[Godfather]

Great spirit from the lads. To have travelled to Russia last week, returned to play Chelsea, lost three key players, got a red card, played almost 60 minutes with only ten men, deal with a disappointing travelling arrangement, forced to travel late into the early morning of Tuesday, start training again and be ready to play a stubborn and defensive Russian side and still win, kudos. People need to cut this team some slack. Next season is the real deal after Jose would have brought in new additions and let some current players leave. For now, they just need to find their way to the Champions League through any means possible.

Some sense finally. If the crowd would do their job it would help as well.

 

[markelphick]

The crowd were poor last night but maybe that was a reflection of what they watched. Glad we managed to scrape through eventually got a good goal Mata once again proving how valuable he is to the squad. Don't understand this new 3 at the back formation, clearly I don't think the players do either yet.

 

[Mihai]

Jones came on at left wing back when Luke Shaw and Ashley Young are both in our squad and not injured.

There is no possible scenario in which that isn't amazingly crap management. It also had a massively negative impact on our performance and could easily have cost us the game.

Why we were even playing with ffive at the back in the first place would be a stretch to justify. We constantly had two players standing around doing absolutely feck all because of our stupid set up. I've no real idea why we set up like that in the first place, but there was no justifcation at all for not changing it after the first half hour when it was clearly not suited to the game.

I repeat, Young or Rashford was about to come on for Rojo. Meaning Young would've taken Jones spot at LWB or Micky would've moved to LWB (if rashford came on).

It didn't have any impact on the game. In fact, we scored 6 minutes after jones came on.

It would've been at least 3 nil after the first half if it wasn't for Micky's crap finishing and Zlatan's selfishness.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Boring game. Mediocre performance and an unusually defensive set-up. Job done though. The whining I'm seeing all over the caf is hilarious. Like a bunch of teenage girls. Some plank even said we were better to watch under Van Gaal. Jesus wept.

 

[Parma Dewol]

That was almost comical to watch. I'm obviously glad we went through, and you could argue that we did a job, but the match just felt so bizarre at times.

They had all their players in their own half for long periods, yet we still kept three disciplined defenders in ours. Again, you could argue that we didn't concede, but it just looked weird having defenders stood there with nothing to do. Then there were the sloppy passes (it's been a while since we've been kicking the ball straight out), the inhaler, the bananas, the injuries and the prospect of Phil Jones at left back while Rojo plays in the centre. Oh, and has someone checked on Rashford? He might still be stood on that touchline.

It has been a tough week of congested fixtures and plenty of travel. Hopefully we can just put this down to everyone being knackered. We're through, let's move on and get the points we need at Borough before a much-needed break.

 

[togg]

Boring game. Mediocre performance and an unusually defensive set-up. Job done though. The whining I'm seeing all over the caf is hilarious. Like a bunch of teenage girls. Some plank even said we were better to watch under Van Gaal. Jesus wept.

Not sure if it's just me, but the Caf seems to have got worse over the last year. Just loads of over reactive, childish, non-derivative comments like hormone ravaged teenagers stamping their feet similar to shouting 'I hate you Mum....'....Deary me....

 

[Zebs]

The most frustrating aspect of last night is that we kept getting the ball wide to Valencia and Blind in great positions and then when we crossed it we only had 3/4 players in the box while Rostov had 7/8. Nobody from the midfield or even one of the back three was willing to make a late run.

 

[Cee90]

I actually hated watching us last night, incredibly frustrating and the injuries were just the icing on the cake.

 

[Thepinhead]

It is clear that our form has dropped. Players look tired and the break can't come soon enough.

This formation isn't working. We need atleast another midfielder this summer so pogba can have a break once and a while and so that we don't have to play all sorts of formations to rotate players. Seems like we are changing formation depending on who is starting and to accomedate those players.

Players gave it their all and we manage to win despite being up against a very defensive team.

Fans dissapointet me the most to be honest. We need to get behind this team and make some noice when playing at home.

 

[Striker10]

Think we're 3/4 players short. Should be a busy summer.

 

[Kostur]

Boring game. Mediocre performance and an unusually defensive set-up. Job done though. The whining I'm seeing all over the caf is hilarious. Like a bunch of teenage girls. Some plank even said we were better to watch under Van Gaal. Jesus wept.

Thought I was under some spell yesterday but nah, the shite is still here.

Can't really understand it, it was like we lost yesterday, people started coming with some utter tripe about our season overall. Apart from the obvious wummetry it felt incredibly weird, saying that we've been only shite in 2017 and other stuff. Sure, it's not like we're tearing up shit at the moment and our form compared to the one in iirc December is nothing to be proud of but we still managed to play some decent enough games, score some goals when we were in flow so shite games like this one, one against Chelsea or Bournemouth have to come sooner or later.

I don't really get the 'we've been shit in Europa' stuff either. We've been incredibly inconsistent, yes, lost some stupid games, yes, but still as somebody pointed out managed to create the most chances in Europa, beat two teams by scoring 4 goals and I assume that if we played somebody tougher than Rostov, we'd have stepped it up like we did in the first game against ASSE. People also seem to forget that we've played on a literally frozen potato field last week that was later closed down and labelled as unplayable by the Russian federation due to being, you know, unplayable.

Was a borefest yesterday, I can't really understand the 3 at the back apart from Mou's stubborn pragmatism that wins him games, I don't like it but still, we're through and the reason seems to be quite inadequate to what has happened.

 

[Al-T]

Dull game but we have to cut Mourinho some slack here. He's won a trophy in his first season and we are very much in with a chance of another. Sometimes European football is about defensive cat and mouse. We shut them out and went through. Hopefully get one of the Belgian sides next to keep the travel down.

 

[Coops73]

Not the greatest game obviously but feck it, we're through.

I have no idea why Jose picked that formation, I understand that maybe he thought to protect the advantage and we didn't need to chase the game but for me it was pretty clear after 10 minutes that Rostov were going to defend like bastards so for me 3 at the back was a waste.

Gutted for Pogba, I think we'll miss him but he'd played so much it wasn't really a surprise and perhaps with the international break he can get a break and be back in a couple of weeks.

 

[red_john]

Not a very good watch to say the least. It's apparent that we need a few more players in the summer. I think we can all see why Pogba is crucial for us in midfield going forward. He may misplace a few passes and get caught out a few times but he is the only one we have who takes chances and plays the ball forward. He is being heavily hindered by the players around him. Im sure Jose will sort this in the summer and we begin to see the best of Pogba.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Not sure if it's just me, but the Caf seems to have got worse over the last year. Just loads of over reactive, childish, non-derivative comments like hormone ravaged teenagers stamping their feet similar to shouting 'I hate you Mum....'....Deary me....

It's the post-Fergie era. People can't cope with uncertainty and catastrophise every set-back. Year after year after year of unparalleled success means a lot of (younger?) United fans have lost any semblance of patience or perspective.

 

[mitchmouse]

Far from brilliant and, in my mind, shows we are not favourites for anything just now! But the goal was sublime; fantastic flick from Zlatan. Romero easily MoM for me: his saves saved the day! He must be one of the best reserve keepers in the world!! Other than that, I'm struggling to find positives: Miki was OK but why the hell was Carrick only on the bench. And then there was the awesome skill of Fellaini

 

[shield]

Before the match I was imagining us scoring at least 3 against these. Checked the score at half time and was surprised to see a 0-0 score line. Was even more surprised to see that it ended only 1-0.

After watching the replay, I did not get the feeling that Rostov played or defended particularly well. We just set up to be so defensive, we hardly threatened them at all. I thought we would absolutely batter them.

That was really frustrating. If there was any club I was confident of giving a hammering at home, it was Rostov. But we only managed a scrappy 1-0. If Jose thinks that the fixture list is tough now, and has us playing like this, what will he do come April. That time is absolutely brutal. We play the entire top 10 in the Premiership, all of whom are better than Rostov, along with the remaining top teams in the Europa.

Already bracing myself for some huge set backs. In April, almost all matches are must win and we have to get results against Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal, along with potential banana skins like Everton and Southampton. Not feeling very confident about those fixtures seeing that we are struggling against teams like Bournemouth and Rostov.

All of us are still looking at the positive side of things but it is almost April and we have yet to see a single dominant display. All matches are cagey defensive affairs. All of it is not down to Jose entirely because the players are also missing clear opportunities in each match.

Already, the signs look ominous. Jose has been spouting alot of wierd things exactly like how he does when things don't look good for him and his team. Squad looks tired and Jose is refusing to rotate players. I know the break is coming up, but the schedule after that is worse that what it is now and I am really worried. Looks like there is a huge chance of us missing top 4 and even crashing out of the EL seeing that Rostov gave us such a hard time.

All this does not make a difference to me because I still feel Jose is the right man for this job and he will eventually steer us to victory. But the thing is I don't know how he will react if results are not going his way continuously. The pressure and media scrutiny is enormous and I fear he may lose it completely.

 

[Jaxdan]

Fellaini played better than Pogba.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Fitchett]

Was this the least controversial match of our season? I can barely remember any player even talking to the ref.

Well the ref, and the official behind the goal, failed to give a definite penalty when their keeper pushed Mkhitaryan in the back as he went for a header in the 1st half.

More entertaining was the fact that a ball was thrown onto the pitch eight times in the first half, in front of the East stand, when a ball was already there. Do they use different ball boys/girls for Europa League matches? Also, stadium announcer stated over the tannoy that ref was playing 4 minutes of extra time, when the scoreboard was showing 2 and half minutes of normal time remaining. 2 minutes of stoppage time were played and then the ref blew for full time, so we didn't have to defend a corner, following Romero's great save at the end.

 

[Kevin]

Don't worry about the conduct of others, worry about your own. Your tagline denotes you as a more prominent poster and, therefore, one more likely to be noticed acting naughty. A person of your intellect should realize this.

With great power comes great responsibility. I am aware of it.

 

[hn4manunited]

Not sure if it's just me, but the Caf seems to have got worse over the last year. Just loads of over reactive, childish, non-derivative comments like hormone ravaged teenagers stamping their feet similar to shouting 'I hate you Mum....'....Deary me....

I agree. It's been difficult to read lots of the posts on here. Sensible posts are hard to come by...

I thought we played well considering the circumstances. Created some good chances despite how Rostov were set up.

People on here complaining about bad crosses...I agree some of the crosses could have been better but we have to consider what the other team was doing. They had a bunch of their players in their box and were set up to deal with that.

People on here complaining about us being flat and boring...cut the boys some slack. There is a thing called fatigue. We also do not have the proper quality in the squad to keep rotating without risking being out of the competitions we're in.

People on here complaining about Jones' substitution...Jose's probably keeping a lower risk option in case Rojo couldn't carry on as well as trying to make sure we have the height and experience of a center half to deal with potential aerial balls from Rostov towards the end.

It's like people on here expect the players to be like players in FIFA or whatever computer/console game where they can go out there on the pitch every day and perform and blast the other team like groundhog day!

It's grueling for some of these players especially under the circumstances we've been under. Once we have a proper squad with the proper quality assembled, then the rotations won't seem impossible and risky.

As of right now, in this moment, we as a club need to win at all costs to get back to our winning mentality where winning becomes normal again and get ourselves back in the more prestigious competitions.

 

[Jazz]

Tony Valencia, Juan Love and the boss Romero all make the europa team of the week
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=2448981.html

 

[Hugh Jass]

I agree. It's been difficult to read lots of the posts on here. Sensible posts are hard to come by...

I thought we played well considering the circumstances. Created some good chances despite how Rostov were set up.

People on here complaining about bad crosses...I agree some of the crosses could have been better but we have to consider what the other team was doing. They had a bunch of their players in their box and were set up to deal with that.

People on here complaining about us being flat and boring...cut the boys some slack. There is a thing called fatigue. We also do not have the proper quality in the squad to keep rotating without risking being out of the competitions we're in.

People on here complaining about Jones' substitution...Jose's probably keeping a lower risk option in case Rojo couldn't carry on as well as trying to make sure we have the height and experience of a center half to deal with potential aerial balls from Rostov towards the end.

It's like people on here expect the players to be like players in FIFA or whatever computer/console game where they can go out there on the pitch every day and perform and blast the other team like groundhog day!

It's grueling for some of these players especially under the circumstances we've been under. Once we have a proper squad with the proper quality assembled, then the rotations won't seem impossible and risky.

As of right now, in this moment, we as a club need to win at all costs to get back to our winning mentality where winning becomes normal again and get ourselves back in the more prestigious competitions.

This.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I thought it was a good performance given the circumstances. The team needs a rest though.

 

[rollingstoned1]

Oh christ I was so bored I didn't realise we had three at the back. When I saw Valencia forward I thought good old Valencia and when I saw him at the back it turns out it wasn't him it was Bailly. I'll have to stop drinking.

Lol, like you i am actually glad i saw this match absolutely hammered and missed so much. Would've sucked to see it sober.

 

[AndyJ1985]

I thought it was a good performance given the circumstances. The team needs a rest though.

Can't understand how anyone can think a crappy 1-0 win against a poor team constitutes as a good performance. Some of our support has such low standards these days

 

[Hugh Jass]

It was a good match performance given we only had two days rest after playing with nearly ten men for 60 minutes against Chelsea. And we should have won by more. We got tired towards the end. What we need more than anything else is a rest. At least Pogba gets one or two weeks now.

Expect more of the same performances.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

I said several times you were right, even congratulated you on it. By our performance tonight, Mourinho wasn't, though. And he probably won't be either on Sunday. So, to make it short, you were right because you were wrong as Mourinho was.

@Android1974

You constantly try and switch things around, don't you?

Maybe Mourinho was wrong, that's nothing to do with me. We did win the game, though.........

When predicting the line-up, you (well, I do) go with what you think the manager will go with.

So to put it short, I was right because I said Mourinho (not me) would play with three at the back, and you were wrong because you said he'd play four at the back. It really isn't rocket science.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Fellaini played better than Pogba.

Played better than Herrera too.

 

[Red1968]

They got the job done but seriously they should have pumped Rostov for at least 4 goals. Romero was excellent with at least 3 superb saves. This team has severe difficulties in being creative when faced with a team that parks the bus. If they get a goal early then they are usually ok but if they take a while like what happened in this game, the frustration becomes all encompassing.

 

[ti vu]

Thought I was under some spell yesterday but nah, the shite is still here.

Can't really understand it, it was like we lost yesterday, people started coming with some utter tripe about our season overall. Apart from the obvious wummetry it felt incredibly weird, saying that we've been only shite in 2017 and other stuff. Sure, it's not like we're tearing up shit at the moment and our form compared to the one in iirc December is nothing to be proud of but we still managed to play some decent enough games, score some goals when we were in flow so shite games like this one, one against Chelsea or Bournemouth have to come sooner or later.

I don't really get the 'we've been shit in Europa' stuff either. We've been incredibly inconsistent, yes, lost some stupid games, yes, but still as somebody pointed out managed to create the most chances in Europa, beat two teams by scoring 4 goals and I assume that if we played somebody tougher than Rostov, we'd have stepped it up like we did in the first game against ASSE. People also seem to forget that we've played on a literally frozen potato field last week that was later closed down and labelled as unplayable by the Russian federation due to being, you know, unplayable.

Was a borefest yesterday, I can't really understand the 3 at the back apart from Mou's stubborn pragmatism that wins him games, I don't like it but still, we're through and the reason seems to be quite inadequate to what has happened.

We lack attacking options: Martial & Rooney out injured (the latter haven't impressed when started lately?); Lingard started & having an average would make some people losing their sleep; Rashford & Young ran their bollock on Monday especially after we went down to 10 men. They ain't that productive neither... Mourinho doesn't rate Carrick in combative nature enough with Rostov loves a scrappy game which suits physical players more.

We clearly tried to finish the tie in first half but same old story of failure converting chance haunting us in second half when fatigue of last tough week kicked in. Let's remember letting Rostov scored means we need to score 2 to finish the game in 90 minutes. So trying to stay defensively secured is a must from the first second. Going into extra time with fatigued players is potentially dangerous. 0-0 still get us through, but getting 1 goal & avoiding concede is the best solution coming out after half time. We did just that. Boring performance, but got the job done.

This was why I & quite some others (I think) don't want to draw Eastern teams. They may not be great, but they're tough to beat, physical & make bad games. I even entertained the idea of taking on Roma for last round than these Russian, Ukraine, Turkey teams...

 

[sunama]

Low potassium levels during sports lead to spiralling blood pressure. I've also had it.

But you can't predict when it will happen. It's quickly solvable through eating bananas.

All's well that ends well.

The problem wasn't low blood pressure. It was low energy. Jose even stated this in his PC. Calories and glycogen depletion was the problem here.
He even stated that Rojo was so exhausted that he could not function as LB (ie. cannot run), so he was in CB, while Jones had to fit into the LB position.

 

[marlowe78]

It was about the going rate for us - almost all of the possession, some good buildup play at times, a couple of solid chances missed, and ultimately just enough to win the game. My main worry going into this was that our players would be knackered in the 2nd half after already running themselves ragged at Chelsea but we got a very nicely-turned goal by Mata that gave us some breathing room.

Player positives:

Mikhitaryan showing more flashes of excellence
Herrera with a commanding performance in MF
Hugs from Mata after working his tail off
Valencia a force again in the 1st half
Fellaini I thought was very good after coming on for Pogba

Player negatives:

Pogba injured (IMO was playing well before that happened)
Blind looked a step behind whenever Rostov pressed through his area
Jones atrocious trying to play as a wing back (why not switch to 4 and put Young on the left?)

Romero was my MOTM, wasn't needed for most of the game but kept his head in it and made excellent saves. There still seems to be a caginess in our defending where chances come out of nowhere after we're in possession for such long spells.

This game looked like a testing ground for Jose with 3 CBs, which I hope to God we don't persist with. We saw enough of that during the last 2 seasons and I hope he comes to realize that we don't currently have the players for it and that just because other top teams use it, doesn't mean that you have to. It also looked excessive after the first 20 minutes or so since Rostov not only kept everyone behind the ball, but they also kept everyone in their box and put in the most desperate bus-parking job I've ever seen. I could only see us getting through that with Rashford on the pitch or if we stationed Fellaini in front of goal to get on the end of all those crosses we were playing in.

I can't say I was thrilled with how we played but in a European tie like this, it's all about the result and it's been an exhausting 7-10 days...so I'll go easy on us in my score. I'll give 6 out of 10.

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

We definitely could have done with Schneiderlin in the squad right now, everyone dead on there feet.

 

[The_Order]

I think it's bizarre that we went to play in the sand dunes of Russia and escaped with no injuries, yet somehow lose 3 players on an actual football pitch at Old Trafford.

On topic, Jose has to take some responsibility for the downturn in form as of late and yes for the Pogba injury as well. We have abled bodied personnel in Shaw and Bastian, yet Mou insists on running the likes of Zlata (35) and Pogba into the proverbial ground.

 

[King.of.Red]

I agree. It's been difficult to read lots of the posts on here. Sensible posts are hard to come by...

I thought we played well considering the circumstances. Created some good chances despite how Rostov were set up.

People on here complaining about bad crosses...I agree some of the crosses could have been better but we have to consider what the other team was doing. They had a bunch of their players in their box and were set up to deal with that.

People on here complaining about us being flat and boring...cut the boys some slack. There is a thing called fatigue. We also do not have the proper quality in the squad to keep rotating without risking being out of the competitions we're in.

People on here complaining about Jones' substitution...Jose's probably keeping a lower risk option in case Rojo couldn't carry on as well as trying to make sure we have the height and experience of a center half to deal with potential aerial balls from Rostov towards the end.

It's like people on here expect the players to be like players in FIFA or whatever computer/console game where they can go out there on the pitch every day and perform and blast the other team like groundhog day!

It's grueling for some of these players especially under the circumstances we've been under. Once we have a proper squad with the proper quality assembled, then the rotations won't seem impossible and risky.

As of right now, in this moment, we as a club need to win at all costs to get back to our winning mentality where winning becomes normal again and get ourselves back in the more prestigious competitions.

This. We indeed didnt show great performance, but for me they still gave good performance as I was enjoying the match in front of TV while smoking and drinking..