This is post-matchday, not post-match. For measured opinion and different retrospection.
FA Cup Fourth Round
HT: Manchester United 1 - 0 Wigan Athletic
FT: Manchester United 4 - 0 Wigan Athletic
Goals:
1-0 Fellaini 44'
2-0 Smalling 57'
3-0 Mkhitaryan 74'
4-0 Schweinsteiger 81'
Stats
- |
Man Utd |
Wigan |
Possession |
72% |
28% |
Shots |
11 |
7 |
On Target |
4 |
5 |
Blocked |
1 |
1 |
Corners |
5 |
2 |
Offsides |
1 |
0 |
Fouls |
11 |
6 |
Pass Completion |
89% |
70% |
"In Attacking Third |
80% |
58% |
Man of the Match
Mkhitaryan (BBC)
Schweinsteiger (Official)
Post-Match Pressers
Jose (Post-Match Interview)
Mkhitaryan/Tuanzebe/Pereira/Joyce (Post-Match Interview)
Jose (Post-Match Press Conference)
Jose: "We deserved to win. The first half wasn't very good but we managed to lead 1-0 when we needed to play better. We knew they would be organised and play with aggression, would be very compact, and to break that down we needed to change a few things. The second half was much better. We deserved to win, the job is done and we are in the last 16. Overall I am happy with what we did."
Joyce: "The game plan was working, so we are disappointed to lose. We had good chances, the best chances really, certainly up to half-time.The timing of the first goal was unfortunate, then straight after the break we concede another poor goal. It was bread-and-butter stuff - we deal with those balls week in week out, two headers at the back post. After that you can forget about the game; we were just chasing and were opening up. The only emotion is disappointment.
Links
Match Thread
/ Post-Match Thread
BBC Report
Highlights/Full Match Download or Watch Online
Next Match: Hull City (H) - KO 20:00 GMT, Wednesday 1st February - Premier League Gameweek 23
We play Hull again on Wednesday and with City having a potentially tricky away fixture at West Ham (you never really know how they'll play) and Liverpool playing Chelsea, we have an opportunity to try to make up more ground on the teams above us. I don't expect Arsenal or Spurs (Watford and Sunderland) to have too much trouble with their fixtures though.
Hull have seen a mini-upsurge in form recently though under their new manager (beating us, Bournemouth and Swansea) and they may come to us with some new found confidence (although they were just tanked 4-1 by Fulham in the cup and are selling some big starters too).
Following 5 Matches: Leicester City (A), Watford (H), St Etienne (H)**, TBC*, St.Etienne (A) **
* FA Cup
** Europa League
__
Who is left in the Cup?
1 Tottenham Hotspur (PL)
2 Derby County or Leicester City (CHAMP or PL)
3 Oxford United (L1)
4 Sutton United (National League)
5 Wolverhampton Wanderers (CHAMP)
6 Arsenal (PL)
7 Lincoln City (National League)
8 Chelsea (PL)
9 MANCHESTER UNITED
10 Millwall (L1)
11 Huddersfield Town (CHAMP)
12 Burnley (PL)
13 Blackburn Rovers (CHAMP)
14 Fulham (CHAMP)
15 Middlesbrough (PL)
16 Manchester City (PL)
With our match sandwiched inbetween two Thursday night games against St.Etienne, a kind home game would be the preference I imagine! I wouldn't mind a game against Blackburn Rovers at home, been a while since we've played them (getting on 5 years) and I've always loved beating them after that 94/95 season when they won the league by a point with Cantona on the sidelines after his little incident at Selhurst Park.
Draw at 19:00 GMT on BBC One tonight (30/01/17).
Some Thoughts
A game of two halves. We played ok in the first half at times (the Mkhi chance at the back post comes to mind after good work by Martial and TFM) but largely I thought we were more like the United of last season (i.e. half-time we had 71% possession, 3 shots). Credit to Wigan though, they kept their shape really well throughout that first half and made it very difficult for us to break them down with the goal coming from a mismatch at the back post. Because of that goal, Wigan had to start to come out more and the second half opened up. They started to tire, space started to become more apparent and Martial (far more effective on the left in the second half), Mkhi and Mata started to really enjoy themselves. The third goal was a beautiful counter-attack and was great to see us scoring one like that (simply have the pacey players to do so was great).
I thought Smalling looked nervy still - he made a few good tackles and grabbed his goal but I doubt that kind of performance will really cement his place in the side under Mourinho. Shaw had some good moments too going forwards and on the ball looked comfortable. Hopefully he continues to get game time under his belt and starts to rediscover his defensive form because he's definitely some way away from how he was but I'm optimistic he can get back there.
Good to see debuts handed to Pereira and Tuanzebe. The latter looks pretty green (to be expected) and not a natural right back but, botched clearance aside, didn't do much wrong. Pereira had some routine saves to make but not too much to do. Was also good to see TFM getting some minutes in at RB and I thought he had another good game for us. Some poor touches going forwards but his cross for Mkhi in the first half was terrific. I think he really could be a fantastic right back if he wants to become one because he has all the right attributes for it.
Whilst not the most difficult opponents we could face, we showed why having such a deep squad is an advantage. Being able to rotate out players like Pogba, Ibra, Jones, De Gea, Carrick etc and being able to bring in Mata, Rooney, Smalling, Romero, Schweinsteiger is a frankly ridiculous squad. Players like Fellaini and Schweinsteiger are terrific players to have to be able to rotate in and allow breaks for others (like Carrick) and with four competitions left to fight in, to be able to have such high calibre rotation options is an invaluable thing.
Finally Herrera's shot at the end means I'm the 30,000th person to say this; What has happened to his shooting this season?
[–]iSubyPereira 0 ポイント1 ポイント2 ポイント (0子コメント)
[–]tomahawkthehawkerMkhitaryan 0 ポイント1 ポイント2 ポイント (0子コメント)
[–]DP112Herrera -1 ポイント0 ポイント1 ポイント (0子コメント)