Ratings & Reactions: Man Utd v Villa

[WHY]

Disgraceful second half, I didn’t recognise that team. Fuming with the way we just let them back in. 

[Villanbee]

Awful to give away a 2 goal lead.

Perfect storm really though. Kamara, Pau and Tielmans would have all started today.

Still, no matter who was missing, giving away a 2 goal lead. No excuses for that.

[Davkaus]

Just now, bobzy said:

But after we went 2-0 up, it was poor. Just let Man Utd have all the ball and didn’t adjust at all to their pressing in our half. Zero adjustment.

Every single one of their goals came from a lapse in concentration from our players.

 

The alarm bells really should have been ringing at half time. We took our goals well and were patting ourselves on the back about the offside trap, but they'd already beaten it a few times and just had extremely poor finishing. I was absolutely astonished we just kept doing the same thing and didn't change it up, it was absolutely inevitable.

[Paul33]

McGinn and Luiz did not play and when they don't play, we don't play !

Carlos looked horribly unstable with the ball at his feet and, once again, we got twenty minutes at most out of Ramsey. That game was there for the taking but Emery got it wrong with his selection and failure to act on a massive swing in momentum at 0-2. Poor stuff ..... must do a lot better !

[lapal_fan]

Get back on the bus, that was pants.

We missed Kamara massively tonight.  We had no-one in the middle to get the ball from Konsa when he was in advanced positions, so much so, they stopped pressing him towards the end, knowing he can't beat a man and put a cross in.

We've absolutely given that away with the goals conceded.

Carlos for the first, Lenglet trying to dribble out of his own 6 yard box and giving a shit corner, then coming off McGinn's knee and sitting up nicely for the worst striker in the world to get his 1000+ min goal.

The third Carlos jumping in leg first to a shot Emi would easily have saved.

Really, really poor from defence today, Moreno came on an looked poor.

Digne getting injured because of no flag for an obvious offside..

Jesus that's an annoying as shit game.

[bose]

Some will come with the good old overreaction but we were dreadful. The goals papered over the cracks in the first half but the total performance was really poor.

Still in a good place in the table but I’d be shocked if we’re back to our best in three days. Subs too late, midfield nonexistent, Watkins isolated and looked woeful when he got near the ball. Ramsey once again does nothing, Diaby looks like a shell of his former self.

Lots of things for Unai too think about.

[Tayls]

We’ll follow that pile of crap up with a defeat to Burnley as well. We are in bad form currently. Hope Unai knows how to turn it around. I think we have been poor since the Brentford game, despite winning that one. 

[foreveryoung]

4 minutes ago, HongKongVillan said:

Been saying for ages that Hoijland will get his first tonight, and there it is. Not angry at all it feels like nothing can change this, so what's the point

This is the moody part of it.

2 nil up and lose 3-2. check

Striker gets his first goal in the Prem, check

We wind rat face up, but we still lose. check

We make Rashford look good again. check

It's Christmas. Check

We will drop to forth with Ange's Tottenham if Man City win there next 2 and we are lucky enough to beat Burnley. check

[JoshVilla]

It's the inevitably of it that really **** me off. 2-0 up against a team that, at the minute, do not score goals. We absolutely deserved that. Obviously the absences haven't helped, but to be in such a dominant position and then literally hand them the win really does leave a sour taste.

[imavillan]

6 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

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

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

Get over the Kamara red card ffs 

 

[rbcuk]

2nd games running ive questioned the subs and starting eleven, but can’t moan overall with unai best manager we’ve had in years, I just hope we have a right back lined up in January 

[KillieVillain]

That one really hurts, to come out of that game with nothing after being 2 up at half time is criminal,  no way does Liverpool or City lose that game. 

[WallisFrizz]

I remember the start of the 20-21 season when we started brilliantly, playing glorious football. Then suddenly we had our Covid outbreak and then Jack got injured and our season just fell apart. Anyway, that f*kin Brentford debacle better not be the changing point of this season. Cos it feels like something has switched. 

[OutByEaster?]

Once we scored our second goal, we disappeared - just stopped playing - it was the right result in the end, but the key was that after that goal we decided to cede the initiative to the opposition. Stopped passing the ball, stopped doing all the things we'd done so comfortably for thirty minutes. I don't know if it's tiredness or if it's a mental thing about being so comfortable up to that stage - but we were second best from the moment Dendoncker tucked away that little flick.

There are four days until our next game - I have a feeling our players are going to be in some very long meetings between now and then - tactically, I think the manager wanted a very different thing to that which was offered in the second half - he's taught them how to win games, now he needs to teach them that they're not won until the final whistle.

We're halfway through the season with 39 points - it's excellent - we've had a difficult night and we had a difficult one against Sheffield United - but we're a good side with an excellent manager and we'll be absolutely fine. 

 

[justnormalmen]

Spineless. 

[Mantis]

Easily the worst 45 minutes under Emery. Players should hang their heads in shame.

[AV82]

Too much turkey for Unai.

Edited December 26, 2023 by AV82

[AndyM3000]

We have a bench, use it. 

[tomav84]

ramsey and carlos need to come out of the side for burnley. get that JJ has had a bad injury but he's just not been at it since hes been back

we do need to enter the market in jan if only to give some competition to players who know they're on the teamsheet next week no matter how badly they play

[TomC]

Wow, that one hurt.

Positives...set pieces, offside trap.

Negatives...

--We're really struggling to score from open play right now. That didn't start with this match.

--We were really, really sloppy with the ball today. They won because they monopolized possession for the last 60 minutes. We made sloppy passes, had sloppy first touches, couldn't deal with their press (they really did well pinning us in the corners). Missing Kamara and Pau didn't help, but I'm not blaming this on Donck or Lenglet. Almost everyone in back was sloppy. And you can't use an offside trap when they're camped out in your end constantly.

--TV commentator couldn't stop worshipping Man U the whole second half. That made it even worse.

The last two matches leave me in doubt about a title challenge. Still optimistic about CL qualification, though. This patch won't last. In Unai we trust. He'll get it sorted out.