Bournemouth v Man Utd Sunday 14th August 13:30

[AFCB_Mark]

Delighted for 40 mins, largely nullified them and Francis dueling with Zlatan was great to watch. Decent shape and plenty of chances to run at then. Lewis Cook impressive dancing around Fellaini.

But as ever there's one central defensive fuck up per game. Changes the tone of that half and the whole game, makes it an uphill battle now.

 

[Mone 1926]

Really don't like how King's playing, I hope to see Gradel for him in the second half.

Bailly looks great, the best transfer for Man Utd at the moment.

 

[Liam_SWFC]

Eddie Howe will be furious with giving that goal away, matched United all over the park for 40 minutes and never gave them a sniff, plan b now for Bournemouth.

 

[G-Dragon]

Disgusting dive from Rooney.

 

[Stevencc]

Disgusting goal from Rooney, 2-0!

 

[G-Dragon]

Another fluke goal lol. You couldn't make this up.

 

[Liam_SWFC]

Good finish that from Rooney, good play from Valencia too. Should see this through now maybe even another goal or two for them.

 

[G-Dragon]

Finally a good goal. Expected from the beast.

 

[Nilsson]

zlatan oh myyyyyyyyy

 

[Liam_SWFC]

3-0 Ibrahimovic great strike.

 

[Stevencc]

Goal by God.

 

[G-Dragon]

Goal by God.

Settle down mate. Only one god.

 

[Stevencc]

Settle down mate. Only one god.

I meant to ask you why you changed your Origin username from Ibradragon, mate?

 

[G-Dragon]

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL BMOUTH!

 

[G-Dragon]

I meant to ask you why you changed your Origin username from Ibradragon, mate?

Unfounded claims.

 

[Liam_SWFC]

Bit of hope for Bournemouth, get another and this gets edgy for United.

 

[Stevencc]

Unfounded claims.

 

[Stevencc]

Happy with that as a start. Great to see a Zlatan screamer in his first league game and I thought our defence was excellent overall. Bailly looks like an inspired signing.

 

[Nilsson]

Very professional performance. Valencia, Bailly, Blind, Herrera and Fellaini were brilliant. Martial and Zlatan got more threatening as the game went on but I can't wait until Mkhitaryan is more into the fold, I think he could be the one who links our attack together.

That's the best Fellaini has played for us in a defensive midfield role, not getting my hopes up but maybe the new hair style and Mourinho will bring a different side to the big lump.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Game got away from us early second half there, another dodgy goal with an element of luck going Uniteds way and an element of basic error on our part again.

Then the long ranger which I'll need to see again, as I'm not sure how from that distance a daisy cutter sneaks in, perhaps superb accuracy or perhaps Boruc was caught off guard. Being ibrahimovic of course that will be the headline from the game.

A nice and rare moment of quality in the final third for us saw a dummy fooling Bailly and allowing Smith to slip in and finish. But uncharacteristically we didn't really push on from that, the game just fizzled out into a training session. Normally we'd cause more late chaos than we eventually did moments before the final whistle. De Gea took a bang in that melee but I think he was ok, had to cajoled off the pitch by the physio.

All in all, we were clearly second best for too much for the game and crucially as ever knackered ourselves out chasing the game after stupid defending.

First competitive game with a new formation and whilst I liked Cook Surman and Arter in midfield together (Cook ghosts past players easy), there's lots to work on. Ibe and King were very poor, largely anonymous and offered Wilson nothing.

Roll on West Ham and a good old London away day.

 

[Nilsson]

Ibe and King were very poor, largely anonymous and offered Wilson nothing.

I was surprised Gradel didn't start. Thought he looked good when he came back from injury at the end of last season and he was the attacking player of yours I was most worried about going into this.

Bailly looks like an inspired signing.

Agreed. Very early days and much tougher tests to come but the early signs are very good. Quick, strong and good on the ball, love his no nonsense approach.

 

[Nath]

Do you want to give us the title now?

 

[Nilsson]

 

[Bilo]

Yeah well we'll see that Ibra lad away at Stoke won't we.

Never rated him.

 

[PDS]

We matched them until that frankly ridiculous error, it was a decent, if unspectacular, first half performance.

But we're Bournemouth, and we elope gifting soft goals. We did that twice and it killed the game. A late flurry with the Smith goal gave a few positives but it's a shame we gave ourselves so much to do.

Didn't think United were all that, very similar to under LVG. They'll grind out a lot of wins this season because they won't get presents in every game like they got today.

 

[Jarv]

Professional Performance did enough to win and weren't troubled really. Best performance of any of the clubs in the title fight.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

When we were going well, United were resorting to long ball to Ibra. Better than Fellaini I guess?!

I thought that would cause us trouble, we don't usually do well at that, but surprisingly Francis dealt with it well.

But it was when Ibra was getting ball to feet and moving in the second half that he came to life. As a static target man he's rather wasted. If that's going to be Uniteds' fall back tactic then a better side than us will lap that up. But when United got properly going and used space better they were a different proposition.

Blind did well for them, kept up with Wilsons' movement allowing Bailly to kick everything else.

 

[Stevencc]

Bailly's no-nonsense defence was brilliant, we've really missed that since Vidic and I hope he continues to kick everything that moves if it's that effective in future.

 

[Christian Slater]

Bailey tackles with the intention to win the ball and maim the opponent. I like it.

Attention where it's required though:

 

[ColB]

I thought United were much more solid than spectacular but they did what they needed to do. Ibrahimovic had a good debut and deserved his goal. I still think Martial is over-rated (or at least over-hyped) and that Rashford is a better overall player.