Jayson

“I am concerned about the change of the team, in terms of the performance against Leeds and then our performance today," said United manager Benitez. "That is the only thing I am thinking about. We know that we have to win games to do our job, so we will have to change and improve a lot. “We knew it could be this kind of game today. I thought that we were ready, but it seems that we were not. "We were not focused and mentally ready. When we were reacting, we scored the goal, and it seemed that we had more control of the game, but then we made another mistake. "We are making some mistakes, and we are paying for that."

We just dont have a replacement for Gayle. Ritchie has been singlehandedly holding us up for most of this run in in regards to end product, our highest scorers in the last 17 since Gayles injury are Ritchie on 7 & Murphy/Perez on 3 each. Add to that Gayles movement opens spaces for others, then the likes of Shelvey can do more.

Scored one goal or none in 7 of the last 8 games. Can't score goals and feeling the pressure of it, combined with that of promotion.

Exactly. How many points of 3rd were we clear last time after this many games out of curiosity? Apples, I'd like to introduce you to oranges Possibly the worst ever use of this phrase. You think the 2 scenarios are directly comparable Ian, really? The point I was making was that everyone talks about us pissing it back then so I was curious to see what the difference is points was. 17 Clear of 3rd with a game in hand last time at this point. We were on 89 points & with 48 GD, so bit better all around. Same amount of wins though, it's all draws. Considering we largely kept together much of a prem side that season though, compared to changing near our entire team this i'd say Rafa's done very well.

I bet they wouldn't have come out with that if we'd not won. Ref should be thanking Matt Ritchie for taking pressure off his decision.

Hahaha referee twat

GET IN RITCHIE

Pressure? How many of these are used to leading a division, it's not the same as a general game. They've had a harder time as the seasons progressed.

If its been given away from the area, that suggests somethings happened off the ball?

I'm expecting a good performance from Perez tonight

Get in

The earlier game with Brighton Perez linked loads of our play up, we played some beautiful stuff that day. Well in control. I think Perez being on form has resulted in quite a few strong results.

Brighton have leeds next, be an interesting game.

Feels like this cliche gets trotted out every other game. It is true though, they always get a bit ahead of themselves & lackadaisical. 6-0 win v Qpr 2-0 loss to wolves 4-3 comeback v top of table norwich 1-0 v bottom of table rotherham who hit post in last few mins 4-0 v Rotherham 0-3 loss to oxford in cup Same with the recent run. Rafa is likely trying to manage their mentalities, but they're getting ahead of themselves after decent results or strings of them.

Pretty big wake up call. Our home form certainly isn't sorted, we're a side that gets used to playing on the break.

No. Your being naive. They are to be fair. "No one knows what can happen, but i'm happy here" is basically play #1 of the footballer asked about a transfer response book if they're actually happy. Very few people in the profession come out with "No chance i'm leaving" as they don't want to be taken for granted. I dont think he'd start on about seeing the situation similarly to liverpool & hoping he can repeat his success if he wasn't planning for the future. That and the fact he says he's planning for the future. Sounds like his relationship with Charnley is alright aswell, I also think he's well positioned to talk to Ashley about finances as the guy is clearly smart and very analytical. It will depend on how open Ashley is to listening, he won't have dealt with someone like Benitez in football yet.

He's not had a yellow in two years & never been sent off. Doesnt suggest to me he's a head stamper tbh.

Very smart finish that

Not completely, but a few notable ones like the Clark og, Jerome's goal & Bristol's 2nd. He's made a few dodgy calls since he slid out the area at Rotherham though, before that he was seen as fairly solid so i think he's just become a bit nervy with his decision making on long balls etc.

I think he's got a lot of potential to improve still & he will do under Rafa. Same as Lascelles & Dummett. People are overdoing the error situation, he had the mistake v Rotherham where he made a last ditch save & since then he's had a few nervy moments on back passes/long balls. Its not a long term thing imo, just about communication.

go on gouff lad

Agree with that. Ignoring the sending off, he's missed 5 other games this season. We've scored in just 2 of them & one of those was just that deflected free kick before they went down to 10 men. The other was 1-0 against Bristol city. Shelveys our ball player & gets us moving, we have no one to do a similar job when he's out and clearly struggle for goals. Getting another ball playing midfielder as back up to Shelvey would help a lot.

He is a good player, but he needs a good manager. Benitez got him playing well, after McClaren struggled. Now Pardew is struggling to get the best out of him. It's no shock. s**** manager, s**** results. I don't think he's great by any stretch but he has decent end product and pace to burn. He's yet to even hold down a regular starting over the course of a season, and as for end product, during his time with us he almost doubled his career total of premier league goals, that tells you how unproductive he was before he came to us. Whilst being managed by Pardew? Bit bizarre to write someone off having seen them play well for your own side.

Just looked at his time in the prem cos i enjoy a quick stat browse. He was often played out of position or barely got any time looking at it, let alone getting a run of games. Based on http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dwight-gayle/leistungsdaten/spieler/196522/plus/0?saison=2013 Played CF or second striker for atleast 45 mins in the prem 20 times, got 11 goals. Most of those games isolated and for example in four he literally just got 45 mins. If you include cup games it becomes something like 21 goals from 25 games where he played more than one half. The vast majority he was played either on the wing or for less than a half hour. He was managed by Neil Warnock & Alan Pardew

Predicted this before the game, every home team in the prem got 3 today and it actually followed through. Odd.