toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
100% disagree. It was a reaction to Shaw coming on who wasn't being tracked by Barkley, and the change plugged that gap.
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100% disagree. It was a reaction to Shaw coming on who wasn't being tracked by Barkley, and the change plugged that gap.
Tbh I don't think Rom was actually bad last night either. He was wasteful, perhaps, but so were Ross and Kev to an extent.
But the tactics were right RFUS. We played it perfectly. You can't go all out when you have Jagielka, Williams and Barry at the back who lack the pace to recover, especially with the pace of Rashford and the general all-round bossness of Zlatan. We threatened on the counter and we actually had several really good chances to go and get a second (Ross's cross, Rom's cross to Kev, Barry header - just a few examples from the second-half).
We take those chances and - actually even as the pundits said(!) - that game is well won. We need to learn to take those chances. It wasn't like the City game where we literally had one chance and scored it.
The squad is threadbare but tbh I'd rather it be the kids getting a go than the tosh of the last two seasons. That being said, the last 10 minutes was not the time or place for DCL and we had a player there in Valencia who could well have helped us see it out.
Wasn't it a like for like swap though. Shaw for Young. I just don't see why we needed to go 5 at the back because of that change.
DCL in fairness has played well lately. But games like the derby and OT are just too much of a step up for someone with a handful of League One appearances. Lookman would've offered something different but lacks any physicality so he was never coming on. Valencia was the one to bring on and it was a baffling decision but, again, I don't think that's the reason we didn't win. There was a lot of luck involved in the end.
Thomasc
Formerly known as By God I'm Blue
The day after now and a bit more thought on the hammering he is taking for his decisions.
As already said, we were a minute from winning away at Old Trafford, albeit against not exactly a vintage Man U side.
Looking at that second half particularly, I feel the players, in particular our forwards again have let us down more than the manager and for the second game running too.
Saturday he went with Lukaku, DCL and Barkley going forward, last night Mirallas, Lukaku and Barkley. Some of their overall play and decision making in the final third of the oppositions half has been absolutely dreadful.
I have no idea why he brought Mirallas off last night and I don't know what the lad has to do at the moment to get a game, as he seems to offer more than DCL in that position, as does Valencia.
If the players actually had a bit of belief and nous about them, we could be a hell of a lot of a better side. But for me we still look jittery and unsure and still give the ball away way too easily in the final third of the pitch, in particular Lukaku and Barkley, though the latter a lot less than he used to.
As already said, we were a minute from winning away at Old Trafford, albeit against not exactly a vintage Man U side.
Looking at that second half particularly, I feel the players, in particular our forwards again have let us down more than the manager and for the second game running too.
Saturday he went with Lukaku, DCL and Barkley going forward, last night Mirallas, Lukaku and Barkley. Some of their overall play and decision making in the final third of the oppositions half has been absolutely dreadful.
I have no idea why he brought Mirallas off last night and I don't know what the lad has to do at the moment to get a game, as he seems to offer more than DCL in that position, as does Valencia.
If the players actually had a bit of belief and nous about them, we could be a hell of a lot of a better side. But for me we still look jittery and unsure and still give the ball away way too easily in the final third of the pitch, in particular Lukaku and Barkley, though the latter a lot less than he used to.
United were playing two at the back and 8 forward.
Shaw coming on was an attempt to overload that side and isolate Holgate one on one. Pennington came on to plug that gap and - after a shaky five minutes - did it well.
toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
It sort of was, but Young is a right footed winger playing at left back. He isn't going to naturally overlap
Shaw is a gifted attacking full back - as soon as he came on, you saw him finding acres of space down the left. One in particular I thought instantly that we'd need to change something as Mourinho had picked a hole in us with the change.
It gave them natural width on the left which they'd not had all game.
I've got to say I think it maybe came a few minutes too early as Kev was looking a real threat on the counter.
But I agree that the change needed to be made (i.e. to stop that overload) at some point
Pennington did well. DCL had a stinker.
But neither were the reason we didn't win in the end.
But they were playing this before the sub was even made and we were doing fine. Pennington did nothing wrong when coming on but we just invited all pressure on us. Plus I don't get why Mirallas came off for him when he was probably one of the better players out there for us.
Shaw was finding space mate. But yes, I thought we had another 5 minutes in us before a change.
Papa Shango
Player Valuation: £70m
I do have a slight bit of disappointment and I guess I should explain why.
I have major issues with our team and have done for years about how mentally inept they are on the field. We never seem to kill teams off and if there is a tight game against a big opponent we always tend to concede near the end and be unlucky little Everton.
When Koeman came in I thought "great, we have someone with a winners mindset" and to be fair in certain games he has gone in with that attitude (Manchester City for example, Arsenal I suppose) yet the rolling over yet again in the derby coupled with last nights game where we fought brilliantly but began to bottle it midway through the second half and began sitting back deeper and deeper annoyed me greatly.
Was anybody shocked when United scored? I know I wasn't (Maybe the manner of the goal, I wasn't expecting William to do his best Lev Yashin impersonation).
This summer will be pretty big in rectifying some of these issues I reckon.
Taking off a player who was playing boss and it left us with no out ball, that substitution actually created more pressure on ourselves for the last 20 odd minutes that was left.
toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
Maybe, as I said earlier, Mirallas had gas left in the tank. I was pleased at the time that Koeman was so quick and decisive in making the tactical change as Shaw had exploited the overload a couple of times, but with the benefit of hindsight (wonderful thing) maybe it would have been better to give it another 5 or 10 mins and hope to nick one on the counter. That being said, our counter-attacking last night was woeful in the 2nd half, plenty of opportunities but bad decisions all round, Kev included.
Young played RB not LB last night. Like someone said above the change may have been needed at some point but it was way too early in the game for me. Was going to be very difficult to hold out from then.
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