[berbatrick]

We were awful defending set pieces, and they created no other chances. I have no idea why, we even had Fellaini on the pitch (supposedly) to deal with them. I thought Leicester were really poor, seemed like a team in 10th coming to OT for a point with the plan of sitting back and grabbing a counter/corner goal.

 

[Listar]

If both fellaini and Huth get retrospective bans, then does that mean they indirectly admit that United was denied another clear penalty as they will have to admit Huth fouled Fellaini in the area in the first place?

Seems like Poll missed this one in his final assessment. And to top it off he can also see why a DEFINITE penalty on Memphis is not given. What a legend.

Simpson pulling back lingard? No foul. But mahrez running into rojo? Penalty all day. As I said, legend.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...s-season-surely-half-assault-Robert-Huth.html

 

[Coxy]

Hilarious reading some of the moaning on here about the referee. Rooney should have had a card much sooner - it wasn't just u who had some poor decisions against you.

Was a good match - u played well in patches with a nice tempo at times. It's a shame you didn't play like that at the beginning of the season. Martial will be a great player - not sure about rashford.

Leicester were clearly tired / nervous. They missed Vardy too

 

[Perrick Dubois]

Only got to watch the first half and we started brightly. I'll never understand the notion that scoring a goal early means you sit back like we're 12-0 up in a cup final. It happens in every game we ever score early (ish) in and happened yesterday. It really is frustrating to watch this side which is clearly capable of taking a team and putting it to the sword shoot itself in the foot time and time again.

That for me has been the biggest problem for us this season. The style/philosophy/game plan isn't ever about going out and scoring shit loads of goals, because you know, football is scoring a dick tonne of goals against your opponent and winning the game. It always reverts back to negatively keeping the ball to stop the other team from having control of the match. We simply can't play proper football anymore when we need to.

- Blind had one of those games where you see people saying he's a good centreback and want to throttle their necks. I lost count of the amount of times he cropped up in a position a centreback should never be seen in, within the first 20 minutes. At one point he appeared on the right wing, another he was just milling about on the edge of the Leicester box, for no reason. At another point Leicester nearly scored because one of what looked like our midfielders just left his man and sprinted off up the pitch despite us not being in possession, and I thought "what the feck are you doing Rooney"...then on the replay it turned out it was Blind, and Rooney was sprinting back trying to cover for him. What goes through his brain for him to do these things? Is he clinically insane?

God this has been a massive pet peeve of mine all season. The defensive line has been a shambles all season and it is because of Blind constantly running off to fight a fire somewhere that leaves us horribly exposed at the back. I've skidded far to many pairs of undies this season so I hope we get an actual CB who can hold his position and defend next season. Blind can go and do the ball chasing mutt work in midfield in front of the defense so if he gets bypassed we have a CB who can step up and snuff it rather than have Blind be the last line and doing these crazy things running around trying to defend before he needs to.

 

[Listar]

Hilarious reading some of the moaning on here about the referee. Rooney should have had a card much sooner - it wasn't just u who had some poor decisions against you.

Was a good match - u played well in patches with a nice tempo at times. It's a shame you didn't play like that at the beginning of the season. Martial will be a great player - not sure about rashford.

Leicester were clearly tired / nervous. They missed Vardy too

Rooney getting a card? For what? Pulling a player back? Isn't that allowed? I mean Simpson did it so blatantly and it is not even a foul. What makes you think Rooney should get a foul awarded against him nevermind a yellow.

 

[montpelier]

Thought we started rather well, by the end I was quite glad Vardy wasn't playing. Never really looked like losing but we do enough to deserve to win. I think we have improved since Carrick came back & the front looks a bit more threatening.

Same old we need a not Danny Blind CB & more mobility & legs in MF. It's not rocket science.

Crossing - still shite but has gotten slightly better.

I think we are so lucky (+ having DDG obvs) to be 5th place.

 

[Escobar]

Yes we started well but as soon as Leicester started to push back and show some intent, we got scared and insecure. We needed almost another 20 mins to actually show any kind of response.

 

[Coxy]

Rooney getting a card? For what? Pulling a player back? Isn't that allowed? I mean Simpson did it so blatantly and it is not even a foul. What makes you think Rooney should get a foul awarded against him nevermind a yellow.

Rooney was lucky not to get sent off mate (for repeated fouls) and Leicester should have had a penalty too. Yes you lot had a couple of shouts as well

 

[Dr Fink]

After all the bright football from Leicester all season, I thought they looked ordinary today, which is a bit sad if you are a neutral. United should have beaten them today, if they'd have gone for it. Sadly they slipped in to LVG mode after 20 mins. Such a soft goal to concede too. The referee was an absolute disgrace today, he tried his hardest to give Leicester everything. Clear penalty for Memphis. Still, what do we expect after this sh*te season. Yet again I've come away from OT disappointed. As for LVG's "sex-masochism" post-match quote, WTF?

 

[Havak]

It was an odd game.

People are bashing our performance to no end, but the first 35~ minutes was as good as I've seen us under LVG but for the brainfart at a set-piece. The rest of the game was more like a usual United performance from this season, running out of ideas towards the end and some substitutions that were left to be desired. However, the referee had an exceptionally poor game throughout, bottling every big contentious decision.

As for the changes by LVG, this was probably one of the first time I would have agreed with taking off a full back (Rojo) as he was probably our poorest player yet played 90 minutes. Fellaini and Lingard gave as good as they got, aerial threat and pace were working but both were changed for more intricate players which was always going to be harder to make work against a stubborn defence. I'd have rather we tried Rooney up front with Mata behind, Carrick and Herrera deep at the end of the game with the changes he made. Amazing call to not get the late penalty, but it is what it is.

Regardless, I feel we should have still won this game which is all the more disappointing. We've still got a chance of finishing the season better than I thought we would since December, and almost as well as I expected in August despite the poor play. I had us finishing 3rd and winning the FA Cup at the start of the season, so if we can somehow win our remaining four games, we might well get 4th and the FA Cup still. All it takes is for City to draw a game, which is very possible in their final two fixtures.

Again, we haven't won three in a row in the league more than once this season. If we can't do it now we definitely don't deserve the Champions League. I also always said it will take a minimum 20 wins to get into the top four, so we just have to pull it out of nowhere now.

 

[noodlehair]

Rooney was lucky not to get sent off mate (for repeated fouls) and Leicester should have had a penalty too. Yes you lot had a couple of shouts as well

I can't remember too many Rooney fouls, and then he got booked for standing there and watching someone blatantly dive, which was weird as even if the ref thought it was a foul the player wasn't going anywhere...and then after that the ref completely ignored Rooney clearly fouling someone who might have been about to score a goal, which made no sense at all when you see what Oliver was booking people for.

Then when you actually look at the two fouls Drinkwater got sent off for, it's completely ridiculous. On both occasions all he did is grab the arm slightly of an opposition player who'd already lost control of the ball. Yet somehow Oliver turned these two fouls into a sending off. I'm pretty sure he only gave the firt one because he'd just booked someone else and decided it was time for yellow cards now, rather than it haviing anything at all to do with the foul.

Then one of those fouls he somehow moved back out to about half a metre outside the area just so he didn't have to give a penalty.

Earlier in the game pulling people's hair or trying to elbow their faces off were not even deemed as fouls. Fair enough he might have missed it, but it was quite hard to miss.

So yeah it wasn't all in Leicester's favour at all. It was the usual thing that happens when Oliver referees a game, where the rules seem to change as he sees fit and you sit there at the end scratching your head about what the score would have been if the game was refereed by an actual referee. He doesn't referee what he sees, he referees decisions that he wants to give or is more comfrtable giving, and then tries to find a way to fit the rules around it...presumablly because he doesn't have enough of a spine to referee properly. Yesterday wasn't a one off for him. It was the norm.

Him, Clatternberg and Dean are just so obviously not fit to be referees. Oliver is a mess, Clatternberg blatantly ignores things that he obviously saw one minute, then makes up something that he obviously didn't see the next, and Dean just seems to get an idea in his head about something that will happen and then just makes sure it does, even if it doesn't really. You can't really be telling managers or players to take referees or officials seriously when these three keep being given more games to referee. The players must all know and thinn they're a joke and so treat them as such.

 

[noodlehair]

God this has been a massive pet peeve of mine all season. The defensive line has been a shambles all season and it is because of Blind constantly running off to fight a fire somewhere that leaves us horribly exposed at the back. I've skidded far to many pairs of undies this season so I hope we get an actual CB who can hold his position and defend next season. Blind can go and do the ball chasing mutt work in midfield in front of the defense so if he gets bypassed we have a CB who can step up and snuff it rather than have Blind be the last line and doing these crazy things running around trying to defend before he needs to.

Yes! I'm glad someone else has at least been noticing this. It was particularly bad yesterday, but there are other games this season where it's really seriously cost us, like Wolfsburg away, and yet you come on here after and he's getting man of the match nominations.

It makes me want to hurt people.

He constantly sacrifices his defensive position to go and chase a ball he's got literally no chance of getting. Then if we're lucky one of the fullbacks notices in time to come across and cover for him...sometimes a goal or a chance happens instead. I can't remember a single occasion where anything positive has come from him doing this.

 

[Perrick Dubois]

Yes! I'm glad someone else has at least been noticing this. It was particularly bad yesterday, but there are other games this season where it's really seriously cost us, like Wolfsburg away, and yet you come on here after and he's getting man of the match nominations.

It makes me want to hurt people.

He constantly sacrifices his defensive position to go and chase a ball he's got literally no chance of getting. Then if we're lucky one of the fullbacks notices in time to come across and cover for him...sometimes a goal or a chance happens instead. I can't remember a single occasion where anything positive has come from him doing this.

Lad, it has been excruciating. Then you come to his thread to read about him and people are gushing about his positioning and how great his passing is and saying he could excel playing for Barca? Absolutely warps my mind it does.

Defenders should keep shape and defend first, do everything else later.

 

[Sad Chris]

Why does a spineless coward get to referee this game?

I think a lovechild of him and LvG might just have the perfect balance. I just can't figure out what for...

 

[Crashoutcassius]

It does sound that way. However, our players just simply gave the ball away cheaply in midfield with bad touch or rubbish pass. Remember the last piece of play: Blind take a long measure from the back and still lob a terrible ball up front! Feck. Just put it out on wing and learn to put a good cross.

We do suffer from nerves as the games go on no doubt. The couple of games in OT this year I was at, the atmosphere was so tense that if we didn't score within 20 mins every player panicked. Hopefully that improves as our squad gets older

 

[The Brown Bull]

A frustrating but oh so typical game under LVG.We badly need an injection of youth and energy in midfield.
We need a commanding, bossy, bully of a CB to marshal our defence.
We need a creative 'genius' in our attack.Not Rooney, not Mata.
Leicester are really nothing special, just a well organised, committed team enjoying an extraordinary run.
We should have beaten them by at least 2 yesterday.

 

[Sandikan]

A frustrating but oh so typical game under LVG.We badly need an injection of youth and energy in midfield.
We need a commanding, bossy, bully of a CB to marshal our defence.
We need a creative 'genius' in our attack.Not Rooney, not Mata.
Leicester are really nothing special, just a well organised, committed team enjoying an extraordinary run.
We should have beaten them by at least 2 yesterday.

A huge part of their game is Vardy though.

That massive oaf Ulloa was way more interested in wrestling the centre back then pretending to get after the ball. It's like substituting a Ferrari for a Fiesta.

Having said that, Leicester are a pure mediocrity beyond a few stand out players, and I'd be amazed if they even get top 6 next year.
Kante and Mahrez surely will be gobbled up, and then they have champs league too

 

[TheReligion]

I think LvG got a few things wrong yesterday.

From the start he should have picked a more mobile midfield than Carrick and Fellaini. For me Herrera should have started.

Secondly he shouldn't have waited so long to bring off Rashford and Rojo. Rojo kept losing his man in the air and despite getting plenty of the ball wide repeatedly did nothing of note with it. Rashford was isolated and unable to match the strength of Huth and Morgan, so much so he actually gave up making any attempt to win the aerial duels.

He should have moved to Martial central and Depay/Young on much sooner.

Rojo would have come off for Fotsu Mensah early 2nd half for me.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Some interesting stats on leicester,
For shots on goal they are 8th.
For possession they are 18th (Only West Brom & Sunderland are worse)
For pass completion they are the worst team in the league.
Its truly an aberration that they are about to win the league..

 

[PieCrust]

So frustrating watching Rojo get abused by Morgan, while Fellaini was zone marking. I almost just stopped watching after that, it's like, is LVG even trying?

 

[G-manc]

After a bright start it faded into the same pattern that so many other games have over the last two seasons. The opposition organise themselves and play on the break and we have nothing to break them down other than give it to Martial and hope he skins 3 or 4 players.

 

[Sandikan]

So frustrating watching Rojo get abused by Morgan, while Fellaini was zone marking. I almost just stopped watching after that, it's like, is LVG even trying?

A million times this.

They have 2 absolute monster centre backs. We have Smalling and Fellaini. It beggars belief that you'd use Fellaini as some sort of free man zonal guy.

Meaning instead, a guy you can't believe isn't about 5ft 8 the way he plays is picking one of said monsters up, and repeatedly losing them, including disastrously so for their goal..

 

[berbatrick]

A million times this.

They have 2 absolute monster centre backs. We have Smalling and Fellaini. It beggars belief that you'd use Fellaini as some sort of free man zonal guy.

Meaning instead, a guy you can't believe isn't about 5ft 8 the way he plays is picking one of said monsters up, and repeatedly losing them, including disastrously so for their goal..

Every Chelsea manager used Drogba like that. There must be a reason for it. Though this isn't the 1st time LvG has a completely nonsensical marking system (think it was Blind or Rafael on Drogba last year)

 

[Sandikan]

Every Chelsea manager used Drogba like that. There must be a reason for it. Though this isn't the 1st time LvG has a completely nonsensical marking system (think it was Blind or Rafael on Drogba last year)

Perhaps it's simply that percentage wise that's where the ball goes the most.

But the obvious difference with Chelsea, was that they typically had at least 3 or 4 other aerial brutes to man mark any other threats, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvahlo, Ballack etc

Can see Mourinho bringing a dominant centre back in alongside Smalling, and perhaps an Ivanovic style right back. We do need some beefing up to some extent.

 

[Roosney]

A very good start but soon as the opposition got a sniff of what we were doing they shut us down, too easily I'd say. We should have a plan b that actually works. The day we tried crossing in the box against Huth the neo-nazi bully and Morgan.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

I think LvG got a few things wrong yesterday.

From the start he should have picked a more mobile midfield than Carrick and Fellaini. For me Herrera should have started.

Secondly he shouldn't have waited so long to bring off Rashford and Rojo. Rojo kept losing his man in the air and despite getting plenty of the ball wide repeatedly did nothing of note with it. Rashford was isolated and unable to match the strength of Huth and Morgan, so much so he actually gave up making any attempt to win the aerial duels.

He should have moved to Martial central and Depay/Young on much sooner.

Rojo would have come off for Fotsu Mensah early 2nd half for me.

Did you think that during the first 30 mins. Though I expected Herrera to start, I thought we started off well.

I understand Rojo getting a bashing because he kept getting beaten in the air at set pieces, but we didn't see Mahrez all game largely because of Rojo. His forward runs also helped Martial a lot.

I would have liked Tim to come on for Valencia, with Valencia moving forward in Lingards place.

Depay looked OK, for the few minutes he was on, but I think Martial's legs had gone, so moving up front may not have achieved anything. Same for Rooney and Carrick, legs gone. Rooney lost all composure after about 25 mins, so he would have been my preferred to be subbed, rather than Fellani. However, Fellani went to pieces after getting booked.

 

[Red Dreams]

Always an extra touch...an extra pass. Lecister are not a great team. Champions or not. We are far from efficient.