Ratings & Reactions: Man Utd v Villa

[Tom13]

I'd say that was the worst I've seen us under Unai.

[srsmithusa]

Nobody to blame but ourselves.  I 

[Marka Ragnos]

Not our best. It's football. It happens. They'll be at our house soon enough. We move on ...

Edited December 27, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[maqroll]

Changes were needed at 55 minutes. It was obvious something was very wrong.

But it took another 22 minutes before he did anything. Really strange and rather irritating. Why wait? 

[juanpablosaliceband]

A real kick in the mouth and a feeling of five points dropped. But we need to stay positive now as fans, players and management, and push on again. We will have good players coming back and potentially some January additions. We are still in a very strong position and have proven in the past that we can put winning runs together. A few issues there that we can hopefully iron out in the process. If we can replicate last season’s new year form, we are in for a great season. 

[CVByrne]

Was a costly loss, both the manner of the defeat, the timing of it and that it was a 6 pointer. Every chance we finish outside the top 5 behind United and Spurs.

We need that reaction against Burnley. Need to bounce back quickly or we can begin to fall away rapidly. 

[Keyblade]

My new headcannon is that we lost to City, drew with Arsenal then beat the 2 United's.

[Kiwivillan]

Can't believe we went 2-0 up against the team I watched lose comprehensively to Bournemouth recently. I said after 2-0 up why have we given up high press on their defenders and letting them run at us. Seemed like we gave up on the basics that have seen us do well. I can't help but put that on the players not following the gameplan

[DakotaVilla]

2 hours ago, maqroll said:

Changes were needed at 55 minutes. It was obvious something was very wrong.

But it took another 22 minutes before he did anything. Really strange and rather irritating. Why wait? 

It was obvious that Ramsey should have been hauled at half time. Let alone give utd enough time to get back in the game. 

[Lerner's Driver]

39 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Can't believe we went 2-0 up against the team I watched lose comprehensively to Bournemouth recently. I said after 2-0 up why have we given up high press on their defenders and letting them run at us. Seemed like we gave up on the basics that have seen us do well. I can't help but put that on the players not following the gameplan

I would say it's been coming. We haven't been convincing for a while, but still picking up points.

It might be fatigue, who knows. We are significantly weaker without our best players playing in our preferred formation.

[Pinebro]

Even at 2-0 I knew deep inside we was going to lose.

It was just obvious for anyone watching the game for 20+ years that it was gonna happen.

It almost looked like the players thought the job was done which shows arrogance.

They were pinging diagonal balls al lgame and we could not cope with them.

[chips'ngravy]

We were uncharacteristically sloppy in possession from the beginning. The real surprise was that we actually went 2 up and managed not to concede by half time. At no point were we ever controlling the play. This was most evident after scoring the second goal and Utd had the crowd on their backs yet twice in quick succession they had opportunities straight down the middle through a gaping hole in our defence. 

Konsa was visibly exhausted which got me thinking on the relative demands of playing centre-back to right-back. It's like switching from being a 400m runner to a 100m sprinter these days. We're in danger of burning him out if he continues to switch from one to the other. And as good as he is, he offers very little in the attacking areas of the pitch. The restoration of Cash, for all his faults, will be to the benefit of the right-hand side and the centre of defence.

As much as I like and admire our willingness to play out from the back under pressure there has to be an acceptance that it is not the ONLY way to move the ball out of defence. If you have had control of the ball for the majority of the game it's a simpler task than if you've been run ragged and are mentally and physically tired. It was a frustrating sight watching us persisting with this tactic boxed in our own corners with the clock ticking down. My only explanation as to why this was the case is that to achieve the radical turnaround in style that Emery has in such a short space of time is that you have to be absolutist in the implementation of your demands. In doing so you eliminate any free thinking that could see us switch it up when required. Our lack of urgency to get the ball forward and in the opposition's face more when we are looking to save a game or grab a late winner is frustrating for us fans to witness. That said, I'm sure Unai would argue that applying patience and eliminating the emotion will reap more rewards than not. Personally, I'd like to see a shift to being a bit more direct when we are looking for a late reprieve.

 

[Sulberto21]

6 hours ago, TRO said:

That was a Defensive horror show, could have been 5 or 6.....This was always coming and even after we went 2-0 up, it was a nervy affair....and our general play was not convincing, in the slightest.

We surrendered the initiative....by losing duels and misplaced passes, due to being closed down, by willing runners....we stopped competing after we took the lead.

We never really dealt with the bullies, like we should, we rarely do.

This has been coming, and we have been riding our luck against lesser teams...even when we have won.

It got Uniteds season back on track, its a trait we had in the past.

When opponents, get their mojo back, against us, or score their first goal.....It should tell us something, about what we are doing.

I hope it influences the thinking for Jan 1

 

We didn’t get bullied. We switched off. We fell asleep. We stopped passing and moving. We’ve been dealing with ‘bullies’ all season. 

[dubbs]

Can't remember the last time a result has pissed me off as much.   They were there for the taking but we kept making the same mistakes and as soon as they figured out how to beat the press it was over.  

This is such a typical Villa thing to happen.  Playing a team that's been poor for ages, lacking confidence with a huge money striker who's not scored in the league all season.  Don't worry we'll help you turn the corner.

[ChesterDad]

6 hours ago, KentVillan said:

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.

I totally agree - plus Utd were due a win, just why it had to be against us though ??

[CLARETANDBLUEFOXY]

I often get chastised for my opinion that Jacob Ramsay isn’t that great a player. From time to time he will have a great game but great teams arnt built on “from time to time” players. Personally think he’s nowhere near good enough to be in the first eleven and has been largely anonymous for too many games. Yes he’s just come back from injury but he’s costly us dearly being in our midfield at the moment. 

Edited December 27, 2023 by CLARETANDBLUEFOXY

[Don_Simon]

8 hours 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? 

We have over achieved to be where we are. 

Common sense would dictate we're a top six / seven club going through a phase of evolution and incremental improvements.

So, no. Were we to finish sixth now, we're not "mentally weak". We would probably be where we should be and then would use the summer to analyse, improve and progress again. 

[delboy54]

I had a nightmare last night (must have been all that cheese I ate). I dreamt that we went 2-0 up at olde trafford, and a VARs decision went for us against that lot for a change.

Then in the second half we turned into Villa managed by Steve Bruce and lost 3-2....glad it was only a dream......what time is ko tonight?

[Xela]

5 hours ago, KentVillan said:

Arsenal fans wanking over this result because supposedly this is a classic Unai bottle job … rather than a tricky away fixture with a depleted squad.

Need to make sure we don’t buy into the narrative and just get on with picking up points. Unai continues to work miracles here.

Arsenal fans are rocket polishers anyway. Didn't they bottle a 5 point lead last year?

[lapal_fan]

They changed their midfield to a diamond and because Dedonker doesn't like to receive the ball, it meant slapping someone on Luiz meant our pivot was useless.  

Kamara doesn't mind receiving the ball under pressure, so often times it doesn't matter.  We lost that in midfield.