Match Day Thread Soton United v Manchester United - Sunday 2pm on Sky

Terrible player, Diego! Terrible!!

 

Form is temporary but class is permanent. The only question I had when we signed him was whether he was still hungry. Are we getting a Falcao or even another Sanchez. The first few minutes showed that we’ve got a real striker. Dynamic and putting CBs under constant pressure. He even comes back to chase the ball from opposition midfield. He is the new Zlatan.

We now have 2 top game changing players in Fernandes and Cavani. We have to play them in key games.

 

As Sky said - difficult to beat.............

 

Bruno has air of pure arrogant brilliance about him. The way he strikes the ball around pitch like he owns the place inspires confidence. He would play a bad pass, then come back to quickly correct it with piece of little medical confident pass. He’s a real United twat!! lol

I can’t help but think that this is what Pogba has been dying to become.

Fred is definitely one of my top three players on the team sheet. The man is consistently putting in a solid shift. He needs Scott next to him and not Matic.

 

Really? I think he's a liability too often. He lacks the physical strength to outmuscle players and is often the wrong side of them when they get the ball and ends up trying to save the situation but ends up giving away too many fouls. I don't blame him for that btw, I think he is a good player, but nobody's coaching him properly to improve those parts of his game and develop him as a player.

 

I didn't think Fred's a liability really, although he's prone to mistakes.

I reckon he should be given the dcm role on his own and have Fernandes and DVDB as his midfield partners, and stick with it.

The front three are also fairly nailed on then, with Martial the one to miss out and rotate with Greenwood.

Considering that at half time I was thinking Solskjaer's time was up, if we win our game in hand (it's Burnley at home) we'd be two points off the leaders.

We're genuine title contenders if he finds a first team and sticks with it, and stops pissing about.

 

Fred is far more consistent than most of our defensive options in the midfield. Since losing Herrera, I don’t think anyone has able to perform in that role as he has. But he certainly needs a backup in McTominay. They do even better together, I think.

 

I don't really have a problem with Fred. He's steady although not spectacular. May be thats what we need to complement Fernandes and our front three.

Ehh. I hope you've not put an instant jinx on the team. The reality is that we need to sort out that home form. Start well, impose ourselves on the opposition and be brave

 

I agree that Fred is certainly not spectacular. But he consistently gets the job done. Even with the rash decision that led to the free kick for the goal today, he got stuck in there in the second half and was in the middle of most plays. I personally enjoy players that are understated but put in more than an effort when they pull on the shirt. McTominay is another player in that mode. If they perform well breaking up plays, we are generally more fluency going forward and eases the pressure on the back two.

Unfortunately the team is still far too reliant on taking everything through the middle which is always crowded and easier to defend against. We added width to the play in the second half and that paid dividends. If we could get some dynamism from the flanks with Rashford on the left, it should get us more goals.

I would love to see Henderson keep his place after yet another iffy De Gea performance. I think he should have done better with the first goal or at least organize the players around him, and he should have saved the free kick in my opinion.

I do that hope we can take this into the next home match with Cavani starting. If we can win that, it would be a good improvement/recovery from the first six games.

 

I think my point is being missed here. I'm not slating the player, far from it. I'm saying there are flaws in his game which are having an impact on our defence and which aren't being coached out of him or developed.

This isn't just about the game yesterday. He was exactly the same against the Turks in midweek. And if we're going to play with one proper defensive midfielder, it's even more important those mistakes and flaws are ironed out of his game.

 

Your point is certainly valid, Treble. I didn’t think you were necessarily slating him by pointing out that he’s prone to mistakes. I still think that he’s the best that we have in that position. But he needs to be paired with McTominay for more effectiveness. Matic doesn’t cut it.

 

I think sometimes we judge them on their distribution and there's no doubt Fred's has improved since his first season.

Carrick's strength was his positional play, the ability to read the game and intercept passes which meant he didn't have to tackle a much. If this is something a holding mf doesn't have they make up for it in terms of their tackling and strength on the ball. I think Fred needs to develop in one of these areas at the very least to take him to the next level.

I'm only saying this because we have a fragile defence and imo how well Fred plays affects the confidence of the back 4 during a game.

 

We have needed Cavani (or his kind of player) for quite some time - a fox in the box. Unfortunately his kind of playing skills only come with years of experience so, for my money, he is a perfect fit for our squad at the moment in the same way that Henrik Larsson and Zlatan were. Age is completely irrelevant when you can have such an impact on a game and hopefully Rashford and Greenwood can learn from his time with the club. I deliberately omit Martial because i get the sense he is going to throw the mother of all hissy-fits and get moved on in the summer - good.

 

After Leicester losing today, if we win our game in hand we go Top 4

 

When the free kick was being sorted I said to myself that DeGea should move to his right a bit more. Ward Prowse can provide much more power and accuracy only if he goes nearside. Especially when DG suffered a similar fate recently when he couldn’t get there on time. Henderson is the future and as he’s matured at Sheffield I can’t see why we can’t start him in premiership games.

 

You are putting pressure on the team aren’t you? We all know what happens when we are expected to catch up with the leading teams We tend to **** it up when we think we’ve made it.

shows the total weirdness of this season when after such an appalling start with many calling only a couple of months ago for the manager to be sacked, we COULD be within 2 points of the leaders and in 4th. We need to start with Cavani as our No 9 the focal point and we need to play like the second half not the first of that Southampton match. We can’t keep trying to rescue ourselves all the time.

The last thing we need is to be complacent and to be rolled over by the Whammers and Moyes putting one over us. Difficult match in prospect. And due to that ****ing **** match against Spurs we need to score goals.

 

I just posted same thing on the PL board We do exactly that until about the 37th game and get Top 4.

It's a totally weird season alright. We'll be 2 points off the top! If... and it's a big IF, we can get some consistency, we could genuinely be title contenders because I think the league this year is wide open. The consistency is in terms of our defence and our attack in equal measure. Either that or we accept we're going to concede and just have to outscore the opposition, but that's unlikely.

I agree with Cavani as the number 9, but I think our lack of depth on the right is beginning to show. I can see Cavani ending up being played there.

 

How about we try this young man? I’m not even sure if he’s fully part of the setup just yet.