The Skipper

Delighted if true. Martinez would've bossed our pivot.

Rooney, well played. Fair play. Raped United once more.

I think it's far wiser to spend little on an experienced striker like Eto'o who will bring something new to our squad as a stop gap which will enable us to go for a proper striker again next season instead of spinning £35m on a striker who's similar to what we've got already.

I'm saying he should've come on yesterday because he would've offered more than Torres, I'm very certain of that. However I agree that the knee jerk reactions about him going out on loan and stuff are over the top.

Monaco really building an insane team. Great transfer for them.

The former

Wow.

Conveniently ignore the Azpilicueta example won't you? My point is that most of the Confed Cup players have barely played to begin with.

You're not getting me at all. I'm not saying that everyone outside the top 6/7 clubs is a ridiculously bad player. A club like Chelsea shouldn't be having a striker that's just good enough for only the clubs outside the top 6/7 clubs in the league. Most strikers in the top 6/7 clubs absolutely crap on Torres. You're acting like its a good thing that Torres isn't even good enough to be a striker for a top 6/7 team.

Which is still ridiculously bad.

Similarly to Mata, Luiz and Azpilicueta who were all involved in the Confederations Cup. Give it a rest already.

Really can't wait for him to be in the team regularly again. At no. 10. Missing his creative genius.

He was playing as a number 10/second striker. Lol.

He's okay but he isn't that sort of striker. No point in changing his game, when what he does best is being on the shoulder of the last defender, trying to break the offside trap with his explosiveness. He's a poacher, we shouldn't turn him into something he's not.

We've already got two players who can play as a target man (Ba, Lukaku). We are not a team that relies on crosses. A target man doesn't really work well with our team. The way Bayern and United are set up is different. Our team is meant to be more focused on the intricate play between our front four, which is exactly why Mourinho wanted Rooney. He's a really good striker but he doesn't offer what we need. We don't need to sign a striker just for the sake of it. He needs to be the right sort of player.

Well, you're satisfied because we came away with a draw. I'm okay with it but personally I think we could've won had Mourinho played a more attacking team, or more importantly, substituted in the right people when the game was opening up. Could've easily thrown on Lukaku instead of Torres (mind boggling decision IMO), could've maybe thrown on Mata. Could've maybe thrown on Mikel earlier to allow Ramires more freedom..Just those three subs would've given us a greater platform to nick a win whilst still pretty much keeping a pretty strong defensive unit out there. He played it too safe IMO, and that is what annoys me. I'm not the type of person that's completely satisfied with a draw when a win could've been attained as well, regardless if it was United at OT. EDIT: Re: Schurrle, I think that Lukaku could've done exactly what Andre did but would've helped us be more solid defensively as well because with him up front we wouldn't have lost the ball as soon as Cech booted a long ball up. Lukaku would've helped us keep possession a lot better and thus releasing the strain on the defensive unit.

Nope. Rather sign Eto'o. If we're going to sign Martinez I'd rather us give Lukaku a shot because they're quite similar as strikers. We're after a player in Eto'o/Rooney's mould because we don't have that sort of striker in our squad. Jackson Martinez is a great striker but he doesn't fit our system as the aforementioned do. He isn't good at holding the ball up, linking up play, having his back towards goal etc... No point.

I don't understand. Just because we got a draw against "The Champions Of England" people are not allowed to say that Jose selected the wrong team in their opinion? The Champions Of England were there for the taking, we are one of their main rivals not some sort of small club. Defensively we were very solid but our attack was a mess. It's all well and good playing 4 attacking midfielders but our attacking was a mess. We usually bypassed the whole team by booting a long ball up to Schurrle which is an automatic loss of possession because he stands no chance in the air against Vidic or Ferdinand. It would've been far more plausible to play Lukaku or Ba who are both more adept to that situation. Mourinho got it wrong in that aspect. He also got it wrong by starting Lampard. We needed more energy in midfield and there really wasn't enough space available to use Lampard effectively until later in the game when spaces opened up more. Would've been better to see Frank come off the bench for this one. The match performance, tactical set up and (especially) subs were poor IMO but we still got away with a decent result. The fact that United were there for the taking though leaves a bit to be desired. My biggest concern is that people (and Mourinho) gave United way too much respect and are seriously underestimating what our lads can do when they do play their football.

Not his fault we didn't look for more alternatives in time.

The biggest thing I didn't understand is why we kept booting the ball from Cech to Schurrle in the first half. Really doesn't make sense especially when Lukaku and Ba would've been better recipients.

You weren't impressed with Oscar's performances in the CL last season?

Glad we got the point. A point away at Old Trafford is always a decent result but as for the game itself... I'm disappointed in how Mourinho set us up initially, and disappointed that when he did make the changes, he didn't make the right ones (in my opinion). All of what I'm about to say is in conjunction to me believing we could've won it; We started the game off okay-ish but it was very evident from early on that we weren't playing to win the game which was disappointing to say the least. Schurrle looked lost up front - never want to see him there again. Can't fault his effort but he just isn't a lone striker. Looked much better on the RW in the second half. I thought that Lampard's inclusion in the line up was a bad decision too as I felt we needed a bit more tenacity and energy in midfield. It would've been better to bring Frank off the bench for this one. Lampard's inclusion restricted Ramires - Ramires was forced to be the more defensive player in the pivot and this really hurt our counter attacks. Would've preferred to see MVG or Mikel do that with Ramires given the freedom to do his thing. This brings me to the second half: we played better, but the game was really there for the taking. Even though Mou didn't start Lukaku he should've at least thrown him on because Romelu would've caused a lot of problems to the United defence. Unfortunately Jose threw on Torres which was quite mind boggling to say the least. United were opening up and we pretty much failed to take advantage. I would've not been annoyed at Jose had he made simply moves of keeping on KDB, subbing in Lukaku and Mata at around the 60 min mark we would've won in my honest opinion. I reiterate.We can play far better than we did today and I must say, disappointed in Mourinho with the negative game plan. Pretty pleased we got a point though. PS: I'm writing this half asleep so please ignore any errors!

Mourinho needs to throw on Mata. Still can't believe he isn't on.

Our record under Atkinson:5W, 1D, 1L.

Can't believe we're bringing on Torres instead of Lukaku. Lol.