Manchester United (Part 2)

Great to see them claw the result back.

Rashford should have scored but that happens occasionally. Don't make a habit of it.

Every game I watch with John Moss (non United games included) he's just a useless prick. Always lets little teams man handle players. Pisses me right off. Last 5 minutes of stoppage time Burnley killed a solid 3 minutes, and he blew it up exactly on 95:00.

Of note is that comebacks happen without the battering ram, who I see has offers from China.

I totally agree with you. The point I was originally making was just that his past record is not compelling enough that he should be automatically offered a long term contract, that's all. There is no threat of him going elsewhere as he'd surely love this job and will do anything for it, so there is absolutely no reason for the board to offer him a contract right now. Waiting til the end of the season is an absolute no-brainer, and even then you could offer him a single year contract for next season. Give him good money for what he's done so far but still make him prove himself. If you get to next January and are still really happy, then give him the reward of a 3 year deal or whatever. It's just smart business in my opinion.

Shouldn't he have played an extra minute for the goal scored?

Yep, think it should have gone to about 96:30 based on a goal scored and deliberate time wasting. Don't know how you can signal 5 and then blow it on 5 with a goal scored in there.

Still, to me, that result shows that the belief really is back. It was notable that there was no celebration at 2-2, straight back to halfway, they wanted it bad. That really reminded me of "the old man united" at the end there, even though they couldn't nab a victory.

Actually thought it was the right game to play Andreas and Mata, but United probably missed Bailly and Smalling who would have dealt better with Wood and Barnes. Burnley really defended well and pressed together superbly. 2-2 was probably a fair result given the performance of both teams. Loving the attitude.

No.

You don't add minutes because goals are scored.

The usual interpretation is that goals and substitutions should add an extra 30 seconds of play.

Even so, not only was there a goal between 90' - 95', there was also a substitution and a Burnley goal kick which took a whole minute.

Calling it on 95' on the dot was wrong.

Here's a BBC article which basically backs up what I just said - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/20159223

Click below for a great yarn. Need more of this sort of stuff.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/j...

The way he, Rashford, even Pogba speak about the academy and developing at United makes me appreciate the impact that bringing youth players through to the first team, and actually playing them, has on a young players commitment to the club. 

You can see that at the clubs that put faith in the youth players (Barca, Ajax, Bilbao, Lisbon etc), the youth players really have faith in the club. 

Just read another really good one by Lukaku and about where he's come from. You forget the human side to football sometimes. 

 Yeah its funny but I think his current efforts compared to the Cardiff stint show a clear improvement  however I guess thats not allowed to be considered 

I think some Managers are more suited to managing higher level clubs/players. Solskjaer may well be one of those?

That was really really awesome, what a great read. My favourite bit: 

"You know what’s so crazy to me? I was sat in that Marriott back in 2012, eating my room service chips, and I was barely getting a run out for Leicester. And in that same dressing room you had Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane, and they were going through the same struggles. We were all just trying to get a game in the Championship.

Six years later, we’re all walking out for the World Cup semifinal, representing England."

New contract for Martial. Great result for United fans and for my future on this forum.

Fellaini's Instagram showing he's at the airport on the way to China.

While Fellaini has scraped us some important results in the last few years, when you score a late equaliser you have to ask why you were down in the first place? A good portion of these games the answer was probably because Fellaini was taking up a midfielder sport for the other 90 minutes. No professional footballer should need 3 touches to turn 180 and pass the ball backwards.

I also disagree with the idea that he's a good plan B (for United). This week we showed that the most important thing in a late comeback is to keep playing football. I wonder, during the LVG era, how often we passed teams into the ground only in the last 15 minutes when the opposition were finally tiring from the ball movement we then threw the philosophy out the window and played hoof ball to Fellaini; letting them off the hook?

Fellaini has been a great servant and for that I commend him. But there's a reason top teams around the world aren't lining up to sign him. He's simply not a good footballer. Every game he played was a sign of how far we'd regressed.

Or the fact he is 31 years old.

Lingard has the most punchable, smug face in football. 

That said, cracking write up - thanks for sharing it.

imagine how I felt watching them for England!!

As much as I would have liked it to not have been close nearing the end of the game and for us to have played better, it has been a while since our late game onslaughts have been successful and we have been able to withstand onslaughts ourselves. Mentality shift has been incredible. 

Centre backs were great, Pogba solid and De Gea keeping his standards high. Sanchez and Rom played well vs Arsenal but need more of that and less of what we saw since / today. 

Moving up the table, busy times ahead

Very happy with 3 points today. Leicester coming off the back of a draw at Anfield, I'll take it.

Spot on about the mentality, especially in the final 10 minutes. Pogba just rose to the occasion and while we didn't control it as great as we could have, everyone stayed relatively calm despite being under pressure.

Honestly I thought Rom was appalling today.

Very happy with what was pretty much a complete performance against Fulham this morning, was also good having the early kickoff so I didn't have to get up at some ungodly hour. Also we moved into the top 4 for the first time since the start of the season. Who would have thought?

Apart from the first 10 minutes, where Fulham were very attack minded and pressed agressively, it was pleasing to see the game controlled so well. Pogba again was magnificent, he popped up all over the show and generally just gave the Fulham defenders a torrid time. Martial was as potent as ever when running at defenders and grabbed a great goal in that first half, an excellent finish even if the defending left something to be desired... Even when Sanchez came on he looked the part too, although he should have buried that goal when through one on one after Le Marchand (I think) headed straight to him. In general, can't really fault anything today, was exactly the result and performance we needed before PSG on Wednesday. 

I think the biggest thing from this game was summed up best by one of the commentators - This looked like a team that used to turn up while under the reigns of Sir Alex Ferguson, they had that mentality and sharpness in their play that suggested we're better than you, while Fulham looked like they already knew that and accepted it.

Big couple of weeks ahead for Ole and United though. PSG, Chelsea and the scousers, can't wait!

Legitimate question. Would my fellow United fans rather Liverpool won the league with us in the top four or we missed top 4 with City as champions? I think I'd have to take a week off work and seek help if the Scousers went and won the league. We still have to play both Liverpool and City at home. I know Ole (and a club like Manchester United) would never bend over and put a weak side out when City play us but it poses an interesting question. I guess we never expected we'd be so close to the top 4 (let alone in it) a month ago. I won't cry myself to sleep if City beat us. Based on today's evidence, Chelsea are going to drop points before the end of the season and Arsenal will too. I suppose the first job is to go out there and take three points from Liverpool.

No way, play every game to win and better your own result.

“We need to try to win as many points as possible and try almost the miracle to end in fourth” – Jose Mourinho, December 4.

Things change quickly eh!

Best possible outcome, the top 3 flop and we win in a canter....

Failing that, Tottenham surprise everyone and actually win something.

In either case, I would prefer if Liverpool did not win the league. That way I can continue to keep riling up mates at work who have never seen them win the league in their lifetime. I guess It would make me a lot more productive around the place, but I just don't know what I'd do with the spare 30-45 minutes...  

Kimpembe should have been sent off 25 minutes in. 15 minutes later he goes and scores.

Absolutely bottled by the referee what a way to ruin an otherwise interesting tie.

Reality is that the players we have are just not good enough at this level. Never looked like it.

Well yeah, some things didnt go our way - injuries before half time to Martial, Lingard & agreed Kimpembe should have been sent of.

But that back 4 was always going to be vulnerable - to slow in both the physical sense & mental sense in terms of spotting & reacting to player/ball movement - as were some of the midfield..

You are a careful operator Leggy. You have not made one single comment about Mourinho's sacking, or Solskjaer's appointment and subsequent unbeaten run. Then the first loss under Solskjaer, you jump right in to use it as backing for the narrative you've been carrying all along (players' fault, nothing to do with Mourinho), despite having evidence to the contrary right throughout Solskjaer's run up until now. 

How come you almost never comment when ManU win, and you don't really talk about good performances and successes? Have you ever thought about why you are only really active in the thread when bad things happen, or you want to argue against someone's opinion? That doesn't seem like a happy way to go about life. 

Nothing to do with being careful. I have always said that the players we have are not good enough in the last couple of years.I think there were enough people bagging JM and as I did say that he alone was not the problem.

There were ex Unt players interviewed after the game and said the same as me. The players are not good enough.

If you watched the game I can't see how you can disagree-- but then again................

I rarely come on here now compared to some years ago. Have found a lot more interesting thing to do.

Are you a counsellor in real life.?

You have "this'd" posts throughout the period, and made the odd comment not related to Mourinho, Solskjaer or the individual matches (until this morning, the first loss). So you have been on here consistently, despite now implying otherwise.

For some reason you just choose not to comment on good performances, or anything that seems to be contrary to your opinion. That's all I was pointing out. 

No I'm not a councillor (or a counsellor), but even though you and I generally do not get along, it does concern me that you are so focussed on negative things a lot of the time. 

Back to the game, I thought United actually looked decent for 20-30 minutes. I still think even though they've had a fantastic run, that the full hangover of Mourinho still has not gone. Once we ran out of ideas we retreated into our shell a bit and started to let PSG dominate the game. 

The players need to have the belief that they are capable of playing good football for 90 minutes. This will come with time but for now we just have to accept that we can't match top tier games across that period.

Martial and Lingard were big losses.

Agreed about the 90 minutes thing, when we got nervous we dropped into park the bus mode and invited a little too much pressure.

Once 2-0 down, PSG just parked the bus big time.

It would appear that even Ole agrees with me.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/solskjaer-psg-lev...