fellaini, rooney and mata in the team means more slow and ugly football, we'll scrape another win but it won't be pretty...

Yessss!!!!

A bit of Ibra magic!!

Well we could do better, but we've done enough to just deserve the lead. I would say everyone is on 7 or 8's with the exception of 2 players. Mata and Martial are on 6 for me after that half. Neither really did much either in possession or when we didn't have the ball, at one point I completely forgot Martial was even playing he'd been so invisible.

Nice goal from Zlatan, and shocker of all is the Pogba/Fellaini partnership that's doing remarkably well.

How do you feel about the way those three have played now?


Yeah, and let's credit Rooney for finding space to deliver the great assist, because Banana won't

So far, so tidy. We are still giving them a bit too much space, but going forward we look a different team to last season. Pogba settling in nicely. Martial slightly off his game though.

Not too sure we should get Fonte now

I still want to see Mikhitarian in for Fellaini and I'd like to see Rashford up front with Zlatan for Rooney.
Think it would inject more zip and creativity.
Impressed by Pogba so far, he's everywhere
It's a huge improvement on recent season's dire fare but team selection Is wrong for me.

Love how the defender put his arms up straight away even though he knew he did trip him.

2-0!!

Some real good chances coming our way, surely a third is coming too.

Pity, that ball from Miki to Pogba at the end had "please score me" written all over it. But overall, another pleasing win. As Tribec said, mostly 7's or 8's all round, Pogba had a good re-debut and we finally look to have some squad depth.

Mata improved in the second half, but was still an obvious choice to be brought off, Martial just wasn't at the races all night and whilst he's young, it's a worry he's not picked up any form for some time now, hasn't had a really good run of form for some time. One or two flashes in games against West Ham and Everton last season, but that's been it.

All the plaudits will go to Pogba and Zlatan, but quietly Rooney had a really good game tonight. Always wanting the ball, not wasting half as much as he has done of late, and his passing was coming back.

Another decent performance with some real glimpses of quality from Pogba, Zlatan is showing his class in front of goal he is just the type of striker we have needed for years he will get us plenty of goals. Overall we are more exciting to watch then under LVG though that isn't saying much, the defence still looks a bit iffy to me and we were sloppy with our passing at times, still work needs to be done but things are going in the right direction.

I will take that, second half was better than the first half, happy to see Ibra score two more goals tonight.

Yes second half was better a bit like in the Bournemouth game, also just noticed that Zlatan has scored the same amount of goals in 3 games as Falcao did in his spell with us just shows the contrast between the two long may it continue.

other then an average cross which zlatan turned into a good one rooney did nothing all night, lots of sideways and backwards passes but nothing creative. he's too slow to run with the ball or beat anyone and his passing is bang average, anonymous performance. it just goes to show how bad rooney has been that this is considered a good performance from him, it was marginally less terrible then his previous performances but still far from good enough, if we don't win the league this season it will be because of rooney as he'll cost us points. mkhitaryan should be starting ahead of him in the ten position, he's a far better player.

as far as the team performance goes, a good solid win, nothing spectacular and we will have to play better against stronger teams but some promising signs. i didn't like how deep we were dropping in the second half as it invited unnecessary pressure on our goal which southampton nearly scored from a couple of times. im very happy with zlatan so far and excited to watch him through the rest of the season, he has surprised me with how quickly he has settled in.

Enjoyed that. We looked like the beginnings of something resembling a United side.

If you are dropping Rooney after that performance (I'm not saying it was world beating), who's going to come in for Mata and Martial then? As by comparison to Rooney they were woeful.

Yeah, a fair few positive points came out of that match.

Always nice to have a bit of a gap at the top of the league, even at this early stage!

i would have lingard straight back into the team on the right wing when he returns so that takes care of mata, as for martial we all know he has the quality and will come good so there is light at the end of the tunnel with him. there is no light at the end of the tunnel with rooney, he is just going to continue to decline and get slower, rooney's performance today is about the best your going to get from him these days and its still not good enough.

I can't see Fellani being dropped anytime soon. He's doing a decent job so far and I think Jose likes him.

I would like to see Miki get more game time though.

Good result nonetheless. S'hampton certainly didn't roll over tonight.

I think we have got so much depth now, that we have a genuine fight for nearly every place in the side (De Gea seems to be just about the only one that doesn't), which should hopefully push each person on to do well, as they will know that if they underperform, then there is a top class player or two just itching to get the chance to replace them in the side.

That is in stark contrast to last season, and previous to that under Moyes as well.

Our bench was packed with talent, and that is without the most recent World Cup winning captain either!

I'll give you Lingard, but I have to say that Martial hasn't had a great game since early this year. Like Rooney he's shown flashes, but hasn't been consistent, but at least last night Rooney didn't hold the play up, was looking to be involved and did his defensive work. The majority of problems that Southampton caused us was due to both wide midfielders being awol from defensive duties. I'd like to see Rashford brought in with Martial being dropped for the next few games at the very least.

I do disagree that Rooney's form won't improve any further, I think Jose hit the nail on the head when he talked about these players playing under LVG's tactics for the last 2 years, it's going to take a little while to break them and turn them into his players. I have seen small changes in Rooney's play over the last 2 weeks or so, that are encouraging signs of a return to the player he once was, as well as adapting to the loss of pace he's experienced.

As of right now, Rooney's form isn't the most worrying thing in the team, it's that of the wide midfielders. We are winning, and scoring goals, we've already got a 10th of last seasons goals in the first 2 games of the season. What we are talking about is fine tuning the team and right now the front two have scored 4 of our 5 league goals between them.

For what it's worth I think that things are looking VERY promising to be honest .
Only Mata really disappointed me but his days are numbered as soon as Mikhitarian gets settled . I thought Martial has a poor first half but looked to be something like his old self in the second half . Rooney is a slight concern but he showed some good signs second half , time will tell I suppose .
The keeper is great , both full backs looked fab , Baillie looks great , even Blind is looking good . Luke Shaw is getting back to his best . Even Fellaini looked pretty damn good last night and actually him and Pogba showed a lot of potential together .


Ibrahimovic as expected will be immense this season ( and hopefully next ) , Pogba will also be spectacular - as will Mikitarian as well .

That still leaves Herrera who I have high hopes for plus Rashford and Linguard to come in at some time .

Great times ahead !! I can't wait for the upcoming United v City clash

Loving the banter between Zlatan and Pogba, good team spirit can be crucial.
Anyone see Pogba's impression of Zlatan in the interview with Thierry Henry?

Didn't see it but Pogba does seem to have a hugely upbeat nature - which hopefully means his head won't drop when the going gets tougher than it has so far.

That's more like it Stoke. 2-1 now.