Can already see the difference

[Tomo 21,733]

Yes the result today was dis-apointing but The Brittania is one of the hardest places to play in the league, but the performance difference is easy to see already.

Fernando Torres and Jose Bosingwa

What the fucking hell has happened, Torres was incredible today, absolutely incredible hungry, making runs very unlucky not to get a goal and Bosingwa looked a completely different player In My Opinion. Very good from them two.

Pressure and ball retention

64% possesion in a small pitch against a team that are constantly in your faces says it all, we made good passes and movement's on the ball, yes wasted a few but look like Barca in comparision to last season, and we were good with our pressure to get the ball back especially in the second half.

Urgency

What hurt the most about last season was how easy teams held out to 1/3 points against us as we showed little to no urgency in the latter stages, today as longer as the second half went on we were making Stoke sweat blood and tears to get that point something that i was screaming at the tele for last season so im more than happy about that aspect.

ITS ONLY DAY ONE

Remember that, Guardiola's first Barca game was a loss against a newly promoted side, United did not win their first four games when they won the treble or their first three in 07/08 and those season's didn't go bad. 2 out of United's last 3 titles came after opening day stalemates. Apart from the top United and City, IMO this is the hardest place to win.

All signs bode to a succesful season.

[Kez 2,727]

Its the AVB factor :blue scalf:

[manpe 10,861]

It was not bad at all, there were positives in the game as well as negatives... you learn from both of those and develop further. I'm watching WBA - Man Utd. now and I can't wait to see our players getting so much space which they never got at Britannia.

[Guest justin_3d]

I can guaranteed you he will get sack unless he buys a creative mid and winger!

There is no way he will do better then last season with this squad if he does not address those problems before the transfer close!

[ack17 205]

Malouda, Kalou as shit as usual

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

And we still have Lukaku, Sturridge, Romeu, Kakuta, Piazon (January) to come, with some more spending to come for sure. We can only get better. And BTW Utd-WBA is 1-1, De Gea howler. He's a good keeper, and will eventually fit in better but happy we spent a tidy figure on Courtious rather than the amount they spent on De Gea. And Cue a save by De Gea, cross tuns to shot.

[manpe 10,861]

And we still have Lukaku, Sturridge, Romeu, Kakuta, Piazon (January) to come, with some more spending to come for sure. We can only get better.

Why are you putting Piazon in the mix? He might lift the reserves or the U18 squad, but no way is he going to be a first team player at just 18 and not having played a single game for Sao Paulo. I think he's hardly going to influence our title bid.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Bosingwa was brilliant today. I was well glad at his performance today, he's got a bit of work to do on his crossing but he made way less mistakes than we're used to. Good on him.

[neel 257]

ITS ONLY DAY ONE

That is right. It is too early to comment whether any change takes place.

[Laylabelle 9,381]

I really hope Torres keep up his performance from today.Even though he didnt score he seemed to play with so much more confidence then before

[manpe 10,861]

I really hope Torres keep up his performance from today.Even though he didnt score he seemed to play with so much more confidence then before

He probably wants an early goal in the season to put off pressure... if he doesn't have one in a while, then he could lose it again I'm afraid... hopefully not and he will score. He can smell that first 4 games are perfect to do that

[francozola 2,040]

AVB's decision to pick Torres was brilliant because he was so much more confident now that he knows the manager trusts him so much to start him in this kind of match when on paper, Drogs would have been more suitable against the likes of Stoke

But we do need to make a couple of signings. Kalou and malouda are just horrible and anelka isn't much better

[Laylabelle 9,381]

He probably wants an early goal in the season to put off pressure... if he doesn't have one in a while, then he could lose it again I'm afraid... hopefully not and he will score. He can smell that first 4 games are perfect to do that

Yeh agree espically since as well longer he goes without scoring...more stick he's gana get again....and it got so boring last season the same old stories.Some random photo of say him going off at the end with or injured or sitting on the bench just with a normal expression but with some shit about 'ooo the pressure getting to him yada yada'..hatrick shut them up even more

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I hate to say it but I think AVB made a couple of mistakes with subs, namely: Drogba for kalou and Youssi for Torres because drogba brought very very few to the match and torres was by far our best player on the field and the most likely to score.

But to be fair AVB didn't have better choices on the bench but it was probably better if he had left the squad as it was or maybe Youssi for mikel.

[Kojo 4,676]

Choulo how do you know that? None of them had any tome when they came on, and besides the free kicks we didn't see drogba.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

It's basic football fickleness. If we'd have won we'd be raving about a very good performance. Apart from when we went in 08/09, Stoke's first season, I've never seen a team boss them about on their own pitch so much. We played very well, certainly an improvement on our last Premier League matches. Keeping a clean sheet was vital; keeping out goals is the first step towards increasing confidence amongst the players. I feel confident heading in to these next three games - and if we can get 14 points from our first six matches, I'll be a happy boy.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Choulo how do you know that? None of them had any tome when they came on, and besides the free kicks we didn't see drogba.

Drogba had 20mins and did nothing other than a couple of set pieces not to mention he totally messed up the formation that looked very good. And youssi came on 3mins to time, he needs more than that to really get in the game.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

You know who AVB needs to sign?? Man u's luck and their ability to get own goal winner in the last 5mins of the game. It's incredible, not to mention FRUSTRATING, how they keep doing that match after match, year after year.