Match Report and Mom v Man U

Exactly. Two shots on target in 180 mins. We have peppered Man U and Liverpool in previous seasons, sometimes winning, sometimes losing but always had a go. Six goals v Liverpool last year....no goals and three shots this year.

Anyway...let’s blame the referee.

Being critical of the team and the referee are not mutually exclusive Neil. I thought we were ok in parts last night but poor in the final third. But, and it is a big but, the referee missed one blatant and another pretty clear penalty. I think football fans are entitled to complain when poor refereeing affects the outcome of games.
 
Another certainty,
We always get S*** refs.

Typical Mourinho style of winning, foul, cheat, dive, time waste and make the most of weak officials.

Badly missing Adam Smith, not sure of 442 then having the wide midfielders coming in to narrow the options most of the time, final ball too careless too often, pressing from the front needs to be done as a team thing.
 
Exactly. Two shots on target in 180 mins. We have peppered Man U and Liverpool in previous seasons, sometimes winning, sometimes losing but always had a go. Six goals v Liverpool last year....no goals and three shots this year

Anyway...let’s blame the referee.

That, I agree with. We seem to be playing in awe of the 'big teams' again and that is a disappointment. Think Man City at home was the only one we have done ourselves justice. I think a lot of it stems from Eddie's stubbornness not to tweak the system/personnel.
 
Exactly. Two shots on target in 180 mins. We have peppered Man U and Liverpool in previous seasons, sometimes winning, sometimes losing but always had a go. Six goals v Liverpool last year....no goals and three shots this year.

Anyway...let’s blame the referee.

So it wasn't a penalty that would have possibly made the game 1-1 with us on top at the time? A game changing moment IMO.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't nearly as bad as you are making out.

It will need changes in the summer no doubt, not massive ones but I'll just remind everyone that this season we've just had is what WBA, Stoke, Swansea, etc have had for about 10 years. We've been treated to superb football for 5 years that some don't realise may not be easy to just turn on and off when people want entertaining.
 
I've been saying for a while that we will have well and truly limped over the line this season... and the last two games have done nothing to change my opinion...

OK, so you could argue that we've just played probably the 2nd best team in England, in Liverpool, and Man Utd, who let's face it, regardless of players, position, blah, blah... they're Man Utd. Both teams are in very different places to when we played them last year so I don't think the comparison of 6 goals v Liverpool last year and none this year is a valid argument.

The crux of this issue is we have a few ageing players, playing outside their ability limits (now). It's been addressed on several threads of late.

On the whole I thought we did 'ok' last night... First 20 mins I thought we got at them and took the game to them, causing them quite. a few issues, however, as has been stated here loads, we are so wasteful in possession around the box...

If I could ask Eddie to change one thing of his coaching and that would be to encourage his players to shoot more... We see so many teams run at us and take shots when the goal is in sight... We just don't have that in us... we pop the ball around to death until we eventually give it away...

No one is asking Eddie to change his philosophy on how to play his 'game', as I personally would rather see us play the passing game, but it has to have an end product... Quite a few players are simply no longer capable of executing what he wants... we don't have the consistency levels needed and we certainly don't have what it needs up top (on current form).

I'll agree in that King needs a go up top on his own... We were most effective when we played the 3 up there with Stan and Ibe supporting Wilson... How about given Ibe, Mousett and King a go up top with King leading the line...

Man Urd were possibly there for the taking last night but we limped through 90 mins with some good spells and some wasteful spells... L.Cook, S. Cook and Ake came out top for me, and I did think Wilson caused them problems but not enough... We do miss A.Smith and we desperately need to get a LB that can equal Smiths dynamism on the left.. Surman, Dainles, Fraser, Frannno, Ibe and Wilson just didn't do enough... Defoe needed to come on a lot sooner than he did... Must be so frustrated...

Final words... That game was crying out for Mr Arter on 46 mins... I cant see how he has fallen behind Cook, Gosling, and Surman...????? He was just what we needed...
 
I thought we looked more lively and more interested last night than we have in several games, since I'd say the Spurs defeat or the Newcastle draw. We looked more interested than we mostly did against Watford/WBA/Palace.

We were unlucky with the first goal, that same incident reversed at Old Trafford, with King battling let's say Blind, play would never have been allowed to continue for King. But it happens and you've got to deal with it. We kept ourselves in the game, had half chances late in the first half and in the second, should have had a penalty certainly, we gave it a go. Yes it didn't happen, yes we didn't really create many clear cut chances for De Gea to save. And obviously as you're pushing forwards against a side like that you're prone to conceding on the counter.

It's all IFs and Buts I know, but I thought we did ok last night. We've had far, far worse against the top 4 sides in our PL years.
 
Or play the proven premier league central midfielders we do have...

People really do have short memories.

Arter went significantly off the boil towards the end of last season. After the summer he fell further back from what he was once capable of and was rightly dropped this season.

EH sees Arter, Gosling, Surman, etc everyday at training and the fact that Harry struggles to even make the bench should speak volumes... unless, of course, you're selectively deaf.

Whether Harry's problems are football, personal, or a fall out with the management, I'm struggling to see him starting regularly for us again. That is a significant loss, we all know that, but ignoring the facts and harping on like Arter is the cure to all our woes this season is... well, stupid
 
I've not read every post in this thread, but I don't think that anyone is asking for Arter to start every game... IMO, if Harry can be on the bench then Eddie believes he's good enough to do something in the game...

We desperately needed someone to hustle the opposition as we were being overrun in the middle... Out of Surman, Gosling, and Arter, there is only one player, IMO, that fits that bill...

Harry would have been all over their midfield like a rash last night, and I just don't see how his football could have been worse than both Surman and Gosling, and if it was, he would have made up for int in energy, which is what we needed...

But hey ho, football is all about opinions...
 
Agree we need to press the opposition more in midfield, but all the best teams do this in packs. If Arter comes in and runs around hustling the opposition more, if no one else joins in, all thats going to happen is we open up even more gaps in our overrun midfield.

We really need to get the front players initiating the press and that would allow the midfield and defense to push up a little more and close the space for the opposition to play.
 
So many puzzling comments again from the manic depressives!

Here is the basic summary - over the whole 90, we did pretty well. Much better than at Anfield. I did feel we sat off a little too much in the first half but it was pretty even and aside from their goal, I didn't sit in front of the telly scared we would concede at any other point. Second half, we had a great twenty minutes and yes Neil - we NEED to blame the officials. To miss one blatant penalty was bad enough, to then miss a second [ maybe less obvious but if they were looking at the ball, they should have seen it ], is horrendous. Both decisions at 0-1.

This is a major game changing moment - properly in the game, penalty given [ possible red card too ], 1-1, momentum changes. You really can't just gloss over these moments!

Look at the stats - only two on target but then, Man U had four. Both had thirteen shots at goal. So this shows how even it was for both teams in the opposing final third. I don't recall Begovic having to make any other massive saves?? This shows we defended pretty well across the whole 90 minutes and as others have said, the difference being the finishing. But they had to send on their main striker to close the game down.

As for Ibe...I thought he was ok in the first half actually, at least he did get the ball and go forward, he did take a shot on earlier. Fraser had cost us the first goal and was very poor going forward but he did improve a lot in the second half. I actually have felt Harry could have helped in a midfield three the last two games but have to say Neil, he was previously nowhere near worthy of a place in the team. Say what you like about Gosling and his quality on the ball but since Christmas, he was also a major part of our good run. Typical that as soon as certain players have a couple of poor games [ as per Ibe ], the usual suspects are gleefully waiting to write them off again!
 
I was actually quite upbeat about last nights game....a bit frustrated with the ref and our final ball perhaps but nevertheless i felt we competed and caused them plenty of problems especially with Callums movement and energy which i thought was excellent.....he just needs a goal.
Lewis Cook's performance was the highlight for me .....hopefully this sort of performance is now his benchmark not the insipid displays of recent weeks.
Ake and Cook are starting to look like a real partnership now...both excellent again.
I thought Surman did ok...we know how slow he is but then again all our central midfielders are slow....not one of them would have caught Pogba tbf.....it's something we have to address...runners from midfield constantly arrive in our box unmarked because our midfield can't track them....we desperately need an aggressive midfielder with pace......someone like Ronaldo Veiria perhaps.
 
I don't think Wilson will ever be the same player he was before he got his injuries I'm affraid. He came back after his second injury on fire and no doubt he would do well again in the championship but why eddie persists with him in the premiership on current form, I don't know.
 
I'd be very upset if we didn't see Harry Arter on the pitch some time during the next three games. Wife's put Man-sized tissues on her shopping list just in case! :cry:
 
...Harry would have been all over their midfield like a rash last night...

Harry circa start of last season would have done but Arter of the last twelve months has only disappointed - hence why he struggles to even make the subs bench.

Arter needs to make a huge turnaround over the summer - unless he's sold - if he's to feature regularly in the starting 11 next season.
 
Harry circa start of last season would have done but Arter of the last twelve months has only disappointed - hence why he struggles to even make the subs bench.

Arter needs to make a huge turnaround over the summer - unless he's sold - if he's to feature regularly in the starting 11 next season.

I trend to agree, but no one knows if Arter is being dropped on form or something more personal... I noticed he dipped off down the tunnel again, when the 4th official held up the added time board...

I honestly thought that tonight would have been his night to make an appearance... he applauded the fans midway thro the game (something he has rarely done of late), and looked relaxed at half time...

I'd love to see Arter here next year, rejuvenated... He'd be like a new signing for us and IIRC, we've yet to see. amidfield pairing of Arter and L.Cook???

However, I feel he'll be off, be that sale or loan...
 
I thought S. Cook was probably our best player. Him and Aké both had excellent games, although I wonder if Aké could have done better with their second. Francis played okay, but boy it terrifies me whenever a pacey winger runs at him. Daniels is now one of the leagues poorest full backs... Full backs were so key to our attacking play for the last X number of years, but now they are scarily cautious at getting forward. Is it deliberate?

King seems to have lost half a yard of pace. Realistically, that is the difference between him being an asset or a liability. Wilson was physically excellent, technically abysmal. Ibe's execution was dreadful often proceeded by flashes of brilliance. I thought Fraser worked hard but I was frustrated with his attitude a couple of times when an imperfect pass was played to him and his resolution was to throw his hands up in the air and stand still.

Thought Surman was very poor, misplacing passes and his lack of pace scarily exposed. Surman isn't a bad player in general, but we have too many poor to average quality midfielders in our squad. We need to be offloading at least one, possibly two, and looking for an upgrade.
 
I thought S. Cook was probably our best player. Him and Aké both had excellent games, although I wonder if Aké could have done better with their second. Francis played okay, but boy it terrifies me whenever a pacey winger runs at him. Daniels is now one of the leagues poorest full backs... Full backs were so key to our attacking play for the last X number of years, but now they are scarily cautious at getting forward. Is it deliberate?

King seems to have lost half a yard of pace. Realistically, that is the difference between him being an asset or a liability. Wilson was physically excellent, technically abysmal. Ibe's execution was dreadful often proceeded by flashes of brilliance. I thought Fraser worked hard but I was frustrated with his attitude a couple of times when an imperfect pass was played to him and his resolution was to throw his hands up in the air and stand still.

Thought Surman was very poor, misplacing passes and his lack of pace scarily exposed. Surman isn't a bad player in general, but we have too many poor to average quality midfielders in our squad. We need to be offloading at least one, possibly two, and looking for an upgrade.
Agree about Ake and their second goal, he should of let Lukaku run, would of been offside. Lukaku was pointing to Pogba where he wanted the ball delivered., let him run or go with him. Fraser stood about for their first. he was marking Lindgard but just let him run in from behind. Also our defence needs to push out when the ball is cleared from the corner.
Highlights here
https://www.livefootballol.me/video/england/18-04-2018-afc-bournemouth-manchester-united.html
 
I always think it’s interesting that when a player improves it’s down to Eddie and when a goalkeeper gets worse it’s down to coaching but when Harry gets worse it’s his fault.

He wasn’t that bad. Were people at Brighton? He dropped below his standards consistently but a 80% Arter is the equal of a 100% Surman in my book. Why can’t we coach and motivate a player that good?
 

;