25 Feb 2021 20:00:07
Question for the Ed's:-

Does Martial have nudes of Ole? I can't think of another reason why he plays every game, even a dead tie when there's good enough kids to play up front.

{Ed077's Note - that bad huh!}

1.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 07:18:47
I thought he was ok last night his movement off the ball was good and he seemed to be more involved than he has been lately. If he and Greenwood could find the kind of scoring form from the back end of last season we will go on a good run.

2.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 08:23:34
The concern last night was why a run, AWB and Fred started, and why Rashford came on, in a fixture that we were never realistically going to lose.

I’ve said it before that Ole picking his favourites will cost him his job. An injury to Bruno and/ or Rashford will leave him lost, as he clearly doesn’t have a Plan B after relying on those two.

Regardless we are through and luckily unscathed. Looking forward to the draw today. Molde look like the ideal opponent for the Ole story and they are probably the weakest team left.

3.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 08:40:13
*Bruno, not run.

4.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 09:25:41
Clearly trying to get his confidence up before the run in. Cavani hopefully back for chelsea.

5.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 10:53:02
It's always s really tough decision with these types of games. Do you rest all your players but risk losing (potentially badly) which can disrupt momentum and impact confidence, do you go full first team in an attempt to maintain momentum and confidence but risk injury and burn out.

Or do you go with something in the middle, rest a few, play a few. Try and give those that need a break a break, give those that need minutes for fitness or form some minutes and try and keep the momentum and confidence high.

Personally I'd have given Bruno and Rashford the night off, but then with the injuries we have there are added limitations. For example if we rested Bruno then with Pogba, Donny and Mata injured then we had no one to offer a creative spark in midfield.

If you throw the youngsters in and they get battered then how does that impact their confidence and how does it aid their development?

So its a balancing act.

6.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 12:25:30
Bruno and Rashford are the type of players who want to play every game, they got 45 minutes each and didn’t exactly push themselves so not really a problem. Fred played because we don’t have many fit midfielders, some clubs would be calling it an injury crisis if they had 3 players injured in the same position but it seems to be just getting brushed over at the moment.

{Ed077's Note - but what if Bruno or Rashford had picked up a slight knock let alone a long term injury. There was no reason to risk them and certainly the reason to Bring on Radford for the whole 2nd half when the game was still 0_0 was an unnecessary risk IMO.

Also if Galbraith can't get any kind of a run out when he is one of the only 3 for DM/CM at the club then what was the point of keeping him at the club? They could have at least loaned him out IMO.}

7.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 12:30:35
I also wondered starting Bruno, but apparently Mata is injured as well.
So made sense to give him half a game.
Hopefully we get few players back soon.

8.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 14:27:15
Ed,

Ifs and buts, anyone can get injured at any time, they could have got injured in training, both are obviously not in the ‘red zone’ as they call it and were ok getting 45 minutes in a game that didn’t push us too much. Galbraith is just a kid but I don’t think he’s that good, guess we kept him at the club because others in that position have gone out on loan like Garner.

{Ed077's Note - my point is there was no point risking Bruno from the restart and secondly no point in risking Rashford at HT. If Utd were losing 2_0 at HT than at least it would be more understandable.

You can't not train forever to try and avoid injuries but you can give players a rest especially when the tie was mostly dead at HT at least.

My point about Galbraith is if the club don't think he is going to make it than they are better off letting him leave and him gettinh more of an opportunity elsewhere and give the minutes and exposure to someonelse in the academy. And if there is hope he can be a part of the first team setup than there will very rarely be a better opportunity to give him a run out with the first team than last night. Obviously OGS won't be putting him in against Chelsea for eg.}

9.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 14:27:54
Ole isn't brave enough that's why. It was a great chance to start the likes of Galbraith, Diallo and Shoretire and yet he goes for the safer options.

With the game against Chelsea coming up it was important he rested the likes of Fernandes, Wan Bissaka, James, Lindelof, Fred and Rashford to keep them fresh. But no he's probably too worried about losing a tie that's already done and dusted in the first leg.

Once again plays 2 CM in front of his defense and I am not really sure it is helping much at all.

10.) 26 Feb 2021
26 Feb 2021 21:32:15
LPU,

And if we went 2-0 down after 15 minutes what do we do then? I was fine with making sure last night without anyone exerting themselves too much.

11.) 27 Feb 2021
27 Feb 2021 05:11:44
GDS2 that's exactly the mentality Ole has right now. He's too scared to take risks with his team selection or tactics. He just doesn't trust anyone else except for his favorite bunch of players.

Already having a 4 goal advantage and still you are worried about the opposition hurting you that's a great mindset to have.

12.) 27 Feb 2021
27 Feb 2021 10:26:52
The selection was shocking, 4 away goals up and Ole picked a team not to lose. It was dreadful to watch, utterly dire, this is Manchester United not Cardiff. The opposition learned tactically from the first tie and didn’t leave space behind and again Ole demonstrated he doesn’t know how to break teams down, he only knows counter attack. Ole was frightened of losing, that is the wrong mentality for any manager and not for this club.

{Ed077's Note - And before people get the wrong impression I didnt mean to suggest that Ole should have gone with an Astana like team with bunch of U23s and Lee Grant and lingard(at that time). But the first choice out and out starters like Rashford and AWB didnt need to feature so prominently against Sociedad. The likes of Brandon and Amad are already part of the first team 11 so they could have gotten more gametime is what I am trying to say.}