Made more changes than I expected. Getting some players some needed time and getting others some rest.

Holy hell he rotated....I'm kind of guessing at the formation to be honest.


------------------Rashford----------------
Garnacho------Eriksen-------Antony
------------Ugarte--Collyer--------------
--Evans--Casemiro--Maguire--Dalot
-----------------Bayindir-------------------

Poor Dalot...man can't get a rest. I don't think Collyer is a ball progressor and that backline is something else (not in a good way).

Turns out Collyer is at LB, Casemiro is in midfield and Evans is at CB. I guess putting one kid out of position is better than putting 3 veterans out of position but that's a tough ask for Collyer. The Ugarte/Casemiro mids are about as creative as a dad joke.

Rashford with an extremely nice goal. That first touch was exquisite.

Antony wins a (somewhat questionable) penalty and then is allowed to take it. Letting Antony take a penalty in the first half of a 1-0 game is a pretty good indicator of how United feel about this game.

Barnsley insist upon playing a high defensive line and it isn't going great for them so far.

3-0 Garnacho...and it could be 5 or 6 with slightly better decision making in the final third. This is the no contest one would hope to get but rarely do with United.

Been a minute since we beat a team like that.

Thrashed 'em. Hopefully gives Rashford a confidence boost

Hojlund and Mount are both available for selection for tomorrow. Would be surprised if either start.

🚨Rashford on the bench today! Garnacho and Amad to start! #MUFC

📝[@MUFCScoop]

— Stretford Paddock (@StretfordPaddck) September 21, 2024

Hendo on a personal revenge tour so far.

Fine with not starting Rashford but timing a bit bizarre after scoring in his last 2 two games.

I like these 3rd kits. But they would be much better with black shorts.

Did everything but score. I have a feeling we'll rue missing a goal after completely dominating.

Onana going full David Raya with the double save

This is getting intense. Game saving double save by Onana.

I thought that was a goal for sure. Thank goodness!

Bruno and Garnacho have both been below average today.

Starting to feel like this is heading to a draw rapidly.

Really frustrating game. Attack petered out once Zirkzee came off. Should have won but ended up needing a ridiculously good double save from Onana just to get the draw.

Really frustrating. We really needed 3 points with next two games being Spurs and Villa.

Onana's double save gets better every time I look at it. Insane.

It's looking more and more like falling for the gritty win over Man Dhabi in the FA cup and keeping EtH after the stupid dance was just bad business. The air is just out of the balloon at the club.

I don't know, if you leave out the Liverpool game, we've played pretty well. We haven't converted our chances in PL though. Based on how we played, I'd have us at 3-1-1 rather than 2-1-2 (for me, should have won at Palace, should have drawn Brighton). For comparison, 5 games into last year I'd have probably put us at 1-0-4 or 1-1-3 and we were 2-0-3 (should have lost Wolves, or no better than drew).

(it would be nice if we stopped digging holes that we need to crawl out of).

I did NOT advocate keeping ETH after last season, but I understood the decision. But now that he has been retained, players have been brought in to play in his system, and we are working on getting a staff and players to fit into his style of play, I do not advocate letting him go. The early season firings are, in my opinion, ridiculous. If you give a manager a summer to bring in players and implement his style, then you commit to him at least for half the season.

MUFC are certainly playing better than they were at this point last season, missed chances have been a killer. I get tired of ETH sticking to a certain style and forcing players into his system, rather than adapting with the players you have, or for the opponent, but that was the issue I had with him last season too, so management knew of these difficulties.

I think you give him at least until Christmas before you go another direction, let's see how we do in league and in Europa, let the new players find their positions. He's only had Hojlund available for 30 minutes so far.

Getting absolutely waxed by your biggest rival at home oh who by the way has a brand new coach is not something that should be set aside. If it wasn't for Onana (who we already know I do not rate), we lose this game as well.

The problem remains that if Man U tied don't play perfect all game they generally don't win. Most teams won't don't dominate an entire game. Every team will have in game lows. Our lows are just so far off our best that it opens the door for the other team to snatch a draw or at worst snatch a win.

Yeah, well, if we don't sell Henderson (who I don't rate) they also don't draw. Life is funny sometimes. We had 5 big chances, 15 shots compared to 3 big chances and 9 shots for them. Henderson had 7 saves compared to 4 for Onana. On the whole, we really should have won. We didn't put the ball in the net, so it is what it is, but at least we are making chances to make goals this year.

Man United have revealed the first images of the potential Old Trafford regeneration project 👀

ESPN reported last month that United are leaning towards building a new £2 billion, 100,000-capacity stadium rather than redeveloping Old Trafford, which an economic report found… pic.twitter.com/HfYCenzqRB

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 24, 2024

The club obviously needs to redevelop badly. But I have to laugh at these numbers that consultants come up with.

I think it's clear there has been a good amount of improvement but it's also not clear that it will turn into a suitable end product. The midfield has been better since Liverpool but the level of competition has also come down considerably since Liverpool so it's hard to know if United's midfield got better or the competition got worse. My suspicion is that it's a bit of both but mostly the latter. We'll likely know more after the Spurs, @Porto, @Villa run. If the midfield looks good in even 2 of those games, that will be a clear sign of progress.

My biggest issue thus far this season with ETH has been his game management/subs. I thought he got his subs wrong last weekend and against Brighton. The team looked worse after he made his subs, not better. Benefit of the doubt might say it was rotation at the beginning of the season to avoid overloading players with too many minutes but it was still a stark decline in team performance.

Anyway, not convinced that the wheels won't completely fall off in a week but you can begin to see some sustained good performances. But if it doesn't continue and eventually lead to wins, it won't matter.

Strong team for Twente:

Onana
Mazraoui
Maguire
Martinez
Dalot
Ugarte
Eriksen
Bruno
Amad
Rashford
Zirkzee

Happily surprised to not see Mainoo start. He's still only 19 and shouldn't be starting every game. Surprised to see Eriksen get a first team revival in the last several games. Thought the Barnsley game was the only bone he'd get thrown but has followed that up with two more starts.

I hate Paramount+. Tells me "starting soon". It's already started you POS!

FWIW, I switched from paramount+ on PS5 to Fire TV app and it works on the Fire TV app. FWIW. (I had trouble getting Champions League games to start last week as well if anyone else streams through PS5; the TV app tends to go to lower quality is why I try to stream through PS5.)

Great own goal shot saved by Twente,,, for what that's worth lol

Great goal by Eriksen!!!!