Midtjylland v Man United 18/2/16 6pm kick off

They hadn't played a competitive game in 71 days. Hard to tell or are we that bad? No need for an answer 

well can't say i'm surprised, we're shit and we know it

just sack him now and get Jose in, like the worst kept secret in football

Jose can come in, hopefully produce some sort of result, if he ruffles feathers who cares most of the players are shit anyway (don't say a lot of this lot). I mean can't do much about the youth, they're still young and are prone to mistakes so the only thing you can do with them is reprimand them for being shit and hope they learn from their mistakes. Its the older players making rookie mistakes that are the most annoying thing, or the ones who have no business being at the club in the first place but are here due to one manager or another buying them for who knows what reason.

Mata was shit, like how can you be shit against a random danish team

Carrick, same thing, we shouldn't resign him, his decline has been sharp and is barely a premier league player now. He's been a great servant but enough is enough, he can't produce the goods. Make it clear, either retire or leave the club (i mean he should get a coaching gig when he retires regardless, but has no business playing for us)

Defending was shocking but smalling was always slow on the turn at RB (why i hate him there), McNair hasn't played in ages and Love was better than against sunderland

technically we're still in this tie, we do have an away goal and coming to old trafford we should smash them, their might be a riot if we don't win and win by enough to get into the next round

It's clear van Gaal needs to go, fair enough on that point but really how are these players always hiding behind a manager's mistakes or failings. There is no killer mentality in this squad because everytime we are on top of the opposition we can't take our chances and then it comes back to bite us in the back. What the heck was Mata doing trying to flick the ball when that guy scored the second goal? van Gaal again takes too long with his planned substitutions, I mean why does he have to become so reactionary instead of being proactive and trying to kill the game.

It was clear that Herrera was struggling Mata as well couldn't impact the game but he has to wait until we are under pressure from a team that last played it's competitive match 71 days ago. This is appalling from the players and the management, in my opinion this was worse than Olympiacos. It's sad how bad we have become, just need to fast forward to the summer, very very disappointed that it couldn't work with van Gaal.

I was reading this other brilliant article by Daniel Harris a few days ago about how van Gaal hasn't been himself at United and has lost that fighting spirit and authority and it seems that way. He is now emotional at press conferences rather than owning them, I hope somehow the players can find motivation in winning the FA Cup and Europa League and play each game like its a final.

There is a serious fundamental disconnect between him and the team, he hasn't got a full grip on them and they don't fully buy into what he's been trying to do, basically it just hasn't worked. Shit happens.

We are short of the right quality players in the essential positions and we have repeated injury lists big enough to kill any club, never mind one that was squad light.

I'm not really arsed when they do it because I know it's coming

I do think we have to face facts that the players as a whole still aren't good enough. We've made a couple of decent signings but on the whole this squad is still seriously lacking.

Superb keeper. Inconsistent right backs. Smalling and Blind have been a decent pair for a lot of the season at centre half but when things started to go downhill so did the solidity at the back, we need a quality experienced central defender in there. No issues at left back.

We all thought the midfield had been improved massively and hailed it as the best in years but from what I've seen this season our midfield is far from the standard required to be challenging at the top. Carrick has been about the best of the lot this season when fit, which says it all, as among his few inspiring displays there's a lot of dross in there as well. Schweinsteiger has been hit and miss, mainly miss but may be better next season, having said that he's getting on and we didn't sign him because he may be good in a year. Schneiderlin has been seriously disappointing but hasn't been used as much as I thought he would or should be, I do think he's one that will grow next season. Herrera flatters to deceive a lot of the time. We all cry for him to be put into the side but when he does get a run of games how much has he really impacted our performances in a positive way this season? Fellaini, for all his flaws has probably been the most consistent out of the bunch, he's always mediocre.

Then you move into attack. Despite an upturn in form recently, Rooney has been shocking for most of the season but often looks like the only one trying. Memphis has been dross but is young and I'm not giving up on him yet but much more of the same next season and he'll be shown the door. Lingard has come through and has been a bright spark in a dreary season but still has a lot of improving to do. Mata is a class act but is often ineffective and slows down our play even further. Martial is by far the biggest positive of the season, he's an absolute beast and is only going to get better. He does go missing in some games but you can't blame him. He's been carrying the attack on his shoulders all season.

Now some of these players poor performances could be put down to not liking the manager's tactics or style etc. But there's absolutely no excuse for the apparent downing of tools that seems to have been a weekly occurrence for these players this season. As Ed and others have been saying for weeks this side is in serious need of characters and leaders. Players who can drag the side through a game in which they're not playing particularly well but still get a positive result.

But when you look at the squad it is still seriously short just in terms of quality, which is also down to LVG as this is his team. He's signed a lot of players that have simply not been good enough. We need a right back, top class central defender, a top notch, powerful, energetic box-to-box midfielder, a wide man, a more dynamic, quicker number 10 and a top class striker.

The basics are there, we've successfully got a decent squad together, a squad with potential, but we're still a world class spine missing. Which isn't going to come cheap, and we've put ourselves in worse position when trying to attract top talent. I noticed Pogba blowing smoke up Guardiola's arse earlier, not a chance he'd say those words about Mou.

None of this going to be cheap, from first team investment needed to a new modern youth set up, you'll really see how the Glazers stack up in the coming two years.