Manchester United vs Sheffield United

vs

Premier League Matchweek 34 - Wednesday 24th April 2024 - 20:00 - Old Trafford
Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.

Player Ratings:
Matchday Stats/Player Ratings - https://www.s24su.com/forum/match-day/match/manchester-united-vs-sheffield-united.685/

Officials:

Referee: Michael Salisbury
Assistants: Eddie Smart, Derek Eaton
Fourth Official: Paul Tierney
VAR: Michael Oliver
Assistant VAR: Natalie Aspinall

Coverage:

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Live TV Coverage:

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[Tony_Kaufman]

It was 2 2 when Norwood came on

I'm aware of that, but bringing on Norwood is suicide. It leaves huge holes in our midfield for teams to exploit and run through, so them scoring again became an inevitably.

 

[GKhantRebel]

With...

Antony
Fernandez
Garnacho
Casemiro

My question: Have Manchester got possibly the biggest bunch of utter dickheads on their first team in the pl?

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

It sums up Souza and Norwood that despite coming on as subs, in central midfield, neither are anywhere near the one opposition midfielder they need to pay attention to, 25 yards out and bang central. Super subs

It sums us up in general that around 80 minutes at 2-2, you're thinking we need to score another 2 to have any chance of a result. Not 1, but 2

Predictable, pathetic, tiresome, demoralising

 

[KiwiBlabe]

Trusty needs to occasionally look at the ball when defending. He focuses on the man way too much and messes up more often than not.

 

[Rufus Smalls]

We have got to keep Hamer at all costs next season… way above anything else we have

Arblaster was good in spells tonight. Will get better with experience. Have to build the team around him for the next few seasons.

 

[bakeblade]

Quality from Trusty on the 4th. Genuinely don’t even want him as a back up next season. All these defensive mistakes for a player who is utterly useless on the ball

Apart from that Trusty was fine tonight, Holgate made more mistakes

 

[KiwiBlabe]

Tonight was the usual, looked OK in patches going forward and abysmal at the back.

 

[Jan Age]

Arblaster was good in spells tonight. Will get better with experience. Have to build the team around him for the next few seasons.

Yeah he was decent but nothing else but he has a bright future for sure

 

[UddersBlade]

Starting XI was best we could put out at the moment & it showed. Up to 60 mins we were right in the game. Problem is we have literally no squad depth with ANY quality at all or at least players who can be arsed on our bench.

In an ideal world Wilder would keep the same XI for 90 mins, but because of the shit show of a preseason and injuries throughout the season, most our players are knackered after 60 mins. Hence why we concede so many goals in last 20 mins.

 

[CoatesyBlade]

Credit Wilder for the starting 11, but he’s f’d up with his substitutes (again)
All the guys who want to be here were giving their all… so he subs them for players that couldn’t give a toss or who are simply not good enough and shouldn’t be here anyway!

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Felt disappointing in the end, subs weakened us. But not many options.
Well done before that. Wes helped a lot, because if we'd conceded earlier our heads would have dropped and got battered.

 

[The Crab]

Wonder if they fancy Grbic as well

Wouldn’t fancy him for my Sunday team

 

[Sheffsteel]

Norwood and Souza midfield leaves us in a mess …… Step forward manager of the year !

We've had no operating midfield for 2 years.
The tactic was give to Norwood who will punt it long upfield with the glory ball.
When it worked it was a great pass but 4 in 5 times he just cheaply give the ball back to the opposition.

In fact last season papered over the cracks because we relied on parking the bus with a solid defence
Then booting it going upfield relying on the skill and magic from Doyle, McAtee and especially N'Diaye to create chances from nothing and score.

 

[petcharlie]

Arblaster was good in spells tonight. Will get better with experience. Have to build the team around him for the next few seasons.

he will get sold

 

[Champagneblade]

Credit Wilder for the starting 11, but he’s f’d up with his substitutes (again)
All the guys who want to be here were giving their all… so he subs them for players that couldn’t give a toss or who are simply not good enough and shouldn’t be here anyway!

This is the age old problem. I don’t know what we did in pre-season but the players seem to have no conditioning.

On the game.

1 - soft foul. Need to see again if offside.
2 - soft pen. Kind of a goal anyway but if VAR rules out the foul then it’s no goal. We never get those.
3 - good hit. Zero closing down from the midfield.
4 - would liked to have seen lined drawn for then it was originally played through.

Just can’t defend though, can we?

 

[William Large]

Overall it was probably the right result. I thought that we were far too passive in the first half. The brief was clearly to keep it tight and we looked decent on the break when we dared be positive.
The defending was woeful tho and we were lucky that L1 Wes was on form.

I thought that Hamer again was quality on the ball, Arlblaster first half particular was good also.
As a team we are so much weaker both physically and mentally than the opposition which is to be expected after the season we have had but we really shouldn’t be out muscled as easily as we were on so many occasions.

One of the glaring differences between us and the rest of the league is the ‘foul management’. I hate the diving culture, it’s horrible to watch and it’s blatant cheating. That said, every other team in the league gets fouls in key areas of the pitch by manufacturing fouls or just cheating. We don’t do it and we suffer hugely from it.

The penalty is such an example. Albeit Anel all season long has been guilty of wrestling opponents and I’m surprised we haven’t given more penalties away, it was clamped down on when VAR first started but recently has been more accepted. Maguire blatantly dived, he’s a fucking unit and the contact was no way near sufficient to make him fall over. This coupled with countless other falling over, running into defenders etc around the box is something we just don’t do.

Man Utd have some superb players but as a collective are weak and I think we missed an opportunity tonight. I get the ‘keeping it tight first half’ brief, but you sense as a club they are really fragile and if we had got into them early doors and pressed them high up the pitch, we could have got a result tonight.

We let them be confident and comfortable and in the end it was our downfall.

 

[Bladeslife]

With...

Antony
Fernandez
Garnacho
Casemiro

My question: Have Manchester got possibly the biggest bunch of utter dickheads on their first team in the pl?

I think the real question here is would you trade them for oli norwood, rhian brewster, vini souza and grbic

 

[Loco Blade]

Multi million pound squads loaded with talent to bring on in last 15 . What do people expect will happen vs the absolute opposite.

 

[petcharlie]

wilder puts norwood on because we dont have no one else. Thats down to having an owner running the club on a shoestring ,no matter who the manager is it will just be the same . Norwood has been great fr us in the past but the guy is past it now , not his fault we just have not got a squad to compete . That is why we concede so many late on ,our players are knackered no one else to bring on where as other clubs bring on 200 million of talent off the bench . Long injury times make it even worse .

 

[petcharlie]

the prem allowing multi subs make it worse

 

[SWB]

For those criticising the subs ...... the midfield legs had gone. Look at the subs that we didn't bring on and its plain to see we don't have the depth of squad. Open your eyes ..... Not Wilders fault

 

[SB_90]

disappointing night after what was a great display until late on. another game where we deserved more. but what can you do, when officials helping man utd stay in the game. hard enough to win at old trafford as it is. without having to take on the officials as well. Wes was outstanding, the endless need for fans to have scapegoat during christmas mayve blown up in fans faces. as we beat burnley with that wes in net

thinking about the major goals we conceded tonight

1st goal maguire looks offside


2nd - is extremely soft, penalty thats only given at old trafford

3rd - is a moment of quality to get them out of the hole & that point its game over

 

[GKhantRebel]

I think the real question here is would you trade them for oli norwood, rhian brewster, vini souza and grbic

Hmmm, that's a tough one Grasshopper.. I shall contemplate over many ales, at the weekend, and come to no conclusion!

Although..... I'd take Antony over Ivo purely to put him in goal in the hope his ignorant face gets smacked by a few stray shots!

 

[Lupa The Noa]

Out for rest of season apparently.

Thank the Lord!

 

[Champagneblade]

I knew that we'd concede the second dead legs came on. Why not Slimane, or Larouci and move Osborn into midfield. Norwood is just suicide, but Wilder loes his favourites. I'm not saying the goal was Norwood's fault, but it was inevitable that we'd concede at some point after he came on.

It did feel like a sentimental move.

Norwood playing at Old Trafford possibly the last time.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

A noticeable and worrying feature of Wilder’s second coming at our club has been his decisions in respect of the use of substitutes .

Almost without exception and right from day one , these have usually been accompanied by a ‘tweaking of the system’ which has left us looking much the poorer as a team and almost inevitably leading to the opposition scoring against us within 5 or 6 minutes of these taking place .

There is a narrative that he has had no alternative since the players being replaced were knackered and had nothing more to give , but I don’t buy into that .

There was a match recently where we were in the ascendancy and produced one of our best moves of the game. Two of the three players who played a major part in that move were substituted within minutes . These were clearly purely tactical decisions and things rapidly went downhill thereafter .


I don’t wish to be too critical since I believe he might just be one of the few managers capable of helping us get out of the mess we are in at the moment , but I have to question the wisdom of any manager who believes that the best way to ‘bolster midfield and see out the game ‘ is to bring on Oliver Norwood and Vinicius Souza .

 

[Mendi]

Brilliant game

 

[Keen Blade]

Hope they have an amazing game. Hopefully watched by future employers who buy them this summer for way more than we paid for them.

Dream on
Other clubs have scouting systems.
They represent almost totally dead money in fees/wages.
Add it to the hugely injurious tally of wasted £millions to have flowed out of the Lane since 19/20.

 

[Alex Cheeseright]

Dream on
Other clubs have scouting systems.
They represent almost totally dead money in fees/wages.
Add it to the hugely injurious tally of wasted £millions to have flowed out of the Lane since 19/20.

They say it's the hope that kills you. And no, we won't make our money back on these two.

 

[Shawy24]

A noticeable and worrying feature of Wilder’s second coming at our club has been his decisions in respect of the use of substitutes .

Almost without exception and right from day one , these have usually been accompanied by a ‘tweaking of the system’ which has left us looking much the poorer as a team and almost inevitably leading to the opposition scoring against us within 5 or 6 minutes of these taking place .

There is a narrative that he has had no alternative since the players being replaced were knackered and had nothing more to give , but I don’t buy into that .

There was a match recently where we were in the ascendancy and produced one of our best moves of the game. Two of the three players who played a major part in that move were substituted within minutes . These were clearly purely tactical decisions and things rapidly went downhill thereafter .


I don’t wish to be too critical since I believe he might just be one of the few managers capable of helping us get out of the mess we are in at the moment , but I have to question the wisdom of any manager who believes that the best way to ‘bolster midfield and see out the game ‘ is to bring on Oliver Norwood and Vinicius Souza .

Absolutely this. I would add however that he does have some history of this on our way up.