[Isotope]

There are people who think we should replace DDG - I am not one of them

Get in line.

 

[tjb]

I’d be very interested in who you would have played Instead?
No Martial, no Anthony and Sancho has been poor, so who?

Sancho or Garnacho. Push Rashford or Elanga up front. Get the energy from pressing that allows the team push up the pitch.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

The 2nd half is unacceptable.

A sign of champions, they say.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Next five games are Villa, Fulham… Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth.

Next week, Chelsea Arsenal and Spurs Liverpool. Week after is Newcastle Chelsea.

Win next two (both away) and some of the ‘CL challengers’ will lose ground to us. Be great going to the World Cup.

Next home PL game is Dec 27th!

 

[Rake]

DDG, Martinez and Dalot were great. Bar the last 2 minutes, Maguire was his usual mediocre self. Difference between him and Varane is night and day.

Extremely sloppy in possession. Bruno,Ronaldo, Casemiro and Eriksen all had a shocker. We lacked maturity and composure to keep the ball and invited pressure over and over.

It is great that we can now win such games, but I suspect EtH will be most displeased with the overall performance.

 

[TMDaines]

Felt like a ETH first half, followed by a Mourinho/Ole second half, complete with De Gea heroics, although all the defensive line had a top game.

Still room to improve though, as we will drop points playing like that second half.

 

[Jeffthered]

I don’t get this lucky stuff.
What were we lucky at? Is the defence not allowed to play well?
They bombarded our area with high crosses and on only one occasion did our keeper have to make a save.
Rice had one shot from distance which as one would expect, DeGea saved.
The only time they got through, Maguire was in the right place to clear.
We didn’t have one of our best days, but there was nothing lucky about it.

Absolutely agree. That's a superb win. We were not so fluent after 60mins, and we need to remember where we are. Our squad needs better players, you can see it. West Ham are a proper side, tremendous attitude, work very hard, and I always anticipated a very tough match. You cannot play super football every game, and that is a great win. We would have been rolled over in recent seasons.

Dalot was superb, Rashford a great 1st half (he plays like that and he's a handful against anyone), Martinez, DDG was outstanding. The whole back four, Maguire included were really good today. Another clean sheet. I'm very pleased with that win, because I realise that we are still very, very much work in progress. I like Ronaldo today too.... he was working v hard, and he'll score goals. He's so important when he plays, he just has to keep his headspace positive.

We still need a few players, and need to let a few go. Average should not be good enough for Manchester United.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Lucky

Why?

Did the ref miss clear penalties? Did they have shots beating De Gea and deflected wide off their own player?

Or did we score and they didn’t? Sort of the aim of the game?

Ive seen us score and lose loads of those over recent years. Feels great for the defence to step up and take a 1-0.

Were they lucky the ref didn’t book Scamacca for the high kick? We’d have been against ten men then

 

[Speako]

Best part - team spirit, defending a clean sheet like their lives depended on it. Brilliant.

 

[siw2007]

A hard fought and deserved win for the team. Many great performances today but I think De Gea deserves the credit for keeping the 3 points at the end with some class saves. We should have put West Ham away, we created enough chances but we gave them a chance in the final 30 min and it was really hard going there. We need to be more clinical so we don’t get caught out. But a good win nonetheless.

 

[Belisarius]

We have moved ahead of Chelsea in the table. And we have no one from among the top 6 and Newcastle to play in the first half of the season. 7 games of mid to bottom of table opposition. We have a real good chance of making the mid-point of the season in 3rd place.

 

[OrcaFat]

Deserved win. Very far from comfortable but we shaded it. Quite a few good performances but too slow as a team in the 2nd half.

 

[GwynnieJ]

Is this the first time this season where our goal difference has been positive?

 

[90 + 5min]

Moyes playing Moyes football.

We deserved the win. It is "normal" to defend a lead late on. Those things can hurt you sometimes but with DeGea we got our 3 points.

 

[ray_united]

Happy with the 3 points and our back 5 in the second half.
Flipped my table after Bruno misplaced that pass that lead to Rice’s shot at the last second, he needs a break and he’ll get that next week.

Observation:
- de gea : 9 motm ( massive 2-3 saves)
- dalot : 8.5 many clearances, covered lots of grounds and the left flanks too on a few occasions
- Maguire : 7 scared the shit out of me when hes on the ball. But massive blocks and defending at the end
- Martinez : 8. Warrior
- Shaw : 7.5 , immaculate touches. Had to be helped by martinez and even dalot at times but good overall
- Casemiro : 7 looks gassed, few good passes but lost quite a few as well. Ref didnt help either.
- eriksen : 7 good assist and composure
- bruno : 5.5 not effective when ronaldo is in the team. Lost too many balls and lack of composure often times
- Elanga : 1 waste of space. Made me wonder at times if he is even a footballer ‍. Did nothing all game, zero contribution on both ends.
- Rashford : 6.5 . 100 goals for the club. Great header goal today and had a few moments of flair . Keep making the wrong decisions
- Ronaldo : 5 . The less said the better. Made our team less effective and shit at counter press. Keep shooting whenever he had the ball without scoring, ignore other open team mates ‍

- mctominay : 5 . When Zouma was milking VAR I thought he had given another penalty away.
- fred : 5.5 unlucky with the post

 

[Mockney]

The downgrade of Maguire and Elanga for Varane and Antony is spectacular, and then when Fred for Erikssen (who didn’t even have a good game) is added into the mix, it’s cataclysmic… No control, no recycling, and no stretching of the play.

Also even our most sycophantic ex-pros can’t surely keep arguing that Ronaldo needs to start every game or is being poorly treated? He’s played loads, and had lots of chances (in both senses) he’s just largely played himself out of contention. He’s simply better as a sub.

Anyway, tumescent stuff, but we would’ve easily dropped points in a game like that last season (or indeed most seasons lately) so that’s got to be a plus.

 

[glazed]

I don’t get this lucky stuff.
What were we lucky at? Is the defence not allowed to play well?

C'mon. They were all over us last 15 minutes. Nobody would have been remotely surprised if they has scored. Yes we defended well in the circumstances too, but we had also completely lost control of the game. Our lack of threat up front gavetem confidence to pour forward.

 

[Slevs]

It was fine before, but now I'm getting old. These games aren't good for my health.

 

[GledTheRed]

Was ways gonna be a struggle with Ronaldo and Elanga starting the game.

 

[AlPistacho]

Dalot, De Gea, Shaw and Martinez. All fantastic. But that passing in the last 15 minutes is some of the nerviest shit I’ve seen for years.

I’ve never understood the when teams that set up to attack suddenly change with 15 minutes to go. It always increases the pressure. Before the McTominay & Fred introduction West Ham were not dominating as much. Doing it almost gives the the other team the imputes to attack more and makes your team feel like they are under more pressure than they really were so increases nervousness

 

[pacifictheme]

Ground it out when we were playing shit and unlike recent seasons it's backed up by us knowing we can actually play really well and dominate very good teams.

 

[OrcaFat]

The 2nd half is unacceptable.

Just accept that sometimes we are unacceptable.

 

[Rightnr]

Very good win mentality-wise.

Maguire was his usual poor self but he made some good clearances at the end and he's the only other fit CB we have, so he has to play.

Dalot was the clear MotM, even ahead of big Dave. I lost count how many times he cleared the ball with his head before a WHU player could get there. He's definitely captain material in 2-3 years if he can keep improving and stay in the first 11.

Attack-wise, Rashford is better off the left. The fact he's now scoring headers is also insane. And because he's better off the left, Ronaldo has to play until Martial is back.

Finally, the manager. I didn't love those subs but it was clear to me he is saving up ammo for Sociedad and he sees us winning the EL group as a priority to avoid a tough additional game.

 

[lefty_jakobz]

Feels loke such a good victory particularly as this time last year we lose this type of game. Our defence is immense Dalot Licha and David de God all played well.

 

[Meller]

Good win, decent first half and a bad second. Maguire did pretty good defensively but he's such a downgrade to Varane and even Lindelöf as a passer. So slow.

Elanga is not good enough, not even near. And Ronaldo is bad, like real bad these days. And the team plays worse when he's on the field. Bruno is frustrating.

DDG, Dalot and Martinez immense. Looking forward to an easier schedule now before the WC, we should be able to grab a fair few points.

 

[Wrecking ralf]

Bruno should be taken off when we’re holding onto a lead rather than Eriksen. Causes us more pressure.

 

[BorisManUtd]

De Gea, defenders, Eriksen, Rashford gave us the win. Casemiro poor, Bruno poor, Elanga meh, Ronaldo not bad but bad in front of the goal. McTominay and Fred as subs didn't bring much.

 

[Telsim]

As I said before the game, West Ham are a tough side and we are in for a tough game. The team did very well to win this. Dalot, Martinez, Maguire, and De Gea were the critical.

But that second half is just unacceptable. Bruno, Ronaldo, and Elanga were really bad. Casemiro was average at best, he needs a rest.

 

[Jacko21]

Waited all weekend for that game and then couldn't wait for it to be over towards the end.

 

[LoneStar]

Defence was immense today, and honestly, were passing better than our midfield and forwards. Maguire had a shit first half imo, especially on the ball. But did well in the latter stages.

I have no clue how Ronaldo played the whole game. Utterly useless. Bruno was shit today too, the guy really needs to develop some consistency.

Very happy for Rashford today, great way to mark a milestone for us. And that cross from Eriksen was the highlight of the game.

 

[glazed]

There are people who think we should replace DDG - I am not one of them

He''s great at what he does but if he's having to make lots of those kind of saves it means we are playing badly. Once we start playing consistently well we will need a sweeper /keeper to challenge for silverware.

Hanging on for the win at home against West Ham shows there's an awful lot of work to do. We need a scary striker first and foremost.

 

[Woodzy]

Obviously the expectation for us to win as the stronger team is a factor but if it was West Ham that played like we did all these pundits would be talking about impressive we were defensively.

 

[TheReligion]

When you consider we don’t have a strong squad just yet, and were missing Varane, Antony, Martial and Lindelof, you often have to just find a way to win.

If you don’t score your chances in the PL any team will put you under periods of pressure.

Our attack and midfield didn’t fire today so we left ourselves open but the back five were sensational and earned us the win.

 

[Buster15]

Been really impressed with the way Shaw has fought his way back into the team and is playing well.
Good news for England as well. Thought he was very good today.

 

[Elcabron]

We got lucky (and God bless, De Gea) to win this one, we were unlucky to not win Chelsea one. It got all evened out across two games, but we need a proper striker and backup CB, for feck's sake. We could have won this 3:1 with Varane and a proper striker.

There is no other team in the league that has two back up centre backs as good as Maguire and Lindelof, there just isn't. They are fine as back up.

But we absaloutely 100% need a striker. Performances with and without Ronaldo are night and day.

 

[Mike Smalling]

We should be top 4 by the break.

We are already joint 3rd if we win our game in hand.

 

[MonkeysMagic]

Nex weeks game against Villa, given our top 4 rivals play each other, is massive. Going into the WC break it will be huge psychological adv to press home the adv. Villa will have no manager bounce and Emery will set them up to frustrate us, seems to always work against utd!

 

[Solius]

Scrappy game but you’ve got to win ugly sometimes. Happy with the win!

 

[Buster15]

De Gea, defenders, Eriksen, Rashford gave us the win. Casemiro poor, Bruno poor, Elanga meh, Ronaldo not bad but bad in front of the goal. McTominay and Fred as subs didn't bring much.

I too thought that Ronaldo was ok. Difficult type of game for him to get more involved.

 

[Robertd0803]

Get in there.

Delighted for Rashford getting goal 100. Couldnt believe only 7 have been headers according to some stat.

Might not have been the prettiest in the end in the second half but have to grind them out sometimes.

Real feel good feeling about things at the moment and long may it continue.