[Melville Red]

That was poor. Against a PL side we would have shipped a few goals.

Granted we made a lot of changes.

I’m not worried in the slightest as you and others have said, a lot of changes and qustions answered, questions which confirm the attitude of some of the so called fringe players, actually attitude? Or actual ability?
Bit of both as far as I can see, if our fringe players can’t bring themselves to put in a better performance in front of a home crowd then they should be told that is simply not good enough and the chances of making it in The PL are negligible let alone making it at United.

 

[Tom Cato]

I actually quite enjoyed this match. But not so much for the performance of the team.

A matchup against Reading is always going to be a lop-sided, relatively uninspired affair. Its a team that on paper is far worse than Manchester United and plays a very physical and nitty-gritty type of football. A style that currently makes a relegation candidate.

So why don't we beat them 8-0?

Well first of all the United team on the pitch today saw two first team starter regulars (Jones, Young). Two.

The rest of the team was made up of 4 regular subs, and 5 players that are fighting for their United life. Combined this makes up for a team that have about a snowballs chance in hell at finding any kind of chemistry easily. At least up until 61 minutes when the subs come on.

The only people that would have any are Lukau and Sanchez, who have shown on-pitch chemistry, and did some show today as well. The combination of a man-mountain and speedster in Lukau and Sanchez certainly makes for a very interesting dynamic. They have already combind for goals and I am confident they will for more as we progress in the season. But these are also struggling players that are affected by poor form, and being mis-used wildly in Mourinho's system.

Why even purchase Sanchez if you're going to play a defensive minded football. The guy is anything but defensive. It will take a long time before he is anywhere near the player from Barca and Arsenal. I hope his injury is nothing serious as I saw good things from him both today and against Newcastle. I remaind confident that given the right wave of form, he can be a difference maker.

Lukaku is my biggest questionmark as a United player. Does he fit the mold of speed? Maybe. He's not as agile as Ibra, or fast as Rashford, but he's got a nose for goals and is certainly someone that will make a difference when he's on the pitch. If he's a starter or a supersub remains an open question. In my eyes it can go both ways. I think Lukaku is an absolute top bloke though so I hope he proves my doubts wrong.

Romero was absolutely brilliant today and did his job amicably. Its always a relief when your backup shows that he knows how to make his best wall impression when the team needs him to. Good for him.

I think Fred is suffering from lack of any confidence with the ball or positioning. He's not playing well, but he's a great player when he's confident and in form. I hope that he spends the rest of the season slowly improving and getting minutes that he deserves.

I'm a little short on time so dont have time to comment on everyone, but all in all I think this was a fun game to watch. But its fun because we got to see a lot of non-regular United players play a full game, and spend some time from my sofa evaluating how everyone positions, how prone they are to mistakes, good playes. Just things a normal football fan notices during a game.

The reason the team dont play as well as we did is for me two fold: Reading plays a tempo of football that is slower and more physical than in the Premier League. The team should naturally ignore this and go full tilt, but I imagine its difficult when you dont play regular 90 minutes to even know what full tempo is when your opponent is playing one style and you are expected to play another.

Lack of time and chemistry is important and a noticeably factor. Players like Martial and Pogba just know where the other player is going to be. What chance does McTominay and Pereira have to make the same kind of intuitive plays that the First XI does? Most plays on the pitch today would be obversation rather than intuition, and naturally that will affect anything from speed, execution and goalscoring.

Games against lower tier teams are never great, because the opposition arent that good in comparison, and the team played is always a test-team, rather than an established one.

If this was a game against Tottenham, most of these players wouldnt even be on the pitch, so in reality all we have to compare this team to the Manchester United vs. Tottenham is that they are on the same roster and represent United, but the team on the pitch was not that team.

I think its good that a lot of the reserves and "getting back into it" players got to see serious playtime, and did their jobs well enough to secure a doughnut, and a comfortable win.

5 wins for Ole, first since Sir Matt Busby some 76 years ago.

Ole is quoted as saying that he made it difficult for the players by fielding a players that had never played together before, and I think that is a fair assesment on why and how the game turned out the way it did.

 

[ErranMorad]

Caught the second half. Thought we were terrible.

Romero was good. Darmian was decent. I actually thought McTommy didn't do too badly. Rest were simply atrocious.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I’m not worried in the slightest as you and others have said, a lot of changes and qustions answered, questions which confirm the attitude of some of the so called fringe players, actually attitude? Or actual ability?
Bit of both as far as I can see, if our fringe players can’t bring themselves to put in a better performance in front of a home crowd then they should be told that is simply not good enough and the chances of making it in The PL are negligible let alone making it at United.

Agreed. I think Ole will have learned so much about some players today.

 

[Canagel]

So missed the match today, how did we play? Who stood out and who didn't take their chance to impress?

 

[red woppit]

This looked like a typical Jose gameplan, very slow build up, a lot of passing backwards, which put some players under extreme pressure, some good breaks which got us into decent positions, then played back to defenders. Very little movement from the two forward players, which gave the midfield a difficult job to find them. Overall very pleased with the win, but would like to see Fred, Pereira and Dalot in a team which pushes forward much quicker, and presses more. McTominay looked short on quality, but does put himself about a bit, Darmian I thought played ok, but we need to be picking up players in our own box when opponents make runs, several times we were slow to do that, and against the big teams we will get punished. Chong looks ok on the ball, and can see him getting the odd runout, with a view to becoming part of the first team squad next season. Neither Sanchez or Lukaku looked the part to me, Fellaini did what he normally does, and that is as much as you can ask of him, but all three should be gone before next season starts.

 

[ChaddyP]

No lingard no party

 

[Sandikan]

I did wonder why Fred was playing in The Ukraine. I also wondered why we were buying a player who was, playing in The Ukraine. I wondered some more when nobody else was showing any interest in him and he didn’t feature once in the Brazilian team at the WC. £50+million, nice!
I realise now of course that he is indeed shite and should be playing in, er The Ukraine or another hotbed of first class football. Another great signing by Mourinho.

Where you play doesn't necessarily mean you're a lesser player. There can be other reasons!

He certainly doesn't look anything more than a keen mover around the pitch so far though. People will say "it's not my money", but £50m is serious money for a player who can barely get into our team.

 

[Tony247]

A home game against a team battling relegation in championship (23rd, 20 points in 26 matches), practically no threat from midfield

If in this game a fringe player cannot grab the opportunity and show his worth then when will be the right time to do so?

Sure, we can't expect goal feast or a scintillating team game but at least show sparks of your talent and shine.

 

[Sandikan]

Rested a few players, got Lukaku a proper run out and goal, and eased through in a low gear. Comfortable.

Only downers are Sanchez going off, and some of the players not showing they're capable of challenging for the real team.

 

[buckooo1978]

Hope we get a nice draw for the 4th round so some of these guys can get another game together

overall a lot of rustiness and the game was chaotic. We gave the ball away so easily and no one particularly impressed bar Romero and Young was alright.

Sanchez did have some nice touches but you expect much more and we struggled to use Lukaku. Fred looked about 1.5 times the pace of anyone else but he personified chaos for me and seemed to be never in control. Like Anderson after 24 cans of red bull.

how many of these players will be at the club next season - I'd happily say goodbye to Jones, Darmian, McTominay, Mata, Sanchez and Lukaku unless we see real improvement

 

[John Keiler]

McTominay and Perreira should not be near the first team. McTominay should be looking at the leagues of his chosen country for progression.

Jones - from Duncan Edwards to Percy Edwards with every passing match.

Fred is shite. I would like to find humour in just how bad he is, but cannot.

Lukaku - the original 'second touch is a tackle' type of forward. He rescues his appearances with occasional goals, but he is dreadful with the ball played to him.

 

[red_john]

Not the best of performances but its good we found a way to win this type of game. Alot of second string players in the team who haven't played together so this was to be expected. Few question marks over a few of the players and if they are going to be good enough to fight for a first team place. Looking forward to Spurs already.

 

[simplyared]

Ole will have got some questions answered today. Looks like his starting eleven is becoming pretty obvious.

 

[Handsome Devil]

Shame we couldn't sack Mourinho every week.

Wouldn't that work out at £26M x 52 then? Not sure we could afford!

 

[noodlehair]

Romeo - I kind of feel like any time a game passes where he doesn't do something weird that nearly but somehow doesn't cost a goal is a success for him.

Young - Every time he got the ball it was like the rest of our team had been told to stand as far away from him as possible.
Jones - Looks like a good defender 60% of the time. The other 40% of the time he looks like he's trying not to fall over after jumping onto a slope off a moving train
Darmian - I didn't notice him, which is good
Dalot - Fumbled forwards. Kept nearly doing good things

Pereira - He always looks comfortable on the ball but never seems to have any impact on the game
McTominay - We need to get out of this habit of picking players just because they have played for us before. Mourinho picked him to make some weird point about picking youth players, and now Solskjaer has picked him just because Mourinho used to pick him. No one actually knows what McTominay does or is meant to be doing, including I suspect McTominay.
Fred - The thing I like about Fred is how he is able to take the ball into a tight area of the pitch and yet is then still able to pass it accurately to someone on the other team

Mata - When the main thing you have as a player is being able to control the ball well, and you have a game where you control it badly every single time, it's probably fair to say it was an off day.
Sanchez - Looked good in moments and I enjoyed his stint as interim-interim manager.
Lukaku - Still Heskey but at least looked like a sober Heskey. Good play for the goal.

Subs -
Chong - He's far too clumsy on the ball to be in contention for first team games yet.
Fellaini - Yes he is still here
Rashford - Trademark Wellbeck finishing

General
- I know we have a "big squad", but you know, nearly any team in the world can suddenly have a "big squad" if they include a whole load of players in it that aren't actually good enough to play for them.
- I also know we're quite hung up on this developing young players thing at the moment, and I'm all for giving academy players a chance, but they should at least be able to demonstrate they are good at something to be getting picked in the first team. Lets not start putting them there just because.

 

[Leftback99]

We should know by now that randomly thrown together lineups rarely produce a good performance. On that front i'm not sure what people were expecting. I'm pleased that Solskjaer sees most of these as 2nd choice at best at the moment, it shows that he has some idea what he is doing, many on here would be starting the likes of Pereira, Fred, Mata and Dalot every game.

 

[Rash Decision]

So missed the match today, how did we play? Who stood out and who didn't take their chance to impress?

It was pretty dreadful but I felt a lot of it was down to a terrible midfield performance. Pereira completely failed to justify the hype on here for him, Fred put in a typical performance where he regularly lost possession through sloppy control but made some quality passes and showed flashes of skill in the attacking third. McTominay was... I'm not too sure as I hardly noticed him.

Attackers - I thought the balance was bad. Basically had only 1 pacy player in Lukaku, who put in a typical performance, with bad touches and a good goal. 2 slow players flanking him in Mata and Sanchez. Mata was uncharacteristically poor in retaining possession, but won and scored a penalty. Sanchez made a quality assist again but was dispossessed too easily. Didn't seem to run as much as he normally does either, maybe it's his hamstring issue. Pressed more than the other 2 though, as expected.

Fullbacks - suspect defending and poor crossing from Dalot, Young also had a poor game but can't remember much of his performance.

CBs - alright I think?

Romero - made the saves required, questionable distribution though, and seemed to lump the ball up to Lukaku a lot. I hope that won't be a tactic we revert to whenever Lukaku plays.

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Wouldn't that work out at £26M x 52 then? Not sure we could afford!

Does wonders for morale though

 

[Ace of Spades]

Just shows Rashford , Martial and Lingard bring a lot of energy round the box. The midfield was awful. This was the chance for fringe players to show their worth and they failed. You take your chance when you get it or you might not get another.

Yeah, I think if Sanchez can get back to his best then we have a pretty good attack. Lukaku still feels a bit too flat footed and slow at times, especially his pressing is poor, but that added to Mata is just a big problem. The midfield was a mess, all three players had played very little and then thrown in together all at once, not a decision Ole would have made, I think, if he did not have to rest his players after a busy period. Still, I think the positive was that we have another clean sheet, and still looked dangerous the few times we did go forward. We should still also look for another CM though, to add to the squad.

 

[arthurka]

Whats wrong with some of you guys? We won 2-0 and fielded players that have played 15 min combined over the last months. Always in control and scored two good goals and could have scored two more.

Ole knew this he spoke about it post match, could have stepped it up but no need really. Nothing Mourinho about this we scored two and won Derby anyone...

Typical early round FA Cup tie at home.

5 in a row and with Brighton and Burnley at home after Spurs could be a very good run indeed.

 

[Kag]

Poor performance all round. Apart from Darmian and maybe Jones, who were decent. Like a classic FA Cup non-performance from the Ferguson era.

State of this forum, mind. Five games in and the arrogance is back. Shredding our players to bits. Using one game to determine to future of players. Sod off back into Mourinho’s hole and support somebody else.

We were truly shite today and the first team next week basically picks itself. But be rational. Or not...

 

[Glow]

Very disappointing match. Looks like the positive and enthusiac play we had right after the change of manager is getting weaker in every new match. Of cource Pogba not playing means a lot, but no... it makes me feel that the squad generally isn't good enough.

 

[Canagel]

It was pretty dreadful but I felt a lot of it was down to a terrible midfield performance. Pereira completely failed to justify the hype on here for him, Fred put in a typical performance where he regularly lost possession through sloppy control but made some quality passes and showed flashes of skill in the attacking third. McTominay was... I'm not too sure as I hardly noticed him.

Attackers - I thought the balance was bad. Basically had only 1 pacy player in Lukaku, who put in a typical performance, with bad touches and a good goal. 2 slow players flanking him in Mata and Sanchez. Mata was uncharacteristically poor in retaining possession, but won and scored a penalty. Sanchez made a quality assist again but was dispossessed too easily. Didn't seem to run as much as he normally does either, maybe it's his hamstring issue. Pressed more than the other 2 though, as expected.

Fullbacks - suspect defending and poor crossing from Dalot, Young also had a poor game but can't remember much of his performance.

CBs - alright I think?

Romero - made the saves required, questionable distribution though, and seemed to lump the ball up to Lukaku a lot. I hope that won't be a tactic we revert to whenever Lukaku plays.

Thanks mate.
It does look like whenever players who haven't had much game time play we look well off the pace and quite disjointed. I've seen 40% possession stat which isn't good at all. Midfield must've not done their job. But I'll hopefully sit down later and watch it again.

 

[OldPop]

Agree that it was a pretty boring match but Reading did what they could and created some excitement, credit to them for it.

Don't judge our players too hard, many have little or no playing time together and many are also young and still lack experience.

In my eyes it was the match I had wanted. We won and many who lacked playing time got it. And more importantly, many got a much needed rest. Ole made the right decision again.

 

[roseguy64]

Summary
5 wins in a row

3rd goal in 3 games for Lukaku and showed nothing we didn't already know. A good finisher of last pass, bad with back to goal, not a great first touch.

Jones the only starter from current first team to get a whole game. And only Rashford after that with a small warm up. So great for resting most of the first team of Spurs game.

A run out for Chong, adrenaline made him a little frantic for first game, but showed high energy, speed and skill. Too early to judge on attacking or crossing ability. Only had one cross and it was a disaster, which comes with the adrenaline.

Beyond those highlights it was a pretty poor game. 40% possession. 8 shots vs 13 for Reading. 5 on target each. 1 corner vs 4. 322 passes vs 491 80% pass accuracy vs 84. Top three touches and passes by Reading players and two of top tackles and interceptions and created chances were Reading players.

Sanchez one very good assist aside showed that he is barely half the player he was and even if he can provide moments he is no more than Rooney was for us. Its like we got rid of one has been on a super high salary and replaced him with another. We need to sell if we can, even on a free. The salary would be better spent enhancing the squad.

I thought McTominay was invisible, but he had 3rd highest pass accuracy at 92%, 3rd most interceptions with 7, joint highest chances created at 2.

Fred was crap, but he needs to be in a progressive forward attacking side which we weren't today

Perriera as always showed the glimpse of class that people rave about, like the shot at the end, but otherwise was barely involved and this is Reading so he should be doing more. I'm still far from convinced.

Mata offered little in this game. We desperately need additional investment on RW to bring natural width.

Defence overall were fairly assured. Reading had chances but not many clear cut.

Overall, not as good as we should expect. Barely any players showing their worth to make first team, even as a sub. But we are through, plenty of players got rested and with 5 in a row Ole has the record for only United manager to win first 5 games. So let's keep positive and the first real real challenge is next week. I'm not seeing enough to be confident we can win or even draw vs Spurs, but training in Dubai should be a good way to get us switched on, warmed up and focused on the game.

I'm worried about this talk of no signings. We almost certainly should be investing in a CB and a RW and there is a good case to say a RB should be on the agenda as should a young DM to develop into Matic replacement.

Agreed with most of this. Good assessment.

 

[Rash Decision]

Thanks mate.
It does look like whenever players who haven't had much game time play we look well off the pace and quite disjointed. I've seen 40% possession stat which isn't good at all. Midfield must've not done their job. But I'll hopefully sit down later and watch it again.

Agreed, it's not that unexpected given that most of these players have barely played, let alone played together. Definitely not a game to judge them too harshly on.

 

[Coops73]

A bit shit really but with all the changes to be expected and I don’t think we really got out of 2nd gear. I’m not “Reading” too much into it. Bring on the yids.

 

[Farfetched]

A game suitable for a statistic only; namely a FA cup 3rd round win. I was, and still am, pleased with the appointment of OGS and have been more than happy the performances in the games so far. However, now his work starts.

Having set his stall out that no team should out ‘fight’ United, Reading proceeded to do just that. They dominated the midfield three who were just too slow and unable to make a simple pass, we were lucky that Reading were very poor in front of goal. Anyway, hopefully we get this game out of the system and some of today’s players should expect the ‘hairdryer’ treatment in the heat of Dubai!

 

[Judas]

Sanchez is going to look at least a bit better in a team with Pogba/Rashford/Lingard/Martial. You know actually talented quick players, ones that can play the sort of football we've been playing the previous 4 games.

 

[lex talionis]

Not in the least unhappy. We rested players who’ve been brilliant the previous games and came out with the win no one should deny we deserved. Had this been a league match or a cup semifinal I have no doubt we would have seen a better performance. But it was an FA Cup 3rd round match, notorious for banana peel slips.

This match is better assessed on individual performances rather than the team performance.

 

[MrSingh2002]

Ole's going to have to get a better tune out of our second string than today.

We can't play the first choice 11 every game. Time for a chat with Fergie again.

 

[AgentP]

Now we know why we keep playing Pogba, Matic and Herrera. The rest are just not good enough.

 

[Kemizee]

I do not really understand what the Caf has become lately. Moaning just for the sake of it. 5 wins in 5 for Ole and a 2nd successive clean sheet.

Today's performance came against the backdrop of massive team changes involving fringe players(who will obviously not gel like the first teamers) and during the Christmas period too where almost everyone has dropped points. I am delighted with the win esp during these crucial stage of the season. Any kind of win is okay by me now.

On to Spurs now with our complete team and I expect us to dominate as we have in the previous games. GGMU!!

 

[Judas]

I do not really understand what the Caf has become lately. Moaning just for the sake of it. 5 wins in 5 for Ole and a 2nd successive clean sheet.

Today's performance came against the backdrop of massive team changes involving fringe players(who will obviously not gel like the first teamers) and during the Christmas period too where almost everyone has dropped points. I am delighted with the win esp during these crucial stage of the season. Any kind of win is okay by me now.

On to Spurs now with our complete team and I expect us to dominate as we have in the previous games. GGMU!!

That really shouldn't be the attitude after the horror show the club has been last few months.

 

[Alek M]

What players like Anders,Fred need to understand is that this is a simple game with occasional complexities. If you make a great move to create space then find an open player and pass the ball forward. They try too hard like every move they make should be on the highlights.

 

[glazed]

First time I've nodded off in my armchair since Jose left.

 

[Class of 63]

Typical performance/result for a home tie against lower League opposition in the early rounds of the FA Cup, and the only thing that was ever going to change that is if Reading had not read the script and taken the lead.

Safely in the hat and that's all that matters.

Eagerly anticipating getting Liverpool(if the overcome a tricky tie @ Wolves on Monday), or Man City away in the next round.

 

[lysglimt]

We played a B-side - and we won. Was it a good game, did a lot of the players perform ? No - but a few of the players out there today simply aren't good enough for a topclub, not even as a squad-player.

Darmian was surprisingly ok as a central defender - Jonas was fairly solid. McTominay in my opinion was the least bad of the midfielders, Andreas was Anonymous and Fred was awful as usual. I just can't see him getting many more chances - he can't even look good against a poor side in the Championship.

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

Wow...…...I didn't enjoy that, haha! First OGS game I've been disappointed by - outplayed for the most part by feckign Reading. In fact, that reminded me a lot of a Jose Mourinho game. Way too much back-passing, way too much sitting back and inviting pressure. Poor passing, disjointed, but to be fair Ole had made 9 changes so slightly to be expected.

Positives:
- We won, and are through.
- Back 4 didn't do a lot wrong, really.
-Pereira showed glimpses.
- GREAT seeing Chong given 30mins, that was awesome of Ole and he was involved quite a bit.

Negatives:
- McTominay is a complete non-entity of a player.
- Fred still doesn't look worth half his price-tag, even against relegation contenders one division below.
- Lukaku - nice finish - but is an absolutely terrible football player.
- Sanchez - is 100% done at the top level.

Onto the next one!