[The red panther]

Agree with this. It is easy to be angry right now, but we did not do much to deserve a win. Part of me actually liked it when they scored because it atleast forced us to try to play some football. Looked like we were set up to just sit tight and nick it if possible.

Ah well, let us hope for better luck next year.

I'am sick of this, have been saying this for 4 years now

How the mighty have fallen.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Again, like against Arsenal, when you willingly put men behind the ball you invite pressure and rely on individual performances like that of De Gea to save you. Make no mistake, great result aside last week, we should have lost if they had any composure on that day with all their chances missed and saved; today further illustrates that you stack the odds against yourself when you commit to regressive football.

 

[Axkiko]

Title is over. Lukaku is the obvious one who needs to blame. Aside from that, we don't have any good long passer when Pogba not on the pitch.

Our game only started when Lindelof subs in and provides some excellent long passes. Watching Rojo and Smalling was really frustrated as they can't even made 5 yard pass, every long ball towards the enemy half was inaccurate. Also, their defending is not as good to cover their weakness. Both of them should be sold.

 

[redshaw]

Mistakes from set pieces caught Jose's game plan out. City didn't really do much. Also very unlucky we didn't score to make it 2-2.

More galling is City win to go 11 points clear and make it 14 wins in a row. We could've stopped that.

 

[Nik70]

I do genuinely feel sorry for Lukaku, I want him to do well so badly.
I think he should be dropped for a few games now IMHO.

Agreed. He's been stinking it up for the last month or two. Rashford or Martial up top would make a lot of sense to me. I was happy to get Lukaku in the Summer but looking at his form recently we probably would've been a lot better with the more technically sound Morata to be honest.

 

[Yagami]

It's weird that I'm not even mad. José's tactics just completely sucked all the emotion I had for this game out of me.

 

[UpWithRivers]

I just can't understand why we are so bad without Pogba. Yes he a great player but everything falls apart even defence when he is not playing.

 

[GM K]

Yes, Lukaku was really crap but we lost today's game in the 74th minute of last week's game against Arsenal.

Pogba's absence was so glaring. We had zero creativity in the midfield and for launching counter attacks.

It's so obvious what our transfer priorities should be if we want to challenge for the title next season. Forget about this season. We just handed City the title.

 

[Rolandofgilead]

Dreadful performance. Nothing else to say really.

I am fecking sick of setting up like that in big games. Jose takes the blame here.

 

[Member 5225]

The last minute (lack of) jump by Lukaku as the ball was kicked out to the half-way line infuriated me the most. He's built like a beast but why doesn't he use it?!

Genuine similarity to Heskey in that regard.

 

[Eire Red United]

He was spectacularly bad. I've never seen a striker perform this badly in a game in 35 years

I accidentally voted him MoTM... sorry boys

 

[Member 5225]

Agreed. He's been stinking it up for the last month or two. Rashford or Martial up top would make a lot of sense to me. I was happy to get Lukaku in the Summer but looking at his form recently we probably would've been a lot better with the more technically sound Morata to be honest.

agreed with you word-for-word.

 

[Twisted Nerve]

We all thought we were getting drogba but got heskey

LOL!!

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

We are a much better team with Jose. We have managed 35 points already and after the utter shite that LVG and Moyes produced here I am happy with how things have gone this year. Don't get me wrong I am upset that we have lost this game, but there is feck all Mourinho can do when one of his players can't clear a cross and the side that he inherited is showing its limitations. Herrara, Mata, Smalling, Lingard, and Young wouldn't get near that city team, yet they are starting for us.

He is good in the easier games no doubt, but I feel Mourinho is not tactically good enough for the big games. Pressing and having an attacking plan is important in those games. You can't just hope players will do things on there own.

 

[The red panther]

75mil FLOP, nothing more to say, can't control a ball, can't score, gets out jumped, bullied off the ball....... If we could just get our money back. Mourinho with his undroppable flop, cost us the second goal as even with that big body can't defend to save his life. It is one thing to have a drop in form but this is pathetic, he is showing no signs of improvement. The bench is really starting to call his name and lets hope United look for a new striker in the summer, this was really money wasted.

What was that formation, last year got beat good and proper playing 4-2-3-1, we have shown real progress playing 3 at the back and then playing the most important game of the season just to revert back to 4-2-3-1, Mourinho seems to like losing to Pep. Not only our pathetic defending gave them the game Mourinho's tactics gave them the game.

Maybe next year after a good transfer summer, but I doubt it will matter as you can't teach Mourinho new tricks.

Honestly Mourinho is just Pep's bitch

He was alot better than Mourinho when he was at Barca and Mourinho was at Real and he is alot better now aswell. Mourinho is absolutley clueless compaired to Pep.

Seems Mourinho at United is just good enough to win the small games but when the challenge is real he is a big coward and his coward tactics are punished everytime.

 

[Toddler]

I think this game was very similar to Arsenal game, maybe we even had little bit more control and we might have even tied this game without Lukaku. But we lost, and the reactions here are that we were shite. I think we were the same as Arsenal game but we did not score (lukaku did not score). This was coming. We are not near citys level.

Carry on!

 

[R.N7]

Wasn't all that bad. Tight game, far from outclassed, just can't shoot yourselves in the foot twice and hope to get a result.

 

[Witchking]

Don't know why i thought and hoped that Jose and the team will give this a right go. Till he is at the club, we will keep winning against lesser teams and go and hoof and hope against the big ones and win a couple of games and lose the others. Shameful to keep losing to City and not even know how to pass and move.

 

[hn4manunited]

We were set up correctly. City were not able to play like they usually like. They looked cagey. They looked frustrated. Time wasting from a team that many would think would blow us away shows how close we are.

The 3 goals were down to errors. Between team that are at the top of the table, the little errors are the difference. For us to concede on set pieces like that is disappointing. We had our chances. Martial was a bit quiet. Rashford looked up for it but didn’t get a lot of success other than that goal.

Lukaku is really going through a rough patch at the moment.

Zlatan coming on provided the presence that put some pressure on City. That chance at the end wouldn’t have happened without Zlatan on.

We just need to pick our heads up and keep fighting. City will drop points. We are still in early December. Long ways to go.

 

[Hasawi Red]

So so bad, and Lukaku is one of the worst strikers we ever had. Never rated him, and the only positive i saw in buying him was that it pissed off Chelsea for like two minutes , guess who’s laughing now

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Honestly Mourinho is just Pep's bitch

He was alot better than Mourinho when he was at Barca and Mourinho was at Real and he is alot better now aswell. Mourinho is absolutley clueless compaired to Pep.

Pep tactically is a much better manager. I think there is no debate about that. When it comes to motivating the team and man management Mourinho might have the edge, but when it comes to tactics Pep is at another level.

 

[Johnnyredboots]

This thread is an embarrasment tbh. So much city ass kissing it's unbearable to read. i'm not blind to our deficiencies, but we were without our best player and they scored 2 very very very lucky goals. you lot need to give your heads a wobble.

 

[FootballHQ]

I think we have to focus on the champions league, but I don't see us having a chance with Mourinhos tactics. Barcelona, Real and Bayern will win the tactical battles against us and we don't have better players to win anyway.

Lukaku would do nothing in champions league knock outs.

FA cup is Man. United's best opportunity this season and securing second clear of the rest would be progress of course.

 

[Ninja7Red]

For starters, it was not as if they blew us away completely. Yes, they did have plenty of the ball, but we didn't create clear cut openings like we did against Arsenal.

Case for Pogba, maybe? Mourinho's whole game plan is centred around Pogs' ability to break through the lines at the moment.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

That was hard to watch. Don't understand the logic of having an attacking formation and not attacking. No fight. Really made City look better than they are. They outclassed us.

Hoof ball works if you hit in the direction of your players. Passing was atrocious, tackling non existant, belief in winning was very low.

 

[Hansa]

It’s based on money that won’t last forever, the oil will run out soon enough and then you can watch the rats leave the sinking ship.

I could never morally accept success like theirs due to the source of the money (repressive regime that abuses human rights and all).

No football trophy is worth that. We’ll be back up there soon enough, despite this game we are heading the right way. I remember the Big Ron days and realized that success comes in cycles a long time ago.

I remember the Big Ron days as well, and these past years have felt similar. Buying lots of players, but never being able to finish higher than 3rd/4th. Tonight, as a lot of fans vent their frustration, I think it's the reactionary type of football we play which hurts the most. Always reacting to some other teams' qualities, as opposed to imposing ourselves on the games.

As for the rats leaving the ship - I think we'll have to wait a long time, sadly.

 

[Ban]

The redcafe in meltdown thread is unfortunately locked.

I love the midtable posts.

 

[Member 5225]

Wow Jose on full strop mode!!

 

[DevilRed]

That was hard to watch. Don't understand the logic of having an attacking formation and not attacking. No fight. Really made City look better than they are. They outclassed us.

Hoof ball works if you hit in the direction of your players. Passing was atrocious, tackling non existant, belief in winning was very low.

Hoofball was so fecking inaccurate from the likes of Rojo.

I still maintain that the result would be different if we had our full team i.e. Pogba, Bailly and Jones.

 

[Irrational.]

Jose moaning about the Herrera penalty incident. I'm sure he'll change his mind once he watches the replay.

Also "City always have decisions in their favour", also made one or two comments about Oliver. Will be surprised if the FA doesn't pick up on it.

 

[Raoul]

Outclassed again. Lukaku missing that sitter was shit, but we don't deserve anything again after such a peformance. People don't want to admit or want to hear it, but Mourinho looks like a dinosaur in big games these days. No pressing, no pressure, no attacking plan in general, we just try to get the ball when they are in or around our penalty area and then we need to hoof it because we are under consistent pressure or even if we get it out we need to bypass the whole pitch with long runs with the ball or again hoofing. It's a shit tactics for our attackers and our defenders. We don't have Messi who can just take the ball and run past 5 players and we don't have guys like Rio or Vidic either who can compete with these kind of pressure for 90 minutes (De Gea tries his best to do it though). People complain about us not capable of stringing 2 passes together and yeah our passing isn't good enough, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that our players are everytime in situations where they need to clear the ball from danger or need to play it forward as fast as possible to get anything going forward. It's a shit approach and I don't know what Jose wants to achieve with it. And no forget that Arsenal game, we can't hope that we face a team who just gifts us 2 goals in the first 10 minutes, that will rarely happen against the bigger teams. We looked shit and clueless in all big games, even in those 2 which we won and we really need to find a solution for that and not just throw money at it. I don't know how people can have any confidence in us kicking out Bayern, Juve or Real. We will either park the bus for 180 minutes and still go out close or they will wipe the floor with us in one game and decide the tie.

Fight for 2nd place it is. City won the title, I know it's early, but it's 11 points and they are more consistent and just a better team in general than us. Has a team ever come close to bottle that kind of lead? They won it, fair play to them, they are doing everything better than us atm. And I agree with dropping Lukaku, doesn't even finish the easy ones these days, no point in playing him, Ibra offers us at least build up play.

Thought it was a decent performance given Pogba's absence and the obvious resulting deficit in midfield. Lukaku will snap out of his funk soon and we should be in a solid position to finish a strong 2nd. The league has been over for some time imo.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Lukaku would do nothing in champions league knock outs.

FA cup is Man. United's best opportunity this season and securing second clear of the rest would be progress of course.

He could do with good tactics, but yes the way we play will not be good enough against the best teams.
It didn't work even against Chelsea and Liverpool who are worse than the elite in europe.

Teams like Barcelona and Bayern will tactically eat us very easily I think.

I just had hoped Mourinho would change or find some way to win big games again, but I feel right now I just come to accept he is not better. He is good in many ways, but he needs players to do the work for him when it comes to attacking.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Weird choice to take Lingard off for no one and decide to play with 10 men.

 

[Axkiko]

This thread is an embarrasment tbh. So much city ass kissing it's unbearable to read. i'm not blind to our deficiencies, but we were without our best player and they scored 2 very very very lucky goals. you lot need to give your heads a wobble.

Rashford's goal was lucky too. Just need to admit and realize we are the second best.

 

[Ninja7Red]

Wasn't all that bad. Tight game, far from outclassed, just can't shoot yourselves in the foot twice and hope to get a result.

Here's to being sensible!

 

[Pavl3n]

The game was a joy to watch once we were a goal down. I think big games should kick off with 0:1 scoreline for the opposition. It would be so much interesting watching us play.

 

[royboy16]

Not good enough.

 

[Raoul]

This thread is an embarrasment tbh. So much city ass kissing it's unbearable to read. i'm not blind to our deficiencies, but we were without our best player and they scored 2 very very very lucky goals. you lot need to give your heads a wobble.

Agreed.

 

[Red Devil Rising]

I don't get how we can spend such a crazy amount of money and still be so far behind?!

It's simple..

Depay - £25 million
Mata - £37 million
Di Maria - £60 million
Schweinsteiger - £8 million
Schneiderlin -£27 million
Mkhitaryan - £35 million
Lukaku - £75 million

City are filling their first team with players like..

Silva - £24 million
Sane - £35 million
De Bruyne - £55 million
Jesus - £28 million

None of the above players from our list are showing/showed value for money. And we wonder why we're so far behind.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

The game was a joy to watch once we were a goal down. I think big games should kick off with 0:1 scoreline for the opposition. It would be so much interesting watching us play.