West Ham Utd 1-3 Manchester Utd (05/12/20)

[Ironing Board]

I felt that Man Utd looked like scoring all through the second half - their subs made a huge difference and we didn't counter them.

To be honest, I don’t think we could counter them. Fernandes is several levels above any player we have. Man Utd just had too much quality, and it told in the end.

[Billy Bonds boots]

I think the mancs have found a weakness that’s a worry, with players with speed like rashford and greenwood the ball over the top oggie can read it but balbuena is not fast enough maybe we need to put diop in there I’m only thinking this as it could be seen as a weak spot ( I know it’s only been 1 game but we need to keep it in mind imo )

[ClydeBuilt]

To be honest, I don’t think we could counter them. Fernandes is several levels above any player we have. Man Utd just had too much quality, and it told in the end.

Agreed on Fernandes but that TYPE of player does expose our weakness at the back and midfield. Foden exposed it earlier this season as well.

Something to work on for the staff but thankfully not many players like that in the league.

[Humbug]

Our intensity slowed down after about 60 mins , which meant little support for Haller and it made it easy for Man U to just literally forget about him and push forward . Even if Haller had a 10 yard start , they'd still catch him so we ended up lumping it high to him with zero threat on the ground. Fornals faded badly and I think he is due a rest and maybe more practice on his heading and shooting skills , but he still has an eye for a through ball (wasted on the wings in my opinion and better central). Rashford kept skinning Coufal and I think Moyes dithered (as usual) is plugging that threat . That's a big weakness in DM and he needs to address his inability to make proactive subs rather than react after the damage has been done. At 1-0 and after 60 mins , take off Haller ,crowd midfield with Noble on Mata, replace Coufal with Johnson and we'd have had more of a chance to win or draw that game. In the end , it seemed we were playing with only 10 men because Haller was effectively the 'invisible man'.

[The Old Man of Storr]

I think the mancs have found a weakness that’s a worry, with players with speed like rashford and greenwood the ball over the top oggie can read it but balbuena is not fast enough maybe we need to put diop in there I’m only thinking this as it could be seen as a weak spot ( I know it’s only been 1 game but we need to keep it in mind imo )

That's Vardy's game and we coped fine with Leicester - the thing about Manchester United is they have quality players in abundance , - when you can bring on Mata , Fernandes and Rashford on to replace Martial , Van De Beek and Cavani you know you've got a good team .

Just don't play such a high game against the faster teams .

[irons88]

Not much to add other than I thought we were really good in the first half, we played much better than in any other half I’ve seen us play for a while now.
You could see that the players had risen to Moyes’ demands for a better performance than what we saw v Villa on Monday. We could have easily been 3 or 4 goals to the good at half time.
I just knew going in 1-0 at half time was never enough, I text my despondent Man United supporting mate and predicted that they’d win still.
That said, we had a couple of really good chances in the second half, and on another day we’d have got a result.
Clear as day that the ball in the lead up to Pogba’s goal was out of play, but I felt they’d score regardless and it was only a matter of time. They do have some excellent players in their frontline, I’ve always really liked Mata for one.
Shows how far we’ve come when we’re disappointed to lose to Man United at home, when we’ve won our last 3 games. Still 7th after such a difficult start to the season, credit to Moyes and the job he and the coaching team have done. Good to see there’s a decent team spirit amongst the players too, lots to be positive about for sure

[Shabu]

Were there any definitive photos or videos showing their keepers pass for the 1st goal was in or out of bounds?

[goa127]

Were we playing 531 yesterday or a weird 442? Bowen frequently was the furthest man forward (leaving coufal exposed a bit) and cresswell played much like a left back. I'd like to see benrahma start soon , probably in place of Masuaku or fornals. I'd also like to see snodgrass feature as well

[Gsbgsb]

We are a team whose shape is dictated by the players available at the back. We have one competent all round CB in Ogbonna, Balbuena is too slow for a 4 and Diop a mistake or three waiting to happen. We have no PL quality LB. We play the 5 to cover best we can for these deficiencies but it creates its own problem with getting overrun in midfield or no support to a striker who cannot lead the line on his own (whatever system is played at the back). Good players will exploit us. In addition the lack of quality at CB, even in the 3, means if we push the WB on as we should we can be undone.

We have still to address the lack of defensive options we had in the summer. Get at least 1 starting CB and LB then we can either play the 4 which immediately helps with bodies in the midfield and support to the striker or means we can be more adventurous with the WB.

The likes of Diop or Balbuena might be fine as 4th choice CB options but we are relying on at least one of them week in week out.

[Ironing Board]

Agreed on Fernandes but that TYPE of player does expose our weakness at the back and midfield. Foden exposed it earlier this season as well.

Something to work on for the staff but thankfully not many players like that in the league.

Until they give Moyes funds to fix the defense we will always be a step behind the top teams. It doesn’t even take a particularly large amount to solve, but there is no dazzle dazzle to sorting out the backline, so it gets neglected.

[Morocco Mole]

We murdered them for 60 minutes but didn’t take our chances. One goal was never going to be enough. Not against Man Utd, the Ref, the Lino and Stockley Park.

Happy with the performance overall - the result was harsh. Most annoying thing was Pogba scoring that worldy when he was otherwise **** as per.

Benrahma making a strong case to start now but it would be harsh to drop Fornals. I’d be inclined to drop Haller instead and try Bowen through the middle.

[Colours never run]

He went back to his bad old ways of reacting far too late before changing subs. They're 2 big changes at half time and another on the hour mark, when we didn't make our 1st sub until the last 15 minutes trailing behind. He often struggles to be pro active in this way, which is always frustrating especially when we start as well as we did yesterday.

[steveyrockstar]

Urgh, just rewatched the highlights - Bowen and Haller's misses. How it could have been different! I can't even understand how Haller fell over. He's not off balance and he'd pretty much done everything right until that point.

That said, I reckon had Haller have scored, VAR may have found him a fraction offside.

[Sloop John B]

Many said after Villa we'll play get better and get beat and here we are...

I thought we were excellent for 60mins but not taking our chances... Bowen, Haller and Fornals (x2) ..cost us in the end. As has been said many times in this thread... Man Utd may not be a great team at the minute but they have several top top quality players and you only need them to play for 20mins to change a game.

Thought Balbuena had a great game, best he's been in a long time.

[hammerman11]

lets see a good reaction at leeds on friday. Thats the mark of a good team how they react to a defeat.

we had our luck and it was evened up with the ball out VAR fiasco.

same team and lets batter leeds. need to make subs earlier as leeds are an all action team

benrahma johnson on after 60 mins for haller and coufal

lanzini for fornals at 75 mins if needed

[mattyD]

Urgh, just rewatched the highlights - Bowen and Haller's misses. How it could have been different! I can't even understand how Haller fell over. He's not off balance and he'd pretty much done everything right until that point.

That said, I reckon had Haller have scored, VAR may have found him a fraction offside.

Yeah, I think he was offside.

[sendô]

Many of us said before the game that we were a better team than Man Utd, but they had better individual players that were capable of winning the game on their own and, in the end, that's pretty much how the game panned out.

First half was all us, and we were dominant. Fornals had a narrow miss with a header and hit the post. Haller rounded the keeper and then unforunately lost his footing. Some good football, movement and chances created. On another day we go in at HT 2 or 3 up and it's match won, but then that's the difference between the good players we have and the great players teams like Man Utd have - our players will always miss more than theirs.

Fernandes was a level above everyone on the pitch as soon as he came on, and Rashford was ahead of everyone on our team. Sure, their first should have been given out as a throw in, but the reality for their goals is a cracking strike from distance by Pogba, then a cracking touch then turn and strike by Greenwood, and later a pin point accurate through ball by I think Mata with a deft finish from Rashford.

First half we were better, second half they were better, but then when the opposition brings on Fernandes, Rashford and Mata because the game isn't going well there's only so much you can do.

[hammerman11]

unfortuanetly we had no striker to bring on and players like snoddy and nobes on our bench . nuff said !

[Denbighammer]

MOTD showed the ball definitively as out for their 1st.

Not read this thread thru, so apologies of repeating this;
I thought their 2nd originated from a foul throw out on our right.

[steveyrockstar]

More I've rewatched it, more I'm convinced that Man Utd must have had a wizard on their bench that caused Haller to fall over. Wouldn't be too surprised if Man Utd dabbled in the dark arts.

Or maybe I've just been playing far, far, far too much Blood Bowl