Win or lose I think you’ll find I have always been consistent on that cunt Gao and the running of the club.
In the cold light of day, I’ll attempt some rational answers.
Do I blame Ralph? Emphatically no. He might have tweaked the team a bit but basically he put out the best he could. Two Academy players given their big chance. Ramsey made a decent go of it. More on Jankewitz to follow.
Then who was to blame? I’m putting Jankewitz top of the list. He’s a professional football player who acted in a reckless way and destroyed the team’s confidence and the game plan in one moment. You could see the shock on other players’ faces and he got little sympathy leaving.
Tactics? No. I’m sure Ralph planned to play our usual pressing game, take the game to MU, push our wing backs up and keep theirs pinned back. He never got a chance. We hadn’t even settled into the game when Jankewitz blew it. A key part of our play is the central ball out to the DMs who can then bring the others in. Once a man short there, we couldn’t get out. And we rely on the DMs pressing, harrying and winning balls in midfield. JWP couldn’t do that alone, so Armstrong, Djenepo, Ings and Adams all found themselves forced back. It then became backs to the wall with a lot of chasing of a team with all the time to be patient and make us run. And we were tired. No chance of rotation just 72 hours after the last game. United made four changes with ridiculous quality left in the bench.
I’m not going to analyse every player as I thought the ones left on the pitch worked hard, but with belief totally shot. There was plenty of frustrated anger too.
Officials? Dean was absolutely disgraceful. Jankewitz deserved red. No argument. But he gave a string of one-sided decisions on fouls. He gave a pen for a foul outside the box which VAR did, amazingly, correct (much to Savage’s anger) I don’t think I’m imagining it when I say he was almost deferential to the MU players whilst being to opposite to us. The Che offside goal was nowhere near offside and only VAR can be blamed for that. What were they looking at? The end of Che’s long-sleeved shirt? No idea. That would have made a difference, not to the final result, but to lifting spirits. I’m sure that at 1-4 we wouldn’t have gone on to concede 9. Then Martial seemed very close to offside for his goal and we didn’t even pause for a check. No careful manipulation of lines for him.
But the key incident that turned the game from a bad defeat to a disaster was obviously the Bednarek penalty. Dean couldn’t wait to give it, VAR was too weak to overturn it, although of course we still have the “clear and obvious error” which I assume swayed them. This interpretation is so subjective: depending on the team involved, VAR can search for ages for something to call clear and obvious, or quickly sweep it aside. Often there’s a refs union that thinks it’s good to back each other up. I’m sure if Dean hadn’t given it, VAR would have quickly agreed. And we don’t know what was said when he was called to the screen, which only seemed to show one freeze frame. Was it “Don’t think that’s a foul - take a look” or “if you give that maybe you have to send him off” Either way, once VAR failed to do its job and bottled it, there’s no way the arrogant twat objectively reviews it. And delights in flourishing the red. That finished us off: without that it’s 6-0. Not good, but I’d have taken it.
This rule about not attempting to play the ball is a perfect example if how Laws are being tweaked (offside and handball are others, but life is too short) without careful consideration of the exact wording to avoid vagueness and misinterpretation. There needs to be a clear inclusion of there being INTENT to foul the player without trying to get the ball. Bednarek’s contact (if at all) was after Martial started falling, he was trying to pull out and there was absolutely no intent to commit a cynical foul to stop a goal.
Ralph has picked the team up before and he’ll do it again. I hope I never see Jankewitz again.
Rant over. Blue line. Move on.
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Several things are wrong in football
Pitch side monitors - fuck off, that is VAR copping out
Offside rule - surely it has to be part of the player they can actually score with, both for attacker and defender.
And Dean is a cunt
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Add handball inconsistencies and I agree totally.
We can’t use Mike Dean as a reason for a 9-0 hammering for fuck sake, he is a twat and a poor ref but we lost 9-0, not 1-0 to this decision.
He didn’t make any difference to the result. He did make a difference to the score. And our prospects for the next game if Bednarek is suspended.
And let’s not forget, folks, it was only 3 points. 3 points that we were unlikely to get anyway. 3 points that won’t define our season. 3 points that we can get at the next game. COYR
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Started the game with a depleted side with two rookies…you have to say looking like a 3 - 0 or 4 - 0.
Two minutes in one rookie sent off down to 10 men…you have to say looking like a 5 - 0 or 6 - 0.
86 minutes Central Defender sent off in non-contact penalty incident…you have to say Dean was responsible for our 9 - 0 defeat.
We defended the best we could…it wasn’t enough but to say “We can’t use Mike Dean as a reason for a 9-0 hammering” is not true…it was still 6 - 0 up to that point and Dean single handedly turned it into another 9 - 0.
6 - 0 is bad enough…but not a 9 - 0.
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Is it too early for next season’s sweepstake for the Annual 9-0 Saints Thrashing? If not, I’ll have Citeh.
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We defended the best we could?
5 goals at least were the result of our own poor defending not United’s attacking prowess no matter how much the media gush.
Losing is one thing but 9-0? This has only happened 3 times in the premier league, twice to us, that is not good reading and its offers no excuses.
Even the official site is quite honest,
ICYMI We have appealed Bednareks red card
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I suppose it makes a point, publicly. It’s not going to have any other effect.
Until the PGM whatever thing decide to have them officiating us every game…
Spot on. Great analysis.
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Seems to me that RH gets the team to play so tightly to his system (rightly so) that when we get someone sent off in the first few minutes, the team are rocked and don’t know what to do. This is exacerbated by not having a leader like fonte on the pitch to sort them out. Not a criticism of RH but the common factor in both these games is an early sending off and the guys looking lost, which then sets the pattern for the rest of the game.
Undoubtedly we were poor in defence and need to try and resolve that when the heads drop.
We’re definitely suffering from not having the full facilities available for injury treatment too. Will be a tough few weeks.
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Exactly and there is such a thing as context and cause and effect. The butterfly effect if you will.
The dejection they must have felt as those decisions went against them must have been awful. They must have thought “what the fuck have we got to do to register a goal with this cunt ref?”
As stated yesterday I struggle to see them admitting just what a clusterfuck of a sequence of events and decision making that was.
I think they’ll stick to their guns and back the refs to save face.
I hate work
All my colleagues are cunts
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