Man Utd (H) - Premier League -17/1/21 - 16:30

[Jairzinho 23,116]

If Eddie Guerrero were still alive I'd have wanted him to take the team talk before this game.

[Lario 1,248]

16 hours ago, an tha said:

Incredibly he manages to praise Utd players and say they are 'clever' whist knocking Mane for doing same (but not getting a pen)

 

Just unreal.

 

This is amazing...from Clattenburg

"I have watched United closely this season and analysed each of their 11 penalty awards. 

There are as many as five where I believe contact was invited or even initiated by the United player.
Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and Mason Greenwood are the players involved. 
They are, in many ways, being clever. 
Once there is contact and the penalty is awarded, VAR will rarely overturn the decision."

 

"Notice, too, that more players are going down in what referees call the 'dead zone' in the penalty area, a position from which they have little chance of scoring. Rashford did it against Newcastle when he was heading out of the area and took the chance to go to ground under a loose leg from Jamal Lewis."

 

 

"But this is where Klopp should be careful, because that is exactly what Sadio Mane did when going down too easily under Kyle Walker-Peters' challenge during last Monday's 1-0 defeat at Southampton. 

 

The ball was running out of play and, in a different position with the chance to score, I believe Mane would have ridden the challenge.

So there were a couple of things to take from Klopp's comments after that game. First, he sounds like a hypocrite if he is suggesting United's players are looking to win penalties. The likes of Mo Salah and Mane are just as capable of employing similar tactics"

Yes Mark, Mané could've ridden this challenge!

 

 

In the same way he rode the 'keepers challenge and got fuck all either!

 

 

Cuntenberg!

[El Rojo 8,833]

I never really look forward to this fixture. I reckon I’m psychologically scarred by years of abysmal showings by us, buttressed by barely believable refereeing ‘decisions’. 

[JustTosh 337]

If the ref's can't get it right and VAR doesn't intervene we'll just have to adapt.

 

When others practice going down in the box, we must do the same.

 

The question is not IF you go down, it's HOW you do it. Salah and Mane just isn't very good at it. M Utd players are. Maybe they practice it in training? Deceiving the ref is an art form. It's play acting. Timing is essential. If you feel contact you can fall too quickly or too late. And you must learn how to fall over making it look like a pen. Too theatrical and you won’t get it. Not theatrical enough you won’t get it.

 

I hate cheating, but if Clttenburg says it’s something we need to learn and refs/VAR continue to tell us the same through the decisions they make, well we’ll just have to “follow orders” and adapt.

 

 

[Pete 755]

Lot of fear and negativity in this thread. Is it because we're in poor form right now missing several key players & the mancs seem to be getting all the luck they used to get or are we worried about shit referring screwing us over?  
 

[Baltar 855]

United really aren't that good, the table is not painting an accurate picture. They are decent but not close to title winners. The problem is that we have been shite for the most part, not helped by injuries. I don't see us improving any time soon, the loss of both VVD and Gomez has wrecked our title defence. Man City are going to run away with it over the next few months. Better those cunts than United though...

[ZonkoVille77 5,561]

8 minutes ago, Pete said:

Lot of fear and negativity in this thread. Is it because we're in poor form right now missing several key players & the mancs seem to be getting all the luck they used to get or are we worried about shit referring screwing us over?  
 

 

Guaranteed that we'll get screwed by refs. As sure as death and taxes.

[joe_fishfish 406]

If we play as well as we know we can, it won't matter if the ref lets the mancs play with twelve men. The big problem for us at the moment is that we are playing like shit.

[clockspeed 197]

I suspect we will take this lot out by the root . 4-0 never have I been so confident. If we draw or lose this league is over , not because of one result, more that champions show up and wipe out pretenders.  

[dockers_strike 2,122]

23 minutes ago, Pete said:

Lot of fear and negativity in this thread. Is it because we're in poor form right now missing several key players & the mancs seem to be getting all the luck they used to get or are we worried about shit referring screwing us over?  
 

Im normally confident we'll beat any team in front of us. Right now, Im concerned about our front 3 not taking their chances. Others mention our defence or the midfield not creating chances for the strikers but, the reality is the defence has held up and the midfield is still creating the chances albeit they may be fewer.

 

As for refs, yeah, any time we play this lot I am concerned about refs giving them the benefit. Hardly anyone gets consistently favourable decisions against them, not just us.

 

Trent's a massive loss for us at the moment because he's neither getting forward as much and when he has, his crossing has been very poor. I dont know what's happened to the understanding between Andy and Sadio as that seems to be almost non existent right now as well.

 

I think this is going to be a draw unless we buck up our ideas.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA 8,024]

So the difference between being a diver and being clever is what team or country you’re from. Same with getting sent off or Var decisions. You can shove it.

[an tha 6,107]

44 minutes ago, Pete said:

Lot of fear and negativity in this thread. Is it because we're in poor form right now missing several key players & the mancs seem to be getting all the luck they used to get or are we worried about shit referring screwing us over?  
 

For me it is simply the centre half situation.

 

It is for my money totally unacceptable that we are having to use either one of two massively sub standard players in Phillips or Williams or another midfielder with Fabinho.

 

It really harms our team structure, our whole style of play, it has knock on effects to our full backs and is a big reason why they are struggling and to our midfield and of course when 2 thirds of your set up is fucked it also effects the sharp end ahead of them....

 

And also just defensively speaking against these especially the one thing they have is a bit of pace and guile to expose our glaring weakness and lack of pace there now.

 

If Matip plays (i know i know...) then i fancy us, if not then i think we are gonna struggle badly.

[Supremolad 157]

46 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

Im normally confident we'll beat any team in front of us. Right now, Im concerned about our front 3 not taking their chances. Others mention our defence or the midfield not creating chances for the strikers but, the reality is the defence has held up and the midfield is still creating the chances albeit they may be fewer.

 

As for refs, yeah, any time we play this lot I am concerned about refs giving them the benefit. Hardly anyone gets consistently favourable decisions against them, not just us.

 

Trent's a massive loss for us at the moment because he's neither getting forward as much and when he has, his crossing has been very poor. I dont know what's happened to the understanding between Andy and Sadio as that seems to be almost non existent right now as well.

 

I think this is going to be a draw unless we buck up our ideas.

You make some good points and you have nailed issues relating to the front 3 not clicking. However there were occasions last season when our front 3 were not great either, when we had to sneak a lot of narrow wins. Those 3 are never going to score all their chances. I notice you have also previously said defence isnt the big problem.

 

However, the counter argument is the team is over-compensating for the lack of pace and experience in defence and it is affecting our attacking play. We are pressing far less and our midfield is having to be aware of the weakness behind them regarding Rhys or Phillips. And now, having both Hendo and Fabinho at CB is going to really take some high quality out of midfield too.

 

All of this is important because great midfield structure is a basis for our attacking play through our fullbacks. But our midfield has been compromised since Matip went injured. No surprise that we've had really shit results since he's been out. Buy a solid defender with pace, put Hendo and Fabinho back in midfield and our attacking play would significantly improve again, imho.

[Supremolad 157]

35 minutes ago, an tha said:

For me it is simply the centre half situation.

 

It is for my money totally unacceptable that we are having to use either one of two massively sub standard players in Phillips or Williams or another midfielder with Fabinho.

 

It really harms our team structure, our whole style of play, it has knock on effects to our full backs and is a big reason why they are struggling and to our midfield and of course when 2 thirds of your set up is fucked it also effects the sharp end ahead of them....

 

And also just defensively speaking against these especially the one thing they have is a bit of pace and guile to expose our glaring weakness and lack of pace there now.

 

If Matip plays (i know i know...) then i fancy us, if not then i think we are gonna struggle badly.

Fucking hell.

 

I just typed a long post for like 5 minutes, only to discover you've basically posted the same thing already. Ha!

[El Rojo 8,833]

2 minutes ago, Supremolad said:

You make some good points and you have nailed issues relating to the front 3 not clicking. However there were occasions last season when our front 3 were not great either, when we had to sneak a lot of narrow wins. Those 3 are never going to score all their chances. I notice you have also previously said defence isnt the big problem.

 

However, the counter argument is the team is over-compensating for the lack of pace and experience in defence and it is affecting our attacking play. We are pressing far less and our midfield is having to be aware of the weakness behind them regarding Rhys or Phillips. And now, having both Hendo and Fabinho at CB is going to really take some high quality out of midfield too.

 

All of this is important because great midfield structure is a basis for our attacking play through our fullbacks. But our midfield has been compromised since Matip went injured. No surprise that we've had really shit results since he's been out. Buy a solid defender with pace, put Hendo and Fabinho back in midfield and our attacking play would significantly improve again, imho.

Yeah, we're weaker in both the centre of defence and also midfield with Van Dijk, Gomez and Matip out. 

 

The only hope is that Thiago will start having a serious influence from now. 

[Supremolad 157]

1 minute ago, El Rojo said:

Yeah, we're weaker in both the centre of defence and also midfield with Van Dijk, Gomez and Matip out. 

 

The only hope is that Thiago will start having a serious influence from now. 

Exactly. Thiago can be a major solution.

 

For that to be happen, I hope Klopp would play him as an 8 and not as a 6, especially against the Mancs. They are going to fully park the bus and try to sneak a goal on the counter. We need Thiago nearer their box to thread in those killer balls for the front 3. We dont need him sitting deep in front of our defence like he did vs Southampton. Let Gini handle that role.

[TheHowieLama 10,895]

Utd are going to kick Thiago out of the game.

[skaro 5,241]

Just now, TheHowieLama said:

Utd are going to kick Thiago out of the game.

 

I reckon United will impeach us.

 

Hopefully, more than a third of our Senate will deny them.

 

 

[Halcyon Days 175]

3 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

Utd are going to kick Thiago out of the game.

It’ll be Fabinho they target.

[an tha 6,107]

25 minutes ago, Supremolad said:

Fucking hell.

 

I just typed a long post for like 5 minutes, only to discover you've basically posted the same thing already. Ha!

Great minds or something!

[an tha 6,107]

3 minutes ago, Halcyon Days said:

It’ll be Fabinho they target.

They seem to go longish quite often now from the keeper when he has ball in hands....he launches a kick and they try and win it in middle of park and get forwards running....we need to watch this - especially with our midfield not being the most combative particularly if Hendo is pulled into defence...Thiago might find it rough going in there.

[INTORRESTING 411]

It's up to us to be more clinical, if we focus we can easily beat United.  We have had plenty of chances in most games, someone needs to step up and get us out of this mini slump.

 

We won't lose our home record to them. Let's smash them, get Thiago match fit, jota back and get a run going.

[johnsusername 2,249]

I'm a bit more optimistic today. 

 

They are shite at the back. They're good going forward. Our forwards really need to put their shooting boots on and they could have a hatful. But if they just keep shooting at the goalie like they have been - well, we just need them to put their chances away. 

 

Could be a goal fest with our defence. 

 

Therefore I predict 0-0.

[Aventus 2,061]

We should go for the Billy Big bollocks move by playing Phillips and Williams at the back. 

 

Fab Hendo and Thiago in midfield

 

With all the cunting in the bastard we'll be doing our centre backs won't need to do much anyway. 

[Captain Howdy 1,003]

6 minutes ago, Aventus said:

We should go for the Billy Big bollocks move by playing Phillips and Williams at the back.