The Ongoing Serie A, La Liga, All English Football, Champions League Thread - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Part 55

[B]

What a peach of a cross from Pogba, simply world class, fantastic run as well by Herrera. 1-0

 

[DeadPresident]

Our crossing and header game is strong tonight thank God.

 

[Iceman]

And there’s Pogba with the 2nd!!

 

[LvtLeeTDK]

Chelsea v United tonight and Chelsea’s lineup looks far better:

Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Luis, Rudiger, Alonso, Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante, Pedro, Hazard, Higuain.

United:

Romero, Young, Lindelof, Smalling, Shaw, Matic, Herrera, Pogba, Mata, Lukaku, Rashford.

Just too much quality at home from Chelsea to see us manage to beat them, particularly at a ground United historically struggle at. Unfortunately I think OGS’s disappointing period is set to continue.

Told ya. Don’t underestimate our strength

 

[DeadPresident]

Told ya. Don’t underestimate our strength

Haha - luckily it’s working out so far but outside those two chances (that luckily got converted) Chelsea have been dominant.

Luckily they’re firing blanks tonight though.

 

[B]

Fantastic cross from Rashford & fantastic header from Pogba, the power he put on it was what beat the GK.

Positive first half, I like how it's went so far with our front 3. Lukaku & Rashford are kinda playing almost like 2 wide strikers making diagonal runs with Mata centrally which is helping our transitions immensely. We lose some speed & pressing presence with Mata there but his effect when we have the ball looks positive.

 

[LvtLeeTDK]

Haha - luckily it’s working out so far but outside those two chances (that luckily got converted) Chelsea have been dominant.

Luckily they’re firing blanks tonight though.

Luckily ?
I thought Chelsea played quite well but we’re the far better side really. Herrera is dominating the central area, carrying Matic and allow Pogba to played up high.

Also how are those 2 goals luckily converted ?

 

[Iceman]

Chelsea have a chance now with Utd down to 10 men (aka Sanchez coming on ).

 

[BlackFox]

Fantastic result tonight, really didnt expect to bounce back that well, played some nice stuff first half then worked our backsides off second half to get the win. Pogba is really on a different level proving all doubters wrong, a leader on the pitch and off the pitch. We literally played with 10 men most of the night with Lukaku offering nothing up top and then Sanchez when he came on but Rashford is doing the work of 2 men at the moment which is covering this and Herrera is playing like a man possessed as well.

Now no doubt City away in the next round....

 

[DeadPresident]

Luckily ?
I thought Chelsea played quite well but we’re the far better side really. Herrera is dominating the central area, carrying Matic and allow Pogba to played up high.

Also how are those 2 goals luckily converted ?

Luckily Chelsea's decent build up play never paid off, although I'd say Smalling and Lindelof both had solid games and kept Higuain quiet.

The goals weren't luck necessarily but we were fortunate that Chelsea had two serious lapses in concentration to afford us those opportunities, Herrera's run was decent but should've been picked up and Pogba shouldn't have been allowed a free header, those were both defensive mistakes. Overall we were the better team, but we didn't play them off the park and outside our goals we offered nothing in attack.

 

[DeadPresident]

We really need to go out and do what City did a couple of seasons ago by just spending £100m on two quality full backs, and problem mimic Liverpool and drop a small country's fiscal expenditure on a CB.

 

[B]

Much better tonight very industrial professional performance. Herrera in particular, outstanding. When Valencia hopefully hoes in the summer he should be our new captain absolute pro. Pogba as well, fantastic hard working display & his cross for the goal was an absolute peach.

2nd half I thought we tried too often to try and play Rashford in over the top or down the flank. It was a viable tactic given Chelsea needed to push but our passing accuracy wasn't there for it to make it a regular enough threat IMO. Few shorter passes might have worked better to really kill them off.

 

[Iceman]

FA Cup draw:

Swansea City v Manchester City

Watford v Crystal Palace

Wolves v Manchester United

Millwall v Brighton

 

[Hunter Rider]

Good win, I thought we were the best team in the first half and while their defending was poor the crossing, the runs and the clinical headers were on point from us and I felt even in the 2nd half we contained them quite comfortably, bar a couple of big tackles from Shaw they didn't trouble us and Romero never had a real save to make. Herrera was immense, Pogba was excellent, two pieces of quality for the goals and tremendous workrate, and the Smalling/Lindelof partnership was excellent as was Shaw's defensive contribution.

I thought Mata had his best half in years in the 1st half, him and Herrera controlled the midfield, the only issue is that he can't press from the false 9/#10 role the way Jesse can and Lukaku can't press either so Rashford was a one man first phase of defense for us, fortunately Pogba and Herrera were great in the second phase press. Lukaku needs to go, he simply cannot play in the systems we are using, he's not mobile or energetic enough, and he's never been good enough technically to play for a side with PL winning ambitions.

One concern for me was in the second half we didn't keep the ball well enough, it's that missing midfield piece I'm always on about, Ander and OIe both mentioned it after the game, and while we defended well from midfield and as a back 4 unit, we could have eased the pressure more if we'd had another ball player in this team who could help add some control and composure when the heat is on, too many times we just hit it into the channels for Marcus to chase the moment we got possession.

The big thing tonight was the bounce back after the PSG defeat which was an eye opener, Fergie used to say avoid losing 2 on the bounce at all costs, and we saw a team all on the same page tonight, the spirit is there and to win at a ground we've not won at for 7 years after that PSG result was great to see, Ole is doing an incredible job.

 

[Iceman]

There will be more vultures out for Sarri, particularly if they get tonked in the League Cup final.

 

[Iceman]

Good win, I thought we were the best team in the first half and while their defending was poor the crossing, the runs and the clinical headers were on point from us and I felt even in the 2nd half we contained them quite comfortably, bar a couple of big tackles from Shaw they didn't trouble us and Romero never had a real save to make. Herrera was immense, Pogba was excellent, two pieces of quality for the goals and tremendous workrate, and the Smalling/Lindelof partnership was excellent as was Shaw's defensive contribution.

I thought Mata had his best half in years in the 1st half, him and Herrera controlled the midfield, the only issue is that he can't press from the false 9/#10 role the way Jesse can and Lukaku can't press either so Rashford was a one man first phase of defense for us, fortunately Pogba and Herrera were great in the second phase press. Lukaku needs to go, he simply cannot play in the systems we are using, he's not mobile or energetic enough, and he's never been good enough technically to play for a side with PL winning ambitions.

One concern for me was in the second half we didn't keep the ball well enough, it's that missing midfield piece I'm always on about, Ander and OIe both mentioned it after the game, and while we defended well from midfield and as a back 4 unit, we could have eased the pressure more if we'd had another ball player in this team who could help add some control and composure when the heat is on, too many times we just hit it into the channels for Marcus to chase the moment we got possession.

The big thing tonight was the bounce back after the PSG defeat which was an eye opener, Fergie used to say avoid losing 2 on the bounce at all costs, and we saw a team all on the same page tonight, the spirit is there and to win at a ground we've not won at for 7 years after that PSG result was great to see, Ole is doing an incredible job.

Pogba has turned into a world-beating beast since Solsjkaer took the reins. This could be amazing for Utd’s future if they build the right team around him. I just saw a stat that he’s been involved in 15 goals since the change in manager, with many of those being genius touches.

 

[BlackFox]

FA Cup draw:

Swansea City v Manchester City

Watford v Crystal Palace

Wolves v Manchester United

Millwall v Brighton

Tough away draw, only City would have been harder to be honest. At least its looking like an all Prem final unless Swansea or Millwall can do something special.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Pogba has turned into a world-beating beast since Solsjkaer took the reins. This could be amazing for Utd’s future if they build the right team around him. I just saw a stat that he’s been involved in 15 goals since the change in manager, with many of those being genius touches.

United are starting to get the Juve version of Pogba with the leadership elements he showed for France in the World Cup as he matures. His best 5 years are ahead of him and we absolutely need to build this team around him, something our previous manager was unable to do as he needed to be the center of attention.

 

[Iceman]

United are starting to get the Juve version of Pogba with the leadership elements he showed for France in the World Cup as he matures. His best 5 years are ahead of him and we absolutely need to build this team around him, something our previous manager was unable to do as he needed to be the center of attention.

He is going to be one of the best players in the world during those years. All it took to unlock that exciting talent was Mourinho's exit and a more chilled out guy like Solsjkaer in charge. The crazy level of change was instantaneous, and could only be beaten by the change in Sanchez since coming to Old Trafford lol. Also Pogba and Moyes are the only living proof that Fergie was human.

 

[Iceman]

Tough away draw, only City would have been harder to be honest. At least its looking like an all Prem final unless Swansea or Millwall can do something special.

Yeah, Wolves away is hard fixture these days. Utd City right now could be an exciting final.

 

[LvtLeeTDK]

One thing I don’t understand is how the hell Romero is still staying here ? He will undoubtedly start for any EPL team outside of the top 6. Hell he can easily start for Arsenal over Leno. With his talent, he can go several places and have the chance to play every week. Yet he decided to stay here as the second GK. He will never displace De Gea and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

I really love the guy.

 

[BlackFox]

Yeah, Wolves away is hard fixture these days. Utd City right now could be an exciting final.

Yeah with the season Wolves have had you could say they deserve a day at Wembley, obviously United fans will want to win it but will be harsh on them, they have been one of the highlights of this season for me.

Still they will fancy there chances against us so we will need to really perform well to get a result there, even City dropped points at their place so they wont fear us.

 

[BlackFox]

United are starting to get the Juve version of Pogba with the leadership elements he showed for France in the World Cup as he matures. His best 5 years are ahead of him and we absolutely need to build this team around him, something our previous manager was unable to do as he needed to be the center of attention.

Spot on, if anything he has advanced past his Juve days, especially in the goal scoring department he could possibly reach 20 for the season in all comps, his best for Juve was 10.

As you say we need to build a team around him though and quickly, we dont want to look back and see he was one stand out player that was just in an average teams thanks to not investing properly in other areas, thats what I though Jose would do at least but he bought some real trash, complete waste otherwise but all these new contracts for Young, Jones and potentially Mata makes me think nothing will actually change and we will be playing second fiddle to City and Liverpool for a while.

I guess we will know more in the summer with manager/signings on that front and the whole Glazers/Saudi potential take over.

 

[AverageMan]

Tough away draw, only City would have been harder to be honest. At least its looking like an all Prem final unless Swansea or Millwall can do something special.

we'll try our best

 

[Iceman]

Yeah with the season Wolves have had you could say they deserve a day at Wembley, obviously United fans will want to win it but will be harsh on them, they have been one of the highlights of this season for me.

Still they will fancy there chances against us so we will need to really perform well to get a result there, even City dropped points at their place so they wont fear us.

This is going to be their best finish in the league in a very long time. I think their fans will be happy. A Wembley trip would be the icing on the cake and would be a real possibility if they can get past you and avoid City.