[MuranoLover]

We're going to win the league

Already have bet on that , 34 in bwin , 50 euros.

 

[Red Panda]

I thought Kante's cynical scything down of James looked a red card...

We made Chelsea look a bit mid table today. I'm bloomin delighted with the result. If David Luiz had still been playing for them it'd have been 12 nil not 4

 

[RedorDead21]

Too hard? He floored Kante and Kante had to get a yellow to stop James. Imagine him doing it for 90 mins

Not really that simple. When teams sit back he won't be as effective. Afew games where his game doesn't work will hurt his confidence. Best to have several months or the season being used as he was today. Giving him time to perfect his game and ensure his confidence in his game is not knocked at such an important time in his development.

 

[Gator Nate]

Too hard? He floored Kante and Kante had to get a yellow to stop James. Imagine him doing it for 90 mins

I would love to. But he was blowing after 15 minutes. Now, part of that was probably because he only had to go for 16+ minutes and was fully aware, but I really don't think he can do that for 90. Like I said, I like the way Ole used him today. I would like to see him go for 20 or 25 minutes, but his 16+ today was great.

 

[Infra-red]

A very good day. Exactly what was needed after the last 6 months.

 

[BusbyMalone]

 

[Devil may care]

First 15 minutes Chelsea looked better on the ball and were more creative but are anemic up front, then Zouma has a brainfart and Rashford converted the penalty. From there it allowed us to play counter attack which is Ole's thing and we converted the counters.

We almost botched the first one when Rashford's pass took Lingard way too wide, but he salvaged it and Pereira delivered a decent cross that Martial converted, showing the kind of box movement he often fails to produce, that was a good sign. The second counter forthe 3rd goal was a peach of a pass from Pogba and a quality first touch and finish from Rashford. The 4th goal was all about Pogba, driving from his own box, the 1-2 with Martial and then a lovely weighted pass to James who I thought was going to miss the chance as he seemed to lose his balance and he got lucky with the deflecton but it was good to see him get off the mark.

Maguire is getting gassed up and him and Lindelof played well, as did AWB, but Pogba was MOTM for me, economical and astute with his passing, worked hard and got 2 assists. The big concern for me is in our build up play when we are the team expected to take the game on, you can't rely on counter attacking all of the time and our build up play was still poor today when we had our spell of possession.

 

[morbidsaint]

Can't ask for a better start. 4-0 vs Chelsea.

They looked like a unit ready for a fight. Can't wait for the next game. Wolves away.. let's not repeat the last match against them.

 

[Volumiza]

I love utd

 

[In Rainbows]

The problem in the first half was our midfield not being good enough as well as Rashford being sloppy in attack combined with Lingard's presence. Pogba was sloppy and slow with the ball, but did put in defensive effort. McTominay shirked responsibility because of his lack of ability on the ball, and Pereira was invisible.

In order to solve that we'll need someone other than Pogba who can drop deep and bring the ball out of the back, or when passed to in the middle, can turn it into an attack either by driving forward or passing through defenders. Only Pogba was trying that, but as said before, his play was a bit sloppy in that first half. Pereira is supposed to help in this area, but he was anonymous.

The perfect solution would be someone like Gomes and Garner. Gomes is someone who can turn with the ball to put the opposition on the defense, and he's also someone who is comfortable receiving the ball under pressure. Garner can do the same.

 

[manichester]

3 points and a clean sheet, would have taken that before the game.

 

[siw2007]

What a great result! After 15min if you told me we would win 4 0, I would say you were on something.

Really difficult start where we couldn’t retain possession at all, but much improved in the 2nd half.

Maguire was unbelievable. If a striker has had a great debut you say that they have scored a couple or even a hat trick, but Maguire’s display today was the equivalent for a defender for me.

Also great to see Rashford and Martial get off the mark, didn’t think the former started well but grew into the game and played really well by the end.

 

[buckooo1978]

after a shite end to last season this is a really brilliant start.... let's enjoy it

Ole will need to work hard with the team for the next week to get the midfield a bit more compact and solid

great start though

 

[Volumiza]

but Pogba was MOTM for me

Ge may have redeemed himself a bit with that pass but what the hell were you watching?

 

[always_hoping]

That game is the real test of where we are at the moment. Kind of dreading it, to be honest.

Its a test yes but it was silly defensive mistakes that cost United against Wolves last season. I expect much improvement this time a idea game for the players to play next to focus their minds

 

[reddevil80]

well chuffed, top result. Looks like we still need support in the middle but Pog done alright, even though half fit. Lindelof was my M-O-M with Maguire an extremely close 2nd. Not a Lingard fan but his constant harrying was very encouraging and he has bulked a bit too. No bad performances today, long may it continue. Oh aye, and halfway to last years clean sheet total already, after one game, not bad

 

[MrSingh2002]

Lucky that we didn't concede.

Maguire made £80m look cheap.
AWB made £50m look a great deal.
James made his fee look a joke.

Shame we didn't sign another midfielder or number 10 as they also could've improved our midfield.

Today's performance won't be good enough on a weekly basis but it's nice to see the value the new signings have added.

Felt amazing to not see Jones and Smalling in the squad, and Matic and Mata on the bench.

Pereira isn't good enough to be starting for us but hopefully Dan James can force his way to start right wing and then maybe use Lingard as a busy number 10.

Today's scoreline is dangerous if Ole thinks we're better than we are. If Pereira comes out for James or Fred I can see us competing in games atleast.

Now we just need Fred and Dalot to force their way in and take Young and Matic's place on the bench and then we'll have a squad I can like.

 

[Full bodied red]

I'm not going to get carried away by today even though I loved it.

What we did, we did well - but Chelsea helped us enormously by coming at us until it was 3-0.

Will we be able to play like that against teams that sit back to defend ?? Almost certainly not, although at least this year we might finally have a winger who can get behind the back five or six and pull the ball back.

I'll agree with those who thing we looked much better with Martial and Rashford charging forward than last year when we were hoofing it to Lukaku and losing possession nine times out of ten.

My only ' iffy ' bits today would be the number of times Pogba lost posession. Ok, today he made up for it with a couple of assists, which makes me wonder why he can't see himself how much more effective he is when he moves the ball forward more quickly instead of with his third or fourth touch. I counted at least five times today - maybe someone can dig out the stats to confirm exactly how many times.

But all-in-all, a good day and one which gives us hope for this season. A decent result at Molineux and I'll begin to believe that we have a real chance of a good season after the bollocks of last year.

 

[Devil may care]

Ge may have redeemed himself a bit with that pass but what the hell were you watching?

The one where he used the ball well, kept it simple, worked hard and got two assists.

 

[SirAF]

These new fabled Sky Sports highlights I hear about, are there any longer than the 2:55 clip at YouTube?

 

[Volumiza]

The one where he used the ball well, kept it simple, worked hard and got two assists.

I think he could have used the ball better, kept it simpler and worked a little bit harder.

Earned his keep though and let’s hope he does it next match too.

 

[Crackers]

These new fabled Sky Sports highlights I hear about, are there any longer than the 2:55 clip at YouTube?

This discussion about defensive shape is pretty good

 

[RonW]

I hope we are not getting carried away by today's win. It was never a 4-0 win although that's what the scoreline was at the end. Our midfield was very poor today. Perrera was not up to the mark, and Pogba lost the ball countless times which could have cost us a goal or two. I still think we should build the team around Pogba because he is the best player we have and we are not utilizing his full potential and he should be playing on the left side of the Central Midfield. That's where he plays best, and when the attackers make runs for him and he can pull any sort of pass. Today, Rashford was the only one to do that and I don't think Martial and Lingard were up to it. Martial has the potential to be top class but he needs to be multi dimensional that is to make runs behind the defenders, make good crosses and score goals and headers. Sometimes the opposition team knows that Martial's only strength is going to try to beat their LB one on one so they double up on him and neutralize him. Maguire was excellent, and so was Van Bissaka and Shaw. Any injuries to Rashford, Martial and Pogba may really start costing us as our attack really looks thin on paper. I would want us to play Greenwood in the next game, instead of Lingard on the right.

 

[VidaRed]

cocks out.

 

[SirAF]

This discussion about defensive shape is pretty good

Cheers, but I meant the actual match highlights I could swear I read a poster saying he’d migrate from MotD now.

 

[Crackers]

I hope we are not getting carried away by today's win. It was never a 4-0 win although that's what the scoreline was at the end. Our midfield was very poor today. Perrera was not up to the mark, and Pogba lost the ball countless times which could have cost us a goal or two. I still think we should build the team around Pogba because he is the best player we have and we are not utilizing his full potential and he should be playing on the left side of the Central Midfield. That's where he plays best, and when the attackers make runs for him and he can pull any sort of pass. Today, Rashford was the only one to do that and I don't think Martial and Lingard were up to it. Martial has the potential to be top class but he needs to be multi dimensional that is to make runs behind the defenders, make good crosses and score goals and headers. Sometimes the opposition team knows that Martial's only strength is going to try to beat their LB one on one so they double up on him and neutralize him. Maguire was excellent, and so was Van Bissaka and Shaw. Any injuries to Rashford, Martial and Pogba may really start costing us as our attack really looks thin on paper. I would want us to play Greenwood in the next game, instead of Lingard on the right.

cocks out.

Stark difference of opinion here.

 

[Schweinsteiger]

Sorry if not allowed but if you want to watch highlights of the goals, sky sports upload the footage really quickly these days. Here are the goals:

 

[Denis79]

Completely outplayed but got lucky with some counters

We weren't outplayed but the score doesn't reflect the game, I agree with that.

 

[Devil may care]

I think he could have used the ball better, kept it simpler and worked a little bit harder.

Earned his keep though and let’s hope he does it next match too.

The thing with Pogba is he's the only player we have with a creative passing game and range, if he keeps it too simple all the time we'll never create anything, and I thought his workrate was very good, he was even getting across to help Shaw in the first half when Rashford wasn't tracking back.

Yes, consistency is Pogba's biggest issue, we need him at least 7/10 every week, minimum.

 

[stu_1992]

Couldn't ask for a better result to start the season. 4 goals against one of the top 6 and a clean sheet? Must say I never predicted that coming and even by half time I wasn't sure we'd end up the winners. But we just looked so much better in that second half. In the end it was a well deserved win, though I acknowledge we were lucky at times (Chelsea hit the woodwork twice after all).

Great for both Rashford and Martial to have scoring starts to the season. Rashford in particular had a sloppy start, but hopefully this gives them confidence to go out and play and score. They seemed to interchange positions a lot. Fantastic pass by Pogba for the third goal and we need to see more of that than the player we saw in first half who tried needlessly complicated things that didn't work out at all. Lingard and Perreira were quiet but grew into the game. We need to see more of them to be convinced going forward. Pereira did have a quality ball for Martial though.

Absolutely fantastic moment for Dan James to score. You could see how much that meant to him.

Impressed with all the new signings, but I think overall Wan Bissaka was the most impressive of the three. Obviously James had his great moment and Maguire certainly was solid and did nothing wrong, but Wan Bissaka stood out the most to me.

Finally nice to see De Gea with the armband and he looked solid today. Not one of his all time best performances, but that's because it wasn't needed. He looked a lot better than the player we saw at the end of last year. Early days for what's essentially a new defence but it looks promising, but not yet airtight.

 

[MetoTTT]

I'm obviously happy with the score but my god, it was a feking miracle. Our midfield as expected was completely outclassed. Pogba in a mid-two, I hope that will be the case only very rarely. Fortunately the defense finally looks pretty solid but they have to work miracles in every game to not concede goals with such a midfield.
Even if most of us expected it, the most disturbing is that we do not see any game plan and what OGS wants to put in place (like the Glazers with the club). Anyway, I hope I'm wrong and it was just the pressure to play against Chelsea in the first game of the season at OT and the team will be better than last season. We need to believe it!
So, we will all be behind the team, wishing them to surprise us and make us proud of our team again.
Let's hope that gives the necessary confidence to the lads. Delighted with the AWB and Harry debut.

 

[Sarni]

Some of the stuff I am reading here is amazing. Outplayed and lucky, yeah right.

 

[quiet_united]

happy with the win but luck played a big part today. chelsea had more possession and had 18 shots with many clear chances. Having luck on our side was part of the great SAF attributes so it feel right

 

[Gasolin]

Some of the stuff I am reading here is amazing. Outplayed and lucky, yeah right.

Because we are not good, you know, Ole is a nobody, he has no plan, everything... we will have to win 30 matches straight to have a chance to change people mind and make them wonder that maybe, Ole is a football guy and has some ideas.

 

[Fully Fledged]

What did Souness say about Pogs?

He had to admit that the pass for the third was class.

 

[Andy_Cole]

From the top 6 we hard the hardest team (Chelsea probably the easiest!) and we were only bettered by City.

We smashed it.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

Good tactics overall and decent performance from the lads.

I was going through the matchday thread periodically and there were a lot of shouts for a 433 with Matic-McT at the base for it. Although i can see the lure of that, i'm quite pleased with Solskjaer's choice to not change the tactics he's been working on throughout the preseason just because it was a difficult game. It would do nothing for the confidence of these players to alter the tactics at the sight of the first obstacle in what is going to be a very long season for us. Football isn't only about drawing dots on a piece of paper, other factors have to be taken into consideration too.

Second thing i noticed are the complaints about the lack of control in the midfield. That's not going to happen very often with a midfield of two. At least not in the way some of you envision it. We are going to be a transition team first and foremost. The problems we faced today, especially in the first half, stemmed from the fact that Barkley was constantly looking to play centrally with Emerson covering the whole length of Chelsea's left flank. Given the fact that Pedro likes to cut inside too, our midfield two were often sandwiched between Chelsea's CMs and (supposed) wingers. Still, they gave them very few opportunities to create something through the central channels. Pereira was picked over Mata (or Greenwood/Gomez) because he can cover more ground than him and make up for the lack of numbers in the midfield. But that was the only concession we were willing to make. I liked how we tried to play at a high tempo despite Chelsea looking confident early on. A big contrast to Jose's "contain them and slow everything down by defending with 6 players in the box" approach. It's not always going to be as rosy as it was today but this is the direction we should move towards.

Everybody knows that McT isn't the finished article yet but he is learning his trade from one of the best holding midfielders in recent times. And we should also learn to live with Pogba as long as he remains here. He is who he is, a bit suspect positionally, sometimes a bit listless but his moments of brilliance can often make the difference between a loss and a win. The best thing we can do is to make these moments count. Yes, we found it hard to control the game but we also never resorted to hoofball. The triangles were indeed a bit off but we never lost our calm. In my book, this is a positive early in the season.

What a breath of fresh air our defensive line was. A proper right-back since 2013, i could hardly believe my eyes! It took me a while to stop fearing that Chelsea will find a hole there and punish us. It had become a trend last season. And Lindelof-Maguire's ability to play the ball and defend in front of the attacker is invaluable. Moreso, it's good to know that we have a defence which can handle pressure and therefore allow us to take calculated risks within the game.

The scoreline is flattering but we were not inferior at any point. We were lucky on two occasions: On Abraham's early chance that hit the post and on our second goal which was the product of, perhaps, our two worst performers on the pitch at the time. But Chelsea created very few chances. Even in our bad first half, there were two instances when Martial fecked up two excellent opportunities because he chose to shoot rather than play the simple pass.

As for our Chelsea friends on here, you guys should pray for Kante to have an injury-free season because this joke with Jorginho as the deepest midfielder (especially against pressing sides) has to end.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

Very slow start where we looked really sluggish and nervous. Different beast in the 2nd half and played some great stuff. Really impressive debuts from AWB, Maguire and James.
If we can kick on from that 2nd half performance I'll be very optimistic for the season.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Excellent result and our pressing does look great.

My only concern was and remains our midfield and ball circulation when in possession. Our midfield today wasn't good at all in recycling possession or controlling the tempo. Hopefully it improves.

 

[Gasolin]

Anyone know if MOTD 2 is finished and available to watch somewhere?