West Ham Utd 1-2 Manchester Utd (19/09/21)

[honkytonk]

I think Yammie should have taken the pen. Not a fan of bringing someone on just to take one

[Oldun]

Did anyone else see the young bloke; who was just wearing his pants ,being chased by stewards the full length of the Billy Bonds stand about 30 minutes before kick off ?

[smuts]

That really was baffling. I love the way VAR didn't even look at it. It's a clear foul.

At least they got off their arse to at least give us the penalty later on.

[Jonah]

Did anyone else see the young bloke; who was just wearing his pants ,being chased by stewards the full length of the Billy Bonds stand about 30 minutes before kick off ?

[IronHammer1]

Our best player out
Soucek below par
Benni below par
Vlasic (still waiting to see how he's deserving better then WH)
seasons past the match would of being completely one sided, Moyes is doing an incredible job imo, this is the best WHU I've ever seen

Zouma is the best signing for us by far, already the captain of the defense.

Never ever bring in a player from the bench to take a penalty, I bet Moyes will never do that again.

[Billy Hunt]

Did anyone else see the young bloke; who was just wearing his pants ,being chased by stewards the full length of the Billy Bonds stand about 30 minutes before kick off ?

Gave them the run around for a bit didn't he

[smuts]

I bet he won't either...especially the way Noble pretty much showed De Gea exactly where he was putting it.

Put myself through the highlights today. How Soucek never got a penalty is totally beyond me. What was Atkinson on?

If Cresswell steps up in line with the others, Ronaldo is offside by a mile.

If Ronaldo stopped diving before he got contact he would have definitely got one from Zouma's lunge.

Zouma had a great game up...until near the end when he gave Lingard too much space and should have conceded a penalty. People were right in saying if that was Diop and Dawson they would have got pelters. He's still a class act though.

[YorksHammer]

I think we're going to see teams doubling up on Him in defence soon, or at least between the centre backs and a deep-lying midfielder. Someone will work that out, and it won't be Tuchel or Klopp - it'll be someone like Dyche.

For what it's worth, I think we actually did pretty well at stopping Him from getting the ball and forcing him to play deeper. He didn't get a touch centrally between our 18 yard box and midfield third, thanks to the combined efforts of Rice, Soucek, Ogbonna, and Zouma. He also got very little joy out wide, with no touches within 18 yards of goal down either flank. He was pretty much nullified, and even His shots were desperation more than clear chances, with two exceptions (the goal and the one where Fabianski saved). We also completely shut Him down in the second half, pretty much - He had 44 touches all game, but only 14 after half time. It was a big part of why they didn't threaten. Only two shots in the second half and they were both in the 46th minute, too - and otherwise everything was pelted in from range by Pogba or Fernandes.

There is little or nothing there once you stop Him - if you can do that while ceding possession to the less effective players, the Fred's, McTominay's etc.

[Turns to Stone]

Just a few things.

1. Mark Noble was statistically the person in our squad with the best chance of scoring that goal.
2. It would have ****ing incredible had Noble put it away.
3. Fortunes always hiding.

I love that Moyes did that. he has a tendency to be too programmed and unreactive to the match situation. He reacted, and it didn't pay off. But I loved it.

Moyes went up in my estimation for making a big call.

[Felixstowesfinest]

I watched it in a pub in Manchester City centre

Don’t need to add anything else

[Eggchaser]

Took my 14 year old daughter to her first league game. She apologised to the old fella sat next to her for shouting at Pogba to f**off! I'm torn on whether to be proud or not

Did she actually say "f*** off Pogba you gobby ****?

If so be very proud

[Ironing Board]

Did she actually say "**** off Pogba you gobby ****?

If so be very proud

"I'm proud of you love...."

(THWACK)

"... now watch your language!"

:lol: :lol:

[Wilko1304]

I glossed over the Soucek incident in my match report, if mentioning it at all, cos I was convinced the ref had ignored it as an accident. Sky glossed over it on the day too, although obviously not on social media. I thought it was a pen at the time but just put it down to one of those things and moved on.

I don't have the anger over the penalty (miss/taker) incident. I'd have had Lanzini on it regardless and also could see why you wouldn't trust Dec. He seems the type to get far too pumped up and be almost too eager, and he had the sub to a man who rarely misses and would be cool. He missed, but I don't think you can blame pressure too much, I think he went for a stock penalty that does the job if the keeper doesn't guess right - not a bad gamble at that moment. But then, I have never thought Noble a great penalty taker, even with the knowledge of how many he's scored. They are rarely hit and look unstoppable.

It's not what I would have done, but I can't get angry over a decision I can completely see the justification for in a sudden moment. I think if you did pros and cons, there's enough to balance that out.

Yarmolenko as a sub was a weird choice, I thought we were short of pace up there and short of possession in midfield, so to me it was either Masuaku on for an extra number but legs on the break, or Lanzini in the middle. To his credit, Yarmolenko did well and worked harder than he seemed to last season. And wasn't bullied physically like a few others were.

To me, the biggest mistakes of the game were:

Bowen up front. Not sure what others are seeing, but he has little that makes a striker an effective one.

Vlasic and Fornals on the flanks they were - didn't really seem to suit either, and I think both would have gelled better with the other full back too. That said, I'd have put Vlasic up top, he does look a bit more like he's got a selfish streak and is a bit more physical than Bowen.

Overall, we were probably worth the point but there were large periods of that game where we seemed to be accepting a point and well off it. Ronaldo escaping a booking for both those dives is ludicrous. I thought Atkinson was awful on everything but not giving those two Man United penalty shouts.

[neathiron]

Had time to calm down after that farcical ending to the game yesterday. But it is extremely worrying that we do not have a confident penalty taker willing to step up when Noble isn't on the pitch. This needs to be addressed urgently, but we will probably have to wait until January where I hope that the manager and board finally see sense and get a striker in at last. Ideally our scout(s) will have done their homework by then and will get a forward in who also specialises in penalties. They should get on the search engine on Fifa or FM if they can't find one
As for Wednesday's Cup game, we need to get the job done in 90 mins, we've got no chance if it goes to penalties.

[gaptooth]

It’s hardwired into Man U fans over the past 30 years. You’d have to hit Trumpian levels of delusion to buy it, and wait until you start listing the major decisions they have got during that time that have swung games and ultimately the directions of competitions.

Yep. And it's going to be further entrenched by the BBC's 'Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League' which is basically just an extended 'in't Man U brilliant' at the moment

[gaptooth]

This...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ter-united

[neathiron]

Yep. And it's going to be further entrenched by the BBC's 'Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League' which is basically just an extended 'in't Man U brilliant' at the moment

I watched the 1st episode of that, they didn't mention the amount of injury time when Steve Bruce scored the 2nd goal against Sheff Weds that kept them in the title race. Something very corrupt about that game I reckon.

[Aceface]

Bowen up front. Not sure what others are seeing, but he has little that makes a striker an effective one.

Bowen simultaneously had a good game overall and yet a terrible one as a frontman. All his good moments came in his usual areas, and in the tasks required of a centre forward – finishing the one or two half chances he was presented with in front of goal, taking the ball with his back to the defence, getting his head anywhere near an aerial cross (albeit it on a day when the supply via this route was uncharacteristically poor just when it needed to be more accurate than ever) – he was a 2/10.

[Gsbgsb]

I think we're going to see teams doubling up on Him in defence soon, or at least between the centre backs and a deep-lying midfielder. Someone will work that out, and it won't be Tuchel or Klopp - it'll be someone like Dyche.

For what it's worth, I think we actually did pretty well at stopping Him from getting the ball and forcing him to play deeper. He didn't get a touch centrally between our 18 yard box and midfield third, thanks to the combined efforts of Rice, Soucek, Ogbonna, and Zouma. He also got very little joy out wide, with no touches within 18 yards of goal down either flank. He was pretty much nullified, and even His shots were desperation more than clear chances, with two exceptions (the goal and the one where Fabianski saved). We also completely shut Him down in the second half, pretty much - He had 44 touches all game, but only 14 after half time. It was a big part of why they didn't threaten. Only two shots in the second half and they were both in the 46th minute, too - and otherwise everything was pelted in from range by Pogba or Fernandes.

There is little or nothing there once you stop Him - if you can do that while ceding possession to the less effective players, the Fred's, McTominay's etc.

It was not so much shutting Ronaldo down as giving Fernandes far less time/space on the ball. Best creative player on the pitch by a country mile. He is a joy to watch with his vision, range of passing and ability with the ball. Stop him and you can stop Man. Utd.

First half he was wandering side to side and getting far to long to deliver. For the first goal he had the time and space to put a perfect ball in for Ronaldo. Cut his time and space and you are far more likely to stop the goal than any questioning of Cresswell’s positioning or Fabs keeping (which pretty much kept us in the game in my opinion with the palm onto the post and several other saves where we rarely troubled De Gea). Give a player like that the time, space we did first half and a target like Ronaldo and the goal will happen.

[Eggs'n'nuts]

I watched the 1st episode of that, they didn't mention the amount of injury time when Steve Bruce scored the 2nd goal against Sheff Weds that kept them in the title race. Something very corrupt about that game I reckon.

I thought the exact same thing.

I haven't seen Ep.2 yet, but in my mind, Ep.1's title should have been "Fever Pitch: The Manchester United love in/special".

Dear TV sports companies,
When is the penny going to drop with you guys that it's just so f**king tedious.

Yours,

Eggs'n'nuts.