Celery1989

I would love AFC Wimbledon away as it's the nearest ground geographically to me.

Now that we are 7 and 11 points ahead of Tottenham and United respectively, our chances of making the top 4 look very good. Not being in Europe as well should help us significantly. Surprisingly, we are in a great position right now to achieve our first objective, something which I wasn't too confident about getting at the start of the season. Anything beyond that is a bonus, and if we can keep our First XI fit and firing, then who knows what else we could do!

I will be very disappointed if we don't beat Tottenham on Saturday. They look poor generally and have key injuries/suspensions, especially in defence.

I remember watching the game vs Wigan and even though we were 2-0 up and they had 10 men I was still sh*t scared that we might contrive to mess it up. Munich was pure torture tbh for 130 odd minutes, my heart was pounding all game long, but then the euphoria that followed was something else! RE: Wilkins - probably bullsh*t but I heard a rumour at the time that he had said something to RA at a club 'do' which the latter took exception to and it began from there.

Has improved since we shifted the formation and I don't think he was as bad before as some have made out. But I think we can find a better alternative, either from Chalobah or RCL, or from the transfer market. I think we might go in for Nainggolan again, and he could form a very good pairing alongside Kanté. I think Fabregas' time might be up here though because he simply cannot cope in a two man midfield.

What about Mkhitaryan? Borussia Dortmund's best player for a while and he can't even get into a squad now that he's fully fit, and it's not as if United are oozing creativity in midfield at the moment.

I have to be honest in that I wasn't happy at all with him coming back. Over the last few years I'd only seen him get worse defensively with a catalogue of high profile errors in the CL, World Cup etc. And after the defeats to Liverpool and especially Arsenal my view hadn't changed. However, he has been nothing short of faultless since we switched to the 3-4-3, a system which fits him perfectly it seems. If he can continue in this way then I'll be more than happy to admit that I was wrong! But it's still early days of course.

We've made so many mistakes in the transfer market over the last few years and Alderweireld is a great example. A terrific natural defender and with a great eye for a pass, we could have had him for £10m odd. Instead we ignored him and fruitlessly chased John Stones who would have cost us £50m, a ridiculous price when you consider that Alderweireld is better in all facets. Easy to say in hindsight that we went for the wrong player but at that time there was very little difference between the two except for Stones being English.

Great post. Pure speculation of course on my part but I've also started to wonder whether José's manaerial skills might be beginning to deteriorate somewhat. I think much of it stems from the development of his character - he seems to be getting more and more paranoid, megalomaniacal and abrasive with each passing month and it's certainly not to his benefit. It's no wonder that there was open mutiny within the Real Madrid dressing room, 'palpable discord' at Chelsea - Imagine working with someone like that on a day-to-day basis? José just can't seem to foster the same levels of loyalty that he could in his earlier years at Porto, Chelsea and Inter and it shows on the pitch. I also think that he's somewhat stuck tactically and needs to modernise in that way too. All in all, I'm struggling to see how he can succeed at United if he doesn't significantly alter his approach across the board. For what it's worth - I was overjoyed when he came back and was very happy of course that we won the League and the League Cup. But I think selling KDB was a huge mistake and at the time I thought it might prove to be a greater error than selling Mata. It seems like I was right, but on balanace I'm still glad José came back and delivered what he did. That said, I don't think I would want him back for a third stint.

Did they? United improved but that's not saying much given how poor they were to that point. Sure, they had more of the ball but they barely fashioned any real chances.

Anyone else shocked at how wrong Mourinho got it on Saturday? United as a team simply didn't look ready in the first half - players constantly out of position in defence, so many 'unforced errors' when in possession. Lingard and Mkhitaryan in particular were both abysmal. It was only after their fluke goal that United got any kind of foothold in the game. And in the second half I don't recall many clearcut chances at all, it was almost as if United's main source of creativity was Claudio Bravo... Managers get things wrong of course and, as we know very well, Mourinho is not infallible by any means. But I can't remember a JM team looking as incompetent across the board in a game of that magnitude.

Great post^. Yes, he was terrific in Munich, playing with a torn hamstring and scoring a huge penalty when we desperately needed it. He scored some terrific goals and did bring a lot of excitement. I thank him for his past contributions. However, the romance ends there for me. He is still the same defensive liability he always was and will mistakes time and time again. Several managers have tried to improve his defensive skills but to no avail. In fact, it almost seems as though he has regressed defensively since he left - he has made mistakes consistently in a poor league and also was atrocious in high profile games in the World Cup and in recent Champions League seasons. He still plays too much on emotion and hasn't developed the composure needed to play at the highest level. The Luiz experiment failed and we really don't need a maverick like him at the back. He's not the upgrade that we should be looking for at Centre-Half.

Surely we can now sing 'Mourinho's right, your fans are sh!te'?

This was my first game as a Season Ticket Holder in the Shed Upper and a great night on several counts. A big derby win such as this at the very beginning of the season will give the players and Conte too a great morale boost. Great to see Hazard getting back to his former self and to see Costa score the winner. Both looked hungrier than last year. The team is still a work in progress: we need to add more competition at the back as we have virtually no cover at the moment. West Ham were poor going forwards and we weren't really tested at all so it's tough to say how much better our defence might be at this point. I'm not sure that we have quite the personnel in central midfield for Conte's formations to work - From what I've seen, I doubt whether Oscar and Matic can get up and down the pitch quickly enough to support a lone striker. But both pressed well last night, particularly the former who made 5/6 great tackles. Nevertheless, the team looked much more cohesive than it ever did last year which for me was the main positive from last night. Conte has plenty to work with and, with a few signings I'd be quietly confident we can get back in the top 4.

Re: Mata - he was only playing because neither Lingard nor Mkhitaryan weren't fit enough to start. They've still got Depay as well who seems like a more prototypical Mourinho winger. He'll be back on the bench in no time. If I was to guess then Mata will probably be confined to playing in the EL and the domestic cups as the season progress.

To be honest I hope they do. I don't rate Lukaku - he's a good finisher yes but his touch is abysmal, his link-up play poor and he doesn't impose himself physically in the way that a striker of his build should. He's actually very similar to Costa in many ways, and I simply don't see how those two could play together. Perhaps Lukaku could develop but his given his attitude I can't see him improving too much. £70m odd is ludicrous for Lukaku - spend that money on a CB and LB/RB which we are desperately in need of.

I agree with every word.

I still love Jose for all he's done for us, he'll forever be a Legend at this club. I used to support him unconditionally, but in this last season or two it's become apparent to me that he can be a really nasty piece of work at times. You have to be incredibly biased/partisan to not acknowledge that he can be a total c*** when he wants.

If Koeman goes to Everton then that would be a great appointment for them. A very good, young manager who fits how they want to play with what I consider to be a talented and hitherto underperforming squad. That said if/when they sell Lukaku then that's a lot of goals that need to be found elsewhere.

Thought it was quite telling yesterday that most in the Shed and MH stayed to listen to JT but the vast majority of West Stand had already left.

The Times claim that JT has been summoned to a meeting with Abramovich and co. this week...

Rumours circulating on Twitter that some fans are planning a 26th minute walkout at the Leicester game, I presume with the intention of returning for the second half. What does everyone think of this?

So Leicester City were 5000/1 to win the League at the start of the season. Can anyone remember such a long shot winning in Football or in any other sport for that matter? Just for a bit of perspective, you could have got 500/1 on finding the Loch Ness Monster back in August.

This is me definitely clutching at some very perverse straws, but could it be argued that Arsenal's failure of season has been made all the worse in the context of ours, United's, City's and Liverpool's incompetence? Not to mention Spurs being above them and Leicester of all teams being favourites for the title.

Nice to see some perspective. I didn't want us to sell KDB because I'd followed him closely in Germany and thought this guy was a real talent. However, the move made the most sense at the time for everyone. We really ought to have included a buy-back clause/first refusal in the deal. We've done this with Thorgan Hazard apparently so why we didn't with KDB is a mystery.