Gandalf Greyhame

I wanted to compare minutes played by different players at both Chelsea and for us after the break, some interesting results: Maguire Bruno Rashford Lindelof AWB Martial Greenwood Pogba Matic Shaw Williams McTominay Fred Ighalo James Rest Spurs 90 90 90 78 90 78 28 27 12 90 0 89 63 12 62 Dalot Sheffield Utd 90 74 74 90 90 74 74 74 90 90 0 10 0 16 10 TFM Norwich 120 120 57 0 0 24 57 42 42 120 57 78 78 120 0 Mata Brighton 90 64 78 90 90 78 90 64 90 64 26 26 0 12 12 Lingard Bournemouth 90 90 80 46 90 80 75 90 67 90 0 0 23 10 15 Bailly Villa 90 71 90 90 66 79 79 90 66 90 24 24 19 11 11 Southampton 90 84 90 90 90 90 84 63 90 75 15 10 27 0 10 Palace 90 90 90 90 90 90 62 90 27 0 0 63 0 0 0 Chelsea 90 90 79 90 79 45 35 35 90 0 90 0 55 11 56 West Ham 90 90 85 90 45 90 90 90 90 0 90 0 0 5 0 Total Minutes 930 863 813 754 730 728 674 665 664 619 302 300 265 197 176 % of Total Possible 100 92.79569892 87.41935484 81.07526882 78.49462366 78.27956989 72.47311828 71.50537634 71.39784946 66.55913978 32.47311828 32.25806452 28.49462366 21.1827957 18.92473118 Azpi Willian Rudiger Pulisic Zouma Mount Alonso Giroud James Christensen Barkley Kante Kovacic Jorginho Tammy Rest Villa 90 90 90 35 0 90 90 80 5 90 35 90 55 0 10 Pedro City 90 90 90 90 0 90 90 62 0 90 73 90 17 0 28 CHO Leicester 44 78 90 72 90 46 0 0 46 0 44 90 44 0 90 Gilmour West Ham 90 90 90 90 0 37 90 27 0 90 63 90 53 0 63 Emerson Watford 90 76 0 90 90 76 0 76 90 90 90 78 0 0 14 RLC Palace 90 90 0 90 90 90 0 65 90 90 65 0 0 10 25 Sheffield Utd 90 90 45 66 90 45 45 34 75 45 78 0 0 90 90 Norwich 90 90 90 80 90 0 80 85 10 0 23 0 90 90 5 Manchester Utd 90 80 90 0 90 90 90 80 90 0 0 0 85 90 10 Liverpool 90 59 90 31 90 59 88 59 90 0 0 0 90 90 31 Total Minutes 854 833 675 644 630 623 573 568 496 495 471 438 434 370 366 % of Total Possible 94.88888889 92.55555556 75 71.55555556 70 69.22222222 63.66666667 63.11111111 55.11111111 55 52.33333333 48.66666667 48.22222222 41.11111111 40.66666667 I'm surprised to see how many minutes Willian has compared to everyone else. Also surprised to see how Barkley is getting way more time than RLC, and Giroud is being preferred to Tammy (though Werner will be taking that spot ofc)

Tired legs showing for both United and Chelsea, though at least your game was entertaining. A team on confidence always seems like it is outperforming xG, and a team in a bad run seems to underperform. Liverpool scored some screamers and were having fun while Chelsea were under pressure to catch up at Anfield. That Pulisic is some player, though. There were rumours he was a United fan once, no idea how the Glazers didn't capitalize on the American market there. Anyways, your Hazard replacement is sorted, if he can stay fit consistently. He looked unstoppable yesterday.

If you get Kai Havertz over the line, that may be your best transfer since Hazard. 80m is peanuts for his talent, and I can't believe no other club is challenging you for him. You'll score lots of goals going forward next season.

In early December, it felt like it was a matter of days when Poch would be announced. We were closer to relegation than to Liverpool. Then Ole pulled out a string of results out of nowhere that bought him some time. In January again, after losses to Watford and Burnley, it felt like he would be gone by season end - good manager, but not good enough for Man United. Then we signed Bruno, and went on a 19 game unbeated run that you lot ended today where we scored 50 goals and conceded only 8 (2 of them were DDG howlers, again). This was the first time we had our best XI fit and playing together, and though we knew it was a purple patch, I'd argue we were one of the best attacking sides in the country during this run. We played the best football since SAF during this time, and some of the link-up play between Bruno-Pogba and Martial-Rashford was beatiful. Rashford and Martial both hit and crossed the 20 goal mark and Mason Greenwood ended up with more goals than Firmino. Jose had given up on Pogba, Fred, Shaw and Martial. Under Ole, they've been nothing short of brilliant this season, especially since the turn of the year. When we had started the season, I felt that top four would be the best case scenario given the squad we had. In December, Europa League places felt unachievable. Now somehow we're in a position where we could even end up in 3rd. It's been a roller coaster, but progress is evident. Just like young players with potential take time to iron out the inconsistencies, feels like Ole is learning on the job, too. Ole will get the whole of next season for sure if we actually make it to CL, now. He'll be backed in the transfer window and if we finish top four again next season, he'll get the season after that and be backed again. This is the first time the term 'rebuilding' actually seems to make sense, and the future looks exciting. He may end up not winning anything with us at all, but when he leaves I feel confident that we'll have a solid foundation for someone better to take over. And that itself is far better than any of Moyes, LVG or Jose. In fact, if we end up 3rd, I'd argue this season has been better than the one where Jose got us to finish 2nd behind City. That side, led by Zlatan, had peaked and could only go downhill, and this side led by Rashford is a polar opposite and will only get better.

Pogba is the sort of player who makes good teams look absolutely great - not the kind who will single handedly lead and inspire his team to results by himself. Today the team was having an off day, and there wasn't much movement up front, so he started complicating things and sulking when he didn't pull off ambitious turns or lofty passes. This is in contrast to Bruno's attitude who kept finding good passes, ran his socks off and was committed till the last moment. On a good day, Pogba will make us unbeatable - on a bad day he will need to be carried by rest of the midfield. I don't think Ole will be allowed to write off such an expensive financial asset - so he'll sugarcoat that narrative and continue displaying faith in him by publicly backing him and giving him more chances. But there's a ruthless side to Ole which he doesn't reveal in the smiles and jokes of his pressers - more mistakes and he'll drop DDG for Henderson at the first chance he gets. Ole has already been telling Henderson he values him - there was a presser the other day where he said Dean Henderson was 'England and Manchester United future No.1'. Henderson WILL play in goal for Man United, the only question is when. I personally think Henderson should be recalled next season and De Gea should split time with him until he either gets better or gets replaced. What Ole will actually do to handle it is anyone's guess, and it is a conundrum I dont envy. We had a similar situation with Rooney towards his late years with us as well - club record goalscorer, one of the greatest players ever to wear a United shirt - and he was consistently the worst player on the pitch while earning a fortune every week. Jose took care of that, but this one's Ole's can of worms to open.

If it was outside the box, yep - not a penalty. It was still a foul nonetheless, I feel.

Nah, you should give Chelsea a bit more credit than that. Sure, De Gea f**ked up routine saves, but there weren't many saves that Caballero had to make either. When Pogba came on in the second half, I expected things to turn in our favour the moment him and Bruno started linking up - but there wasn't much movement or space to pass to, and that's to Chelsea's credit. We were still defending way more than we were attacking, and your wingbacks just pegged the whole team back by 20 yards with their movement and possession. Ole didnt have a plan B once Bailly went off, and that's because Lampard's plan A was pretty effective. At the end of the day, we conceded 3 goals without even having to face Pulisic, and that's very frustrating Hopefully it's just one bad day and we come roaring back with a response against West Ham.

Never posted here after a loss to Chelsea - hope this doesn't become a regular thing. ? The better team won today - no doubt. We were tired and had 2 days less rest than Chelsea, and the correct approach was to high press the hell out of United, which we're tactically susceptible to anyways. You had the ball in better areas and took more initiative. You also pushed your wingbacks so high up the pitch that Rashford had to keep dropping back in the whole first half, which took away the only threat we had going forward. Bruno was good but he had no one to pass out to. Lampard clearly watched how Southampton troubled us and the mistakes were repetitive. Credit to Reece James, Alonso and Azpi who had terrific games and snuffed out any chances we might create. Giroud's movement today was very good as well. Ole clearly had the right idea when he predicted and tried to match 3 at the back, but the moment Bailly went off we lost all shape and immediately conceded. Since then Lampard outclassed and outthought us, and you didn't even have to bring on Pulisic. De Gea had 2 howlers - they're getting more frequent these days. He's won 4 POTY awards for us and has been our only consistently world class player since SAF left, but he's just fallen off a cliff since the World Cup debacle. We're at a very awkward place where a club legend is single handedly losing games for us. I have no idea how Ole will handle this - since DDG still has 3 years left on a mega contract. Henderson is clearly the better keeper on form, but how can you just dump a 29 yo keeper who still has world classes reflexes in some games? I have to also acknowledge Jose and Lampard's comments on the refs favouring United worked all game. Chelsea committed 20+ fouls and got away without a single card. I understand a Chelsea forum might not agree, but that was foul by Zouma on Martial and should have been a penalty. Rudiger/Azpi/Kovacic in particular kept committing City-esque tactical fouls and got away with it, and United didn't have an answer for that. Perhaps it's karma for all the luck we had against Palace. Just an overall bad day in office - our unbeaten run had to end at some point.

Ole will rotate, but don't expect a Liverpool-esque B team from United because one - we dont have a B team and two - Ole wants to win silverware more than he wants to qualify for top four. We're not Arsenal, after all. I think at least 5 players from today's lineup will feature, we'll be counting on the extra subs to keep them fresh. This is the most rotated side you will see in all probability, chances are Martial and AWB might also feature to trouble your unsettled defence and to try and keep Pulisic quiet. Romero TFM - Bailly - Maguire - Williams McTominay-Fred Bruno Greenwood-Ighalo-Rashford You have 2 days extra rest, and you are traditionally quicker off the mark in the first half an hour while United tend to grow into the game much slower. Get an early goal or two, and Ole will have an eye on the West Ham game and not risk players getting tired further chasing the ball late in the second half. But on the other hand, if our defence do their bit in the first 30-odd minutes and we somehow nab the first goal - I'd consider us favourites with pace and trickery on the counter and your susceptibility to in-form forwards running 1v1 at your defenders. With Pogba, Bruno and Matic, I'd be a bit more concerned against Chelsea because Pogba gets isolated in the middle of the park, but we might hold our own in the middle if both Fred and McT start. Greenwood has been really good in the cup games so far, btw, so I hope you mess up closing passing lines to him or marking him around the box. He hasn't scored in over 3 hours now, and looks hungry.

I think VAR has been terribly implemented in the PL in general, and I won't deny that United have feen at the favourable end more often than not, as the stats show: https://www.espn.in/football/english-premier-league/story/3929823/how-var-decisions-have-affected-every-premier-league-club This table, of course, isn't really taking decisions where VAR didn't get involved in the first place into account - quite recently the TAA stamp and Romeu's stamp come to mind (both red cards), but it more or less shows how sides like Wolves and Sheffield united have been hard done by. We have no idea how United would have fared if Zaha had rightfully earned his penalty instead of Palace conceding on the ensuing counter. (We also don't know if Southampton would have equalized with 10 men on the pitch instead of United being a man down or if United would even be so low in the table if we'd not been 'unlucky' with Pogba, Martial and Rashford's long-term injuries - but I don't want to get into whataboutisms ? ). I'll take those 3 points - it keeps pressure on Leicester and Rashford/Martial are finding form at the right time. Now we need favours from a common ex-manager now - I hope Kane and Son tear that makeshift Leicester defence a new one and Jose propels us into CL again, so we can field a strong side against you in the semi-final (Ole 'we're not Arsenal' Gunnar Solskjaer will start the likes of Rashford, Bruno and Maguire it nonetheless, I feel.)

I would defeinitely take our position of injuries over a transfer ban, yes. We'd be an absolute mess if we did not have Maguire, AWB or Bruno. At one point in Decemeber, we were wondering if we could actually get relegated - if Bruno hadn't come around to save Ole's skin, he might not have survived with Poch available. Ole could have done better with the squad he had, yes, and again, Lampard has done very well relatively, of course. I don't think many United fans truly expect us to challenge for a title anytime soon - there's a long way to go and even we're skeptical if Ole's the man for it. He's definitely the man for the transition. After 7 years of retrying, we finally got half the puzzle right. I would still disagree about squad depth - Mata has lost even the little glimpse of pace and strength he once had and even Angel Gomes had more strength in physical duels than he did. Class player, but he's done in this league. We wasted his best years on the right flank in a dysfunctional team. We would have loved a player like RLC or Barkley or Mount to be able to come off the bench instead of him. Let's just agree to disagree about squad depth. Perhaps there is an element of bias in our unwavering support for Ole - would you blame us for defending a club legend who's now the manager? And you're right about Woody being terrible at recruitment - every summer there's talk of a new DoF, and every summer Woody somehow manages to remain the money man making footballing decisions. Things are looking up right now, however, and it would be brilliant if we could actually make it to 4th and get Sancho done over the line. We haven't had a genuine right winger since Ronaldo, and I am confident that he would have a Bruno-esque impact and finally stop the left side of our attack from being double marked.

It wasn't pretty to watch, but unlike us against Southampton, Chelsea got the job done. Thanks for putting the pressure back on us again. ? Willian is so unpredictable from a neutral perspective. Some days it feels like he's carrying your attack, but in some games I wonder what he offers. Similarly with Giroud - his highlight reel will be better than Van Persie's, but he goes invisible half the time and then suddenly comes up with lovely flicks, finishes and backheel layoffs.

I cannot comment on the w**kfest. Every club has an irritating section of gloaters who think their club is the second coming of Pep's Barcelona after winning a game or two. United has more fans than most clubs, so it follows that there will be more gloaters and irritating fans. If you're pissed, it's probably rightly so. We're definitely better than the surprsingly smug folks over at Foxestalk or the cringey clusterfeck that is RAWK, but those are very low standards. Also, yes, we have had years of transition and yes we are the second highest spending club after Man City since SAF left. But a lack of success despite that is a damning indictment against the management at the highest level (read: Woodward) and the managers who couldn't make that investment count for diddly squat (read: Mourinho). Woodward showed a big wad of notes to everyone, and he got swindled by his own managers. We've pissed money away like anything, yep. But to judge Ole's transfers you should consider Maguire (overpaid by about 30m), AWB (underpaid by about 10m), Dan James (a punt for the future at 15m, but not ready right now) and in the January window - Bruno Fernandes (who's been a revelation since he joined). After adding Maguire and AWB, defensively we're the third best side in the league (35 GA) behind Sheffield United (33 GA) and Man City (34 GA) without being the defensive outfit we were under Mourinho. As for Bruno, I think his numbers speak for themselves. Ole hasn't been properly backed yet, and he's done very well with the signings made so far. I don't agree with the harsher circumstances, either. For instance, from your list - Pogba missed 39 games due to his ankle injury from September last year till the restart, Rashford missed 12 games this season, and was out for almost a month and a half with his back issues. Since the restart, he's not looked like himself. Similarly, Martial missed 14 games, too. United don't have the squad to deal with such injuries to key players. Without Pogba, there was no creativity from midfield at all, without Rashford we had no wide goal threat (no RW at the club, but that's another story) and without Martial we didn't have a striker. Matic blows hot and cold - any run of games leaves him knackered very easily, and De Gea has had his worst season for United since SAF left (he's arguably cost us more points this season with individual errors). Fans of every club bar Man City will feel that their backups are terrible, but unless you've had a season where you've been forced to provide 118 combined appearances (6880 minutes) to the world-beating trio of Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira and Dan James - I would argue that you don't really know how poor United's backups to the starting XI are. It was torture to see our one or two decent players being double marked while the rest of them made buffoons of themselves. The only reason we were a counter-attacking team was because we had no creativity to break down a defence at all, and every team with a low block nicked points off us very easily till Bruno came along. He has flaws, too, obviously. He's very late and passive with his subs, and sometimes he's too ambitious for his own good. We should not played our first teamers for 120 minutes against Norwich in the cup - it is coming back to haunt us now. Even now he should be resting the likes of Martial, Bruno, Matic and AWB against you lot in the semi-final, but watch him field his knackered best XI and get another injury just in time for that Leicester game. He is also too stubbornly faithful - he stuck with Lingard way more than he should have and we lost Angel Gomes as a result. We should have dropped De Gea for a game or two after his horror shows of late, but he persisted and De Gea promptly dropped more points for us (see him not coming out to claim the ball in yesterday's corner). Like I said, it remains to be seen if he can actually win silverware with United but the squad is a shambles thanks to the wrecking ball of a manager we had earlier and the ineptitude of the recruitment but Ole is the first manager who's shaping the squad in a positive way. There's a togetherness to the team, we try to play positive football and we have some great results under him already. His man management is a far greater asset than his tactical ability. The restart has been the first time that Pogba, Martial, Rashford and Bruno played together.and we scored 14 goals in 4 games. 1 point from 3rd with 3 games left in the season is quite a remarkable achievement for Ole considering the players he had available throughout this season and we still have the Europa League left.

I don't think anyone is denying Lampard any credit. I'm on RedCafe as well, and he's pretty highly rated by quite a few. His ability to organise a defence is under question, but he doesn't have his players yet. Ole is doing a very good job at United considering that we have far lesser squad depth than Chelsea and have had Pogba, Martial and Rashford miss huge parts of the season. There is a sense of unity about the team, and we try to play attractive attacking football. It remains to be seen if he can win silverware with us, but he's definitely the correct man for our transition into a side that looks and plays like Manchester United are supposed to. His decision to let go of Lukaku and Sanchez and trust Martial up front and give chances to Greenwood are both masterstrokes. After the damage Jose had done to Shaw's confidence, he's got him playing well again, too. And he always gets decent results in the big games.

Well, that was disappointing. Feels like every single time we have had a chance to break into the top four, the team collectively sh*ts the bed. The mentality to thrive under pressure is still missing at United. The starting XI is absolutely knackered for us, and it is starting to show. We can't do much about it because despite all the money we've spent, we have no squad depth at all. That's the reason Pogba missing for 6 months derails our season, or Martial being out for two months dries up our goals or Rashford being out of form makes us look toothless. Today it was both Pogba and Bruno being too tired to deal with their high press in particular. De Gea in particular should have come out to clear that corner, but good keeping is apparently a rare thing these days. Top teams have this characteristic of picking up points when they're having a bad game - I don't United are there yet. All that said, Greenwood was lucky to get away unscathed from that loathsome Romeu tackle - I understand that oppo fans think it was karma for Bruno's penalty last game but think of him doing that to Pulisic and breaking an ankle. I have no idea how he was not even given a yellow, forget a red. They saw us tired and left in late tackles all game. Anyways, the race for CL keeps getting more interesting. I wonder if this spurs on Chelsea to actually get a result against Liverpool. My hopes are tied to another Leicester capitulation next week, however.