Saints 2 Man United 3 - Post Match Reactions

[VectisSaint]

OK, now I've had a chance to calm down I will give an objective analysis.

 

In case anybody was still in any doubt about SRL's ability to score goals in this league, that's two already and both against the two best sides in England last season.

 

I always thought Schneiderlin would make his class show in the PL and he didn't disappoint today - I thought he was immense and is my MOTM.

 

Puncheon had a very good game and was unlucky not to get a goal, forcing an excellent save from the Utd keeper.

 

Not entirely sure why people are slating Kelvin for that - he saved a penalty FFS, and he can't really be blamed for any of their goals - he very nearly saved the first one.

 

I am seriously concerned about the rest of our defence though. Fonte is a total liability and Hooiveld has already conceded two needless penalties so far this season (although KD has got him off the hook both times so far). Fox was anonymous today - Gave Valencia far too much time and space every time he got forward, and didn't contribute anything going forward either - very poor. Clyne was the only defender who came out of that game with any real credit.

 

As for United though - aside from RVP they were very average and were there for the taking I thought, so it's especially frustrating that we came so close and ballsed it up defensively from a commanding position.

 

Overall, there was a lot to be positive about, and we gave Utd's defence a real game which they may not have been expecting. If we can sort out the defensive issues and play like we did today going forward, I have no doubt we will be fine this year. But the commentator on the stream I was watching came out with a rather alarming statistic - that no newly promoted team has ever lost their first three games and survived!

This is a very good assessment. The only thing missing was the appalling referee, how officials like that get near professional football, let alone the PL is beyond me. I'm not talking about the penalty, but all the fouls and other things (corner) he completely missed, can only assume Fergie bunged him a wedge.

[Leslie Charteris]

I'm glad that we have faced the two Manchester teams so early in the season as our strengths and weaknesses have been vividly highlighted. A couple of draws against mediocre teams might have led to false confidence. Each player now knows where he stands in quality terms compared to two of the very best teams in the land. Attack - very good, midfield - excellent, but unfortunately the defence hasn't been good enough and there are no real options on the subs bench. NA explained what he was trying to do with his substitutions in the post match interview and put his hand up and admitted they didn't work. He'll learn, as will the rest of the squad.

 

Things can only improve with the new arrivals, but will it be enough? I would like to think that a couple of the players we have recently been linked to in rumours will arrive soon as loans. We have come so close to winning two of the games that two decent defenders should see us alright.

[PaulGilchrist_76]

January shopping list already includes 1. Goalkeeper. 2. Left back. 3. CB.

[VectisSaint]

Not Van Persie then?

No, RvP was not the best player on the pitch, still find it hard to believe that the **** scored a hat-trick. Morgan was outstanding today, even without his goal, Punch was a close second.

[Mr Saints]

He absolutely does deserve it. Misses a pen and still scores 3. Now there's a striker.

 

Rasiak would score 3 in that team.

 

Seriously though, thought Morgan was excellent.

[VectisSaint]

January shopping list already includes 1. Goalkeeper. 2. Left back. 3. CB.

We don't technically have to wait until Christmas. Wouldn't surprise me to see a free agent or two arriving before then. Think it was blindingly obvious we needed a LB, and claerly NA thought so too, hence going for Buttner and leaving the 3 shirt vacant. Most people also thought KD was a weak link. Have to see about CBs, we have brought one in, so maybe we will be OK there.

[lordswoodsaints]

Why are people talking about the January transfer window already? We had our chance to get the squad we wanted and didn't take it,left too late again by the looks of it.

Between now and January is a long time and it could be way too late by then.....unless we are offloading players in preperation for life in the championship.

[mulletsaint]

IMO we need as a club to be patient and allow people to adjust to Premier League football. Knee jerk reactions will get us nowhere. Even if we are bottom at Christmas, as long as we are not adrift we can bring in new players and strengthen the team.

We need to be thinking about a team we are building over the next three years regarless of the division we are in.

If we get relegated, so what, we can bounce back. But, in the meantime let us build for the long term and back NA.

 

Well said. A word of caution though. We will have to build a new team should we get relegated. No way most of our midfield and forwards will still be here if we do.

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

Rasiak would score 3 in that team.

 

Seriously though, thought Morgan was excellent.

Agree with you about Morgan but not about Rasiak.

[BrokenGusBus]

As disappointing as it was we lost the game, there is a ridiculous amount of things to be positive about. Rickie showed us all he is ready for the prem and will cause any team problems already scoring against the best two teams in the country, puncheon had his best game in a saints shirt, Schneiderlin made Cleverly look out of his depth and marked Kagawa out of the game. The defense will be strengthed with the arrival of an international captain in Yoshida being the fast powerful CB we are crying out for.

 

Ramirez will add that quality and inventiveness in the final third making us even more potent going forward. The international break will give them time to work on the defence as scoring goals will never be a problem. Bring on Arsenal cant wait to see Wenger and his water bottles flying all over the place.

[Window Cleaner]

Why are people talking about the January transfer window already? We had our chance to get the squad we wanted and didn't take it,left too late again by the looks of it.

Between now and January is a long time and it could be way too late by then.....unless we are offloading players in preperation for life in the championship.

 

 

Ramirez transfer probably gobbled up far too much time and energy. No doubt he'll be worth it, if only we could have tied it up in time to get him onto the pitch today when we had them on the ropes. Beginning to wonder if we haven't caught a cold

with JRod though.

[hackedoff]

And what caused the penalty in 1st place an absolute ****e clearance.

 

What led up to the ****e clearance and to to many other chances for the opposition is the continual and often needless obsession to play backpasses.

[T.REX]

Gutted. I never dared to believe we would get the 3 points until the last 5 minutes of normal time and that's when it all went wrong.

 

Once again there were many positives to take... none more so perhaps than Morgan Schneiderlin. An absolute class act in midfield, marshalling Kagawa effectively and consistently picking out passes. Alongside the energetic Ward-Prowse and Steve Davis (who barely put a foot wrong), we had a midfield that for large periods outplayed United. But in the closing stages we needed a fresh pair of legs in the middle because Scholes found it too easy when he came on to pick his passes. Perhaps Chaplow could have played that role?

 

Although a lot of criticism has been levelled at Fox and Fonte (some fairly), we have to defend better as a unit defensively. At a time where we needed composure we begun to panic and hit it long. When we needed to take advantage of a team who weren't at their best and looked rattled in defence we took our foot of the gas and begun defending deep. Nigel should take some responsibility for this. I can understand that he felt that was the moment to bring on Mayuka and get some pace for a counter attack, but we needed an option for the middle of the park and further by taking off Lambert we also lost an easy out ball. One of the good things about Nigel is he values the team above any individual player, but he has to consider that by taking Lambert and Lallana off we don't just lose two great footballers, we lose two talismanic figures who lift the rest of the team.

 

Having said all that i still have total faith in Nigel and the job he is doing here. Today was much more impressive than against city for me; we played some real good football and the formation finally clicked. Add Gaston to the front line and we've got the making of a real attacking force (though he's going to have a hard job replacing one of todays front three). Credit to Puncheon, saw him in pre-season and it looks like his hard work there has payed off.

[beatlesaint]

Isnt it about time the Fox defenders took off the rose coloured glasses a litle bit ?

How many times, especially in the first half, did United launch their attacks down our left hand side ?

They had clearly identified that we play with a left back who has no understanding of sticking to his man and believes giving them as much space and time as they need will hopefully confuse the hell out of them - it doesn't !!

 

I sincerely hope I am wrong but I think Fox will become the biggest liability in our defence. He puts pressure on the centre backs by letting his winger/wide man get so much ball into the box cheaply.

 

As has been said the number 3 shirt was not left free for no reason. Such a pity we couldnt bring one of our targets in.

 

Fox wasn't convincing in The Championship and he certainly isn't convincing in The Premiership.

[shurlock]

No complaints about the subs - we were defending from the front and needed fresh legs. Keeping Lambert, Punch and Lallana would have made little or no difference. Only grumble was that Jrod wasn't played down the middle and allowed to carry on Rickie's good work in the air.

 

While the focus is on our lack of defensive cover, today was crying out for an extra midfielder to come on. JWP, Davis and Schneiderlin looked cream-crackered and its no coincidence that Scholes was able to dictate play

more as the game went on and they couldn't close the lines. Cork is still to return but perhaps its an area we need to strengthen if we decide to pack the middle of the park again with high-energy, box-to-box CMs. For large spells, it worked a treat. Indeed, pretty sure NA would have brought another midfielder on instead of a forward if one had been available.

 

Morgan was MOTM by a country mile - particularly impressive was his ability to anticipate and break up play so far up the pitch - no doubt, having JWP and Davis around freed him to be more aggressive. That said, United were sloppy in possession.

 

Galling that two of their goals came from headers, not from pace or being opened up(though two balls over the top, one in the first half and one in the second, caught us flat-footed). Our inability to win headers predates this season and is perhaps not talked about enough on here. Do have my concerns about Yoshida as our only bit of CB biz- its huge gamble by us which suggests we missed out on a few targets.

 

IMO Fox didn't have his worst game by any means. The ref, though, had a poor game - never knew the advantage rule was meant to put teams at a disadvantage....

Edited 2 September, 2012 by shurlock

[Chez]

why didn't one of our three midfielders just step up and extra 10 yards so9 they were right on Schole's toes. We gave him far too much room as we did Carrick to begin with. Once we pushed up in the first half and out pressure on Carrick he cracked. Should have done the same with Scholes.

 

Was the Northam singing Adam or Lambert for England?

[beatlesaint]

why didn't one of our three midfielders just step up and extra 10 yards so9 they were right on Schole's toes. We gave him far too much room as we did Carrick to begin with. Once we pushed up in the first half and out pressure on Carrick he cracked. Should have done the same with Scholes.

 

Was the Northam singing Adam or Lambert for England?

 

Cos they were knackered.

 

And it was Lambert for England

[View From The Top]

Just got home.

 

General consensus in our car was that we ran out of legs in the midfield which resulted in us dropping to deep.

 

The substitutions made no sense & destroyed our shape & flow.

 

Fox is out of his depth as is Fonte.

 

The midfield 3 were utterly & totally awesome. Morgan MOTM for us with JW-P a very close 2nd.

 

Lambert is going to score plenty.

 

Buckle up, it's going to be mighty fun.

[ART]

Insinuating Ricky, Puncheon and Lallana were exhausted and couldn't have held on another 10 minutes is complete nonsense. They were doing a great job and bringing on one of two others to put on more pressure would have sealed the game. This isn't the first time Adkins has lost us a game with his inability to read the game from the touchline. It nearly cost us promotion, certainly lost us the Championship. He's got to sort himself out or won't be around long. Perhaps he's being badly advised on the bench. Whatever it is he's screwing up big time.

[teamsaint]

Adkins substitutions have won us match after match. Today, he may have made an error in his substitutions against one of the two best teams in the country.

 

On reflection, I think we should forgive him, really !!

[S-Clarke]

why didn't one of our three midfielders just step up and extra 10 yards so9 they were right on Schole's toes. We gave him far too much room as we did Carrick to begin with. Once we pushed up in the first half and out pressure on Carrick he cracked. Should have done the same with Scholes.

 

Was the Northam singing Adam or Lambert for England?

 

It was Lambert for england, although on that display I think Adam will be giving Hodgson big headaches. Compared to Cleverly, he was head and shoulders above him today. He's the sort of player England don't really have at the moment, and the fears of him not being able to make an impact due to his lack of pace have been put to bed. Skill and ability to find space comes to the fore, he moved them around all afternoon long.

 

We did give Scholes too much space to dictate the game, possibly down to having a little too much respect - but probably down to to us being absolutely shattered. That midfield 3 had just run around like Trojans for 70 odd mins. Can't wait for Cork to be available again, as we needed to freshen it up slightly in the middle today - more so than in the final third IMO.

 

The one thing I'd say though is that we need to keep playing as we are, on the front foot with our positive attitude, keeping up the fantastic energy and ball retention through the middle. If we do that, and cut out the real basic mistakes, then we'll be fine. It's a learning curve for everyone, but we've been cut a unlucky throw with the fixtures. There's not much wrong with us, so there's no need for anyone to panic just yet.

[Webby]

Get the Fox out!

[corky morris]

After a long drive home & getting caught on The Avenue because a rag bus broke down...........................

Morgan & JWP immense today. Adkins subs were shocking. I know - put a fella 5ft 8in up front & hoof the ball to him against 2 centre half's 6ft 3in!!! I know put a fella 6ft 2in on the wing who is a striker!! I know - when they have a corner get everyone back defending & dont have an outlet & allow them more players in the box. I know - make the subs & dont tell them who is marking Ferdinand at corners because Rickie has gone off.

For me Adkins lost us that game with his substitutions.

Man up Adkins, you made mistakes, learn from them!!

[Fan The Flames]

Oh well we lost to a team that has lost miserly 17% of the last 1000 games.

[LGTL]

JWP is one hell of a player, I can't belive he's only 17. Not looking out of place against City and United is mental. Future England player without doubt.

[St Chalet]

Ok. Gutted but.

 

There was a lot of talk about the cricket score we would lose by.

Our midfield controlled the game

Lambert gave two top centre backs an awful day

Neville basically admitted Lallana would be England candidate now a prem player

Puncheon's best game in a Saints Shirt

Cork, new cb and Ramirez to come in

 

Glass half full.

[alpine_saint]

Why are people talking about the January transfer window already? We had our chance to get the squad we wanted and didn't take it,left too late again by the looks of it.

Between now and January is a long time and it could be way too late by then.....unless we are offloading players in preperation for life in the championship.

 

This

 

Ramirez transfer probably gobbled up far too much time and energy. No doubt he'll be worth it, if only we could have tied it up in time to get him onto the pitch today when we had them on the ropes. Beginning to wonder if we haven't caught a cold

with JRod though.

 

And this.

 

Really seems strange talking about needing a GK, CB and LB in January when the window shut less than 48 hours ago.

[S-Clarke]

JWP is one hell of a player, I can't belive he's only 17. Not looking out of place against City and United is mental. Future England player without doubt.

 

Totally, an absolute jewel in our crown. He wasn't quite ready last year as he was very lightweight and would have been eaten up in the Championship - but over the summer he has baulked up slightly and has a bit more of a physical presence about him and he can put himself about (OK, he's not Fellani..but much stronger than he was 6 months ago!). But his composure on the ball is what stands out for me, he just doesn't panic. He's a natural football player, he's got attributes that you cannot coach - they just come natural. His ability to find space, to anticipate passes and have the energy to go box to box non-stop. He has a real football brain that's always painting a picture, he's got comparisons to a young Scholes in some ways.

 

He should start regularly for us as far as I'm concerned as he gives us so much control in there. He'll have spells where his ''youthfulness'' will come out, but I still think he has a real mature head on his shoulders that belies his age. He is the next star of our production line for sure.

[View From The Top]

JWP is one hell of a player, I can't belive he's only 17. Not looking out of place against City and United is mental. Future England player without doubt.

 

Exactly what we said.

[pingwing]

Right someone needs to throw a shoe at Adkins! We were playing so well but I just can't see why we are resorting to the age old tactic of "play people out of position to confuse the opposition", Rodriguez CATEGORICALLY CANNOT PLAY ON THE LEFT! It depresses me. Guly isn't a top notch right winger, he's better in the middle. The new guy just isn't a holding striker, he's not big enough.

 

Someone needs to sit our Nige down and explain that Rodriguez clearly looks like he could have done exactly the same thing Lambert was doing, that would have been fine, could have pushed for a 3rd.

 

The new guy I thought could do the wide stuff, if he can't worst signing as his holding play wasn't right.

 

Guly could have done Lamberts role and Lee could have gone out wide to freshen up the attack.

 

Bugs me that basic common sense seems to be overruled for the dream of how to get everyone on the pitch!

 

 

On the plus our midfield completely outclassed theirs! JWP, Morg and Steven with Punch and Lallana on the wings were MILES better than United's mess. They only solved it bringing on a slugish Paul Scholes. I can see why so many united fans are worried.

 

Our back line could just do with a bucket of composure, Jos can be a little rash but he is our best CB by a mile. Fonte just seems too overawed when we get to 80 mins and its frustrating. Fox OUT! Should have spent any amount of money on someone who can close players down, track back and not RUIN THE DAY. Shame as he tries hard and makes some good tackles.

 

Clyne BUY OF THE SEASON, some sort of statue needs to be put up for everyone who sorted out him signing.

 

Very amused at how rubbish Evra was and how Rafael was even more abysmal. Just need to put some effort in to sorting out all the average mistakes that gave a very off colour RVP an incredibly undeserved hattrick.

 

 

Oh and we are going to be fending off £8-9m bids for the work horse of JWP from United come christmas. I had him as Man of the Match for being good on the ball but more importantly being the model box-to-box midfielder at 17!!!!

[Katalinic]

Totally, an absolute jewel in our crown. He wasn't quite ready last year as he was very lightweight and would have been eaten up in the Championship - but over the summer he has baulked up slightly and has a bit more of a physical presence about him and he can put himself about (OK, he's not Fellani..but much stronger than he was 6 months ago!). But his composure on the ball is what stands out for me, he just doesn't panic. He's a natural football player, he's got attributes that you cannot coach - they just come natural. His ability to find space, to anticipate passes and have the energy to go box to box non-stop. He has a real football brain that's always painting a picture, he's got comparisons to a young Scholes in some ways.

 

He should start regularly for us as far as I'm concerned as he gives us so much control in there. He'll have spells where his ''youthfulness'' will come out, but I still think he has a real mature head on his shoulders that belies his age. He is the next star of our production line for sure.

 

This. What a prospect, a major positive today and incredible to think he is only 17.

[LGTL]

I think it's no coincidence that our performance levels dropped significantly against Wigan when he didn't feature, that's for sure. I remember seeing him at Palace in the cup last year, was excellent on the ball even then but looked like a little boy (to b fair he probably was!). Think the club have got him on the weights.

[CanadaSaint]

Totally, an absolute jewel in our crown. He wasn't quite ready last year as he was very lightweight and would have been eaten up in the Championship - but over the summer he has baulked up slightly and has a bit more of a physical presence about him and he can put himself about (OK, he's not Fellani..but much stronger than he was 6 months ago!). But his composure on the ball is what stands out for me, he just doesn't panic. He's a natural football player, he's got attributes that you cannot coach - they just come natural. His ability to find space, to anticipate passes and have the energy to go box to box non-stop. He has a real football brain that's always painting a picture, he's got comparisons to a young Scholes in some ways.

 

He should start regularly for us as far as I'm concerned as he gives us so much control in there. He'll have spells where his ''youthfulness'' will come out, but I still think he has a real mature head on his shoulders that belies his age. He is the next star of our production line for sure.

 

He was tremendous today. I'd love to know how many miles he covered.

 

It is going to be a hell of a decision to decide who to leave out of our midfield because I thought they were all tremendous and none of them did anything to remotely deserve being left out.

[Saint Charlie]

Subs can be argued but:

 

We lost the game because we didn't do the basics right in our own penalty area.

[View From The Top]

Don't change the middle 3 for Arsenal. They were 'kin awesome today.

[Red]

Really? I'm absolutely certain he isn't up to it. Him and Fox are going to cost us a lot of goals this season.

 

Agree. Fox, Fonte and Kelvin are clearly the weakest links. NA knows it - that's why we were after the LB and 2nd CB and 2nd GK - guess we couldn't pull those deals off? Hope we can manage - if we play like today and as we did against MC we will be fine, however if we play like we did against Wigan we will have a long hard season ahead of us! We need to treat every game as a cup final, not just against the glambor clubs.

 

COYRS!!!

[Big Ron fan]

Agree about the terrible substitutions and that Morgan and Puncheon had their best games for Saints. Fox was always likely to be a weak link, as he was defensively often last year.

 

For all the good play though, we have now conceded 6 very poor goals and conceded 2 penalties in 3 games. If this doesn't improve rapidly, we will really struggle to get away from the bottom of the table, despite being impressive in other areas of the pitch.

[CanadaSaint]

I hope and think we're going to get some great value from our window signings, especially Ramirez, but if the competition they bring has the affect it seems to have had on Schneiderlin and Puncheon, we've improved our squad a hell of a lot more than we thought.

[Roger]

Agree about the terrible substitutions and that Morgan and Puncheon had their best games for Saints. Fox was always likely to be a weak link, as he was defensively often last year.

 

For all the good play though, we have now conceded 6 very poor goals and conceded 2 penalties in 3 games. If this doesn't improve rapidly, we will really struggle to get away from the bottom of the table, despite being impressive in other areas of the pitch.

 

Clyne unlucky with first goal. Unfortunately hep was at fault for their second goal didn't track rip and Fonte at fault for third. We have to defend better at this level Aswell as the silly subs.

[Red]

This

 

 

 

And this.

 

Really seems strange talking about needing a GK, CB and LB in January when the window shut less than 48 hours ago.

 

Bog off you bore!

[leithsaint]

Just seen highlights on motd2, could not believe that nobody went to challange for the ball as it came in for Van Persie to score the winner. Seems like pretty basic stuff right there.

[SuperMikey]

Just seen highlights on motd2, could not believe that nobody went to challange for the ball as it came in for Van Persie to score the winner. Seems like pretty basic stuff right there.

 

Four men watching as RVP comes short and nods it in. Fonte's man I believe.

[Nexstar]

Four men watching as RVP comes short and nods it in. Fonte's man I believe.

 

Seems we're trying this zonal marking crap, something we need to kick quickly.

[ottery st mary]

Clyne very unlucky...slipped just as ball arriving....Van Persie then left to chest control and place in the net..

 

Saints /Clyne VERY unlucky..

Edited 2 September, 2012 by ottery st mary

[CanadaSaint]

Seems we're trying this zonal marking crap, something we need to kick quickly.

 

I think that's as much an issue as the players trying to play it.

 

Jos and Fonte often seem unsure who's taking whom, and the "decision time" is time we can't afford at this level. We know that Clyne is struggling with higher balls hit to the far post but if RVP comes into his "zone", it's his job to mark him.

 

I hate it but I'm sure there's a good reason for playing it. At least I think there is.

[ottery st mary]

RVP attacked the ball for headed goal...Our defender still thinking.....too late and unable to attack the ball...RVP to quick of foot and thought..

[AussieDog]

Lambert was class but was looking stuffed so wasn't surprised he came off. Lallana the same. It was probably all part of the game plan for them to chase everything for the first hour and then when they started to flag late on, to put on replacements.

Fox had a torrid time and seemed to be scared to get too close to the person he was marking.

Thought JWP was great in 1st half but (understandably) faded near the end.

S Davis was solid, Schneiderlin was outstanding and I think that was partly because Davis played Schneiderlins old role,giving him the chance to be more expressive and get forward more often.

Clyne had a good game going forward, but needs to improve (or maintain his concentration better) in defense.

 

Puncheon had his best game. A bit surprised he was taken off. At that point though, Scholes was running the show in midfield, and you could see pretty much the whole team seemed to be running out of steam. Maybe a more astute substitution would have been to bring Richardson on and double tag Van Persie.

Until then I hadn't thought Fonte wasn't too bad, but he just seemed to have nothing left.

 

KD made some dodgy clearances, but some of those were because balls were played back to him in desperation.

 

All 3 goals were defensive errors. Clyne was scrambling already and lost his footing for the 1st. No-one was marking Ferdinand for the 2nd - if he hadn't got his header in, then VP wouldn't have got the rebound. the 3rd was both poor marking on VP, and a stupid corner to give away (Fonte at fault for both?).

If you give Van Persie 11 shots on goal during the match, then it's not surprising he converts 3 of them.

Felt sorry for Mayuka. He obviously wasn't ready for this game and didn't really seem to know what he was expected to do (hint: defend from the front!).

Felt sorry for Jos - it was ALMOST a great tackle, but yet again, the forwards are clever enough to react in a way that the ref blows his whistle. I can't remember who it was on, but Ferdinand did almost the same thing right at the end, but the ref didn't give it.

 

Didn't think the Ref was particularly bad, but as per usual, Utd got the majority of decisions, and really not sure how we ended up with so much stoppage time. No time wasting, no trainers on the field - it should only have been 2 minutes tops. Linesman weren't the best - Lallana was definitely NOT offside when he was played through.

 

All in all I enjoyed the game and can't believe how much we have improved over the summer, even though we've got zero points.

 

Finally - and I will be sounding like a broken record by the end of the season - less than 3 hours sleep doesn't agree with me and I am going to be an even grumpier b45t4rd at work today. Can we please have some Saturday TV games - or even Sunday lunchtime as the 9 hour time difference would mean I at least get to bed before midnight! After October when there's a 10 hour time difference even a midweek 7.30 game means I can get up at my normal time and just go into work an hour or so late!

[Thedelldays]

back home after driving back and pub....

 

what a cracking game.....clyne was ever so unlucky to slip when he did for RVP to score.....although, the very same almost happened a few mins later

after the first ten mins....and for largely up to 85 mins...we played some truly excellent stuff at times...

 

Morgan was surpreme, davis, was very good..JWP is amazing....Lallana always a threat..

 

Lambert - what a hero...no doubt what so ever he can be excellent in this league..no doubts what so ever

 

then we have Puncheon...what a storming performance...worked so hard up and down the line..ball glued to his feet, pace, tricks, danger..all round brilliant play.

a few times he was in acres of space as we broke we we could not find him..

 

have to say, I saw the first signs that nigel was a bit lost....those subs were unbelievable.....if i was j-rod, I would ask to go back to burnley..what a waste

adkins lost that game for us today......IMO, probably the worst set of subs I have seen in the context of a game in a very very long time.....baffled

[the saint in winchester]

Just got home.

 

General consensus in our car was that we ran out of legs in the midfield which resulted in us dropping to deep.

 

The substitutions made no sense & destroyed our shape & flow.

 

Fox is out of his depth as is Fonte.

 

The midfield 3 were utterly & totally awesome. Morgan MOTM for us with JW-P a very close 2nd.

 

Lambert is going to score plenty.

 

Buckle up, it's going to be mighty fun.

 

That pretty much covers all the points I was going to make.

For 60 mins our midfield outplayed them. Never seen Morgan play so well - MotM. All four inc AL were superb. But then, they ran out of energy. I don't criticise Mr Adkins as a rule, but I was mystified with sending on a replacement front three. Yeah, fresh legs, defending from the front - I saw the interview. We just have no depth in midfield without Cork, Chaplow etc. No cover at LB for Fox, only Seabourne on the bench to defend. I would sooner have brought him on than more attackers who didn't get involved. And, sorry, the videos of Zambian fella were of a pacey winger. They seem to have sent over another Guly! Some bulky bloke.

We have an excess of attackers and inadequate defenders and defending midfielders.

[SNSUN]

Thoroughly enjoyed myself today even in defeat. We played brilliant attacking football, Puncheon, Morgan and JWP were outstanding, but there's a reason United paid £24 million for Van Persie. Lethal. We were unlucky with their goals though, Clyne's slip, the rebound off the post... Only their winning goal was really deserved, and Kelv nearly got to it. (and nearly got to their first too.)

 

Play like this, and like City and we won't have any problems this season. We just need that first point on the board for confidence, and two weeks off and an Arsenal game won't make it any easier.