Dont get the hate on Jose and United for Monday night, he set up not to lose in a tough away game and we didn't lose,
Setting up to not lose means you think your team isn't good enough to win. How can you have a team that you've spent how many millions on go up against L'pool (another expensive team sure) and feel like a good result would be not losing? Should be playing to
win in every game. Not Losing is what teams in a relegation battle are aiming for, not teams who want to finish in the top 4 minimum and hopefully challenge for the title.
if Zlatan put that header away then it would have been the perfect away performance
So, first of all, "if" is the important part here. He didn't and we left with a point. Not a bad result maybe, but not a win, and not a good show for the fans. I fell asleep twice during that game and it kicked off at high noon for me.
The thing is, winning matter, but so does putting on a show. If I wanted to go watch a team sit back and defend for 90 minutes I'd go rewatch Chelsea vs Barcelona from the UCL semi finals a few years back. Remember that? What great games.
I said after those matches that I'd rather watch a team play attacking football and lose than see that every week, and I stand behind those words. You know who I'm having a lot of fun watching lately? Bournemouth. They go out in nigh-on every game to play attacking football and express themselves, and it's great. Reminds me of Blackpool back in the day with Holloway in charge, who were another great team to watch, or Wigan under Martinez. Sure, all those teams are not competing at the level of United or Chelsea, but why should that matter? If you're not good enough you're not good enough. Making up for it by ruining the show for your fans and
still not getting results is just bad play.
If van Gaal had done that it would have been boring, negative tactics and 'not the United way'...
It is boring, negative, and totally against the way United should play.
You know why I became a fan on United back in the day? I can tell you, it wasn't cause they were winning everything (although that probably helped), it was because of their relentless attacking play, especially when they were chasing a game. I remember watching United under SAF play like absolute madmen if they were chasing a game. Where's that gone?
worst performance in a while, thought we would turn a corner with Jose but its just the same as the last three years, which is a big worry
Well, when we're using many of the same players in the same positions in the same formation with the same "First, Do Not Lose" mentality, I don't know what you expect. United were always going to be set up to Not Lose here, and shipping that one in the 2' blew that apart.
That's the other problem with the "Not Lose" tactics- they inform on team selection (we had ...who? to try and be creative in the attack today?) and if you give one up you're much less capable of equalizing with a heavily defensive selection. Our whole midfield today was picked to Not Lose; Lingaard and Rashford for their work rate/energy on the wings, 3 CDM/CMs... only way to be more negative would've been to swap Valencia for Darmian.
As soon as we gave up that goal you could tell that the whole game plan was coming apart. No one looked like wanting to get forward, no one had any ideas with the ball; when you have a bunch of players who are primarily defensive or holding players trying to attack things are going to look pretty uninspired and flat. Who was supposed to provide the spark today?
today there was no fight, no pace and no flair, it was embarrassing
But when we did the same against L'Pool it was nearly the
Only real difference: Today we gave up goals. In possession we played almost exactly the same.
Now, that's a big difference sure, but the ethos is still the same. This is what can happen when going out to Not Lose goes wrong. That's why I and many others hate that kind of set up. I've seen it happen to other teams when they go out that way too; you give up a bad one and the confidence is gone, especially when you just can't get anything going yourselves, then you ship another one, in this case on a poor set piece, and that's it. As soon as the second one went in United might as well have just conceded the game, I could tell on the spot that we were never going to get back into it.
and if it doesn't improve then i think Jose will be gone by Christmas.
Doubt it. To the point that I would put money on it.
Who would you even want to try and get to replace him? As a realistic choice by the way. I sincerely doubt someone like Simione would abandon Athletico mid-season to go to a worse team.
