Infinitely Content

Didn't even celebrate... mad how little investment I have in us these days. It's very hard to get excited after falling in and out of sleep for 85 minutes trying to watch us play.

Podence is mint.

Almirón has been good. I was initially worried about our right hand side with Murphy, Fraser & Schar, but it turns out we're weaker on the left with Fede and Lewis looking poor defensively. Lewis only really offers an overlap, and you have to hope ASM ignores him and cuts inside. Sounds brutal but I'm not a fan of him on the ball (Lewis), too indecisive. Also Hendrick is proper, proper shit.

Yeah 5-3-1-1 with ASM in the hole and Fraser & Almiron either side of Hendrick in the middle.

Must be Almiron and Hendrick as a midfield two... that's the only semblance of sense I can make out of it.

In order to attack effectively, you must have a solid base to work from though, and a bit of structure. I'm struggling to see where we get that from today.

"Steve, we've seen the team news, it looks very offensive" that's certainly one way of putting it.

Any idea if Schar is in defence over Lascelles or Fede or is he replacing Shelvey or Hayden? Manquillo playing?

Awful game, the amount of talent on this pitch... you would be excused for thinking both managers are fucking useless

Stonewaller iirc, Ramos was assaulted. Sickening.

I'm wondering if he means management in general... I'll not be in it for much longer so I'll try enjoy this one.

Quality spell there for the Barca keeper.

Never understand people complaining about diving when a player actually is fouled. Been proven time and time again that you have to go down to get the decision Wasn't even subtle though, he literally throws himself the opposite direction. Regardless of what you think it's awful to watch, lacking in any class and completely dishonest. Nonsense IMO. He gets his shirt pulled stopping him from getting a better connection on the header. Deserves to get the penalty and never gets it if he stays up Nah disagree. It's embarrassing & soft as shite.

Never understand people complaining about diving when a player actually is fouled. Been proven time and time again that you have to go down to get the decision Wasn't even subtle though, he literally throws himself the opposite direction. Regardless of what you think it's awful to watch, lacking in any class and completely dishonest.

Shouldn't be a pen just on the grounds of the absolutely pathetic dive.

We miss Willems big time.

Yeah, he'll switch the wingers over and then switch them back 5 minutes into the game. He'll spend those 5 minutes with a pensive look on his face and his forefinger lightly touching his chin as if collecting data from his masterful, complex tactical move.

Not sure about that, they get a lot of praise on all fronts from what I see. Deservedly so like.

Not great comments, but if a manager has any one primary job at a football club, then it's to instil a mentality in the team. So this is at Bruce's door for me.

See I half agree but feel you're contradicting yourself a bit. Our owners are a huge problem. If the sources are to be believed Solskjaer asked for Sancho, Upamecano and Grealish. We did fuck all in the transfer market in the grand scheme of things. The managers aren't getting backed. Same when Mourinho wanted Alderweireld, Skriniar and Perisic and wasn't backed. SEMTEX has it right too with the attitude of some players. There's a lot of deadwood that needs shifted and Ole is doing a good job so far of making it clear who needs to go. Maybe so, I'm just trying to make a full point, just as I do with Newcastle. Bruce is shit but it always has to be caveated by *Mike Ashley is the owner. Similarly, I think Ole has not yet proved he is a good enough manager to get Man United back to consistently challenging for the title and being the feared team they once were, but it's also caveated by having owners who aren't willing to invest enough in order to improve certain areas of the squad. Ole can ask for Sancho, Upamecano and Grealish, but does he have a system or set of systems that over the course of 38 games would see Man United pushing Liverpool/City? Bruce got Wilson, Fraser & Lewis, good players. But Wilson is left stranded up top just as Joelinton was last year, Fraser can't get a game and Lewis has looked vulnerable and easily exploited. Getting players is one thing, managing them effectively is something entirely different.

Maguire must have been thanking his lucky stars he came up against a Bruce team. Lots of long high balls for him to swallow up, and no pacy strikers for him to worry about. Even got to wander up for all the set pieces and get himself a nice easy header to get a little extra credit. Well, Wilson is quick, the problem is Bruce didn't look to exploit them and utilise our pace as he doesn't do tactics or opposition analysis (as we found it in the Brighton game so starkly). A half decent manager would have looked at Shaw & Maguire and instructed the likes of Almiron, ASM & Fraser to run straight at them any chance they got. Instead we had Joelinton as a winger and Hendrick doing... well I'm not sure.

It's nice to see a manager get time for once, that's for sure. We all tend to moan when managers are sacked after a bad spell, so the fact the Man Utd fan base is largely behind him still is somewhat refreshing. However I wonder if it's mostly because of who he is, rather than what he's done. Personally I'm still not sure what he's actually trying to implement there, which would worry me as a fan. What's his style, what's he working towards? I can't see a pattern. You see Ancelotti go to Everton and completely transform them, Bielsa at Leeds, Klopp, Pep, Rodgers even... Ole is nowhere near them and will never be, and again this is Manchester United we're on about. Should be aiming higher but the owners seem content with aiming for top 4. Pretty much become the new Arsenal.

I'll take your word for it, I only watch Man Utd on occasion. I do stand by the point about Maguire though, I think he's a much better player than what people are making out lately, and I also don't think Ole is a good manager at all. In fact I'd say he's in the bottom 10 in the league, so the fact he's managing the biggest club in the world is baffling.

That's me silenced then