Manchester United

The fact is Rashford is out of form. If Martial had another brain it would be lonely. His passing is poor and  so is his decision making.

Herrera's form has dropped but I would play him next to Matic and let Pobga push on.

I see that there was a meeting between the Supporters' Trust and The Club on how to create  game atmosphere at Old Trafford.

75k attend and they cannot create vibe.

The modern game. 

Virtually all top clubs suffer from this. The Emirates is like a morgue on matchdays 90% of the time.

Yep a sad truth.

Luckily the solutions are simple:

- Standing areas

- Relaxed alcohol laws

- Most important, cheaper match day tickets

It baffles me clubs like United need to suck ticket revenue stream dry when it's a fairly small percentage of the revenue. I would take the position the cheaper tickets lead to a better atmosphere (as seen in German leagues) and a better product of football.

So they lost to Newcastle because their fans made so much noise and put Man U off their game.

Offside apparently:

Luckily it didn't cost us. Job done by United. Next.

Regardless of whether we win this or not - what on earth is Mourinho doing starting Young at LB again? And finally plays a 3 man midfield to suit Pogba, but leaves Pogba on the bench!

David de Gea is the best keeper I've ever seen. Ridiculous.

Anyone who continues to argue there is a better 'keeper in the world right now is completely bonkers and/or biased. 

De Gea is just ridiculous. I'd have to say I agree, best keeper in the world. 

He should have caught it.. absolutely no excuse for conceding a corner ;-) 

Theoretically, what would a goal keeper have to do in order to be talked about in the same sentence as some of the greats?

De Gea consistently influences games far beyond most keepers. I honestly believe De Gea is worth a goal a game, if a striker scored 1 goal a game....

His only weakness is his kicking. 

Jose demanding a lot from his players in a tactical sense now at the crunch time of the season. Perhaps why Mata, McTominay and Young have been playing. And Rashford, Pogba, Martial are not. At the same time, a lot of big games to play and rotation is necessary

Pogba looked good when he came on but i can see Jose trying to play all these big away games in a way that puts the onus on the home team to try and win. And then when the home team takes thosr additional risks, he has the likes of Rashford, Lingard, Martial, Sanchez to make use of the extra space. 

Makes sense when you can defend properly before that happens. But looks silly when the home team scores and then United has to make things happen without there being extra space. 

Are you talking about great keepers, or great players?

Keepers will never get the recognition of a striker, or any attack-minded player for that matter. That's the way football is. Probably for the best as we like to see and encourage open attacking football.

IMO as a goalkeeper someone like De Gea has every right to stake his claim for a Ballon d'Or. Won't ever happen though, unless he turns into Chilavert and starts scoring penos and free kicks.

Not sure rotation has been the thought at all with his selections. Rashford has started 2 games this year, both in the FA Cup, so fairly clear he's just not in Jose's first XI, he's a bench player getting time in the domestic cups. 

Looked to me like Pogba was dropped this morning, and that something is going on between him and Jose. In any case it backfired pretty spectacularly with Herrera getting injured so quickly. 

Giving up that many shots to a side you should be a lot better than is a real problem. Basically if not for De Gea you would've copped a hiding this morning. 

I would be worried, but as we know, things change quickly. Beat Chelsea and then put a couple of goals on Sevilla at home and all will be rosy again.

I think that great saves are a false sign of a great keeper sometimes. Whereas a striker/midfielder can be judged no only on his passes and shots, but also on they was they were assisted, a keeper can make some great saves but maybe the chance created was their fault.

Too few keepers are generals at the back (Liverpool are terrible in this respect) - sure, they can block a short or make the odd "world class" save but a lack of controlling their defenders and reading the game contributes to the shot being made in the first place.

Yeah I think most on here realise that too mate. I certainly don't think that's the case with de Gea.

I completely agree but there's no point sticking Messi upfront by himself and asking him to bring down long balls. If a goalkeeper is as good as De Gea is but his weakness is being a general then you get in a defensive set up to make up for it. (I don't really buy into this general stuff at the professional level - plenty of teams out there where a goalkeeper screaming at defenders isn't a good thing).

Saw this tweet just before:

"United may well get through to CL QF but they feel like a team going backwards not forwards at the moment. There’s just not a great deal to like. It’s joyless football. It’s not ultra defensive, it’s just a strange sort of inertia, a nothingness. Just all very underwhelming."

Pretty much agree.

Keegan Smith

Only saw the second half, happy with the result. We looked lively until we scored the 2nd goal. Happy with the performance up until that, not happy with sitting in after that point. I reckon a couple more goals were on the cards (especially after Hazard was subbed)

Also fair play to Mourinho, Scott McTominay looks like a real player.

On the disallowed goal - seems to be he was onside. But, the only shots I have seen show a United player blocking the ball player. You can't really judge if he's on or off if you can't see the ball coming off the foot. And since we are now measuring offside in millimetres, the timing is extremely important. (You can't see "it's close enough" about the ball coming off the foot, say he onside by an inch)

Yep, great to see McTominay getting a real go. He does the Carrick role, nothing flash but keeps the play ticking over. That's all that's required next to Pogba and with the safety of Matic in behind. Hopefully in a few years we will have a completely home grown spine to our midfield (Pogba (homegrown), McTominay, Timbo, Gomes).

Yea everyone is wanting a Carrick replacement but United tends to bring players through so glad they can with McTominay. TFM can also be that rock in midfield. Gomes might have to be a bit like Lingard and develop from 23/24 as he is a bit slight in build. Got the skills though. 

Good to see that there was a bit more energy from the team today. I would hope this continues for the rest of the season because 2nd and semifinals in CL would be pretty good. As long as we don't lose to a English team, I will be pleased. 

Fckn phew!

Cracker from Matic

From all accounts a very poor first half performance but pleasing to see we've still got the aptitude to turn games around like that and come back. Some goal from Matic!

Arh, bein missed the first goal.

We've absolutely fudgeing done the whiney pricks. No shots on target in the second half. The "mighty" front 3 absolutely nullified.

Rashford needs to play more. What a shame he doesn't get to play centre forward.

Salt incoming!

Yup, Salah gave the ball away double the times of anyone else on the pitch. We even had to bloody score their goal for them. Masterclass from Jose there, can't wait for Wednesday.

Really?

Quite some feat when Alexis Sanchez is on the pitch!

I want to mention the penalty shouts...

1. Valencia's handball is never deliberate, not a penalty.

2. When you watch Fellaini and Mane at full speed, it's pretty clear Fellaini gets in front of Mane. When you slow it down it looks more like Fellaini trips Mane except it isn't, because Mane never has the ball. In reality Mane actually kicks Fellaini.

3. Young grappling with Salah is never a penalty. For starters, they're both holding each other. Otherwise that sort of contact happens everywhere across a football pitch. If that was a free kick in the middle of the park commentators would say it was soft. The fact Salah and Milner don't complain is telling.

When I saw them live I initially thought similar but I waited until I watched a review Sunday evening to post this - I honestly think the ref got those 3 100% correct. They're not even 50/50 decisions. In fact I will go as far to say that the ref had a good game. Liverpool fans (and pundits/Souness) are just whining. Mind you Carragher agreed with everything above.

Either the wrong term being used, or you're not looking at the right stats. That's a correct number in terms of dispossessions i.e. losing the ball when dribbling, but if we're talking actually giving the ball away, then that includes passing it away too, and Sanchez is the king of that. 

And the stats show that he was at it again, with a 57% pass accuracy rating, meaning he passed the ball away 12 times, so that's 13 times he gave it away, versus Salah's 12. 

That's actually very low for Sanchez, he usually gives it away at least twice that much in games, but he didn't get the ball very much at the weekend, by his usual standards. 

To be fair, on Saturday he created an absolute golden opportunity for Mata (should have had an assist) and a fair wack of those times he lost the ball was probably in the last 20 minutes where he had no support / everyone was playing hopeful balls.

Yea fair call, it's not really a great stat if it's a player that crosses a lot either. You can make a great cross but unless someone scores, it's usually a ball given away. 

Sounds like Salah was nullified extremely well, not detracting from that at all, that's basically the first game for him at Liverpool when that's happened, which says a lot!