He has to come deep because the buildup play is so slow that either we lose the ball before we get to him or lump it up the pitch. A slow set up like that forces him to come deep at the half way line to get the ball. Bar the last 20 mins where we went all out attack, he got the ball on the wing such few times. Matic is part of the buildup problem, do you not see him talking 10 touches before passing? That allows the opposition to recover, basically killing our counters and other attacks. Lukaku is important, no doubt, but would he have made a difference tonight? When the team is 1-0, 2-0 down, rarely does he come up with a goal to get us back in the game or score the equalizer. He likes to score the goal that makes it 3-0, 4-0, 2-0, rarely the decisive goal.
Anyway, this match shows us the same problems that were in the newcastle game, the west brom game, the Huddersfield game. Our set up is too slow and lethargic, this stems from the manager. The players he starts such as young, smalling, darmian, valencia are not good enough anymore or never were. I hope these matches have showed all utd fans that our defence is not actually good, we rely on De gea every match to save us. Good, defensive football is the likes of what atletico (not recently) and juventus are doing. That's what you call a good setup, not ours. It's a myth that we are good defensively, de gea is the one preventing us from conceding so many goals.
We need new full backs, 1 defender to pair with bailly and need to sell the deadwood. Deadwood including valencia (finished now), young, darmian, shaw, smalling, jones (maybe), fellaini and so many more. We will never progress if we give fellaini another contract and keep other bad players. Now, obviously Mourinho won't sell them all, but he cannot play them anymore next season if he wants to win the title. One more season is what I will give mou, but if he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again such as buying only 3 players, playing the deadwood and refusing to play more expansive football, he has to go. Defensive football is ok as long as it wins important trophies like the champions league and league titles, but not ok if all we are winning is the small trophies.
