Showstopper said:

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Maguire saves a point

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I hope you don't regret that.

Dre_00 said:

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Showstopper said:

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Maguire saves a point

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I hope you don't regret that.

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If any team can still give this thing away

Not scared. We are clutch.

Supporting this team is wild man.

All things considered, drawing away to Porto is not a bad result. But feels like I take away more bad from that game than good. Maybe that's because of the vibes in general around the club...I dunno.

This was the most dangerous Europa fixture, although Fenerbache has me worried because Jose will throw everything at that game. But we need to string together wins if we want the top 8 bye.

Rashford was not hurt. EtH just said he wanted to make sure we had fresh players.

I don't know what happened, but I don't think it was just freshness for Villa. It's pretty rare that a halftime substitution is just for freshness.

Could be worried about being honest with questions like that after the Sancho incident.

Executive meeting scheduled for Tuesday with everyone's favorite owner Joel Glazer attending. (Edit: Note this was scheduled before we were sucking apparently, so not a sign of anything per se, but I thought it was interesting)

NEW: Man United exec committee to meet in London on Tuesday, within 48 hours of Aston Villa game, as scrutiny grows on manager Ten Hag. A previously scheduled meeting (Joel Glazer flying in) & not known if 1st team performance on agenda @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/ZPvhUj0PYu

— Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) October 4, 2024

I would bet large sums of money that it was due to his lack of defense especially on the crosses that ultimately led to the first two goals. As you pointed out, Rashford's defense, especially lately, has been not good. So I completely get not being explicit about it and I kinda get subbing him out.

But the issue I have with the sub is that it did much more harm to the offense than it improved the defense. Yeah, I guess Garnacho limited the number of crosses coming in from the left side of defense but De Ligt and Lisandro were still crap in the 2nd half so it didn't matter much. But it completely neutered the attack as Rashford was feasting on their right back in attack and Garnacho has been well below last year's standard thus far. ETH improved his defense by 10% and worsened his attack by 50%.

It's been an issue I've had for a number of games this year. ETH's subs generally make the team worse.

Evans and Maguire in the starting 11.

Manuel Ugarte - £42 million
Matthijs de Ligt - £43 million
Joshua Zirkzee - £37 million

£122 million of signings brought in THIS SUMMER on the bench for a pivotal game. Insane. #MUFC pic.twitter.com/vWBZu5DsYO

— Stretford Paddock (@StretfordPaddck) October 6, 2024

I thought that was a goal from the far camera angle… whew

That is the most unserious troll of a tweet that I've seen in a while.

Bruno is approaching Cristiano territory in that he's playing like crap but is an automatic start because he might have one moment of class amidst the crap.

Not a yellow on Maguire… wtf

Ref a Liverpool fan?

Guess where the ref actually lives… lol:
https://www.transfermarkt.us/robert-jones/profil/schiedsrichter/5880

Not saying, just saying.

Ref has been absolutely crap

In what way?

Dre_00 said:

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Bruno is approaching Cristiano territory in that he's playing like crap but is an automatic start because he might have one moment of class amidst the crap.

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I've been a big Bruno fan. But there's no denying he's been terrible to start this season.

I think he was sending a message to de ligt, and Martinez, and Ugarte that the defense against Porto wasn't good enough. Can't drop Dalot and Mazraoui because who will you play instead, Luke Shaw? Zirkzee cost less than Hojlund who's only been here one year.

You can't say Maguire and Evans played poorly in the first half. I know that's result biased, but nevertheless.

This has been 56' of brutally numbing soccer. It's almost like EtH wants to be sacked.

This ref….

Marcus is lucky is not being sent off. You just can't play defense by sticking a leg out like that.

Marcus's first yellow was BS, though. A red off two soft yellows would be pretty unfair.

It's the one thing that kept him on.

For the record, the first yellow shouldn't have even been a yellow.

I'd have subbed Bruno rather than Mainoo; another disappointing game for Bruno so far.

That's horrible free kick management. He's engaged with Lindelof and allows a fast restart right at Lindelof.

This is exciting stuff watching the communication equipment troubleshooting

3v1 and Garnacho waited one step too long to make that pass

Away at Porto and away at Villa. Both could have been nightmare away venues and one almost was. Two draws would have been fine a month ago. But it's not a month ago.

I don't know what will happen. I didn't really think we'd draw twice. I guess if they want to get rid of him, they can, and same if they want to keep him.

What's really frustrating, and not necessarily today because Villa are a good team but in general, is we only have 5 goals in EPL matches this year. The only one with fewer is Southampton in the relegation zone.

The implication to me is that those players should start most games simply because we purchased them this summer. That's a ridiculous premise in my opinion. They've all played a fair bit of soccer since arriving. Some good performances and some bad ones. They'll play more going forward I'm sure. After last season, it's clear that players are going to be rotated a fair bit to avoid injuries regardless of whether they were signed this summer or not. There's nothing wrong with that.

If Zirkzee had started, then someone he would have easily dishonestly pointed to Hojlund's fee from last season. And Zirkzee was never brought in to be a 30+ game starter who replaced Hojlund. He was brought into give another option and complement Hojlund. Heck, even De Ligt came in to provide CB depth. If Yoro was fit, he'd likely be a part of a solid 4 man rotation...why is that a bad thing?