Ratings & Reactions: Man Utd v Villa

[Condimentalist]

16 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Let’s see where we are at the end of the season. Right now, we are in a champions league spot. It’s ours to throw away at the moment. If we fail to qualify at the end of the season, are we saying it is mentally weak or not? 

I think the fans have more of a mentality issue than the squad tbh. 

[Mark Albrighton]

31 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Let’s see where we are at the end of the season. Right now, we are in a champions league spot. It’s ours to throw away at the moment. If we fail to qualify at the end of the season, are we saying it is mentally weak or not? 

All I am saying now is that there is nowhere near sufficient evidence to say the side is inherently “mentally weak”. Oh you can point to the past two games…I can point to more victories that say otherwise than you can defeats.

IF we continue to blow two nil leads across the second half of the season…THEN there maybe (almost certainly will be) some justification in claims of a lack of mentality. As I said in the champions league thread, if spurs get top four…well how could they? They bottled a win at Wolves, they’re presumably mentally fragile as well. The fact is, most teams have results where that accusation can be levelled at them.

In answer to your question, I am not going to outright say finishing 6th means we would have proven to be mentally weak as I don’t know the circumstances resulting in that hypothetical league finish. If our team is wiped out with injuries, I would not then say “Ah sixth placed bottle jobs”. 

As for the bold, that sounds a lot like you think we DO have a chance of champions league qualification, contrary to what you said elsewhere earlier. If so, I would agree with this new, revised view. I think there’s A chance, rather than NO chance.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Mark Albrighton

[quazzie goat]

3 minutes ago, ChesterDad said:

My only thought would be that he was late changing things up - how many of us saw this coming ? So an elite coach must also have seen this coming right ? But I also acknowledge that sometimes in football it’s hard to halt momentum regardless of what a coach tries to do

I was thinking that, but I don’t think any of the available options really change the momentum of the match. We needed to be able to bring on someone like Tielemans to help us keep the ball. Just simply didn’t have quality options today in that position. 
 

Perhaps he could’ve put McGinn back where Donk was when it went to 2-1 and brought on Zaniolo for his physicality but it’s hindsight. 

[Raymond]

Bad day for the team with several key players out.

Bad day for Emery not making changes and trying something when it was clear where the game was going.

It happens. "we go again"

[Galway Lion]

Just so disappointed with that performance.Even before we scored,I counted seven times in first ten minutes we gave away possession. 
Luiz and Carlos looked like they partied yesterday .Worst Luiz performance in well over a year and Carlos was so poor. 
Playing Konsa at right back seriously weakened us and that is a position that hopefully Monchi has prioritised. 
Diaby and Ramsey really need to find some form as they appear to have fallen off a cliff. 
Sadly another classic Xmas let down by Villa.

[Jas10]

19 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

I'm sorry Unai was absolutely pissed off there, never seen him sarcastic like that. 

I have heard many excuses from the fans tonight, Unai would'nt accept any of them!!

I’m glad he is… because you know he will sort it out and make us even better.

The fact is… many of our players aren’t up to the level and demands of our manager.

We can’t afford too many injuries or suspensions… the squad isn’t all that great or blessed with an abundance of quality…

We have a great first or strongest 11 that can beat anyone but after that…?

[foreveryoung]

Us losing from 2-0 up what stings, an is not acceptable if we want to move on. But as I have said and others, I think there has been a bit of party time over Christmas for some players, they were burnt out at 40 minutes, an this is what it does to you.

[DJBOB]

I think what you see is that even Unai is not a wizard that can wave something out of nothing. 
 
We have been fortunate to play largely the same squad with minimal changes. 
 
Playing with essentially our third and fourth options at CB, a CB playing RB (let us end this madness of Konsa being a RB, Cuellar was also played at RB), a CM that can’t pass and you could see how we struggled to escape our half.

He has some work to do now. It’s easy when everything is going right and everyone is fit. Can he adjust with only the players available?

[foreveryoung]

3 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

I’m glad he is… because you know he will sort it out and make us even better.

The fact is… many of our players aren’t up to the level and demands of our manager.

We can’t afford too many injuries or suspensions… the squad isn’t all that great or blessed with an abundance of quality…

We have a great first or strongest 11 that can beat anyone but after that…?

Totally agree, proved this in the European games.

[sheepyvillian]

19 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Totally agree, proved this in the European games.

But that means nothing if you can't put that best 11 out.

[Kiwivillan]

43 minutes ago, smg said:

Was in total agreement with this until I got to Man Poo !! Ffs are you 7 ?

Indeed. It's Manure 

[AV82]

54 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

And we’re third in the league. And I think we’re third in the form over 2023. Just set a club record for home victories. Most number of victories in one year.

Would any of that have happened if mentality was as big of an issue as you insist it is? 

Setting several club records the hallmark of mentally weak sides is it?

I think people forget how to lose when you go on a run like we did at VP. It's understandable, if a little annoying.

[peterwithethewinner]

FFS go to Mold Trafford, go 2-0 up with both goals VAR checked, They score and VAR chalk it off…and we still lose it. Shite

[Tom13]

Players posting on social media after a defeat like that really irritates me.

[Jas10]

 

[WHY]

2 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

Players posting on social media after a defeat like that really irritates me.

Same, it’s pointless. They had their chance to do their talking on the best platform of all, the pitch!! 

[turvontour]

2 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

2 dreadful performances back to back. Something needs to give. 
 

and **** you Kamara for your stupid red card 

I think Martinez caused a lot of that. 

[Only2McInallys]

Lazy,bottled it,gave up couldn’t be bothered,did it purpose because all of our players are Man U fans.

We were beaten by a team who we have beaten once or twice at their ground in the last 50 years.

We didn’t play well but McGinn scores that chance we win the game.

My worry is Duran,Diaby Ziannollo look way off it.

[RicRic]

2 hours ago, JPJCB said:

Really **** pissed off with that tbh and it’s the first time I’ve rated an emery performance as a “poor”.

Manure’s one strength is playing on the transition and we allowed them to play the game that way despite being in the lead for most of it and being in a position where we should have been able to absorb pressure. There’s a mitigating circumstance that we’re missing both Kamara and Torres (the loss of the former by that Brentford red card is turning out to be a big big miss and something that Martinez should be throroughly embarrassed about given his role in it) but still the gameplan needed to be to drop deeper an absorb their press which we didn’t do. Conceding three goals to these lot is an embarrassment.

Martinez- 7- I don’t think he can be blamed for any of the goals

konsa - 8- Motm- the only leader on the pitch

carlos- 5- looked positionally suspect on a few occassions

lenglet- 6- not terrible considering but lost the ball in dangerous positions

digne- 6- was fine but Moreno outshone him when he came on 

dendoncker- 5- decent in the tackle but contributed to lack of control

luiz- 3- ill drive him to arsenal myself on that performance. Numerous occasions teammates looked for an option in the middle and he was nowhere to be seen. He was being marked closer than usual but made no effort to move into space. The opposite of leadership

mcginn- 5- looked good every now and then on the ball but influenced the game too little. Should probably have been dropped a bit deeper once our lack of control in the game became apparent

ramsey-4- I’d drop him for diaby based on current form and ease him back in via cup matches 

Bailey-5- similar to McGinn. Decent when on the ball but influenced the game too little

watkins- 3- didn’t do anything of note which isn’t really good enough for a striker with his ambition 

Few overreactions here… understandable after what we just witnessed… let me start bu saying this defeat is only cushioned by my persistent pre match prediction that we would lose and Hojlund would score, now the manner of the loss is what drove me to anger… Dendocker who i did not want to start actually played okay, lenglet far from a player that should be starting for us especially the way we play too slow and made silly mistakes… diaby and zaniolo not enough time on pitch….
 

Ramsey useless and now those that questioned me when i said he shouldn’t be relied upon at this moment in time as a starter will now get what i mean… bailey looked electric, cant say much more than that and without stating the obvious but will pau torres and Kamara are ESSENTIAL!!! for us and cannot afford to be missing for too many games.

 

This f**king bastard side United have been a thorn in my side ever since i can remember, that club could be in the f**king conference and still beat us … the losing to united curse continues even if it has been broken a couple of times recently its just a side we hardly get the best out of it… not much annoys me than losing to man united other than liverpool but not as much as united… Anyway onto the next

Edited December 27, 2023 by RicRic

[KentVillan]

I thought we were lucky to be 2-0 up in the first place tbh, and it wasn’t so much a question of tactics or game management as a lack of options. Utd might be a shambles but they have a wealth of good attacking talent to throw at any game, always capable of results like this.

Was a game where Mings would have helped a lot tbh. But Pau also a big loss.

Trust Unai to fix things pretty quickly as players come back from injury.