Man United v Leicester City 8.00pm 10/08/18

Looking forward to AP and Fred, no idea how rusty we are.

Here we go again more of the Mourinho 2 step shuffle and now we have Fred The Petulant to add to it. We were lucky not to end up with another MO DRAW. As long as the opposition work hard in defence and press forward we or MO has no answer. The rest of the Prem teams will see this and copy it. Waste of money for the paying fans at OT.

What about Sanches ? running around as usual with no real clue as to what to do next. Lukaku about as sharp as a Marble and his missed opportunity in front of goal was I am afraid typical, how wide is the goals and you hit it at the Keeper. Luke Shaw was very good and deserved his goal. If we carry on with Mo Slow Mo we will be lucky to end up in the top 4.

Same old, same old. I thought the first 5 minutes (I know :lol: ) we were spectacular, then once we scored the goal we reverted back to being shite. Summer break hasn't changed anything about our style which is hardly surprising as we only really signed Fred and given mous negativity expect to see a lot more of the same.
The players themselves there were a lot of pluses and of course negatives. The less said about Sanchez the better although as Ed said he did have a good pre season. Maybe putting too much pressure on himself to make his mark. I've supported Mata through thick and thin but I think his time in a United shirt is coming to an end. Having a good game every 4 or 5 games just doesn't cut it although he did improve when he was brought of the flank. Rashford seems to be going backwards at a rapid rate of knots which has been carried over from last season. Needs a spell on the left to see if his confidence improves. Darmian is just a liability.
On the plus side. Our defensive partnership looked pretty good although it's probably a matter of time before Bailly is out for a while. Made up for Shaw. Can't understand why people are crying out for a new LB. If he carries on this form he'll be like a new signing. Thought Fred did very well until he tired. Looks a positive player and was always looking the the ball/space which is something our CM has been lacking. Thought that Andreas did very well. A player with vision and confidence which is something else we've been lacking. Pogba looked every bit a world cup winner with a class display. Ruled the CM with an arrogance we haven't seen for a while, positional play was excellent and more importantly kept things simple.
All in all more pluses than negatives but if Mou doesn't change his style then it's going to be a long hard slog, especially knowing that we have the players to take it to the opposition.

Edwood my good friend, De Gea just got back and he was Razor Sharp. Lukaku is a well paid, high priced striker and should be Sharp even in the warm up.

I think the game was better than expected, especially the first 15 minutes and just before the break was decent football. The first 15 even very good, so that I was wondering if I was on the wrong channnel. In between and after the break, we were again too passive.

Overall, there were more positives than negatives. For a first season game after the World Cup this was ok verall

+ De Gea back in club form
+ Pereira ready
+ Fred's looks he's going to improve us and keeps Fellaini out of the first 11!
+ Bailly / Lindelöf works! (we knew long before Moaninho)
+ Shaw maybe back at last? Definitely improved ... solid at the back, better going forward. Didn't expect that but I am very happy!

- Darmian really awful (why did we loan TFM?)
- Moaninho still does not know what pressing is :-(
- Mata is not a RW and with Sanchez on the other side also getting in central areas we lack width in the game. That was to be expected after the transfer window, as this wasn't resolved.

That silly 2:1 shows we must stay in control and possesion after the lead, keep the ball in the opponents half and kill games off if possibel!

Onwards and Upwards! A full week training and Sunday kick-off should help us. Then Brighton is a must win! If we always play like in the first 15 minutes, where we have proven that we can play attaking football, everything is fine. Maybe we can show that more often this season.