Man Utd (A) 05/12 - Match Thread

Pearces_Left_Foot

If we had scored from that they would have spent 5 mins looking at it and disallowed it but it’s Man U quick glance goal stands 😂

Pearces_Left_Foot

The last fee games showed we need a forward with pace when Antonio is not fit (which is quite often) Haller isn t mobile enough we rely on formals and Bowen getting into the box when breaking

Dodger58

Had the ball been correctly called out at the time, play would have halted, Pogba would not have scored (an admittedly cracking goal) and there would have been no controversy.

Kuchinghammer

If Hawkeye can judge goal line decisions,surely it can be extended to include all line decisions? It simply calls play back if the ball has crossed the line. Not rocket science...

EXETERHAMMER

We were v good first half but should have scored at least one more. We hung on till 65 mins then got destroyed by Rashfords pace. To be fair he was quality.

Cuz1

But if the first goal is ruled out as it should be there whole body language changes and we old the momentum that we had for a team leading, where as there heads lift because there back in it at 1-1

thornburyiron

We didn’t have the momentum at that point anyway. They were ripping through us from about 10 minutes into the second half.

Yeoldhammer

I want to see Benrahma given a start.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

What I think Moyes has got us is playing with a a good shape and getting everyone playing at least 6/10 week in week out

But yesterday was just 'one of those days', United aren't great, but when they turn it on they have the quality to punish and thats exactly what they did

We missed enough chances to take all 3 let alone 1 point, but while we have talented players, perhaps we miss that X factor that could've taken those chances.

Not happy about the ball going out but the game is 90 minutes and United were good value for the win they turned it on in the 2nd half

But we go again, think we may need a bit more rotation, think we looked tired in the 2nd half....think it may be time to recall Diop and give Benrahma a start (possibly Manu too)

Lukerz

People say Man Utd are not great, that is wrong. They are inconsistent at home, but they are the best away side in the league & have the highest points per game since signing Fernandes. They are a good side.

IronHerb

Good isn't great though. They have two or three special players and when they showed up they changed the game.

IronHerb

I don't get people saying Diop should be brought back. Our defence is the mainstay of our improvement this season.
Who are you going to drop? Ogbonna, our best defender, or Cresswell, to important at the other end of the pitch or Balbuena, who is playing as well as he has done for us?
And don't forget Diop was in a poor run of form when he was dropped.

claretandbluesky

Rashford was the main difference between the first and second half. If we had him up front I think we would be genuine top 5 contenders at present. We are doing it in defence and midfield but not in front of goal as that first half showed.

MunichHammer

IronHerb said:

Good isn't great though. They have two or three special players and when they showed up they changed the game.

But they needed those players to beat us which shows how far we seem to have come. Even last season many B-teams were enough to tear through us, not now.

And apart from that, I'd rather we had our run of wins ended by ManU than by Leeds.

IronHerb

But we'll beat Leeds.

jay_in_cpt

Personally thought Balbuena was our MOM..

OutcastLondoner

IronHerb said:

I don't get people saying Diop should be brought back. Our defence is the mainstay of our improvement this season.
Who are you going to drop? Ogbonna, our best defender, or Cresswell, to important at the other end of the pitch or Balbuena, who is playing as well as he has done for us?
And don't forget Diop was in a poor run of form when he was dropped.

It's in reaction to people saying we don't have enough pace. Diop is much faster than Balbuena. I personally think Balbuena's been a bit lucky. He's switched off a few times, like with the Sheffield chance against the crossbar, and could've cost us. If people believe we need more pace in the defence, then Diop is the only option really.

IronHerb

It's all well having pace but if the rest of your game is off......

Lukerz

Only Spurs (22) have had more attempts in a single game against Manchester United this season, than West Ham (19). In the Spurs game, United were reduced to 10 men in the first half.

thornburyiron

Looks good but Spurs converted 6 of those or 27% but we converted 1 or 5%. Just looking at the attempts makes us look quite prolific but looking at the goals it makes us look inept.

Brother_Sledge

I was a little frustrated on a few occasions to see Masuaku take the easy option of passing back to Cresswell, who then took the easy option of passing back inside to Ogbonna who then took the easy option of passing sideways to Balbuena who then had to hit a hopeful ball forward.

IronHerb

Masuaka was poor throughout the game. Benrahma in for him next week.

OutcastLondoner

IronHerb said:

It's all well having pace but if the rest of your game is off......

He’s been making mistakes in his judgement and got caught out. Balbuena’s done the same but been saved by this system because of Coufal and Ogbonna. I’d be interested to see how Diop plays in the back 5.

I don’t think Leeds is the game to change it for though

buffybegood

Disappointed, but not surprised, that more hasn't been made of VAR's obvious shortcomings with regards to determining whether the ball is out of play. I thought the idea of VAR was to correct obvious mistakes by on-field officials; the ball being at least a foot (probably nearer 2 feet) out would, you would think, qualify for an "obvious" mistake, and yet there's been very little made of it. I genuinely believe that if Man Utd (or another "big" club) had been on the receiving end of the decision much more would have been made of the failings of VAR.

Surely this should see the introduction of a camera or 2 along each touchline to ensure such mistakes don't happen again (I'm sure there must already be cameras looking along the goal-lines).

MrsGrey

I think the problem with cameras on the side lines is that the ball can be at any height. It's not like the goal line technology where there is a defined and limited horizontal and vertical plane.?

Second thing is that var is only used to review specific categories of decision - only after that does the obvious error question come into play. And whether the ball was out of play is not one of those categories of decision. I guess they could add it, but would be controversial when so many are pushing for less var rather than more.

Also, if var does this as well as offsides, we might wonder what we need the linos for!!?? I suppose we need someone to ignore it when players steal 3 yards at throw ins ;-)

IronHerb

You would still need linos for throw ins. The goal line technology uses fixed cameras. To monitor throw ins you would need manned cameras to follow the action at close range.

OutcastLondoner

It’s probably going to have to happen a lot more often and to a “big” team before anyone thinks about making any change on this anyway.

thornburyiron

You could probably say it’s just one of things if the Lino hadn’t come out and said he didn’t see it because he wasn’t watching as he was checking for an offside.
However his primary function is to check if the ball goes out of play at any time but even then how many times do you see the ref point which way a throw is going before the Lino puts his flag up.
Also linos seem very quick to pick up if a corner goes out and back in but doesn’t seem bothered about looking for offsides then.
I just think he bricked it because when Henderson whacked the ball the Lino was way out of position and rushed to get back in place.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

I'm not really that upset about it being missed. There was opportunity for us to stop the goal between when it happened and when the ball hit the net.

A bigger question is why Pogba was in acres and acres of space.

A bit like how they've tweaked the handball ruling this year (I think?), checking whether the ball went out of play should only really be done if it's a second or two before the goal i.e. if the defending team doesn't have any other opportunity to do their jobs properly.

We didn't lose because this was missed. Momentum was already with them, and in the second half they did what we should have done in the first half - put away several of their golden chances, rather than just one.

thornburyiron

Dermot Gallagher said the guy with the best view (Lino) didn’t use it. Assistants prioritise offsides and ball out of play. He said the ball was so far upfield when it was kicked that offside should not have been considered and it was obvious the ball was put.
VAR looked but it was inconclusive it it can’t be calibrated at the moment.
Maybe the answer is to insist on those cameras on wire things that run up and down pitches sometimes are installed to run both touch lines.