[Strachans Cigar]

We miss Pogba obviously.

Southampton are a better team than their start to the season suggests though. They were up for it today.

I'm just greatful for the battering ram that is Lukaku and may all his initial shots continue to rebound back to him, so he gets another go

 

[Sandikan]

The scoreline wasn't but the performances weren't anything special either. Hopefully the goals don't dry up.

Hopefully Palace next up gives a chance for us to show full capacity

 

[MJJ]

'Not worth more than 50mil', 'no one will sign a benchwarmer', 'he's a back up striker'. Seems you were bang on about Morata. unbelievable you brought this thread back up on the day he bangs in a hattrick.

Yeah I'd give up if I was you as well. Enough embarrassment for one day.

I know maths isn't your strongest suit but he went for 58m, a lot closer than the 80m that was initially being touted. I see you have changed your argument again from I never said unicorn to the fee was less than lukaku to this.

Anyways, like I said enjoy living in your delusion I am out

 

[ti vu]

We miss Pogba obviously.

Southampton are a better team than their start to the season suggests though. They were up for it today.

I'm just greatful for the battering ram that is Lukaku and may all his initial shots continue to rebound back to him, so he gets another go

Greedy bastard. Trying to score and self assist, which doesn't count, all at the same time

...

 

[I Believe]

Had to listen on the radio today, worst second half to listen to for ages, it sounded almost as if we didn't get a kick after the second half started? Southampton seemed to be coming at us in waves, my pace-maker was working overtime! Still three points, sweated and strained for!

 

[Yagami]

Hopefully Palace next up gives a chance for us to show full capacity

We can only hope!

 

[December_16]

Had to listen on the radio today, worst second half to listen to for ages, it sounded almost as if we didn't get a kick after the second half started? Southampton seemed to be coming at us in waves, my pace-maker was working overtime! Still three points, sweated and strained for!

Yeah, other than Herrera's chance late on, we didn't really get a sniff in the second half. We sort of collapsed into the defensive mode, most players were happy to boot the ball as far away from our half as possible with no intention of playing the ball, so that was frustrating to watch. But other than that, Southampton didn't really create much either, we organized our defense superbly.

 

[ghagua]

Glad we got the 3 points. Not at all happy with the performance. This is nearly our best team other than Pogba and yet we cannot control the match when we needed to. We have a midfield that cost well over 100 million and we could not make 2-3 passes together when the going got tough. Also tired of watching the team play with 10 men every week. Sort out the right wing Mourinho, we cannot hope to achieve success playing with 10 men. Martial should not have played so well on Wednesday, this is how he gets rewarded.

 

[roseguy64]

City will spank us if we play against them like that. Chelsea and even Liverpool too for that matter.

Obviously. Unlikely we'd play them like that though.

 

[Robertd0803]

Should have known the second half would have been a complete reversal considering what a cake-walk the first half was. Superb defensive performance and as Jose said you get 3 points for a 1-0 as well as 4-0. Southampton away is always a tough game so happy to get the 3 points in the end.

Jones in particular was very very good. Rashford I thought was fantastic, at one point he cleared the ball with his head and then ran half the length of the pitch after it and nearly won that as well. Brilliant. Lukaku's reaction at full time says it all.

 

[AXVnee7]

I had to miss the game today. Unfortunately a Match-day thread here is never going to be an accurate way to gauge how we did. However it does seem like todays result was grinded out, which if true is great to see. Winning 4-0 is great and everything, but it was a tough fixture and we did what should've been done against Stoke. 3 points is 3 points, but obviously GD leaves behind City and we know all too well how important that is. Nevertheless, we move on to the next fixture.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

this?

Yep, infuriated me why he took the ball back towards the Southampton players, then we see the better part of him when he plays the pass to lukaku.

 

[Lentwood]

Good defensive performance but games like today again reinforce my belief that our attack is below the level required to win a title. You can see Jose's plan - go 1-0 up, sit back and hit them on the counter. Problem is, in order to play this way you have to have players who can reliably carry the ball (not Mata) and players who make the right decision when 3 vs 2 more often than not (not Rashford or Mhiki)

Southampton didn't create a single chance but a 0-1 the game is always in the balance

 

[glazed]

Takeaways:
We are not good at playing on the break. Jose's strategy of dominating midfield with large physical players requires Pogba to work. Fellaini is still not that good.

 

[RedPed]

Hopefully Palace next up gives a chance for us to show full capacity

Thankfully City are at Chelsea next so a chance for us to redress the GD issue. And obviously one of them will drop points. Hoping for a Chelski win on this occasion.

 

[ivaldo]

I know maths isn't your strongest suit but he went for 58m, a lot closer than the 80m that was initially being touted. I see you have changed your argument again from I never said unicorn to the fee was less than lukaku to this.

Anyways, like I said enjoy living in your delusion I am out

Make your mind up. A moment ago you were telling me it was a similar price to Lukaku, but if you insist on talking only in initial fees then Lukaku cost €20mil more. But what's 20mil hey? And I'm the one with problems with maths?

You should at least attempt to read the thread you're erroneously basing your entire clusterfeck argument on. Ill recap for you. The entire discussion was based on finding a player the same price as Morata who has the same ability. I said give me an example, you refused to do so because you 'aren't a paid scout' (fooled us all with that one). But despite being unable to name a single player, you insisted there were loads of them, and so i referred to them as unicorns. You even went on to say our scouts should be able to find a player of his ability for a similar price to what we paid for Bailly.

Buying a striker for 20mil more than Morata went for (despite your insistance no one else would buy the 'benchwarmer') doesn't make him one of these unicorns, no matter how desperate you are to salvage any shred of your dignity.

Not only that you bring up that thread, the thread in which you told anyone who would listen that Morata was a waste of money, on the day he scores chelseas first hattrick in three years. What were you thinking?

]My argument that morata has only one good season and paying 60m+ for someone of his profile is overpaying significantly?

 

[Reynoldo]

Thankfully City are at Chelsea next so a chance for us to redress the GD issue. And obviously one of them will drop points. Hoping for a Chelski win on this occasion.

Yup, need a Chelsea win here. Chelsea I don't think will have the hunger to see it through this year and Man City need knocking down a peg or two before that juggernaut gains any more momentum (even though they luckily fell ass backward into form this season and shouldn't have near those points).

 

[noodlehair]

- Pogba and Matic is easily a better midfied than anything we put out last season. Matic and Fellaini is easily a worse midfield than anything we put out last season. Matic is not the type of player to compensate in games where Fellaini decides he's just going to run about with zero positional discipline or awareness, which is most games Fellaini plays in. Why does Mourinho even think this is a workable midfield partnership?

- Phil Jones collapsing giraffe dance

- In a game where you are defending soundly, but need either more control in midfield, or more threat on the break, how does bringing Smalling on make any sense at all?

- THe usual from Smalling too...come on, look competent, then somehow head one of your own players instead of the ball.

- Sometimes I can see what playing Mata on the right offers...sometimes though it's like Jose has just put him there to make sure he has someone he can sub off. There's only so long you can justify keeping one of Martial or Rashford out of the team in order to field a lopsided system that often renders one of your attacking players completely pointless.

- That looked like a Mourinho performance to me, in fairness. We didn't really do anything, didn't play well, but were stubborn and actually never really looked like we wouldn't win. It was actually a lot better than the performance at Stoke and I'll take it as long as it doesn't become the standard in these types of games. Jose at his best has his team able to win games with a degree of certainty even when they don't really perform.

- Ashley Young is better at pretending to be a left back than any of our left backs are at actually being one.

- Why were any of the players booked in this game actually booked? Do refs get a bonus if they bring the card out a certain amont of times?

- Lukaku is actually better than I thought he was. He's made me reallise we've actually been playing without a functional striker for years.

 

[Klopp_De_Klown]

Good post. Lots of squarkish teenage angst type posts in this thread yet again.

We were the better side first half and were poor in the second but still didn't concede. In the past this would've been seen as a ground out 3 points from a tough away fixture.

agreed

 

[MJJ]

Make your mind up. A moment ago you were telling me it was a similar price to Lukaku, but if you insist on talking only in initial fees then Lukaku cost €20mil more. But what's 20mil hey? And I'm the one with problems with maths?

You should at least attempt to read the thread you're erroneously basing your entire clusterfeck argument on. Ill recap for you. The entire discussion was based on finding a player the same price as Morata who has the same ability. I said give me an example, you refused to do so because you 'aren't a paid scout' (fooled us all with that one). But despite being unable to name a single player, you insisted there were loads of them, and so i referred to them as unicorns. You even went on to say our scouts should be able to find a player of his ability for a similar price to what we paid for Bailly.

Buying a striker for 20mil more than Morata went for (despite your insistance no one else would buy the 'benchwarmer') doesn't make him one of these unicorns, no matter how desperate you are to salvage any shred of your dignity.

Not only that you bring up that thread, the thread in which you told anyone who would listen that Morata was a waste of money, on the day he scores chelseas first hattrick in three years. What were you thinking?

Sigh, last attempt. Morata was rumoured to be 80m when we were discussing the price, the price he went for eventually was different which anyone with a shed of a brain could tell.

So the argument was if there is a better striker available for a similar price I. E. 80m. Something you refused was possible.

80m is similar to 75m which we got lukaku for, I quoted the exact price as you pointed out(falsely again) that we were quoted 73m for morata. My comment was that no one else would buy him for 80m which proved to be true, he was also not the first choice for either us or Chelsea.

I am glad you have remembered the unicorn comment now.

 

[Amir]

Smalling and Jones should not be on the pitch at the same time. In the short time they shared the pitch they almost knocked each other out. It's like they are fated to injure each other.

This would actually explain so much.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

still feel 352 is our best formation imo, especially with Pogba out.

De Gea
Bailly Smalling Jones
Valencia Herrera Matic Young
Mkhitaryan
Lukaku Martial

Enough height to deal with long balls and the wing backs are very well suited to the system.

 

[iammemphis]

This result was classic Mourinho. Seeing out a 1-0 win with a solid defence. Its won him plenty of titles over the years. We would have drawn this game last year.

 

[ivaldo]

Edit: Moved to Morata thread.

 

[Jimmyheals]

Overall, disappointing effort, but good result. I am very disappointed with the subs today. The game called for a cm to control play. I think the second half was in need of a Carrick substitution. He has the ability to play defensively while also controlling the passing and building th attack. Parking the bus and lobbing defenders at the pitch against Southampton is just poor. We looked like the United from last season and I found myself just waiting for the inevitable Southampton goal. Winning when not at you best makes champions, but not making the right adjustments when being out played will destroy us.

 

[Zoo]

Quite a horror show! First match since Jose took over I've turned off before the end. If this cowardly, confused mess is what half a billion buys you.....?

On the plus side, if we can get 3 points from a game like this, anything is possible.

Nicely done, you got quoted on Bluemoon.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

What was it then? Your definition of abysmal might be slightly different than mine, because I thought that second half was very bad. Abysmal in fact. What did you make of it? Splitting hairs here over a very poor second half performance. Jesus Christ.

OK, so if 'abysmal' is a hard fought away win at St Mary's what adjective would you use to describe a loss to a relegation candidate? It's happened in the past and it will do again - that's football. Today wasn't abysmal - in previous years it would have been held up as evidence of 'championship winning form'.

We're a rubbish side to watch. We really, really are. Incredible that we're 2nd.

well each to his own, but largely I've really enjoyed watching us this season so far.

Takeaways:
We are not good at playing on the break. Jose's strategy of dominating midfield with large physical players requires Pogba to work. Fellaini is still not that good.

Most teams will look less effective if you take away their best player. He is our most expensive signing ever and we have replaced him temporarily with Fellaini...I'm not sure what people were expecting?! If we can continue through this period taking 3 points but looking a little rough then I'll be more than happy with that...

 

[Summit]

OK, so if 'abysmal' is a hard fought away win at St Mary's what adjective would you use to describe a loss to a relegation candidate? It's happened in the past and it will do again - that's football. Today wasn't abysmal - in previous years it would have been held up as evidence of 'championship winning form'.

Have you actually read any of my posts, or just picked up on one? I have said that we played great in the first half, but our second half display was abysmal. It really was, there is no sugar coating it tbh, but people are insistent on doing so. Whatever man, I stand by my thoughts! I was more than happy with the first half display and said so in the match thread, but the second half was toothless and nothing short of abysmal.

 

[Yagami]

well each to his own, but largely I've really enjoyed watching us this season so far.

I've enjoyed the goals!

I went OTT as I was venting but I still don't think we're great to watch on the whole.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Have you actually read any of my posts, or just picked up on one? I have said that we played great in the first half, but our second half display was abysmal. It really was, there is no sugar coating it tbh, but people are insistent on doing so. Whatever man, I stand by my thoughts! I was more than happy with the first half display and said so in the match thread, but the second half was toothless and nothing short of abysmal.

Yes, I've read your posts, and I'll ask again, if the second half today was 'abysmal' then what adjective would you use to describe a half where we concede a goal at home to a worse team than Southampton?

The second half today, certainly the latter part, was a tactical decision to defend the 1-0 lead, cede possession to Southampton in non-dangerous areas and defend as a team. It worked, and we easily could/should have scored another to close the game out. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. There's more than one way to skin a cat and, to mix metaphors, the proof of the pudding is in the three points.

 

[glazed]

Most teams will look less effective if you take away their best player. He is our most expensive signing ever and we have replaced him temporarily with Fellaini...I'm not sure what people were expecting?! If we can continue through this period taking 3 points but looking a little rough then I'll be more than happy with that...

Yes we miss him for sure. But the break formation seems to be something we're playing in his absence rather than playing worse than before. I don't recall us playing it so relentlessly before. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

I've enjoyed the goals!

I went OTT as I was venting but I still don't think we're great to watch on the whole.

I think Pogba is a huge miss for us (as you would expect for a £90 million player) and while he's out and replaced with Fellaini our quality is bound to suffer. We were playing well before he was injured though, and we're in the midst of a lot of fixtures - I reckon if we weren't heading to Moscow in midweek we'd also have seen Martial too which would have made things easier on the eye.

 

[Summit]

Yes, I've read your posts, and I'll ask again, if the second half today was 'abysmal' then what adjective would you use to describe a half where we concede a goal at home to a worse team than Southampton?

I'm describing what I saw today, why do you feel the need to try and compare other previous shit displays. Who gives a shit about what happened in the past, it is today and the now which is what I am commenting on.?

The second half today, certainly the latter part, was a tactical decision to defend the 1-0 lead, cede possession to Southampton in non-dangerous areas and defend as a team. It worked, and we easily could/should have scored another to close the game out. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. There's more than one way to skin a cat and, to mix metaphors, the proof of the pudding is in the three points.

I agree it was a tactical decisions and one that fecked us up many times lats season. We are better than that as our previous games have shown. That is why I am a bit pissed off with our second half mate

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

I'm describing what I saw today, why do you feel the need to try and compare other previous shit displays. Who gives a shit about what happened in the past, it is today and the now which is what I am commenting on.?

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm suggesting that you're overrreacting. 'Abysmal' means appalling, which is pretty much as bad as it gets. What I'm trying to say is that today wasn't anywhere near as bad as it gets, so maybe you need a less extreme adjective - otherwise you literally won't have a word to use next time we lose 1-0 to Burnley or similar...

I agree it was a tactical decisions and one that fecked us up many times lats season. We are better than that as our previous games have shown. That is why I am a bit pissed off with our second half mate

It didn't feck us up today though so maybe the team are starting to understand how to play that way more effectively? It's a long season, we won't cruise every game, chill.

 

[drmuji]

The thing I liked about Southampton was, how neatly they took Fellaini out of the game in the second half. The whole game by passed him either through long balls to strikers or through quick feet.
I really do think letting Herrera play instead of Fellaini should be the best bet in future. He should come from the bench if long balls are needed

 

[Summit]

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm suggesting that you're overrreacting. 'Abysmal' means appalling, which is pretty much as bad as it gets. What I'm trying to say is that today wasn't anywhere near as bad as it gets, so maybe you need a less extreme adjective - otherwise you literally won't have a word to use next time we lose 1-0 to Burnley or similar...

I have plenty.
*discalmer these words below are for pure lightheartedness.
Anti-Perfection, Appalling, Atrocious, Abhorrent, Horrendous, Sickening, Painful, Unbearable, Abomination, Disaster, Dire, Distressing, Disturbing, Frightful, Monstrous, Ghastly, Horrific, Hideous, Horrid, Rotten, Dreadful, Soul-Rending, Satanic, Godawful, Donald Trump. lol

It didn't feck us up today though? It's a long season, we won't cruise every game, chill.

Not today, but it is a risky game using those tactics as you would agree? Just because today it didn't feck us up doesn't mean that next time it wont feck us up, and because we got away with it this game they the same tactics will be used again.

 

[Womp]

Quicker Pogba gets back, the better.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Not today, but it is a risky game using those tactics as you would agree? Just because today it didn't feck us up doesn't mean that next time it wont feck us up, and because we got away with it this game they the same tactics will be used again.

Yeah, it can be risky certainly, but then so can going for a second goal against opposition who were absolutely desperate to get something out of the game. A point for them today would have been celebrated like a cup final victory and could have been the catalyst for them properly getting their season moving. Mourinho is an uber-pragmatist, and whilst a couple of early goals to kill the game off would certainly have been preferable I can imagine him having one eye on Moscow in midweek and deciding that sitting off them, soaking up the pressure and defending the 1-0 was the way to go today. I feel that with Matic in the team we are much better equipped to play that way than we were last season which is why I'm not too bothered about it. Each to his own though...

 

[Isotope]

I don't have my tin-foil hat on when saying this: that ref has to be investigated. His decisions were so obvious on favoring Sth, even Stevie Wonder would notice it.

 

[ti vu]

Not today, but it is a risky game using those tactics as you would agree? Just because today it didn't feck us up doesn't mean that next time it wont feck us up, and because we got away with it this game they the same tactics will be used again.

This game, specifically the second half, Southampton attacked our temporary weakness in missing Pogba out through injury. Yet in the same half, we had chance to kill the game too. It's not a workable tactic against all the time when Pogba is back, more importantly, not many team are capable of passing game like Southampton displayed to constantly pull this tactic off against us. Then someone like Mkhi is absolute shocking leaving us lighter in midfield with constant possession loss.

With Pogba we would be more capable of keeping the ball under pressure and break Southampton pressing. Pogba is more creative so we would create more chance to try and finish the game off.