[FlawlessThaw]

Moirinho was not. That is why he rang the changes immediately at halftime and our performance from then on was as different as night and day. City were always set to dominate possession. But we were never supposed to give them the acres of space to start up attacks like we did a first half.

Fair enough and you could be right. But nothing you have said is convincing that it wasn't mourinhos plan in the first place not to press up. He rang the changes because because lingard was awful and he knew we needed an extra midfielder in the middle.

 

[Sarni]

These results do tend to bring that out in some people. I see it as a loss in the 4th game of the season, at the beginning of a long season. For all the negatives, most of which should improve, there were positives as well.

Yep. Criticism for Mourinho and Pogba today has been particularly awful to read. We had 30 bad minutes against City, we played very well from then and should have probably equalized and got a penalty. Plenty of times a game like this we would not lose and we were actually competitive against a very good team in good form.

Mourinho has only been in the job for 3 months and the improvement is huge, next time we play a big team I'll again feel confident and we look like a good team. I'm extremely positive about future, I'm not even thinking about already winning the league this season - I just want us to go back to being a threat for now which it looks like we are doing. Martial will get better, Mkhitaryan and Pogba will gel with the team and get themselves into form, future's bright and if anything, today's game just confirmed to me that we are finally a good team. Last three seasons the game like this, with City in this shape, we would have easily lost 3-0 or 4-0.

 

[Chorley1974]

Some shocking individual performances today, but let's not make this the night of the long knives please.

 

[Siorac]

Yep. Criticism for Mourinho and Pogba today has been particularly awful to read. We had 30 bad minutes against City, we played very well from then and should have probably equalized and got a penalty. Plenty of times a game like this we would not lose and we were actually competitive against a very good team in good form.

Mourinho has only been in the job for 3 months and the improvement is huge, next time we play a big team I'll again feel confident and we look like a good team. I'm extremely positive about future, I'm not even thinking about already winning the league this season - I just want us to go back to being a threat for now which it looks like we are doing. Martial will get better, Mkhitaryan and Pogba will gel with the team and get themselves into form, future's bright and if anything, today's game just confirmed to me that we are finally a good team. Last three seasons the game like this, with City in this shape, we would have easily lost 3-0 or 4-0.

We were quite good against our direct rivals under Van Gaal. City, for one, never outplayed us to this extent since Moyes.

 

[vk20legend]

Disappointed with the result a bit. But it's a result too early in the season to make a damaging impact.

Should never have started both Lingard and Mkhitaryan for this game as both were coming off injury and were probably not fully upto speed. Jose dropped the ball there.

Pogba was marked out of the game and couldn't do much in the game. A midfield 3 of Pogba, Ander and Fellaini would have been much better even if we had to push Rooney on the wing. We were probably about 5 yards off pace at the start of the game till 40 mins.

The two goals they scored, both had our helping hand a bit where Bailly lost a initial header and Blind didn't react quickly. Both have been excellent before this game and it was one of those days.

Funny that we could have easily gone into the half 2-2 had we had a bit of luck. Bravo had a clanger and they still got away with it which is disappointing. He'll face more challenges and they'll drop points.

Rooney had a poor game and he needs to step it up. It's a long season. We probably deserved a draw at the most and City punished our poor start. Happens.

Hopefully now that we have some more competitions with EL and League Cup others can impress and show our manager that they can be part of his main PL squad.

Bad day or maybe a bad half at the office kind of defeat. Oh well, bring on the next game.

 

[Sandikan]

Just 1 game, disappointing, but you can't imagine we'd have both wide players so stonkingly off the pace again.
You can't give a team like City a 2-0 goal lead and expect to salvage it, but we came close.

Biggest conundrum seems to be the wide positions. Noone has staked their claim yet. The rest of the team picks itself for now, as I can't see us making the Rooney decision anytime soon.

 

[Ricardo de la Vega]

Guardiola beat Mourinho tactically. That was it. We must adapt to be able to compete in big games. 4-3-3 has to be adopted. Can play 4-2-3-1 against smaller sides.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

We were quite good against our direct rivals under Van Gaal. City, for one, never outplayed us to this extent since Moyes.

They've never had a manager as good as Pep.

 

[JustinC00]

Just watched city's 2nd goal again. Ya Blind deserves blame but no more than Lingard, my fecking word such a half-assed defensive work rate before De Bruyne's shot

 

[hubbuh]

I know you're a City fan, and as such are inherently unable to offer a balanced view on the sport, but that is complete codswallop.

U wot m8? We were completely outplayed in the first half and for large parts in the second.

What is annoying is that once we stopped playing the awful, terrifying containment tactic and actually moved the ball about, we matched 'em. We had the personnel to go toe-to-toe, and demonstrated as such for parts of the second, but Mourinho bitched out and by the time he switched it up it was too late. Even more annoying given we were at our own place ffs. Understandable if you're away from home, otherwise its just not a good look. It'll no doubt serve as a lesson learnt, though.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Key moment in the game was Zlatan's miss to make it 2-2 just before half time, when he toe poked it for Stones to clear. I thought he had time to take a touch out of his feet and bury it, but I was watching a stream so I'm probably being harsh.

 

[United22]

Yep. Criticism for Mourinho and Pogba today has been particularly awful to read. We had 30 bad minutes against City, we played very well from then and should have probably equalized and got a penalty. Plenty of times a game like this we would not lose and we were actually competitive against a very good team in good form.

Mourinho has only been in the job for 3 months and the improvement is huge, next time we play a big team I'll again feel confident and we look like a good team. I'm extremely positive about future, I'm not even thinking about already winning the league this season - I just want us to go back to being a threat for now which it looks like we are doing. Martial will get better, Mkhitaryan and Pogba will gel with the team and get themselves into form, future's bright and if anything, today's game just confirmed to me that we are finally a good team. Last three seasons the game like this, with City in this shape, we would have easily lost 3-0 or 4-0.

We would have lost 3-0 or 4-0 despite the fact that we've already beaten them twice over the last two seasons? Maybe Moyes but definitely not LvG (for all his criticisms). That first half was an absolutely horrific performance considering it was at home and even the second half was average (where we were still unsure and incoherent in the way in which we attacked). City sat back yet were still getting into dangerous situations and outnumbering us when they hit us on the break. If Aguero was playing that game, this website would currently be in meltdown from what would have ensued.

 

[Cooksen]

Key moment in the game was Zlatan's miss to make it 2-2 just before half time, when he toe poked it for Stones to clear. I thought he had time to take a touch out of his feet and bury it, but I was watching a stream so I'm probably being harsh.

He did have time to take a touch but Zlatan probably felt like he did not have the time.

It was a bad shot but understandable

 

[FreakyJim]

I honestly can't find any positives from today. Even the second half.
If City had Aguero and were a bit more clinical we'd had another 1-6 on our hands. The gap between us and them is quite honestly depressing. We're so far off the elite and I don't know what can be done. So many of our players shouldn't be anywhere near United.

 

[Lawman]

Jose got his team selection and tactics badly wrong. We should have had 3 midfielders on to start the game as every man and his dog know Pep tries to control the midfield. He also took to long to change it. Lingard is not in the same class as Martial or Rashford

 

[Kevin]

Let's be honest, we all were awestruck with the genius of Pep. He's answered the question whether he can do it in stoke or against tall Neanderthaels like Felliani. In four games he's already got them playing as if they were one living organism, we were forced into fugly hoofballs and 'gettin stuckin yo!'.

 

[legball]

Guardiola beat Mourinho tactically. That was it. We must adapt to be able to compete in big games. 4-3-3 has to be adopted. Can play 4-2-3-1 against smaller sides.

I agree, I think Mourinho was caught in two minds, this game reminds me of his first El-Classico, the team didn't look like a typical Mourinho team, as he was careful what fans reaction would be if he did it his own way (which is perceived as negative).

 

[Sandikan]

I honestly can't find any positives from today. Even the second half.
If City had Aguero and were a bit more clinical we'd had another 1-6 on our hands. The gap between us and them is quite honestly depressing. We're so far off the elite and I don't know what can be done. So many of our players shouldn't be anywhere near United.

Take a lie down mate, it aint so bad, honestly, i'm here for you brother

 

[Jacky Quacky]

I honestly can't find any positives from today. Even the second half.
If City had Aguero and were a bit more clinical we'd had another 1-6 on our hands. The gap between us and them is quite honestly depressing. We're so far off the elite and I don't know what can be done. So many of our players shouldn't be anywhere near United.

So Pogba, Zlatan, Mkhitaryan, De Gea, Shaw, Martial aren't United quality?

 

[JustinC00]

I honestly can't find any positives from today. Even the second half.
If City had Aguero and were a bit more clinical we'd had another 1-6 on our hands. The gap between us and them is quite honestly depressing. We're so far off the elite and I don't know what can be done. So many of our players shouldn't be anywhere near United.

Shite take right here.

If. If. If.

If Jose started Herrera and Rashford over Lingard and Miki it's a different game
If Ibra takes has a better strike on the ball on his shot before HT it's 2-2
If Ibra takes another touch on his shot in the 48th minute he probably scores
If IRshford passes it to Ibra when he was charging into the box in the 70th Ibra scores.
If Twattenburg or his linesman call Bravo's studs up it's likely 2-2 and city are down a man for 35 minutes.

If. If. If.

And this gap you talk about is a whiney overstatement. 2nd half proved that.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I honestly can't find any positives from today. Even the second half.
If City had Aguero and were a bit more clinical we'd had another 1-6 on our hands. The gap between us and them is quite honestly depressing. We're so far off the elite and I don't know what can be done. So many of our players shouldn't be anywhere near United.

You're under-rating our squad but I agree with the rest of your post. We got our arse handed to us. Now it's up to Mourinho to get those players functioning as a team. Something he spectacularly failed to do today and has only done for brief periods so far this season.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

I feel adopting a 4141 would be so much better for our team.

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Smalling Shaw
Herrera
Mkhitaryan Mata Pogba Martial
Zlatan

This would've actually got a result today. Pogba playing in his favourite position. Herrera playing instead of a tree. And Smalling playing instead of Blind who has been very good recently but can't cope with the pressure.

Mata can create the intricate passes with Herrera. Pogba can be the player to strive forward and disrupt Citeh. Martial the player to run at defenders and who looked good for France.

Herrera would be like our Fernandinho.

Mkhi would get more support to help him even if he is having a shit game.

There is so much more pace in that team than the one we put out which would help us immensely against the pressure of City.

But you just know he is never going to drop Rooney. So a rigid 4231 it is.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Why don't you support City then

Because I've supported United for 48 years.
Thinking Pep would have been a better fit for United than Jose and supporting United are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Coxy]

Martial and rashford should be starters for you. Rooney shouldn't be playing (but at times did ok today) and blind isn't good enough as a centre back at all. You still need 1-2 class players but even with what you have - you're better than what we say today. You should also be playing a formation to take advantage of Pogba

 

[nick2004]

Because I've supported United for 48 years.
Thinking Pep would have been a better fit for United than Jose and supporting United are not mutually exclusive.

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.

 

[Twisted Nerve]

Positive : We lost to currently the best team in the division
Negative : We lost to City.

But if we play the rest of the season like we did in the 2nd half, I think we'll do pretty well. And compared to the past 3 years, that would be a hell of an improvement.

 

[noodlehair]

I thought we set up how you'd expect us to and I didn't really have any major issue with the team apart from finding it strange Lingard was put straight back in.

Some of the players really let us down though.

Mikhatryan was unacceptable...I don't care what excuses there are, you can't just remove yourself mentally and physically from the game like that. It's what Arsenal players do. Go and play for Arsenal if you want to be a pussy cat.

Lingard was really poor. I was more confused why he was in the team at half time than I was before the game. Even if he was fully up to speed he'd surely not be ideal in this fixture? I mean what was he meant to be doing exactly?

Blind...both goals were his fault, which is nothing new in big/important games. Hesitate to say he cost us the game because to be honest, replacing him with Smalling or even some kind of robot Vidic, wouldn't have changed the fact we got played off the park. City didn't really need help he just gave it to them anyway.


Even after all that though, it was the second hallf that was really a disappointment for me. I mean, the first half. Fair enough, we got caught off guard. We found out some things the hard way (one or two of which we've already found out countless times before but hey ho) and we were just second best basically. It can happen, especially early in a season and with new players/coaching staff.

Despite that though, City somehow contrived to let us back in the game and even did their best to not even be winning at half time. Their goalkeeper actually made me glad Joe Hart has left. They gave us a second chance basically...and then we got ourselves a foothold in the game in the second half too, with the changes we made. I wouldn't say we were the better team, but we were in the game, and only a goal down, so we had a chance.

...and then what did we do in the last 20 minutes...deliberately took orselves back OUT of the game, and gave the ball back to City repeatedly by hoofing it in the general direction of Fellaini. Yes becuase that was a fecking GREAT tactic all last season wasn't it? It NEVER works. WHY DID WE DO THIS??? There was room to play the ball up the pitch by this point. We weren't being forced to hoof it, we were choosing to. Fecking ridiculous.

There were plus points though. Bailly was good again. Rooney looked better. Rashford. Pogba just looks like a United player already....but we NEED to stop making the same fundamental mistakes over and over. Until we do we're always going to be a limited team.

 

[fellaini's barber]

As far as I'm concerned, Ibra and Rooney playing together against this kind of opposition won't work. Brave would have gifted us about 2 goals if we could press him, look at all the City forwards when they counter us, everyone running. Hoping Mou gets his head out his arse and do what oughta be done. An attack of Rash,Martial and Mikhi has a lot of potential which is what we should be building on.

 

[legball]

@noodlehair 100% agree with that last sentence. I can't for the love of whatever understand why we start swinging it long with 20 minutes to go. It is totally unacceptable, especially with the resources at our disposal.

 

[Jazz]

Martial and rashford should be starters for you. Rooney shouldn't be playing (but at times did ok today) and blind isn't good enough as a centre back at all. You still need 1-2 class players but even with what you have - you're better than what we say today. You should also be playing a formation to take advantage of Pogba

We know... but what can we do? Us fans aren't the manager/coaches. Very frustrating tbh

 

[Neilpie]

Yes we lost.
Yes it was against City which is really hard to take but they were the better team.
Yes the tactics were wrong in the first half.
Yes, some of the players didn't turn up which is unacceptable in any game let alone the derby.
But...it's only one game, 3 points and some bragging rights down the pan, that's all.
We'll get over it, our manager is awesome and the players will get better the more they work together.
This is not the LVG or muppet Moyes days people, we will challenge for the title and if City are our nearest rivals that should push us even harder.
Bring on Thursday so we can put this one behind us.

 

[sunama]

We were quite good against our direct rivals under Van Gaal. City, for one, never outplayed us to this extent since Moyes.

The part about LVG is true. But lets not forget that LVG was a 4th place manager...which was no good for us.

Re: Moyes; under Moyes, we'd just get rolled over and be toothless with no chance of getting back in the game. In today's game we lost by 1 goal and it could've been a draw or even a win had we got penalties awarded to us. It was a close match today, though MCFC did dominate the first 40 minutes.
In the 2nd half after the changes were made, at no point were we outplayed by MCFC - it was a very even, end to end match.

 

[what a mess]

Lots of food for thought in This game and in the long run it won't do us any harm .
Positives ..
Zlatan great goal and even off the pace he always looks he most likely to get the ball in the net .
Bailly ..literally ran himself into the ground great battling performance
Fellaini , I'm his biggest critic but can't fault his effort today
Herrera , great performance from him
Rashford direct and quick made city defence look nervous

Negatives ...
Shaw looked nervous and not comfortable
Valencia ...can't believe its taken pep to spot the bloody obvious that we have a one footed right winger who cant tackle / defend playing at right back if I was opposition manager I would tell my team to attack him constantly , especially targeting his left hand side , he will cost is goals .
Miki ... Welcome to the premier lge !, so much faster and more aggressive than he is used to , hopefully today was a lesson learned .
Pogba , looked out of sorts didnt get hold of anything in midfield very poor display completely overshadowed by DeBruyne these are the games we bought him for and he let himself down badly .
Lingard ..looked over awed and out of his depth
Martial , once again looked lacking in confidence , we need him back at his best quickly

First half they were quicker , stronger and more aggressive in every area of the pitch , 2 nd half we looked better as we threw everything but the kitchen sink at them but we have to keep zlatan fit as he looks the only one capable of scoring 20 +goals this season , no need to panic just yet but this was a big test and we failed it miserably

 

[Pogue Mahone]

We were quite good against our direct rivals under Van Gaal. City, for one, never outplayed us to this extent since Moyes.

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.

 

[kps88]

I must say Fernandinho has really impressed me this season. Even more so when you consider he's not even playing with a proper CM next to him.

 

[noodlehair]

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.

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.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

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 mminutes of the game to instigate Fellaini hoof tactics.

That killed me, it really did. So damn depressing.

 

[noodlehair]

I must say Fernandinho has really impressed me this season. Even more so when you consider he's not even playing with a proper CM next to him.

Yeah. I was impressed with them on the whole. They look like a very good side already...well, a very good side with John Stones at centreback and some kind of Fifa glitch in goal. They do kind of need to sort both of those things out, which is amusing because they literally just bought both of them

 

[SwansonsTache]

What killed us today and what will continue to kill us against good opponents are the lack of a proper DM \ holding mid. You can't put a non defensively aware player like Pogba in a midfield two with a undisciplined #6 as Fellaini, who constantly drifts out of position. Just look what the inclusion of Herrera in that role in the second half did for us, and he isn't even a dm\holding mid.

To make matters worse Fellaini was clearly instructed to go forward as well, leaving us even more exposed. You could have fitted two extra teams in the gaps left between our midfield and back four.

If there ever is a game in the PL that calls for a hoover type of DM in front of the back four it is City. Surprised that such a defensively astute coach like Mourinho did a blunder like that.

 

[noodlehair]

That killed me, it really did. So damn depressing.

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.