Donny

Saying that, with the quality you have you won't even notice this deficiency in the majority of games in the premier league. What is noticeable is Solskjaer's tactical naivety in some of the more difficult games. You would have won with 11 men last night but it's an away game in the Champion's League, the most important thing is not to lose!
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Agree with this. When you’re down to 10 men, that’s when the manager is tested tactically and frankly, Ole failed, he got it all wrong with the subs and formation. It’s not like we were playing a top tier team, this was a pot 4 team and we were outplayed. Playing for a draw after half time against a 3rd rate team…why?

Good post, Eric, hard to disagree with much of that.

We have tended to get results in the difficult games in recent seasons with Fred and McT sirring deep and actually being quite disciplined and using Rashford and Martial on the fast counter, it's been the games where we come up against a low block that we've often looked devoid of ideas, hence too many draws. For the money, Neves would have been the buy for me.

comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 7 hours, 18 minutes ago
Thought Donny was having a decent game.

I also think the switch to 3-5-1 was a poor move.

I'd have taken off Pogba or Bruno for a full back and kept the shape as 4-4-1, retaining Sancho's pace and natural acumen for the wide role rather than bringing Bruno across, realising that wasn't going to cut it and then changing it again at half time.
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Bruno off for Dalot was probably the only change we needed to make. We'd have been a lot better off with a flat 4-4-1. But Ole sacrificed balance in order to leave his big names on the pitch, and didn't attempt to rectify that until after the equaliser.

I'm normally of the opinion that people overstate Ole's incompetence when it comes to using his bench, but he got it horribly wrong yesterday.

"Ole sacrificed balance in order to leave his big names on the pitch"

Agree with that as well, bloodred. That was an ideal time for Sancho to play as an outlet and compress the defence and midfield. Bruno didn't fit anywhere in the shape we took.

Can't really judge any team performance when, for the best part of an hour of that performance, the outfield resources are reduced by 10%.

It's a bad result, no doubt. But emphasises how relying on the idea that re-signing Ronaldo was somehow season defining or a winning campaign strategy.

United need more than just the qualities of Pogba, Maguire, Fred, Fernandes and Cavani/Ronaldo, even players like Varane, Sancho and DvdB will need lots of epl level game time to work out what it is all about. But without a proper keeper, genuine winger options and a genuine striker/centre forward the team/squad/club will remain relatively shapeless and directionless.

Ole has lost 7 of his last 11 cl games. Let that sink in and tell me he is still the man for the job. How united fans cannot see he is way out of his depth is beyond me. VDB signing just backs that up.

Not read the replies but I'm pretty sure he's just simply not very good.

Problem is that Sancho’s performance didn’t give any confidence to the manager. Had he kept Sancho and lost, people would have asked why keeping Sancho when he wasn’t in good form.

comment by red_evils (U19878)
posted 24 minutes ago
Problem is that Sancho’s performance didn’t give any confidence to the manager. Had he kept Sancho and lost, people would have asked why keeping Sancho when he wasn’t in good form.
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You are in a situation where people expect a lot from Sancho because of the whole saga, the price, the expectation. He's still a young boy with huge potential and he will come good. However, he may not be the "world class" player you were expecting but as a minimum he will be an excellent player for many years. He needs to get used playing for United.

Those talking about Van der Beek - he played a part in 20 games last season, and failed to impress once. Neat, tidy but lightweight. He too may become a good player but more than that I doubt he has the potential.

comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 9 hours, 1 minute ago
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 2 hours, 1 minute ago
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 4 minutes ago
Diafol

It is because we don’t play five at the back properly. We never have. Dalit and Shaw should be further forward than they are.

What we should have done is play two banks of four
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They were always going to get pushed back with us a man down. We should have stuck with the back 4.
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I know..
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It sounded like you expected them to push higher in this game despite being a man light.
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Yes. Fifteen yards higher. I wasn’t expecting them to push too far forwards.



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Fair enough.