[noodlehair]

So?

Now, I love Ole. But we were largely outplayed by an inferior team and quite honestly, didn’t deserve the win. Sounds pretty Mourinho to me.

Well, except that under Mourinho this would have been a good performance rather than a bad one...and we also wouldn't have scored because he would never have picked Rashford up top and Pogba in behind him.

 

[Isotope]

... (comments on players).

Love it. Please do this every game, man. This is a piece that even stevej might be proud of.

Or maybe just make it on one thread, like "2019 season, Noodlehair kenwood juicer commentary" or something like that.

 

[Canagel]

So?

Now, I love Ole. But we were largely outplayed by an inferior team and quite honestly, didn’t deserve the win. Sounds pretty Mourinho to me.

They didn't create anything. We let them off hook by not keeping ball better but it was still enough to deserve the win.

 

[staniswin]

Jose Mourinho would be proud.

 

[Steerpike]

It wasn't a great performance, and I think we can consider ourselves a bit fortunate to have come away with three points. The credit for the win really has to go to the defensive unit, and to my mind Luke Shaw had a very good game.

There were times, especially in the second half, where I just longed for the team to pass the ball to each other, even if it was slow and didn't lead to anything, rather than continually squandering possession cheaply. A better team than Leicester City would surely have punished us for our carelessness. At least Ole acknowledged the problem, and hopefully we'll see some improvement in our ball retention when trying to see games out.

 

[Sterling Archer]

A win's a win but this just seemed like more confirmation that we should've spent in January. We have a very good first eleven and then nothing on the bench despite the star names, international caps, enormous wages and reputations.

Thankfully there's decent rest periods between Chelsea, PSG and Liverpool, so barring injury we can field a full strength team against all of them and gamble a bit with the B team against Fulham.

I'm worried our lack of depth will come back to haunt us in the race for 4th

If I'm using my heart, I agree. If I'm using my head, then no. If Ole came in and was having a mediocre impact, we'd have a different feeling about it:
let's say wins against the bottom table clubs, Pogba and Rashford playing well but not the incredible form they're in now, losses at Spurs and Arsenal away. Then I think we would all say nice job Ole, some of that negativity is lifting but let's wait til the new manager comes in over the summer and give him the full war chest and time to make effective signings.

But the last two months have been an incredible surprise and instead of seeing out a season we're looking at actually making top 4, maybe even a good cup run. But I don't think it would have been a good idea to throw new players into the mix during a transfer window that's notorious for players starting slowly. Moreover, given the timing I don't think Ole and his team have spent much time even preparing for them. So it would have been rushed and mainly Woodward ok'd players. Fair to say we should have a DOF in before letting Woody make anymore signings .

At this point it's going to take an equally incredible implosion for me to support hiring anyone other than Ole in the summer. I think it makes the most sense to push forward and do our best with what we've got. End the season on a high to build on next year .

 

[mariachi-19]

Leicster at away is always hard grafting win. Liverpool drew with them the other day at home and they are the league leaders. They're in a good bit of form and trying to desperately avoid a relegation shit fight. I'll take that result every day

 

[lex talionis]

We can't get too greedy. Let's happily take the grinding wins as they come. What we saw today was vastly better stuff than what we saw on most days under Jose. And we got the job done, which became an increasingly rare thing under Jose.

If we have to find something to moan about, it's the relatively ineffective play of Sanchez today. He wasn't horrible, but he made almost zero impact.

 

[MrBest]

Don’t agree it was sloppy. Leicester created nothing today except from a maguire knock down and a free kick.
I would say we nullified their biggest threat very well

They should be trying to nullify us not us them. We were sloppy in possession and that helped them be on the front foot for a lot of the game. They didnt deserve to lose but also didnt deserve to win so i agree that big chances were few, but they had more than us and more than one such as the vardy volley. Big 3 points for us though and sometimes you need to win dirty especially when you are unbeaten in 10.

 

[hocane]

We have to stop playing Sanchez.

The guy is messing up our whole attacking shape. He keeps cutting inside exactly in the space Pogba want to be in. Once Martial came on he actually stayed wide allowing Pogba forward and we were creating chances looking more like ourselves again.

I keep saying it but Sanchez is a total liability in this team.

 

[ravi2]

We can't get too greedy. Let's happily take the grinding wins as they come. What we saw today was vastly better stuff than what we saw on most days under Jose. And we got the job done, which became an increasingly rare thing under Jose.

If we have to find something to moan about, it's the relatively ineffective play of Sanchez today. He wasn't horrible, but he made almost zero impact.

Im struggling to recall games that Sanchez has impacted in any meaningful way for us since he joined.

 

[carlosp]

Seeing as Leicester drew with Liverpool earlier in the week and beat Man City and Chelsea in December, I will take the win as an awesome result.

 

[RedCurry]

It was bizarre how poorly we passed today.

 

[carlosp]

Im struggling to recall games that Sanchez has impacted in any meaningful way for us since he joined.

He hasn't. People say we should give him a chance but I'd rather sell and use the money on other better players.

 

[2 man midfield]

Pros:

- Herrera is fast becoming my favourite player. Criminally underused by previous managers. Pressing everywhere even at the end.

- Rashford put the early miss out of his mind straight away and took his goal beautifully. Important to keep his confidence up with PSG round the corner

- Pogpass

- Clean sheet. Lindelof improving all the time, and Matic looked solid.

Cons:

- lack of offensive width from the full backs is harming our ability to make the most of our forward play. We were restricted to exploiting mistakes, or counter attacks because we couldn’t break them down. Young and Shaw don’t offer enough going forward, which wouldn’t be an issue if Young wasn’t also leaving massive holes defensively as well.

- Lukaku. Shortly after coming on it became clear he has the lung capacity of a latter-day Yaya Toure. Except Yaya would sometimes surprise everyone by breaking into a light jog.

- Lingard is possibly the weirdest player I’ve ever seen. I have absolutely no idea what he does, whenever I focus on him to figure it out he frustrates me, and yet we look a far worse team without him. He started well earlier but faded badly. Tiredness? Perhaps. Either way, let’s hope he recharges his batteries for PSG so he can continue doing whatever it is he does.

 

[ravi2]

He hasn't. People say we should give him a chance but I'd rather sell and use the money on other better players.

With the amount we pay him in wages it would be enough to pay Sancho and a new RB as well. It makes zero sense to keep him at this stage, unless things dont drastically change soon.

 

[Foxbatt]

The biggest reason was because Lingard was terrible . It's not that his passes was bad but he simply didn't try. He just gave up. Which meant that Rashford was alone as Sanchez didn't have a good game either.
Pogba had to defend so much because the attackers were so poor.
I don't know why Ole kept lingard on for so long.
The less said about Young the better. He should change his name to Old.

 

[suheilsworld]

Considering that Leicester have won against City & Chelsea and drew against Liverpool in the last two months, I will take that win in a heart beat

 

[boxykronikle]

I thought the overall performance was very excellent with nicking an away win at Leicester. They have been in good form lately.

Tired legs towards the end and I am praying hard that nobody is injured..

 

[gearoid]

Lucky to get all 3 points. We have a tough run mid-Feb to mid-March. Play like that and we'll get thumped. Ole needs to pick his best 11 and stick to it. Sanchez should be nowhere near that team.

 

[Adnan]

Tough away game and we won which is the most important thing.

Also was quite impressed by the young Leicester player Harvey Barnes. Looks a very good player, and gave Bailly problems in a foot race at one point. It was the lads second game for Leicester after spending time on loan in the Championship and I thought he was their most dangerous attacker.

 

[Patrick08]

Did James Madison impressed this game?

 

[rpg]

Why is Lukaku with the bigger body size than Pogba refused to run when he came in as substitute? He looked more tired than anyone else.

I will play Mata ahead of Sanchez from now onwards if i was the manager.

If i was the opposing team left back, i would move into the penalty box everytime Young received the ball and leave him alone jiggling at the byline as long as he wants.

 

[Chresta]

De Gea - People just basically ignore when he makes miracle saves that win us the game now.

Young - About half of this game was waiting for Young to throw the ball back on to the pitch to a Leicester player...and at least half of the rest of it was Young passing/hoofing/kicking the ball randomly up in the air to Leicester players.
Bailly - We started playing worse as soon as he stopped acting like an insane person, but he was being so insane that this was actually a good thing.
Lindelof - He's pretty good these days.
Shaw - One of his better games. Pretty sure his face is getting bigger

Matic - Played well but must he always toy with the idea of being sent off?
Herrera - Spent too much of the game thinking he was playing at centreback. He does this a lot when teams pressure us a bit. Needs to properly grow his balls back.
Pogba - I love how there was all this debate about how you set up Pogba to play well in midfield, and the answer turns out to be by not playing him in midfield. When you see him purely as an attacking player, suddenly even his poorer games are actually very effective ones.

Sanchez - failed to really impress with any of his four touches of the ball
Rashford - Next time he is shunted to the wing I will moan about it again
Lingard - also failed to really impress with his slightly more than four touches of the ball

Subs:
Martial - immediate improvement due to the fact you could actually tell he was on the pitch
Jones - Brought on to help Young waste time taking throw ins
Lukaku - One of his trademark skills has become not running after a loose ball he can clearly get to until the crowd yell at him. This is not a good trademark skill to have. Probably wont make it onto the skill list for the next FIFA.

Ole - Did what he needed to. No fecking around with his strongest team aside from fitness issues.

Overall - Poor performance on the ball. Too many aimless hoofs and confusingly terrible passes under no pressure. Off the ball probably one of our better defensive displays this season. Apart from the fact we still can't defend a simple cross into our box. Good result given the difficulties.

Mike Dean - Every time he is referee I end up worrying more about what he is going to do than the opposition.

TV coverage - At one point we spent 15 seconds, watching Claude Puel, watching a pigeon, while the commentators analysed Claude Puel watching a pigeon.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Another gritty performance. Another scrappy win.

This team has the steel to stick through bad games and still churn out a win.

Go Ole!

 

[UncleBob]

Happy with the 3 points.

Performance, as Ole says, wasn't very good

Worried about our fitness, and the effect it will have when we play against the top teams.

 

[minoo-utd]

IDK why we gave away the ball too easy at times. So easy passes we failed to take along the way in the game.

 

[cyril C]

Our form is in decline, we must risk and rest some players against Fulham. Pogba and Matic especially

No need to. There is 1 week of rest until Fulham. We should play our best 11 and finish the game by half time, then rest Rashford and Pogba earlier. The real issue is Liverpool after PSG. We also want to play our best but they will be extremely tired.

 

[cyril C]

Complaints about rotating is illogical when its clearly shown that it was necessary (hence our players looking knackered).

As to why so many looked tired today, its clear that the new style of play with the high press is a lot more demanding on their fitness than Jose's shite brand of park the buss and hoof. I dont know where we are now, but under Jose we were rock bottom in terms of distance covered and that kind of fitness does not come overnight.

Herrera and Pogba were OK full of energy. Question was on Lingard who did not play every week. Rashford got a dead leg so it was more to injury than tired. Sanchez, will energetic, was out of form and poor 1st touch. Kind of funny because Ole claimed Sanchez was fully fit during training but couldn't produce when opportunity given, except the Arsenal game.

 

[Kostov]

It was a difficult game against a very good side at their place. I'm delighted we won, never mind how we did it. Anyone expecting it would have been a nice 0:3 comfortable win is having a laugh. Now, I didn't like Ole changes again, and why he waited for so long. I think we needed fresh legs sooner but the coaching staff certainly knows better. Could we have put in Fred for example? I think we could have, but we also had Lukaku and Rom who Ole is eager to give minutes so it was probably his thinking.

 

[mitchmouse]

well, that was pretty poor except for the first 15 minutes. Not even sure who to pick s MoM. I guess most will go for Pogba or Rashford but I'll take Shaw or Herrera. We gave away possession far too cheaply and better sides (Liverpool and PSG, to name jus two) are likely to punish us for that. I still think we are missing a worldie in midfield and I'm still to be conivnced that rash can lead the line for 90 minutes (Ole seems to agree). That said DDG had very little to do and the CBs kept Vardy very quiet. We do need to make sure we take more of our chances if we are going to beat PSG (who are no more likely to win the CL than we are). The major disappointment for me was Sanchez: did we actually buy the same guy who was so good for Arsenal?

 

[032Devil]

Only caught the second half, we looked awful.

How do we get over ran in midfield every game against a tougher opposition? We all agree Pogba is one of the best in the world, Herrera is one of the best in the league (in my opinion anyway) and Matic is meh. It just shouldn't happen with those caliber of players.

We made both Arsenal and Spurs midfield look like world beaters in both our games against them in the second half.

I can't agree. Matic is probably one of our most consistently best players since he came to the club, hence the reason he always gets picked, unlike Fred, Herrara (who is great) and one or two others. I think what often happens is that some teams play five in midfield and that has a debilitating impact on our midfield. Many lower teams build a human wall to stop us attacking and then hope for a quick counter-attack. Its fear tactics. But now that Pogba has upped his game, our midfield is now better at weaving passes through the oppositions. It would be good to have another couple of midfielders of the quality of Herrera, Pogba and Matic who we could bring on if we needed too though.

To beat Spurs and Leicester away after the debacle of a style Mourinho used to play is very impressive.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

Did James Madison impressed this game?

I thought Maddison was their best player. Puel sealed their fate when he took him off. He's a talent. Was impressed by Maguire as well. Everybody was raving on about their fullbacks but I thought they were quite meh.

 

[OldPop]

@noodlehair it was the most brilliant, thoughtful, wicked, revealing, fun, complete and entertaining analysis I read in a long time. Master class!

 

[Toddler]

De Gea - People just basically ignore when he makes miracle saves that win us the game now.

Young - About half of this game was waiting for Young to throw the ball back on to the pitch to a Leicester player...and at least half of the rest of it was Young passing/hoofing/kicking the ball randomly up in the air to Leicester players.
Bailly - We started playing worse as soon as he stopped acting like an insane person, but he was being so insane that this was actually a good thing.
Lindelof - He's pretty good these days.
Shaw - One of his better games. Pretty sure his face is getting bigger

Matic - Played well but must he always toy with the idea of being sent off?
Herrera - Spent too much of the game thinking he was playing at centreback. He does this a lot when teams pressure us a bit. Needs to properly grow his balls back.
Pogba - I love how there was all this debate about how you set up Pogba to play well in midfield, and the answer turns out to be by not playing him in midfield. When you see him purely as an attacking player, suddenly even his poorer games are actually very effective ones.

Sanchez - failed to really impress with any of his four touches of the ball
Rashford - Next time he is shunted to the wing I will moan about it again
Lingard - also failed to really impress with his slightly more than four touches of the ball

Subs:
Martial - immediate improvement due to the fact you could actually tell he was on the pitch
Jones - Brought on to help Young waste time taking throw ins
Lukaku - One of his trademark skills has become not running after a loose ball he can clearly get to until the crowd yell at him. This is not a good trademark skill to have. Probably wont make it onto the skill list for the next FIFA.

Ole - Did what he needed to. No fecking around with his strongest team aside from fitness issues.

Overall - Poor performance on the ball. Too many aimless hoofs and confusingly terrible passes under no pressure. Off the ball probably one of our better defensive displays this season. Apart from the fact we still can't defend a simple cross into our box. Good result given the difficulties.

Mike Dean - Every time he is referee I end up worrying more about what he is going to do than the opposition.

TV coverage - At one point we spent 15 seconds, watching Claude Puel, watching a pigeon, while the commentators analysed Claude Puel watching a pigeon.

A very good post. Don't know about Shaws face though. Haha

 

[freeurmind]

 

[Trizy]

Playing with a minimum of one defunct attacker every game is going to catch up to us eventually.

This.

Playing with Sanchez is like playing with 10 men most of the game given how often he gives away possession. Subbing him off for Lukaku again is just as bad. Fellaini would honestly be a better no.9 than both those players.

Unfortunately for us we do not have good squad depth. It could be the deciding factor in our top 4 race given how many fixtures we have left in all competitions. We have no subs that I'm confident in to replace our starting midfield or attackers.

Attacks: Mata, Sanchez, Lukaku.. all bad options that affect our style of quick play.
Midfield: Fred (can't even get a game), Periera (spare me..), McTominay (spare me..).

We'll become under dogs against any top 6 team starting 1 or more of the above. Burnley was a fine example.

 

[Adnandos]

We couldn’t pass to save our lives

 

[Bobcat]

Herrera and Pogba were OK full of energy. Question was on Lingard who did not play every week. Rashford got a dead leg so it was more to injury than tired. Sanchez, will energetic, was out of form and poor 1st touch. Kind of funny because Ole claimed Sanchez was fully fit during training but couldn't produce when opportunity given, except the Arsenal game.

Pogba looked completely gassed in the second half yesterday and so did Matic. Herrera might be an exception because hes made of some different stuff. In ideal world we would put out our best XI every game, but if we did we all know that would backfire in spectacular fashion.

If Lukaku, Sanchez, Fred, Pereira and Mata among others could step up and actually look like United players, that would be real nice, but right now we are very vulnerable in terms of squad depth

 

[tomaldinho1]

A good, albeit lucky, three points really just highlights how reliant we are on our first XI. People talk about us having a decent squad depth but it's completely false - we've got a real problem with a backlog of poor expensive signing who aren't suited to this system/aren't good enough for this level. Lukaku, Sanchez and Mata being the holy trinity of dross and probably on the same as the entire Burnley squad when wages are added together.

I think most on here are happy with Rashford as a 9, Martial as LW but otherwise there's no real confidence in the other attacking players we have. I do rate Lingard higher than some, but am unsure about him as a RW (he's probably better playing where Pogba plays but obviously won't be dislodging him). It's also worth pointing out that Lingard had some kind of hamstring problem for most of the match yesterday (after a through ball where he was close to outpacing Maguire, he pulled up and afterwards was at half speed and didn't contribute anything).

I would argue, offloading some of these bigger names who are not performing and, more worryingly, getting older is just as important as bringing in replacements. We also need to stop being so picky about an RW - even a 6/10 RW would improve us drastically because we have no one there at the moment. Same goes for a proper RB.