts to look like a pretty exciting side

I'm interested to know whether the staunch Ole out crowd still fail to see any evidence of coaching or a 'style of play' emerging. For me, while we are still inconsistent and a work in progress, it's clear what we are trying to do here.

Our best XI is better than most in this league. Young players are coming through and getting minutes, so by seasons end we will be able to make sound decisions about what we need to add to the squad.

 

[James Ward]

I was really impressed with Williams. Great to see a full back running in behind. We haven't had that in quite a while. I hope Wan-Bissaka works on this part of his game instead of just sitting back waiting for the ball to be passed back.

Fred looks to be growing in confidence and was definitely MOTM for me. Still way off the top three teams in the league of United, Liverpool and Chelsea but a couple of smart signings, specifically a world class center midfielder, world class right winger and world class number 10 and United will be back in with a shout of champions league football.

I would nearly take Ozil on a short term contract if available but only if the conditions were right.

 

[stu_1992]

Fun watch. We looked threatening even when we didn't score which was a welcome change. Disappointed to lose the clean sheet but came back immediately and honestly we looked better than ever after that 3rd goal.

Lot of impressive performances out there. Martial was great. Had a hand in 2 goals and multiple other chances. Deserved a goal today but it wasn't to be. What an impact his return has had on Rashford too. Yes he missed a few chances today but he scored another very good finish and his overall play is unrecognisable from a few weeks ago when he was playing terribly. Fred was another who was unrecognisable and is growing in stature in recent weeks. This may even have been his best performance. Hope thy continues. James impressive again. Its a shame some of the most dangerous things he creates aren't out away.

Williams very impressive on his first league start. Definitely staking a claim and I'd be all for him continuing if the alternate is Young. McTominay impressive as always this season though that injury at the end was worrying.

 

[Michael T]

Perfect result and game play to leave us going into the break in 7th place. Some excellent performances to really boost confidence. Well done Ole and the boys. Far more enjoyable than the last few years. I for one, am happy this evening.

 

[ivaldo]

Won 4, drew 4, lost 4, GD of 4. I thought that was pretty.

 

[downunder red]

No passengers today. A great team effort. Ole got it right with taking Pereira off when he did. He always goes missing after 60ish minutes.
Going to be a long two weeks. Hopefully no more injuries and the team come back fresh.

 

[Valar Morghulis]

That was a really enjoyable watch today we were fantastic. Rashford is a really exciting player but has this odd tendency to miss his easiest chances and tuck away the most difficult its so frustrating All in all though, fair play to all of them, that's the best I've seen them play in a while.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Add Haaland to this side and we could score for fun

My brother made the point during the game that Rashford has been in the papers bemoaning the team's lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, saying they all need to improve. No shit Marcus! The performance was superb today but I hope before we add new players to this squad, including a proficient striker, these players can sort out the shite misses and put some teams away.

 

[James Ward]

Imagine that team, but with Pogba instead of Pereira

We wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the league. Still a long way to go of rebuilding.

 

[Buster15]

It is very pleasing to see McTominay commanding a regular spot in midfield. He is developing into a quite reasonable player and will be a good leader. Mentality tough and won't be pushed around.

 

[dmode]

6 goals in 3 days

This is madness! Wooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Jazz]

So damn happy. Not sure how I feel about the break coming up. Let's hope we continue like this. Yes we still need to improve but this was good today.

Our long suffering Fred put in a MOTM performance. Well done him.

 

[gerdm07]

Good performance compared to most of the season. Altogether, though, it wasn't really that convincing. It just seemed we were one pass short of creating some nice flowing plays.

I know most are going to say Rashford was really good, but I won't. He is just such an unaware player. Doesn't know players are closing him down. Doesn't know how much time he has to get a shot off. Doesn't know how he should connect with certain chances (the miss). And he doesn't know where players are going to pick a good pass. I still would love to see James, Martial and Greenwood at some point.

De Gea should have attacked the ball for two corners and one was the goal. I'm not sure what he was thinking. It's almost as if he didn't want to tussle with the tall Brighton players and decided to stay on his line.

The positives, though, are:

- Fred looked very good. Maybe his best match at United

- Williams is going to play a lot this year and do very well.

- Martial is looking sharper every match.

- AWB just shuts the door on so oppossing many attacks.

I really hope McT can play in a few weeks because I would really like to see Pogba as the AM.

 

[siw2007]

Overall an enjoyable match, a very good if incomplete performance and should have been so much more.

Felt we started the better team and deservedly got the lead. Was disappointed we didn’t control the possession well enough and allowed Brighton to control the game a little at this point. 2nd half was a bit lacklustre, some players looked a little leggy from Thursday, especially Rashford who looked like he was struggling. Very happy with the response to their goal, we could have fell apart but we kept going. Some of our counter attacking football at the end was superb and should have scored more.

A lot of good performances today, but Fred and McTominay were excellent.

 

[Piyush]

Really loved watching United play after such a long time. Just hope that McTominay injury is not serious.

 

[Still ill]

Such an enjoyable game. Everyone impressive bar Lindelof. I'd have Rojo in. Fred fantastic today. That's what I pictured when we bought him. Himself and Mctominay dovetailing nicely. Pogba surely in in front of those two rather than instead of either. Rashford great, misses notwithstanding. James, Martial, Williams, Maguire, Wan Bissaka, all great. Anyone who won't accept that as progress needs a clip round the ear. Keep at it, lads.

 

[paulscholes18]

Fred’s best game by far 0 suicidal passes makes a change.
Should have won by more

 

[Ban]

We're scoring more than one, what the hell is happening?

 

[Ban]

Also Fred is just getting better and better.

 

[r0663664]

I knew that we will win. Martial returns to the team has brought positivity in our attack. We need a backup no.9. I can't trust him to be fit. 1 midfield, no. 9 would be welcome in January.

 

[Chairman Steve]

This game has shown we do have the players who can do it, so that section of the Ole in zealots who say “It’s not Oles fault. He’s got shit players and needs £500m to spend” can give it a rest in my opinion.

We are still ten points off of Leicester and Chelsea. Those two clubs are the realistic targets we’ll be aiming for at the moment. Yes we’ve beaten them this season but we’ve screwed up to the lesser teams which those two have largely beaten. Today we’ve beaten one of those lesser teams.

Our next two league games are Sheff Utd away and Villa home. If he wins those then he might cause me to reevaluate my opinion.

This was by far Fred’s best game and I hope he can continue it. The summer transfer window events in hindsight was frankly ridiculous. A new central midfielder and a forward would allievate the pressure to keep our squad fit, but now we have to keep that front 6 (along with Pogba) we saw today wrapped in cotton wool until January at least.

 

[Volumiza]

Looking better. Still, fun as it was, this is what we should be doing against Brighton, let’s hope this upward trend in performance continues, it’s been so long since we were able to watch such relentless attacking. I know we can’t expect it in every match but crikey, have we waited for that.

our defence isn’t perfect but it is a proper defence at last. AWB is amazing at defending and it’s brilliant watching him stop so many attacks.

Fred was even better today, he’s been improving over the weeks and looked like a proper midfielder today. Let’s hope he carries on.

Lack of clinical finishing aside our front 3 were a menace.

 

[Member 119614]

James is such a handful. I think Pereira should get some credit today too, he was pretty good. His contribution for the 3d goal was very classy. His first goal was lucky and he should have made a faster choice for his pass but all in all I think he had a good game.
Rashford was wasteful again but like James very hard to contain. He should have passed to James there at the end.
Williams was lively also a shame he couldn't find Martial at the centre when he mad that excellent run near the end.
McTominay hopefully is ok, we can't miss him. Who should take his place if necessary? Garner? Tuanzebe if fit? Perhaps Jones?

 

[villain]

We wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the league. Still a long way to go of rebuilding.

Nobody said otherwise

 

[SadlerMUFC]

Great game today. The only person who could stop Rashford was himself and Ryan. Gotta finish better than that. James was amazing. Should have had a couple of assists if not for poor finishing. In fact, everybody played great. My only slight on the performance was their goal. That's an inswinger to the middle of the 6 yard box. We shouldn't have to worry about winning the header there because De Gea should be all over that. Once again he has struggled controlling his box and coming out for a ball that should easily be his. Other than that, great performance...

 

[Foxbatt]

Good result. We have to keep winning now.

 

[Mockney]

Best 2nd half for about a year, and by some distance. Obviously what we should be doing against the likes of Brighton, but it was a very enjoyable watch, long may it continue.

Sub management is still baffling.

 

[alexthelion]

Pogba doesn't get back into this team. hehe

Sell him and get a DM and a #10.

 

[Mike Smalling]

Pogba doesn't get back into this team. hehe

Happy to see you included white text

Swapping Pogba for Pereira in the #10 role would actually make this team half decent, provided Pogba actually tries and performs to his potential.