Introducing: Stick to United with Wayne Rooney and Mark Goldbridge

0:00Hello everybody, it's Mark Goldbridge here. I hope you don't mind me dropping onto the Overlap feed. I've got the latest episode of Stick to United with me and Wayne Rooney for you today. If you're not a United fan or if you don't think it's for you, feel free to skip along. But if you do enjoy it, just search for Stick to United wherever you get your podcasts. Every week, me and Wayne talk all things Manchester United. We'll have guests, debates, maybe the odd argument and hopefully lots of fun along the way. So here's a clip from today's episode. If you want the whole thing, just search Stick to United.

0:37Welcome back to Stick to United then. Let's get straight into it, Wayne. Manchester United's loss to Hull City. I suppose the first thing I should ask is where did you watch it? I watched it. I was in a match today so I was in the studio I was watching the game and it was a bad start to a long day. Yeah, it was a tough watch. It was tough. Just to see them, you know, flattered to do anything, to create anything and never really felt like, once Hull went 1-0 up, never really felt like we were going to get anything out of the game. So, yeah, it was a tough first day of the season, as tough as, you know, I've watched for a long time.

1:22Yeah, I think the thing for me was just, I expected it. maybe not that early but I think when Carrick did really well last season but I think he did really well in an interim environment or caretaker manager environment where he got the best out of what he had and I think he did a great job but I think he needed a hell of a lot of help from above to give him more and I also think you could argue that with Casemiro gone you lose that height in both boxes you lose the efficiency and the tackling and the amount of work he puts in there You chuck Tillemans and Santos in there. And I think that sort of game, and to be fair, you did call it a bit in the tactical preview we did that Hull could be more difficult.

2:05I went 4-1. You said it might be 1-0 United. But first and foremost, I want to ask you, how does a performance like that happen? You've had weeks of pre-season, and it was just... It was a full 90 minutes of we didn't look like we were ever going to get back into it. Yeah, I think your whole pre-season really is designed for that first game of the season. That's, you know, the games you play. Obviously, your players are getting the fitness back in. Players are at different places with the World Cup. Some players went further and some players didn't go. Some were fitter than others at this moment in time.

2:45But your whole pre-season is for that. I used to remember waking up the morning of the first game of the season. first game of the season and you just couldn't wait for it and you've got that excitement of a new season the buzz of getting back out there playing and it just didn't feel like that yesterday and I knew when you play a newly promoted team I can't say this enough you know how difficult it is away from home and if you give them any sort of encouragement any the fans anything to get up the whole play in Man United it's a massive game for them if you give them encouragement which we did before they scored we did you know McBurnie was was proving really difficult for us to mark we weren't getting pressure on him we let him get it turn, get out wide get in the box get on the end of crosses so we got away with it early on that we didn't concede earlier than what we did and then when they get the first goal I just knew it was going to be tough and for the new players coming into Man United they have to realise very quickly that this is a different club It's different to Aston Villa or Brighton, Chelsea, wherever we're getting players from.

3:56It's a completely different club and you are going to get scrutinised, whether you like it or not, from the first minute. So you just hope, obviously, Myhill's been through that. You've got players who've been there for a long time. You hope that they can help them through. This week now is so important for them new players because now they've experienced what it's like losing Man United, losing against a newly promoted team. And it's not nice. You don't want that. You never want that. But you have to get through that very quickly and get over it. Because obviously we've got another team, a newly promoted team, in the next game.

4:32And although it will be at Old Trafford. Just from minute one, the tempo's wrong. The intensity's wrong. And you're looking at every player that comes on and it doesn't change. I mean, I want to talk to you about half-time and break the game down. But watching the game, I'm like, it's Manchester United. We're all buzzing. It's the start of the season. There's an opportunity to be better. The week before, we're closing this Belaber deal, which we'll talk about in a bit. And there's optimism. I mean, even Owen Hargreaves said before the game, you know, I'd have had a good transfer window, which I don't agree with.

5:06But you're thinking, come on, it's Hull City. And throughout the whole game, but certainly in that first 20 minutes, which we'd spoken about being so important, Hull are winning all the duels. and as a viewer of the game and as a fan of United, you sort of like, you'd run through brick walls for it. But it's so difficult because we've been in this position so many times. There's been so many of these results and it's not necessarily a manager thing. It's happened with many managers. It's happened with many players. I know it's only game one and I know there's been a massive rush to say it's only game one, but we've all been here before and it's sort of like, it's almost like a lack of trust.

5:44How does it keep, happening? What is it? What needs to change? I think players need to take responsibility on the pitch as well, I think because when you play against a whole city or as I said the next game is Zip Switch, you can set up tactically however you want to set up and a lot of the time it's decisions the game doesn't go as you can stop and start training sessions and you can say if the ball goes here we have to come across and and then you make sure your wing is in with you or whatever that is. But it's decisions from players on the pitch which make the difference. So that first 20 minutes, I was sat with Al Chira watching the game, and I said to him, I said, the two forwards for Man United, they were coming back and they were covering the midfield players for Hull.

6:35Now what that allows, and this goes back to what Bruno said after the game, what that allows is that allows the Hull goalkeeper, the centre-backs to have time on the ball which then that allows the full-backs or the wing-backs to get higher up the pitch so then if the ball does go long it might fall for them but then there's no other thought then get the ball out of your feet and cross the ball but then if an individual makes a so in this occasion it was Bruno and Cunha if one of them makes a decision that you know we're not letting them dictate what's going on here so one of them gets to the ball and then they forget about the midfield players because what that does if he goes to the ball then your midfield player in behind you automatically has to come in and take care of these midfield players then your centre backs come in and then you squeeze higher up the pitch but then you're putting a better press on and we were too passive we were allowing them to just dictate and do what they wanted so why is that why is that not happening then who's responsible for that is that the players well a lot of it comes from I can only say when I used to play that comes from your centre backs so and I used to have arguments at Rio all the time over it because they'd tell you to go or wait so they'd say wait, go wait, go whatever and I'd always remember it was me and Tevez who'd done it mostly but that was just off the cuff just like do you know what we've got just no not being disrespectful we've got championship centre-backs on the ball why are we giving them time?

8:03so when the centre-backs would say wait we were like on a leash and then in the end there was like no chance and then we'd go and we just put pressure on the ball and what they do? They rush it. They kick it long and normally it goes through to your keeper and then you get the ball back and you start playing from there and we showed them too much respect and I think you can now, there's that much, you know, there's everything where you can analyse the game and data and stats and all that but actually, the game hasn't changed. The game remains the same in terms of if you put pressure on players who are not as good as you, nine times out of ten they give you a ball back then you end up then taking the ball off them their fans get on the back because they're just kicking the ball back to you so I think that's what I'm saying about players taking responsibility yeah you can be set up in a block a high block low block mid block whatever that is but it's decisions you make on the pitch as an individual or as a like it was me and you the forwards at times right I'm just going and know what sometimes you might have a bit of quality and pass it into my field play and you bounce around you so what they've put one player out of the game but if you don't and you're too cautious with it you end up what happens is you're dropping deeper and deeper then now they're getting balls in the round your penalty box where they are a threat Yeah because I think like obviously we've spoken last week we'll speak again about like Belaba coming in and what can be done in the last week and a half to help out Michael but ultimately it's a bit like when Amrim lost to Grimsby last season you don't need a manager to beat Grimsby and I think with Hull you can't really blame the Glazers or Ineos for not beating Hull.

9:41So in that first 20 minutes when the tempo's not there and all the way up to half-time, it's on the 11 players on the pitch. Is that what we're saying? Carrick can't really do a hell of a lot other than say, do it. Why aren't they doing it? Is it technical? No, I think the difference I've found now and obviously I've been fortunate or unfortunate looking at both ways that I've managed. so I've seen it from both sides as well the difference with players now is in the academies they're getting taught so much and then a lot of it is on the computer a lot of it is in the classrooms so the players now they're used to seeing stuff on their laptop and then when the ball goes here you should be here but then you press play on that laptop within half a second the pitch is completely changed so what you have to do as a player and after training after games they want to watch the clips back and every clip I've had players come in asking to watch the clips back after the game and you're like do you really want to see them because they were horrendous some of them but what players have to do is understand and manage the game and understand you know we've got Hullier doing to us like bullying us doing what they want having time on the ball the crowd are all having a good time you've got to be horrible.

11:07You've got to be horrible on a football pitch and you've got to, you know, sense the right moment where this is not good enough. I'm doing something different. I used to do it to full-backs. I used to, like, if the game went in. And sometimes the fans as well, at Old Trafford sometimes, where back in the day we used to play Wofford at Old Trafford and you're expected to beat Wofford. so sometimes if you're not playing well or it's not going it can go a bit quieter so I used to run purpose I used to go and smash a fullback absolutely spot on and the crowd get up and then it brings energy a new energy so that's where the crowd then help you lift your energy at times when you're not bringing it so it's like I think it was last week against AC Milan the pre-season game Rashford didn't do particularly well but he clattered into someone on the right hand side and everyone goes mad about it and I think it's like you look at that game against Hull and you're sort of like, it's almost like a trust thing.

12:05It's a trust thing. I go into games like Hull or Everton and I don't know what I'm going to get. Whereas in your day with your team, obviously you did lose games. We mentioned that Burnley game in 2009 when you lost 1-0, but I don't trust this team. I think they're good players, but I don't trust them. Trust is a big word and it's so important to have trust in terms of a manager trusting his players and the players trusting the manager. Because the reason I say that is because you hear Bruno after the game when he was talking about it's just like last season, the first 20 minutes, we're not pressing, their goalkeeper's getting the most ball.

12:43That's the captain coming out after the game saying people aren't running, people aren't doing their job. But then that comes down to then you have to make a decision as well. You have to make a decision on the pitch in terms of like I've been in that exact position with Bruno's in as captain of Manchester United and if I feel the goalkeeper is getting on the ball or not I'm going I'm thinking I'm not sitting here and letting him do this again and watching him play the ball longer and then I'm having to run back and then all of a sudden I'm defending on the edge of my box I'm not doing that so I'm going to press him and whether we've worked on sitting in and and I'm trying to stop them in field plays from getting the ball.

13:27I'm going, and whatever manager's on the touchline, it could be Alex Ferguson, it could be Van Gaal, whoever it is, they know that's going to happen, and that's what they have. But then I've got to trust any of my teammates behind me. Sometimes you make the wrong decision and you go at the wrong time. But if I'm going to commit to it, you better commit behind me. So that's leading by example. That's where when you hear people talk about what type of captain is he, what type of leader are you, you can lead by how you speak you can lead by what you do on the pitch but you have to lead by how your body we spoke about body language last week with Marcus what your body language is on the pitch how you're going if Bruno sprints to that centre back what do you think Santos and Tielman are going to do behind him what do you think well they're going to run aren't they they're going to sprint in behind him so straight away there's three players sprinting getting to the ball that if Harry Maguire and Heaven see the midfield players doing that they're naturally going to think as defenders if we don't get up behind them that gap in between is going to be massive for their players to get in and get on the ball and turn so we have to get up behind them and that's when I was saying last week if they do that when I brought the Tangerine in the keeper then sweeps up so it's a domino effect so it has to be yet you can get messages from your sense backs but you have to have people at the front of the pitch who are going to lead by example and say, I feel the game.

14:55It might be a time where you might have planned to do that, to go and press the ball. It might be a time where you say, do you know what? They're getting a lot of joy from playing rounders. So let's just sit there and let the centre-backs have the ball because they're not going to hurt us as much as these are. So you have to think and know what's going on in the game to then make decisions and react to them.

15:21So that was Stick to United with me and Wayne Rooney. If you want to listen to the whole episode, search Stick to United wherever you get your podcasts. Cheers.