Manchester United Thread

Yeah, we definitely collapsed and hopefully it'll be a lesson, but you simply can't allow a referee to be that inconsistent.

If he says it's not a foul by Vardy on Rafael - fine, it's a physical sport, great, physicality time - oh wait, 1 second later Vardy goes down with virtually no contact - and the contact he initiatied - penalty.

That might be the single worst example of refereeing inconsistency in a single few seconds I've ever seen.

4th goal is a clear foul too, I mean, what does the referee think? 5 foot nothing Vardy has won the header against Blackett? It's such a clear shove.

I can't blame the linesman for the first goal, that's on Evans who was woeful and needs to either man up or leave the club.

We were absolutely excellent for 60 minutes, and looked comfortable. Maybe Clattenberg was getting a push from Sky to make things more interesting.

We've yet to get a single major decision this season. We should have had 3 penalties (including the clearest handball this year against Burnley, in the 88th minute) and are probably 4 points worse off. Fine.

We're still an excellent first XI, and played some sumptuous stuff. Leicester were stereo-typically British - lots of effort, tons of niggling fouls and lots of long balls. And between the refs and some serious luck, it worked out for them.

Clattenberg will now be demoted for a week, before coming back to be sh*t again in 2 weeks time, and we'll still be worse off. For the love of God why can't we have vieo replays on all penalties?
 
Also, what a stat: For the first time in their 853-game PL history, Man Utd have thrown away a two goal lead to lose. Unique.

We've had biased refereeing performances in the past, but we've never done that before.

Rojo was so naive.
 
That penalty is shocking. Terrible terrible decision. I wouldn't complain about their first goal, 4 replays later and you still couldn't see it on the tele, let alone live.

As for referee's, Im more and more inclined to think there is something in the background to help the narrative, against Villa Senderos clearly kicked out at Balotelli twice yet nothing. Actually hardly any of the fouls on Balotelli are given. You can just tell the refs are waiting for him to blow up so everyone can say...disgraceful Mario at it again. But it goes for any physical team in the league, they get away with loads because they are crap and cant play their way to a win. Yet it gets passed off as the English game, and refs only exacerbate it.
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
That penalty is shocking. Terrible terrible decision. I wouldn't complain about their first goal, 4 replays later and you still couldn't see it on the tele, let alone live.

As for referee's, Im more and more inclined to think there is something in the background to help the narrative, against Villa Senderos clearly kicked out at Balotelli twice yet nothing. Actually hardly any of the fouls on Balotelli are given. You can just tell the refs are waiting for him to blow up so everyone can say...disgraceful Mario at it again. But it goes for any physical team in the league, they get away with loads because they are crap and cant play their way to a win. Yet it gets passed off as the English game, and refs only exacerbate it.
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I would never, ever be surprised by this. Sky owns the league, it only exists because of the their money.

And if you were going to buy a referee, Clattenberg is the man. Read up on his history if in doubt.
 
On the plus side..other than Arsenal winning we can't complain about the rest of the results..would be nice to not be dependent on other teams' "failures" to keep us in the race though and actually start accruing some points. With a win this weekend would've been near perfect for us.
Crazy start of the season when you look at the overall standings and small amounts of points earned by teams.
 
The only flaw in our points is that Scudamore has stated it needs Utd near the top for business reasons. Or Murdoch is still pissed off his buyout got blocked ;)
 
beachryan said:
4th goal is a clear foul too, I mean, what does the referee think? 5 foot nothing Vardy has won the header against Blackett? It's such a clear shove.
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Think that was the 5th

It can get a little confusing tho given the number of goals :PIG:

The shove was a carbon copy of Rooney's at West Ham when he scored that worldy.

The penalty was a farce. But it's Clattenburg and if he's not a Liverpool fan I'm a giant panda
 
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Remember him in the Merseyside derby a while back? As good as Gerrard that day.

Anyway, yeah you're right it was the 5th.

Apparently Leicester only had 5 shots on target. Cripes.
 
Wtf? 5 goals you really had to fxck the Football God's somewhere. Mutd need to seriously get a grip. Them lots have so much attacking threat they could play w/ o a GK!
 
How do you feel about your upcoming fixtures?

I honestly thought you'd be top by now.

Only 1 win from Swansea, Burnley, (MK Dons,) Sunderland, QPR and Leicester is pretty bad by anyone's standards, nvm LVG's.

Everton, Chelsea, City, Arsenal and a dangerous looking West Ham in the next 8 games. Will facing better teams in a strange way help you or could it get worse?
 
Most important thing is how different the available team is, not so much who we play. Plus, newly-promoted teams tend to be far better at the start of the year than towards the end.

The squad we played against Swansea was without Herrera (for half), Blind, Di Maria, Rojo, Falcao, Rafael, Carrick, and a defence.

Once this team gets a few games together, I think it'll improve. We really were excellent until Clattenberg's penalty. If we can replicate that, it'll be fun to watch.
 
To fall into pieces for a wrongly given Penalty is no excuse. When can you say we scored enough to win the game? Martinez said after the 2-2 draw of Arsenal "you know a 2 nil scoreline isn`t enough of a lead"


The biggest problem is team don`t need to long ball to out score your opponents. I think keeping possession of the ball works better and MUTD has the players to do that. imo players are trying too hard to impress their individual game to the boss. I would love for Arsenal to get Smalling once MUTD buy some £45m CB in the winter!:SMUG:
 
I usually don't judge a coach in his first matches but, Van Gaal is not good.

and this is why :

in football you should always start with the defense, that's a rule. So when your first games are either 0-0 draws, or 1-0 wins or losses with so little offensive show, then you're on the right path.

But with Van Gaal, MU conceded sooooo many goals, this is a catastrophy even with amateurs. This is MU, man ! they should at least know how to defend, they aren't new to football, which makes it easier for a good coach to build around them.

MU should know focus on organising their defensive systematic, thay must have as a goal for now to finish the game with ZERO goals conceded, once you do that, then there's an other talk later.
 
In all honesty long term im not that worried, we'll sort the issue by spending, buying top attacking talent is normally more difficult but that side of our team is fine.

taking a step back for a moment, the last two games have been the most exciting its been watching United since 2009.
 
jihado86 said:
I usually don't judge a coach in his first matches but, Van Gaal is not good.

and this is why :

in football you should always start with the defense, that's a rule. So when your first games are either 0-0 draws, or 1-0 wins or losses with so little offensive show, then you're on the right path.

But with Van Gaal, MU conceded sooooo many goals, this is a catastrophy even with amateurs. This is MU, man ! they should at least know how to defend, they aren't new to football, which makes it easier for a good coach to build around them.

MU should know focus on organising their defensive systematic, thay must have as a goal for now to finish the game with ZERO goals conceded, once you do that, then there's an other talk later.
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A lot of the problem is personnel. In every PL match this season we've lost at least one defender to injury in the match. It's hard to legislate for that.

Also lost Shaw and Jones for a month, and Evans has barely played 2 matches in a row for 2 years.

Basically our defence is a bunch of crocks.

Also, our last 2 PL matches before today were shutouts.
 
Class from Nigel Pearson (coach of Leicester) in the post-game:

"maybe it's another case of..let's give officials as much help as possible by introducing technology. Til we do that there's always gonna be debates like this over key decisions." Hear hear. :APPLAUD:
 
dplane said:
Class from Nigel Pearson (coach of Leicester) in the post-game:

"maybe it's another case of..let's give officials as much help as possible by introducing technology. Til we do that there's always gonna be debates like this over key decisions." Hear hear. :APPLAUD:
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If only Ferguson would have had that class. Pretty sure Ferguson now things that Pearson is a useless clown.
I've been reading the post of people like Beach and younggun with attention.
One of the things you can conclude is that LVG is doing even worse with a better squad and easier fixtures. Yet nobody seems to doubt him.

LVG has had big successen but also spectacularly failures. Of course he needs time because his first matches with Bayern weren't very good either, he turend out to put the team on rails and that was the beginning of a great team.
 
Reasons to be optimistic about LVG:
1. His pre-season was excellent, and that was the first we saw of him
2. He has signed excellent players - possibly Rojo aside - filling gaps we've needed filling for years
3. He handles himself extremely well in press conferences
4. The players look like they're enjoying themselves
5. The first 3 matches were with shadow squads, no fit defenders and a barely fit senior XI. Harsh to judge on those.
6. The only 2 matches we've seen with most of the 'real' United XI moving forward we've been bleeding excellent. Best football we've played in 4 years.

That's it for me.
 
gerd said:
If only Ferguson would have had that class. Pretty sure Ferguson now things that Pearson is a useless clown.
I've been reading the post of people like Beach and younggun with attention.
One of the things you can conclude is that LVG is doing even worse with a better squad and easier fixtures. Yet nobody seems to doubt him.
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Yeah it was a bit sad to see how many fans online nearly demanded LVG rip Clattenburg a new one like SAF would've done. Class from LVG to not do that and instead put the blame on the team not killing the game. Though there are I think a lot of Utd fans and who have serious doubts about LVG, he has a lot more "Street cred" than Moyes.. Is new to the league.. And like the others in here said.. We actually have been playing way better football than we ve seen in a long time. It's actually fun to watch. Today's loss I hope was a major lesson for LVG and all the new players that you don't just put a game to bed in this league and walk away from it. Hopefully Shaw returning will provide a bit more of a defensive backbone. Considering I'm pinning that hope on someone that young and new to the club underlines how dire our backline is and has been for quite a while now.
 
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Also in regards to LVG doing worse than Moyes. Results wise, sure. however David Moyes was simply trying to just let the machine run itself and it wasn't working for him.

Our football was diabolical! and was getting worse week on week it seemed, LVG is ripping things up and starting again so ofcourse there going to be teething problems, more importantly than that there ARE positive signs. our attacking play is like I said probably the best I've seen it for 4-5 seasons.

before you say he's had great players brought in, remember they probably signed because of him too.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/18/angel-di-maria-louis-van-gaal-manchester-united

were a new team who are going to learn some lessons, people need to realize this isn't SAF's well oiled machine anymore.
 
Dunno what to think of Utd. I predicted a title challenge at the end of the last season. Since then you've splashed 150/200m, depending on how you view the Falcao deal, so, even before looking at the names, logic would dictate I'd be right. Yet, from the halfway line back you look a shambles and, just looking at the personnel, barely top half material. How does that happen?
Di Maria is a sensational signing but Falcao, as good as he is, doesn't really increase Utd's attacking threat (which is better Rooney+RVP+Mata+Di Maris or Falcao+RVP+Rooney+Di Maria?) in the same way Falcao to Arsenal would for Arsenal (so, from a City pov, I'm happy about that)

All the threat against Leicester came from Di Maria, the way he picks up the ball and just runs straight at the opposition is scary, but I didn't watch the QPR game. However, I did watch the Spurs-QPR game and QPR put in one of the worse PL performances I've seen for some time.

ATM, I'm thinking you're gonna struggle to get CL but then Liverpool don't look that much better overall, despite looking more balanced. Could see them drawing quite a few games whereas Utd will either win or lose. The latter tends to be better but you've already lost 2 without playing anyone.

October and November are going to be interesting times for Utd fans, probably the most interesting few months for nearly 2 decades
 
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Gotta say I'm still optimistic. Yes we got blown away by team Clattenerg (brings to mind his Chelsea performance against us too, when we brougth back a banner spoofing the Terry one) and imploded similar to the probably worse decision to send Nani off a few years back. But, for the 150 minutes of football before that we were genuinely fantastic to watch.

Leicester had only taken 1 shot before their penalty - a beautiful header from a half-volleyed, out of bounds cross. It's hard to legislate for that. And we had created loads of chances.

We're already playing better football, and with a less biased referee we probably honestly win that match, and people are talking about the renaissance. We can't get Clattenberg'd every week, so I remain cautiously hopeful. Our defence needs reinforcements, but should be ok to only ship 2 goals per match, and we'll be looking to score 3.

Final rant du jour - where is the uproar at Vardy cheating to win a penalty? Here's a true English gent, who has played real football in the 4th tier, but still puts his body outside of the ball and goes to ground as if shot. I don't understand, where are the replays? Where's the MOTD uproar? Where are the articles in the Mail and the Sun?
 
Blaming Clattenburg alone is delusion.

I've heard a Dutch pundit about LVG.
At every club or other job ( Last Holland job) where he was overachieving, he had a very difficult start. He searches for a plan B and that is the key to future success (for example bringing in Thomas Muller, Alaba and other youth at Bayern).

I'm pretty sure it will all come good.
 
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