Match Thread Man Utd v Everton 4th April 2017

[BlueToff]

We do e subs to counter what they did, the first tbh worked, koeman sussed they where gonna go route one and got an extra cb on, and even after that we could have put the game away a couple of times on the counter, the last sub didn't work, dcl looked frozen by the occasion and we couldn't get out after it, but hey, that's football, save for an utter mistake by Williams followed by an utterly brain dead one to make up for the first, we win and we laud a dog's of war performance, such are the fine margins really.

Exactly. One minute less stoppage time and we win it.

I'm not blaming the ref. I'm not blaming Koeman, or Williams, or DCL. It's one of those.

The sub was wrong to bring DCL but it still didn't cost us. What cost us was a hopeful shot bouncing up to hit our off-balance cb in the arm. He didn't even move towards it, but it was handball and stopped a definite goal, as Robles wasn't getting there.

Leicester is huge now.

They're safe, and have Atletico up next week, so we have to make sure we play our own game and hopefully they have half an eye on that. We're more than good enough to beat anyone at home, but the crowd will have to be up for it and make sure our confidence isn't shot. There's no reason for it to be.

 

[Wat Tyler]

The referee today, as completely expected, was a fiasco. Gave them nearly twice as many fouls. Farcical performance.

 

[RomanReigns]

Exactly. One minute less stoppage time and we win it.

I'm not blaming the ref. I'm not blaming Koeman, or Williams, or DCL. It's one of those.

The sub was wrong to bring DCL but it still didn't cost us. What cost us was a hopeful shot bouncing up to hit our off-balance cb in the arm. He didn't even move towards it, but it was handball and stopped a definite goal, as Robles wasn't getting there.

Leicester is huge now.

They're safe, and have Atletico up next week, so we have to make sure we play our own game and hopefully they have half an eye on that. We're more than good enough to beat anyone at home, but the crowd will have to be up for it and make sure our confidence isn't shot. There's no reason for it to be.

we have an agenda against them as well after the fa cup defeat

 

[BlueToff]

To be fair I said the same listening to the radio !

Did Williams make a mistake or did he have no choice ? No idea whose going to play center back on Saturday ?!

Shaw's shot kind of skipped up off the turf and Williams was just getting back to his feet in front of Robles - who himself was off balance.

The shot would have gone into the bottom corner and Williams made a snap decision to go for it with his head as it was at about rib-cage height. He missed (or maybe just skimmed it) and the ball hit his arm.

 

[bluestevon]

Ratings, IMO:

Robles - 6 - Made some good saves but at the same time flapped a lot and he's shown in these last two games why he can't be our no.1 next season. He's a good lad and he gets Everton, but simply not good enough to be no.1.

Holgate - 7 - He was superb. Stood up to everything.

Jagielka - 9 - Fantastic performance. A real captain's display. Gets a lot of stick - sometimes rightly so - but he's been very good since he came back into the side.

Williams - 8 - He was brilliant. Won't blame him for the penalty. It happens.

Baines - 8 - Brilliant defensively. Couldn't get forward much.

Barry - 8 - He was class. Ran the tempo and got on the ball. Kept calm and made some vital blocks.

Gueye - 8 - Everywhere.

Davies - 6 - Ran out of steam a bit. I'd consider resting him for the next game, though it doesn't look like we'll have many players...

Barkley - 6 - His decision-making let him down but a much better performance from him overall.

Kev - 7 - Looked lively and always likely to make something happen. Probably went off 5 minutes too soon.

Lukaku - 6 - Grafted more but his decision making - like Ross' - let him down, though he put a worldie cross in that could easily have been a goal.


Pennington - 6 - Stood up well though got done by Ibra for the disallowed goal. Won't be the first won't be the last. Interesting to see how he'll get on come Sunday.

Calvert-Lewin - 5- Lad had a bit of a stinker but it was the wrong sub. He still looks a talent and was always positive, though.

Top harsh mate, Davies absolutely took carrick out the game and was instrumental in us controlling the first half, both mirallas and Barkley tore them apart on the counter, if lukaku chooses the right option both have a couple of goals. As for Robles he made 2-3 top top saves tonight, including one a lot of keepers would have bottled out off.

 

[BlueToff]

Top harsh mate, Davies absolutely took carrick out the game and was instrumental in us controlling the first half, both mirallas and Barkley tore them apart on the counter, if lukaku chooses the right option both have a couple of goals. As for Robles he made 2-3 top top saves tonight, including one a lot of keepers would have bottled out off.

Fair enough. I missed the first half hour due to work in fairness (did see the goal).

Davies probably was worthy of a 7, and Barks.

But I'm not having Robles. I love the lad but he just seemed to make a hash of everything.

I know he made some good saves early on but in the second half he looked flappy. Anyway, it means little

 

[bluestevon]

Exactly. One minute less stoppage time and we win it.

I'm not blaming the ref. I'm not blaming Koeman, or Williams, or DCL. It's one of those.

The sub was wrong to bring DCL but it still didn't cost us. What cost us was a hopeful shot bouncing up to hit our off-balance cb in the arm. He didn't even move towards it, but it was handball and stopped a definite goal, as Robles wasn't getting there.

Leicester is huge now.

They're safe, and have Atletico up next week, so we have to make sure we play our own game and hopefully they have half an eye on that. We're more than good enough to beat anyone at home, but the crowd will have to be up for it and make sure our confidence isn't shot. There's no reason for it to be.

I would level some blame at Williams mate though, he dropped top deep, lost awareness of what was happening and then panicked. Great game until that point and if it was on the goaline etc, then would t have a word to say, but what he did was absolutely stupid

 

[EFCPaul]

Left out the bit about United being unbeaten in their last 19 games mate. Yeah gutting to not hold on, but not like we just lost at home to Sunderland either is it.

The way a lot of people are going on you'd think we'd just gone to the Nou Camp and got away with a precious away goal in the first leg of a Champions League tie. That United side is no better than us regardless of how long they've gone unbeaten (before the derby we were the most in form team in the league in 2017). To throw away a win like that is nothing to be proud of. Whole mentality has to change, why do people accept spirited failure?

 

[RomanReigns]

by the way where did 4 minutes come from? farce that. 0 goals, no injuries, in any other league the ref would only add 1 or 2 mins.

 

[bilyaletdinov_]

Fair enough. I missed the first half hour due to work in fairness (did see the goal).

Davies probably was worthy of a 7, and Barks.

But I'm not having Robles. I love the lad but he just seemed to make a hash of everything.

I know he made some good saves early on but in the second half he looked flappy. Anyway, it means little

Personally thought Joel had a brilliant game tonight, two or three top class saves! I can remember him flapping at one cross in particular though, and i feel as if his distribution could have been better

 

[thebluenosebolt]

i'd take the risk and throw more attacking players on, at times we had 2 v 2, if we put more players up top we could have 4 v 2's or 5 v 2's, yes that's risky because they could score, but the pay off is we could go on and grab a second, then we can defend for our lives once we get the second.

doing it at 1-0 is just suicidal and moyesesque.

Yeah we could of grabbed a second...or possibly conceded a second....third... then what ?? Suddenly take off the attacking subs for defending subs ?? How many we allowed again ?? I think you could be onto something here...
or on something. Not sure ?

 

[McBain]

What has PO'ed me more than that result is the reaction of so many to it. Over the top praise for the defenders who, when it comes down to it, couldn't see the job out. That's the fact of the matter. But what are people doing instead of being livid at the failure? Just a collective shrug of the shoulders and a "argh aren't we unlucky eh?"

That was not the United team that did the double in 2007. That was a team who have won one home game in the league in 2017, are one place above us in the league and are heavily reliant on their star striker because of their weak squad. A team literally a mirror image of us. Yet no one is angry we didn't kill them off when we had so many chances too. Not properly angry anyway, not the type of anger a true winning club displays when they don't win.

That's the reason we never win any big away games, because no one expects too deep down and no one is really arsed that we don't. It's infuriating. I want my club to win, I demand they win, I will not make crappy jokes and laugh to myself when they don't win.

Not even close.

 

[BlueToff]

I would level some blame at Williams mate though, he dropped top deep, lost awareness of what was happening and then panicked. Great game until that point and if it was on the goaline etc, then would t have a word to say, but what he did was absolutely stupid

He did drop deep but it was more to do with the fact that he'd had that tussle with Ibra I think.

He should have got out quicker though, yeh.

We've played worse than that and won, though.

 

[meagher94]

It's official - everything is Barkley's fault. World War 2, global warming, the lot.

Honestly reckon that's the first time I've criticised him all season lol

 

[Fansince1988]

Indeed we don't.

But he was as well positioned as Ash was to "save" it.

IMO Ash should have let it go and if it had gone in we would be no worse off.

In fact, we would be a lot better off as we are now without our main centre back on Saturday...possibly longer as I don't know what the punishment for that offence is.

That kind of action is fine when you are on the goal line and you can indeed be certain it is going in if you don't handle it.

Like Phil Neville in the derby one time and The Rat in the World Cup.

I think it was probably a case of Ash losing his head a bit and the panick set in. I don't really blame him massively as he did have a very good game and were under a lot of pressure at that point. Looking on the bright side it was in the main a good performance with out a fair few key players, we have misded Snides we really did need him for these last 2 games.