pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Banned
- #1
To be honest, we started exactly as I thought we should, despite being two key players short. Tight, reading each other and exploiting Man United's critical weaknesses - one of which is they aren't Man United of ten, fifteen years ago and have gone through some torrid times at the hands of some frankly shit managers.
Loved our ability to push them far into their half, loved the pressing, loved the ability to deny their front three of anything. Mouse was tactically placed to stand on the lumpen Jones, Didsy was class and our midfield was seriously, acut well above a midfield orth ten times their assumed value. We deserved to be three up by the break and De Gea was the difference in it being two more than it was. Everyone else in Man U colours was totally dogshit and they looked stunned to be having to go in at half time one down. The fact that we came out eager for more in the second half was not surprising but ... here's the weakness.
The first goal of theirs, we were practically in the shower and chucking our strip in the dirty kit bin. We'd not allowed Man U the width they suddenly had available and the cross would have been mopped up with the usual Basham-Egan-O'Connell combination. Great finish, mind. Be nice if Stevens or Baldock can do that from the deep lying wingback position. They can do it. But the second and third? Step forward Jags. Allowed the ball across his body to the attacker (fatal mistake for someone so experienced) and the second one was hopelessly out of position for the pull back. You could see it all in his face. I doubt that Egan - or Stearman - would have let that happen. I'm not taking anything away from Man U's ability to turn a wheezy jog into a lungbusting sprint, but as soon as we lacked the guile up front with Mouse and McGoldrick, we looked like that scoreline had been in place all match. It was tributes to the players for going at them for the equaliser ... and fuck off, it was nowhere near a handball.
Shame for us tonight. 70 minutes of class, five minutes of lack of concentration, ten minutes of struggling to get something back and five minutes of VAR. We deserved a lot more.
Moore 8/10: Good stops where needed. Possibly could have got down for the first. Hendo would have and there is the difference between them both.
Baldock 9/10: Great performance and looks PL quality
Basham 8/10: Still has those 'shit your pants moments' with his 50p heading, but left nowt out on the Desso
Jagielka 6.5/10: He's cracking on a bit ... and it shows. Brilliant times challenges at times but at fault for two of theirs
O'Connell 8.5/10: Great shift. I thought he was our best Centre Back
Stevens 8/10: Again, some quality stuff down the flanks at times even if he does hold it up a bit at times
Fleck 10/10: I thought he was fucking awesome.
Norwood 7.5/10: Less so. Telling moment was his mishit 'pass' into touch at the kick off after one of the goals. Sometimes 'simple' is better than 'complex'
Lundstram 9/10: Still defies belief as yesterday's transfer out possible. Can't see us completing the season without him now and we need to get his contract sorted, fast (if we haven't already)
Moussett 9.5/10: Christ, he's difficult. He just harries and badgers, never gives it up. Hope that hamstring injury is just a tweak
McGoldrick 10/10: Such craft and guile. Such a clever player. I hope to fuck he gets his goal soon
McBurnie 8/10: Was there when it counted and did the job
Sharp 7/10: Didn't get much chance to make an impact
Robinson nm: See above
Wilder: 8/10: Deserved the lead but fuck me, if you lose your outlet and you ability to keep the opposition in their half, don't try to one-for-one with a different attacker. McBurnie isn't Moussett and really, we could have done with taking Norwood off and putting Besic on and going 5-4-1 to stop the wide play which led to their goals.
Fucking great game though. We are awesome value.
pommpey
ps: If you are going to disagree with my 'out of tens', please do it like an adult, eh? Opinions are like arseholes. You have one, so do I.
Loved our ability to push them far into their half, loved the pressing, loved the ability to deny their front three of anything. Mouse was tactically placed to stand on the lumpen Jones, Didsy was class and our midfield was seriously, acut well above a midfield orth ten times their assumed value. We deserved to be three up by the break and De Gea was the difference in it being two more than it was. Everyone else in Man U colours was totally dogshit and they looked stunned to be having to go in at half time one down. The fact that we came out eager for more in the second half was not surprising but ... here's the weakness.
The first goal of theirs, we were practically in the shower and chucking our strip in the dirty kit bin. We'd not allowed Man U the width they suddenly had available and the cross would have been mopped up with the usual Basham-Egan-O'Connell combination. Great finish, mind. Be nice if Stevens or Baldock can do that from the deep lying wingback position. They can do it. But the second and third? Step forward Jags. Allowed the ball across his body to the attacker (fatal mistake for someone so experienced) and the second one was hopelessly out of position for the pull back. You could see it all in his face. I doubt that Egan - or Stearman - would have let that happen. I'm not taking anything away from Man U's ability to turn a wheezy jog into a lungbusting sprint, but as soon as we lacked the guile up front with Mouse and McGoldrick, we looked like that scoreline had been in place all match. It was tributes to the players for going at them for the equaliser ... and fuck off, it was nowhere near a handball.
Shame for us tonight. 70 minutes of class, five minutes of lack of concentration, ten minutes of struggling to get something back and five minutes of VAR. We deserved a lot more.
Moore 8/10: Good stops where needed. Possibly could have got down for the first. Hendo would have and there is the difference between them both.
Baldock 9/10: Great performance and looks PL quality
Basham 8/10: Still has those 'shit your pants moments' with his 50p heading, but left nowt out on the Desso
Jagielka 6.5/10: He's cracking on a bit ... and it shows. Brilliant times challenges at times but at fault for two of theirs
O'Connell 8.5/10: Great shift. I thought he was our best Centre Back
Stevens 8/10: Again, some quality stuff down the flanks at times even if he does hold it up a bit at times
Fleck 10/10: I thought he was fucking awesome.
Norwood 7.5/10: Less so. Telling moment was his mishit 'pass' into touch at the kick off after one of the goals. Sometimes 'simple' is better than 'complex'
Lundstram 9/10: Still defies belief as yesterday's transfer out possible. Can't see us completing the season without him now and we need to get his contract sorted, fast (if we haven't already)
Moussett 9.5/10: Christ, he's difficult. He just harries and badgers, never gives it up. Hope that hamstring injury is just a tweak
McGoldrick 10/10: Such craft and guile. Such a clever player. I hope to fuck he gets his goal soon
McBurnie 8/10: Was there when it counted and did the job
Sharp 7/10: Didn't get much chance to make an impact
Robinson nm: See above
Wilder: 8/10: Deserved the lead but fuck me, if you lose your outlet and you ability to keep the opposition in their half, don't try to one-for-one with a different attacker. McBurnie isn't Moussett and really, we could have done with taking Norwood off and putting Besic on and going 5-4-1 to stop the wide play which led to their goals.
Fucking great game though. We are awesome value.
pommpey
ps: If you are going to disagree with my 'out of tens', please do it like an adult, eh? Opinions are like arseholes. You have one, so do I.
