Game wasn't lost by then. We got lucky and scored at the end of the first half which gave us a whole half to equalize. Tactics weren't even that bad to begin with in the first half but who would have thought that Lingard and Mkhitaryan would under preform like that? They were totally useless out there. It doesn't help that our most expensive signing ever didn't do anything special either. When you pay that much money for a player you expect them to make a difference out there on the field... Look at De Bruyne being a freaking star and look at Pogba being slow and ineffective. Game was lost because our players didn't rise to the occasion. We were slower, weaker and less intense. Second half was good, just couldn't create a good chance, because again Pogba didn't do anything worth mentioning. Don't tell me one player doesn't make difference. One player makes a lot of difference, Rashford is an example.Was surprised about Mou's turtling approach in the first half. He played fully into Guardiolas cards by doing so. The soaking up pressure method doesn't work against a Guardiola side, and inevitably leads into conceding.
Mou made the right calls going into the 2nd half to gain more stability, but the game was already lost by then.
What was pretty obvious is the apparent lack of cohesion, clear movement patterns and syncronization between between the squad segments compared to City. Guardiola clearly transmitted more of his football idea than Mourinho did so far.
With Ferguson most of United players were over-performing, after he left all the players are under performing. You need a special manager to motivate players to give their guts out there and to play with confidence. I am waiting for Mr. Special to bring that difference. I have not seen today and I am very disappointed. Season is long and let's see what future brings but we need to perform better, faster and more intense.