Manchester Utd v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I'm pleased we got Europa football instead of Conference.  We played really poorly today and sad to say, choked.  That said, I'd have taken 6th at the start of the season and happy to do so now.  I do hope a few of these players have stretched the Villa shirt for the last time.

Agree 100%. We decided to play in the last 10 mins and created a few chances. Malen has to play a much bigger role next year, he's far more dynamic than Watkins who looks to me as if he's looking elsewhere next season.

I couldn't believe how utterly shit we were for the first 20 mins and that comes from no bottle and lack of nerve, its not on the manager. There's at least three out there who I hope depart in summer.

It's completely on the manager. As shit as Watkins was, even ignoring his shocking ball control, unable to make a simple pass, whose fucking idea was it to keep hoofing the ball up to him in the hope he'd win a header against Slabhead? Here's a thought, play it on the ground and give him something to chase, it's his main talent, why not play to his limited strengths. Whisper it but it does work.

Having him and Rogers on the pitch was like playing with 9 men and that was before we lost Emi. Was Unai unaware Amorim plays 3 at the back because it certainly looked like it. My guess is recently Unai has been over thinking tactics and got himself in a big fucking muddle.

EDIT: Pardon my French but that was a pathetic performance again when it most counted.

[wolfman999]

Premier League Match Centre

@PLMatchCentre
#MUNAVL – 72’

The referee’s call was a free kick to Manchester United with Bayindir deemed to be in control of the ball before Rogers gained possession. The whistle was blown by the referee before the ball entered the goal, therefore the incident was not reviewable by the VAR.

Not even bothering with saying that it actually wasn't a foul. Total piss takers.

The only call that tosser should be getting is to tell him he's reffing in league2 next season.

[cdbearsfan]

I'm probably stupid but  I don't understand the ref blowing whistle thing. Surely the whistle gets blown all the time and things get checked and altered by VAR?

He blew before the goal. play is dead as soon as the whistle goes.

Just like Palace away a few years back.

And Man City at home when Coutinho scored. Dunno when, think Gerrard was in charge.

[amfy]

I'm probably stupid but  I don't understand the ref blowing whistle thing. Surely the whistle gets blown all the time and things get checked and altered by VAR?

He blew before the goal. play is dead as soon as the whistle goes.

Yeah - on the basis that players stop when the whistle goes so if it hadn't blown then someone might have been able to stop the goal. Although you can see the nearest Man U player pull up, I have no idea how it could have played out any differently without the whistle.

[PeterWithesShin]

Palace was different. VAR couldn't rule a goal out because of a dive. We know it wasn't a dive but that's a different thing.

[Stinkin_Thinkin]

The hand-wringing about the disallowed goal reminds me a bit of the 2010 League Cup final. Ref fucked up but get over it, play the fuck on and win, there's plenty of time left. Emery's body language was embarassing, he didn't even acknowledge the away fans that remained (very few of the players did either). We deserved fuck-all today and that's exactly what we got.

Big mentality issues with this group of players. at 0-1 you've got about 15mins to score one goal as Everton were winning. Utd have two old bastards (Mcguire and Evans in defence) its still up for grabs!
but Villa lost their heads. Emery should have stopped arguing with the 4th official and get the message to the players.

[paul_e]

Not sure what Digne has done to be dropped in recent weeks. Maatsen has more pace and threat going forward but he is half-brainless in defence. Needless foul for the penalty, ball-watching for the first goal against the one player he could potentially dominate in the air given they both look 12 (him and Diallo) and he also tried to head the ball back to Olsen from the halfway circle when it wasn't on and got away with it.

This seems to have been overlooked.

However good he is going forward he's always an accident waiting to happen defensively. Why rake your studs down that lad's ankle as he' moving away from the penalty area. Madness.

Or to remove the hyperbole "why try to put your foot on the floor as you're running and the guy dangles his foot in your way hoping for contact".

To be clear, that sort of contact is exactly what the FA were saying wasn't a foul when they did the whole 'higher bar' for contact thing that was supposed to have come in this season. At best it was a 50/50 decision and, given the ref knows he'd alrady fucked us over, you'd normally expect a bit of common sense to not give it. Lets be clear, the ref didn't give the penalty at first, the linesman didn't flag and nothing came up to suggest a VAR review, then after a few seconds (i.e. waiting to give himself time to think, not something he did earlier) he gave it, seemingly because Diallo was dying on the floor.

[Proposition Joe]

Such is my disappointment with our utter bottle jobs that I am now having to resort to watching the Indy 500 to take my mind off it.

But spoiler alert: we won't win the Europa next season. We'll bottle a big game, like a semi vs Nicosia or some crap.

[Stu]

Premier League Match Centre

@PLMatchCentre
#MUNAVL – 72’

The referee’s call was a free kick to Manchester United with Bayindir deemed to be in control of the ball before Rogers gained possession. The whistle was blown by the referee before the ball entered the goal, therefore the incident was not reviewable by the VAR.

I mean, these are rules which no one knows about until all of a sudden they apply. This is PGMOL working rules into a very simple virtual assistant referee system which they have mismanaged from the start.

[eamonn]

Exactly, and I can't work out why so many on here are willing to ignore just how bad a decision it is so they can instead blame Emery and the team. We were shit on the day, no one denies that, but plenty of teams have played shit and won a game with a goal against the run of play and that's what should've happened today.

It's "led" not "lead". Sorry, it's not personal but no one gets the past-participle of "lead" correct anymore and it gets on my goat - not as much as Villa fcuking-up today but Bad English ain't around anymore and Legion let's such things slide so someone's gotta point it out.

But then you are going into the sliding doors realm. Old Trafford going a goal down after that performance, might have broken them, or they might have ended the match 3-1 winners. Ultimately that decision shouldn't have had any bearing on the game if we didn't start so badly. But we did which lead to Martinez having to bail us out which lead to the rush of blood after and the sending off.

[Villa Lew]

Absolutely gutted with the result, the wrongly disallowed goal, going down to 10 men and our abysmal performance. If the goal was allowed to stand, we'll never know if we would have gone to avoid defeat.

[andyh]

If we qualified for the EL by playing our way into it as an aim, then this would feel great.
However, it’s like we have fallen into it, and it feels very flat and disappointing right now.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Premier League Match Centre

@PLMatchCentre
#MUNAVL – 72’

The referee’s call was a free kick to Manchester United with Bayindir deemed to be in control of the ball before Rogers gained possession. The whistle was blown by the referee before the ball entered the goal, therefore the incident was not reviewable by the VAR.

I mean, these are rules which no one knows about until all of a sudden they apply. This is PGMOL working rules into a very simple virtual assistant referee system which they have mismanaged from the start.

I'd sue the fuckers for £80m+ for lost revenue.

[aj2k77]

I'm probably stupid but  I don't understand the ref blowing whistle thing. Surely the whistle gets blown all the time and things get checked and altered by VAR?

He blew before the goal. play is dead as soon as the whistle goes.

It doesn't make sense to me, nothing VARy does. Ref blew instantly, because he's a dickhead at Old Trafford so there's no recourse. Everything else can be VARed to fuck for minutes on end but a simple check such as did the keeper have it, no , goal, that can't be done.

Doesn't make sense. Games gone Tom.

[PeterWithesShin]

Pretty sure everyone knows that when the ref blows play is dead. The system did nothing wrong today, the ref blowing too soon is the fuck up.