Best We've Played All Season

[luffenhamblade]

So what? Why would we use our worst ever manager as a measurement of future manager success?

Didn't say we should? Just explaining why he would be quoted.

 

[Tom Bott]

I don't think the intention was to sit back. There were 3 forwards on the pitch. I just think United ran out of good players with energy, and the drop off in ability and mobility once subs come on is large.

People love to say Wilder goes all defensive.

Could be though that the pesky other team goes all attacking, pushing us back.

 

[Bladesman]

People love to say Wilder goes all defensive.

Could be though that the pesky other team goes all attacking, pushing us back.

Apparently Donovan was set to come on until McCallum's injury.

I still think Donovan should have been on long before then.

 

[Tom Bott]

So because it's better than Selles, everything is fine and dandy?

Would you be happier if we became worse than under Selles?

It is possible..

Last season Burnley spent £ 100 million on mostly foreign players, would you swap places with them?

 

[ThatJa]

"With what is essentially a PL team"

They finished 20th in the PL, they are NOT a PL team, lets not kid ourselves, they were relegated for a reason. We could have won that, but the negative last 10min subs killed any chance of that, yes its better but we should have gone for the kill instead of bringing defensive players on.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

We're usually capable of these decent performances when we start the game in damage limitation mode

Today was like that and to a large extent Birmingham too

But if we play anyone half decent and don't fully commit to that approach we just invariably get torn apart, like Norwich

Our general weakness can't be ignored either. In situations like today, at home especially, we lose a disproportionate amount of the time, rather than hanging on. Automatic capitulation. It happens far too often. It's weak, and reflects poorly. It's not good enough - from all involved

 

[Brian Deane]

Bringing up Selles should be banned, any comparison to him is pointless.

It was pointless to have him here in the first place and he left us pointless when he got sacked.

 

[ckpe147]

Hope this isn't the kiss of death but I'm a lot happier today. We've just gone head to head with what is essentially a PL team and given a good account of ourselves. On another day we'd get a least a draw. Play with that commitment and we'll win half our games and finish in the top 6 or 8. Well done to all the players and Wilder and the staff for getting them up for it. Lots of work still needs to be done but there could be a decent team in there.

Apologies for the new thread for basically a match comment but it is important to highlight the positives from today.

Are you fucking joking?

 

[KMC-1889]

It was a real head scratcher when the line up came out, and I’ve seen loads of people with loads of different opinions of what formation we played, most of them wrong.

It was really intriguing, very fluid in the shape in and out of possession and up until 75 minutes we looked in complete control. Never really threatened to create a clear cut chance but it never felt like they were going to cut us open.

What undid the hard work was not necessarily fitness, but a shocking lack of pace/athleticism. the only mistake wilder made was not getting Donovan into the game. Diaz was off colour from the start and McCallum was causing all sorts of trouble. I’d have love to have seen Donovan have a go at that full back cause he didn’t look settled.

I’m interested too see if this is a system we stick with and how good it looks when we get the likes of Seriki, Burrows and One into the team for a bit of pace and strength. The back 4 that became a back 3 of Kitching, McGuinness and Tanganga when in possession I really, really liked and all 3 had great games (until Tanganga lost Jimenez anyway).

All in all it was nice to see us not get bullied by bigger teams for a change.

 

[loyalblade95]

Didn't see the game but will watch the extended highlights later, sounds like a very positive performance and sounds like we were a tad unlucky to lose.

If it had ended 0-0 i don't think either side would have complained, neither keeper was really tested and it was just a bad mistake where we left Jimenez unmarked at the back post on one of the few times where they got the ball across our box.

 

[AWetFlannel]

You have to wonder if McCallum and / or Choudhury could’ve made it through the 90, whether we’d have seen Donovan

Wilder said exactly this in his post match presser, wanted Donovan on but McCallum's injury got in the way.

 

[diplomat]

Wilder played it safe bringing Ayew and Cannon on, he didn’t want to risk the 0-0 by bringing him on

I’d argue that Donovan has been good defensively though, tenacious and has won the ball back a few times, whilst also able to give them a bit to think about going forward. There were a couple of occasions where we broke out notably pecking in the first half who was applauded for keeping it alive but after he drove forward he had no one anywhere near him and when he did lay it off they had got all ten men back. It’s stuff like that lack of mobility that I’d like to see improved.

 

[Tarqs]

I don’t mind this direct/defensive style of play but I just can’t watch it if we’re not going to incorporate some pace with it. If we had any sort of genuine counter attacking threat I think we’d have won that game.

Said exactly the same. Pace up top and we have a chance of snatching that 1-0. Unfortunately, that pace was sat on the bench all game.

 

[Tarqs]

People love to say Wilder goes all defensive.

Could be though that the pesky other team goes all attacking, pushing us back.

Pushing us back...

Or when we clear a corner, everyone to a man, just stands on edge of our 18 yard box waiting for them to attack again.

That's being defensive.

 

[YES Blade]

I’d argue that Donovan has been good defensively though, tenacious and has won the ball back a few times, whilst also able to give them a bit to think about going forward. There were a couple of occasions where we broke out notably pecking in the first half who was applauded for keeping it alive but after he drove forward he had no one anywhere near him and when he did lay it off they had got all ten men back. It’s stuff like that lack of mobility that I’d like to see improved.

It felt negative because Donovan has been one of the few bright sparks in our attack, so should’ve been the first sub for me. I can only put it down to Wilder having more trust in experienced players defensively.

I’ve no doubt had we been 1-0 at the hour mark, Donovan would’ve been the first change.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

There's no excuse for no Donovan when he brought Cannon on

 

[ThirdGenBlade]

Doherty sub was the main error - he drifted central and left Jimenez wide open on his side for the goal. Also, he was painful to watch trying to run back. If Hamza had stayed on we wouldn’t have lost that game.
UTB & FTP!

 

[coolasanidiot]

Doherty sub was the main error - he drifted central and left Jimenez wide open on his side for the goal. Also, he was painful to watch trying to run back. If Hamza had stayed on we wouldn’t have lost that game.
UTB & FTP!

Agree Doherty was shocking but for me Hamza was totally gone - both mentally and physically. Body language awful so the only option was Doherty unfortunately.

 

[djbaldken]

That wasn't a bad performance from us today.
It's the first time I've seen us live at the ground for over a year.
I wasn't expecting much tbh.
But today for most of the match we nullified a contender for automatic.
Ok we weren't exactly dominant, certainly in attack. But we coped very well with anything they threw at us.
What we lacked today was Hamer, CO H and Brookes. With those three in the side I'm sure we would have won that. Their creative spark was what was missing.
There were several notable performances today.
Choudrey was caught out a few times but also made some excellent challenges and worked hard at getting the ball forwards.
McCullough after a poor start was excellent afterwards. How the fuck the ref (useless cunt) gave THAT challenge against him is beyond me.
McGuiness and Kitching were steady in defence.
Peck was superb
The thing I 've noticed about Philips, that I like, is he gets as close to committing a foul , without actually committing a foul, so that he gets away with it. Even to the point of the foul is given against him.
Ayew initially looked like he was going to have an impact. But before too long reverted to the reviews I've read about him. Is this because he was not match fit, or he's a lazy git? Time will tell. I would have put Donovan on instead of him.

As I said it's the first time I've been for quite a while and whilst I enjoyed the experience, I did not enjoy the result. We didn't deserve to lose that.

 

[ChinaBlade]

Would you be happier if we became worse than under Selles?

It is possible..

Last season Burnley spent £ 100 million on mostly foreign players, would you swap places with them?

"Be careful what you wish for" - i'm not playing that game. Wilder isn't the only manager in world football who can manage United.

I didn't mention foreign players but if you are going to play that game - perhaps Sunderland is an alternative look at it? Infact look at the top players in this league and you might see a trend.


I just want to see a style of play befitting a club of our stature, as much CW and his sycophants would have you believe we are the plucky underdog, we still have a top 10 (at worst) wage budget.

Some pace and athleticism really wouldn't go amiss would it - we could have offered a threat yesterday if we had some (we had one but Wilder left him on the bench).

 

[georgebernardshaw]

B- But wIlDeR oUt!

“But me no buts, Bernard”. Hacker

 

[Dkc]

Wilder isn't the only manager in world football who can manage United.

Wilder's critics keep repeating this again like a mantra - as though Wilder's supporters believe different.

NO ONE believes that Wilder is the only person who can manage us. Everyone agrees there are plenty that could.

But most also believe that given the current circumstances it's best not to change the manager right now. If for some reason we do, we'll get behind the new guy.

 

[MartBlade]

Shocking that he didn't bring Donavon on to stretch em

Donovan was stripped ready to come on when mccallum had to go off.

 

[BladeByChoice]

Hope this isn't the kiss of death but I'm a lot happier today. We've just gone head to head with what is essentially a PL team and given a good account of ourselves. On another day we'd get a least a draw. Play with that commitment and we'll win half our games and finish in the top 6 or 8. Well done to all the players and Wilder and the staff for getting them up for it. Lots of work still needs to be done but there could be a decent team in there.

Apologies for the new thread for basically a match comment but it is important to highlight the positives from today.

Full agreement on the Wolves match, but I'm looking down the table and happy to be more than 3 points outside the relegation zone at this point, 10/15ish after Christmas and I'll start looking up and dreaming of snatching 8th

 

[ChinaBlade]

Wilder's critics keep repeating this again like a mantra - as though Wilder's supporters believe different.

NO ONE believes that Wilder is the only person who can manage us. Everyone agrees there are plenty that could.

But most also believe that given the current circumstances it's best not to change the manager right now. If for some reason we do, we'll get behind the new guy.

While you might be more measured in your approach, don't doubt that there are a number for whom CW can do no wrong and everything that goes against United is the fault of someone else. Look in the local media for starters.

 

[raul]

That wasn't a bad performance from us today.
It's the first time I've seen us live at the ground for over a year.
I wasn't expecting much tbh.
But today for most of the match we nullified a contender for automatic.
Ok we weren't exactly dominant, certainly in attack. But we coped very well with anything they threw at us.
What we lacked today was Hamer, CO H and Brookes. With those three in the side I'm sure we would have won that. Their creative spark was what was missing.
There were several notable performances today.
Choudrey was caught out a few times but also made some excellent challenges and worked hard at getting the ball forwards.
McCullough after a poor start was excellent afterwards. How the fuck the ref (useless cunt) gave THAT challenge against him is beyond me.
McGuiness and Kitching were steady in defence.
Peck was superb
The thing I 've noticed about Philips, that I like, is he gets as close to committing a foul , without actually committing a foul, so that he gets away with it. Even to the point of the foul is given against him.
Ayew initially looked like he was going to have an impact. But before too long reverted to the reviews I've read about him. Is this because he was not match fit, or he's a lazy git? Time will tell. I would have put Donovan on instead of him.

As I said it's the first time I've been for quite a while and whilst I enjoyed the experience, I did not enjoy the result. We didn't deserve to lose that.

Never mind all that, where did you go for breakfast?

 

[Hamer's Right Peg]

We did have the ball in the net, we created chances.

I was fucked off at how we sat back in the last 15. His choice of subs handed the advantage to Wolves.

The McCallum one was the nail as if CW is to be believed and Donovan was set to come on then we could have absolutely nicked it as they weren't great defensively.

 

[ATL Recs]

We did have the ball in the net, we created chances.

I was fucked off at how we sat back in the last 15. His choice of subs handed the advantage to Wolves.

We didn’t create goal scoring chances we threatened to but didnt
Did you see the Subs that Wolves made their bench was a mile in front of ours

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

We didn’t create goal scoring chances we threatened to but didnt
Did you see the Subs that Wolves made their bench was a mile in front of ours

Not to mention the parachute payments.

 

[1889]

Yeah. We played well in an entertaining game against a squad far more expensive than our own. We got sucker punched with a jammy goal. It could've gone either way

There was absolutely nothing jammy about their goal. They were on the attack and Jimenez gambled on the ball arriving at the far post, easily lost his marker by moving to his blindside, then dropped off, sure enough ball comes to him and he’s got a tap in. 1-0 game over thanks very much.