[100]

I thought Mourinho got it completely wrong.

Not only should he have went with 3 midfielders, but the fact Fellaini and Pogba - two of the lesser options defensively and the former not renowned for starting attacks with his passing were the selected two, was baffling. It was so similar to Arsenal last season with them just running riot whenever one of our midfielders were pulled out. Silva, De Bruyne, Nolito and Sterling must have been shocked at their luck. Starting Lingard and Mkihi seems ridiculous in retrospect too considering their lack of football, and the recent injuries. And benching Rashford after his contributions against Hull?

You've gotta almost commend the defence in the end considering how badly sheltered they were, it was like a basketball game in the second half, with half our team too tired to get back.

We've had an issue with who we start in attack for the last 3 years and it has revolved around Wayne Rooney and his potential partners. He's been shifted everywhere in order to accommodate him at the detriment of others. Even with England he was selected over actual midfielders.

 

[SwansonsTache]

One more thing. How Mourinho could allow Bravo and their defenders to build from the back through the entire first half is beyond me. The difference when we started hounding Bravo and the defenders in their buildup in the second half was staggering.

That is what you get for having forwards not able to press, and of such an age (zlat) or physique (roo) that they run out of steam early. Forwards needs to be like fecking buzzards against a Pep side.

 

[Sarni]

Van Gaal can count himself incredibly lucky to come up against our direct rivals at a unique time in history when ALL of them were sacking managers at once (Arsenal the one exception, although many would say they should have also got out a P45).

Mourinho's up against them when they're all having a resurgence. It will be a long long time before we get such a run of easy fixtured against the wealthiest PL clubs. It may never happen again.

That's it. I did specifically mention that City were in top form today which never happened in the previous two seasons against us.

 

[Shiva87]

It used to be great midfielders in our team like Robson,Keane,Scholes,Moses,Whiteside,Crerand,Edwards aso aso. Fellaini is the worst centremid I´ve EVER seen.

That's probably fair. But he has also been our best midfielder over the last 4 games. You can't discount that. Can someone else come in and do a job - absolutely. Is that person at United right now? No.

 

[GimmeAKitKat]

Odd starting lineup and a shocking 30 minutes individually by near everyone lost us the game

Lingard just cant start over Martial or Rashford....unless they are injured, they have to be starting ahead of him, i cant understand how Mourinho makes that decision.

The first 30 mins were dire for everyone individually, dont know if those loose controls early on from Lingard made the rest nervous or something else, but they looked a shambles individually. It wasnt even tactical, they all just looked like they'd been drafted in off the street.

After that i think we showed enough to be competitive this season, but again, again, again, even when we're playing half decent, Rooney's power at this club makes us a laughing stock. He didnt play well at any point. When Felbows by comparison looks like a world beater, something is wrong, but that's what happened at times today. Fellaini put in a shift and Rooney was carried. Slow and cumbersome as always, dispossessed while dithering on the ball. At one point Pogba managed to nick the ball in a tight area with 3-4 city players, Fellaini latched on and played a 1-2 with him around the city players, an fellaini then played it forward to Rooney who had an acre of space to run into, instead he fumbled it straight back towards fellaini but about 5 yards short straight back to City. He's like this every fecking game and keeps getting away with it.

When Herrera has a bad game he's not seen for 2 month, Felbows gets slated by anyone and everyone, Anyone other than Rooney has a bad game and people/media are jumping all over it. Rooney is week-in week-out one of our shittest performers and yet still he cant be taken off, let alone dropped.

Right wing......feckING RIGHT WING JUST TO KEEP HIM ON THE FIELD.

I thought Mourinho might have had the balls to do what was needed with Rooney....apparently not.

No player bigger than the Club.......BULLSHIT.

 

[Shiva87]

Odd starting lineup and a shocking 30 minutes individually by near everyone lost us the game

Lingard just cant start over Martial or Rashford....unless they are injured, they have to be starting ahead of him, i cant understand how Mourinho makes that decision.

The first 30 mins were dire for everyone individually, dont know if those loose controls early on from Lingard made the rest nervous or something else, but they looked a shambles individually. It wasnt even tactical, they all just looked like they'd been drafted in off the street.

After that i think we showed enough to be competitive this season, but again, again, again, even when we're playing half decent, Rooney's power at this club makes us a laughing stock. He didnt play well at any point. When Felbows by comparison looks like a world beater, something is wrong, but that's what happened at times today. Fellaini put in a shift and Rooney was carried. Slow and cumbersome as always, dispossessed while dithering on the ball. At one point Pogba managed to nick the ball in a tight area with 3-4 city players, Fellaini latched on and played a 1-2 with him around the city players, an fellaini then played it forward to Rooney who had an acre of space to run into, instead he fumbled it straight back towards fellaini but about 5 yards short straight back to City. He's like this every fecking game and keeps getting away with it.

When Herrera has a bad game he's not seen for 2 month, Felbows gets slated by anyone and everyone, Anyone other than Rooney has a bad game and people/media are jumping all over it. Rooney is week-in week-out one of our shittest performers and yet still he cant be taken off, let alone dropped.

Right wing......feckING RIGHT WING JUST TO KEEP HIM ON THE FIELD.

I thought Mourinho might have had the balls to do what was needed with Rooney....apparently not.

No player bigger than the Club.......BULLSHIT.

Relax mate. Rooney isn't worth getting so riled over. I would think that 3 years of this would have calmed your nerves down.

Today, I thought Rooney was actually decent. Mourinho probably knows what he will get from Rooney and he delivered exactly that. Lots of running, and hopeful crosses into the box. One of them led to a goal. Anyway, the Rooney issue is one that needs to be resolved long term and won't get done over a weekend. If Rooney is benched, a lot of the other players may turn on Mourinho - so its probably good to keep him around this season.

 

[nick2004]

In retrospect, perhaps we should have used more players with experience vs City. Rooney, Valencia, Young, Carrick, Smalling.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Pep wouldn't be a better fit. Why? Because he never wanted to work for us. On the other hand, Mourinho always wanted to. The best marriages happen when both parties desire each other. Pep never liked us.

I talking about the type of football their teams play.Not whether they wanted to manage us or not, besides how do you know Pep didn't want us?

 

[MrBest]

Strange to see lingard start. Duno why miki was told to play on right wing, clearly not his position. How Rooney continues to play despite giving ball away plenty of times is just beyond belief. He must have some clause in his contract stating he must start. He is a rubbish player.

Despite the above I am not too bothered we lost. Gaal and Moyes wrecked our team and under them both and we never tried to fight till the end. For me it was refreshing just to see something like that.

The first 40 mins were dreadful though, but sometimes that happens on football in a early kick off. I am glad the players responded to a manager on the touchline.

Pogba is lacking match fitness as many have said, defo not a 89m player as I mentioned plenty of times. Martial looks shattered, I would send him on holiday for 2 weeks. Rashford should be starting over lingard, that decision was just a joke.

The future looks bright. I think a top 3 finish is what we should focus on. City will clearly walk away with the league but they had no real issues within the team, they didn't have the life drained out of tjem for 2 years by Gaal. We should win the league next season.

 

[nick2004]

I talking about the type of football their teams play.Not whether they wanted to manage us or not, besides how do you know Pep didn't want us?

It's obvious. If Pep wanted to manage us, he wouldn't have gone to City. Can you imagine Mourinho going to City? This would practically end the possibility of ever managing us.

I have the feeling that Pep is out to make the most money possible. He picks the best funded teams. He doesn't care much about history or anything. It wouldn't surpise me to learn that he has the least idealism among all top managers.

I understand what you mean about "the type of football" but can you name any other manager who plays "this type of football"? There aren't any. And the reason is that it requires top players, you cannot find those players at Stoke.

 

[namco]

The future looks bright. I think a top 3 finish is what we should focus on. City will clearly walk away with the league .

Going full hyperbole there mate.

Taking things into context. They've beat 3 teams who look like relegation fodder. They didn't put away Sunderland until the dying minutes. It took some highly dubious ref decisions to get past Stoke & WHU.

On today's game they've scored 2 lucky goals from a hail mary & a ricochet. They dominated the ball for the first 30 Mins but didn't create any clear chances. Any top 10 team will give them problems providing they go into the game with belief & a tactical plan.

If it wasn't already confirmed before today every PL team now knows how bad they are at the back.

 

[Silverman]

We are not going to see the best from Pogba or Ibrahimivic so long as we keep shoehorning Rooney into a 4231 formation.

Pogba needs to be the roaming player at the point of that midfield with two more disciplined players behind him. Ibra in front with pace and guile in Rashford, Martial, Memphis or Mkhitaryan out wide.

Their midfield today consisted of Fernandinho, De Bruyne and Silva. Yes they receive support from the fullbacks and from elsewhere but by playing 3 proper midfielders against essentially Fernandinho when we have the ball, we should have been exploiting the space those supporting fullbacks leave behind.

Sometimes football managers can over think things. Every man and his dog can see that United should be playing a 433 and Rooney should be sitting on the bench, especially against a side like that City team. How can a man with so much more football knowledge and experience not see it?

Agree. Hopefully we will see this in the coming weeks.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

A City perspective.
This game pretty much mirrored the other PL matches so far in so much as we have made a bright start, putting together some nice combination moves but not built up as much of a lead as maybe we would expect.
The opponents then got at us, roughed us up a bit and scored to send us into our shell somewhat.
Pep seems adept at making the necessary formation changes/substitutions to right the ship and due to the fatigue of the opponent we can often get a late goal or two to seal the deal.
Today, however, we had to hang on right until the end as United were the toughest test we've encountered so far.
Our game management needs to improve, as does the chance conversion but to be honest not worried about the GK position.
United will undoubtedly run us close all season and today decided nothing.

 

[Sultan]

Micky and Lingard lost us the game. They both had a stinker.

De Bruyne was brilliant. City fans are going to have heart attacks with their newly acquired goalkeeper.

 

[Sylar]

Micky and Lingard lost us the game. They both had a stinker.

De Bruyne was brilliant. City fans are going to have heart attacks with their newly acquired goalkeeper.

Agree with all of that.

also think it took us too long to adjust to what City were doing. When they were passing it at the back, we either had to press as a team or not press at all. Given we were trying to press, it was really bizarre in the first half that we pushed three or four, but then had our whole back four in our own half marking one striker of theirs.

Also even though we were losing 2-1 (and lost obviously) I still thought we would get back into the game. It felt like we ran out of time.

 

[NoPace]

Not to be reductionist, but we benched Martial, Rashford and Herrera, whom I have as 3 of the footballers I rate at the club, for Rooney, Lingard and Fellaini (playing well enough but not a top, top, Redknapp player).

Game would have been even more frenetic with those players in, but that's a pretty massive increase in technical quality and mobility.

 

[sammsky1]

Not to be reductionist, but we benched Martial, Rashford and Herrera, whom I have as 3 of the footballers I rate at the club, for Rooney, Lingard and Fellaini (playing well enough but not a top, top, Redknapp player).

Game would have been even more frenetic with those players in, but that's a pretty massive increase in technical quality and mobility.

I dont rate him that much . Not a top 4 club midfielder in my opinion. Likewise, Martial has had a poor start to the season and is still very young and relatively inexperienced.

 

[tentan]

We probably could've gotten a draw if LVG was manager still.....lol.

But hey we lost against a very good side, so lets not panic too much yet.

 

[sammsky1]

A City perspective.
This game pretty much mirrored the other PL matches so far in so much as we have made a bright start, putting together some nice combination moves but not built up as much of a lead as maybe we would expect.
The opponents then got at us, roughed us up a bit and scored to send us into our shell somewhat.
Pep seems adept at making the necessary formation changes/substitutions to right the ship and due to the fatigue of the opponent we can often get a late goal or two to seal the deal.
Today, however, we had to hang on right until the end as United were the toughest test we've encountered so far.
Our game management needs to improve, as does the chance conversion but to be honest not worried about the GK position.
United will undoubtedly run us close all season and today decided nothing.

Excellent and objective summation of todays game. And I think you're being modest about the start. Despite being aided by Lingard, Mhkitaryan and Pogba's first half ineffectiveness, City and De Bryne in particular utilised that space with devastating effect.

Th only point you may bewaring about is Bravo in goal. Even if he does end up being an excellent keeper for you, it will still take him a few months and at least 15 or so games to adjust to Premier League football. Even the extremely talented likes of Schmeichel and De Gea had to endure that painful phase.

I imagine every team you face before Xmas will aerially bombard Bravo in the first 20 mins of the game. In doing so, they not only test his handling skills but also the relationship he has with his centre backs: The mistake today was about the collision with Stones as much as he fumbling of the ball.

This thorough examination could break him. If he is exposed, the effect to his self confidence, allied to the situation with Hart makes for a complicated situation. As a United fan, Im hoping that will cost you plenty of points!

 

[Bastian]

Thought it was strange not to go with a more solid midfield. And to pick two players who haven't been playing for a while on the flanks while fielding two slow players in Rooney and Zlatan.

Having said that, the defense was terrible. Blind especially.

Good effort in fighting to get back into the game, but often aimless attacks. No one really did great today, or even good. Zlatan scored a great goal but could have done better in countless situations and Pogba looked classy, but as a team we never really got going.

 

[CS@SG]

I just can't get my head around it. I mean we were well in the game at that point, and they had a maniac in goal, so even though they were still probably the better side, we had a decent chance of getting something...so we just start punting the ball aimlessly. I mean, I can just about udnerstand trying it for 5 minutes or so either right at the end, or just to see if it results in any joy...but we did it for 20 minutes, and it VERY oobviously wasn't working, and never has on the countless occasions we've tried it before.

It'd be like me trying to log into my redcafe account by trying the exact same, wrong password, over and over.

Coz Jose wanna "bully" them with our height advantage?

 

[cesc's_mullet]

Great entertaining game IMO, it was great for neutrals. Whilst I think City dominated most of the match I never felt like United were out of the contest - especially after Pep brought Fernando on for his forward, they just invited pressure then.

At the time I didn't think Blind was at fault for the first. KDB just reacted really quickly and had a great touch to get it past Blind.

Rashford looked very good when he came on but Mkhitaryan and Lindgard weren't up to much.

I felt Pogba was a bit of a passanger though when he did have the ball he made things happen, especially with his dribbling and control. He just needed to impose himself on the game more.

I was impressed by Nolito and of course KDP, Silva and Fernandinho were superb, but the real MOTM was Otamendi who was outstanding IMO.

I think Ibra being treacle slow played in to City's hands as Stones and Otamendi were able to bring the ball out so easily over and over again.

 

[MrBest]

Going full hyperbole there mate.

Taking things into context. They've beat 3 teams who look like relegation fodder. They didn't put away Sunderland until the dying minutes. It took some highly dubious ref decisions to get past Stoke & WHU.

On today's game they've scored 2 lucky goals from a hail mary & a ricochet. They dominated the ball for the first 30 Mins but didn't create any clear chances. Any top 10 team will give them problems providing they go into the game with belief & a tactical plan.

If it wasn't already confirmed before today every PL team now knows how bad they are at the back.

I see your point but pep does not build a team around defence. His mentality is clear, score more goals than the other team and hold the ball for as long as possible. I think city will walk the league because the signed the best player in the league .. pep.

 

[VanHaal'sRedArmy]

Did we actually play with a defensive mid this game? If you're telling me Fellaini starts in at no.4 for the entirety of the season, I would claim you mad as the hatter...

 

[Bastian]

I see your point but pep does not build a team around defence. His mentality is clear, score more goals than the other team and hold the ball for as long as possible. I think city will walk the league because the signed the best player in the league .. pep.

You seriously think that? I agree with @namco. Despite their dominance in the opening 30 mins it didn't make them look like invincible title favorites. We did terribly in defense, we lacked cohesion and, it seems, a game plan. We made them look better than we needed to. Granted they were without their world class player but stil no team is going to walk the league.

 

[Distracted Steward]

Too much space was afforded to City between between the back line and the midfield. Fellaini and Pogba just couldn't close it down. With Lingard and Mkhitaryan doing nothing to pin their wide men back or fix their fullbacks in place, it left those two to scramble and cover. De Bruyne, Nolito, Silva and Sterling picked when and where they'd get the ball. From the outset, the match screamed for Herrera in a midfield three.

Fellaini has been outstanding as a defensive midfielder in the previous matches--albeit versus far, far weaker competition. Today he had no chance. He fought with admirable grit and determination, but he was never going to succeed. The whole team was poor and he didn't help by failing to track runners well. He needed help and to help himself a little more.

The passing in the first half was terrible because how disjointed everyone was. There were too many United players watching instead of moving to get onto that second or third pass in a good position. The start of the second half showed that this team could have handled City's press and quickly worked its way into dangerous positions. Mourinho needs to get the team synched up better. It's early yet, but this team will drop points until it can show it's passing quality for 90min. Long spells of unnecessarily difficult moves and wasted possession is costly. Despite the winning start, the team showed this could be a near term problem.

I am probably going to get a lot of flack for this, but this was Rooney's best performance behind Ibrahimovic so far. He does better in space than he does in those rare moments he plays as a traditional #10 would. He tried to take control and drive the game for a while, but there was just too much wrong. Troublingly, his huffing and puffing just doesn't yield what it used to.

 

[The Brown Bull]

It's obvious. If Pep wanted to manage us, he wouldn't have gone to City. Can you imagine Mourinho going to City? This would practically end the possibility of ever managing us.

I have the feeling that Pep is out to make the most money possible. He picks the best funded teams. He doesn't care much about history or anything. It wouldn't surpise me to learn that he has the least idealism among all top managers.

I understand what you mean about "the type of football" but can you name any other manager who plays "this type of football"? There aren't any. And the reason is that it requires top players, you cannot find those players at Stoke.

Jose has managed at Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter and Chelsea again.Do you think he was working for nothing? Of course not.Hes as fond of cash as anyone else.
I don't dispute that he is a great manager but in my opinion Pep is better.To suggest that Pep is less idealistic is just laughable.Jose is the ultimate pragmatist.

 

[Nakhon Phanom]

First 40 minutes City gave United a footballing lesson then a howler by City's new keeper,Juliet Bravo,got United back in the game.
The second half was great end to end football and could have gone either way.
Starting with Lingard and Miki cost us the game.They were truly awful.
Is it just me or does anyone else think 87m Pogba looks very ordinary up to now ?
Rooney cant be faulted for effort but isn't the player he was(as we all know) and Blind caught out again defensively when playing against top class opposition.
But there is room for optimism and we played some good stuff in the second half......More excitement in this 90 minutes than in 2 years under LVG.

 

[Sean_RedDevil]

A draw was really possible with a better tactic in the 2nd half and would have been a very good result but let's be honest City were the deserved winner.

 

[Sereques]

Before kick off, I questioned the lineup, even when some journos were praising the selection on Twitter, I didn't agree. Giving Mkhitaryan his first league start in a Derby is wrong an Lingard that hasn't feature since community shield.

2) Individual performances was very poor, Key players were below their level today, Pogba, Rooney, Mkhitaryan, Lingard, Zlatan. That is 5 out of 11, what do we expect?

Despite how bad we were, strange to believe it was the Ref that cost us a point at least.

That said, I truly enjoyed the match.

 

[ghagua]

Said it in another thread, but unless Valencia is crossing from the right or Rashford is making his runs, there is absolutely no creativity from our other players. I don't mean lumping the ball into the box, but some creative play to open up a chance. We will bully the poorer teams in the league, but we will suffer more frustrations like today if we do not make a huge improvement. Rashford should be a starter for now and Mkhitaryan needs to be given encouragement by being named a starter.

 

[RedCurry]

We had one job.. Mark De Bryune. Sure we had players who were crap today. But how can we not mark one player out of the game?

 

[Sereques]

We had one job.. Mark De Bryune. Sure we had players who were crap today. But how can we not mark one player out of the game?

Marking KDB? He was still on the pitch in second half and what did he do? We didn't mark him did we? If our players step up their game, no one will know KDB was on the pitch.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Said it in another thread, but unless Valencia is crossing from the right or Rashford is making his runs, there is absolutely no creativity from our other players. I don't mean lumping the ball into the box, but some creative play to open up a chance. We will bully the poorer teams in the league, but we will suffer more frustrations like today if we do not make a huge improvement. Rashford should be a starter for now and Mkhitaryan needs to be given encouragement by being named a starter.

Martial is creative/dynamic. Not starting him was a big feck up yesterday. I get your point though as there is a clear disconnect between midfield and attack and Mkhitaryan and Pogba are a big key to this problem. For me that would require Mourinho to incorporate a 4-3-3 system.

GK
DEFENSE
SCHNEIDERLIN HERRERA
POGBA
MKHITARYAN MARTIAL
RASHFORD

Mkhitaryan, Rashford and Martial can all interchange in a fluid way. This might sound a bit left wing but I think Zlatan's lack of movement makes us predictable.
We have Martial and Rashford who have pace and play all across the front line, Pogba and Herrera are more than capable of finding them with their passing ability. Zlatan is a target man, a very skilfull one but essentially that is his role. Where are our players who run behind a defense? We have them but are not utilising them, that's annoying. Martial is a key player for us especially because he can come deep link the play and then have the pace to run behind, he should always start imo.
Also and most importantly, Herrera and Schneiderlin gives Pogba the freedom to be more effective in the final 3rd. He can still drop back and win balls but he also has the freedom to charge forward. The pace of Martial and Rashford with Mkhitaryan and Pogba interlinking would be a big threat to any team.

 

[RedCurry]

Marking KDB? He was still on the pitch in second half and what did he do? We didn't mark him did we? If our players step up their game, no one will know KDB was on the pitch.

Because in the second half City parked the bus. When opposition has clearly one player who is better than the rest of their squad you generally try to keep him quiet.

 

[Z_Wolf]

Martial is creative/dynamic. Not starting him was a big feck up yesterday. I get your point though as there is a clear disconnect between midfield and attack and Mkhitaryan and Pogba are a big key to this problem. For me that would require Mourinho to rotate Ibra/Rooney depending on fixture and play a 4-3-3 system.

GK
DEFENSE
SCHNEIDERLIN HERRERA
POGBA
RASHFORD MKHITARYAN MARTIAL
ZLATAN/ROONEY

Rooney, Rashford and Martial can all interchange in a fluid way. This might sound a bit left wing but I think Zlatan's lack of movement makes us predictable.
We have Martial and Rashford who have pace and play all across the front line, Pogba and Herrera are more than capable of finding them with their passing ability. Zlatan is a target man, a very skilfull one but essentially that is his role. Where are our players who run behind a defense? We have them but are not utilising them, that's annoying. Martial is a key player for us especially because he can come deep link the play and then have the pace to run behind, he should always start imo.

This. except we aren't allowed to field 12 players. we are Man United, but we can't do what want in this case.

 

[NK86]

A City perspective.
This game pretty much mirrored the other PL matches so far in so much as we have made a bright start, putting together some nice combination moves but not built up as much of a lead as maybe we would expect.
The opponents then got at us, roughed us up a bit and scored to send us into our shell somewhat.
Pep seems adept at making the necessary formation changes/substitutions to right the ship and due to the fatigue of the opponent we can often get a late goal or two to seal the deal.
Today, however, we had to hang on right until the end as United were the toughest test we've encountered so far.
Our game management needs to improve, as does the chance conversion but to be honest not worried about the GK position.
United will undoubtedly run us close all season and today decided nothing.

A fair summary. Especially the part that yesterday decided nothing. It was a very close game in the end. One where a draw would have reflected fairly on what happened on the field.

City's attacking play is brilliant though. Our tactical set up in the first half obviously played right into your hands but still yiur attackers ran us ragged. De Bruyne was a class above every outfield player on the pitch. Such an intelligent player, beautiful balance, an eye for an assist or goal. Think he will be a truly world class player soon.

 

[bosnian_red]

We also got our arses handed to us by Liverpool in the Europa Leaguue last season. Much worse than today. Arsenal also battered us...and Spurs...both Moyes-esque surrender defeats. So yeah. Basically it's nonsense. We went a couple of years not getting thrashed by City basically. Woo fecking hoo.

Also today, the two main agitations for me, were remnants/trademarks of LVG. Blind the centreback and sacrificing any football for the last 20 minutes of the game to instigate Fellaini hoof tactics.

No doubt we were well second best but if you take them two factors out I think we leave the game with a result...not sure how exactly but we probably would have.

Hell, even just a competent ref would have seen us leave with a result. Bravo red card and pen and I would fancy us to win that, as badly as we played in the first half. Or if not that, then the other pen. We probably should have gotten something out of the game the way it all happened, despite as you say being clearly second best (because of the first half).

 

[Verbalkint]

Missed the game owing to work commitments. Did see a replay though.

Miki's fitness and Lingard's nightmare apart, quite shocked with Pogba. Do you think he'd benefit by being given more freedom to move around if we had a no nonsense holding midfielder like Schneiderlin for company? He's the ideal foil in midfield if you ask me. Very disciplined, keeps it simple and tackles like a bastard.

Not to jump on the Rooney hate bandwagon, but if we need to see this team winning more games he needs to be benched. Not sure we can waste Mkhitaryan on the wings anymore. Ibra & Rashford up front would be something else. Ibra with this heading ability, hold up play, passing etc could be fantastic for Rashford, who at the moment is lightyears ahead of Martial. Wonder what's up with Anthony but he seems all out of sorts.

With that first half, we we had let ourselves down but it was heartening to see a fight in the second - Jose's clearly made a difference. So pleased for Herrera too, what a smashing little player we have! As for Clattenburg, I have no words. Bravo's lunge was a leg breaker and that's a red. Simple. His decisions cost us the game.

Like a lot of us, am going to stew in this for the moment. To all the delighted Chelsea fans, here's a hearty middle finger salute. They celebrated City's win like it was their own. Probably because they swing between both clubs anyway depending on who's doing better. Screw the lot, the Derby's gone but we're going to come back stronger.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Missed the game owing to work commitments. Did see a replay though.

Miki's fitness and Lingard's nightmare apart, quite shocked with Pogba. Do you think he'd benefit by being given more freedom to move around if we had a no nonsense holding midfielder like Schneiderlin for company? He's the ideal foil in midfield if you ask me. Very disciplined, keeps it simple and tackles like a bastard.

Not to jump on the Rooney hate bandwagon, but if we need to see this team winning more games he needs to be benched. Not sure we can waste Mkhitaryan on the wings anymore. Ibra & Rashford up front would be something else. Ibra with this heading ability, hold up play, passing etc could be fantastic for Rashford, who at the moment is lightyears ahead of Martial. Wonder what's up with Anthony but he seems all out of sorts.

With that first half, we we had let ourselves down but it was heartening to see a fight in the second - Jose's clearly made a difference. So pleased for Herrera too, what a smashing little player we have! As for Clattenburg, I have no words. Bravo's lunge was a leg breaker and that's a red. Simple. His decisions cost us the game.

Like a lot of us, am going to stew in this for the moment. To all the delighted Chelsea fans, here's a hearty middle finger salute. They celebrated City's win like it was their own. Probably because they swing between both clubs anyway depending on who's doing better. Screw the lot, the Derby's gone but we're going to come back stronger.

He really isn't. They are 2 really good, young players. Both should probably start, picking neither today was crazy.