Lotus

Watched an hour of it myself. May have been an outlier performance wise but he was pretty poor from what I saw. Especially in key defensive moments. From the DM position he let players run off of him and made minimal effort to recover. When is possession and building from the back he often went to the left (clearly tactical). Once BM lost the ball on the half way line and worked a man overload towards BM’s right back. Kone just casually jogged over and the attack went on without him making the slightest effort to help out. In fact, I didn’t see him sprint once in the hour I watched. He mostly walked and sometimes jogged. Often didn’t show for the ball and certainly no effort to retrieve it. Given he’s built a reputation this must have been a very below par performance from him. Odd to see a young player just walking around in such a close game (it was 2-1 when I had to leave). Was a very good game though, cracking goals from both teams.

Wilifred Ndidi for me. Contract is up in 19 months.

I think we could do with a DM who has pace than the likes of Merino. Someone sitting at 6 with good recovery speed to cover the FB position is we get caught in transition as an example. We’re a bit ‘one geared’ defensively. Positional awareness and reading of the game are tremendous attributes but pace is something fantastic to have to resort to.

Would have Targett in, myself. Wouldn’t it work is JL played inside and Willock played LW?

Probably the most complete footballer at the club. Can literally do everything.

Was it Botman who got beaten to the ball for the flick on that led to their goal? I couldn’t really see.

Thought he was Dan Burned for the 1st 15 mins or so. They could’ve been 3 - 0 but we made adjustments and he looked a lot better.

It was apparent to me last season, and I know it’s easy to say now he’s been canned, but the way he shifted the blame into the players made me think he couldn’t last. He didn’t give a sense of collective in the interviews I saw (after a bad result). I thought that would wear thin with his squad at some point. He might have a bit of Sounessitis tbh. Whereby, as a player, he was so self motivated and so mean to dominate as a personality trait he can’t empathise with players who need coaxing from their leader.

I’m sure that was the only time he lost out to DCL in the air in that game. Haven’t watched it again but I thought there was a couple of times. Anyway, hopefully he’ll learn what to do against a forward who jumps well, early and into him and adjusts. Am impressed with his communication with Schar regarding offsides. They seem to read each other pretty well.

Thought his run and leap in the box was great. Kinda disappointed he only did that once in 45 mins though. There was plenty of space for him to drive forward...

Funny how we all see things differently. I thought Burn had an ok game but some of his passing and made me think Targett will be back in soon.

Always looks like he’s auditioning for Zoolander 3.

Thought his tackling was very good but he was beaten in the air a couple of times by DCL. Don’t think it was the jump as much as upper body strength. Pretty sure he’ll work on addressing that.

I wonder if that Man City game took too much out of him. He put in a great effort for that game but I wonder if it triggered these issues. Set the ball rolling downhill as it were…

Think he’s been in the Liverpool job too long. The pressure has changed him for the worse.

You are firm favourites and rightly so. Your squad investment has been fantastic.

They’re squad should be comfortably challenging for the title. We can’t go to their place and expect a win. Just hope we give them a good game and at least stay in it til the end á la Liverpool. Would be delighted with a point. Ecstatic with more.

Nah….the Glazers have spent loads of cash on transfers (and manager pay offs) and I’m sure will continue to do so. They’re basically the football equivalent of Loadsamoney with the same attitude to boot.

Wilson did not have a good game apart from one moment against Brentford. Im sure he’ll lock in for this game but having Isak as an option off the bench would be very handy.

Eddie is so good at organising us in such a way that it kind of stops the other team playing the way they want to. Still, Man U have a great squad (on paper), and with the money the Glazers have provided they should be challenging for the title every year. Not sure why they aren’t. There will be games when they click though and playing Newcastle at home is probably one of them.

That’s the thing, the Glazers have always backed the managers.

Man U fans will tell you Fred is streeeeets ahead of Bruno. Not even close.

His attitude is fantastic. With some confidence he showed he's too much to handle for the likes of Brentford.

Worried he's got a calf strain. Seemed to grimace a bit when even walking around the pitch.

Thought he contributed very well today. He's not excellent player but he showed he can be a good one.