We saw a different game, then. I had the benefit of watching the match *after* everyone's knives had come out, as I didn't see it live and had to wait 4 hours for it to show up on MUTV. With that I was watching to see which narrative was the more correct -- was it VDB is shit, Martial is a fat waster, Sancho has two left feet, Mata is a pensioner, Matic is in a wheelchair -- or was there a different view possible? We started really poorly, didn't anything like a rhythm together until after they scored. There's so much negativity on United sites regarding our own players that I try to catch every game live so that I don't get poisoned by it and I can just enjoy it on my own terms. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Go back and watch the part you missed on MUTV. Did you see the part where Mata dinked a ball over the top to Martial, who ran in behind, took the ball on his chest and sort of seal juggled it before trying a shot with his weaker foot? Martial is not displacing Rashford from the left, nor Ronaldo or Cavani from the CF. He's not going to be the Ballon d'Or winner any time soon. Because he's 3rd choice in his favored position we should probably move him on. I think it's unfair to look at this list of stats and conclude he lacked effort.
We should have won. Moss fecked us. Noble had 4 yellow card offenses. Jesse was pulled down in the box. Mata hit the woodwork with an amazing shot no one is even talking about. Sancho hit the post. We had the ball in their half for most of the game. We dominated them, took 27 shots, and Areola made some crazy-ass saves. We fell apart at the end and gifted West Ham some breakaways and Henderson came up with some huge saves of his own. People would have you believe we played like the U14s. We were disjointed because these players are not playing together in competitive fixtures.
In my view, Bailly and Telles were what caused our defensive problems. Telles got skinned so many times and so easily it was sad. Anyone on the pitch knew that Telles was going to get roasted, and that affects how the players around him react to various threats. Lindelof actually did well, and Dalot had me thinking he might get a game ahead of AWB. Matic stood up for the badge and fecking nailed a couple Hammers with dirty challenges because they were getting away with so many uncalled fouls. Sancho came alive in the 2nd half, showed glimpses of something that might resemble the player we thought we bought. Lingard was direct but headless. I mean, we had a lot of players getting their first real taste of action and afterwards fans want them all sent to the knacker's yard.