The College Dropout

Did his best as always. But he was poor. Lacks quality.

MAN U are in the groove. Benching AWB was a mistake but then bringing him on looks like a masterstroke. He's one of the best 1v1 fullbacks i've ever seen. He's so good at it that it demoralises his opponent. Should've shifted ASM to the middle or right at some point. ASM had our best moment of the game and was our brightest spark. I thought he should've been closer to goal when the cross came in though. Thought his passing was off though and he was clamped by AWB.

He's not. But he's better than Almiron & Murphy.

Maybe we change our style to play him upfront. He's not the hold it up guy. He comes deep and wide. That needs other players to run centrally. ASM doesn't often make that run. Certainly needs to start.

Tbf Kuol is 18. Ashby is 21. That's a massive difference.

The Ashby thing is genuinely weird. He's 21 and made 7 senior appearances by the looks of things. That's an incredibly low amount for a player so highly rated. At the same age, Trippier played a full season in the Championship. Longstaff a season and a half of mens football.

Bruno is great. But he is not world class. Yet.

I said that in another thread. Eddie isn’t that manger though and we knew that

For a big team we are awful at attacking and defending set pieces. Eddie has to take some of that blame.

Been so poor post World Cup. Like him but he’s not justifying his place in the team.

FFP man. Remember Ashley? Deluded Geordie scum.

I don’t think it was gutless. The lads did their best imo. I don’t think our quality of player is anything close to theirs.

So what was unlucky? Their GK pulled off a great save. He has world class reflexes. Ours was a fraction too slow for the second. The deflection was lucky but DDG probably saves it anyway. Just the gap in quality.

Aye. Not in terms of quality. Graft. Momentum. Solid defence. Maximising middling talents.

There’s nothing lucky about the first. Probably a foul. Great delivery. Great header. 2 players with great quality. Dan Burn missed an equally inviting header. He wasn’t unlucky. That’s Dan Burn doing Dan Burn things. That’s why he was playing for Wigan while Casemiro was winning champions leagues. That’s not lucky that’s class.

Winners get to write history. But AWB should’ve started. Outside of ASM and the Trips / Miggy combo we don’t have any threat from open play. AWB was always likely to have ASMs number.

Agreed. I think a part of it is some signings from Madrid have been disappointing in recent seasons. Di Maria has gone onto be a key man for Argentina, scoring in the biggest finals in world football but he was a flop at Man Utd. Varane had a poor first season (but is showing levels this season). Many thought he would be the same. But instead he’s played like a the multiple la liga winner, 4x champions league winner that he is. But he was definitely under rated. I’ve heard pundits act like it was Modric and Kroos and Casemiro was an afterthought. No. He was a main man and in recent years he’s been better and more integral than Kroos.

Leave them. Common sense is not common.

I don’t think he’s ready to lead the line by himself but maybe it’s worth trying it now. Maybe I’m being knee jerk. But if he was still here I would be tempted to play Isak with Wood. As it is, Wilson offers nothing so might as well go Isak yo top by himself.

How?Many people said it in the thread. We could be playing now and we wouldn’t score. If a 3rd was going to go in, it would be for Man U. We competed well enough. But it was a regulation win for Man Utd. They had more class, a cutting edge, looked imperious at the back. Yeh they fought off the back foot but they were always in control.

We were beaten by a much better side. They hardly came out of second gear. They hardly gave us a sniff. We fell well short. We’ve done great to get to the final and the players have made us feel alive again. But we were beaten by a much better team.

Thanks for getting us to the final. I’ve dreamed again. I am disappointed that we conceded from a set piece again and failed to score.

How many big chances? 1 made by ASM

Aye. Didn’t post in his thread. Didn’t want to be a Debbie downer. But he’s not a top half footballer. Purple patch was purple patch.

So predictable. Get Trippier off set pieces. Let’s try new things. Let’s try to be quick.