Home
Forum
Archives
Contact
- Advertise
Live
About
- Privacy
App
Shop

Home
Manchester United News

CONFIRMED LINE-UP: Crystal Palace vs United

December 14, 2016

Scott is the editor of RoM and has a season ticket at Old Trafford. He started The Republik of Mancunia in March 2006. Follow @R_o_M on Twitter or @R_o_M7 on Instagram.

Reserves Weekly – Youth Cup anguish, Chelsea defeat & Loanee ratings

LIVE BLOG: United vs Crystal Palace

66 Comments

« Older Comments

United24 December 15, 2016

Okay,
Pogba.

He undoubtedly has unique talent in his locker as a midfielder, as Ronaldo did as a forward/striker.

If he continues to develop similarly, and cuts out the over playing gradually, he will easily become the best CM in the world.

He has unique power, dribbling ability, dinking of the pass above , disguise of a pass on the ground, long range shooting etc, a combination of skill sets that is unusual in one central midfielder.

If he hones those skills, and they all come together, and he improves his decision making, he will consistently boss games and become unplayable.

He needs to stay grounded and focused.

Log in to Reply

ChiRed December 15, 2016

Agree on all counts! And he will recruit!!

FBr David Lee December 15, 2016

Pogba undoubtly talented. What separates him further from the rest of the players are his confidence/swagger. As long as he got his swagger, we will do well. Good game from him, brings confidence to himself and the team going forward.

ChiRed December 15, 2016

Pogba was Emence
Zlatan hits big at the end
Club still in four competitions rotation a must.
Game on Saturday
3 huge point !

Log in to Reply

Marq December 15, 2016

Very very important win, especially with everyone else winning.

More importantly, you can finally see some steel in our players, and not the meek attitudes under the previous 2 guys.

Rojo got away with it again. Thats the second game in a row he went in crazy. I doubt he will get away with it the next time, so someone needs to knock some sense into him before the red card happens

All the moaners crying for Rashford to play ahead of Zlatan, can keep crying

Its all about results this season, and its not like we have been trying to get results at the expense of good football. So hopefully we finally get a good run going

Log in to Reply

United24 December 15, 2016

We are still not there yet.

I'll like us to go into a game expecting to score multiple goals, more consistently.
At the moment, we are not managing that, and that's what seperate us from the teams above us.

I agree with CR and others
Our team will only play to its full potential once Martial hits form alongside Mikhi.

They are our only two forwards that combine top class skill with pace.

Mata has skill but lacks pace. He will be more influential in a 10, when we start or revert to a 2 man MF for specific games.

Rooney's legs are gone. He is clearly working with memory and adrenaline. The spirit is willing, but it's just not there anymore.

Rashford has pace, but lacks the ability to control a game from a wide area.

Lingard has pace, but again lacks the sort of controlled agression Mata brings to a game.

Log in to Reply

WeAreUnitedddd December 15, 2016

@united24

like Ive said for months and months, we need players to step up, only then we will score multiple goals, mkitharian rose to the occassion and so did martial 2 goals 1assist in 3 but somehow gets dropped or maybe injured, this is where I dont get Jose and I hope he is managing it the right way

ok mkitharian is again injured, but as soon as he comes back we get another goal threat, now it's only up to Mourinho to fix Martial and Martial to fix himself and get consistent and
voila my voice over the front 6 becomes a consistent reality and then watch us going.!

also it helps having mata and rooney and bastian waiting for the moment and bring their experience on the field, same for rashford and lingard!

PS. i thought rooney was almost amazing yesterday! kudos once again to him. impressed me. slowly getting back into my lane. we tend to win when he plays. still a way to go for him.

peace

Log in to Reply

United24 December 15, 2016

We are United.
Yes, we are mostly having to trade off one thing for another.
If you added Lingard pace to Matas skill, you can replace Mikhi, but we are not allowed to play 12 men.
Similarly, if Rashford got into the positions Rooney gets to, when he starts off at 11, we will be getting more goals from there.

That's why our game id so different when Mikhi is not playing or when Martial is off form. They are the ideal attacking MF and wing forward that , on form, can add appreciably to the goal tally from Zlatan.

We definitely need both back healthy and in form for a sustained push in the new year...

Log in to Reply

CR December 15, 2016

Questionable decision by JM to put an unfit Bailly at RB when we had Darmian. Also questionable to leave out Lingard, though he did well with his runs when he came on. Not sure why he took off Mata either but anyway we won and right now I'll take that in any shape or form. GREAT result. We deserved it too even though we could point at some flaws in the performance, especially not getting the second goal before their equaliser.

I don't even care that our style of play today reminded of the LVG years, with lots of possession and passing the ball around. I do hope that we eventually base our game a bit more around Martial and Mkhitaryan when they get back though.

@lecho,

"Where are you, Ibra doubters? The way he put this into the net was pure masterclass, and it was hard from being easy!"

I wouldn't call myself an Ibra doubter, more like an Ibra realist. In any case, I don't think anyone of us would bench him when he's scoring a goal in every game like he is now. What I am personally saying is that if he goes on another goal-less run, then after the 4th or 5th game I would take him off at some point and try someone else at 9. Would you have him continue for 90 minutes game after game even if he isn't scoring or playing particularly well and we drop points?

Anyway, this argument is mute because I could easily point at games this season where Ibra didn't score and we drew or lost. It's about managing players the right way. Today JM ultimately got it right, before he's got it wrong. The season is long. Ibra is our number one striker but *if* he hits another draught it would be good if we had a Plan B is all I'm saying.

Feeling increasingly confident about top four now. Not that it will be easy, but it's definitely doable at this point. We just need to continue improving individually and as a collective, simple as that.

Log in to Reply

CR December 15, 2016

WAU and United24,

Yes, at least we have Mkhitaryan now. I'm also very confident he'll continue his great performances when he gets back. We just need to get Martial to the level he had last season too...Then we'' be talking. So far, I've only seen one such game from him this season (West Ham in the League Cup, when he was flying). It's mostly the player himself that has to do it but I hope JM is helping in the right way.

Log in to Reply

WeAreUnitedddd December 15, 2016

@united24 and @cr

I echo your thoughts on martial and mkitharian

Log in to Reply

WeAreUnitedddd December 15, 2016

As for zlatan @cr

This is getting so boring that its. Not even funny but my last call on the past things because he is flying like hes done all season, but you guys just dont see it

You and many were not a realists, you made good point that if something dont work, try something different, i agree BUT try to understand Zlatan is THE man he will not be benched so its Jose who has to try when needed a different approach to accomodate zlatan for the 90min with lets say rashford together, did it against hull for exsmple and it worked

Why not realist? Because You cant point the games where we drew. Its outrageous.
Why? Because NO ONE ELSE stepped up, he has contributed over 40% of our all of goals
14+5 in 22of his starts, so even if you wanted to bring stats up,they dont add to you

Also the swedish stats and facts i put to prove everything about him, made the point

Yes an occassional "bad" game here and there but you dont drop your best player, simple
Also what if he never scored and contributed the way he has done?, how many wins and draws he would habe gotten? You see, its not how it works
that is reaching for it!

And yes there were stupid people when he went on a 5/5games run at the beginning and wanted him dropped, theres still people like that here and in other channels and forums etc

If your top scorer has a drought, otjers need to step up, look at city and arsenal when they had the similar problem
If mkitharian put that one chance against west ham 1-1 we win, pogba free header at 89min against stoke 2-1, the many chances of others against burnley, mata against arsenal lingard rashford 1on1 ETCETC

The BIG PICTURE IS
Other Players need to step up!!!

let this run continue!

Log in to Reply

WeAreUnitedddd December 15, 2016

BUT

if a player has a drought and he does does not contribute or get into any chances

THEN we habe a problem, but at that time that was not the case with zlatan, and this is why i defend him so much

You see now with rooney? Im his bighest critique but i see his general play be better and in overrall he contributes more than even and has chances to even score

So thats why he is winning me over even if he is sloppy at times, his general
Play and being at chances and vreating them is increasing so the chance for
Him to score or someone else rises

Simple mathematics

WeAreUnitedddd December 15, 2016

Also the dont play him for 90mins dont apply with him or pogba or mkitjarian to that matter because

At any given moment they can produce magic like the 2 of them did yrsterday and mkitjarian can do it at any day

You need to accomodate those players and the tactics

Anyway peace

Log in to Reply

CR December 15, 2016

WAU,

"try to understand Zlatan is THE man he will not be benched"

I have already explained this many times on here. You don't have to tell Ibra or the media or anyone else for that matter that he is being "benched". You point to things such as his age and you say the season is long, that he needs to be rested and managed properly to last longer etc, if you are asked about why you substituted him. And then in the following match, you play him from the start again, effectively killing all speculation that he is "benched".

I'm trying to figure out when we went away from meritocracy at United and instead started making certain players untouchable. Actually I think it was around the time SAF left. I don't recall neither Moyes nor LVG resting/benching Rooney like SAF did. I also remember SAF substituting off Yorke and Cole in the 99 CL final and that worked out pretty well. Back then we had 4 strikers for two positions and we were winning titles left right and center, it seems now we have one striker for one position and we consider top four a success.

Of course Ibra is contributing, of course he is our number one striker, and as I said before Palace now is not the right time to rest him when he is scoring a goal every game. But if he goes on another drought and we fall back down the table again, all options are on the table for me. I put Manchester United first, Ibra second. Not saying you don't, but we have different opinions on player management.