Ratings & Reactions: Man Utd v Villa

[andym]

Putrid

Should have them in at 9am tomorrow tomorrow for debrief and training, because they clearly didnt want to work in that 2nd half

To be 2-0 up and then concede 3 against a dog shit man utd side who are the lowest scorers in the division is an absolute disgrace

[VillanousOne]

subs were too late and the final two killed off the game in Utd's favour, master class.

[Adman]

Don't really have much to say... predictable maybe?

[Rustibrooks]

The signs were there after we scored our second. Ok they didn’t score in the first half but you could see if we didn’t sort ourselves out they would get back into this. Second half we came out looking worse and the rest is history.

Luiz, Moreno and JJ poor were poor today and we badly missed Kamara and Pau

[HanoiVillan]

2 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

No shame in losing to United away from home but that feels like much more than a loss. It looked much more than a loss. I remember when we lost the lead against Leicester in the year we went down - very similar to tonight - and that killed us.

We’re better now but we’re down to the bare bones and players like McGinn, Watkins and Luiz have been poor in the last 3 or so games. They’re not poor players but a few injuries and the team looks thin on quality. 

We’re not good enough to get anywhere near the title, not yet at least, but we can still challenge for top 4/6 and we probably will. 

Like I say, more worried about the performance than the result. It really was so, so poor. 

I thought McGinn played pretty well today but otherwise I agree completely, and the Leicester game under Sherwood, and the Wolves game under Smith, both stand out as obvious precedents that led to disaster in both cases. Are we strong enough mentally to avoid a similar tailspin?

[Daulmakan]

What a sour taste, losing to a terrible side having a 2-goal surplus. But it's deserved, as Villa did absolutely nothing after scoring the 2nd goal and completely quit playing. United simply continued creating the same chances they squandered in the last 15 minutes of the first half and cashed them in. 

I feel a significant part of today's defeat lies at Emery's feet. It was clear after those last 15 minutes in the 1H he needed to switch stuff around: players, positionings, tactics. They left United free to launch long ball passes (erasing their lack of gameplay) and even worse, free to receive them in Villa's own area or close to it. Unai did nothing and it cost us. PSG-Barcelona vibes with this one.

[foreveryoung]

2 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

I will keep it short, then I'm going to play golf so the dreamers can attack my post all they like.

Unai's management of the last two matches has been odd, and it's cost us two results.

Luiz was so incredibly poor today I'm in disbelief.

Watkins was poor (yes I said it)

The only players that can hold their heads up are our "terrible" squad players that too many on here attack.

 

I for one agree totally. First time I would question Unai, just very strange how we turned off after 2 goals, an made no difference in the second half.

[Mantis]

He won't accept that at all - that will sting even more than the Arsenal defeat did. Wouldn't surprise me if he was still referencing this game two years from now.

[VillaCas]

Unlucky. Look frightened after going 2-0 up, but we’ll learn from that. The longer we go on the more we will believe that we belong at the top level

Im over the moon with where we are at the moment. Realistically we are not going to go through a whole season blowing everyone away. 
Our squad is stretched now - Torres, Teilemans, Kamara and it may have been a different story. Hopefully January will see two or three incoming and we can continue the fight for a CL spot

Disappointed but not disheartened 

[richp999]

This was poor giving up the 2-0 lead. Frustrating because we could have won it with a full complement of first team players. 

But we don't really have the depth. 

Those coming in to replace injuries and suspensions just aren't up to it. 

Pau and kamara are so integral to the way we play, when they are out unai doesn't really have the options to make it work. 

Tielemans would normally step in but he's out too. 

Our first 11 and manager can beat anyone.. As we saw with man city and arsenal... A couple of injuries and we struggle. 

The plan still works, we just need to replace the backup. 

 

 

[OutByEaster?]

We're going to need bodies in the window - we're short a right back and a centre midfielder - this season is gong to be long and we'll need options.

 

[thunderball]

Poor couple of games. We are great at full strength but really missed Pau and Kamara that give us that solidity to build our game around. McGinn or Luiz couldn’t get forward and had little to hit. 

Bailey had a brief look, but Watkins, Duran and Diaby saw nothing of the ball, we didn’t involve them. Ramsey a shadow of himself last season obviously further away than we hoped.

Suspensions, injuries and a great run has taken its toll. However we need a playmaker, someone who can shake it up and make things happen. 

Great run this far, but Spurs and City reeling us in. Utd still poor but may kick on. Maybe we do need some new blood. A win against Burnley a must.

[Caddy]

First time we've dropped points from a lead all season in the Prem and everyone's losing the **** plot

Yes that was a dogshit performance but we *know* that Emerys system falters when too much of the dross on the fringes is in the 11. There's a discussion to be had about a lack of a plan B but for **** sake, take a look at Newcastle if you want to a see a team truly falling apart at the seams.

[Pinebro]

That was concerning.

Not just the loss but that was a mentality thing.

You can't just stop when being 2-0 up you have to keep on pushing at this level.

Man Utd grew in confidence and momentum after we backed off.

[Stevo985]

Probably the worst performance of the season.

Just so disappointing.

We're actually lucky United just handed us two goals because it flattered us. 
Get through the Bournemouth game and regroup. We need it

[calcifer]

That was 100% the villa of old, throwing away a 2 goal cushion. Bottle job.

Changes should have come a lot sooner. Ramsey was invisible, the only thing of note was his yellow card! 

Need a big performance next game of we want to seriously challenge top 4. 

 I think the players are running out of gas, the way we play and with the injuries and suspensions is leaving us light. 

[meregreen]

Bottlers. Watkins totally anonymous and he wasn’t alone.

[JPJCB]

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 

[The Fun Factory]

Back to reality. City and Arsenal was the high water mark. This and the stadium pause show our fear of hitting the big time. It was going just far too well for us.

[Bosnichs Muller corner]

We really struggled for an hour but a lot of overreaction on here. Old Trafford is never going to be a walk over and United's press in the second half beat us. Yes, a few of the players were sloppy today and 2 of the goals came from bad mistakes. Don't think it's fair to criticise players like McGinn and Watkins today, they lost the battle today. Yes we missed Kamara and missed Torres, personally not sure Carlos is a starter for me