TRon

That's an oddly specific future scenario, but granted it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Or he could use this season to acclimatise behind closed doors, get the feel for the game in practise sessions, and come back fully pumped to prove himself and have a stormer next season. He did look quite a handy player in patches.

Who cares, I'll take it.

I find it makes it easier to watch the game when you have already resigned yourself to a loss against teams like this. If were at full strength I'd probably be more scared of losing, it would hurt more.

I think that's what might be tempting us to make the deal. Miley is a lovely player on the ball, but Philips would be much more aggressive in the press. He'd bring us a bit of the old Tiote gangstapress as opposed to the gegenpress.

Not even arsed. No expectations whatsoever this time, they can have the win, but we are coming and that day will be all the sweeter down the line.

Same here. He was a player we would have loved to signed 18 months ago, and I'm one of those who quite likes the idea of a specialist no 6 as long as he's a decent footballer and not just a hard tackler. Still not sure we'll actually sign him though unless we feel Miley is not good enough defensively.

Succinctly put.

That happens in a lot of games, he's a player who likes time on the ball, when he's pressed aggressively he ends up getting rushed into a bad touch or a wayward pass.

Nothing sad about it, we were already at least a year ahead of schedule even qualifying for the CL, never mind threatening City. Loaning Philips isn't going to affect them as they obviously don't have any space for him in their side. We on the other hand, definitely could use him.

You are always going to get a section of the fanbase who go hyper-critical, I'm sure it's the same in your neck of the woods as well. I actually hesitate to say anything critical about Howe on this thread because I don't want to be lumped in with them. I'm a massive fan of Howe as a manager, and I wouldn't replace him with anyone right now. But does that mean I agree with every decision he's made? No. That doesn't mean I want him out, it's just my take as a fan.

Because he's not that good would be my guess.

True, we don't really know what Howe is seeing behind closed doors, so we can only really comment on what's there in front of us. No one here is pretending to be an expert, it's just some amateur opinions being exchanged.

Been an amazing game this. Man U have well deserved to be in the lead.

Opposition managers would have been watching last season you'd imagine, and maybe picked up on where we could be got at when we push up with the high press.

Yep. If you go down to 10 men you wouldn't expect the manager just to carry on as we were still playing with 11. You'd take off a striker more than likely and go more compact otherwise you'd get torn to shreds. Same goes for when your team is exhausted or not physically equipped to deal with a rapid front three on the counter.

He looks a lot more effective when we are sitting deeper like in his first season here, where we were battling relegation and playing a totally different system. If we are going to play a high press then he's obviously one of those who will get exposed real badly because of his lack of pace if we get caught on the counter.

You don't have to sit back, just make it so our defence isn't left exposed time and again to their rapid forwards who are licking their lips at just that prospect. We are 1-0 up at that stage, it's them that needs the next goal, not us.

It's stinkin on far too many days unfortunately.

I think we played into their hands a bit as well. Nuno basically laid out his plan that if we pressed aggressively if they could play their way out they could exploit the space behind. We obviously have to push forward at home, but once we are in the lead, do we really need to take as many risks?

He needs to be judged on results when he's got a full squad available. Not to say he's handled games as well as he could, but he's earned the benefit of the doubt with two fantastic years here.

Looked pretty sharp today, but Forest knew he was a threat and let other players go in order to make sure he couldn't do more damage.

He's just not that gifted, he's a workhorse basically. The difference is immediately obvious when you compare Miley's use of the ball and his eye for a pass. Longstaff's main asset is his running off the ball, but he's just not so good on it.

He's the same as Almiron, Krafth etc. A really good squad player but not first team material.

Agree that Trippier should have been rested after a bad run of form, but again I can't blame the player for wanting to play. The manager has to make hard decisions sometimes. I still think Howe is a great manager fwiw, just think a horses for courses policy is sometimes required.

Gordon's got some top boy vibes about him though. Longstaff always looks like he doesn't really believe he belongs up in that company.