[Isotope]

The result is satisfying. It gives us chance to complain about the team, and (possibly) deny Liverpool their first League title in ~30 yrs.

 

[nimrod]

I watched the game with a couple of United fan pals and agree with many of the comments in this thread. Your team looks in disarray, one post said the squad has been put together by 3 different managers and thats very true.
My thoughts are that Mourinho is mostly to blame for the present day problems, he spent a lot and bought badly on several players, spending all that money on Pogba was a mistake, he's the big "I Am" much like Neymar and in a way Ballotelli was for us. He needs to be shown the door, along with several players like Lingard, Smalling, Jones, Sanchez & Martial, great on his day but can you rely on him game after game ?
If Id been Woodward I'd have waited for summer and gone all out for Pochetino, and offered him a huge transfer budget, he really seems to know his stuff and has built a very good team with little money, a team who play with his philosophy, I think he wouldve fit well at United on a long term basis.
Its just an opinion though and who knows OGS may well be successful once he gets his own players, it feels like rolling the dice to me though, and United being so rich dont have to do that.

 

[UncleBob]

Many people commenting on here have never played the game at a decent level..it is glaringly obvious that we are not a team, we are incapable of keeping the ball, stringing any passea together and we have zero flair in forward areas,not one player can commit a defender. We resist to hoof ball. We also struggle to retrieve the ball, good sides in the modern era hunt the ball down and get it back as soon as it is lost, we dont do this. When we do get near the box there is no in there....its painful to watch.

You can run about as much as you like but if you are incapable of keeping the ball and having any type of creativity then you have zero chance.

Pot something kettle something

If you look at our initial period under Ole, we stood high up the pitch in order to win the ball back, often we either won the ball back and countered or we forced the opposition to boot it up.

People underestimate fatigue

Quite a few players look knackered.

There's plenty of reasons to question our fitness levels under Mourinho. Initially i figured that our poor stats (distance covered, sprints) were down to strategy, but after we adopted a more aggressive style it didn't last long until we started struggling with muscle injuries all over the pitch. Look at Liverpool and Dortmund under Klopp, its difficult to hit the sweet spot (Dortmund ran themselves to the ground in the cl final)

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

I can't phantom why is he allowed to post outside football forum.

I disagree, what we really need right now are lectures from Scousers about how poor we are. I don't think we're quite seeing it ourselves, the MDT was far too positive in that second half.

Manchester won the game. This will stop Scousers gloating for many years hopefully.

where's the bumblebee emoji when you need it?

 

[stu_1992]

It's time for Ole to be brave and "rest" him. Romero should get the rest of the season

I highly doubt he'd make that call for the Chelsea game, but perhaps for the games after that. I mean if we lose the Chelsea game we have nothing to play for, so you could any team out there

 

[RedIan]

Who the hell are the 7% who voted Fred motm. Are they watching a different game, he continually gave the ball away, showed an inability to track back and run and generally proved once and for all he is yet another very costly transfer mistake.

Fellani was a better player than fred. Since Fellani left we look very short in midfield with herrara injured (or sulking) matic passed it. Its down to McTominay, he looks next best option after pogba, its a crazy position for a huge, cash rich club to be in.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Who the hell are the 7% who voted Fred motm. Are they watching a different game, he continually gave the ball away, showed an inability to track back and run and generally proved once and for all he is yet another very costly transfer mistake.

Fellani was a better player than fred. Since Fellani left we look very short in midfield with herrara injured (or sulking) matic passed it. Its down to McTominay, he looks next best option after pogba, its a crazy position for a huge, cash rich club to be in.

Hahaha.....no. Slightly better goal threat at the moment because Fred is still finding his feet, but Fellaini was a complete liability in defensive midfield most of the time.

 

[TRUERED89]

City's record at OT is infuriatingly good! FFS

 

[mark_a]

Kompany lucky to get just the one yellow and crazy that Sterling and De Bruyne didn't get booked. Ref's letting that stuff go is a big help to City as it means they get away without a cost for snuffing out opponents possession with tactical fouls. Until refs wake up to that, City will have an advantage. (City are still a good side, but this is annoying). Same goes for the surrounding the ref, including Sterling asking for a yellow for a United player yesterday.

 

[Foxbatt]

Yes selling Fellaini in January was a mistake in my opinion. We need someone nasty like him who can hack with the dirtiest of them.

 

[RedIan]

Freds had a full season too "find his feet" he simply isnt good enough for man united. Good players dont need to find their feet and they dont continually give the ball away and loose possession and then have the inability to run and get it back.

What are his actual attributes ?

Pace? - slow
passing - terrible on all but simple short passes - gives it to opposition a lot
Tackling - average at best
Shooting - abysmal record.
Tracking back - poor

Apparantly hes fun in the dressing room so a tick there.

 

[SqualorVictoria]

Kompany lucky to get just the one yellow and crazy that Sterling and De Bruyne didn't get booked. Ref's letting that stuff go is a big help to City as it means they get away without a cost for snuffing out opponents possession with tactical fouls. Until refs wake up to that, City will have an advantage. (City are still a good side, but this is annoying). Same goes for the surrounding the ref, including Sterling asking for a yellow for a United player yesterday.

Are you sure you didn't watch a replay from one of previous season's games? De Bruyne wasn't included in the squad.

 

[Coops73]

Thought we did ok first half, especially the first 35 mins, i thought Rashfords harrying and pace absolutely terrified Kompany and in my opinion he should of seen a 2nd yellow but Mariner bottled it.

City got better towards the end of the 1st half and straight away from the the start of the 2nd we looked a little tired but there was still moments to cheer about for us.

Lingard should of taken his chance and then moments later had a chance to just touch it to Rashford but on the edge of their box and had it nicked of him and this is where the quality of our players really stands out, they were simply the better team on the day.

Really poor effort from De Gea for their 2nd goal, shocking for a keeper of his ability, not sure where his heads at right now.

Silva should of seen red for his challenge on Perreira but like St Pep said, how can they foul when they have the most possession...cnut.

I’m just pleased to see a bit more fight from United and I didn’t think we played that poorly they’re just a better team right now and if the players can show that in the next 3 games I still think we’ll make top 4 especially if we can beat Chelsea and after Arsenals result last night and the fact that both teams have tricky games away at Leicester.

Pogba my MOTM and probably the best player at our club right now but sadly perhaps not the best player for our club right now.
Shout out to Fred and Rashford too, never stopped running and hassling.

Disappointed with the result obviously but Top 4 is still on in my opinion and if at the very least we can get that and this result has denied the scum from winning the title then I’ll take that because sadly that’s as good as it gets for us this season.

 

[GhastlyHun]

The Manchester derby, according to United fans :

 

[BrianMcClair'sBarnet]

That defending.
Amateur hour.

 

[Siorac]

City's record at OT is infuriatingly good! FFS

On the bright side, we have a decent record at their place. We won 6 and drew 2 out of the last 13 there (since their takeover).

 

[TRUERED89]

On the bright side, we have a decent record at their place. We won 6 and drew 2 out of the last 13 there (since their takeover).

Well atleast that's one good thing, we beat them from 2-0 down last season. But after Bernardo's goal last night did anyone really feel we were going to do anything? That's the same bloody team as well! We don't work keepers enough, all season they've had it piss easy! 1 shot on target last night too

 

[Ban]

That defending.
Amateur hour.

Who is that pretending to close him down, Darmian?

 

[K13]

Pot something kettle something

If you look at our initial period under Ole, we stood high up the pitch in order to win the ball back, often we either won the ball back and countered or we forced the opposition to boot it up.

People underestimate fatigue

Quite a few players look knackered.

There's plenty of reasons to question our fitness levels under Mourinho. Initially i figured that our poor stats (distance covered, sprints) were down to strategy, but after we adopted a more aggressive style it didn't last long until we started struggling with muscle injuries all over the pitch. Look at Liverpool and Dortmund under Klopp, its difficult to hit the sweet spot (Dortmund ran themselves to the ground in the cl final)

Very good post. We will be a completely different team with the right physical conditioning. Some players are struggling to play effectively twice a week so Ole is having to make significant changes. Martial for instance has had knee/groin issues since the beginning of the season and the hope is that pre-season will solve the problem. I still remember when Kieran Richardson played for months with a hairline fracture in his back so modern science is not immune from missing things.

Our only real attacking tactic last night apart was the Pogba / Rashford combination with the long ball. Rashford will gamely chase those all day long but it was not really something we could realistically win the game with.

I don't think Ole expected to get much from last night and has kept certain players back for the Chelsea game which is a much more winnable game.

I am of the mind now that Champions league is not as important as sorting out the mess we are in.

We have a RB who is a converted winger and at 33 is still part of our spine. A LB who is now on 11 yellow cards after playing 33 games. A powerhouse of a midfielder - Pogba - that we can not utlise effectively. 3 forwards in Sanchez, Lukaku and Martial that we can not get the best from and if each left would probably light up the team they join because they are all class. The ball over the top suits Rashford because of his electric pace but the other 3 mainly prefer it to their feet or playing little one twos in triangles and then picking their moment. Yet we have no midfielders apart from Herrera and Mata who can play that way. A radical rethink about what style we want and then getting the right players to play that way might be best before we even think about winning things again. We are too disjointed and dysfunctional at the moment and even if we had a good pre-season and reverted to the team Ole use in the 10 match unbeaten run can any of the squad players fill in effectively?

 

[Matt007a]

We started fairly well but declined as the game went on. There was more effort than against Everton although I still wouldn't say anyone really ran their socks off.

The lack of quality showed through in the end. We missed a few chances in the first half and then as City improved we just stopped making chances all together.

It's infuriating to see Pogba pick up the ball inside his own half, look up and have absolutely nothing on. Every red shirt is hiding behind a blue one and no one is trying to make themselves available. This leads to Pogba having to try and hold the ball with 3 City players on him and he eventually loses possession.

The defending for their 2nd goal was awful. Aguero makes a good run but Darmian needs to tell Smalling to deal with it so he can stay wide and cover Sane. Instead they both track inside leaving Sane with the freedom of the park to shoot. The less said about De Gea the better!

 

[11101]

Thought we did ok first half, especially the first 35 mins, i thought Rashfords harrying and pace absolutely terrified Kompany and in my opinion he should of seen a 2nd yellow but Mariner bottled it.

City got better towards the end of the 1st half and straight away from the the start of the 2nd we looked a little tired but there was still moments to cheer about for us.

Lingard should of taken his chance and then moments later had a chance to just touch it to Rashford but on the edge of their box and had it nicked of him and this is where the quality of our players really stands out, they were simply the better team on the day.

Really poor effort from De Gea for their 2nd goal, shocking for a keeper of his ability, not sure where his heads at right now.

Silva should of seen red for his challenge on Perreira but like St Pep said, how can they foul when they have the most possession...cnut.

I’m just pleased to see a bit more fight from United and I didn’t think we played that poorly they’re just a better team right now and if the players can show that in the next 3 games I still think we’ll make top 4 especially if we can beat Chelsea and after Arsenals result last night and the fact that both teams have tricky games away at Leicester.

Pogba my MOTM and probably the best player at our club right now but sadly perhaps not the best player for our club right now.
Shout out to Fred and Rashford too, never stopped running and hassling.

Disappointed with the result obviously but Top 4 is still on in my opinion and if at the very least we can get that and this result has denied the scum from winning the title then I’ll take that because sadly that’s as good as it gets for us this season.

Pretty much agree with all this. The first 30 minutes showed we do have the ability to compete but the well known fitness issues appeared and we couldn't keep up after that.

De Gea - awful
Young - the usual, often out of position and lost the ball a lot
Darmian - good although got caught for the second goal. It was always going to be tough next to Young
Smalling - solid but invites pressure every time he gets the ball
Lindelof - good
Shaw - good but rusty
Fred - loose with the ball but showed talent
Pogba - good
Pereira - maybe hes not cut out for this level
Lingard - awful
Rashford - good overall play but he needs to get into more dangerous positions

 

[The Purley King]

Was reasonably happy with the effort last night, but we are miles away tactically and in the quality of players.
If it wasn't for the fact that losing the game means the scousers probably won't win the league that would have been really depressing........

 

[Siorac]

Well atleast that's one good thing, we beat them from 2-0 down last season. But after Bernardo's goal last night did anyone really feel we were going to do anything? That's the same bloody team as well! We don't work keepers enough, all season they've had it piss easy! 1 shot on target last night too

Yeah that's the most disheartening. We never looked like seriously troubling them after Lingard failed to even hit the ball from Rashford's cross.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Who is that pretending to close him down, Darmian?

Yup. Same player who left Sane completely unmarked to track the run of another player who was already being covered by Smalling. Atrocious piece of defending from him.

 

[youmeletsfly]

We started fairly well but declined as the game went on. There was more effort than against Everton although I still wouldn't say anyone really ran their socks off.

The lack of quality showed through in the end. We missed a few chances in the first half and then as City improved we just stopped making chances all together.

It's infuriating to see Pogba pick up the ball inside his own half, look up and have absolutely nothing on. Every red shirt is hiding behind a blue one and no one is trying to make themselves available. This leads to Pogba having to try and hold the ball with 3 City players on him and he eventually loses possession.

The defending for their 2nd goal was awful. Aguero makes a good run but Darmian needs to tell Smalling to deal with it so he can stay wide and cover Sane. Instead they both track inside leaving Sane with the freedom of the park to shoot. The less said about De Gea the better!

C'mon, Pogba, Fred, Rashford, Lindelof and Young were quite active and ran their socks off the entire game.

The second bolded statement above is absolutely disgusting. I've noticed it as well last night and everyone for most of the game was passing the ball to Pogba and just went hiding afterwards. I'm not saying Pogba had a good game, because he didn't, but he ran a lot and made himself available. To me he doesn't seem like a player who wants out, or, if he wants out, at least he has the decency to try things on the field, unlike other people.

The issue lies with players that don't have the quality or don't put in the effort and needs to be address in the upcoming windows. Also, most importantly, we need to invest heavily in rebuilding our attacking structure. All of our attacking players are pretty average.


ins:
- a natural LW
- a natural RW
- a CM
- a RB
- a CB
- a ST

outs or benched:
- Lukaku (definitely out)
- Lingard (squad player - should be used as an impact sub in the 75th minute when the opposition is tired)
- Martial (he's 22/23 now and still doesn't have a stable position on the field where you'd say he excels. He is not suited to our team and is a luxury player. Spain would suit him better.)
- Rashford (I love the guy's attitude, he's a Manc, has a decent shot on him but boy he needs to grow up in so many ways. Decision making is still poor as feck, he still runs for no reason sometimes, he can't overpower defenders, his 1st touch when he's not facing the goal is absolutely trash). He's 20, he can still go a long way but he definitely shouldn't be our starter striker.
- Young (squad player)
- Jones (sold)
- Matic (sold)
- Rojo (sold)
- Darmian (Very cool guy, might want to move on but if Young decides to go elsewhere, I'd keep Darmian around. He has such a brilliant attitude and always plays alright when called upon.)
- Pereira (sold/benched)

We have too many issues when trying to build up play, particularly because most of our players are not used to it or are not good with the ball.

People were slating Fred and Pogba for losing the ball a few times and for having a dangerous passing game. Well, if there's nobody available you either pass it back, try to dribble or try the dangerous pass. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Buster15]

City's record at OT is infuriatingly good! FFS

The best comparison I can make between the two teams.
City looked like an orchestra, all following the conductor, all reading the music and all knowing exactly when and what to play.

United looked like an amateur jazz band that had never met before and had no music to follow.
Lots of effort but men against boys.

 

[TRUERED89]

I love Ole, But he really needs to get ruthless now, don't want to see him sacked by the end of the year like the last guy. Get these imposters out, midtable bottlers! Embarrassing this great footballing institution & derailing the hard work SMB & SAF put in to make Man United what it is today!

 

[Von Mistelroum]

I've only just got around to watching the full game. It's so depressing to see the absolute gulf in class and even more depressing to see the clear gulf in aspiration between our clubs. Let's face it, we're dealing with owners (and Ed) who only care about revenue. They'll spend the minimum required to challenge for top 4 (for CL money) and they expect that games will still sell out based on our name. By the time that stops happening it's likely that they'll have sold up for a huge profit.

The sad thing is that the state they will leave us in might never be rectified. Our fan base will already be dwindling because new fans don't want to see a team with Ashley Young as their inspirational captain and who can barely string two passes together. They need the magic and the passion and the excitement that can't be found at our club anymore and won't be while we are run as a pure money making business. There will absolutely not be the required amount spent to challenge for the title ever again while we're run by the Glazers, and yes, we can all say that 'if a player wants to leave, let them leave' but let's say any/all of Pogba, De Gea, Lukaku leave...do we really expect Ed and his bosses to add that money to our transfer budget? We'll replace them as cheaply as possible with the idea of 'aiming for top 4' and we'll just see a midfield of McTominay, Matic, Fred and possibly Rice or something. A strikeforce of Rashford and probably whoever else we fancy trying up front for a few games...Martial? Sanchez? And we certainly won't be looking at the likes of Oblak to replace Dave.

Poor attitudes or not, we need to hold on to our big players and strengthen around them. Losing them will be a disaster. At least keeping them around will mean strengthening rather than simply trying to maintain our current, upper-mid table level.

 

[AJ10]

How the feck did silva get away with that kung fu kick.

 

[Bristol_Red_87]

The most amazing thing about the second goal is the fact Aguero goes from being tracked by Darmian and Smalling to being completely unmarked at the back stick when the ball hits the net. I mean, thats U8's defending?

This, in isolation, sums up the current lack of cohesion not just at the back, but throughout the club.

 

[Ban]

Yup. Same player who left Sane completely unmarked to track the run of another player who was already being covered by Smalling. Atrocious piece of defending from him.

Horror show. I've seen better defending at a schoolyard.

 

[Ekeke]

12 shots.

More than City's 8.

12 shots. 1 on target.

1.

Poor finishing cost us a lot. Lingard cant shoot straight, Pogba can only hit the wall with freekicks. Why is Andreas even playing if we arent going to take advantage of his freekicks?

 

[Siorac]

12 shots.

More than City's 8.

12 shots. 1 on target.

1.

Poor finishing cost us a lot. Lingard cant shoot straight, Pogba can only hit the wall with freekicks. Why is Andreas even playing if we arent going to take advantage of his freekicks?

Calling it poor finishing is misleading. It's nit like we take poor shots from great positions: sure, that happens too, sometimes, but mostly we just don't create good chances, have zero movement and composure so our attackers just get a shot away when there is the slightest chance to do so.

 

[paulscholes18]

The gulf in class between us and them in enormous, even with rose tinted specs on the only players who would make City’s match day squad is DDG, Lindelof, Shaw, Pogba & Rashford and 4 of those only make the bench

 

[Pogue Mahone]

City's record at OT is infuriatingly good! FFS

It's also annoying that they regularly turned us over back when they were shit. Now that they're good and it's our turn to be shit, we can barely lay a glove on them.

 

[StrettyEnder07]

The summer can't come quick enough, there are about 3 players who I would keep the rest would not lose a seconds sleep if they all left but obviously you can't have a mega turnaround all in one window, this DOF needs sorting ASAP it is getting ridiculous, we need Ed to do his travelling to sign up marketing deals and leave the football side of it to ANYONE ELSE, David Gill/Fergie/Van Der Saar/Mitchell anyone to sort out our recruitment issues.

As for on the field, as much as I would love to see 15 odd players shown the door, realistically you are looking at 7-8 players hopefully going, fingers crossed sign 5 and promote some of the youth, by the time the squad rocks up for pre season would love to see a few senior pro's and a lot of youth, hunger, excitement.

Love to see Gomes/Greenwood/Garner/Chong/Tuanzebe/Fosu Mensah given first team squad numbers next year and be in the squad for good.

Follow that up by ditching Sanchez, Lukaku, Mata, Matic, Young, Valencia, Darmian, Rojo, Smalling.

Buy CB, RB, DMC, CM, RW, if possible a CF

 

[bucky]

 

[Ekeke]

Calling it poor finishing is misleading. It's nit like we take poor shots from great positions: sure, that happens too, sometimes, but mostly we just don't create good chances, have zero movement and composure so our attackers just get a shot away when there is the slightest chance to do so.

Lingard did. Pogba did with the freekick, Fred put his shot wide

In the same situations City got their shots on target

 

[Jeffthered]

We started fairly well but declined as the game went on. There was more effort than against Everton although I still wouldn't say anyone really ran their socks off.

The lack of quality showed through in the end. We missed a few chances in the first half and then as City improved we just stopped making chances all together.

It's infuriating to see Pogba pick up the ball inside his own half, look up and have absolutely nothing on. Every red shirt is hiding behind a blue one and no one is trying to make themselves available. This leads to Pogba having to try and hold the ball with 3 City players on him and he eventually loses possession.

The defending for their 2nd goal was awful. Aguero makes a good run but Darmian needs to tell Smalling to deal with it so he can stay wide and cover Sane. Instead they both track inside leaving Sane with the freedom of the park to shoot. The less said about De Gea the better!

This is one of the most insightful statements I have seen in a while. Absolutely spot on, and it has been like this for months, before Ole'... our attacking forwards, all of them, are simply a level below the required standard for a top level team. Play Modric, Lakatic, Silva, Kroos, Silva... I could name many, and they all would have problems with our front line. They (our forwards) are inconsistent, and lack that quality. Rashford was playing on his own at times as a forward last night.. why? Why can't the other forwards we have at least approach games like that.. why not?

Pogba is a class act.. he doesn't like to just smash 50/50 balls into the channel... that is never going to be his game. So he needs movement around him. What happens when there is no movement, people then blame him for holding onto the ball too long. Creative players try things, not silly things, but genuine attempts to make things happen.

Mata. Lukaku. Martial. Lindgard. Sanchez.

You try and be a centre midfielder behind that lot, week in, week out. And then you are blamed for the team's performance, yet you score more than most of them, create more chances than all of them put together, and do more running.

 

[El Zoido]

That defending.
Amateur hour.

Championship defending, if that.