Headlines are saying that Sancho is still our priority for the upcoming transfer window. But the Werner rumours are giving me a headache now because of his release clause, which is half (or less) of what Sancho is. I prefer we continue prioritising on Sancho, since I think our playstyle would benefit more from another attack-minded winger rather than a lone striker.

Just to hear your POV, who would you prefer we get in the summer?

And if there is another player you'd like to give a shout out to, let us know.

To put things simply in the way I see things, Ole isn't being backed well enough by the board. This is beyond pathetic. The signings we've made, under Ole so far, has been nothing but positive. Why can't this board see the bigger picture and put their faith in Ole, rather than expect him to perform handicapped, again. Utter disgrace.

@iHEART Tbh, transfer been weird for each manager. Its like, as soon as the club start showing positive results, they stop giving the coach what he is asking for. Take Mou for example, he wanted United to buy Maguire his last summer there and the club refused. This exactly what is happening with Ole it seem. I'm sure the current situation has handicaped Manchester United like other club but I'm pretty sure they would still find a way to make those transfer if they wanted. So yeah, I agree with you on the point the board is backing adequatly by the board.

Who do you blame today's loss on?

1. Players
2. Coach
3. Ref
4. Woodard for transfer failure

I say Martial's red card was undeserved- both Lamela and Martial should have been sent off or no one sent off.

The defense has been shit. I'm gonna say its the coach's fault to not fix it. The message that we need more players to strengthen the squad has been stale- it seems a never ending saga and every year we spend a ton on players who flop. Change the formation to a 4-3-3 with DVB in the false 9 role. Put Rashford and Martial on the wings. Watch the team tear others up.

@ashwin

I would blame the experienced players, mostly Pogba, Shaw, and Maguire, for showing an absolute lack of composure and leadership. I don't blame Solskjaer at all; he's been shot with the same firearm as Van Gaal and Mourinho. They always seem to be misled about transfer pursuits, and are forced to work with an incomplete squad. On top of all that, the locker room lacks maturity and leadership. I don't think it's a coincidence that Zlatan's tenure at United proved to be an extremely successful tenure, probably their best post-Ferguson.

Martial's red was deserved. Lamela is inciting him into a reaction, and he fell for it. Lamela should have been sent off too, but Martial should not have slapped him in the face. If anything, he should have just given him an inconspicuous shove in the back, which likely wouldn't have led to any repercussions.

Blaming the referee or hiding behind Martial's red card is making excuses, IMO. The squad is rotten at the top. Pogba needs to be replaced with a more mature presence in midfield. Look at how good Spurs have been since Kane has risen as their leading player. Lloris looks fantastic as a leader as well. I don't think Maguire was worth the money, and I don't think Shaw has the right mentality to play at the club. I like Wan-Bissaka, Bruno, Martial, and Rashford a lot. I think they're quality players and need to be retained. Van de Beek seems like a promising and accomplished player as well. But the rest of the squad needs to be flushed out within the next 2-3 years, IMO, for more mature and team-oriented players.

United have too many players who seem to think playing at the club is their part-time job, and they can just stroll around the pitch for 90 minutes, and occasionally make a really rough challenge when they're frustrated.

Our defend is utter shit. Asolutely shambolic.

With or without the red, we will still loose at least 2 goals different. We are that terrible. Our tactic is poor... Then a bunch of high, overpaid players. That mean both Ole and the players are at fault.

Maguire is the most overrated player we have bought, and in the red shirt, Pogba comes next.

We don't have good CB and definitely our left and right backs are of Sunday league, they can't even cross propwrly. And, without good wingers, there is very very little chance to compete with top tier teams.

Pogba, need i say more? Does not deliver again. Sure he is world cup winner blah blah, sorry to his fans, but in the red shirt his performance has been a big pile of absolute sh!t. He breaks the team's attack fluidity, makes mistake in crucial areas...

And last, on that red card incident. Both deserved red. But Lamela's act is disgusting. This sport doesnt deserve that.

@Dynast

No one is hiding behind the red. Spurs would have had 4 goals before then. Saying only Martial's red is deserved is laughable. Both Lamela and Martial should have been sent off or neither. When you have video evidence, its a crime for not enforcing on the instigator.

Lets not even go to the transfers and the joke the club has become in pursing them. Lets talk basics about coaching.

You have a player with the ball (Bailly) and you see your team mate (Matic) with 2 opposition players around him. Do you pass the ball to this team mate? or Do you clear the ball or pass it else where? That's strictly on coaching- if it happened in the play, it has happened during practice. Lack of discipline and basic foot ball IQ is on coaching.

Maguire has been utter crap this season. Solely at fault for the first 2 goals. No way a captain should be playing. WTF was he doing trying to head back to DeGea with a weak header? WTF was he doing pulling Shaw down? On the second goal- if he as a defender is out of position, the rest of the team is as well.

United have too many players who seem to think playing at the club is their part-time job, and they can just stroll around the pitch for 90 minutes, and occasionally make a really rough challenge when they're frustrated.

This did not happen overnight. If the player does not want to play or shows no motivation, why keep him at the club? This is the exact reason you should blame the coach.

The team lacked any urgency after being down on 3-1. Pogba, Shaw, and others need to leave. Martial is not immune either. He plays when he wants to, but on other days, he's just shambolic. But the manager isn't helping with his rigid formation either. 4-2-3-1 is not this team's best formation. Play 4-3-3 with DVB as a false 9. Play Pogba, Bruno, and Matic as midfielder. Put Martial and Rashford on wings. Let Greenwood come in as a sub as he develops.

Like I have said before- the team will struggle to make it top 4 unless something drastic happens. I doubt if we will get out of Group stages in UCL. Come January, I'd be surprised if we are not looking for a new coach.

Blaming the referee or hiding behind Martial's red card is making excuses, IMO.

Personally, I completely agree. I mean, the decision he made didn't help but United didn't show any sign they could reverse the momentum of the game if they would have all their player after that. Beside, even if Martial would have stayed on the field, it wouldn't have made much difference in defense which was where United suffered the most.

Its good to see you btw Dynast, been too long. :D

What I find worrying is that a lot of player seem to have lost their motivation from last season or from before the Covid-19 break. Player like Shaw for example are far less convincing now and I feel like its putting it kindly.

can someone explain how Shaw tackle was not red?

@quikzyyy Pity from the ref im guessing at this point. Only thing i can think of.

can someone explain how Shaw tackle was not red?

Via the rules, it wasn't an obvious goal scoring opportunity and no attempt to play the ball in the absence of reckless conduct is a yellow. If it was seen as violent conduct/reckless endangerment, it should've been a red, but I don't think it was. Shaw just couldn't be f*cked to finish second in a race so he made a (admittedly very aggressive) tactical foul. While the vitriol online seems to have deemed it a red card, I haven't seen anyone credible suggest it should be.

That said, if it was given as a red I would've accepted that interpretation, even if I disagreed with it.

Who do you blame today's loss on?

This isn't even a team loss, this is an organizational loss. If things stay the same after this game, it shows that complacency and being a b*tch club is now tolerated by Manchester United.

Top Level: The board totally failed in a transfer window where they held all the cards (e.g. huge swaths of money in a world where many other clubs where having to pinch pennies and sell assets). That tells the players and the manager that they aren't being backed to compete in an increasingly challenging league. Morale suffers, the team gets few reinforcements, and the fans are discontent.

Middle Level: Ole, if he was actually a good manager, would find a way to motivate the squad and improve their morale in spite of this. He clearly has not. His tactics for this Spurs game weren't even bad, nearly every goal was the result of a huge lapse or failure in the defense that had nothing to do with tactics. I'm sorry, I don't buy that Eric Bailly making the dumbest pass I've ever seen is Ole's fault because he's trying to get his defense to play out from the back. That's Eric Bailly's fault for being a nonce. Basically, Ole's in a shitty corner that was once shared by Jose Mourinho and Louis Van Gaal. If you don't get the love from the top, it's hard to pass the love on down.

Player Level: Maguire was legitimately an excellent leader in the squad last season. He had a few errors, but in general excelled and led one of the strongest defenses in Europe (statistically true). I don't know what the hell happened to his brain in Greece, but he needs a run on the bench to sort himself out. It's entirely unacceptable. That said, who would you replace him with, the genius Eric Bailly, who played well for about 20 minutes and then gifted a goal to Kane and Son each? Bad pass, whatever, but his defending on Son's second was so bad I literally could not believe that a professional footballer, ANY professional footballer, could be so lax. Shaw was horrid. Wan-Bissaka at least did not get caught out of position a million times again like he did against Brighton, but he didn't do anything positive either.

In the midfield, Pogba had an okay first half, but offered nothing going forward. His second half performance was garbage, but given that you could tell he was seething, eh. Matic was so bad I legitimately couldn't understand what he role he was supposed to be playing. Fred and McTominay came in and actually did a pretty nice job in the second half, but they were not asked to do any attacking, instead basically operating as destroyers which they did fairly well. Probably for the bet Lamela was subbed at halftime or McTominay probably would've broken his leg.

The attackers, Martial was idiotic to get send off, but I do have sympathy because if he'd dove like a little b*tch when Lamela elbowed him in the neck/chin, Lamela would've been send off instead. But that's a Jose team for you, I remember those days myself. Rashford, to his credit, was still making runs for all 90 minutes. Greenwood did the "I'm going to dribble a lot" bs that younger players do when they're mad. Bruno was meh.

Individual errors, horrid communication, stupid purposeful decisions, and outright criminal negligence characterized the overall performance.

Fan Level: United fans were so optimistic about the direction end of last season. Little transfer activity made us pessimistic, and the opening results have made us furious as our worries were confirmed.

This game is an organizational failure, top to bottom. Yes, it starts at the top, but there are no good guys here. Idiocy and incompetence exist throughout every group mentioned here.

EDIT:

Sums it up pretty nicely.

Forget about the squad for a second. Leadership comes from the very top and hunger is contagious. My views and hatred towards United's current transfer model are nothing but compounded, after that defeat. One would hope that now, Woodward, Judge, and the rest of those incompetent lot realises their failure. It is depressing to see that Ole's position, as manager, is now in question because of the hope that was there last season is nothing but shattered, yet again, but those in charge at the very top. COVID hasn't just affected every club, it affected everyone in the world. One slip up by the board, I can't imagine how fans in Manchester would react, because nowadays, violence is taking over.

To all the United supporters who felt Ole was the second coming....still feel the same way?

Hot damn, I did not saw this coming. Haven't checked the game cause I was watching Barca vs Juve nor did I watch any highlight yet. What the hell went wrong for United?

Tale of two halves, plus they took RB lightly. You live on the edge, you will fall off at some point.

You live on the edge, you will fall off at some point.

So true...

Saw the highlight and damn Angelino is so good. Main reason why Leipzig got through.

As for United, it didn't look that bad, I mean, there is obviously huge problem with the defense. But otherwise, it really looked like they were going to come back in that game. Feel bad... :(

"Football heritage".

Fans and media laughed at that back then even though facts were backing, but now reality has sunk in hard.

Beat Villa and we're level with Liverpool at the top on equal points and games.

Confusion

@Sunflash United sure been strangely and somewhat sneakily consistent recently. Impressive but just like with Tottenham, I wouldn't get too excited too fast. Still, its much better to be winning than to be losing. :D Hopefully, the team keep that good momentum going. :)

There's 3 things I will admit -

1. When in danger of losing the job, I can't tell if its Ole coaching or if its Sir Alex.
2. Current position in the table does not reflect our performances. i.e how well we controlled the games over the course of the season. If not for injury, Liverpool would be ahead of us by 10 points at the minimum.
3. Our defence won't win EPL unless it changes drastically.

Overall, I still stand by my analysis that Ole still relies on individual brilliance of players rather than a good game plan. I was watching the wolves game, and there was not a moment where I thought the team lacked ambition (exception of Bruno) to take it to wolves at home. With the exception of Leeds and Leicester, I have not seen a full 90 min performance where the team showed dominance. It usually happens over a period of 10-20 mins where the team is just invincible and the other 70 mins are mediocre at the best. You can not continue to win games in such a fashion. Villa is a good test- that team can play any type of game. Our team reminds me of Liverpool prior to Klopp- very streaky - win or lose. We have seen that with Ole as well. If we beat Liverpool at Juanfield, I'll consider us as title contenders. If not, we're a top 4 team for second season in a row- which is acceptable from where we've been.