[DomesticTadpole]

Erm, we are in 2nd place. By definition, we are very close to the title.

I cannot believe how some are losing their minds over this game.

 

[podurban2]

I cannot believe how some are losing their minds over this game.

Neither can I, it’s baffling imo.

 

[redflair]

You obviously never saw Herrera there last season or Juanfield. He had a bad game as did Matic. He certainly isn't a wimp.

No, of course I saw Herrera at Juanfield etc...that's not my point. Anfield is simply a different game for United players and they probably need to be at a higher level - in terms of character and temperament - than other games.

Ander wasn't - on this occasion - but he was isolated. Let's hope he can come back next season with a more beefed-up midfield.

 

[Sarni]

I cannot believe how some are losing their minds over this game.

Their beloved City team has never had a bad game so it's understandable.

 

[#07]

I cannot believe how some are losing their minds over this game.

Its genuinely bizarre.

There's been more hand wringing about this fixture than games we've actually lost to poor sides.

I've read some amazing nonsense since Saturday. Fergie would've this, Fergie would've that. Between 2007/08 and 2012/13 we did not win at Anfield and we were routinely rubbish. Fernando Torres looked godlike against our best defensive pairing in the 21st century. Dirk Kuyt scored a hat-trick against us (in a season we won the title and got to the European Cup final!) Even when we did win in 2012/13 we were outplayed, fortunately Rafael scored a worldy and, out of nothing, Valencia ran the length of the pitch to win us a penalty that Van Persie scored.

Where is this idea that when Fergie was our manager we were amazing at Anfield? Go back to the start of the Premier League. We have had only a handful of great performances at Anfield. All the crying because we drew at the ground of our archrival. People need to calm down.

How are we the story when Chelsea, the Champions, just lost to a Palace team that couldn't buy a goal before now?

 

[unitedforeveral]

It was not as negative as i thought but we did not play well and that is certain. We could attack and retrieve the ball at times but we did not pass as well as we could've. We created just one chance and i think that is not fair to the game itself. Some of the slower teams in the game play within their strengths to get the balls far more often into the final third but i think we did not think enough about attacking. The mentality should've been to attack and take as many chances as we get. I thought Matic's strike was a good one and on another day it could've been a turning point but we sat back too deep and tried to push them back into their own half and that did not happen.

We let them enter our half very easily and we also let them pass the ball around quite casually. They kept us in check and played decent football till the very end. I don't think Pogba would've made a difference but i certainly think Fellaini would've added to this midfield. How we underestimated the importance of the giant in the midfield.

The positives to take from this game are pretty much that we defended on all corners of the pitch and didn't apply our attacking tactics one bit. Our half chance with Lukaku was another positive but only if he had gone and converted it. He's not going to get too many chances in front of competitive sides and he is obligated to take them and turn the game on its head. If he had converted it, we'd be happy to defend and keep the win. Sadly, he didn't manage that and De gea is our saviour. He is our only hope of the title right now. The best keeper in the world and there are no 2 ways about this. Not even the great Neuer would've saved that.

Our next games are Benfica (A), Huddersfield (A), Spurs (H) and Chelsea (A). These are the games we need maximum points from and anything less than 10 points from these games will not be well received.

 

[Summit]

They were fine because they worked. The tactic was to go and secure a point. I myself would've went more attacking but I'm not the manager.

Absolutely, because we are better than going to places with a veiw if securing a point.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

Its genuinely bizarre.

There's been more hand wringing about this fixture than games we've actually lost to poor sides.

I've read some amazing nonsense since Saturday. Fergie would've this, Fergie would've that. Between 2007/08 and 2012/13 we did not win at Anfield and we were routinely rubbish. Fernando Torres looked godlike against our best defensive pairing in the 21st century. Dirk Kuyt scored a hat-trick against us (in a season we won the title and got to the European Cup final!) Even when we did win in 2012/13 we were outplayed, fortunately Rafael scored a worldy and, out of nothing, Valencia ran the length of the pitch to win us a penalty that Van Persie scored.

Where is this idea that when Fergie was our manager we were amazing at Anfield? Go back to the start of the Premier League. We have had only a handful of great performances at Anfield. All the crying because we drew at the ground of our archrival. People need to calm down.

How are we the story when Chelsea, the Champions, just lost to a Palace team that couldn't buy a goal before now?

We were fecking appalling in that game too. Maybe the worst we've ever played in winning a big game, not that anyone gives a stuff when you win at Anfield.

I agree though, People seem to be forgetting as well by the way we've scored a shitload of goals this season already. We parked the bus on Saturday, we've been good in general.

 

[Unmutual]

Where is this idea that when Fergie was our manager we were amazing at Anfield? Go back to the start of the Premier League. We have had only a handful of great performances at Anfield. All the crying because we drew at the ground of our archrival. People need to calm down.

Too right. After we played really open and got spanked twice in a row, 2-0 and 3-1 back in 2001, Fergie never really went to Anfield all guns blazing ever again. Even the good games tended to be solid defensive performances where we were clinical from a small number of attacks, like when Rooney then Tevez scored the only goals in 1-0 wins. Some wins, like the Forlan win and the last minute O'Shea winner, came after really awful performances. Anfield has been a bogey ground for us for ages, this season is nothing new.

 

[Rob]

Rashford was tired from england duty because southgate kept playing him despite the qualification. He would have gotten an injury if he was overburnt . And martial has all the skills. He is just playing in a very different philosophy and systemto mbappe's which is not adaptible to his strenghts.

I think you forgot martial's first goal in english football?

He might have been, but both Henderson and Coutinho played more minutes in the last qualifier and they both started. In the end, Mourinho wanted a point, Rashford didn't fit in that plan, and Mourinho got the point.

I have forgotten his first goal, yeah. It's probably against us, when you say it like that

 

[Rob]

Rashford was injured. Knock on international duty.

Didn't realize that. I just thought that when Mourinho obviously didn't come to win, Rashford wasn't needed.

 

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Its genuinely bizarre.

There's been more hand wringing about this fixture than games we've actually lost to poor sides.

It's because a lot of people have been literally itching for an opportunity to put the boot in on the manager and have had precious little opportunity so far this season imho. Therefore the first real opportunity out it all spews.

 

[shield]

It was a pretty poor performance. I don't think you can say, "Liverpool away, always tough so OK". I mean every time we have a bad game, it is "Stoke away" and "Southampton are tricky". The criticisms are valid IMO. Performances like this would have been criticized even under Sir Alex.

We wan't to be a dominant force. We need to develop our attacking instinct. It is going fine now because we are not conceding. So, everything is still going according to plan. But what if we concede. The players will then have to think about doing something they are not used to. Like that 4-0 against Chelsea.

I am not that disappointed with the result. It is just that, I would have liked to see a little more attacking intent. Martial himself his good enough to do great damage. But he needs atleast some support. We never ventured forward, our midfielders never showed any intent to go and help our forwards.

During the second half, we had them frustrated. We could have tried a few swift counters towards the end and tried to nick it. But we kept being overly cautious. If we attack, we risk the chance of conceding, so let's just never attack.

It was a pretty good defensive performance, but if our team had played wearing West Brom shirts, no one would have felt anything amiss.

I might be being a little harsh, but I thought that this time we had a team which would go and dominate at Liverpool. We have been hearing so much about Liverpool's shaky defense, but never bothered to exploit it. Their defenders we all over the place, having a merry time in our half and a few precise passes would have opened them up.

I have seen us perform appallingly under Sir Alex at Anfield, and I felt that, with us being league leaders, and with Mourinho at the helm, we would have the courage to go and take them on.

I mean, we have lost this fixture in previous years and still managed to win the league. We went on an unbeaten run the previous year and we still finished 6th. We need to be more courageous.

I hope the performance we say was just because we were missing important players and we don't perform like this against all the top sides.

 

[UpWithRivers]

After years of watching football I just don't get why people don't realize it was tactical. José himself said we never had the energy in midfield and I was waiting until they changed from a midfield 3 which they didn't. Or something like that. It was the plan batman. Sometimes your tactics don't work out because of the opposition. We played exactly as instructed. It was a decent enough idea. Sit back. Soak up their pressing and if they over reach hit them on the counter. Never quite worked but plan A was job done. Not pretty but sometimes you do what you gotta do.

 

[Lash]

Not sure if this has been posted, but the sentiments of Custis and Ducker sum this up nicely.

 

[misterredmist]

It's funny how times change, time was when a draw was a good result at Anfield, now, due to the pragmatic reputation of our Manager, it is fashionable to label the performance as 'park the bus' football....... may be 'park and ride' the pressure ?

anyway, I have been to Anfield on many occasions, seen us win, lose and draw, however, most of the games were tense, lacking in a lot of free flowing football, very rarely have we cruised to victory there, the two '3-1's in the late 90's the exception may be.

This is a match against our fiercest rivals, with a lot at stake, so understandably, the players are probably out of their comfort zone and have less time to play to their strengths than in most other games. So, although Liverpool aren't riding as high as they once were, they will always come out rocking for this one.

Conversely, if you think back to the 70's & 80's when we were the underdogs in this fixture against a team that was winning most things on a regular basis, our success against them belied our position in the pecking order, basically, Liverpool at that time were victims of United players giving their all.

Yes, we could have played better, yes, we were careless in the second half and we have to be disappointed that we could not have been more enterprising. But, sometimes you have to give the opposition a bit of credit for putting us under that pressure.

However, we came away with a point, now in all the times I have been a United fan, a draw there has never been a bad result. And, we earned more points than Chavski at Palace and the Bummers in Watford this weekend, how will they feel?

 

[SteveJ]

'Has Jose's style killed our relentless drive for new subscribers of shit, sensationalist broadcasting?'

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It's funny how times change, time was when a draw was a good result at Anfield, now, due to the pragmatic reputation of our Manager, it is fashionable to label the performance as 'park the bus' football....... may be 'park and ride' the pressure ?

anyway, I have been to Anfield on many occasions, seen us win, lose and draw, however, most of the games were tense, lacking in a lot of free flowing football, very rarely have we cruised to victory there, the two '3-1's in the late 90's the exception may be.

This is a match against our fiercest rivals, with a lot at stake, so understandably, the players are probably out of their comfort zone and have less time to play to their strengths than in most other games. So, although Liverpool aren't riding as high as they once were, they will always come out rocking for this one.

Conversely, if you think back to the 70's & 80's when we were the underdogs in this fixture against a team that was winning most things on a regular basis, our success against them belied our position in the pecking order, basically, Liverpool at that time were victims of United players giving their all.

Yes, we could have played better, yes, we were careless in the second half and we have to be disappointed that we could not have been more enterprising. But, sometimes you have to give the opposition a bit of credit for putting us under that pressure.

However, we came away with a point, now in all the times I have been a United fan, a draw there has never been a bad result. And, we earned more points than Chavski at Palace and the Bummers in Watford this weekend, how will they feel?

We also seemed to get someone sent off, which thank god seems to have stopped.

 

[Distracted Steward]

Been thinking about this as not to be rash. I still can't help but think it was a poor performance on the whole. The result was surely decent, but Liverpool's weaknesses weren't tested let alone exposed. We will play 10 matches against the top six, and this one will probably go down as one of the weaker showings.

Lovern was there to be gotten at. Lukaku sat on him the whole match but the ball just didn't get to him. Moreno was picked on, but the lack of supporting movement kept United from collapsing the Liverpool defense when he was caught out. Gomez should have been tested at right back.

No fluency or even patterns of play were shown going forward. There just weren't any real questions asked of Liverpool beside breaking down a quality defense playing behind the ball.

Strategically it was a good result. No damage done, point taken away at a place we've struggled and we move on.

Absences were key, but there were opportunities going in that were left begging. I'm confident Jose and his staff will do a better job exploiting our opposition in future big league matches. We'll see much better than this.

 

[Dembeza]

 

[RedDevil@84]

Is it true that Gary Nev said Lukaku deliberately stamped Lovren?
And did Scholes claim they should have got a penalty for the Herrera push?

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

 

[Trizy]

Well that's depressing.

 

[AlwaysRed66]

Is it true that Gary Nev said Lukaku deliberately stamped Lovren?
And did Scholes claim they should have got a penalty for the Herrera push?

I never heard him say it, & if did it would be an idiotic comment as Lukaku clearly didn't. Look at the incident at full speed then slowed down. Even slowed down it is clear he is unbalanced & touches him accidently. Lovren's comment is disappointing but not as bad as that German managerial clown who said maybe he deserved a red card. Give red cards for that, & most matches would end up with few players on the pitch.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

It looks like it's play for a nil nil or get soundly beaten. No wonder he's reverted to the backs to the walls plan

 

[clarkydaz]

this is the kind of stuff used to laugh at Moyes, that's really bad

 

[Josep Dowling]

In my living memory the only time we have played well at Anfield was the first game LVG was in charge.

We played our own game, slowed them down and in my opinion tried to win that game.

Liverpool are not a rival for the title this season. They had a leaky defence and yet we didn't try to exploit that. Look at Jose's record away from home to the big clubs. It's actually embarrassing.

 

[Ban]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/4..._the_day&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport

Dejan, you're a twat, shut up, go ask Mamić what to say, you robbing bastard.

 

[surf]

Poor performance, good result, so take it and move on. Hope Mourinho learned something, like who is up for it in these kinds of fixtures and who isn't. Mkhitaryan was a passenger and Lingard might have been better.

 

[AlwaysRed66]

Poor performance, good result, so take it and move on. Hope Mourinho learned something, like who is up for it in these kinds of fixtures and who isn't. Mkhitaryan was a passenger and Lingard might have been better.

Looking at recent performances against the top six away (above) I seriously doubt it.

 

[Dobbs]

Look at the above results and then consider there's a big bunch of posters telling us there's nothing wrong with playing this way. What are they thinking?

It doesn't work and it's unbelievably boring.

 

[johnamiri]

Look at the above results and then consider there's a big bunch of posters telling us there's nothing wrong with playing this way. What are they thinking?

It doesn't work and it's unbelievably boring.

Some people will accept boring as long as its successful. If I go to the match I would ideally like to be entertained. I don't think many people want to watch Man Utd play like Burnley ,successful or not.

 

[Dobbs]

Some people will accept boring as long as its successful. If I go to the match I would ideally like to be entertained. I don't think many people want to watch Man Utd play like Burnley ,successful or not.

It's not successful either so why folk defend it I don't know.

 

[Hawks2008]

I cannot believe how some are losing their minds over this game.

It ain't just one game, Jose consistently is negative and fearful against top teams. Thats what people don't like.

 

[Crimson King]

Doesn't look great but we pretty much threw the Arsenal and Tottenham games last season as they were right before the EL final. We also comfortably beat Chelsea at home just before that didn't we? We also beat Tottenham at home, only 1-0 but was fairly comfortable I felt. We were also really unlucky not to beat Arsenal and Liverpool at home last season, after THEY both came to OT looking for a draw.

Obviously I would like us to start winning against our main rivals again now that the team has started to take proper shape, but against Liverpool wasn't the best time. We were missing Pogba and Fellaini leaving us short of bodies at CM, and it was right after an international break.

Also, am I missing the part of our history where we regularly thrashed Liverpool at Anfield under Fergie? Our best performance there in my memory was under LvG, every other win I can remember was always a very satisfying smash and grab.

This anti-football malarkey is a load of bollocks and just another way of attacking Mourinho, and in turn our club. We shouldn't help circulate such a one-sided point of view.

 

[VP89]

Our best performance there in my memory was under LvG, every other win I can remember was always a very satisfying smash and grab.

This anti-football malarkey is a load of bollocks and just another way of attacking Mourinho, and in turn our club. We shouldn't help circulate such a one-sided point of view.

Under LVG we saw much of the ball and played with greater conviction. Gary Neville even said it was one of the best Anfield performances, result aside, he's seen by a united side for a long while. I'd agree with that too, we were very good against them under LVG and it wasn't smash and grab.

José however aims for a smash and grab in the away matches and it's simply not working. That's not an attack, it's fact. The results are there since 2015 for all to see.

 

[Sassy Colin]

I am pretty much convinced Jose did it on purpose to piss off Klopp.

 

[LuisNaniencia]

Well that's depressing.

Maybe it looks depressing but when you actually break it down it's not so bad.

Looking at his United fixtures in that list, the Chelsea game was obviously a bad result but the first Liverpool game they were on fire, we were in bad form and a draw was a good result. The Tottenham and Arsenal losses we were focusing on Europa (which we of course won). And then the Pool result at the weekend which IMO is a decent result.

Those stats are pretty misleading.

 

[OohAahMartial]

Isn't playing with three midfielders with pressing at home a more negative tactic? Instead of using his home advantage and going for the win instead he aimed for sterile control. He didn't dare go more attacking because we've regularly beaten more open sides 4-0. Yet the onus is on the home side to go for the win despite the risk. And this was a bad result at home for them. Judge us on how we play at Old Trafford against them and its own circumstances.

 

[Crimson King]

Under LVG we saw much of the ball and played with greater conviction. Gary Neville even said it was one of the best Anfield performances, result aside, he's seen by a united side for a long while. I'd agree with that too, we were very good against them under LVG and it wasn't smash and grab.

José however aims for a smash and grab in the away matches and it's simply not working. That's not an attack, it's fact. The results are there since 2015 for all to see.

Since 2015? I assume you're talking about when his Chelsea team were losing to pretty much everybody? I'll forgive him last season as our team was so disjointed i'm willing to see it as part of the process. And yeah, we should start to expect more but we should see how the other games pan out this season before burying him under this amount of shit.

That one game under LvG is the only time in my entire life where I can't remember it being a smash and grab. So that's the anomaly, not what happened at the weekend, that's just generally how these games play out. Also, pretty much every time we've lost to Liverpool at OT has been a smash and grab too, there was even a game under Benitez where we lost 0-4 and that useless LB Dossena scored, that was still more of a smash and grab rather than a domination.

Last season at home to City they blitzed us in the first half, true, but in the 2nd we took the initiative to the point where Guardiola took off a striker for another midfielder shortly after HT to try and hold on to the victory, and in the end we probably deserved at least a draw. So even the great Pep is capable of digging in for a result...

Under LVG we saw much of the ball and played with greater conviction...yeah sure, except we were also shit that season and it was one of the most boring periods to watch United play in our history. The beginning to this season has been far more entertaining, we've actually scored goals!

Mourinho will have to show a bit more ambition in away matches to our main rivals, but this early on in the season when you don't know how vital that point will be over risking it for 3 and getting beat...he did the right thing.

If at the end of the season we draw or lose every away game to last season's top 6 and look dire every game then I will be worried, but right now I have more reasons to be optimistic than not. I wish other people could see that too and try and enjoy our football club again while we rightly can.