Manchester United

Defence has been badly caught out twice tonight.

Close to Benatia but need another CB and a right wing back to go with Rojo if hes gonna go 3 at back

Fuck sake, tearing my hair out after that!

Adnan needed to start, still thought he was selfish on a couple of occasions. Young - for all the 'good' that was done pre season was woeful, and had a bird shit in his mouth just to rub it in. Was even pulled up for a foul throw, Blasphemy! 

Kept possession well at times but didn't use it at all well, too much lateral movement with no pace on the play, and lacking incisiveness and imagination (Can't remember Fabianski doing much in the first half). We failed to stamp our mark on the performance and it's like the United factor is gone. We no longer have a fortress the opposition dread, where teams merely hope to eek out a draw, or frustrate and counter to try and sneak a goal and then drop deep. 

Defence found wanting for both goals, but well finished off and some excellent counter attacking football nonetheless. 

Thought Phil Jones was decent - made some critical interventions, and Rooney, as always put himself about. Tyler Blackett (who would've thought this kid would be anywhere near the United first team a year or so ago?) was also good value and will be one for the future, but he is still a very raw talent. 

Other than that, bleak day at OT and definitely not the way we needed to start 2014/15 season. Onwards and upwards - GGMU!

United's first opening day loss at home since 1972. #TheStoryContinues

Same old United, always losing... Come on, only first game of the season, lots of changes, gonna take time to settle. Not time to panic. Van G is a damn good manager, he will sort it.

They looked nervous then resorted to old ways (hoof ball)

Also the crowd leaving the the 70th minute is fucking embarrasing

You have to smile with those childish comments. They have a massive chip on their shoulders about Utd and others that have better records.

Was a poor performance but hopefully a few of those players will be gone if we sign quality players.

Time will tell.

This is where it really counts and league games will help jell the team properly. Reminds me of the old scenario about how brave the part time soldiers were when shooting at Rambo, until he started firing back. 

Pre season friendlies are really nothing but work outs. Now it is grown up time. This is where Van G finds out who has skill and who has bottle and he will act accordingly. Good luck, I can see a season of readjustment.

After the 9 year struggle after the stadium purchase and dismantling of the Invincibles team, I dont want to say too much negative stuff, but Its horrible watching something slide into decline like our team did. (even if we never dropped out of the top 4)

what?

Was Rambo real then?

https://t.co/iaPTvwoWLe

I imagine there are going to be some pretty disgusting gifs made out of that.

Im guesing every team he has dived to win a penalty against now might start believing in Karma

I could watch that over and over again.  Hilarious!

So if Moyes had replaced Herrera with Fellaini for the final push at the end, what would the supporters be saying? 

Van Gaal seems to be getting an easy ride... 

Lingaard and Young as wingbacks? Really?

A couple of days on now and I am still laughing about that bird poo.

You could at least have spelt his name correctly.

LOL

When I saw the lineup I thought Lingard was the number 2 keeper but turns out that's Lindegaard.

Man U's problems are pretty obvious. 

Basically the squad is completely unbalanced. Mata, Kagawa, RvP, Rooney, Welbeck and Hernandez are all good enough to play in the Premier League at a relatively top team. Obviously you can't play all of those guys at once. What Van Gaal needs to do is to build a squad around Mata. 3-5-2 was a good idea but it doesn't work at Man U because our strikers like Rooney are too slow and our wingers are poor. Mata also needs really good DM's behind him because he doesn't defend well.

Basically, Man U should look to play this team:

  Rafael  Smalling Jones  Shaw

              Herrera  New Player

  New Player    Mata     Januzaj

                  Rooney

With the key point being that you sell RVP to get some players like Khedira and Di Maria. That team would have no problem making the top 4.

Bringing on Fellaini wasn't a bad move. He probably should have pulled Mata for Kagawa or at least taken Fletcher off. The problem with Fellaini was that when he came on everyone else just whacked long balls to him. The annoying thing was how our tactics changed when he came on which wasn't actually his fault.

I think that you are pretty close there, but probably need another class defender.

Yeah, especially after missing out on Vermaelen.

Evans is several steps up on both Jones and Smalling

Evans is several steps up on both Jones and Smalling

And Vermuelen, especially an injured one.

I guess he got what he deserved being shipped off to some Spanish team. 

But seriously, what's your issue with Vermaelen? He's hardly shit. He just couldn't form as good of a partnership as Mertesacker and Koscielny did.

But now he's playing champions league with some of the best players in the world.

You could at least have spelt his name correctly.

Rojo is something at least.

The issue I have with Vermaelen is that he is not the player that he was when he signed for Arsenal.He was a great defender who also scored goals.In 12/13 he had some shocking performances and I remembered a couple against Liverpool and Bayern. He got dropped for better defenders and was never going to get back in. Arsenal were never going to sell him to Utd after what happened a couple of years ago. He may have had a couple of good games in the WC but he was injured when he went to Baca. Although I don't think out defenders are that great, he is not any better, and for 15 million, he was not worth it.

I hope he does well, but I doubt he will get much game time.

That is what BIG clubs do.

He's still a valuable player to have around I think. Would have preferred to keep him over selling him anywhere, just that when it came down to England vs Overseas, was happy he went to Spain.

But anyway, just wanted to get a little more of your insight rather than just him being a donkey. So thanks for replying. Rojo is a good start to addressing one of the concerns.

He is, but still need at least two more.

Spend lots of money and not get in the top 4?

Why do Arsenal fans actually care how much other clubs spend? You guys have never achieved anything in the CL.

Because it makes it even sweeter when you fall over and we don't? Obviously. 

Massive chip on the shoulder. Childish really. Maybe you should check out exactly what you have not achieved. Every club has bad seasons. Think you have had a lot more in the last 20 years.