Lush Vlad

Run out of ways to describe how good he is. Arguably our most important player now and along with the rest of the back 5. Keeping him fit, the same as last season, is going to have a massive bearing on our season. As alexf rightly pointed out. Ando doing his maniacal laughing again when he scored

I'm sure it has been covered on Sky and in here. But why was it not a handball for the first goal? It doesn't actually help him control it, as it nearly knocks the ball off the pitch. But I was still expecting it to be ruled out. Did they go into any detail on the blatant foul on him for a pen? Stonewall, I thought. Really impressive yet again. Milan has been his only below par game, from what I have seen. Some turnaround for the lad. Been our best player this season and can't help but feel delighted for him.

Just watched the highlights back. As I was pretty hammered yesterday and watching down the pub is never ideal for picking up on everything. Not meaning to take away anything from our performance. As we have said for a while someone is due a thrashing when it all clicks and we were quality all over yesterday. Like a totally different mindset to our approach and pace to our attacking play, after some ridiculously tough games. But fuck me, they were sooooooooo bad. How is it that they defended deep, but failed to mark anyone? Constantly wrong side and shirt pulling. Not tracking runners off a simple 1-2. The midfield?.. What midfield?! They genuinely looked like they didn't play with one and it was like they were down to 9 men. They really looked like a team that has downed tools and given up playing for the manager. Worrying as fuck for Sheff Utd fans. Wilder back in is hardly inspiring! Gordon MOTM. But yet again, Botman looks like he's been a regular in the league and the top level for about 10 years and Trippier seems to be playing some of the best football of his career. Burn was much more involved in an attacking sense and the team had much more balance because of it.

What a player.

Shit he got injured. As we really need him to start finding his way in this team. But Gordon showed him what is needed from that position. All action. End product was good. Direct, assists, goals. Harsh to say a blessing in disguise. But it was. Gordon has been our best player this season.

Are they playing without a midfield, BTW?

Not a bad half that! VAR feel sorry for them or something? Stonewall pen on Gordon. Barnes getting injured has been a blessing in disguise. Wilson should have a couple. Been wasteful by his standards.

Not really hard to guess. When he was injured against Liverpool the week before

Love this Ray Wilkins story. I know he had the piss ripped out of him for his commentary style and MY WORD. But even then, he just came across as a genuinely nice fella. https://x.com/hltco/status/1704872896848335310?s=46

4-3 flatters Man U. They looked shite, again, for the most part. Hard place to go, mind.

Did you say you missed the first 15? Weirdly, on the scraps we had. They seemed to be linking up quite well early doors. Bit off topic, but whilst I remember. I also thought the press was there early on. Then when Milan had their first chance, quickly followed by a couple more. We seemed to drop off a yard or two. Intentional, perhaps. Maybe a sub-conscious thing as they were passing through us and beating the press easy enough or maybe some of them were blowing out of their arse. As they did make the pitch massive and look to switch play a lot, especially through Maignan.

Honestly. Fuck me sideways. Opinions and all that. But how anyone can watch this team and accuse players of half-arsing it or being disinterested. WOW. I thought Tonali and Murphy looked a bit gassed and slow to react at times last night. But not like they genuinely weren't trying, didn't care etc. Our biggest strength since Howe came in, is how everyone has bought into his methods and tactics. I don't think that has changed at all. Just some teething problems with key players missing, the team trying to evolve and also trying to bed in some new players. Who aren't quite on the same level yet.

Not quite as obvious as last night. But I feel you are mis-remembering. Those games we were fairly crap. Palace we needed a Pope wonder save to get us a point. We had plenty of games last year during our sticky patches of form where we looked massively out of sorts.

How good was Tomori last night, by the way? Based on that, he should be an England regular. He looked rapid, was aggressive with following Isak, who I thought did well in the circumstances and he covered the left channel well when Hernandez had fucked off up the pitch. How much would he cost.........

Sven BOSSman. Amirite?!

I do wonder with all the games coming up and the injuries to Big Joe and Little Joe. If he could ever be used in a 2 next to Bruno or Longstaff? Howe seemed to move to this at times last season, usually more in game and not necessarily starting with it. I can't think off the top of my head, but I have Southampton away in the cup and Brentford away on my mind. There were definitely other instances and I feel like it helped us gain some control back in those games. But I may just be remembering it like this to suit my point here. We are going to see some rotation and we look light at centre mid currently. We have a few options for a 10 or a more advanced midfielder in Gordon, Isak and Anderson. Even Almiron, at a push. As he played there before joining us by all accounts. Perhaps there was more fluidity and flexibility with positions last season with Joelinton and Willock in the side. As they can play a couple of different positions and Joelinton plays three positions at once so it was easier to do mid game. But we do seem to be a bit too wide and far apart with our midfield 3 currently. I'm sure we will work the balance out one way or the other. As another poster rightly mentioned in another thread. If fans are noticing some of the imbalances, lack of quality going forward, gaps between the lines and midfield too wide etc etc. Then I'm sure the meticulous Howe and his staff will have noticed all of this long before us and the Twitter tactic nerds did.

Agree with all of this. His set pieces really have gone to shit. Which is weird, as no other part of his game has dropped off. If anything, he looks better than ever.

I think he’s outstanding off the ball and really important in those wide areas. Makes that underlapping run all the while and often times it well. Positionally he is great and his workrate is unmatched. He’s an important player and I bet he is a coach’s dream the way he follows instructions and how tactically aware he seems to be. But I honestly feel I am watching a different game to others at times? I think he is severely limited on the ball and struggles with any sort of positive passing. His touch is poor and he takes an age to do anything in possession. He certainly needs to be in the team at present, based on who is available. But when we have the Joe combo fit. I think in time, he will become more of a player for certain games and situations. Not a starter.

Yeah. Think he’ll change one of the full backs and the front three we’ll make 2-3 changes. That’s it, I reckon

Superb. MOTM after Trippier. Didn’t really put a foot wrong. Even his kicking was passable by his standards.

I dunno like. There was about 5 shirt pulls from them that went unpunished and Loftus Cheek committed 4-5 shitty fouls in a row and not even a talking to. I didn’t think the ref was bad and the game flowed ok, considering. But they got away with murder, I thought. Way more savvy than us. Thought we were shy in comparison.

Hard watch at times. Rode our luck at times. A bit naive with some of our play and certainly got a lesson in the dark arts and shithousery from the wiley Italians, tonight. No end of niggly fouls, shirt pulls, the same player fouling over and over from them and getting away with it. We barely made a tactical foul after the first 10 minutes and just seemed a bit too ‘nice’ all round for my liking. A far cry from our usual cuntish behaviour. Didn’t like all the checking on their players and handshakes at half time, I must say. But that’s just me. An aggro charva. I think we we were really careless and sloppy on the ball at times, too. Which was understandable when they put so much in. But also resulted in quite a few attacks dying on their arse and also quite a few chances for them from our own fuck ups. All that said. I’m buzzing with the result. Thinking objectively, I thought we’d get beat comfortably to nil prior to the game. But bar a couple of moments. We defended really well and limited them to long shots and half chances that just fell kindly for them in the box. Pope was brilliant. Botman was a Colossus. Trippier was probably the best player on the pitch. A long way to go. But a solid start.

Take it back. They just showed an angle. That previously they were not showing on VAR for some reason. What an idiot.

Forcefully