Welcome back to the blog… I guess
If you’re too cool to click over to the about page, these blogs are going to be synopsis of the games through the structure of the iconic 4-4-2. Each matchday, I’ll give my thoughts on the game via 4 takeaways, 4 players worth talking about, and 2 things worth saying that no one else might be. I’ll wrap it up with some forward looking things. The fun of writing this blog is to let out the fan, don’t worry about being absolutely right, and be unabashedly biased.
Quick Summary for Context:
Manchester United returned home in the league on Sunday to take on Tottenham, and fell 3-0 to Spurs. A third minute goal by Johnson took an early lead off an absurd run from van de Ven. The game came completely apart when Bruno Fernandes was awarded a red card for a challenge on James Maddison in the 42nd minute. An early goal from Kulusevski in the second half took the Spurs lead to two, and then a nail in the coffin goal from Solanke in the 77th closed out the lackluster day with 10 men on the pitch. United fall to 12th in the table with 7 points in 6 matches.
4 Takeaways:
- The effort is simply appalling from a team that in general can’t get away with lapses. I’ve been watching the premier league for a long time and every team has let downs, has set backs, has terrible moments. This team, so far this season, has had this type of snowball effect where one lapse is a kill shot. It’s truly remarkable how we come off two lackluster draws, get promised 100% effort from the staff and players, and then let what happened in the third minute go on. I’m going to break the Johnson goal down right here based on effort, it was the quintessential opportunity for the players to show (or not show) that they actually give a damn. Starting with the front line, no big qualms with Rashford/Garnacho on the play and I actually think the energy was there to get into the mixer with it and Rashford’s touch wasn’t great but tried the big touch to spring free a run made sense and it didn’t work out. Midfield level, van de Ven carried the ball 25 yards before anyone entered the proximity. Yes the midfield was stretched on the play by being closer to the back line than to the front after the turnover, fine. Going frame to frame, Bruno arrives at full pace to keep van de Ven flowing towards the defense and numbers. Ugarte is positioned centrally to pickup the supporting run, still not a ton of issue with the effort and positionally it kept getting the runner further away from his attacking support and away from goal. Now to the back line, this is where the inexcusable happens. De Ligt is fine, perfectly positioned to ensure the run doesn’t come inside, he’s outmatched for pace (as the announcers pointed out van de Ven’s impressive speed about 49234 times) but doesn’t panic and actually gets him where he wants him running straight towards the touchline and slightly away from goal or a shooting option. My only complaint on De Ligt is he could’ve assessed that the only option was a ball across and made himself bigger by going to ground earlier but again not a lack of effort. He did get beat for speed unlike anything seen in the premier league before. Now to the biggest embarrassment of the season so far, and that is Diogo Dalot’s nonchalant jogging on the play. Starting all the way back to the halfway line, Johnson is only a few feet in front of Dalot after van de Ven begins the run and actually crosses the half way line before van de Ven does with the ball. Dalot previously had wandered into the attack (even though there really wasn’t one) and positionally was ahead of Bruno? From there though, the complete lack of “oh shit, there’s two Tottenham players in front of me I should track back” was what I can only imagine is what someone with zero survival instinct would react like if a bear were to come charging at them during a hike. Johnson is running hard to get to the back post, but stride for stride its not as if Dalot can’t match him. The most horrifying thing to watch was Dalot actually got further away from Johnson because he slowed down the closer Van de Ven got to the by line! Dalot legitimately watched Johnson stroll in for a finish that even someone with the lack of quality like Johnson could score. The goal doesn’t happen if Dalot just runs, in a straight line with purpose to get goal side the way any professional should. Then the icing on the cake, the hand up my bad move as his goalkeeper is picking the ball out of the net… Roy Keane would’ve punched him either there on the pitch or halftime. More on Dalot to come. After that, the effort wasn’t dreadful, still bad though, given the way things did go. The first 30 minutes were generally lifeless and it’s an empty feeling as a fan to know that the team was just going to roll over and die after the early goal. I don’t want them to give up, but they did after the second goal and it’s a real shame that I expect that response of listlessness instead of a prideful one.
- So Chris Kavanagh is a huge idiot with that red card decision. It’s really a shame that even with VAR we aren’t able to get that fixed in game to not totally allow it to ruin a pivotal match. It’s fairly obvious that seeing a red was extremely harsh for Bruno, given that he hadn’t been involved in anything prior that would deem that retaliatory, it’s miles away from our own goal in their half, and the contact was minimal despite being on the shin. The worst part of the decision is that when he gives the red card there’s basically no precedent of VAR walking those back to yellows except when egregious miscalls. The call on the field left no ability for the red to be undone. I’m of the belief that if it was yellow out of the pocket first, in no world gets upgraded to a red like the tackle we saw on Garnacho by Dawson at Southampton. In a VAR world where we have play go on for 30 seconds before an offside flag goes up, why isn’t the standard yellow first then upgrade to red for in game tackles? I’m bewildered. I don’t know if we draw or even win the game without the red card, but it certainly sealed the loss and it’s a tragedy to have that taken away from us because of inconsistent legislation of the rules despite an in-game review system.
- I’m going to call this takeaway leadership? Where is it? Who is in charge of the club and performances? The obvious answer is Ten Hag and the coaching staff. We don’t have an attitude, we don’t have a discernible tactic, we barely have an aura of expecting to win at home. Imagine working your entire life to reach the heights of playing for Manchester United, to coach at the most famous club in the world, to play where giants and legends became such and you go out and can’t even lace up your boots with intent. If it were me, and I know I speak for all the fans because we have the pride and expectation, I would go out onto that pitch with a swagger that I got to the pinnacle of international football by putting on the Manchester United shirt at Old Trafford, and therefore it’s my job to remind every person why I got there each time out. The team has zero, and probably less than zero, of an attitude that exudes any confidence. We aren’t out of our depths, we are the depths and we should consistently take bumass sides like Tottenham to the deep water and drown them on days like today. Someone fix it. It starts with Ten Hag making tough decisions about players and how they’re going to contribute the rest of the season.
- The final takeaway is back to luck, but swagger aside we are getting unlucky in a lot of ways and it stems from the entire year. I keep going back to that Zirkzee offsides in the opponents goal. It’s like from there we’ve been allergic to scoring. The last 3 games have just been missed chance after fluffed chance after heroic save by the opposition. It’s getting exhausting writing about the other teams narrowly escaping our grasps because the ball won’t just go in the goal. Today it was Zirkzee unable to guide home a chance and forcing a miraculous save, or Garnacho hammering the outside of the post. Either of which would have pulled us level in the game. Then you watch De Ligt force a bad cross from the donkey Johnson that of course flicks up directly into the path Kulusevski who scores. It’s comedy at the highest levels that amount of luck going the other way. I can’t help but put the woe-is-me on for us but we refuse to score and while I’m not superstitious I may be going to see a witch doctor soon to undo this curse.
4 Players Worth Talking About
- Diogo Dalot – If he even gets a shirt for the next two games I’ll be fuming. It is truly one of the most embarrassing performances I’ve seen from a player of his caliber in a long time. Casemiro does come to mind, but at least he seems to care and have some pride in effort despite it not being up to standard. I don’t care if Dalot plays another game for us to be honest, I’m ready to give that spot to Amass and put Dalot on loan in January. Sit him, eat the wages, never again comes out the tunnel. He’s as lazy a prima donna as we have on the squad and we keep stating things about what needs to change, and my suggestion is a new left back.
- Mason Mount – Just going to pour one out for him on the side of he doesn’t deserve what’s come to his career so far in Manchester. He seems like he would have the right attitude to help this squad pick it up because I do think he takes the seven shirt seriously. Seeing him come off the pitch bloodied is just another notch in the “can’t get out of his own way” belt. Reports are it won’t keep him out, which is great news but I did feel for the guy as he came off once again in circumstances out of his control.
- Alejandro Garnacho – The one field player today that I thought didn’t crap down his leg and was generally good. He didn’t score and I thought was a bit unfortunate on the athletic strike in the first half that was hit as hard as you’ll see off the post. It’s clear he doesn’t have an attitude problem, but I do think his pairing with Zirkzee isn’t a good one. We need basically two different styles up front depending on what the game calls for. The first is a Garnacho/Hojlund counter attacking and/or more direct style front, and the second being a Zirkzee/Amad finesse type when we are operating in possession. I still back Garnacho and this performance is the glimmer of tiniest ray of light coming through the out filed players.
- Andre Onana – The game is 7-0 without Onana today. He’s been excellent as of late and he’s someone I am going to look towards in the coming matches to begin a cycle of change. If he’s really Ten Hag’s guy then it’s time for him to push his current mentality to the other players on the field. He’s been confident and good, almost got an assist today, and his shot stopping and second shot stopping have been nothing short of elite. We can lean on that and we should lean on the back line as the team isn’t getting gashed when we are properly organized like we were last year. I do think we can start converting goals and taking control of games, but in the mean time Onana has been awesome with today being no exception despite the scoreline.
2 Things No One Else Might be Saying
- We have to WIN 20 out of the remaining 32 games for Ten Hag to be manager next season. That’s 62.5% for those of you bad at math. Must get to 70 points to have a chance at top 4.
- Bruno has 4 goal contributions against Porto on Thursday. Revenge Bruno is a good Bruno for us.