Well, that was a bad week. 3 losses on the trot, uninspiring performances, and of course a loss of psychological edge after the derby loss. As a fan, I'd say it's tough to accept, but with performances like that we deserve everything we got. Unfortunately I missed the Feyenoord game but managed to watch the highlights to find that the only chance we had was Martial's shot and we continued that trend against Watford with no shots on target in the first half. I still believe that after two seasons under Van Gaal, the team is still playing in his way at times and it's taking time to move on from that. But that does not change the fact that we're playing poorly and need to bounce back before our rivals get too far ahead.
Now, having watched the Watford game, I'd say we have some serious issues in the team. First of all, fitting Wayne in the side, there has been plenty of debate as to whether he should be dropped or kept in the side. Personally, to me, he's a world class player. However, his performances hasn't justified him a starting place. Yes we know he is the captain, but that doesn't mean he should start every game. I think he needs to be benched for us to get the best out of him. We saw Sir Alex do it in his final season, in a way you could say that might drive him to be better as he showed in the following season under Moyes. As for his position, he is definitely a number 10 to me and I believe his days as a centre forward are done. Unfortunately he cannot offer us the option to run in behind anymore, and we know what he can give us, as he showed in the Hull game. Based on stats, he had 0 touches in the box against Watford and that's simply not good enough. We should be able to find out what the gaffer thinks in the coming weeks.
Moving on to the midfield, I believe that we are losing games in this department, Pogba, Fellaini and Wazza, the combination is too slow and the creativity is clearly lacking. Yes he wants to win the aerial battles but we have players like Mata, Mkhitaryan and Herrera who can add that pace and creativity to the team. Manchester United are a team that thrives on the counter attack and we haven't seen that blistering pace going forward. We have strikers playing as wingers which also doesn't seem right. We can't put the blame on Zlatan as he isn't getting the service he needs to bang in the goals. From what I saw, we seem to start off with a 4-1-4-1 with Pogba and Wayne drifting left and right to cover Watford's 5-3-2 formation. We were sloppy in possession and were also bad in a positioning sense in the goals we conceded. For instance, Shaw's lack of awareness when he ran for a break instead of waiting for Martial to get away in the first goal. Mistakes were made and we need to learn quick from it and get points on the board. It's still fairly early in the season but as always, we'll be back stronger.
Please do share your opinions on what you think should be done either here or on the Facebook post.
Thank you for reading.
-E14-
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