Manchester United

Is it true that Jose is personally sponsored by NCP and National Express?

Great come back against the Champions elect.

The cheer when City scored their second and the commentators harping on for 45 minutes about how City will already have the champagne open. Lol!

Also City fans feeling aggrieved at Herrera's time wasting. Obviously they weren't City fans back in December.

The season isn't over yet, but interesting to note this calendar year City and United both share the same 9-2-2 record.

From a neutrals perspective that was a glorious game, a belter of a classic.

Was a great watch, even if the evil doer won.

Diddums. 

Jose is coming across as a bit of a bully without class. There is  times for conversations and there is also places for conversations. Whether this is a media beat up is debatable.

Googling Jose Mourinho reveals some Rashford related gossip, but only from Metro.

Aside from the fact that it's probably horseshark I wouldn't blame him. Rashford can become one of the world's best strikers and he isn't going to do that from left-wing / the bench.

So you play him regardless? Rashford is good but not one of the worlds best strikers right now. Massive potential, but too inconsistent. 

No, but Lukaku has played almost every minute of every single game bar perhaps a league cup match. Perhaps 20 minutes off the bench every now and then!

Agree with that.

Pretty good sources saying Martial wants to leave.

Are we watching the start of the Mourinho talent drain?

Well that was a disgrace. Even before the WBA game the pessimist in me could see us throwing away our two games in hand and finishing behind Liverpool. 

Didn't bother waking up for it. Had a feeling because every pundit and his dog had been saying that Manchester United definitely 100% would beat the bottom placed teams. Which usually means you don't.

Herrera's was 100% a penalty but oh well. I'll deal with it if I don't have to deal with VAR.

Didn't watch the game. Saw the result. Was not surprised. Just when we may have has second place wrapped up. Standard. 

I can see why Jose uses the approach he does, because you would hope the quality of players can produce better. 

Need more mentally strong players and ones that can recognise when something is not working and find ways to grind out a result. Squad rotation midweek should be good, hopefully someone plays well enough to push those in the "best 11" because they need a rocket to beat Spurs. 

At least I got that right. :)

LOL

You remind me of Trump sometimes Leggy. 

No, if you go back on Trump tweets, it's usually Trump saying something completely the opposite of what he is doing/saying now.  Leggy (for all his faults ;-p ) is consistent!

I'm talking about the mild gloating, that's all. Takes a special person to go back and find that, just to re-post. 

I'm surprised he didn't say something like "I make the best predictions, no one predicts better than me" hahahahaha

geez, i dunno. A bit of mild gloating is one of the pleasures of amateur football punditry, no?

Most of the people that mocked me were Arsenal supporters. Even you disagreed with me. :)

Just that I perhaps have a better memory than some and I certainly did not do it to infer that my predictions are better than anyone else.

If fact,  that was not a prediction it was an opinion that City were miles ahead of everyone else.I rarely do predictions, I leave that to all the Arsenal experts that do this week in and week out. 

I cant wait to find some of the references to United in sixth place comments for the end of Arsenals season. Yet they could finish seventh!

This prompted me to go and check (Page 356), and I see that I in fact agreed with you at the time, by liking post 7118 which was written by you, in response to those who disagreed with you, I guess your wonderful memory didn't recall that.

You may be misinterpreting my comment that Mourinho's 2nd year is traditionally his best one, but that was no argument to anything, just a factual comment (incidentally this season is the first time ever Mourinho has not won the league in his 2nd year). 

And yes it technically wasn't a prediction, so you saying that "at least you got it right" was pretty nonsensical anyway.

Anyhow, once again I'm gutted that I've bothered wasting time on your comments, so I will step out now, have a great day guys, and congrats on an improved season over last. 

Pretty good post to bump, thanks. 

Seems like I thought more of the rest of the league being able to put up a counter to City's style. Confidence of the players didn't really have an impact. And I suppose City were helped out by injuries to Mendy, Aguero, Jesus so never really had too many players sitting out games. Still not sure how they will cope with 4 CBs that would play in almost every team. 

Lukaku is better than Kane.

After watching the game twice I think the players we should dump are the two full backs, Mata, he is a joke , Pobga, although he could be great, he is more interested in himself than the club. Blind,Darmian, Jones, Smalling and Fellaini should be sold and quality player brought in. 

If this happens then we could challenge for the league.

The rest you mentioned I agree with

Well off the mark with Mata, Leggy. He's is one of our best players. Plays out of position and is the only person who even resembles the ability to link the attack.

Next time he plays, just watch him. Not saying he is not technically  good, can pass etc, but you don' t see the big picture. He is far too slow, can't take players on and not tough enough .

Also Jose sold him to Utd from Chelsea.

If you don't believe me have a look at what some of the Utd supporters are saying about him.

Lovely bloke but we will sell him cause he is not as good as most of the others.

I would not have him in the ' best ' starting 11.  This is what the fans had to say after the WB game.

http://www.thefaithfulmufc.com/united-fans-disappo...

and

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/948189/Ma...

As of March, United win 82% of their games Mata when Mata is in the starting line up. When he is not, they win 45%.

There's obviously a lot of variables ad other factors in play between those stats, but it is enough to suggest your observation is inaccurate.

Those sort of stats mean zero for me.I don't know the answer but perhaps we have not lost a game when Romero plays instead of De Gea.

I only go on what I see. Some time ago I was giving Lingard stick. He is not my favourite player but he has obviously worked hard and he can do a job. He is quick, hard working and gives 100%. Last year I would not have put him ahead of Mata, but I would now.

Mata is certainly a player i wish we hadn't sold. He offers something very different to Hazard/Willian/Pedro.

I was always a big fan of him. Met him once too, nice guy, very approachable.

Mata is one of the few players we have that connects all of the pace, power and directness together. He controls the tempo and knows positions to get into that link everyone and draw defenders away so his team mates are in space. 

Keep him, even get him playing in a midfield three with Pogba / Matic / Herrera (if he can adapt). 

I agree that we should be thinking about how many wingers /attacking midfielders we have or at least start to get someone to play no the right wing as the balance is a bit off at the moment. IMO put Sanchez out there, and let Rashford and Martial battle it out for the LW spot. 

This about sums it up.

http://thecomeback.com/soccer/curious-case-juan-ma...

This United side has no fluidity without Mata. And that's Mata playing out of position on the RW. On that note, saying Mata can't play behind a striker is laughable. Last time he did that he won Chelsea's player of the season.

Gary Neville sums it up even better:

"It looks like you’ve got Rashford, Martial, Lukaku but they haven’t got that glue that just knits it together. Mata looks like he might become a very important player.

"Carrick, Pogba has sort of got the ability to connect back to front but Mata certainly has got the composure to hold the ball and allow those players to make their runs so they can get up the pitch and get into a point where they can play one-on-one.

"They need to be one-on-one. You see with Rashford [against Liverpool], Sanchez, Lukaku. Get them one-on-one around the edge of the box, they are probably as good as you are going to get.

"However to get the ball into those situations, as many times as possible with quality, you need someone to put the ball there.

So which of these would you  drop for Mata.

Rashford, Martial, Pobga, Herrera, Matic, Lingard, Sanchez