Greenlizard0 Premier League Football Thread ** spoilers ** [18th - 21st August 2023]

ten Hag is going to come under a lot of pressure now. The fans are getting impatient and the manager seems slightly beaten by the Manu situation. I was at the match yesterday and it was another performance lacking resolve, physicality or any quality from an expensively assembled squad. We are hearing the same post match denial that we got from OGS. We are seeing a team that doesn't look fit or up for a battle. Adopting a new system of play always takes time but underpinning any tactical plan has to be a desire to battle for wins. We are not seeing that. instead we are seeing Ole ball but with a manager that gurns rather than smiling.

Substitutions also now starting to look desperate. Excuses building, young players will wilt under the pressure and at this rate United will be mid table. In fairness Arteta had a difficult time initially when he was rebuilding how Arsenal played but he stuck with it and there is a possibility that with time something will click but there was no evidence in any of the last 6 games. Antony looks like a folly signing and that is on ten Hag - its hard to see what he offers over Pellistri or Amad other than the £85m transfer fee. Very disappointing start to the season.
 
As Bruno pointed out in the post-match interview. Where’s the apology from the referees about not giving us the penalty? Surely should have same level of scrutiny as Onana’s last week?
 
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As Bruno pointed out in the post-match interview. Where’s the apology from the referees about not giving us the penalty? Surely should have same level of scrutiny as Onana’s last week?
Not really - surely about the same level of scrutiny as the handball that wasn't given in your match last week. Which nobody has scrutinized.

I still think Mount is an excellent player, but if he's going to be in that midfield 3 he needs someone more defensive than Bruno alongside him. I think he should be shifted wide and Antony dropped, personally
 
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As Bruno pointed out in the post-match interview. Where’s the apology from the referees about not giving us the penalty?
Bruno's a whinge bag and although I (kind of) defended his appointment as captain, it's already looking a pretty bad decision. Yes it probably was a penalty however you do fairly regularly see handballs like that not given. There's so much subjectivity in terms of the position of the arm, distance traveled, pace of the ball etc that they'll almost never get overturned by VAR. We had the same last week vs Chelsea. There's no way you're getting an apology because it wasn't clearly wrong, let alone absolutely bonkers like last week's Wolves appeal.
 
Not really - surely about the same level of scrutiny as the handball that wasn't given in your match last week. Which nobody has scrutinized.
Doesn’t really answer my question though, does it? What was different about Onana colliding with someone meaning they get an apology from the refs? Handballs, collisions… if they’re wrong, where’s the apologies? Where’s the consistency?

And Baz, fair enough, but I just want some consistency, as do we all, I guess.

It was totally a penalty. I’m unsure how anyone could say otherwise for that one.
 
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From my little watch of MotD, I thought both teams should have been given a penalty.

I wouldn't have said the handball is too disimilar to the Dunk handball that was given against Luton, so it'd be nice to be consistent.
 
Doesn’t really answer my question though, does it? What was different about Onana colliding with someone meaning they get an apology from the refs? Handballs, collisions… if they’re wrong, where’s the apologies? Where’s the consistency?

And Baz, fair enough, but I just want some consistency, as do we all, I guess.

It was totally a penalty. I’m unsure how anyone could say otherwise for that one.
You're never going to get consistency with subjective calls. As I said, I thought it was a penalty but we have and will continue to see near identical handballs not given (and some given) because the official is having to decide whether the player has put his arm in that position to balance himself or to make himself bigger and then decide the distance and speed the ball has traveled at and whether he's had a chance to move his arm out of the way. You might not like that but if you think back 2 years ago when they took a far stricter stance on these decisions and everything was given as handball, we complained about that too. Again you might not like it (I don't and think VAR for subjective calls is a waste of time) but VAR will only overturn a decision if it's clearly a mistake and given the way handballs are interpreted, they're just not going to get involved unless the ref has told them he didn't see the handball or whether he's not seen the defender move his arm to the ball.

As above, I hate VAR for subjective calls because whatever the decision they make, in 99.9% of cases they'll be able to say they made the right decision. One day they'll overturn a mistake and they're right because they've awarded the correct decision and the next day they won't overturn the same situation and they're right because it wasn't clearly wrong enough. The Wolves penalty falls into that 0.1% because under anybody's interpretation, that was clearly a mistake and that's why they got an apology.
 
Never rated Mount to be honest. Always got frustrated with Southgates obsession with picking him for England.
He was brilliant under Lampard at Chelsea and fully deserved his England spot. One of the first names on the team sheet. That spell ended ages ago and quite why he thought he was still worth more than his Chelsea wage is beyond me. He shouldn't even be in the squad let alone near the starting line up. My sons a Chelsea fan and was over the moon they got a decent return on what was left of his contract.

I'd love him to be the player he was under Lampard but he's peaked early bought into his ego and is a slightly above average EPL player.
 
As Bruno pointed out in the post-match interview. Where’s the apology from the referees about not giving us the penalty? Surely should have same level of scrutiny as Onana’s last week?
The penalty yesterday could have gone either way, the one last week was outrageous. Its not remotely the same but I say again, what captain of United is constantly whinging on and off the pitch?
 
Firstly your manager has to get his head out of the clouds. Saying in a post match interview that Utd dominated the game in and out of possession is straight up delusional. It’s as if he doesn’t want to accept the reality of the situation
How many managers come out and tell the truth, most of the time if not all the time they’re just full of complete ****.
Just reflecting on today. We have spent some serious money and seem to be going backwards.

Quite worrying really. We'll no doubt rally and put some good results together, but a top 4 battle is the best we'll do.

If Hojlund doesn't hit the ground running, the knives will be out in the media...

I doubt Antony will ever look an £80m player, there are some good elements to his game but he looks incredibly limited.
It’s seems to be the same every season for united this last however many years its been since Fergie retired.

Spent £170m this summer, wouldn’t have have been better to just give all that to Spurs and get Kane? The team would be far better with the exact same team as last year but with Kane up top.

Keep signing casts off that other clubs are wanting rid of is never really going to work for a side wanting to compete for top 4.
Was expecting a bit more from Newcastle. They really are going to struggle with champs league on top of the league.

Heard they where going to compete for the league this year. :p



Liverpool v Bournemouth;

I’m at a loss with these OFR and VAR. I’m not sure why it’s so difficult to get these calls which should be almost instantly made correctly. It’s like they just want to make things awkward and cause a stir to keep everyone talking about them.

FIFA/FA/UEFA whoever it is are no help either, allow both sets of refs the ability to speak to each other and it be broadcast and the decision explained there and then like rugby. It not that hard and wouldn’t cause more of a delay than we are currently getting. I think we’d all agree that waiting an extra 5 seconds to get the rid decision would be perfectly acceptable.
 
Part of me wants to feel disappointed we didn't get anything yesterday, we had 1 great chance and right now I thought was a great time to play them. Early in the season city are usually cold and KDB is out.

However we got outplayed for the majority of the game and I didn't see us getting anything out of the game pre kick off, we have progressed but not at their level yet.
We did ok. Avoided a spanking. We are years away from their level, losing there is not going to make any difference to our season.
 
He was brilliant under Lampard at Chelsea and fully deserved his England spot. One of the first names on the team sheet. That spell ended ages ago and quite why he thought he was still worth more than his Chelsea wage is beyond me. He shouldn't even be in the squad let alone near the starting line up. My sons a Chelsea fan and was over the moon they got a decent return on what was left of his contract.

I'd love him to be the player he was under Lampard but he's peaked early bought into his ego and is a slightly above average EPL player.

Sounds a bit like a Dele Alli situation.
 
Doesn’t really answer my question though, does it? What was different about Onana colliding with someone meaning they get an apology from the refs? Handballs, collisions… if they’re wrong, where’s the apologies? Where’s the consistency?

And Baz, fair enough, but I just want some consistency, as do we all, I guess.

It was totally a penalty. I’m unsure how anyone could say otherwise for that one.
I don't agree that it was wrong, though. They're clearly being more lenient this season where the ball is hit at somebody from close range, penalties weren't given for it last week, and haven't been given this week.
 
One of my favourite away days out at Craven Cottage yesterday. Good performance from the Bees, great result. If we get 3 points at home to Palace next weekend then it'll be a fantastic start too the season for us.

Without Toney, I think Mbuemo has scored 7 and Wissa 6 in our last 7 games. Without Toney in 2023 were 5 wins and 1 draw from 6.

Don't expect a win against Palace though... we've played 4 drawn 4 since we got promoted.
 
ten Hag is going to come under a lot of pressure now. The fans are getting impatient and the manager seems slightly beaten by the Manu situation. I was at the match yesterday and it was another performance lacking resolve, physicality or any quality from an expensively assembled squad. We are hearing the same post match denial that we got from OGS. We are seeing a team that doesn't look fit or up for a battle. Adopting a new system of play always takes time but underpinning any tactical plan has to be a desire to battle for wins. We are not seeing that. instead we are seeing Ole ball but with a manager that gurns rather than smiling.

Substitutions also now starting to look desperate. Excuses building, young players will wilt under the pressure and at this rate United will be mid table. In fairness Arteta had a difficult time initially when he was rebuilding how Arsenal played but he stuck with it and there is a possibility that with time something will click but there was no evidence in any of the last 6 games. Antony looks like a folly signing and that is on ten Hag - its hard to see what he offers over Pellistri or Amad other than the £85m transfer fee. Very disappointing start to the season.

I think the fact he overachieved last season didn't help. Plus Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs all had turgid seasons.

We finished quite strongly last season though but it is almost as if we have fallen off a cliff.

Mainly in attack. We are just completely toothless. ETH needs to start and give Martial 60 minutes next game because what we have at the moment isn't working at all.

Mainoo seemed like a massive part of ETH plans too as he started most pre season but is out injured for two months as well as many other players.

Hopefully when players start coming back it will look a lot better.

The Maguire and ownership situation isn't helping either. Having Maguire skulking about the place isn't good.

I trust in ETH to get it right though and I think a lot of what he says to the press is just fluff to not rock the boat. I don't think he is like that behind the scenes. Our first half in isolation agai at Spurs wasn't actually bad in isolation if we actually finished our chances.
 
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