OneMoSalah

Fully agree. Whilst Kepa isnt Turnbull, with the AFCON eventually coming up, I’ve no doubts its too soon to swap Mendy out for Kepa. Obviously come to that hurdle when its in front of us but wouldn’t be in crisis mode yet. Plus Jorginho again basically shafted a GK with a dodgy back pass without fully looking/being aware (although not as near bad as the one he did to Kepa v Arsenal last season) didn’t help for the penalty. No GK wants that back pass. Not sure what to make of the third goal. He will bounce back, undoubtedly, as he has been consistent in like 95% of the games he’s played this season so far. Or his Chelsea career to make it more accurate.

Because City won’t play as shit as we did v Watford, said that in the post match after we played Watford. Anyway very bad result. We will be third by end of City game. United and/both Burnley games results with points dropped are huge… yet reacting after Burnley game being a draw was a “huge overreaction”….. least we have some space between us West Ham though.

One thing we cannot do now is drop points this month as we go up against Liverpool, Man City and Spurs in January. It may be tough but having those 3 games one week after each other is going to be difficult so keeping winning all our games to then is going to have to be paramount. Or taking as close to maximum points as possible from the next 6 games.

City wont play as bad as us, thats a given… I think we all know that they wont lose the ball as often as we did tonight. If we played better with the ball tonight, Watford would never of been as encouraged and never ended up played as well as they did against us.

Thank fuck thats done. Saul-RLC should never start as a pair again. Also questions have to be asked of some of the players mentality and desire tonight because we were second best for the best part of that game really. Shocking performance. But 3 points instead of 1. So back to first.

Another ball given away by RLC…. fucking hell - keep the ball

How many attacks has Havertz ruined because he never takes the ball with him, it is frightening at times he does some good/amazing things then some of the basics he makes a dogs dinner of. Like that play there excellent, minutes before when he has the ball played into him in a promising position to run at Watford his touch puts it behind him and he loses it…

What a finish. Get in. Maybe don’t deserve it but quality move all round. Mason assist also 😍

Yep Saul got dragged but could easily of dragged RLC at HT also. He's been pish all game. Lukaku coming on now though, hopefully for Alonso and put Puli at LWB. Or for Dave hmm nvm

Our big money attacking players just don’t contribute enough consistently. Liverpool and City’s do. The likes of Werner, Ziyech, Havertz, Pulisic… you could argue based on the last 1.5 seasons we should be looking to bin at least 2 of them in the summer and get some better quality in. Lukaku maybe is limited as a player but he’s guaranteed to score goals. Why Tuchel hasn’t picked him today is beyond me, after poor decisions to not take him on earlier v United.

Aye this performance has me very anxious and disappointed. If we drop points here, the City and Liverpool results stay the same then we will be third and have dropped a huge 6 points in 3 games which we should of 100% won v Burnley, United and Watford… Yet people thought being concerned about the Burnley result was an overreaction, if we don’t pull the finger out and this finishes a draw, thats 6 big points in which we should definitely not have dropped in our last 5 games where as City and Liverpool have picked up more points (City 12, Liverpool 10). Really we have squandered/are squandering a chance to cement a big lead at the top.

That has always been an issue. Whilst he has improved significantly with Tuchel (more tactically and how he fits in to the team), today he still had that tendency to be safe or take a second or two too long which maybe isn’t as big a problem in the smaller games as individual quality is more likely to bail a team out vs smaller teams compared to bigger teams. All in all though, would be wrong to say he has not done well this season but felt today if Kovacic was fit Ruben would of been on the bench. Kovacic is just that bit slicker and more progressive with the ball.

Exactly. Pulisic and Rom didn’t get enough time to make a huge impact although Puli did more in that time than Ziyech, Werner and Alonso all did in an attacking sense. Rom’s always going to be rusty, having been out for so long and again, there were no real clear moments where he could do anything of note in and around the box. There was more than enough quality in the first 2 thirds of the pitch but again, the final third, frustrating.

I mean were you expecting him to really change the game? In 10 minutes? After being out since Malmo and not playing any competitive game time since then? And even then, did he even get any opportunities? How many times did he touch the ball in the box? Not much. The issue isn’t that he played 10 minutes and did nothing, its that he didn’t come on sooner where he could of got a better feel for the game when it was less frantic and we had a bit more control and our decision making was a bit more measured.

The flow of the game was disrupted yes but thats what happens when you and the opposition make a combined 6 subs in a 30 odd minute period as well as how the game was going. It was getting more frantic. It simply didn’t just turn because of Lukaku, it turned because we were on edge, they were frustrating us, they scored from Jorginho’s mistake, Mendy’s made a mistake later on, the frantic need for an equaliser and trying to force it too hard.. United making more recoveries in MF second half, trying to get their ball carriers like Sancho and Lingard into the spaces we were leaving…. all these things altered the flow of the game. Not one guy playing 10 minutes.

If thats your theory then what was your thought on the other attacking players today? Did they have a positive impact? Did the other subs? The simple answer is no. Also it is ironic people slagging off Lukaku for coming in for 10 minutes, his only game time since being fit, I mean what did they expect? What chances did he get? Did he get any? The best chance when he was on fell to Rudiger. Also the less said about Werner and Ziyech, the better. Honestly I don’t think they will be here next season at this rate because they offer nothing 75-80% of the time they play. I mean if the ball isn’t played clean through with no opposition players to stop him, is there any point in Werner playing really? He cant dribble people, he doesn’t create a lot chances. And today against 2 mobile CBs in Bailey and Lindelof who stayed deep limiting space in behind? Lukaku obviously splits the fanbase. But him playing for more than 10 minutes against those 2 CBs would of been more beneficial than someone who wants to run in behind all today because he can be more physical, he can pin players, those 2 guys aren’t great CBs physically.

Will not be here next summer if he doesn’t start performing. How many chances is he going to get, same with Ziyech.

Please can someone explain to me why did Timo keep playing for so long when he did next to nothing? Ziyech did much more today and he’s normally one who people think is off the boil. Anyway a lack of being clinical in good moments and then only putting Lukaku on at the 80th minute was a mistake. Bailey and Lindalof were there to be bullied physically if we wanted to be a bit more direct and play like that. It wasn’t Maguire and Varane. Ok we drew its not a loss but between today and Burnley, these are 5 points that we have to look at and go well they could end up being big come the end of the season.

Lol. I am guessing you have no idea who Ralf Rangnick is or his standing in football. Surprisingly, he is a massive figure in modern day football despite maybe not being someone with the sort of trophy haul Mourinho, Guardiola, Ferguson etc all have. He has earned the respect despite not having won a shit tonne of trophies, so the talk and respect he is getting for him and his career, its definitely earned. Even the oversight roles he has had, Red Bull’s footballing structure/business model was worth over €1.2 bn with him at the helm and he put the initial blocks in place with coaching himself at Leipzig, with appointments such as Hasenhuttl and Nagelsmann too who all fit the same sort of mould/idea/philosophy. He has probably been the main reason/influence in why German footballs revolutionised the way it has over the last 15-20 years as well as why the standard of German coaches, who are all heavily influenced by him also such as Klopp, Nagelsmann, Flick, Tuchel (played under him at Ulm), have all gone on to become the sort of level of coaches/managers they are. All their principles and philosophies have a huge emphasis on counter pressing/gegenpressing and quick transitional football which he is hugely renowned for developing. That said, I still think he will struggle to get Ronaldo to press and that is an issue for any Manchester United manager or any team that wants to be a top team because everyone presses … be it high press, half press, gegenpress/counter press etc, all the good teams do it.

Would imagine it will probably require/be best bet to get the surgery so wouldnt be overly hopeful for him being back in 6 weeks and training yet alone available for selection. I don’t get how someone could, even with a partial injury as opposed to a more severe injury to their ACL, be back and training/playing in 6 weeks. Seems very optimistic and unrealistic. Shame as he was playing the best football he has played in our shirt but its just unfortunate these things happen.

Doubt it. Has Tuchel even used Azpi there from the start in a game?

All in all pretty good so far. Just need more goals. We have controlled most of the half and been excellent recovering possession. Tiny wee spell for Juve there before HT with Kante coming off, nothing major but Ruben needs to sharpen up though in those positions as those last 2/3 minutes gave the ball away twice in bad areas to Bentancur and Rabiot where you wouldn’t want anyone to Those are the sort of give aways where they will get a bit of a boost from and think about trying to get them more and more as their higher up the pitch. He’s still maybe not up to the speed of the game fully. Also for me, someone needs to try and isolate Cuadrado in 1 v 1s a lot and get him sent off, he looks a very weak link. Keep hammering down that side and get him to overcommit on someone because he is very rash and will throw himself in. Second goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half will break them also I think.

Probably a wise decision. Has no relegation fighting experience and I doubt he wants to be at a club that’s basically only ever equipped for the championship. Surprised he was even in the running.

Isn’t this basically along the same lines of when Billy first went there and it was “such a great move for us and him” because Farke was German and a friend of Tuchel’s, who had discussed using Gilmour in the “double 6” or whatever to prepare him for playing it here under Tuchel and Norwich played attractive football…… I mean you can throw whatever name or relationship in place of Frank’s or Farke’s but until its done and until a game day its all pure speculation. The interesting thing was we all thought Farke would use Billy every week. He hasn’t of late. And in a relegation dogfight theres no certainties that Frank perhaps wont fall on more experienced players over him either.

Tbf they’re just being prats despite fact they were proven wrong weeks ago on here 🤣