Ratings & Reactions: Man Utd v Villa

[Zero7]

Still reeling from this game. Was watching in the pub with a load of man United family and at 2 up their heads were down but I didn’t see that coming. 

Simply not enough leaders in the side when the chips are down we crumble. 

[Stephen_Evans]

18 hours ago, jjaacckk91 said:

Is it just me that thinks that thinks he was confident in the tactics if the players could execute and was testing some of the players ability to execute.

Yes it failed but as long as he/we learned what we need to from this we will be a better team come January.

Yes it looks stubborn and ignorant on the surface and I think we can say cost us at least a point, but long term it could hold us in better stead.

If we are still seeing stuff like this after we've got a squad full of his signings then it's worrying but last night that absolutely wasn't the case.

Idk wishful thinking probably.

The other thing about the second half is how unlucky some of the incidents actually were in terms of the manager’s influence.  He can’t do much about Carlos’s  stray pass into midfield, the deflection for the equaliser or the ball hitting McGinn before the winner.  A bad half certainly but only time will tell whether it’s indicative or a one-off.

[Sulberto21]

On 27/12/2023 at 09:10, TRO said:

call it what you will, we were second best in most of the ground duels, we simply couldn't stay on the ball.

Yet up until we scored the second goal we were comfortably the better team. We won most the ground and aerial duels. 

Did they suddenly press a button which gave them super boost powers? Or did we fall asleep and think job done?

[bose]

Having calmed down a bit after the match, it's very reassuring seeing the league table.

We're in poor form but that's unavoidable in the long term. Confident it wont last long.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, Sulberto21 said:

Yet up until we scored the second goal we were comfortably the better team. We won most the ground and aerial duels. 

Did they suddenly press a button which gave them super boost powers? Or did we fall asleep and think job done?

probably.

If we don't compete....... we get beat...its as simple as that.

Shouldn't we have been the better team AFTER we scored the second goal... thats how confidence works.

If we don't compete against Burnely, we will get beat again.

The initiative is there to be won, the team that secures it, usually wins the game....we surrendered it.

 

 

 

[Zatman]

36 minutes ago, bose said:

Having calmed down a bit after the match, it's very reassuring seeing the league table.

We're in poor form but that's unavoidable in the long term. Confident it wont last long.

We have lost twice in 18 games, just a bad week

I think a lot of the disappointment this week me included is that we are now expecting to win nearly every game

[Pinebro]

17 minutes ago, TRO said:

probably.

If we don't compete....... we get beat...its as simple as that.

Shouldn't we have been the better team AFTER we scored the second goal... thats how confidence works.

If we don't compete against Burnely, we will get beat again.

The initiative is there to be won, the team that secures it, usually wins the game....we surrendered it.

 

 

 

Might be a little arrogance in there.

They seemed to drop off after 2-0 almost like they thought the job was done.

[Zero7]

Poor form lol people need to calm the fudge down and reset their expectations. We should look for incremental improvements. I’d be happy with top6 this year 

[TRO]

8 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

Whilast you may be right, there’s no denying that was a tired performance after a long run of difficult games most of which we did very well in. It’s the stage of the season when injuries amd suspensions start to really hurt the less experienced and less expensively built squads, like ours. Why do you think that the FFP immune Man City consistently win the league and late season cups? This January Pep the Cheque will be up to his usual tricks of strengthening their squad wether they need to or not and weakening their rivals, I hope we’re not stimied by the usual ffp nonsense designed to protect the hierarchy amd keep the likes of us in our place. I’ve no love for Newcastle and particularly their state ownership and how it conducts it’s sport washing nonsense to hide their sins but it’s noticeable that they’ve been fairly aware of ffp and haven’t used their full financial muscle as they know the world is watching, However their results and performances have dropped off at this stage, the PL and European football is as bent as a fishing rod with a good fish on the hook. I hope we can find a way to strengthen in January, central midfield muscle is always handy and Sorry @TRO a fancy Dan winger who scores and creates goals would be just fine. Control and fear is a great combination for a team like us. 

central midfield power, is not handy, its crucial for where we are going....Dougie was left on his own on Sunday, and he isn't a defensive midfielder anyway imo.

Kamara, has been absolutely central to Dougie raising his game, and like McGinn, they have just been deployed there,for too long,  because we had no one else, and just needed them in the team.

We need a Casemiro type to come in and play alongside Kamara, and Dougie can be deployed further forward.....particularly away from home or against aggressive  "in your face" teams

On wingers................Wingers are very prone to inconsistency, and they usually cost a lot of money.....I am looking " Bang for the Buck"...They can be great and can equally go missing, depending on how they are taken care of, by opponents.

They are all drooling over Garnacho, he has scored  5 goals in 25 outings, he just looked good against us, because we let him.....watch other teams, shut him out, moving forward.

I have been mightily impressed, with our overall offerings this season, but I am not about to go searching, for excuses or mitigation.....We had the perfect start.... there was no excuse.

Edited December 28, 2023 by TRO

[PieFacE]

A reality check isn't the worst thing in the world. Can regroup, get players back and kick on now hopefully.

[Delphinho123]

20 minutes ago, Zatman said:

We have lost twice in 18 games, just a bad week

I think a lot of the disappointment this week me included is that we are now expecting to win nearly every game

The disappointment is the manner of the way we have failed to pick up points. We were unfortunate against Sheff Utd as VAR screwed us and losing a 2 goal lead at United is just painful and oh so predictable. 

Just been a shit couple of games for us. 

[nick76]

5 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

The disappointment is the manner of the way we have failed to pick up points. We were unfortunate against Sheff Utd as VAR screwed us and losing a 2 goal lead at United is just painful and oh so predictable. 

Just been a shit couple of games for us. 

To me it wasn’t losing at Old Trafford because we are so used to it. It was just the hope because we were 2-0 up and the defeat reminded me of defeats of the past under former managers, it’s the pain I had forgotten about, that hurt more than anything.  

Yes it was poor 60 minutes but in context of the results over the last few months is just a blip.  I think the over reaction in some of the threads is the reminder of the past and we arent used to that under Emery.  I think we all believe it’s a blip but it no less hurt.

[May-Z]

17 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Other teams will analyze this game and implement similar tactics.

Which is spamming long balls in behind.

Unai needs to find a way to counter it.

United actually beat the offside trap far more times than we are used to.

 

We've been spammed with long balls over the top by every team we've played. It doesn't work because we are so good at the high line.

Sometimes it feels like it's working against us for it to only be called offside. 

United didn't get any goals from it either. I'm unsure if any teams really have except a couple in the European games.

United's goals came from us giving them the ball each time and being caught out of shape. THAT is the thing we really need to work on. 

Emery will know that...and he will be holding the players accountable for it.

[Made In Aston]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

We have lost twice in 18 games, just a bad week

I think a lot of the disappointment this week me included is that we are now expecting to win nearly every game

We are missing our the best passers in Torres, Kamara and Tielemans and, with the other injuries, haven't been able to rotate the squad enough.  It's no coincidence we haven't been as good the last few games, but I'm sure we will be better once some of the players return. 

[VillaJay]

As has been mentioned, disappointing couple of games, but in perspective we are in a really strong position and the utd performance overall was poor, but their goals were result of individual errors and some luck, the high line is an easy stick to beat us with when we lose.

I expect us to beat Burnley well and finish the year in at least third place, our style of play is the best we have potentially ever seen in the premier league and above all it feels sustainable. The MON years relied on individuals and counter attacking, we regularly control games and we have had a little luck in some games, but overall we've earned that through our style of play and bravery to play on the front foot.

The utd loss was a particularly bitter way to lose, but I'm confident we'll be at least 10 points ahead of them by the time they come to VP in February.

[Delphinho123]

3 hours ago, nick76 said:

To me it wasn’t losing at Old Trafford because we are so used to it. It was just the hope because we were 2-0 up and the defeat reminded me of defeats of the past under former managers, it’s the pain I had forgotten about, that hurt more than anything.  

Yes it was poor 60 minutes but in context of the results over the last few months is just a blip.  I think the over reaction in some of the threads is the reminder of the past and we arent used to that under Emery.  I think we all believe it’s a blip but it no less hurt.

It’s a mad one, but I blame Emery for the defeat against United - I can’t remember ever really saying that before.

We needed to change quickly after half time and adopt a different style of play. It could have been as simple as bringing on Duran and Diaby and going long for 10 mins and keeping the ball out of our own half. 

But, but control. Yeh, I get it, we want to control possession more but it wasn’t happening and sometimes you gotta change things up a bit. The manner of the defeat really hurt because it was so obviously going to happen with the same game plan from minute 1 to 90. 

[foreveryoung]

Most of the players played like they had a bit to much at the Christmas party, an it's not the first time around Christmas we have been poor. We know Luiz is a bit of a party boy, an to me looked well out the game, I actually thought he looked a bit rough in the tunnel coming out, his eyes looked dark and sweaty, but thought nothing of it. We seemed to play a quarter of the game well, keeping the ball from Man U, but after that, it was like there energy disappeared, we kept misplacing passes, losing the ball, we looked completely knackered. Literally for me, only Bailey still looked on it, maybe he don't drink..

[AVTuco]

I'm still angry. And this excuse that it's Manu away at OT we always lose there, is so small time it annoys me to no end. There's nothing special about OT or Manu. These games are just as winnable as any other game. History means nothing. Just play better.

[Made In Aston]

43 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

I'm still angry. And this excuse that it's Manu away at OT we always lose there, is so small time it annoys me to no end. There's nothing special about OT or Manu. These games are just as winnable as any other game. History means nothing. Just play better.

We didn't lose because it was Man Utd or OT. We lost because key players were missing and we were suffering fatigue because  we haven't been able to rotate. Without those 2 issues the result would have been different. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by Made In Aston

[alreadyexists]

20 hours ago, Zatman said:

We have lost twice in 18 games, just a bad week

I think a lot of the disappointment this week me included is that we are now expecting to win nearly every game

Absolutely. We’ve come so far, and this is a rough week… but we’re doing so incredibly well. All teams lose games, and all teams lose from a leading position sometimes, that’s just football. 
Still gutted about the loss, but that’s because of the incredible standards we’ve set for ourselves.