Man United thoughts

[LeTallecWiz]

* Rodgers will hopefully learn a lesson from this game - the line up he started with was asking for problems. We let United dictate play, and very few teams have let them do home or away this season. His changes in the second half were the rights ones (Though Allen should have come off before Suarez) - but if only they could have some sooner

* We kept RvP pretty quiet most of the game. The defense was shaky at times, but overall, solid.

* Wisdom will have to learn that as a FB he can't be giving people so much room to cross. He did play much better the rest of the game. Growing pains ...

* Suarez had a terrible game. A fit n' firing Suarez and we may have got a draw at worst ...

* Sturridge was the difference - pace, another person in the box. He had his chance to get us a point, pity he blew it. Great way to celebrate his goal though -

* Downing is a fucking pussy. He barely went after Evra, a player on the decline. Sell him. And give his game time to Sturridge, Borini whoever. He's just not good enough.

* Gerrard passed up two opportunities to shoot in the first 60 minutes. The third time he shot, and we get a goal. He's got to shoot more.

* Allen improved in the second half, but he was so bad in the 1st half. Losing balls, terrible passes, you name it, he did it. I'm not going to judge him until season's end but my faith in Pesam and Ryan's scouting reports has taken a big big hit.

* Sterling was in awe of the occasion. Looked like an 18 year old, and played poorly throughout.

* We are not a very good team ... but if we attack and go after teams, we can win. Whoever mentioned it in the match thread has the right idea - attack from the get go.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Stop worrying about the opposition and set out an attacking side from the start.

 

[gene hughes]

I agree with a lot of that LTW. I would add that I have grave concerns about our ability to defend set pieces. It's something we seem to be getting worse at with every passing week and it's inexcusable.

 

[Squiggles]

i tend to agree with that. I thought Wisdom was excellant overall though.

 

[Markeh]

Wisdom really annoyed me turning his back on that cross
Why the fuck was Skrtel in the wall for their second?
Whilst Allen may be great in a side dominating possession out of possession he is very weak

Suarez and Sturridge looked like they might play well together

 

[gkmacca]

Rodgers learning lessons - they're piling up now. This is supposed to be a top club, not a kindergarten.

 

[Red_Water]

We can't defend for shit and our midfield, although not as bad as the Biscan and Diao partnership of days gone, is fekin dire and until we sort out these 2 GLARING problems we will be mid-table no hopers.

These 2, related issues, will mask any good work BR is doing because it costs us games.

 

[Fabio]

Agendas are fun

 

[Hansern]

Sturridge was good and his link up play with Luis was promising.

The rest was meh or bad, although I'd give some credit to Wisdom that bar the first goal was pretty good today.
We were better without Lucas in there and pushed Utd back.

The match thread would probably be 12 pages if we'd won 😉

 

[My_Blood_Bleeds_Red]

Borini - Suarez - Sturridge

is the way to go until the end of the season.

 

[RedZeppelin III]

there was a disgraceful lack of urgency and fight until we got the goal and sadly that's a number of times this season we've seen that . We need alot more bottle and steel in this team . We've too many players who are decent one week and really poor the next , it's a strong sign of just lacking that consistency to be a top player .

everyone keeps moaning about the midfield but i'd be surprised if this isn't our midfield three for some time to come . Infact it will be interesting to see how much this team changes in the summer , i'd be surprised if it's alot which worries me cause i am not sure they can develop as much as they need to.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Rodgers learning lessons - they're piling up now. This is supposed to be a top club, not a kindergarten.

To be honest, you were saying the exact same thing about Kenny as we went through the same growing pains last year. Can't fault you for your consistency.

 

[keniget]

Sturridge looked good. His decision making is suspect as we know but as I said in the match thread, he looked hungry and that will make whatever talent he has go that much further.

Henderson should've started as we all knew. Lucas is off the pace although he was still much better than Allen who isn't doing anything to warrant a place in the team right now.

Wisdom is suspect positionally. It's not like Johnson at times where he's just been caught out elsewhere on the pitch, he just switches off. Hopefully this is something that they'll iron out.

Sterling just looked way out of his depth today. Now that Sturridge is in and Borini is back I hope he's given much less game time and consequently can recapture some of the form and confidence he showed at the start of the season. He's struggling to keep his head above water right now. We need to manage him better.

Gerrard needs to shoot more.

Overall the team just wasn't good enough. No surprises there I guess.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Stop worrying about the opposition and set out an attacking side from the start.

I agree. It's time we play our football - teams should adjust to us.

 

[Portly]

We can't defend for shit.

United scored twice. A class opportunist goal from van Persie and a fluke from Vidic. If we couldn't defend for shit we would have lost 7-0.

 

[Fabio]

We can't defend set pieces, otherwise were not that bad at defending

 

[Hansern]

Agreed. It drives me mental that some of our players just lets the opposition drift past them on set pieces.
GlenJon was on the backfoot from before the corner was even hit

 

[Loch Ness Monster]

Spirited second half show, and Studge looked lively in tandem with Suarez. Shame he never started, but understand why not with him hardly kicking a ball since September.
Plus who'd of thunked Allen Lucas and Gerrard would all look like little girls on their first day at school for 45 minutes all together??
2 sloppy goals with individual mistakes, Wisdom and GlenJo.
Maybe BR will recognise that you font need 3 CM to go to OT and dominate possession, so hopefully shit teams at Anfield might see 4-4-2 more often.

 

[Red_Water]

United scored twice. A class opportunist goal from van Persie and a fluke from Vidic. If we couldn't defend for shit we would have lost 7-0.

Yeah and that explains why we got bummed 3-1 at home to the mighty Villa, 3-1 at Stoke, why we should have been down 3-4 against UTD today and also explains why we have been defensively shit all season.

Ps class opportunist goal by RVP? Ah, the goal where we failed to press the ball whilst defending outside our 18 yard box, where our right back didn't track or close down Evra and where our central defender lost his man in the middle of the 6 yard box.

 

[Loch Ness Monster]

Rodgers learning lessons - they're piling up now. This is supposed to be a top club, not a kindergarten.

Erm....... A top 8 club. We haven't been a top club for several years now.
Hence the reason why no top managers were interested in taking us on. A gamble on a young up-and-coming manager is about as good as it is going to be forever, unless BR succeeds and returns us towards the top.

 

[Woland]

Our midfield is awful. How Rodgers thought we'd contain them with Lucas and Allen is beyond me, but that was clearly his game plan... To try and soak up pressure. Made no sense at all, those players simply aren't good enough. The attackers are far better and we were always going to concede.

It's like Arthur Miller said... The worst thing about getting old is seeing young politicians making the same mistakes you saw the last generation and the generation before them make. Well the worst thing about seeing so many managers line up at Old Trafford is the same. You don't beat this United side 1-0. If you beat them you need to score a load of goals. You can only get beat once so you may as well have a go.

Again we finish with the team we should have started with.

 

[doctor_mac]

There is no doubt BR got it wrong first half. Before the game he talked about the players having courage to play their game on the pitch. A lot of his players lacked courage, but on his team selection and tactics in the first half, I think it is fair to say he lacked courage himself. Macca may scoff at the idea of BR learning, but that's where we're at. The fact that we turned it round so well in the second half in the toughest away day in the prem should count for something for most people without an agenda.

 

[eecheerow]

Rodgers learning lessons - they're piling up now. This is supposed to be a top club, not a kindergarten.

He's only learning lessons if he makes changes though. Henderson has been deserving of a starting spot based on his play the past few weeks and Allen has been just about deserving of a spot on the bench, yet everyone knew Allen would start this match and he was fucking rubbish again. Glen Johnson should not be shifted to left back to accommodate Andre Wisdom, but he continues to fucking do it every time Jose Enrique goes down with an injury. Agger and Skrtel have been a fucking dreadful partnership this season, yet he refuses to give Coates a chance to play (not saying this was the match to try it, but regardless). He really needs to open his eyes and 1. put players in the best possible situation to succeed, and 2. hold players accountable by dropping them if they don't perform.

 

[Red_Water]

I'm not overly sure why people are down playing our woeful central midfield? We were bummed by a central midfield partnership of Cleverly and Carrick, not fekin Keane and Scholes.

If we can manage to sort this part of our game plan out I think we will see a marked improvement both in terms of being able to support our forward line and importantly, being able to protect the back-4.

One up side of all of this is that average players like Henderson become far better in our minds than they actually are.

 

[Woland]

I'm not overly sure why people are down playing our woeful central midfield? We were bummed by a central midfield partnership of Cleverly and Carrick, not fekin Keane and Scholes.

That's the point. Even Cleverly and Carrick are better than our two divs.

 

[Fabio]

Hendo at least closes down

 

[Red_Water]

That's the point. Even Cleverly and Carrick are better than our two divs.

Bit harsh on Lucas, we all knew he will need 2 or so months to get back to any where near the form per-injuries.

All I ask for the love of God is for Hend to be tried as a DM, or buy someone. Anything but Allen-Lucas.

 

[Red_Water]

Hendo at least closes down

Exactly. Make him sit in front of the back 4 and press the space between the central defenders and our more advanced central midfielders.

 

[Gary25]

Our midfield is awful. How Rodgers thought we'd contain them with Lucas and Allen is beyond me, but that was clearly his game plan... To try and soak up pressure. Made no sense at all, those players simply aren't good enough. The attackers are far better and we were always going to concede.

It's like Arthur Miller said... The worst thing about getting old is seeing young politicians making the same mistakes you saw the last generation and the generation before them make. Well the worst thing about seeing so many managers line up at Old Trafford is the same. You don't beat United 1-0. If you beat them you need to score a load of goals. You can only get beat once so you may as well have a go.

Again we finish with the team we should have started with.

Been saying the same thing for ages and it's the crux of our problems.

I rate Lucas highly but he's coming back from a career threatening injury and clearly isn't up to speed yet.

Gerrard's a complete legend but he's getting on and any pace he had is all but gone. He no longer has the legs.

Joe Allen for me has been a flop thus far, started well in the opening few games but since then he's been found wanting. Looks weak, gives the ball away frequently, gets outmuscled all the time and offers next to nothing going forward. Thought we were meant to see the real Allen once Lucas was back? Aye.

I don't know what we can do about it though. Henderson's been slightly better this season but he's not someone you' have faith in to start regularly and do the business. Shelvey looks great one game and shite the next, again not someone we can rely on as it stands now.

 

[Fabio]

I hink hendo can't play dm, but he can be a perfect box to box player. Closes down, decent range of passing and full of energy.

He deserves consistent games