[Ibi Dreams]

We looked fecked in the last half hour; it was anti LVG football. Hopefully it was more psychological rather than physical as we have a big month coming up.

Think it was just panicking and disorganisation more than anything. Every time we ended up with the ball there seemed to be no option except to boot it - no players getting into the right positions and making themselves available

 

[Raw]

Joint 2nd in the group now, everyone has 3 points and 0 GD

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

That wasn't easy at all.

We get the 3 points though, great job by the players!

Mata Man of the Match.

 

[Rooney1987]

Ref did help this game at all. Little fouls and way too many yellow cards.

 

[JinnerJamie]

Thought it'd be nervous but jeez... Mike, Mata and Darmian the only players to turn up.

 

[#07]

We got the three points we needed, that's the main plus point from this game.

After Smalling's goal we were utterly terrible. Couldn't string two or three passes together. All composure went out of the window and that got worse when Schweinsteiger went off. Schneiderlin proved how green he is at this level, just didn't have his wits about him and couldn't make his mind up under the pressure of needing the three points. The loss of Shaw has really messed up our defence. Van Gaal will have to address the back four before we play Arsenal.

Credit to Smalling, Mata, Basti and Martial for very good performances.

 

[Florida Man]

Seemed like we went flat as soon as BFS came off. Otherwise, great game and clutch performance in the last 20.

 

[Getsme]

To say we were lucky in the last 20 minutes doesn't paint the full picture. We should have been at least 4 up by then, terrible finishing nearly cost us.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Group is absolutely deadlocked, points, goal difference, everything. Judging by today, the games away at Wolfsburg & CSKA are going to be hard. Gotta win all home fixtures.

 

[imperi]

Best half attacking wise (first one), worst half defending wise (second one).

And yet we dont concede, this is going to be a fantastic season

 

[NinjaZombie]

Interesting stat from that match:

If you add up all of our players' shirt numbers, double that number, then add 3; then you equal the amount of times the ref blew against us tonight.

The referee was diabolical those last 30 minutes. Memphis getting carded but the few times Wolfsburg actually got whistled for a foul were all worst fouls than that, and no cards were handed out.

Mike Smalling >> Chris Smalling. Fact.

 

[Irrational.]

Only caught the second half but happy with the result.

Hopefully we've preserved Schweinsteiger's legs and tactical nous for the Arsenal game.

 

[Yorkeontop]

Wolfsburg are better than PSV I reckon. Now for CSKA.

 

[JustAFan]

Very unfortunate not to be up at least 3-1 at the half. Very fortunate to not have given up the lead the last 25min or so.

 

[FC Ronaldo]

• Rough 20 mins or so at the end.
• The right result.
• Lovely to turn another negative scoreline around again.
• Defensive worries for the goal conceded.
• Better defensively afterwards.
• Smalling is the best defender in England.
• Mata is utterly superb.
• Martial in another fantastic non scoring appearance. Again.
• Rooney's form this season continues it's trend.
• Oh and credit to Wolfsburg. Good team that.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Mata and Smalling tied for motm.

Nervy stuff at the end, but we got the three points which is what matters.

Daemian says hi.

 

[worldinmotion66]

Darmian was man of the match for me, Smalling, Mata and Schweinsteiger were great too. Worst game I've ever seen Schneiderlin play, he never looks forward and defensively wasn't great either. We're lucky we at least have two great defenders, and great to see Jones back in doing well too.

 

[Rich_H_1989]

Think this was a bit of the good, the bad and the ugly wasn't it?

In patches we played good football. Martial looked lively in bursts. Memphis as well in small doses was good. The second goal was a beauty. And that might have been the best I've seen Mata play in a a United shirt.

Then the bad... We lost our heads and control in the last 20 minutes. Schneiderlin was all over the place and against better opposition we'd have been in trouble. Ooh and LVGs subs. What the hell? Completely ruined our flow and control I thought.

The ugly... Quite simply the referee. He was a disgrace. Booking our players for nothing. Letting Wolfsburg players get away with similar fouls. The amount of fouls he gave them in the second half when most were fair challenges was beyond a joke. And at least once in the first half Martial was wrongly ruled offside when through on goal.

A win is a win and my god that was a needed win in the group stages. We showed good character to come back and at times were in absolute control. But definitely room for improvement.

 

[Libano]

Games like this make a team grow. I'm seeing lots of positives.

 

[rooney2009]

We looked very tired in the last 20mins and Anders P is not ready yet.

 

[Stack]

I would have been more than happy if Young had been sold at the end of last season. Now whenever he comes on I am happy to see him doing a job. He has become a very versatile and dependable player to help solve tricky problems when needed.

 

[Raw]

Focusing on the positives, we played some brilliant football for most of the 1st half.

 

[dasty]

The 60 minutes that we were playing fluent attacking football was a joy to watch. The referee though is fecking atrocious and is trying everything possible to help Wolfsburg get into the game. We couldn't get any control of the game in the last 15 minutes because the referee just keeps giving freekicks away to Wolfsburg whenever our players touch them.

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Mata was epic tonight.

Schneiderlin, Blind, Rooney, Memphise were totally shite.

 

[atomic keane]

Great result, was a bit to nervy after Schweinsteiger was subbed. Really good attacking play until 2-1

 

[Rolandofgilead]

An ugly win in the end, but il take that all day long.

 

[Mystry]

Some great performances from Mata, Smalling, Darmian and Schweinsteiger, the first two especially. At least we won but god I hope Rooney gets taken off if he plays like that at the weekend. He's liabiliaty when he's like this, maybe he needs a rest for a few games or something.

 

[sammsky1]

We are far from the perfect outfit, we all know that. So criticism should be relative to where we are 'in the process' rather than compare us with Munich or Barcelona.

Huge positives:
- Came back from a diabolical start to win the game which shows character and resolve
- Dominated periods of 1st and 2nd half.
- Martial again showing great maturity, strength and first touch
- Very good performances from Smalling, Mata, Martial and Schweinsteiger
- Schneiderlin did not get a deserved red card!
- Pereira, Jones, Young got minutes
- Plenty of young players getting fantastic experience and exposure
- Withstood a lot of Wolfsburg pressure in last 15 mins

To be worked on
- Rooney still not doing it
- Memphis peripheral and careless in finishing
- Possession not converted into enough goals

All things considered, Im VERY happy to take that. Thank God we have got our CL campaign under way.

So much credit to LVG - for having a vision in the first place and then having the BALLS to implement it 100% to his liking. Its all quickly now falling into place.

 

[montpelier]

Yeah, if it's a straightforward binary thing Imight have just switched to the anti-Rooney camp after that.

Fortunate to win there, I think.

 

[Sereques]

We got very tired towards the end.

 

[Judge Red]

Some ups, some downs, but it was good enough and the three points are the most important thing.

 

[LARulz]

Mata saying they were tired. Hopefully they aren't too tired, we've got a tough month

 

[krazyrobus]

Smalling in beast mode again, just give him a wolf mask!

The passing in the last 20 mins was infuriating. Not taking care of the ball.

After conceding the goal the performance was as good as we have been this season, enterprising attack, some good chances created with Depay and Rooney fecking up some relatively easy chances.

Fell apart after the 2nd goal, though, that being said DDG didn't have to make any telling saves so I spose good defending.

Rooney a waste of space! Its like playing with 10 men! Can't hold the ball, can't run with the ball, misplacing passes, what fecking good are you Rooney?!

 

[hbgreg]

Deserved win and they barely went close in that nervy period, defended well and stood together as a team. Team Spirit after going down was amazing.

 

[Hed Zitin]

Thank christ! I don't have any nails left. That was far too long to hold on like that. What the hell happened after the goal I'll never know. Just went so negative.

Ref would not let any tackle go.

Smalling and Blind were great. BFS didn't need to come off, no one else was going to get us back the control. Mata was superb tonight.

Memphis was up and down. Valencia was so poor on the ball. Morgan just wasn't in the game. Rooney was.. I just want him out of the team, we have better options than him. Honestly the amount of times he gave the ball away and got caught on it. He's finished.

 

[ants7]

Well, a performance like that is expected from Kassai, nothing more to be said there. Shame about the cards we picked up. Maybe one was worthy of a yellow.

Amazing we managed to see this game through and picked the very valuable points. Everything was great for about 60-65 minutes, after that - dear god. Last time I saw us playing like this when we had Gollum managing our team. LVG will not be happy about that.

Extremely vital win in the bag. Now let's hope we get some bodies back before saturday and let's trash the gooners. Feeling somewhat confident.

Mike!

 

[Roboc7]

Can't afford to carry Rooney in that position in this formation, blind was also all over the place and no better in midfield. Other than smalling, darmian, mata and martial everyone was pretty poor though.

We got the three points though and that is all that matters.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

We looked great from the moment they scored right up until we took the lead. The first 6 minutes and the last 35 minutes were just a calamity.

Ref was toss. All but Schweinsteigers bookings were a joke. They seemed to avoid bookings for breaking up counters with cynical fouls.

Martial is so classy. Even when he's not scoring, he's making things happen and he's rinsing defender for fun. That burst of acceleration just takes the piss.

Wolfsburg are a good side, but we really should have taken advantage of Draxler never tracking back. Trasch was there for the taking. It's a shame we didn't start Young. He would have gone at him over and over.

Home games are a must win in the group stages, so a huge 3 points.

 

[Devil may care]

Big 3 points against a good side but we looked so wide open in midfield as soon as Schweini went off, not sure what that was about. Thankfully Smalling and Darmain were eating up attackers and Young did pretty well at RB.

Up top Mata and Martial were both good, Memphis had two good opportunities where he should have scored but at least he is getting in the positions. However his immaturity rises up quite often and I thought it was the right call to take him off.

Rooney and Schneiderlin were both really poor.

 

[.Rossi]

Dodgy 2nd half.
Defensively nervy
Smalling, Mata and Martial all good. The rest, not so much.
German fans were incredibly loud it seems.
Referee was a zit an the arse of humanity

 

[KM]

Even though we played badly in the last twenty minutes, it's worth pointing out that they literally created nothing in that period which was due to our excellent defensive organisation.

Should have been three goals up in the first half too. Very good performance IMO

 

[MTF]

Of course we'd prefer to smash most opponents a-la Bayern, but its always good to get wins rather than draws and losses from these matches when the team isn't playing so well. As we all know, that was very much one of the marks of Fergie's best teams.