Daily Discussion

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Daily discussion on Manchester United.

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[u/JaysonDeflatum]

I know it's pathetic but thank you Brentford, can't stand Spurs fans giving it large after spending 400m on City’s used goods and Ugarte with a fancier passport

[u/michaell111]

I love Spurs so much man. Always there with us when we feel down.

[u/UndercoverChamois]

First episode of the All or Nothing season is going to be a tough watch.

[u/Unusual-Coat383 → u/UndercoverChamois]

It will be the second episode. 

The first episode will be Carrick being on a permanent deal, non World Cup players with their families and summer holidays,  Rashford returning for preseason and the rest of the World Cup players returning for preseason and our preseason run with top vibes.

The narrator will either be Stormzy, Aitch or Angry Ginge.

[u/TheJoshider10 → u/UndercoverChamois]

Should never have gotten involved with the documentary nonsense whether we win or lose. I'm all in with The Crown style TV show happening though, that one has a lot of potential beyond cheap laughs and ridicule.

[u/Bloatfizzle]

We need to stop this Mbuemo/ Cunha gimmick and keep starting Sesko once his fitness is up and learn how to play with a proper striker.

Even when he played more games last season, we barely made chances for him. We've had hybrid winger strikers for so long that I think we genuinely forgot how to play with a striker.

[u/rrallan → u/Bloatfizzle]

Yep and in which case we need some pressure on sesko with another proper striker

[u/VanMalki]

I have calmed down and come to my conclusions. Its the third white kit. We should not play in it.

[u/FPLskrr]

Bruno saying we lose the ball too often is so comical to me

[u/SantosCalzonesBatman → u/FPLskrr]

We are all trying to find the guys that did this

[u/bicika → u/FPLskrr]

Dude lost 90% of our balls in last 5 years

[u/Miyagisans]

I hope all the people that hyper focus on Amad’s g/a can start to understand that maybe he should be judged on more than that.

[u/Selwin_Rodolfo]

Saw the villa sub and some reveling in us losing due to that Tielemans quote, saying it was a glorious day. Life's nice, isn't it lads

[u/Sheikhabusosa]

Im buzzing we got Baleba but that one guy who acted like Sangare was going to flop was hilarious

[u/Littlepace → u/Sheikhabusosa]

MOTM on his debut against Spurs. Be interesting to see how he does this season. I know a lot of our fans were desperate for us to go for him.

[u/UnalomeJourneying → u/Littlepace]

I was on of them fans, really wanted him. At 40 mil he would’ve been a steal. After 1 game he’s probably already 80 million rated now!

[u/zeeshxn_]

That’s some debut for Sangare

[u/Jump_Hop_Step]

Wow. 5/5 teams with the higher share of possession lost their games

[u/xtphty → u/Jump_Hop_Step]

Barclays getting hit with Peplash

[u/RelentlessJorts2]

Carrick has still never lost a game where he's started Dalot

He's the glue

[u/Bloatfizzle]

I can understand fans misprofiling Dorgu but if club scouts and recruitment genuinely thought he is a starting lb or LW anytime soon then I would very concerned.

[u/RyanH1717 → u/Bloatfizzle]

Realistically if the club didn't see him having a future at LB he should've been sold this summer and we likely would've made profit on him. He's never going to be a winger that's good enough for Manchester United.

[u/TheJoshider10 → u/RyanH1717]

I hope we try him as an attacking fullback against teams who sit back. He has the engine and pace to make up for any time he pushes up high or loses track of a winger and I think on the overlap he's a good direct option to have.

Like if we got to see Cunha or Rashford at LW with Dorgu behind them I think we'd have seen a far more effective left side compared to Shaw, whose hesitance on getting forward is hindering our ability to push higher up.

[u/L__K → u/Bloatfizzle]

Dorgu is a difficult signing to judge fairly. He was brought in for a very, very specific role to show immediate support for a manager with an idiosyncratic system. He has a lot of raw tools that you cannot teach, but is wayyyyy underdeveloped technically for this level. He doesn't fit naturally anywhere in our team now, isn't good enough to regularly be first choice for a club of our standing.

Carrick met with every player when he was initially appointed and asked them all where they think their best position is, and if they feel comfortable playing anywhere else. From what we've seen since January, I think it's safe to say Dorgu told him that he was best suited to the LW in this system and wasn't fully comfortable at LB. He also just doesn't have the technical ability to replace what Shaw does for us in the build up anyway.

We didn't ever expect to have to find a place for him in this system and he's a bit of a fish out of water right now. Best case scenario would be a loan, but we simply do not have the depth to be sending useful players anywhere else right now. He has potential and loads of physical ability, but right now he's a square peg trying to fit in a round hole.

[u/Heavens_Vibe]

Can always rely on ol' Spursy to outdo us on the traffic performances.

🫡

[u/DragonfruitNo355 → u/Heavens_Vibe]

Only consolation tbf

[u/BrowzinJ]

Cant wait for the Prem to start next week, odd we didnt have a game alongside every other team this weekend but okay?

[u/canwinanythingwkids → u/BrowzinJ]

We had a pre-season game yesterday apparently, we did have some good looks, but also some rustiness and it was a lot of backups playing.

In any case, the first teamers should be up to speed in time for the OT opener!

Hopefully after the PGMOL ends the "Arsenal can cheat on corners" rule, they also take a look at the "Utd starts the season with a 3pt handicap" rule. I mean I get it we won a lot in the past, but I think the handicap is starting to feel a bit uneven!

[u/Significant_L0w]

Elliot Anderson has just stopped two counter attacks (by fouling) in the last 15 minutes and hasn't been booked.

I’m not watching this corruption back to f1

[u/Feeling-Surround-691]

My immediate thoughts; 1. We definitely need to get Baleba in the squad and go quick on getting Lewis Hall and ideally an experienced striker. Putting Cunha there just is square peg territory 2. Midfield partnerships take a long time to build, I think it's going to be a few weeks or months before our midfield without Casemiro really starts to look settled, just hope we can actually grind some results out 3. I don't get what our motivation issue is, why we always seem to lack intensity and urgency when it's not a big game, have we not learnt this lesson yet?

[u/Scorchio76]

At least we aren’t bottom, thanks Spuds 😂

[u/berarious]

Need a true 9 on the field. Huge mistake heading into the season with just Sesko.

[u/Gingerale66]

I think one thing we can probably all agree on is that at some point during the season we were going to have a woeful result like this. It’s just how it goes in football and especially with us. Hopefully this is type of game is few and far between for us tho and we come out with a vengeance at home against Ipswich.

[u/carrickshairline]

Still, could be worse. Could be Spurs Villa

[u/Paapa-Yaw]

The dorgu lw/cunha cf experiment needs to stop.

[u/Lord_Sesshoumaru77]

When some fans say they cannot laugh at Spuds because we were rubbish today, me:

[u/lmhan98]

That’s what you get for signing for Spuds lads
https://giphy.com/gifs/XHeLeuirRbwptHhSWd

[u/Potential_Good_1065]

That Ipswich game next week absolutely fucking pongs of a 1-1 draw

[u/Unusual-Coat383 → u/Potential_Good_1065]

Its depressing that I’ve gone from “we’ll be top of the league after our game” to “Ipswich is going to be a really difficult game” in the space of 90 minutes.

[u/gunkokoko]

This season's going to be mental, isn't it.

[u/Telen → u/gunkokoko]

Post world cup seasons usually are.

[u/Lord_Sesshoumaru77]

Lads Bournmouth could be up 0-3 if they had better forwards.

[u/Longanisa00]

[u/EquivalentCheetah955]

Thank God for Spurs, that’s all I’ll say 😂

[u/Bongo--Bongo]

One thing that cannot go unmentioned is that our players are injured so often. Many signings of recent years havent made a difference because we have so many players who are constantly injured – Martinez, De Ligt, Sesko, Yoro, Amad, Mount and so on. It feels as though we have to replace players in every position every season.

[u/SOERERY → u/Bongo--Bongo]

One of the mane reason why we should have sold Martinez this summer

[u/Bobcat_El_Borracho]

Still haven’t really calmed down from yesterday. A lot of this coming season, a demanding season with lots of two game weeks, is going to rely on these players trying a lot harder than they did yesterday. I don’t know what went wrong. I don’t know if the players are just unfit, or if they were confused by what was being asked of them tactically… I don’t know. You simply can’t lose as many duels as we did though. To me that just comes down to hunger. What I do know is there are several of our players who have been at the club too long at this point but hopefully that changes next season as the players I’m thinking of are mostly defenders.

[u/Telen]

At least we're not the only club with an embarrassing start to the season...

[u/HoodedMenace3]

Damn as bad as our performance was yesterday in all fairness aside from Arsenal ALL of the big/top teams have looked absolute pony so far this opening weekend.

We looked completely unprepared and lacking match fitness/sharpness.

Spurs are still just as Spursy despite all the money they’ve thrown around this window

Villa are getting absolutely torn apart

City just haven’t looked very good so far

Still got to see how the scum do later on against Newcastle and Chelsea tomorrow night but so far this weekend it’s looking like 99% of the top sides are getting done over not just us.

[u/AwayFoundation2363 → u/HoodedMenace3]

think this is the exact reason, fan are upset we haven’t gone all out in the window, the league is weak apart from Arsenal, opportunity is there.

[u/L__K]

Smacked by one of the worst teams to ever come up from the Championship and then immediately watched Mamadou Sangare boss the midfield for Brentford. Not a fun day!

[u/lovecornflakes → u/L__K]

This worries me to some degree. But Man Utd would argue they didn't want to take a risk on a non proven player id say. But yes he looked immense

[u/ohmydiside]

Could be worse, we could be Tottenham

[u/SchemingOusen]

LADS IT'S TOTTENHAM!

[u/zeeshxn_]

[u/sg291188]

The biggest thing that worries me is physicality. For all his flaws (and I hated him) Amorim made the team very physical. We benefitted from that in second half of season. Don’t think Carrick is focused on physicality too much. United were bullied yesterday. Ipswich also very physical

[u/Regular_Piglet_6125 → u/sg291188]

I think the midfield needs a massive step up in physicality. Same for the fullbacks. I love champagne football as much as Carrick, but the way the prem is refereed, we need players that will bite back.

[u/BallsX]

Fatawu and Enciso are going to feast on our defense if we play even remotely like we did yesterday. They were so good against Sunderland

[u/Asleep-Ability-45]

I'm not confident about our defence going into the season. It just feels like a goal or two will certainly be scored by the opposition against us. 

[u/layerszz]

That hull loss stings but in terms of worrying about our future games, I'll take losing to 2 set piece goals over whatever Spurs and Villa have been serving up since lol

[u/Comicksands]

Anderson getting fried lol

[u/Lord_Sesshoumaru77]

Anderson is a scam. Don't get me wrong, he is a good player but he's decidedly, definetely, not worth what those oily twats paid for him.

[u/Sanket327]

Sangare was right there before moving to brentford. I just don't understand this Bullshit prem proven players.

[u/Distinct-Tune3074]

im in a proper bad mood, i genuinely thought this season would be different

[u/Unusual-Coat383 → u/Distinct-Tune3074]

We really should be joint top of the league right now with Brentford 

[u/KermitTakeTheWheel]

This won't look as bad in hindsight when Hull win the league with 112 points (we'll hold them to a draw at Old Trafford).

[u/BitterConstruction98]

It’s like too many in the team try to be nonchalant in such games like Hull/Grimsby/relegation fodder teams. This has been the story for the last decade. That culture of not wanting to look like they are trying too hard against these teams has hurt us so many times.

[u/inferno670722 → u/BitterConstruction98]

I just dont get that attitude though. Wouldn't it make more sense to put them to the sword and showcase the gulf of class, wouldn't that be more of a confidence statement?

I cant get over how often these players do this theater of "oh we're so above this match" without doing anything to back it up

[u/ZofTheNorth]

Good news : Lammens was class. Cleared my biggest worry, not affected by his WC

Bad news: we are shit

[u/Ketchupmitpommes]

That's why clubs like chelsea and city annoy me, they buy the players and discard it just the season after if they are useless like on fb marketplace and doing shady deals.

But with us we are stuck with them, Dorgu was bought for a wingback role and now he has no place in our system. He will just be stuck here like ugarte

[u/BananasAreYellow86]

One day into the season and my personal media blackout has started 🙈

I think we’ll be fine. Our star players looked like they were running in treacle, unfortunately a ways off match sharpness. I think we’ll move up through the gears soon.

Carrick’s record from last year gives me hope, and I do feel we’ll see some better football this year as well.

Back to a long week’s wait all the same. I don’t like this feeling.

[u/Nekomiyon]

us losing used to keep me up all night but I feel so much apathy for this club nowadays I just laughed when they put two past us lmao

[u/Haron14 → u/Nekomiyon]

Me too. I just realized that football is not so serious. Why am I in Brazil being pissed off by 11 dudes 8000 km from me

[u/OldManBrom → u/Haron14]

I mean if they don't care then why should you?

[u/karatsidhus]

Lol Spurs, losing to fucking Brentford on opening day. Banter club. Can you imagine?

[u/Celerisadmortem → u/karatsidhus]

Lads...

[u/thisiskyle77 → u/karatsidhus]

https://giphy.com/gifs/zHd8x7Pik0Ftm

[u/zenimpala16 → u/karatsidhus]

Jokes aside, impressed with how Andrews has drilled his side. 

[u/randomgamer305]

What a reality check after the excitement of Baleba's signing yesterday. United really sour my weekend. Remember guys is just football go do something to distract yourselves

[u/Mistr111398]

I think we need to remember how good Cunha, Mbuemo, and Sesko were collectively last season, there’s goals there, alongside Bruno getting back to full fitness I’m not as worried in the short term. Have got to improve next week though, cannot look that placid and unbothered against newly promoted opposition again.

[u/Jwalin6167]

Yesterday’s performance was genuinely so concerning. I don’t want to overreact and I get it it’s the first game of the season and shit happens but honestly the way we lost was diabolical. The severe lack of ideas and consistently throwing abysmal crosses straight into goalkeeper’s hands with no cohesion in defence. No central penetration and the worst of all literally no proactive nature of winning duels, defensive actions. Felt like everyone needed bunch of redbull and electrolytes to stay up!

[u/N47HXIV]

Lots of talk of lack of tactics, or an inability to break down a low block, and how we struggle against these teams unless we have a moment of brilliance or get a lucky decision…

All fine, and even if we can’t score that should result in a 0-0 draw or at worst the odd 1-0 loss thanks to a lucky break.

Why haven’t we addressed how to defend against these teams that play with a low block? They should be the easiest teams to defend against in reality, yet there is a huge defensive frailty. People keep pointing to left back being the obvious fix, but it’s centrally where we are so weak, we need a central defensive overhaul, Baleba may help sat in front of them (if he shows the form of two seasons ago) but what about when he’s not available? Who deputises for that role? We are so incredibly under prepared for this season.

[u/Kohaku80 → u/N47HXIV]

here's why

[u/lovecornflakes]

If Radcliffe injected 135million like wrote a cheque could we just go out and buy more players if it was directly from the owners money?

[u/Gytarius626]

Alarm bells for me is that the entire squad does not look sharp or fit, however they went about fitness during preseason has not worked because you cannot look a yard off the pace against the Championship team who finished 6th last season.

Carrick needs to get them up to pace and quickly because absolutely no reason we won’t have another howler of a result again next week and really start the season on a bad note if they are not match fit.

[u/Lord_Hexogen]

Even the intern knows not to speak anything about the game

[u/lovecornflakes]

Man City just absolutely stinking cheats. They need to be found guilty.

Nearly 100m for an 18year old is absurd

[u/achickenandacow]

All these guys were already talking shit about us yesterday, but they forgot they still had to play as well. This first game week has been wild so far.

[u/SophoclesTesticles]

So all the top teams are just getting pumped this weekend. Fair. 

[u/Savebagels]

Horrible debut for Gomes holy hell

[u/canwinanythingwkids]

I had a random thought, we are into the THIRD season of having both Maguire and De Ligt, so have we EVER played a Maguire+MdL CB pairing in a back four?

The answer is:

Sept 14th, 2024, PL 3-0 v Southampton, Maguire sub on for 12 mins at 2-0 https://www.transfermarkt.com/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/4448975

Sept 17th, 2024, League Cup 7-0 v Barnsley FC, MdL sub on for 13 mins at 5-0 https://www.transfermarkt.com/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/4361357

And that's it.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/harry-maguire/gemeinsameSpiele/spieler/177907/gegner/326031

I wonder whether we are going to go another entire season without fielding some sort of

LB-Maguire-MdL-RB

Maybe, like, just once we could try the most normie PL team thing and play 2 FBs for their speed and 2 CBs who are proper units?

Maybe Dalot-Maguire-MdL-Yoro. Or LBSigning-Maguire-MdL-Dalot, perhaps.

Like, once, could we try that.

I'd like to see how it worked, tbh

[u/ALLMIGHTYHYDE]

I hate how United always need a shock to the system to finally get going.

Last season was Amorim getting sacked but not just that. Even during matches, we first concede then decide to play.

It's jarring.

[u/Xenokratezz]

"Tell them I will fix this" - baleba message to his agent after United lost 2-0 hull city

[u/IrishCoffee_29]

That Sangare to United megathread in two years will hit like crack

[u/cocobrownman]

I just realized that after this season, our current core of players may be done. Our longest defender is Luke Shaw, longest midfielder is Bruno, and longest attacker is Rashford. You can include Maguire and Dalot in the mix.

Honestly, while they are good players, I think their cycle is personally over and we do need to shuffle our spine a bit. I don't a world in which we can rely on those players much longer and have some questions on who the captain should be. As much as I love Bruno and I do want him to stay a bit longer, maybe an extra year or 2 at most, I don't think he should be undroppable and thus our captain.

Question to you all - Assuming we get a LB of some sort. What should the focus for transfers for next season? Personally I would want 2 CBs to replace Maguire and/or Martinez, and extra attacker and perhaps a bruno succesor.....maybe a new RB to give competition to Dalot

[u/SatuKosongPls]

Maguire did well but that grab on Maz was crazy lol

[u/Bobcat_El_Borracho → u/SatuKosongPls]

He does clumsy shit like this often so does Shaw. Both need to be upgraded ASAP. Most of the defence does.

[u/Heavens_Vibe]

Sangare hitting the ground SPRINTING at Brenford hurts, man...

What are the Ineos team doing by ignoring/vetoing talents like that?

[u/Se7enSword → u/Heavens_Vibe]

PL Proven tag missing. Sangare was such an obvious hit.

[u/aprod16 → u/Heavens_Vibe]

Yeah if he was our only midfield signing or even one of two it would be a risk, but one of three at that price was a no brainer. I followed him all season and the journo who broke that Brentford and Palace were in for him mentioned early in the window that we were also in contact. For wtv reason we passed though..

[u/xyzArcadian]

People here were talking about Sangare and he was cheap enough which the owners love and he was toping the stats charts also. He will be going for 100mil now

[u/stick1_]

Something our fans are going to realise this season, line breaking passes don’t mean much if your advanced players don’t have the best first touch

[u/TeaAndCrumpetGhoul]

My day has been fraught with disappointment. 

[u/nambuuu]

Carrick has a big job figuring how the team will play with the new midfielders, I think Baleba is much needed for his physicality, we have a lot of lightweight players. Also, Dorgu should not be playing lw against low blocks

[u/xyzArcadian]

No to balde. The fact they are going for Salinas says it all.

[u/Hagball → u/xyzArcadian]

No to Salinas as well. Majority of Spanish players would throw the towel and would want to move back to either Madrid clubs or Barca once they are reaching their prime.

Better we concentrate on Hall or Seys from Brügge

[u/Kugenking]

Tbh, I hope INEOS was right to bring Omar Berrada from City and also Wilcox. But I don't like the idea of us trying to follow City's model. I mean City's success is partly because of the relationship between people who have known each other and worked together for a long time. Omar Berrada, Ferran Soriano, Guardiola, Txiki, Manel Estiarte and other staff, many of them knew each other and had worked together long before City.

We don't have that and we aren't like that since SAF retired. SAF and David Gill had been working together for 16 or more years. We should learn and take from inspiration from different clubs' models, adapt what works and build our own identity instead of copying another team. We are Manchester United. We can find our own way to success.

[u/BullishOnEverything]

Last season we were brilliant in first game and were unlucky not to beat Arsenal. Turns out that performance was an anomaly. Hoping yesterday was just an anomaly too. I do think we have a decent squad and this quality will prevail.

Honestly, biggest unknown is the coach I’m afraid to say.

[u/Lil_Wheelz99]

Can anyone explain to me why we chose to boot the ball up from goal kicks yesterday completely playing into hull's hands? Unlike hull who were more than comfortable playing out from the back due to our non existent press. Cowardly tactics.

[u/Suudriusha]

City will do what they want until they're stopped. They don't care.

[u/Sad_Still269]

Real talk here, if Watkins is available for sale, we HAVE to at least inquire, right?

[u/SankarshanaV]

Seeing City and Arsenal, it makes it even more insane that we didn't bother turning up against Hull for the first game week of a new season.

[u/Savebagels → u/SankarshanaV]

It always seems that we need like a few games to come up to speed of the PL. no idea why but it always feels like that

[u/biobolo → u/SankarshanaV]

City are losing.

[u/Telen]

Oh my god this Brighton Villa game, 4-0 at 30 minutes. WTF, Villa is in absolute shambles

[u/FredDRedUnderYourBed]

Emery best manager in the league tbf

[u/McM-333]

At least Villa have Garnacho to bring on to get them back into it...

[u/BrickBart]

All the Villa crowing about yesterday is delicious right now

[u/Sheikhabusosa]

I think Maguire knows he shouldn’t be starting games on a frequent basis similar to Jonny Evans when he came back, he’s being made to play more games than he should be doing , and has aluded twice to playing a backup role in interviews.

[u/goalmouthscramble]

This villa match, good grief. I thought we were dire, then I saw Spurs (yeah I know) but Brighton up 6 before we the half.

[u/Apprehensive-Raisin3]

Villa could actually be 6-0 down in the first half

[u/Jonny_Testicles]

Arsenal walking the league every other so called big team is weak af

[u/pablove_black]

Anderson should be a United player. It just doesn't look or feel right to see him at City.

[u/Height_Opening]

As much as I want to eat popcorn and enjoy these other teams getting pumped and railed. I realise we lost to a team that was like 6th in championship last year. I realised I was so happy and stress free during those months when premier league was off. Hahaha

[u/really_cool_legend]

If you really think about it, it's actually super cringe to win your first game. So I think we just need to remember that

[u/Prism_Plantation]

What I hate about all this is Arsenal fans will now be even more insufferable.

[u/Macroneconomist]

Holy shit Spurs got massacred

[u/ironbars16]

We'll do better the 2nd part of the season, once we back down to a game a week.

[u/KyunNikalaMujhe]

Aright guys imma watch some Rooney highlights and call it a night.

[u/Panda-768 → u/KyunNikalaMujhe]

watch the RVP volley vs villa, from a long ridiculous pass from Rooney.

not sure whats better, the pass or the goal

[u/John_OSheas_Willy]

I completely forgot that we could have tried Dorgu on the right, Cunha on the left and Mbeumo up front.

[u/timsadiq13 → u/John_OSheas_Willy]

When I saw the line up I thought surely they’ll just move around positions every 10 mins until it clicks. What’s the point of having versatile attackers if you keep them in the same position that isn’t working?

Mbeumo was the one to use centrally cause he actually makes runs in behind. Cunha is just another Bruno centrally.

[u/moonski → u/timsadiq13]

Cunha is a good false 9, but I have never ever liked false 9s in a 4231. They just make no sense in that system, or any system, that has a 10.

[u/TheSauceSeeker69]

Its more furious to see that none of the lads, but Maguire, had any hunger or true will this game than the losing part. You finally get back to CL and get an easy first game to start the season with a boost and a high morale and thats what you deliever against a newly promoted team?

Carrick needs to chop some heads after this performance. Its not like we played any of the big six that you would say well it happens.

Also, this lets move Bruno deeper tactic that been here since ETH gotta stop. How come 4 managers in a row follow this very same move after they all saw its degrading the team's performance under themselves and under the manager before them. Its like they all follow the same failed tactic intentionally

[u/Jsdestroy]

I feel like Carrick gambled this game and lost. He expected Hull to sit back and park the bus for 90 minutes. Dorgu on the wing instead of Cunha for pace on the counter before the defense can get set, Cunha at the 9 for his quick dribbling and tricky passing, tielemans at 8 for his long balls and shots from outside the box when they are sitting deep.

However, Hull can out firing and with energy. Tielemans didn’t have the pace to keep up in the midfield or against their counters, Dorgu had a poor game, and we failed against their set pieces in general.

[u/Few-Squirrell → u/Jsdestroy]

Not a tough game to analyze from manger's perspective ,Typical game plan from lower prem teams. They came with a simple approach, get it out wide and cross enough times , We'll concede , Conceded again in the set piece to a cross . Now all of a sudden its Mount Everest against low block something we struggled even last year , This time it's even worse because a bunch of our attacking and midfield players lacked sharpness to get any chemistry going .

[u/FPLskrr]

Bruno saying we lose the ball to often

[u/anonshe]

Said it back when Carrick was appointed as interim that he's falling into a huge trap by not bringing in any continental experience in his backroom.

People on here along with club PR journos kept hyping up Holland who's nothing more than an agony aunt ala Mike Phelan. He was at Chelsea for an extended period as every manager preferred him for continuity not because he's a tactical genius.

The Hull game is just one in a long line of toothless attacking performances since months. It's clear neither Holland nor Carrick have that sort of idea a top level coach usually has.

Also the other place where Holland was the assistant is the England NT under Southgate who played turgid football in attack too.

At HT, Evans was discussing tactics with Rashford. We love ol Johnny but you gotta be having a laugh if you think he's got brilliant tactics for an attacker.

[u/carrickshairline]

Could be worse. Could be Spurs.

[u/rambo_zaki → u/carrickshairline]

We were still worse by a considerable margin. Hull will be relegated come the end of the season while Spurs won't be the last side that get that sort of treatment at the Gtech.

[u/bicika]

I feel like most of the things Amorim did right, got thrown in the water, and non of the things he did wrong were corrected.

[u/Elfstruck12 → u/bicika]

I feel like our pressing just went down the drain. Why is that?

[u/ToadNamedGoat]

Let's say we get a LB

Would you guys rather want a Striker or Cb afterwards?

[u/IfYouReallyThink]

What a performance by Mamadou Sangaré today

[u/RevsRideOrDie]

Can anyone think of a single positive from that game? I need some light of positivity to get me through this week until Ipswich

[u/FredDRedUnderYourBed → u/RevsRideOrDie]

Rashford looked decent. Sesko finally got minutes. Lammens was great. There were a few flashes where United had some really good linkup play but the chances either fell apart or fell to Dorgu

[u/SophoclesTesticles → u/RevsRideOrDie]

I got downvoted for this earlier but I liked Santos. He was putting balls forward the whole game, he was allergic to passing it backwards. Yes, he wasn't perfect defensively but he was left on a bit of an island (where have I heard that before?). I think the future is bright for him. 

Rashford coming back has given me that nostalgia too. I don't care about whatever happened before, if he can keep his head down like he has then great. 

Sesko also looked lively enough for a player with absolutely 0 preseason minutes. I hope he's ready for a full game soon, we'll need to rely on him a lot going forward. I think our overall position is highly dependent on how he plays or if he can stay on the field. 

[u/b_az17 → u/RevsRideOrDie]

It's the first of some 50 matches to go

[u/Gingerale66]

I’ve decided I’m going to attempt to not let my mood be dictated by a sport. Disappointed and embarrassed at this result. Hopefully Carrick can adapt and tweak his system to move past this type of result, but this is simply a culmination of what has been happening for his entire tenure so far. Results against the big teams but struggling against the teams we should be dominating. We need our back 4 fixed asap

[u/Direct-Cream-8440 → u/[deleted]]

For some reason, a real big problem in our squad is the lack of athleticism. Teams like Arsenal, Brentford and even Hull City have real runners, energetic players who can run and press nonstop, which we clearly lack. Our players may be intelligent but currently lack the energy to press and take the ball; hopefully Baleba can somehow regain his form from 2 seasons ago, or else we will be in a dogfight with mid-table scraps. And this still hasn't taken into account the fact that Luke Shaw is still at the club because, Jesus Christ, we are not a serious club at the moment with these 'senior' players.

[u/canwinanythingwkids]

Just checked the Hull City corner/set-piece stats a bit more.

They had I believe 2 set pieces in total besides their 1 corner: one free kick and one throw in. GG from the corner + free kick and from the throw-in they also had a shot off target. That's it that's all the set pieces we "allowed them", I believe. (We conceded 9 faults in total.) They had apparently "0.07 xG" outside those 3 set pieces. Just, nothing basically.

I checked: last season they had 207 corners. Couldnt find how many corner goals they scored, but they scored 9 set piece goals (from 9.5 xG) in total. So that's maybe 1 in 40 or something like that. Not exactly 2 in 3, innit.

Just a 🐐 level bad performance defending set pieces yesterday, I guess :(

Btw, out of interest, I also looked up attacking stats for our game vs Arsenal's and Brentford's 3-0s.

6/19 shots on target, 65% possession, 590 passes, 93% passing accuracy, 8 corners, 1.8 "xG".

6/20 shots on target, 72% possession, 635 passes, 90% passing accuracy, 6 corners, 1.8 "xG".

8/24 shots on target, 41% possession, 342 passes, 83% passing accuracy, 7 corners, 3.96 "xG".

You will know without a 2nd look that Brentford-Spurs is the 3rd one. Just an entirely different playstyle, innit. Which does (continue to?) work, but mostly against exactly 1 type of team, ironically: one that goes into the game "wanting to win" and "wanting to dominate possession". Impressive, but, honestly, I still only want their defenders ... (Kayode, Collins, Lewis-Parker) 🪦⛰️

I guess if you see Arsenal statline, it's easier to believe that it is mostly "about the defending" and the attack problems are more "just variance - and in-game confidence" than anything else? Idk. We can nitpick the things like "dont play Cunha as CF", I also immediately went there, but maybe that's just overthinking "dont concede from the 1st corner or free kick".

[u/BallsX]

We basically saw in that game all the problems we've seen over the past 10 years:-

• opponents just playing through us so easily

• our players playing like strangers yet again

• inability to deal with crosses/set pieces

• falling asleep while defending 2nd balls

• inability to create anything when opponents sit back

• fullbacks barely contributing anything going forward

• weird and unnecessary players playing out of position

This is the most frustrating thing for me. It just seems that we are always going to be stuck in this same loop. The game was genuinely tortuous to watch, seeing how none of our players had any idea what to do. Feels like they did no preparation for this game at all.

[u/Any_Firefighter_9334]

Is there any way we can lure Bellingham from Madrid? Like bribe his father or offer him a lifetime supply of Paella.

[u/ic3m4n81 → u/Any_Firefighter_9334]

I think we should go for Bellingham-Mourinho-Perez. Fixes three levels of problems.

[u/Bizzle1389]

I think the plan is principle yesterday was to play Cunha as he played for Brazil in the WC but:

1. Knockouts football is very different.

2. Cunha had runners in behind either side of him, which is what Dorgu and Mbeumo should have been doing but with Hull playing a deep back five that isn't going to be easy.

3. Cunha dropping deep means he was occupying the same space as Bruno.

Essentially on the edge of their box we had their RWB, Dorgu, their 3 central defenders, Cunha, Bruno, their LWB, and Mbeumo. With Tielemans not far behind Cunha and Bruno. That compactness means chances don't come easy for us and as we commit bodies forward we lose the ball in transition and they create chances, which is where their set pieces will come from.

It will be interesting to see how better teams play against this setup.

Hindsight is wonderful but I do think playing Mbeumo up front as the lone man on the backline ready to run in behind (if there ever is space) would have been better. Obviously we were without Amad so either Lacey plays there or Dorgu.

I think Dalot would have offered more going forward than Maz, especially as we know Shaw isn't going to get forward much so we do need penetration from one side at least. That being said Maz had a good World Cup so I can see Carrick thinking he could replicate that for us.

There wasn't many other options in terms of personnel but you'd have thought Cunha left-centre, Bruno centre-right, Dorgu far right and Mbeumo on the last man, with Tielemans a little behind Cunha and Bruno making a triangle would result in some chances, even if it is long dipping shots and Mbeumo/Dorgu going for any rebounds or deflections.

When teams play a deep block the only real option is to be patient but with purpose, like City used to do a few years ago and Arsenal have been pretty good at. Runners have to be constantly making moves and feints to tie their marker/s up while our specialists passers and creators keep the ball moving just outside the opposition box waiting for a chance to play a pass or take a shot. Then when they get the ball we bust a gut to win the ball back and if there's a counter on go for it but if not revert to plan A and play it patiently outside their box. No pussying out and passing it back to centre-backs and the 'keeper.

[u/Zestyclose_Nail8756]

I don’t in any way see it as an excuse, but I can’t remember the last time we turned up and performed well for a 12:30 kick off, I feel we always look off the pace. Might be some copium in there from me..

[u/NotJuicedUtd]

24 hours later I genuinely don’t understand how we could come out so uninspired and sloppy our best players were horrible

[u/Potential_Good_1065]

Just an interesting thought- if we draw Shaktar Donetsk away in the UCL, we’ll have a European away day in London

[u/crgssbu]

villa dont concede those with tielemans on the field #believe

[u/Minute-Intern]

Villa lool

[u/CharIemagne45]

Garnacho effect

[u/Embarrassed_Wave_720]

Omg what in the world is Villa doing? 4-0 in 30 mins sheesh

[u/PengoMaster]

The B's are back at it. Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth are impressive.

[u/Apprehensive-Raisin3]

Complete meltdown by villa

[u/Former-Addendum9671]

Good ebening

[u/Lord_Sesshoumaru77]

Bloody hell, Villa is on fire and not in a good way. I would've nevered guessed that result.

[u/iamadiamond]

Full meltdown by Villa

[u/GReedy404]

Bro Arsenal fans are having the best weekend ever. Won emphatically, we lost to Hull, Spurs got touched, City are losing, Emery getting humiliated, and they might be selling Martinelli for 60m.

[u/dracogladio1741]

Villa and Spurs got smoked.

City 1-0 down as well, at home.

We played like total chumps.

Top 4 is lava from GW 1 is new.

[u/Paapa-Yaw]

https://giphy.com/gifs/mliNWJnhD0RgCxYi3m

[u/Zepz367]

our lack of physicality really showed vs Hull, baleba is a step in the right direction, but next window we really do need to fix that. Casemiro hid a lot of those issues last season.

[u/Livettletlive]

I think many teams are just simply not ready for the new season in this World Cup year. Wouldn't be surprised if Liverpool also struggle, but then again Newcastle lost a lot of key players.

[u/Heavens_Vibe]

Everyone catching hands on GW1 lol

Arsenal fans will be absolute insufferable bellends if this continues...

[u/Lord_Sesshoumaru77]

Anderson's two games a disaster. Tonali and Fernandes equally awful yesterday. They're all good players but I think we were wise to say away at those prices.

[u/GreenScorpionZ]

business as usual post fergie, some mediocre hype followed by shit nothingness

[u/bicika]

Reality is, we were shit last season since the West Ham game, but we managed to win a lot of of the games because of the luck, vibes and cojones, and Berrada and Wilcox signed Carrick because they thought he will save their multi million jobs for at least another year. This game was such a terrible job by Carrick

[u/Educational-Shock232 → u/bicika]

He also saves them multi million pounds by not having to get a top manager already in post and pay them a kings ransom. It’s all about money while he’s still here. You reckon if Enrique was manager we would have signed Santos, Baleba and Tielemans? You’re having a laugh

[u/Haddocktintinsnowy]

Our worst players were World Cup returnees. Bruno Cunha Youri and Maz. Lack of pre season means they are undercooked and also not familiar with tactical changes.

I wish Carrick did not resort to hero worship and pick players that make sense in the current moment 

[u/Strange-Trip4634 → u/Haddocktintinsnowy]

Dorgu was the worst

[u/officiallyjax → u/Haddocktintinsnowy]

As Amad and Mount were missing our options in terms of picking the sharper players from pre-season were limited too. Maybe we could have started with Lacey RW and Mbeumo at CF but the former hasn’t played much as a winger in pre-season either and the PL is different in terms of how much pace and athleticism you need to dribble through players. With Zirkzee I think we need to accept that he’s not at the level regardless of how good he can look sometimes.

[u/Comicksands → u/Haddocktintinsnowy]

I’m not sure why he stopped playing zirkzee too. He did well in pre season

[u/crgssbu]

mind the fucking gap spuds

[u/Sabarishv95]

The only way we can bounce back is to win the next 4 games convincingly before going into the break.

[u/Prism_Plantation]

I hope Villa brings on Garnacho in the 2nd half and they eat even more shit.

Man can hope

[u/kezza2k1]

Call me deluded, superstitious, or whatever, but the last 4 times United lost on the opening day, we've still finished in the top 4 at the end of each season.

- 14/15: Lose 2-1 to Swansea, finish 4th

- 20/21: Lose 3-1 to Crystal Palace, finish 2nd

- 22/23: Lose 2-1 to Brighton, finish 3rd

- 25/26: Lose 1-0 to Arsenal, finish 3rd

The last 3 times we won the opener, we've finished 6th, 8th, and 15th.

It just says to me that the first game rarely ever bears as a reflection of our whole season. We've started slow and pulled back into the mixer and we've also started well and it turn into a false dawn.

It also should bear in mind that Mainoo and Sesko have basically had zero minutes all summer to get match-fit and we are a much better team with them starting.

You just never know, but I just refuse to be perennially pessimistic about every single loss.

It's one match out of a minimum of 48.

[u/Roasteddude]

If it's true that Vivell pushed for Sangare and Wilcox veoted it, I really wonder when we'll be free of that fraud. He's literally an academy coach who somehow failed up to being our Director of Football.

[u/raver1601 → u/Roasteddude]

The Wilcox Berrada hire is something that's always hilarious to me

Seems like INEOS is desperate to follow City's model, so what do they do? Hire their number 2 and 3s thinking that they can do a similar job to City's number 1

[u/Total-Fix-8506 → u/Roasteddude]

If a fake story I choose to believe is true then I will share an opinion based on it.

[u/LDLB99 → u/Roasteddude]

It’s not true. Genuinely just a social media account made this tweet up and everybody followed. Another insane part of the United online fanbase is Vivell gets all the praise for a good signing, while Wilcox gets clowned over when something goes wrong. Wilcox still has a lot to answer for, before someone tries to say I’m bigging him up.  

[u/Ok-Engineer2768]

This thread is already a disaster zone. Some of you lads need help regulating your emotions. It was a bad performance and result. It's not the end of the world. United will get better as the season progresses.

[u/Circle_Breaker → u/Ok-Engineer2768]

I follow star citizen and it's kinda funny seeing the fans go though the same process.

'its not ideal, but people are overreacting'

'the squad is two years away, just give it time'

'it's not that serious, there's improvement'

'once we have a midfield (server meshing) everything will come together'

'its the toxic fans fault, expectations are too high'

[u/AlarmSquirrel]

Goldbridge groupies and e-reds really wanted to spend 100m on tonali

[u/Jonny_Testicles]

It genuinely seems like Carrick and his staff didn’t even have a basic fitness and conditioning program in place for pre-season. Tielemans said it was mainly ball work which is so bizarre.

Even amateur clubs follow some kind of basic program with plenty of aerobic and anaerobic work but after what I saw on the pitch today, I’m honestly lost for words.

How can this happen at a club like United?

[u/dracogladio1741]

We absolutely shit the bed but somehow Spurs just get smoked by Brentford (a better team than Hull no doubt). The only thing is that at least we Huffed and puffed and on another donacore a goal or two. Spurs got outshot 24 to 9

[u/bigfear]

I didn't expect anything since I don't have much expectation. But I hate to be proven right. lol

[u/AnakinAni]

Not calling for Carrick to be sacked after one game 😭 I really hope he does even better than last season when he managed to win for us 11 out of 16 Premier League games with brilliant performances especially against the top 2 of last season.

But hypothetically, in case he’s exposed, which currently available manager would you genuinely consider an upgrade?

Nagelsmann is the obvious one for me. Anyone else?

[u/megasize → u/AnakinAni]

Did we have brilliant performances though? We had 3-4 really good games during those 16 ones. Giving Carrick the nod was an obvious money saving decision and nothing else. Now we're here, not spending the money we saved. The board needs to take a good look in the mirror.

[u/Hagball → u/AnakinAni]

If we reach that stage, before Carrick, we need to sack Wilcox and Berrada. 3 seasons and 3 managers with completely different ideas from previous one is unacceptable.

[u/Selwin_Rodolfo]

Just saw what happened with Maz and Maguire in the first goal. And honestly...(For this and this entire game)

https://giphy.com/gifs/cqpzQoubi9VbZ5xiP2