montelik:

Rio - where was d leadership? when everyone around you is going gaga, I would expect you to calm things down, tell Jones to focus on fulfilling his primary duties, pull Fabio ears and get him to switch on. Instead you allow d madness to continue. Maybe if VDS was around he would shook some sense into them. But as d experienced head, you should cracked some skulls if you needed to.

montelik:

Okay after some thought. All defenders need serious spanking with d exception of De Gea.

Fabio - was d poorest, Lazy, always out of position, no concentration or awareness, couldn't complete even d easiest of passes and manages to get himself injured for good measure.

i have a sneaky feeling the end is near for him at OT.

Rio - where was d leadership? when everyone around you is going gaga, I would expect you to calm things down, tell Jones to focus on fulfilling his primary duties, pull Fabio ears and get him to switch on. Instead you allow d madness to continue. Maybe if VDS was around he would shaken some sense into them. But as d experienced head, you should cracked some skulls if you needed to.

He does not even look fit to me. as soon as injuries get sorted out, we need to settle on a back four and stick to it. it is hurting De Gea.

Jones - Now I know many fans love d boy, but time for some truth. he is hugely talented but also very naive. Its a sign of his age and inexperience which aren't his fault. Smalling would never make some of d decisions he makes, neither would Evans. If Evans made some d calls he makes, United fans would probably diss him till he left O.T. Focus on defending, not continually trying to show off your abilities. Defend first and foremost and forget d rest. He kept pushing too high up d pitch and leaving spaces and room. Why he didn't clear leading to d p.k I don't know, it was a real silly schoolboy error.

i am glad this is happening. maybe the hype will boil down.

Evra- Had a good first 45 min but then went back to his old self. Lazy, didn't look even interested in tracking back despite getting caught out of position time and again after pushing forward ineffectively. Couldn't be bothered to tackle, close people down or cover gaps and pick up opposition players.

has been poor for over 18 months. Fergie will buy a left full back (someone to give him a fight for that shirt)in Jan and ship out Fabio in the summer.

Special mention to Carrick who was United's best all round player. Typically most fans will bash him first when we don't perform, but today he played well and really covered Ando's poor play, also Welbeck and Giggs did relatively okay.

Waiting for Coogar to do the obligatory defence for Anderson. I was asked to eat humble pie. the pie is still on the table. Ain't eating no pie yet. that midfield still needs re-hauling. I said that in the summer, said it while we were winning this season and i am still saying it.

Meanwhile Nani should please give some classes to Valencia and Young on how to mix it up as United wingers. On d pitch for 20 mins and 2 beautiful deliveries, one that Welbeck should have buried and another that Young did. I don't think Valencia or Young managed any for their 90 mins.

montelik:

Funny how most are giving Rio d brunt of blame. I can understand if d point is that he was d most experienced player on d pitch and should have been more assertive. But beyond his failure to go all "Keano" on his fellow defenders, in my opinion he was d only defender who played like he was using his brain (if only he could have shared some to Jones and Fabio). Everybody else was playing away from their positions, he was d only who tried to play in position. He was being pulled all over d place in first half covering for Fabio who went AWOL. Then when Jones forget he was a CB and started playing like a wing back, d workload on his head was almost that for 3 positions. In 2nd half he was picking up Fabio and Jones slack play, and this was when Basel still had an offensive game plan. This was an occasion not to lead by example but for him to bash some sense into d others. Even though Evra is also an experinece head, his form is so patchy now that I doubt he can even try to pull rank on any of d other youngsters.

For me d second Vidic is fit, its back to Rio & Vida in defense. Experience and understanding all d way. Let Jones and co sit on d bench and watch & learn for a bit, like Smalling did early on last season, it would do them some good.

Cristalz:

I said it a lil' while ago. . .the UCL will expose United's defensive issues.
If Basel could effectively do it, it's kinda scary to imagine what teams like Bayern and RM will do. If United get that far.

Nothing more to add. . .montelik has properly hammered all the nails.

BTW, De Gea needs to get his English going, man up and boss his defense if Rio won't do it. It's mainly the goalie's job, after all.

Mr_TA:

Nothing De Gea would have done about yesterday's weakness in defense. That job was Ferdinand's. Rio is supposed to organise that defense no De Gea, no amount of screaming in tongues from DDG will change that.

Cristalz:

@StarBoard
It's another scary thing to consider.
Anderson's work rate isn't bad, but asking him to boss the midfield is a little too much.
He simply hasn't got the level of skill and creativity required to handle that for now.

Double N:

Anderson is the only Brazilian (With the exception of Ramires) that can't effectively complete a simple step-over. . Dude has energy no doubt but does he have the footballing brain to use it? That's another question entirely.

Cristalz:

Says who?
A goalkeeper is in charge of the net and his defenders are there to aid him in keeping the ball out of it.
If they are not doing what is necessary to achieve that, he needs to scream into their ears till they get the message.
Rio is supposed to organize the defense, okay, but say Rio gets injured 'n subbed, then what? He coaches from the sidelines??
Dude, that's the goalie's duty.

De Gea can't keep staying mute like he has no right to talk his defenders down. Forget age. A goalie's a goalie.

@StarBoard
It's another scary thing to consider.
Anderson's work rate isn't bad, but asking him to boss the midfield is a little too much.
He simply hasn't got the level of skill and creativity required to handle that for now.

chamotex:

One average performance and people are already pointing fingers and laying blames

Why are people attacking Ando and Rio for last nights game?
So cos Rio was the most experienced defender on duty, he should take all the blame? Common now guys.
Yes, we threw the game away and we are all disappointed but I dont buy this unfair criticism labelled at the wrong guys mostly.

Rio was actually our best defender last night . . . or which other defender had a better game than Rio?

And I'm still scratching my head on what Ando did wrong in the match also . . . was it his fault Fergie didn't sign a decent CM.
Or what other option do we have? . . . . maybe we should bring Gibson back then or the inexperienced Pogba maybe y'all will be happy.

The team got complacent . . . . simple! And I dare say that result and the way things happened was a one-off. (Going 2 nil up and conceding 3).
The most important lesson is for the players to buckle up and learn from it.
Putting the blame on Rio and Ando is actually unfair.

chamotex:

Valencia - I cant even remember anything he did right.
Fabio - he was light-weight throughout.

Defensively, we didn't perform.
We mustn't defend like that against Norwich.

Ibime:

If ninjas wanna be honest, Jones was most culpable last night.

Ibime:

If ninjas wanna be honest, Jones was most culpable last night.