FA W FA Cup 3rd Round

Manchester United 2:0 Reading

Post-match discussion

Sat, 05 January 2019

Every single player out there bar Rashford and arguably Young had something to prove today and they either played like an FA Cup game against Reading is beneath them or tried hard but were unable to stand out against relegation fodder from the Championship. Very worrying.

Our keeper was MOTM. Against fecking Reading.
 
Job done, have a bit of a break now before the next game. One thing that is very clear to me is that we have a big squad yes, but there are a good chunk of players in that squad that are not at a decent enough level
 
Nobody really stood out. Chong looks exciting but obviously needs a bit more strength. The yellow card was ridiculous though. Free kick but no more than that. Pereira has a good shot, but we never see it.
 
The only positives.

Chong Played.
Romero a reliable 'deputy'.
We know our first eleven after just 5 games.
Through to the next round.

Negatives

We dont have squad debth.
It is now difficult to make case for Pereira.
Our Cb/Defence is a big worry.
Fred's awareness is zero.
 
That was poor!

Dalot - Looks like he has concrete boots
Darmian - Excellent defender
Jones - Ok
Young - Annoying, moans at referee constantly, trying fancy flicks in our half.

McTominay - Ok, but didn't do anything great
Fred - So mixed. Some nice passes, loses it far too often.
Pereira - Similar to Fred, lost it too many times.

Mata - Nice penalty
Lukaku - Nice finish but lost it alot too
Sanchez - Not bad, nice assist


Chong - Very erratic
Fellaini - Chest control
Rashford - Erratic but always tries 110%
 
BT being too cheap to pay for the studio really benefiting them now with the lawnmowers drowning out the "analysis".
 
Fred, Perrera and Mctomainy are so poor, don't think they can improve, also our full backs we just can not rely on them. This team needs alot still, but job done and looking forward to Spurs game.
 
Reading will feel very unlucky not to at least take it to penalties
 
Job done.

Some players could have tried to make more of an impression.

Romero did well.

Delighted to see Chong.

On to the next round.
 
Not a great performance, very disjointed but hardly surprising with all the changes, but job done, clean sheet and into the next round.

Goes without saying, it will be a very different lineup and will need a much improved display next week against Spurs.
 
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That performance certainly showed the manager why the second string players are second string. Not one of them dominated the opposition which they should be doing at this level against a championship side.
 
Not a great performance but job done. I was happy to see Chong, happy for Rom getting another goal, happy to see VAR working. I'm displeased with fringe midfielders blowing a good chance to impress Ole and with Alexis playing poorly for the most part then hobbling off.

The talk in the Match Day thread about some kind of disgrace is well over the top but it's certainly disappointing to see a squad we all like to think is rich in depth being shown to be anything but, past our starting XI there's very few players ready to step up consistently.
 
El Zoido said:
They played at 50% and still won. Think we’re one of the worst teams for not putting the effort in against lower league opposition. Not sure what to take from the game because of this.
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Point taken. Half them didn’t seem to want to be there, more energy from the crowd than the team.
 
You can blame the amount of changes for the performance, but certain players should be performing better against that level of opposition.

When you take away our key players, the difference is vast.
 
Difficult to motivate certain players when they play low level teams. Good win and we were never in danger.
 
Sassy Colin said:
From Ole's interview after the game, he's far from impressed by the performance.
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But another reminder of how, whether by nature or design, Ole's the anti-Mourinho. When we play well, it's down to the players; today we played badly and the first thing Ole says is that it's his fault. And he comes across as all the more self-confident for doing so.
 
Obviously we were very disjointed given the amount of changes, but there were some particularly poor indivdual performances. The midfield was a car crash and bar Sanchez I thought our movement and dynamism up top was poor for the bulk of the match. Job done and all that but there were 2 or 3 players in that team I was hoping to see put in a good performance that didn't do well enough.
 
Why was the midfield setup so confused?

Started with mctominay at 10 , fred box to box and perreira as dm
After 25min fred and mctominay switched.
Then we went 4312 with mata as 10, mctominay dm and perreira in a i have no clue what i am doing here right and fred doing the running chicken down the left
All this in the first half

Then 2nd half fellaini as 10 and perreira and mctominay as the midfield pivot

Nothing went through the middle even though reading weren't pressing down the centre.

Cant fault lukaku or sanchez, cannot judge them on this match they had to do all by themselves.

Mata was poor couldn't keep possession, dalot and young forgot how to defend and how to pass. Jones and darmian were decent.

Did we even prepare for this match
 
A bit disappointing performance from a few of our players.
But another win,another clean sheet and Chong got to play 30min.
Happy with that
 
Well, we learned that our backup midfielders are all nowhere near good enough. Fred looks a shadow of a £50m midfielder, while Pereira and McTominary are clearly destined for the exit doors.

Also Darmian might just be our best CB after Lindelof. Easily better than big Phil.

Lukaku's lack of movement and shocking touch stifled the attacking play so much as expected.
 
#07 said:
Rubbish but we won so who cares? In the end its the winning that counts.

Nobody really knocking down the door for a first XI start based on that. Impressed by how well Darmian equipped himself at centre back considering he's a full back. Although a team with better forwards than Reading would've exposed us big time.
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Ah, quit! Did he have better boots than usual? Or maybe your eyesight is just better than mine?
 
Very poor from the midfield today. All 3 were a letdown, especially Fred and Perriera. Very sloppy with the ball and no creative passes. We will be in trouble if one of our starting midfield 3 is injured, cause we don't have good backup at all (except maybe Fellaini).

Darmian was decent, Young and Dalot not doing so well however.

Still, happy for the win. That's 5 in 5 now. Good thing is a lot of our starters will be well rested for next week. Big big game for Ole.
 
Not convincing, clumsy at times, but win is a win. Well done.

- Romero is too good to be a backup goalkeeper. He can straight walk into any top team.
- Darmian can be a good backup CB
- Fred has major technical problem of retaining the ball, position awareness and passing. I don't know how United scouts approved his signing, that too for 50 millions. He has lot more to do than just settling down.
- Pereira has similar traits of Fred but he is promising. His runs, positions are good. Need to work on physical aspect of PL-
- Mctominay was invisible in first half but in second half he was standing there like a wall, intercepting every Reading attack. Good work
- Dalot is still raw but promising. Not bad for a 19 year old kid
- Mata was ineffective, as usual drifting in center. Perhaps not sure where to play. Again forcing team to attack from left, leaving right side vacant and exposing kid Dalot. Absolute criminal from an experienced player like him.
- Chong was poor. Comparing Dalot and Chong both are of same age, difference in their technique, composure and competence is visible.
- Jones is good but unpredictable as always. Second half, Reading attack - it was all okay and suddenly Jones had a brainfart, left his position and lunged forward, leaving 3 Reading players unmarked at the edge of the box! that resulted their clear chance on goal, saved beautifully by Romero. WTH Jones?
- Young was playing like training match. Perhaps enjoying bit too much
- Alexis and Lukaku both good

We missed an enforcer and creator in midfield. We were disfunctional team without that quality players. Played solo instead of team symphony.
 
Young has a trick, a little roll and spin effort. Last time it worked Obama was chanting ‘Yes we Can’.
Young ain’t as Young as he was and I suppose he’s had a busy Cmas
 
The pressing from the front was poor. It was basically Sanchez and Fred pressing, but Lukaku, Mata and McTominay were not able to. That allowed Reading to get a easy foothold in the game from the start. After that we played on the counter, but the midfield made too many errors, and had no chemistry at all. That meant we really did not launch many attacks because of that. Thankfully, the individual quality of our attackers got us the goals, and our defenders did surprisingly well. Never felt we were really threatened at any point.

Still, good win, players rested and now the Spurs game.
 
Judas said:
Darmian had a really solid game seeing as he's barely played CB at all over the last few years. Deserves a bit of respect and praise.
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Yea I was just teasing- your point about Darmian is well taken...
 
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Man of the Match

Sergio Romero image Sergio Romero 37% of 591 votes

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5.6 Total Average Rating

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Score Predictions

479,7,7
  • Man Utd win
  • Reading win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 33% Man Utd 3:0 Reading
  • 24% Man Utd 4:0 Reading
  • 14% Man Utd 2:0 Reading
  • 13% Man Utd 5:0 Reading
  • 6% Man Utd 3:1 Reading
  • 2% Man Utd 4:1 Reading
  • 2% Man Utd 2:1 Reading
  • 1% Man Utd 5:1 Reading
  • 1% Man Utd 0:0 Reading
  • 1% Man Utd 1:0 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 0:1 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 0:3 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 2:2 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 2:3 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 5:2 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 1:1 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 1:3 Reading
  • 0% Man Utd 0:5 Reading
Compiled from 493 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. Reading
Possession
40% 60%
Shots
8 13
Shots on Target
5 5
Corners
1 4
Fouls
14 13

Referee

Stuart Attwell

Man Utd Lineup

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