Never mind the defending...

Sideshow Bob

Sideshow Bob

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Never mind the defending, the quality of football was poor. As Gary Neville said, United were poor with and without the ball.
 
Clueless 2 seasons in and there’s no plan or pattern emerging.

Where’s the plan to score a goal or a style or identity.

Football was painful under Van Gaal but there was a clear style currently under Mourinho we’ve got nothing even resembling a playing style.

Attitude is awful as well hard work beats talent if talent won’t work I think all over the pitch in the opening 2 games the opposition have been hungrier and prepared to work harder than us.

This team is really poor.
 
Yeah that's true. The hardest I saw martial run was when he was substituted. Lukaku was static. Yes living off scraps but I expect more in terms of effort. Rashford is not ready. Fred doesn't look ready, early days I know. Bottom line throughout the team we are poor.
 
It’s easy to single out Martial but Mata, Lukaku, Shaw, Bailly, Lindelof none of them worked harder than their opposite number today they were all second best against their opponent.

I’d say technical ability is very low first touch, close control, basic passing skills were so low no way of going through the middle with the touches being that sloppy.

Obviously a lot of players with not a lot of football in their legs but they were miles off.

Pogba the only one with the balls to get on the ball today no one else tried to take control and lead the comeback. Pogba had a shocker but leadership wise he kept going and kept trying when everyone else had obviously given up.
 
There isn’t a single player that can have their head held high today.
 
I certainly don't think the players can get away with it but I think a decision on Jose could be made sooner rather than later
 
Reluctant too blame the players? Can I ask how?

Young caught out of position for first. Bailly caught out of position for the first, gifted them a corner for the second and gave away a pen for the third. Lindelof not goal side when he should have been. Pogba over hit about 15 passed and passed a ball out of play for no reason. Martial did nothing and shouldn’t have come out for the second half. Mata drifted didn’t play anything nice but nothing wrong either. Lingard’s touch was very heavy and constantly meant he was running in to the opposition. Lukaku’s first touch meant the ball bounced off of him numerous times.

The players were shocking and sometimes even with your blind hatred of the manager you have to realise he isn’t instructing them to have a poor first touch, rash decision making and an inability to keep their heads. Martial in the first half epitomised it when Mourinho turned and said ‘what the hell is he doing’.
 
I think the attitude from the start was awful but there was clearly no plan on how to dominate Brighton and create chances.

Not one attacking move put together today we scored from a lucky break on a set play and a penalty in open play we didn’t open them up at all.

Brighton can forward with purpose because Utd put no pressure on the ball and didn’t get organised quickly when the ball changed hands.

Manager needs criticising for not giving this team an attacking plan after 2 seasons but the players can’t play the way they did without the ball it was disgusting and the panic spread.
 
IDFD said:
Reluctant too blame the players? Can I ask how?
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It would be unfair to blame the manager for individual mistakes, but he is is failing to inspire the players.

IDFD said:
The players were shocking and sometimes even with your blind hatred of the manager
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I've already told you that I will criticise or praise Mourinho when I see fit. It's nothing to do with blind hatred. I would love nothing more than Mourinho to prove me wrong. The football is awful.
 
It's actually been a problem for this team since Fergie left. The attitude of the players is shocking at times. There is no fight, no passion or pride. And it's been this way for too long. Too many players are still at the club that shouldn't be.
 
They’re arrogant they think they’re Man Utd players and they’ve reached the top and it’ll be easy to beat these other teams because they’re better players but they don’t play as a team and it’s a mess.

We are a team who are much less than the sum of their parts.

I honestly think there’s to many players who are just happy to be here because it means they can say they’re Man Utd players they don’t care about winning titles at Utd.

I honestly don’t know where we start with this maybe Matic coming back will give us more control but the way we build from the back is slow and without a plan.
 
It sounded awful on the radio, the players are definitely at fault, I can’t believe the players are sent out without a game plan. Woodward is at fault for not getting a centre back that most people knew we needed. Bailley just isn’t good enough.

It needs to change, and unfortunately the easiest and cheapest way is the manager. We can get a manager who will play nicer football but if this team can’t win trophies with Jose it won’t win trophies full stop.

The players just aren’t good enough, back to Woodward. This club should be able to buy any player, Glazers.

It’s too much of a business, this is main difference to city, it’s all about the football there.
 
There’s no other way @Mr C every game there’s no clear style of play or plan on how we want to score it’s basically give the ball to Pogba or give it to Sanchez we never sustain pressure and pin a team in there own half.

Today we gave up and just hoofed it to Fellaini in hope and it worked a lot better than whatever plan A was meant to be.

Season 3 and I still don’t see a style of play tactics seem to be here’s how we defend but going forward work it out for yourselfves. They don’t know how to build from the back quickly it goes into midfield but never into the attack normally it’s back to defence. They clearly don’t have a plan if they do then every team has worked it out and knows how to stop it.
 
IDFD said:
Reluctant too blame the players? Can I ask how?

Young caught out of position for first. Bailly caught out of position for the first, gifted them a corner for the second and gave away a pen for the third. Lindelof not goal side when he should have been. Pogba over hit about 15 passed and passed a ball out of play for no reason. Martial did nothing and shouldn’t have come out for the second half. Mata drifted didn’t play anything nice but nothing wrong either. Lingard’s touch was very heavy and constantly meant he was running in to the opposition. Lukaku’s first touch meant the ball bounced off of him numerous times.

The players were shocking and sometimes even with your blind hatred of the manager you have to realise he isn’t instructing them to have a poor first touch, rash decision making and an inability to keep their heads. Martial in the first half epitomised it when Mourinho turned and said ‘what the hell is he doing’.
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...but Jose bought most of these players?! Its also obvious the tactics were wrong. Brighton played high energy and high press but we didnt match that. Instead , we tried to play round them. Bailly gave away that corner because he trying to play it back to De Gea when it wasnt really on , but maybe the team was instructed to play it around at the back wherever possible? Thats down to the manager. The third goal came from a kick from De Gea who instead of hoofing it tried a long pass to Fred. Individual mistake or partly a tactical thing?
 
Today was the lowest point of the past 2 seasons and a bit and it might well be up there with the worst I’ve seen.

This type of performance isn’t new, it’s become a regular thing when we play these so called smaller clubs, we don’t turn up and they put in a decent shift and win. I don’t think Brighton actually had to work that hard for it today, I thought it was very easy for them.

When every single player on the park fails to even put a decent performance in, it’s a worry and you’ve got to look at the manager when that happens. 1 or 2 and you can blame the player(s). When it’s 14 players, the manager is doing something wrong. The players are no longer responding to him in these games. He’s managed to get performances out of them against the big clubs so we’ll see what happens Monday night at home to Spurs.

There’s been a big change in Mourinho’s attitude since the transfer window shut, he’s gone from being annoyed to seemingly not giving a hoot, almost like he’s given up on the season and possibly the job.
 
Today felt a lot like the ‘f*cking Fulham though’ under Moyes. It’s either the end of Mourinho or when we turn a corner.
 
IDFD said:
Today felt a lot like the ‘f*cking Fulham though’ under Moyes. It’s either the end of Mourinho or when we turn a corner.
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At least we tried to win in that game and had some sort of plan to try and score that day. It was basic ‘get it wide and cross it’ but it was something more than hoping someone pulls a rabbit out of the hat.

I genuinely think today was one of the lowest points of my time watching United. The mentality is all wrong from the top to the manager to the players. Something has got to give.
 
It was no 6-1 at home to City which I think was the definite low point of mine. 3-0 to Liverpool. It was a poor performance but it was a start of the season after a World Cup performance.

Let’s try not look further in to it than that for now. Bounce back next week with a win against Spurs and then the season starts properly after the international break.

Something needs to give though. We have to start playing with more belief and intensity. Even if that means dropping Mata for Gomes/Chong someone whose going to fight for the shirt.

We can’t afford to carry passengers at the moment and Martial and Mata even though they didn’t do anything wrong left us playing 9 v 11 in the first half.
 
They're quickly becoming a bogey side for us are Brighton not sure in our 4 games against them since they came up we've had a convincing performance against them even the win in the FA Cup was a grind played in a blizzard.

Last season we all said players just weren't at it with one eye on the cup final as I think by then 2nd was assured and it was all eyes on Wembley but yesterday was exactly the same stuff out worked and bullied by an inferior team and others will take notice. Brighton aren't a terrible side they'll be mid table again this year very hard to play against but for a team of our resources we should be able to break them down.

The only chance we really had in open play yesterday was the Lukaku chance early on where he pounced on a mistake but not once did we open them up and create a chance. That said we go 1-0 up I think we win easily even 3-1 down at half time there was something there for us but we just didn't want it and I do wonder if there's enough quality in that attacking area.

Right now there's definitely a problem linking the midfield to the attack probably due to the absence of a number 10 yesterday we looked like we changed to 4-2-3-1 at half time but Lingard never really got on the ball and provided that link. That's 2 games out of 2 were we haven't looked convincing going forward and with no real change over the summer in that department it's hard to see if that problem that was there last season will improve.
 
The problem with going 1-0 up is we don't seem to know what to do from there. Days gone by we would have scored 2 or 3, this mob would probably sit back and defend and end up having the last 15 mins squeaky bum time.
 
I think they know what to do when they're 1-0 up think @IDFD pointed out going ahead Utd didn't drop any points last season it's not always comfortable watching because they don't build a lead very well they tend to just protect what they have. We also had a very good record when conceeding the first goal last season so they know how to recover from a set back but we don't dominate poor teams and put them away. When we the last time Utd scored 5 in a game?

I don't know what it is but this team doesn't build pressure very rarely watching Utd does it feel like a goal is coming we tend to create a good attack but we don't really keep that momentum top sides when they get into top gear come in wave after wave and eventually the crack emerges and they punish it Utd don't seem to have that in the locker anymore. We rarely seem to have 2-3 chances in a 5 minute window where we've got the opposition on the ropes and we cetainly don't react well to conceeding a goal our heads wobble for a few minutes and teams can really punish that which Brighton did yesteray.

There's zero pressing from the front we lose the ball we drop off and let the opposition build attacks which is dangerous when teams now are so good at counter attacks. We donn't really seem to pressure the ball as a team yesterday every time it was a player going one vs one to recover the ball whereas Brighton hunted in packs to isolate a player and trap him.

He's got a full week with the entire squad now he really needs to get to work on the training ground because Spurs at home has become must win now you can't fall behind in this league we need to see a much more convincing performance before the international break because very quickly the CL will be upon us and the time available to train the team will be limited.
 
Losing to Spurs is no biggie, they have a better team. Losing to Brighton isn't really on, and now it does put pressure on the Spurs game.
 
Doesn't matter who we lose to, losing 2 on the trot at this stage of the campaign with all the Jose haters circling would put huge pressure on him
 
If we lost to Spurs i'm not sure I can handle the Mourinho haters having 2 weeks of the international break banging on about him. They're more draining than his post match interview when he looks like the world is on his shoulders.
 
I don't think losing two at the start of the campaign is that big a thing, we have done that before and won the title.

The problem here is twofold for united, the press are baying for Jose to fail in his 3rd year and a defeat to Brighton is just what they are after.
City look like they are just as strong as last year and don't look like dropping many points so any dropped points is exaggerated.

So in the current climate it's not great, but not for united, more for Jose
 
Have you seen how many threads and posts have been made on this forum alone in the last 20 hours or so? It's gone mental. I don't look at Twitter anymore, I can only imagine what is gong on there! As you say, it's a media fest losing to Brighton and they will be desperate for Jose to lose at Spurs. Stories of Woodward visiting the changing room after 'Real Madrid Perez' style won't help either.

After watching that crap yesterday I fear for the cricket scoreline that Spurs could inflict on us!
 
Mr C said:
I don't think losing two at the start of the campaign is that big a thing, we have done that before and won the title.

The problem here is twofold for united, the press are baying for Jose to fail in his 3rd year and a defeat to Brighton is just what they are after.
City look like they are just as strong as last year and don't look like dropping many points so any dropped points is exaggerated.

So in the current climate it's not great, but not for united, more for Jose
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I think the problem is this season has started like last season ended nothing has really changed the same problems are still there (not all Mourinho's fault) and assuming Liverpool win tonight our 2 biggest rivals are currently playing the sort of football we became used to and looking like they'll be fighting for the title this season.

The whole thing is disconnected the board aren't backing the manager, the manager obviously has some issues with his players and vica versa and the fans don't believe in the team. That positivity from the first season and the start of the second season has slowly drained away maybe because we've realised we've got a monster task to go toe to toe with City currently but the owners and players don't seem up for the fight.

To give Mourinho some credit since the window shut he's been very good in the press conferences which was needed he didn't need to add fuel to the fire.
 
JSNFRMN said:
Today was the lowest point of the past 2 seasons and a bit and it might well be up there with the worst I’ve seen.

This type of performance isn’t new, it’s become a regular thing when we play these so called smaller clubs, we don’t turn up and they put in a decent shift and win. I don’t think Brighton actually had to work that hard for it today, I thought it was very easy for them.

When every single player on the park fails to even put a decent performance in, it’s a worry and you’ve got to look at the manager when that happens. 1 or 2 and you can blame the player(s). When it’s 14 players, the manager is doing something wrong. The players are no longer responding to him in these games. He’s managed to get performances out of them against the big clubs so we’ll see what happens Monday night at home to Spurs.

There’s been a big change in Mourinho’s attitude since the transfer window shut, he’s gone from being annoyed to seemingly not giving a hoot, almost like he’s given up on the season and possibly the job.
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....and maybe the players are picking this vibe up from him. They certainly looked like they had given up.
 
Or maybe the players have a poor attitude and need a fire up their ass. Perhaps? You really are blind to anything not being Mourinho’s fault aren’t you?
 
Think it’s fair to say it’s become a devilish topic amongst fans and everyone is picking sides.

I don’t think the kicks up the backside have worked maybe a bit more carrot than stick approach that he seems to be taking will see better results but it’s early days of the nice relaxed public Mourinho.

I still want to see some sort of plan or style when we have the ball it’s year 3 surely we should be seeing that by now regardless of the players the fact we aren’t suggest he’s not really tried to impose on one them. It seems like our game plans are all about what the opposition might do to hurt us not what we want to do to hurt them that attitude is ok against strong opposition but feels like we are doing it every game.
 
Wasn't sure where to put this but read this morning that we've spent less time in the final third after 2 games than Huddersfield. We've played Leicester and Brighton. They've played Chelsea and City. Understand it's only 2 games and it's early but our attacking play is so poor, probably regressed since season one.

I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Spurs on Monday but drop points in the next 2 v Burnley and Watford. That's how it seems to work these days.
 

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