Man Utd vs WHUFC -- July 22nd, 2020

Noble leads the players out... ugh

moment of silence

kneel for BLM

everyone is only talking about Man U and what they get if they win...

Is this an important game?

A point and we've guaranteed safety...

unless we lose this and against Villa on sunday by a combine -13 or so... we're guaranteed safety anyway...

So is this game something or nothing...

all Man U for the first minute...

Good save by Fab

it's all Man U

even when the defense gets the ball they just play it out to space because there's no other options...

good run by Bowen...

but it's only a momentary reprise form the endless pressure by the Reds...

comms says Man U have had 85% possession...

antonio wins a weak free kick just outside the box... weak in terms of it not being much of a foul... but it's a chance...

actually a great free kick... whooshes straight across the goal about three yards out at erfect height but every single player in the box just watched it go...

that was a great chance...

lucky to escape there...

what's the point of defending in numbers if you just ignore a player right in the middle of the box...

Fortunately Fernandes touch let him down as he danced unmarked into the area...

this is why we've spent since November in the bottom 6 and show little chance of changing this...


and then as the ball pings around just outside the Man U area... Noble runs for a lose ball and just slams it out of play...

does no one at the club work on possession or touch at all?????

West Ham corner...

goes straight through to the middle of the 6 yard box but no one touches it...

again we're over run down the flanks... fortunately the offside flag goes up... ball goes untouched across the face of the goal... but whoever has their finger on the 'cheer's button - hits it and there's a big cheer as no one scores...


stopped for the drinks break...

we're playing our usual 8 or 9 behind the ball but somehow allow the opposition to have all the possession they feel like having...

and then when we do get the ball upfield... Antonio is offside so the ball goes straight back to Utd...

Rice runs upfield, keeps possession after several tackles... plays the ball back to Noble who then.... plays it straight to a Utd player...

Why the fupp do we keep insisting that Noble needs to play?

It's like a conspiracy... does he have incriminating photos of the owners? is he guaranteed to get his name level with Geoff Hurst on the appearance table?

He's certainly not being picked based on his performances or ability...

You figure that they are ultimately gunning for a 3-0 win, which would put them in better standing against Leicester on Sunday and secure CL status.

Honestly that wouldn't be a horrible result for us either, but anything short of a debacle should be okay for us.

Formals 'look' for Antonio by hoofing the ball way upfield with no hope for Antonio to get anywhere near it - so possession falls back to Utd...

great save by Fabianski... we've had more possession in the past ten minutes but rarely done anything with it...

I think we are playing in a 1-9 formation.

long ball out wide... high looping cross into the box form Johnson... antonio cups for it but he's directly in front of the keeper who gathers it easily...

formals been playing quite well today - perhaps Attacking Left Back is his best position...

He feeds Antonio who is brought down for a yellow card and a West Ham free kick..

not a great game... but we're not losing...

Pelanty?!?!?!

a 'clever' free kick...

VAR is looking at it... Pogba put his hands up to block the ball...

Noble played the free kick... a dink to Rice... but Noble's ball was too long, so Rice's shot was going wide but for some reason Pogba puts both his hands in front of his face to protect him... so we get a penalty...

Antonio is stepped up to take it...

Cochese wrote:Pelanty?!?!?!

superbly taken by Antonio...

so... here we are... end of first half... completely against the run of play... West Ham 0-1

Expect the house to be thrown at us in the second half, but we've done the job thus far.

well... that's turned things around...

Cochese wrote:Expect the house to be thrown at us in the second half, but we've done the job thus far.

yeah... it'll be fun to see how they turn up the pressure from what was it 85% possession at one point...

it's the same old story... we defend deep, put 9 players behind the ball...

but then when we do attack... guess what... we get a goal...

it's gone be one way traffic for 45 minutes

is this another opportunity to increase our "points thrown away from a lead"

so...

this'll be a big 45 for both teams

West Ham with some crisp passing out of the halftime talk.

I don't recognize this at all.

and there you go... 5 minutes gone... 1-1