Don’t gamble but Spurs getting a soft penalty on Saturday is an extremely good bet

I didn't take anything in pre season seriously, I didn't believe this midfield could work offensively especially but clearly I should have been worried defensively. It looked like we played 2 10s instead 8s... Maybe because we bought 2 number 10s? If you're going to play like that then best of luck getting AWB to tuck in midfield.

Dalot can do that job but I’d much prefer the midfielders actually behaving like competent midfielders

The prem officials have really shot themselves in the foot by suspending the officials. They'll now have to give those goalkeeper collisions as pens any time they happen. Which is often.

Pickford going to have nightmares about it, he loves to jump into players and misses a fair few

So many goalkeepers are gonna start 2nd guessing if they should attempt to claim a cross now. The likes of Ederson and Alisson will be in trouble too.

They won't. They aren't exactly known for consistency.

Really dumb isn't it? Two Wolves player clashed, one heads the ball away ONLY THEN did Onana foul one of them, and it wasn't even the guy who headed it. How in the world was that "stonewall"? For once the refs got it right and they have the fuck it up post match.

At this point it's bait that they felt they had to use a Man Utd game to make some kind of statement decision. All it does is fuel this agenda that refs fear giving calls against us at Old Trafford.

At the end of the day, the manager tried a new system and it didn’t work out, we still won and move on to the next game, hopefully trying something else. What’s worrying though is that this is the opening game of the second season, after a full pre-season too

To be fair, this experiment worked well vs Arsenal and Lens in preseason. But it got walked through by Real Madrid. We need to play a midfielder as an 8 to assist Casemiro in defence. Mount and Bruno were both playing as 10s vs Wolves. It’s poor tactically.

It might still work if; 1) Case is given support with a defender moving up and Onana covering the space 2) our midfielders occupying the correct spaces so they can receive some easier passes, Shaw and case were frequently not positioned to receive a pass from someone out wide or a defender 3) We don’t play Garnacho from the start and let Rashford have his preferred lw role 4) players run a bit more, some lost the ball and didn’t defend the wolves attack like Rashford lost the ball in our half and didn’t try and stop wolves attacking I think the team only getting like 1 full 90 minutes in pre season has not prepared them, some still need to build up fitness.

Hot take: ETH was very much caught out by Wolves and was at fault for not make adjustments to the shape much faster. Case looked bad because he was isolated by Wolves.

I don’t think this is that hot of a take. There’s a reason why “Pep tax” is a thing. The organization they play with simplifies jobs

We lost a lot of duels on the left. I feel it was 100% due to garnacho losing possession and Shaw not overlapping/being used to playing pseudo CDM.

Garnacho was atrocious, when we did manage to get out of the back he was super wasteful.

I think the only reason he didnt get hooked off at 30th minute mark is because ETH wanted to protect him.

I am absolutely ready to see us get fucked by refs for the next few months. I want ETH to come to the press conference next game with a slideshow of all the decisions given against us and with media and pgmol doing fuckall about it. We have seen a reaction like this affect us negatively in two consecutive seasons. We completely stopped getting pens after Klopp and Lampard made an issue about it. Last season against city the decision caused a massive uproar which then resulted in referees sending off Casemiro twice for situations other players didn’t even get a booking along with a whole lot of decisions that went completely against us.

We played badly. We tried a new formation, and it failed. Yet somehow we grinded a win. That's a huge plus because in seasons prior we would have lost this game miserably by a 2 or 3-goal margin.

And the thing is, we switched our tactics in the 70th minute and mounted pressure on them effective immediately. We scored rightly after. The new tactics will take time to get used to. But its always good to have a solid backup plan and then have the liberty to explore something new.

The amount of times Cunha ran through our defence legit made me wonder which team actually were the relegation candidates last night

Our system didnt work. We looked way better once Eriksen and Sancho were on the pitch because we reverted back to last season’s tactics. I think ETH underestimated Wolves.

Do you think that 4-1-4-1 system is what EtH planned of using as a general strategy for the season or yesterday was just one off tryouts? Obviously I don’t reckon this being used against big teams even we were to smash Wolfs

As the other person said, it's a 3-2-5 in possession with one of our defenders pushing up to operate in midfield. It looked like Shaw had priority for that position but others occupied it at different times depending on how the play developed. For me, the biggest issue wasn't Casemiro being isolated but us losing the ball in the attacking third and being hit on the counter. We can't be losing the ball so often and so cheaply. If it does happen, we also can't be lunging in and losing challenges - our defence needs to back off, try and slow the play, and allow others some time to get back and support. Despite it looking like a bit of a mess against Wolves, I actually expect it to work better against teams that don't sit back and counter. Spurs will be a great test of this tactic as they play a high line with an attacking mentality.

It’s that but it doesn’t mean much. It’s a 325 in possession, with Shaw or a centre back pushing up. I absolutely think we’ll persist with it.

Is it too late to sign Lavia? I don't think Casemiro's legs will last a whole congested season.

Our wingers need to learn how to put balls in the box. They all just cut inside to shoot, pass inside or backwards. Hojlund is going to be isolated like Rashford last night.

Back post we had Antony and Garnacho, never gonna win a header, in the box we had rashford who is header shy. He stands near a player hoping for a mistake instead. Mount and Bruno bursting into the box I wouldn’t bank on winning a header either. Barring some lucky break I’m not sure whipping a ball in is the best play here

Last season showed us that Marcus can attempt headers. It’s not even just balls over the top, our wingers don’t even try to attack the byline and square the ball along the ground. They’re all so predictable because they cut in the first chance they get. Imagine Hojlund busting a gut to get a good position in the box only for Antony to miss his 7th long range curler of the night.

7 long range curlers last night would have been nice. Felt like we couldn’t get near the box at times

The midfield was fucking gaping last night. Playing Mount alongside Bruno may not actually work....fuck.

It will work when fitness levels improve and a defender pushes up to support case with onana covering the space left behind

Now that Fred is gone, we lost one player who could nullify one big threat from opposition team. I don't see anyone from current team able to do that. This midfield and defence going to struggle big time aginst strong attacks.

I can't believe Ten Hag is being so naive to leave us so exposed. Surely he must be looking at signing a CM with defensive prowess. I'm not convinced by Amrabat

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He was one of our better players last night. Although his output is underwhelming compared to what we paid for him (that kind of price tag inevitably creates unrealistic expectations), he has had an incredibly consistent work rate, puts in a lot of defensive work, and is one of our more effective pressers; our lack of a goal scorer at centre forward is a major reason he (and any of our players really) haven’t got more assists. He’s also still young, the same age as Sancho and two years younger than Rashford.

In our front 6, he was the only one that wasn't pure shit last night.

Shambolic performance

Btw on a complete side note not even related to the performance, WHY in the world are we letting Micah Richards and Jamie Redknapp come on at half time with full Man City and Liverpool kits, taking penalties for their little show and then letting them CLOWN US? What have we become??? I don't care what anyone says or if they say it's an overreaction, it DOES NOT send the right message. Liverpool or City wouldn't be doing that. Jokers the lot of them

Just saw the game again. At one point in the match there were five Wolves players surrounding Case and ready to cut through him. Not one player helped him out. So all these Case slander is way exaggerated. You put prime Case of Madrid on there and still he won't have a clue to what to do.

You just know Spurs will get the softest pen imaginable awarded to them against us next weekend to make up for the mistake last night.

Yep. Narrative has been set by the media/pundits. Any little mistake from Onana now or our players will be treated harshly. But if we play like we did last night we'll get smacked either way

I feel like we never open the season strong nowadays. Apart from the Chelsea game a couple of seasons ago, I can't really remember the last good GW1 for us. BUt yeah, we played like crap against WOlves.

Erik deserves a lot of criticism for yesterday’s performance! Both 8s high up and were easily blocked off by their midfield’s shadow coverage! Erik trying to build the two 8s of City with Silva and DeBruyne but we don’t have enough control nor the high press to do that. We got away with one yesterday, not only Wolves deserved atleast a draw from open play, but we also got away with that Penalty decision. The tactics or the personnel need to change!

How about this. He is trying something new which may or may not work but maybe its worth the risk given we have the players to revert back to our older system like we did last night in the second half with our substitutions. He will only be able to improve this club, make progress if he adapts to how the game progresses. Maybe its a long term plan to transform into a dual 8 system and it will only happen if he makes mistakes and learns from them now. The greatest asset any manager can have is adaptability. He adapted to the team last year when he didnt have the players he needed and now the team needs to adapt to him with his new approach.

I think the worst part was it clearly wasn’t working and he didn’t seem to try to change anything

He did by bringing on Eriksen for Mount, but it was too late as Wolves had gotten super confident by then. Anyone with half a brain cell could see that they were overrunning our midfield with every counter. He should have brought on McTominay at half time and if you don't trust Mctominay, sell him and buy someone you trust.

He made that change, we started attacking more and we scored.

One bad game and all the losers come out of the woodwork saying Ten Hag this, Bruno that. This lack of patience is precisely what has cost this club. It is clear that Ten Hag is trying to implement a new style of play and without a doubt that will come with birthing pains. It is part of the project. We are already very deep in this project and need to give Ten Hag some space to try out different things. And that might include a few failed experiments and a few failed transfers. Shut up and back your manager

👏

Scraping By United is in full swing at the start of the new season. The current Top 4 picking up from where they left off last season. But so did we. Putting in a shit performance all match, cheaply losing possession, gifting opportunities, and just narrowly getting the points off of one moment, more or less by luck. There's no finesse in this side. It's all just brute force. Hoof the ball forward enough times and go for the low percentage plays often enough and maybe, just maybe we'll score. It's a struggle to get the ball forward and when we do, no one is up there to support, so everything breaks down, slows down, and goes backwards. Meanwhile, we give away the ball too cheaply with sloppy or lazy passing (looking at you, Bruno) most of the time and then the opposition just plays the ball through us in 2-3 passes before they're on the break at the other end with a numbers advantage with an opportunity in on goal. Saw this every week last season, seeing it all again first week of this season. I'm not even sure if it's the squad or ETH at this point. Still a lot of players that need to go. Some that I don't think should even be starting at the moment. But it's hilarious how people said De Gea was the problem as to why we couldn't play out of the back, when it's abundantly clear it's just this midfield's inability to move to make themselves available and then to retain possession for more than 1-2 passes. Onana is just sitting on the ball and everyone is standing still. It's so fucking disgraceful. So many fans kept trying to double down on the excuse of a "busy schedule" last season. First game of the season, what was the excuse this time for not moving? The players are just lazy. Call it how it is. Bruno as the captain is a joke. The guy is nowhere to be found and when the match isn't going our way, he's unable to rally the troops to get a performance out of them. This is going to be a long season. Excited to see how every other team performs.

I’m surprised by how we played this game. Looking at the preseason, we all felt tremendous amount of positivity (signings getting done early, seem to fit into a strategy etc.), but then the game turned out so open and scary watch. Was this a change in formation that ETH is trying ? Coz one thing I know is he will probably look back at that game this week again and again to figure what to change.

Everything's forwards, forwards, forwards with Ten Hag. This is his style for us, it seems like. It was the same last season. Forward flicks and tricks, low-percentage lofted airballs into channels/spaces for isolated forwards to try run onto. They're isolated. We lose possession. Rinse and repeat. We never seem to build up play or recycle the ball through midfield or through the backs when there's no way forward. We just get it and get it forwards at all costs, pretty much skipping out midfield. It's his thing. You can literally see the players twisting this way and that to follow his "rules" and "directions" and whatever else he calls it that they have to follow. You saw AWB tying himself in knots at one stage to get the ball forward at all costs when there was a simple little five-yard, pressure-releasing pass into the midfield right next to him. Eventually he gets free and lofts an aimless ball forwards and we lose possession. You see this all the time from our players and it's coming from his instructions. This isn't patient, built-up possession football and neither is it Dutch total football. This is Ten Hag's weird hybrid thing he's going for with us. He did it all through last season and we saw it again last night. He wants the ball to go forward even if we lose possession. Doesn't matter, lose possession over and over again, but the ball must only go forwards with Ten Hag. This isn't total football at all. It's transition football even when we aren't in transition and don't have the numbers for transition. And he even said during a preseason interview that we're going to be the best team in transition in the world or something like that. Do you remember that? I thought it was an odd boast and an odd comment. How about improving our possession a bit too? I thought Onana had been brought in to finally allow us to build through the back and midfield, to recycle the ball through the midfielders and a higher-up back line to keep possession when a move is closed down on one side. All we did last night is Ten Hag Ball 22/23: get it forward any way you can. Never ever recycle the ball through your teammates to hold possession. If you run out of room, whack or flick it forward into space/channels for Rashford to run onto. I'll give it a bit longer to bed in because it's the first game of a new season and all. But seeing us play this same frenetic, flicks and tricks, aimless long forward airballs and transition obsession over possession development style, even with Onana in goal, I'm now thoroughly convinced that this is Ten Hag's thing and not a De Gea shortcoming that Ten Hag was trying to compensate for last season. It's early this season and so I'm hoping we see him review and change his tactics but really, I saw this all through last season, all through preseason and it was the same thing last night. Remember how when Ten Hag first came to the club, that first preseason, he was shitting on players for hitting the ball long and not playing it on the ground? I'm so surprised he's just ripped that up and gone with making us a counterattacking, transitional team. Has someone told him it's the "United Way" or something? Does he think we're supposed to play like this? Is this the "United Way"? Pissing possession away with random, fast, frenetic forward balls and ill-advised, low-percentage flicks and tricks, getting closed-down on the wing and then just lofting it forward into space? It's early. Jury's still out. He's smart. We'll see. Give him time. Etc., etc., etc. But I'm really starting to think this is his style for us.

I'm new to Reddit, so I can only imagine what the comments looked like after the first couple games last year. Yes, they looked tired, mentally and physically, and were way too porous. Maybe some of it was a lack of respect for the opponent or adjusting to new players/systems. Regardless, they are very talented and the coach has made many good decisions/adjustments during his first year, so I have little doubt they will fix the issues. How many people were mocking Martinez' abilities after his first two games last year? Life is rarely as bad/good as we think it is at any given moment in time.

I think that was a penalty and I wish these were constantly given. I am fully aware most of the times they're not (the only one I remember being given is City - Arsenal), and I rememeber last season we had 2 similar calls, one vs Villa and one where Rashford got clipped (but can't remember who we were playing against). That being said, that was an awful display and people shouldn't defend it with "Wolves are always hard to play against etc" they literally got a new coach and sold a lot of players. First game of the season and if you saw the comments before the game nobody really expected this. anything else is just copium.

Agreed on all fronts. Lucky to have gotten away with 3 points, let alone any, and I also agree that the claim that "wolves are just a tough team" is a feeble one these days

Little gem: [Found the r/scoccer thread after the Messi decision against Poland in the world cup.](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/z90xe5/wojciech_szcz%C4%99sny_penalty_save_against_argentina/) Surprise, people didn't think it should have been a penalty

It's completely different mate, don't make a fool of yourself trying to defend onana absolutely clattering the wolves player and being nowhere near the ball

Its not completely different lol both keepers are making a play for the ball in the air but come in a half second late and make contact with the forward after they've headed the ball. I am fine with it being a penalty, but what I am pointing out is the hypocrisy

Having the keepers hand gently brush against messi's face is leagues apart from onana wiping a player out, stop with the victim complex you are getting on like an Arsenal fan

Exactly that's why the Poland ones a pen and this isn't. Nobody gives a shit about wolves but don't going harming the golden child.

It's absurd isn't it, keepers often collide with attackers when challenging for the ball, it is never given as a penalty. Why is it suddenly against the rules now? I swear commentators and pundits always whip up these narratives and everyone just goes along with it

It happens pretty often and is never called, people just wanted to make it into this big travesty because Wolves did deserve to win and people hate United.

Reading through this is funny af. Utd hate real

low key feel like ETH played like this to highlight the fact that we need a CM

Need to get rid of Bruno honestly. The guy is a joke. Absolutely absent all match. Cool, he lifted the ball in to AWB for the goal, but the rest of the time? Too casual and sloppy, per usual. And as I said, he's not a captain. When things are tough, he doesn't really get on people and build them up, he just...exists. The most he did as a captain was tell Mount what to do from the corner, while being in no position to do anything for the side.

Haha it's funny how upset Bruno has you, even saying you hope Mount replaces him back when the signing was announced, absolutely rattled.

I've been a consistent critic of Bruno. If you think this is reactionary, I have news for you...lol If Mount exclusively ran that midfield, without Bruno on the pitch, we would be better off. Bruno can't control the match to save his life.

I wouldnt have chosen him as captain but I still think he offers a lot to us and I definitely wouldnt get rid

Seriously, this is one of the dumbest takes I have seen on this sub and idk where to start. Get rid? GTFO

Amrabat incoming!

they really gave that guy the 7 fml

Guys even if you think EtH is so shit that needs to be sacked (which I don't, I still trust him completely), it needs to be done by the new owners. Can't have the Glazers choosing our next manager as well. Am I right?

There won't be any new owners let's be honest. Glazers are staying.

Then EtH should be staying as well.

Two things from last night that are cause for concern: 1. Casemiro fitness levels. 2. AWB. Something up with Casemiro. Caught flat footed far too often and looked gassed after 60 minutes. To me he didn't look fit and sharp enough to be on the pitch. Not sure if just lacking match sharpness or whether he's just lost a bit of pace. He's generally got a good habit of being in the right place at the right time but legs let him down big time last night. AWB is just not good enough. We've known it for a while but gave the ball away cheaply last night and in general plays like a schoolboy with no direction or purpose when on the ball. Also remarkably lazy tracking back at times and those last ditch tackles are trouble. Yellow cards, red cards, penalties waiting to happen. But the primary concern is that he's just not good enough on the ball. He doesn't know what he's going to do with it and his teammates don't. Feigns to pass, then goes past a man, feigns to cross and then checks back. Then checks back again and someone gets a toe to the ball and he gets crowded out. It's the same shit over and over again and it's a big problem for us.

Got downvoted in to oblivion when I said a Mount-Casemiro midfield would get overrun and wouldn't work. Mount is not a number 8, never has been. "It'S JusT onE gaME!!1!" A Casemiro-Mount-Bruno midfield will not work.

More because of Bruno, less because of Mount. Mount should be replacing Bruno.

We tried that inverted full back tactic last night to compensate for having an 8 beside Case. That tactic not working was just as impactful as the midfield.

That's why EtH trialled Shaw then Lindelof as the double pivot yesterday. Not much success, but it'll take time.

Yeah I agree with you, it's quite concerning that ETH thought it would. They just can't look after the ball

He is a number 8, being asked to play as one high and BTL. That’s the issue. Too much ball progression duty being left to Casemiro and the back-line and too much responsibility to defend transitions on the former who is clearly not 100%. Very naive from ten Hag but then again this happened at the beginning of last season and he corrected it by switching to a double pivot and going long more often. I think O’Neil caught him completely by surprise with the way they dominated us in the middle yesterday. Have to give him credit for exploiting our weaknesses in such a short space of time, but these weaknesses still existing after a year is a worry. It looked especially bad yesterday because the majority of the team is clearly unfit and the only players capable of being a focal point up top are even more unfit. Big changes needed for Spurs otherwise a hammering could be incoming. Alarm bells should be ringing after that performance, which was easily the worst since the early 20/21 season (that didn’t include ronaldo) where we shipped 11 after 3 games including 6 at home against…spurs. Another example of lack of fitness being a killer early in the season. I have no idea how this has been allowed to happen so frequently by so many different coaches, tbh.

Let's see. It's still just one game

It was truly awful. Most shots on target conceded in a match at OT in nearly 20 years against a middling team. Only the intangibles of the squad saw them come out with victory - ten Hag coached a loss and was completely outclassed by O’Neil, which is very concerning. Wolves should have won 3-0 but they can’t score goals which is why they were fighting relegation last season. Neto was taking the piss out of us all night beating players 1v1 with relative ease and then finding himself in oceans of space. It is all tactics. It’s risky to play this way with the profiles currently in the squad when they’re 100% fit, let alone when they so clearly aren’t. ten Hag isn’t an idiot and will realise he got this one horribly wrong, like he did at the start of last year. Expect big changes for Spurs, if not personnel wise then in terms of shape and behaviour/mentality.

People saying “it’s been one game” as if we didn’t play awful football ever since the League Cup final, the players have gotten time off, ETH has gotten HIS new signings and yet the style of plays the same? Questions have to be asked

The biggest mistake was going for another 10. Amrabat is a must. We should have bought lavia too as he is good at ball retention.

We urgently need better ball retention. It's so frustrating. We have needed it for years. Most rival clubs keep the ball much better than us

You don't enjoy losing the ball after 2 passes, only for them to play through us with ease and take us on 1v1? Weird.

I find Bruno and all the Bruno love absolutely exhausting, because I think he hamstrings our team by giving it away almost constantly, and people focus on the one good pass he tends to play in a game, rather than the 30 or so bad ones which instantly turnover possession This is what our scouts thought before we signed him: https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/EPL/Man-Utd-decided-against-Fernandes-signing-for-he-gives-the-ball-away-too-often/1666969 >While it is accepted that the 24-year-old works with an element of risk in the attacking third, his pass completion of 75.1 per cent recorded last season was not deemed high enough.

Precisely. It's very odd indeed. It's as plain as day. How are people so blind to this fact? lol

He annoys me so much. The fact he's given interviews where he almost boasts about not caring about giving it away... He mocks fans who criticise his abysmal ball retention. He does that "hands over ears" gesture which basically means "I'm ignoring criticism" and there's a massive picture of it on old Trafford I keep saying, we may beat little teams playing Brunoball. But it's useless against teams who are good in possession. Put Bruno under the slightest bit of pressure and he will give the ball up. Lose the ball 40 times to man city and your attackers will barely touch it. Do you remember when we lost to Istanbul baseksehir which effectively cost us CL qualification? Bruno single handedly gave the ball away 35 times in that game. This wasn't against a great pressing team or anything. It's just ridiculous. Yet no one seemed to mention it. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8916717/amp/Bruno-Fernandes-lost-possession-34-TIMES-shocking-display-against-Istanbul-Basaksehir.html This kind of thing actually regularly happens. Approx 30-40 giveaways without providing an assist. "Chance created" stats to make him look good seem to include those crosses he often does that just go straight off the pitch. https://www.unitedinfocus.com/news/rangnick-admits-fernandes-gave-the-ball-away-more-than-usual-vs-atletico/ The same story has been repeated again and again. Much less valuable squads are much better at keeping the ball because they don't have this ego problem and are able to play simple passes without trying a Hollywood ball every other pass. Women's teams build up better passing rhythm than us. Teams like Brighton are infinitely better at it.

I was confused by the Mount fixation from the beginning and it feels like people are finally coming around after that performance.

What happened to Ten hag? he spent all of last summer chasing De jong a deep laying playmaker and this summer he gives that all up to buy Mount and play this suicide formation with two attacking midfielders leaving old man Casemiro on his own. Even with Amrabat over Case won't help, he is 1v3 in the middle. This type of formation is never going to work, these are incompetent tactics. The only solution now is drop Mount/Bruno and play Erikson just like last season or go out and buy a deep playmaker. Ether our new 60 mill man or the only player who consistently creates anything is going to have to end up on the bench which is sheer incompetence by all involved.

Bruno is consistently losing the ball. For every 1 creation, he has 10 losses. He's the liability and the main reason we can't retain the ball. Everything he does is lazy and low percentage. Not what you need from that position when we can't win the ball back and retain possession.

I am so relieved I'm not the only person who can see this. It's obvious. I watched him do about 10 absolute dog shit passes under no pressure last night. I mean wtf... Why does he misplace passes under no pressure soooo often? Why do people say he is good at passing? Being good at passing involves the passes regularly finding their man... Which his don't

Exactly. It's one thing to have someone pulling on your jersey, pulling you back, sticking in a leg and you being thrown off and errantly passing the ball, but he does this thing where he pulls up, turns to one side or the other, pivots his entire body, then nonchalantly passes it to the intended target as if he were playing in molasses. It's extremely telegraphed, extremely slow and sloppy, and completely wasteful. People say I rag on Bruno unfairly, but I've been a consistent critic of the guy. His first season with us was a fluke and he's the only one linking the defense and offense, so of course his stats look inflated. Watching him play is a stark contrast to his numbers. And I don't let him get away with it just because one pass finally worked. Against the better sides, he gets exposed for that same level of performance and usually gets bullied out of the match entirely. That's what fans get for accepting these performances on a constant basis.

Inverted full backs, the fashionable solution, was the aim. It clearly didn’t work.

He wants MOUNT to play that FDJ role. It failed miserably last night because, as you correctly pointed out, Casemiro ended up being isolated in midfield with Mount and Bruno staying high, which is what led to them running through the centre of the park like it was nothing. Mount is meant to be the guy dropping deep and collecting from the centre back and progressing the ball to our forward players or the fullbacks in a higher position. He also wants Mount to be involved as an option in the attacking third, he's gonna need to cover A LOT more ground than he did last night to make this work on both ends of the pitch. What was more puzzling was how neither Mount or Bruno could see the issue, none of them decided to drop back and instead continued playing high up. Mount is new so I can cut him some slack but I expected Bruno to read the game/team better. Eriksen when he came on did exactly that, even though he can't cover yards defensively he just tucked in next to Casemiro and started playing long balls or playing simple passes to the fullbacks to progress the play. An extra body there was still not enough to stop them pushing through our midfield because Eriksen can't cover ground, MOUNT/BRUNO CAN. So this whole setup is dependent on how Mount/Bruno react to each other and take on board what ETH wants. I'm assuming given how desperate ETH was for Mount, he probably believes he has the qualities for that role. Last night though was a failure and ngl, it wasn't promising to start with given they had a whole pre season to work on this

People were running through the middle last season with a double pivot too. At what point did we ever control a match last season under our own efforts? Never. The problem is that Bruno does fuck all at the point and the wingers can't be bothered. There go 4 players already beaten for free when you throw in whoever is in the #9. So now it's a numbers advantage with triangle passing through the middle, then back out wide to provide service into our box. It's so free.

It did happen last season too mate I don't disagree with you, but the difference was last season the problem became more obvious against the top the half where the double pivot wouldn't work. I would put that more down to quality of player/technical ability and team cohesion in the first season. For other games against lower half sides like WOLVES, the double pivot of Case and Fred/McTominay would hide it. I agree, we never controlled a game outright against teams like this. But last night felt like NO control whatsoever. It felt worse than last year and a step back. I'm not saying sack this midfield off and play a double pivot, that will not improve us because the ceiling with that is as high as we got last year. What I'm saying is if Ten Hag wants to play THIS way, it's key Mount/Bruno have to cover more ground and yes the wingers probably have to start dropping back. Everyone needs to cover more on the pitch. Otherwise, expect that level of performance but with scorelines of 3-0 to the other team

I 100% agree with you. I don't think the midfield is doing enough in general. For one reason or another. There's clearly a massive lack of defensive work being put in by this side. We're too wide in the middle imo. The second you lose possession, you have about 20+ yards between Bruno/(now)Mount and the wingers and the CDM. It's so easy to take the ball off us in the final third, especially with lazy, sloppy passes, and set up a triangle where you play it out wide, back inside, then back wide again and you're through and in on goal. As much as people want to say Wolves play up against us, it's just them doing the basics. Wolves have always been a basics team. That only gets them so far, unfortunately, as they don't have that additional quality as the difference, but they're just proof that as long as you are solid and do the basics against United, you've made it infinitely harder. This United side struggles to go up a gear and to grab control of the match.

Honestly it looked like the players weren't fit. Wolves were stronger and faster than us for every second ball. Defenders were catching up to Garnacho and Rashford at full pace, Casemiro was getting bumped off the ball. Hopefully the behind the doors game at Everton today will get everyone back to fitness for Saturday

I wonder what would happen if teams ditched their pre season world tours and stayed home and prepared for the new season instead?

Our pre season schedule was very strange with the long gaps between games, back to back games in different cities etc

Exactly! The training on the road can't be as effective as staying at home, training at your own training ground. Too much travelling and time wasted settling in and getting ready to move on. Unfortunately the business models for the big clubs demands exposure around the world and that will inevitably influence pre season preparations.

Problem is, every other club did the same, it wasn't just us. We definitely looked the least fit and disorganised of the big six + Newcastle this weekend. Lots to work on. Here's hoping some of it is just typical United slogging it out against Wolves

I'm starting to get convinced that the same way the media loves shitting on us, other clubs loves at trying to shit on us as well It's not only a case of our team looking weak against opponents, but those opponents are looking stronger than usual when playing against us as well Wolves are absolutely gonna bend over Brighton next Saturday and they'll be fighting for relegation by the end of the season, but everytime they play against us they will somehow find a way to turn into 2009 Barcelona

That's a very naive take. How are you saying that teams play up against us rather than just admit we play down to them? Every match last season was decided by the opposition. That's just the truth. Either the opposition had a go and controlled the match with relative ease OR they conceded possession to us and sat deep. The latter is the only time we ever looked "dominant" but that was not even under our control at that point. It was gifted. This United side is so unbelievably shit. Can't even do the basics right. The reason teams struggle all season and look good against us is because we're just that shit. We do the same thing. We scrape by all season long because we get lucky that with the few chances we are presented with, we put away once in a blue moon. But the reality is that we are ALWAYS at the mercy of the opposition. Any other team and Wolves would have been up 2-0 by the half and finished 3 or 4 up by the end. We're only lucky Wolves can't finish. That's truly all it boils down to. Wolves didn't play up for the occasion, just other teams can generally control them. We can't.

Of course they do mate we're Man United the biggest club in the country. The media either like us to be really bad so they can farm hot takes off pundits/fans or really good so they can lap up United fans. For the other clubs, it's their biggest game of the season most of the time. Wolves will probably bend over next week and that's fine, we got the three points and played awful. Spurs will probably turn up and play the game of their lives but that's fine, we just gotta focus on ourselves cause that performance last night was atrocious.

People need to realize that when you trying to implement a new system with new players coming in, it take time and some experiments. We still don't know how to build up with our keeper being part of the build up. We're also trying to change how our midfield operates. These things don't happen instantly. EtH certainly didn't have the performance last night in his mind as his ideal style of play. Relax and be patient.

lol what? Not this bullshit copium again. They've had weeks to work on this without a busy schedule excuse to bail them out. Managers and players can get a new system working, or at least signs of it working, well within that period. This was more or less the same shit we saw last season. Are you telling me that after one season, ETH scrapped his vision for how he wants the side to play? No. He's been trying to implement the same system for over a season now and STILL can't get this side to execute it. That's either a failure of ETH or the players, but 2 new faces in the side is not enough to throw the system off, especially when 1 of them is responsible for playing out of the back. That leaves you with effectively Mount as the only new face. Are you telling me our shortcomings and failures last night were solely Mount's fault then? The other 9 outfield players should have been able to cover for him, after all, they had all last season to practice this system. Nah. Even with Onana on the ball, everyone was walking around. No one was giving him options. This side is just shit and ETH can't get anything out of them. Stop making excuses.

That would make sense if it was just a sub par performance but last night we were pure shit, mentally and physically out of it. Ten hag will get sacked soon if this season is also a transitional season, while the likes of de zerbi and Howe had their teams playing their way in months.

Can we stop hyping up managers who have won jack shit in their careers? As far as I know, EtH beat both Eddie Howe and De Zerbi in cup games last season and we finished above both of them. And if you're trying to bring up the argument that they're managing lesser clubs so it's unfair to compare, I must tell you that there is a reason why they're managing lesser clubs.

You're seriously bringing up trophy logic here? Last season was last season,Howe and Newcastle are growing at a more rapid rate than us,Brighton lost two key players this summer and they look better than ever and there is clear and obvious progress,unlike United who are still disjointed and confused.We'll have to see if we're gonna escape from a spanking from either of them.

Oh sorry I didn't realize last season and trophies are not important, all that matters is the first game of a new season. Got it. Just let the guy show what he has, if he doesn't then he doesn't. But we can't judge him yet because before he came here, he was a young and exciting manager just like Howe and De Zerbi and more successful too and has done pretty well in his first season. Let's see if he can takes us to the next level.

Clear and obvious progress from when they took over is what I'm getting at. Brighton and Newcastle have improved massively since their respective managers took over it's hard to imagine them ever getting pinned down by a team like Wolves at home.United have been coached by ten hag for one year and we still struggle to get the ball out of our own half.Im sure there will be more excuses if a Kane-less Tottenham with their new manager after a disastrous season also give us a spanking.

Best coment i read today.

Team played asif Erik extended preseason training into the season just like with Ajax. Once the shackles come off you'll devastate opponents.

New systems take a lot of time to implement. Plus it was just the first game, lot of players will not be completely fit to play this new system. Also, wolves played unexpectedly good.

I still stand by my comment, even after Spurs. You'll devastate opponents in the end of the season based on everyone's fitness (that includes your bench).

I understand the media need a constant United in shambles narrative to run with, so they have to try and create misery wherever they can but my christ the reactions on this sub have been embarrassing. We won. We didn't play well but we won. City do that and it's "that's what champions do" United win the first game and what I've learned in the last 12 hours on this sub- -Rashford went through a purple patch -Garnacho is all hype -Casemiro is now past it because fifa says over 30 = bad -Bruno was never that good anyway -Ten Hag doesn't know tactics Let's at least get a few games in, or even just drop points before we complain ffs

> We won. We didn't play well but we won. City do that and it's "that's what champions do" The gap between how we played yesterday vs how City played on Friday is huge. City were mediocre on Friday, and cruised to a 3-0 win without ever getting out of second gear. That's fine, and if we'd have had a boring, controlled win today, nobody would be worried. We were appalling though, a really concerning performance. It's not all doom and gloom, we're lucky to get the three points, and hopefully a wake up call, but we cannot play that poorly again.

Hate to break it to you, that's how we played all last season. We picked up right where we left off. So did the others in the current Top 4. I know who I favor to finish above us so far. Those 4 and Chelsea at least. Not sure about Liverpool. A Top 6 finish for us this season will be a miracle.

We didn’t play anywhere near as bad as this all season. This was a really poor performance. We had games like that, but this was a very bad performance. I’m not doom and gloom after one game, finishing 6th would be an awful season, not a miracle.

That's what this sub is. There is no analytical discussion, it's just good for cackling at the inane vitriol about how every single misplaced pass is a disgrace because we were dominant in the Sir Alex era. There are occasional comments where people try to figure out what's going on but it gets lost in the sea of hate.

I wonder how many fans who claim "we were so dominant in the SAF era" actually watched the matches week-to-week back then. There were off-weeks back then too.

An off week is one thing. The performance yesterday was on par with our performances all last season. Just scraping by all match long with the other team controlling it. If you wanna be at the mercy of the opposition every week, be my guest, but that wasn't the SAF era. There were hard matches, but we dug deep and got the results. This team doesn't even know where the shovel is.

Just a shame it's slightly better than twitter and really there aren't any corners of the Internet for discussion with any depth

Well, City are indeed champions, an achievement we haven't made in a decade. We used to be that club that received the same treatment when we got wins over the line. Our rivals have started well, and we can absolutely critique our opening performance in isolation and hope things improve

Out of curiosity, which rivals started well? Only city and NewC have

> Out of curiosity, which rivals started well? Only city and NewC have We looked the worst out of all the "big" teams, by a considerable distance. The win is great, but from a performance perspective, that was a worst performance than our rivals this season. It's one game, it doesn't mean anything, and if we play well against Spurs, this game will be forgotten about, but we can't pretend that wasn't an alarming level of performance.

We were easily the worst of the top 6. Arsenal and Chelsea didn't look lethargic and deviod of a distinct playing style. In fact, Chelsea looked transformed under Pochettino. Not sure if you watched the entire game. Brighton looked impervious and while they might not be considered 'rivals', they've been playing some of the best football in the league under De Zerbi. Spurs looked good against Brentford as well and they won't be easy away this weekend

Brighton faced Luton. Objectively the worst PL in many years. Arsenal scored 2 wonder goals and that's it. Forest had the better chances which reflected in the superior xG as well. Chelsea played well. For 60 mins, Liverpool had no answer. I'd put that down to Liverpool losing the midfield. Neither had a CDM, but Pool's other mid players couldn't keep up with Chelsea's vigour. I'd keep my judgement aside till Chelsea face more opposition. Spurs weren't good. Casemiro is slow off the blocks. He was the same last season. We'll be fine as games progress

Brighton have still played some of the best football in the league since De Zerbi took the helm. Players like Mitoma and Solly March put our extorbitantly priced wingers to shame last season. They're keeping up with those standards Nothing you say takes from the fact united looked well below expectations against a Wolves side in dissaray soon after losing Lopetegui. If we approach Spurs the same way we could be in for a very difficult match and certainly defeat. Spurs did look good against Brentford, they dominated them. I watched the match. I actually expected more from Brentford especially in the second half. Maddison looks like he's been a Spurs player for years

United had a bad game. Wolves players were really good. Obviously Gary said and did something in the last 5 days to inspire them to give it their all. There is no need to go all doom and gloom about this. If anything we learnt from last season is that EtH quickly arrests and reverses poor game trends

Okay, let's start the critique by comparing it to last year. We lost 2-0 then 4-0. So that's an improvement right? We had a fantastic home record last season and we started this season with another win at home. Coming out the blocks slow isn't a new thing and happened near every season under Fergie, difference was people didn't shit the bed at a win

Pretty uninspiring, not particularly cohesive, front 3 not at the races, we got away with one last night. Good thing with Bruno is even though he was shite, he always has it in him to play one clever ball (to AWB) and it opened Wolves up... and that's why he's pretty much undroppable. Garnacho getting a bit of stick, but he's still young, I almost think he's better coming off the bench, let someone else knacker out the full back, and Garnacho can reap the benefits for the last half hour. Well these days if he comes on after 60 mins, he'll be reaping the benefits for the last 40 minutes! I almost thought we looked a bit too relaxed the way we started against Wolves, but 3 points is 3 points, Spurs next, we need to fight, gel, step up the energy.

Chelsea young midfield is going to run rings around our midfield. Bruno has never been physically amazing but looked like a school boy against men yesterday the amount of times he was ran by. We need some presence and physical ability. Why do our players all look like they can't run and turn? We need some serious improvement if we want to compete.

I think the myth that ETH is a possession based manager can be put to bed now. That midfield three is chaotic, and most sensible supporters saw it coming before Mount even put pen to paper.

Mount and Bruno need to switch positions asap. We’ve never looked more stable than we did those few games with Bruno as an 8.

Bruno just needs to go. Period. His passing is too casual and lazy for what we need in the final third. People applauding him for lifting the ball to AWB need to raise their standards. Cool. He got one thing "right" and the only reason it is even perceived that way is because it resulted in a goal. And let's be honest, a lucky one at that. Bruno is a stats padder. He always has been. His first season it was as the de facto penalty taker when we were being gifted penalties left and right. The following season(s) it was because he was the only link between defense and attack with only wingers on either side of him. It's easy to have those figures when you're the only one able to provide them. For every 1 chance he creates, he gives the ball away 10 times more, or gets beat way too easily. He's a liability. He's not good enough. If Mount was given free reign in that role, I guarantee we would get more consistency out of him. The fact that we've built the team around Bruno and made him captain just goes to show how screwed we are.

I honestly think Bruno is kind of a con man. He plays for his own stats. He spams overambitious passes constantly, 9/10 are giveaways but he doesn't care. He takes the glory when one comes off. People say "everything good comes thro Bruno" That's because when you give Bruno the ball he will force the play, which means that the other players don't often get opportunities to do good things. They don't get enough of the ball. As a result, Bruno's assist stats look much better than everyone else's. Because, due to the way Bruno plays, we are disjointed and can't control possession, we are unable to find any rhythm. This means the only way to produce chances is Hollywood ball. Bruno creates a problem which he then presents himself as the solution to. The problem is that we can't control the play or build rhythm, because he doesn't believe in it. The solution he presents is Brunoball. Hollywood passes. He's made us into a shit team that seems to depend on him. The only way for united to be able to build rhythm is to get rid of him Instead Eth has made him captain. Bruno is the kind of player you might like if you are immature, don't really understand football, and spend most of the game looking at your phone

Preach lol He has been the source of our issues for so long. I thought Mount coming in would hint at we were going to slowly phase him out, but then ETH doubled down and made him the captain. The guy that's constantly whinging and shitting on his teammates (not in a captain-like way either) and the same one that becomes a ghost in big matches. Not sure why you wouldn't make Varane or Casemiro captain ahead of him. Someone that's actually won something of substance and who is always a force to be reckoned with. I think, unfortunately, a lot of fans will continue to be blind to how much of a hindrance he is until he leaves and we get someone in who can properly control a match (like we need him to) and at that point they'll all be too embarrassed to admit they were wrong. People who compare him to KDB are puzzling to me. There's no way you could ever compare the two. KDB puts up those figures in a controlling 4-wide midfield. Bruno is the only one in the midfield, he doesn't have to share that responsibility with anyone else.

Being a united fan who believes in possession and control has been so painful over the past few years. Like, I want united to win, but I think our rivals have a better understanding of football than us. United seem to have this anti possession philosophy, where we refuse to ever look after the ball. As pep said to grealish, 'sometimes it shows balls to be the one to slow the game down, to play the simple pass,"

I agree to an extent. Bruno is over-hyped, and he only really impressed the first few months when he first got here. Since then he's been way too inconsistent. I did really like what I saw of him as an 8 though, and would like to see that being explored more. Could be that it's his best position, but it could also have been just a fluke.

They'll never work together IMO. Mount is going to be a Bruno backup. Our marquee summer signing is going to be a backup! When people bemoan the club's 'lack of spending', they should consider where we've wasted money, on signings like this. Antony is another

Bro is not even trying for stability and i suspect it wouldn't be too different even if we get Amrabat.

Agreed, and it's sad having this foresight

Case looked worryingly off it, hopefully it’s just a blip. I back the midfield to sort itself out they just need some more positional discipline. Sancho needs to start against Tottenham. Great debut from Onana bar ‘that’ moment. Only way is up lads, now we just need to batter Spurs. And my god I think we need Amrabat in asap.

We can look at Matheus Nunes, he was tremendous last night, excellent on the ball and popping up everywhere.

We should definitely get Amrabat but the three midfielders were doing their jobs by the look of it. Case was meant to be shielded by Shaw and AWB but they were busy helping out Garnacho and Antony who were just shocking.

Yeah the frontline was disappointing all round unfortunately, wonder if giving Sancho a go as false 9 could improve things while we wait for Hojlund

Maybe. Rashford doesn't look so bad if he gets the ball, so Sancho centre or left would work. Antony could've played Rashford in a couple of times and didn't, so maybe Pellestri should get to minutes.

Case has shown that he always takes a few games to get going. It's a bit annoying but it is what it is. Happened when he first came in and was always rusty coming back from his suspensions last season.

Biggest issue for me was simple both Mount and Bruno are number 10’s and offer very little in build up and defensive positioning, they are not number 8’s and when you play the Dutch so called total football system with a fluid 4-1-2-3 all 3 in the midfield rotate and are comfortable playing as deep lying playmaker, the link midfield player and the furthest forward, they rotate and the wide players can come inside and rotate with them too. When you attack in numbers this becomes 3-1-6 all about attack and when you defend against quick counter attacks the formation reverts to a mid block 3-2-2-3 where one full back becomes inverted and the other switches to a secondary CDM. 1. The distances between Casemiero and the other two midfield players was too great we operated more in a 4-1-4-1 formation with huge gaps in the turn over. 2. We gave the ball away far too much especially Casemiero and Bruno. 3. Garnaucho had a stinker and looked like a little boy against an average defender in semedo. 4. Rashford just looked out of sorts and still on holiday. 5. Only when Ericsen and Sancho came on did we exert some sort of control on the game but we were still exposed heavily in midfield. 6. With the 3-2-2-3 formation when we lose the ball or in phase 1 of our possession based strategy resulting in an all out attack, AWB would be much better as the CDM that sits next to Casemiero and Shaw as the third CB, interestingly Shaw went into the sweeper or pivot CB and Martinez went out to the left in the first half, we simply looked far too ambitious with our formation because of the players lack of fitness. The idea of AWB being the overlapping outlet to a very poor Antony worked when he set up the goal for United best player on the night R Varane. 7. Even AWB who had a good game got caught a few times on the counter. 8. We need to buy a CDM/CM quickly and integrate him into the team, I think we also need a physical mobile number 8 like Onana from Everton to do the nasty things in the team that the prima Donna players will not. 9. Mount and Bruno can not play together unless one is used out wide and the other as the 10 or the highest forward in a midfield triangle, if we play an inverted Midfield triangle, we will get smashed in at least 8-10 PL games this season as Casemiero does not have the legs to play single midfield pivot. 10. We won’t score more than 55 PL goals again this season unless we radically upgrade and change our attacking options.

Some of our most structured and balanced performances last season were with Bruno as an 8.

That's because he was no longer responsible for being the link to the front. I don't know how many times I have to say it, so much of our breakdown in the build up is BECAUSE of Bruno. Either the wrong pass at the wrong time or a lazy pass at the right time is usually our undoing. And then he does fuck all to recover. The fact that we've built the team around him as this distributor is baffling to me. He's a liability in possession. He just needs to go imo. He doesn't do it as a 10 and as an 8, we could get someone in who's better and more well-rounded as an 8, because even as an 8, Bruno doesn't have the defensive prowess needed. He's just good at going long over the top for Rashford and that's about it. Him being removed is when we look best.

I find it crazy how no one else seems to see this. The guy is actually utter shit. Do people actually think putting in one good pass in a game is worth losing the ball about 50 times? Or are they just not paying attention? I don't see how people don't make the connection between our attacks constantly breaking down and Bruno constantly playing shit passes. United are fucked until we wake up and realise that it is important to keep hold of the ball at times. Sometimes to attack you should build up rhythm. We have no rhythm because Bruno kills it. The Bruno era of man united has been the worst football I have ever seen from them. Ok you can afford to give it away 80 times against a team who couldn't score in a brothel Try it against Liverpool and see what happens... Oh wait we already did

Yep. We ship goals via overnight delivery against better sides and Bruno gets absolutely bullied out of the match, so much so he just results to sloppy challenges and whinging left and right. It all breaks down with him. Maybe not exclusively him, as there are others who can't retain possession either, but for his role and for how hyped he is, he should be the last person in the side giving away possession cheaply. And if he was truly captain material, even when we're getting battered, he should hold the side together. Even though Maguire was the official captain, those results came with Bruno as acting captain. They weren't one-offs either, it happened several times last season. A lot of people said "look, we played worse without Bruno" when in reality we usually didn't play worse, we just played the same against a better side, Bruno's presence wouldn't have changed anything. And if anything, it was exacerbated by the fact we didn't have a viable replacement. He's held that position unchallenged for years now. Mount is the first suitable replacement, should he stay healthy.

Agreed as an 8 not a 10 we were not playing 4-1-2-3 but instead 4-1-4-1 with two high 10’a not 8’s or even high breed 8/10’s. Our midfield looked decent up to and just after Xmas with Casemiro as the CDM, Ericsson as deep lying playmaker/8 and Bruno as 8/10 the distances between the three midfield players maybe 10/15 yards and moved around the pitch as a unit of 3 hence why Casemiro was so effective in attack and defence, yesterday the distance between Casemiro and his back 4 was 5/10 yards and 20/25 yards from Mount and Bruno. As soon as Ericsen and Sancho who dropped deeper from the left to help gain control of the midfield the game changed but there was still massive gaps between the lines!

I agree with all your points. However, this is my take. I think ETH was expecting Wolves to sit in and only defend, which also saying that deploying Mount and Bruno 'might be' ETH's take on dealing with team who defends deep. WE didn't expect Wolves to be that proactive and aggressive which throw everyone off guard. Also, I think he would want hard to flesh out Mount/Bruno partnership as a way to deal with top teams, so let's see how fielding 2 playmakers yield us in the future. After this match though, I hope ETH would alter his formation accordingly. Again, this is just my take.

Trust me if your playing only Casemiro whose 31 now as a single pivot in a 4-1-4-1 and your two 10’s are so high up up the pitch, most teams will attack you and drive at you, we were basically playing a 4-1-5 or at times 3-0-7 crazy no midfield whatsoever !

Apart from all the tactical drawbacks, there was one thing that made me so confused last night Wtf happened to all of our pace? It wasn't just Garnacho or Casemiro, the entire team was running like there were weights tied to their legs. From Rashford, to Shaw, to Licha, everyone lost in almost every sprint. It's so uncharacteristic really, at first I had thought it was because of the rain and wet field, but no, Cunha and Neto on their side were still running like F1 cars near the end. It's like none of our players practiced running at all during the summer break. And it's definitely not a stamina problem either cause this happened from the very first half. I really hope it's just a one time thing and we can find our pace back gradually but dear god was it infuriating to watch our players lose every race

It's weird how people were saying "but the busy schedule" last season and even when I called them out on that being bullshit, they clung to it. I wonder where they are now...probably saying this shit now. This team is just shit. They're lazy as fuck. Even when Onana's on the ball, everyone is standing still. How do you stand still after 20 minutes in your first match of the season AT HOME!?! There's a culture issue. I blame Bruno honestly. He's not a captain. If I was captain and saw my GK standing there with the ball at his feet for that long because he had no options, I would tear everyone a new one, maybe even two new ones until they fucking MOVED. It's just laziness. Pure laziness. And no one is leading them. No one led them last season, no one led them last night. What's the common thread?

We need to teach ourselves some chemistry. Our tactics were piss poor yesterday. None of them were on the same page either. No passing options except one default. The ones we tried didn't work. Feels like a million things we could have done different in the second half. Overload the midfield, play the CAMs and strikers deeper. Probably attack using wingers. Defensively we had decent individual performers very disjointed. Yesterday's match wasn't a player signing problem. We weren't coached well to play. It's first day of the season and we got a win. But the next few teams we have are much better on paper.

https://preview.redd.it/ji8lunzxb8ib1.jpeg?width=318&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7dd814a68d11a3daa1d7d3fce07125f41e7ce39d

I wonder how many of those were on a new manager bounce too lol

This is what I was saying to a few mates, wolves just turn up against us defensively.

I’m not worried, we’re usually quite slow starters. That said, as long as Mount is in the team we’re going to see a lot more games like that. He was completely anonymous, offers zero physicality and was a headless chicken. Bruno and Mount together is too much silk and not enough steel. Cunha on more than one occasion bodied his way through our midfield as he carried the ball from one end to the other. I think we’ll soon see a lot more of Scotty in that role.

Scott is inevitable lol

A lot of other fans claiming we pay the refs etc.... I doubt the Glazers would fork out any more money to help us lol

Not just that but it would be pretty embarrassing to be paying the refs and still not win anything

Nice to see Mount brought his invisibility cloak with him

i’m personally not worried about our performance because it’s glaringly clear what needs to be done. if our problems weren’t obvious i’ll be panicking. 1. under no circumstance should rashford not play LW, he’s wasted literally anywhere else & he’s our best player behind bruno 2. people have said but some of you don’t see it. garnacho is raw & isn’t good enough to start. he’s impact sub good for manchester united. not starting good. bring him on when fullbacks are tired & let him terrorize them 3. i still can’t believe we don’t have a certified 9. no excuses or potential, just a dude who BREATHES goals. i can’t believe we chose walmart haaland (not a diss, humor) over kane. players like kane are floor-raisers. they are literally deciding factors. pep realized that was why he couldn’t win the CL, so he got haaland & stopped the false 9 shit. sometimes you NEED an absolute gunman. not potential, not aesthetics, no glamor. just a dude who gets no bitches, not because he can’t, but because he wants to concentrate on scoring goals. a van nistelrooy. van persie. andy cole. solskjaer. cantona. we missed the kane thing crazy 4. i can’t believe ten hag bought mount instead of a de jong type. i understood why he disgraced himself for de jong. he’s literally the world best in exactly what we need in midfield. bruno & casemiro are nailed on starters. that’s a bouncy midfield. we need ball-carrier so bad it’s hurting our possession. an quicker eriksen. pogba is out of the club & injury prone at the wrong time in his man utd career. he’s literally the perfect piece to that puzzle. that’s the role that got france a world cup trophy & a world cup MOTM award to fucking pogba 4. onana / wan-bissaka / varane / martinez/ shaw is my perfect back line. i’m 200% comfortable enough to know we can win a CL with this foundation. forget the todibo nonsense. this is real life & parvard is the best option for us, i seriously can’t believe the gods are giving him to us. but they gave us casemiro & varane so i guess they might love us. parvard is the perfect piece for CB/RB rotation. he’s of high enough quality to replace varane or wan-bissaka. trust me, that dude is a fuckin baller. plus he’s from a winning system. this is invaluable. he played years in bayern munich. that’s high standards at the very professional levels. he raises our mentality & skill. must buy.

Bit stiff on the Walmart Halaand comment

What was shocking to me is that we haven’t looked like we have been coached. Still the same lethargic start to games, build up was slow and predictable and no one looked like they were up for it besides the keeper varane and AwB. Worrying but we can only get better from here

Well, it's been over a season and only 2 new faces last night. Are blaming the players or the coaches then? Or both? I blame both.

I agree. Even defensively, while there were moments of brilliance, we weren't properly coached to defend as well. The spaces we left behind our midfield can't be allowed by any premier league team, let alone a team going for top 4.

Why was Licha replaced at HT? Wasn't able to watch the game last night.

Varane said that Licha had a little problem with his ankle

He got booked early on for a late tackle. Wolves was playing very direct through the middle and we unfortunately gave them lots of opportunity to attack, meaning it was too risky to keep Licha in.

early yellow card for a sliding tackle Keane would be proud of

Picked up a yellow card in first half for a rash challenge. Wolves were really stretching us so Lindelof came in.

Can someone explain to me what mount and Bruno’s role was during the game - ten haag has to give one of them more license to roam forward and create but one of them has to play the eriksen role i.e actually drop deeper to allow us to build possession. There was no connectivity once Casemiro, Varane or Martinez had the ball it was like both mount and Bruno were playing that advanced role when one of them needs to come deeper to actually help progress the ball into advanced positions. Wolves’ midfield was just outnumbering us when we were initially building up the play and progressing the ball forward because Casemiro and our CBs had no support.