Things more useful than VAR #HUDMUN pic.twitter.com/nXts5DcBR6— ShotOnGoal (@shotongoal247) February 17, 2018
Bingo. Every United forum has its share of spoiled fans and anyone who's disappointed that we beat Huddersfield by a score of 0-2 (not counting Mata's goal...and I'd still like to see what really went on with the Matic goal disallowed for offside) with a weakened side in preparation for our CL match in four days is a spoiled child. Moaners have good cause to moan about our defeats to Tottenham and Newcastle but there really isn't anything to complain about the workmanlike job we did dispatching Huddersfield in a relatively unimportant FA Cup competition. Of course it would be great to win the FA Cup but our vastly higher priorities at this point are ensuring a top four finish in the league and a respectable showing in the CL. Today was just not the day to bring out the big guns and put in the performance of the season.
I do have to wonder if some of you people are watching the same games as I am. Firstly, Huddesfield is a team fourth from bottom. In no universe should we be completely battered and controlled regardless of the team we put out. Secondly, with the exception of Valencia, De Gea and Jones...that was - in his mind - Jose's best team he could field (Pogba, Herrera, Fellaini, Rashford are out injured\sick)...so it was not some 2n'd string of players. Thirdly, why are you bringing up tactics? We shouldn't need a special set of tactics to play Huddesfield and a completely different one for Sevilla. We should have a system we are comfortable with and go and play our football regardless of the team....just like all the best teams in world football do at the moment. Win, lose or draw...you have to look at the bigger picture of how your team is playing, and whether their is progression to challenge the very best in the future. There is no progression at the moment, only backward steps.
FFS, we hardly brought out his best XI against Huddersfield. Paul Pogba I realize Pogba has been poor of late but there's no doubt whatsoever that Pogba is one of the first names on the squad sheet. Anthony Martial Martial was in white hot form before Jose moved him to the right, but whatever one thinks about Martial he's been a regular starter for United in recent months. Antonio Valencia Valencia is not only a regular in the starting XI, he often wears the armband. David De Gea Well, De Gea's absence isn't particularly relevant as Romero didn't have to make a single difficult save but it should go without saying that De Gea is the first choice keeper. 4 regular starters did not start for Mourinho against Huddersfield, so there's naturally going to be a dropoff in quality to some degree in our overall performance. The same would be true if Guardiola or Conte dropped four of their regular starters. The ignorance of some here as to how a manager manages a football club is staggering. Huddersfield in the FA Cup with a CL knockout round match four days later is not the occasion to bring out your top guns and demand champagne football. You field a squad one day with an eye to what's coming up the next day -- that's how you manage. You give players like Lindelof a runout while you ease back in Bailly (I'd like to have seen him get 5-10 minutes, not 45 seconds, but that's a minor quibble). You rest Pogba, who either had a minor knock or no injury problem at all, to rest him for the CL match. Yoy start Romero over De Gea. You give McTominay some experience in this match that you cannot afford to give him in the CL match. You put players like Gomes and Hamilton on the bench. This was an occasion to experiment with the squad and work with tactics that would give Lukaku better chances to score -- and which the historical record shows actually worked. Moaning and bitching here would be perfectly appropriate had we lost 2-0, but we actually won the game 0-2 (VAR wrongly denied a 0-3) win and yet we still see bitching and moaning here. Oh my.
The win at Huddersfield is a boost ahead Sevilla game - Matic www.mufclatest.com/huddersfield-victory-will-boost-manchester-uniteds-confidence-ahead-of-sevilla-clash-matic/