Man Utd Vs West Ham - FA Cup 5th round, Weds 1st March 7.45 Kick off.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Antonio is done, he's built around his pace, power and chaos

But he's into his 30s now and has a lot of injuries, specifically muscle ones and he has lost his pace, his main attribute and now he hits the deck so easily when players used to bounce off him

His finishing was erratic at best so if he can't stretch defences he doesn't really offer anything

Been a great servant but his time is done now

jay_in_cpt

Would like to see Antonio as a wide player rather than our main forward player…Just my opinion 👍🏻

Slacker

I’m not sure that Antonio is finished just yet. There’s no doubt he’s not the player he was a couple of years ago but he still gives us options, particularly from the bench.If Scamaca or Ings were available last night I’m pretty sure one of them would’ve started leaving Antonio to come on for twenty minutes or so if needed.

Yeoldhammer

Team was completely gassed after 70 minutes or so. Fitness levels were pretty atrocious. Last 20 minutes weren't surprising, the goals were easy to see coming and Man United didn't really have to do much to achieve them it just a case of when.

Antonio has gone the way of Vardy, not PL level any longer imo. Doesn't have that half a yard of pace anymore. Spurns the opportunities they do get. Doesn't have the fitness levels to pressure the opposition backline. Also has the hallmarks of Haller in just strolling around when the opposition backline and midfield have the ball. No team press.

Defending comes from the front man, if he isn't prepared to put in a shift to press and that isn't followed up by the midfield behind him etc. Then you aren't going to win the ball back you are playing percentage football hoping for an opposition mistake. Too reactionary not proactive football. A lot of this is built around the teams fitness and i think the front man is where it always falls apart for us whether that is Scamacca or Antonio.

thornburyiron

One possible positive to come out of the game is that if they were paying attention they would have seen how to take decent throw ins, free kicks and corners. Every one of their dead ball kicks in the last 20 minutes we’re spot on.
We could have, possibly should have, won that 3-0 last night but equally because we spurned chances could have lost 5 or 6-1 as defensively we became shambolic.

Pengeman

WHU should have won this game. Had plenty of chances. Aguerd had his worst game. Fine for 70 minutes or so and then terrible. It seemed that there was lack of understanding with Areola for the corner which led to the MANU first goal and also for the third goal. Hopefully, both will play a blinder on Saturday, and Ings will be back.

steve

Perhaps we missed Caufal last night

IronHerb

thornburyiron said:

Keane absolutely scathing about us. Called our defence totally useless and we were rubbish.

He's been reading this site obviously.

IronHerb

It all went wrong when Moyes subbed off Fornals for Bowen. We didn't trouble them after that. Antonio was the one needing to be subbed for Bowen. Fornals played a good game.
Overall a really decent performance against probably the second best team around on current form.

MunichHammer

IronHerb said:

It all went wrong when Moyes subbed off Fornals for Bowen. We didn't trouble them after that. Antonio was the one needing to be subbed for Bowen. Fornals played a good game.

So basically just like the weekend when we got our goals when Ayew came on.
Regarding Aguerd I have to say that I am glad that all his errors came in one match rather than spread out across several matches. Just imagine he makes three match-losing errors in three games.

Bazshuayi

Aguerd has credit in the bank (a lot before he turns into Kehrer anyway) and I hope he will be the chief defensive reason we get better

jay_in_cpt

Bazshuayi said:

Aguerd has credit in the bank (a lot before he turns into Kehrer anyway) and I hope he will be the chief defensive reason we get better

Thinks that’s a bit OTT..
He’s hardly played this season, and yeh a few classy performances, but credit in the bank… IMO Not so sure, but we all allowed to think as we do 👍🏻

Bazshuayi

Yep I agree we all have our own thoughts. I think he's comfortably our best defender and hopefully will be even better once hes had a chunk more games

jay_in_cpt

Bazshuayi said:

Yep I agree we all have our own thoughts. I think he's comfortably our best defender and hopefully will be even better once hes had a chunk more games

Can't disagree with that at all, just the credit in bank part......

Lukerz

Aguerd made errors for all three goals, all around dealing with the ball. First goal should’ve gone for a throw, he conceded a corner & then headed it in himself. Second was a poor clearance to the edge of the box, leading to the deflected shot that resulted in the winner. The third was not such a big deal as the game was over but again failed to deal with the ball.

He looks like he’ll be a promising player for us but he has made errors in his limited appearances this season.

Bazshuayi

He's also spent a fair bit of time injured. Then went to World Cup and wasnt fit at the end of it. It would surprise me if its fatigue while he builds up and tha can often lead to mental and physical errors.

buffybegood

Bazshuayi said:

He's also spent a fair bit of time injured. Then went to World Cup and wasnt fit at the end of it. It would surprise me if its fatigue while he builds up and tha can often lead to mental and physical errors.

I'm sure I read that he had Covid during the WC, so could be after effects of that, especially when it comes to playing twice a week (not great if that's the case given our upcoming fixtures). I'm hoping it was just a bad day at the office, maybe in part because he was to the right rather than the left of central defence.

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

Aguerd made errors for all three goals, all around dealing with the ball. First goal should’ve gone for a throw, he conceded a corner & then headed it in himself. Second was a poor clearance to the edge of the box, leading to the deflected shot that resulted in the winner. The third was not such a big deal as the game was over but again failed to deal with the ball.

He looks like he’ll be a promising player for us but he has made errors in his limited appearances this season.

I wonder how much of it is because he's playing on his wrong side. From memory, wasn't the clearance that went for the corner off his right (i.e. wrong) boot? We'd like to think that playing LCB or RCB shouldn't make much difference to a professional footballer, but I suspect it probably does.

As an aside, I'm not sure what future Kehrer has at the club. A right sided defender that isn't picked ahead of a left-footer. He'll evidently be 4th choice once Zouma is back, so we could have another Diop situation in the summer, particularly if we extend Og's contract as has been mooted.

alderz

There is definitely a difference. I remember a long, long time ago looking at how James Tomkins form was affected when he was the one out of him, Winston Reid and James Collins that was shifted from right to left. Reid always played on the left that couple of years, and Collins always on the right. Whenever Tomkins played with Reid he looked great and was good on the ball, whenever he played with Collins he made more errors and looked uncomfortable.

re: Kehrer, I think he has a future. I think someone going through a rough spell can be taken out of the firing line and brought back at a later date. He's looked dodgy for us so far, but I remember how Reid started (a certain poster on this forum referred to him as nervy boy for years). Look at Sancho at ManUtd too. No appearances for months, and now he's back. Kehrer is obviously a decent player. He wouldn't have played for Germany and PSG if he wasn't.

Ravel49

Wheeeyyyyy the old Collins vs TomPkins debate 🙌🏻
#teamtompkins