League Cup vs Man Utd (A): Post Match

[SB]

Any idea what the post/ crossbar total for us was?

[DannyMan2006]

I'm very serious about my knee-jerking! In all earnestness, maybe some fresh faces can inject some freshness into our play.

No question we could do with a top midfield player, but even MUFC with all that money & status couldn't get one this summer. But playing a kid who has barely played in the U21's isn't the answer.

[danperkins]

I'm boring myself with this now, so will make one post on the subject before bed, and not bother going near it tomorrow.

But was completely sober tonight, so don't need any stats to back up my opinion. As has been the case all season, Lucas had a strong first half. For somebody who 'only passes the ball sideways', he made plenty of probing passes forward and rarely lost possession. He came out second half, and was doing ok but looked tired. He then played 1 noticable poor ball (the only one that a certain sector of fans will have paid attention to) and let Kagawa get away a bit easily minutes later. He was rightly subbed not long after, but not because he was poor, but because he was noticably tired and also booked, so would have been a risk keeping him on. How that constitues as a **** performance or a mare because of 2 minutes of poor play, I don't know, but I fully expect more of the same to follow.

He has had a poor start to the season to be fair.. hopefully he improves and can show form prior to his injury. At moment though he's struggling.

[Imy]

On a positive point i'm starting to like the look of Sakho.
He's strong, quick enough and good in the air.
Needs to improve some of his passing/not waiting on the ball but think with games he's going to get better.

[DannyMan2006]

Didn't see the match but a further reason why final league position will be the benchmark. No excuses this year Brendan.

Are you nuts? MUFC, MCFC & CFC are miles ahead. And Arsenal & THFC are also stronger. By rights we should be sixth. If another team implode maybe we can get 5th. If we get lucky with injuries (which so far we haven't) and play at the top of our game we could scrape top 4. I think we still lack quality in the final third to expect better.

[danperkins]

Are you nuts? MUFC, MCFC & CFC are miles ahead. And Arsenal & THFC are also stronger. By rights we should be sixth. If another team implode maybe we can get 5th. If we get lucky with injuries (which so far we haven't) and play at the top of our game we could scrape top 4. I think we still lack quality in the final third to expect better.

don't expect us to finish 4th at all. 5th or 6th IMO

[I, Ravel Morrison]

No question we could do with a top midfield player, but even MUFC with all that money & status couldn't get one this summer. But playing a kid who has barely played in the U21's isn't the answer.

I'm just spelunking here. Don't think we can lay the blame on any player in particular for the lack of fluency and sometime lethagy in our play. But we do appear to be missing Coutinho, or a player in his role, big time, since our dip in form has coincided with his absence.

[DannyMan2006]

On a positive point i'm starting to like the look of Sakho.
He's strong, quick enough and good in the air.
Needs to improve some of his passing/not waiting on the ball but think with games he's going to get better.

Looks good and it was expected. Pay top dollar and you usually get top players.

[Norbs]

I thought we played quite well, we deserved more, but we were let down by our final ball. We got into some very good positions but couldn't pick out the right pass or get a decent shot away.

No shame tonight

[DannyMan2006]

I'm just spelunking here. Don't think we can lay the blame on any player in particular for the lack of fluency and sometime lethagy in our play. But we do appear to be missing Countinho, or a player in his role, big time, since our dip in form has coincided with his absence.

Well today we did okay until the ball hit Sturridge, Moses & Suarez. The ball wasn't sticking. Too often they'd get possession & do a heavy touch. Sterling no better when he came on & Kelly showed why he didn't start against Southampton. Completely lost impetus when Kelly came on who needs time in the reserves.

[danperkins]

Kelly coming on was a really strange decision. Looks so far off any sort of fitness

[I, Ravel Morrison]

Well today we did okay until the ball hit Sturridge, Moses & Suarez. The ball wasn't sticking. Too often they'd get possession & do a heavy touch. Sterling no better when he came on & Kelly showed why he didn't start against Southampton. Completely lost impetus when Kelly came on who needs time in the reserves.

The poor touch suggests a fitness issue to me. At points the touches and feet seem so heavy laden.

[Icon]

Thought we were poor generally.

Never looked like scoring - even after 10+ corners.

Didn't expect Suarez to do too much, but looked encouraging.
Missed Couthino obviously. And I don't see the point of Sterling.

[danperkins]

Thought we were poor generally.

Never looked like scoring - even after 10+ corners.

Didn't expect Suarez to do too much, but looked encouraging.
Missed Couthino obviously. And I don't see the point of Sterling.

we were... we were better than them but both teams were pretty poor.

[Leyton388]

What's happened to the free flowing high scoring football we were playing in the second part of last season?

The pressure was off then