The fact that we are at Wembley today is a positive because it means that despite some of the crap football from last season we still had to win the FA Cup to be in this position.

Carrick passes the ball forward, but they hardly went to a player in red shirt when he passed forward (he wasn't the only one doing that). Fellanini at least made some decent tackles worked hard in front of the defence. On the goal he gave away had he not made such a woeful back pass, we'd be giving him some praise for the excellent tracking back and tackle in that situation.

Carrick is clearly a much more creative and forward thinking midfielder. The fact that had fellaini not made that back pass the best you can mention about him is he worked hard says it all.


The fact is he DID make the woeful back pass and that cost the goal.

Fellaini does nothing that you wouldn't expect from an average player but because he's so tall, awkward and clumsy, when he does the things an average player should do it looks like an above average performance. More often than not a good performance for Fellaini involves being fortunate enough not to get a second yellow for any one of the four blatant elbows he commits after already being booked.

Waiting at Paddington for my train after watching the game at Wembley.
Few little things I wanted to share.
Bailey-he looked really solid and gave Varsey a tough time.
Felaini-well what more can be said about him-he cost us a clean sheet and didn't really do anything. He got a few boos after his error
Rooney-so many poor touches/missed placed passes.
Zlatan-didn't do much was but was able to win it for us.

Also nice to see Luke Shaw back and not scared to get stuck in.

Interesting comments from the manager after the game, suggesting that had Pogba wanted to go to Madrid or Barcelona: "....I don't think the two guys there will let you play at that level."

Early days, but Bailly was impressive. Proper defender as well, not afraid to give someone a whack. He'll make a few mistakes but is young enough to sort that out.

The result was good, really interesting to hear Mourinho's interview basically saying that there is a lot of work to be done yet.
I will never make any apologies for criticising Fellaini, for me he should never be in the starting line up. I would prefer him to be wearing a different shirt for a different team in all honesty.

Every sane united fan would feel the same way

I know I'm known as someone who isn't a Carrick fan, but it was simple today. His passing was off, as was others, he was weak in tackles and wasn't at his best. I said as much at half time. Fellaini was tackling well, with the exception of that one major incident wasn't giving the ball away much and was a far more attacking threat, and better defending against a "big" team when the ball was being thrown into the box.

Because he was signed by Moyes, people have it in for Fellaini. He isn't a world beater, but honestly apart from De Gea who was on that side today?? Before anyone shouts Ibra, his best days are behind him, he's not the player he was, though he is certainly still a great player. Will he keep his place in the team when Pogba signs? I doubt it, but he will be a useful player to have on our bench. If he does stick around, you have to say that's 3 managers who have kept him in the team, maybe they know more than we do about how effective he is and what he brings to the team.

Making assumptions about why someone doesn't rate a player just makes people look ridiculous. Personally i don't rate fellaini, not because he was signed by Moyes but because he has all the creative skill of a dead hedgehog. He may not give the ball away much but that's because its a peice of piss to just pass it back to the defence every single time.

Its not the skill set a team with ambitions should be having in a midfielder. Moyes or not.

I look forward to you giving this viewpoint towards both Carrick and smalling in future

Moyes had no clue what to do with him, Van Gaal fell into seeing him as useful by accident as we were creating bugger all and suddenly 'lump it up to Big Mo', seemed appealing under those dire circumstances. Mourinho hasn't even managed a competitive game for us.

Bit early to pull out the whole '3 managers..' thing

Good game? Meaning he managed to run around to no effect, stay upright and pass the ball (usually backward) to a teamate three feet away from him? Except for one crucial pass of course....

I don't know why you are so anti-Carrick in all honesty. His talents are obvious and he was clearly better than Fellani today.



Yep, that was good to see.


Moyes also signed Juan Mata.

What nonsense. Fellaini never has been the kind of player that a top 10 club should have, he's pretty much average at best and he's lucky that Moyes rated him so highly because no way would a top club ever want him otherwise.

Good win yest, plenty to ponder and improve upon, but best to do so with a trophy, rather than without one.

Looking forward to this Pogba saga coming to an end very shortly, and then the start of the season.

Do we think that Pogba will go straight into the team for the Bournemouth match without any pre-season matches under his belt?

Presumably you don't break the world record transfer fee, and then don't start the player do you?

I think it will depend how close to the match he gets signed by, if by Wednesday I think he will get straight into the squad but any later and he will probably be on the bench and get about 20 minutes at the end. Although thinking about it the latter option might be the best option for the first game.

i think he will play when he is ready, there is no rush

batdude why are you on here ? did you not begin your new job this morning??

Given he's had no preseason I'd start him from the bench for the first match.

Di Marzio has said Pogba is on a plane now towards Manchester. Medical later today and it should mean he'll start training tomorrow.

That's what I would do, then give him a run at the end depending how the game is going.

Yeah, 20 minutes or so would be ideal. Obviously if we need a spark then bring him on earlier.

The home game against Soton would be a better idea for his debut, imo.

Think in an ideal world that'd be his first start. Might be a bit too soon I guess but we could do with him getting up to speed as quickly as possible. Stating the bloody obvious with that last bit...

I think we will see the departure of at least one mid by the end of the week (not inc Januzaj)

Who are you thinking of?