[breakout67]

Martial is close to a worldie. Rashford is the best English youth player. Mata is a worldie, has been for a while. Mikhi used to be closer to a worldie. Too many excuses, not good enough attacking managers (Van Gaal and Jose) to use them properly.

You know Pep would play all of the above. Together!

Remember when Pep lost 4-0 to Everton and 4-2 to Leicester both who did the same thing that Mourinho did today.

You should give credit to Klopp; he recognized that he had no chance to win the game after we weathered the first 15 minutes of the second half. So he took of his key players and closed the game out.

 

[edgar allan]

Perhaps because we're down to plan C midfield combination which doesn't tick when trying to move the ball forward? Pogba may not dominate game but he can still find way to pull some magic passes which can decide game

Fellaini for all his flaw is a good option bring down the ball from a long ball in midfield which quite a nuisance to defend as opposition team. Juanfield game, despite the dominance and possession, Fellaini role in beating the pressing can't be understated. CBS can't take risk raising the line to mark him. There is hardly any midfielder on the same level of chest control.

Hardly any team have the plan C that come in big game and still playing close to plan A level.

Do you think that Jose would have taken a different approach to the game if Fellaini had been fit?

Fellaini for Herrera would have resulted in the same tactics and the same outcome.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Remember when Pep lost 4-0 to Everton and 4-2 to Leicester both who did the same thing that Mourinho did today.

You should give credit to Klopp; he recognized that he had no chance to win the game after we weathered the first 15 minutes of the second half. So he took of his key players and closed the game out.

The pretentiousness is here is astounding." We are missing world class players like Madrid" "omg we are so far behind the elite". But but "why didn't we play carelessly at one of our historic rivals stadium"

If we showed up in the CL final in Rome, played like this and won then I'd be ecstatic and wonder how many would complain here.

 

[ti vu]

Do you think that Jose would have taken a different approach to the game if Fellaini had been fit?

Fellaini for Herrera would have resulted in the same tactics and the same outcome.

If you read you would see my point. It may look like the same long ball to beat the pressing, but the approach would be different. The mixture of long ball in behind for Lukaku and long ball just right in front of L'pool defensive line would shuffle their organization.

The Juanfield game and the home win vs City in same run was not just us dominating those team on the ground all game. Fellaini was a good option to bypass their press when the chance represents. It worked as Fellaini was still part of midfield and his aerial ability is great for a midfielder. That run came to an end with Mourinho singled Fellaini out with Zouma and Matic doubled team him.

This game we didn't start by booting long ball to Lukaku. We did try to mix it up playing it out via Mkhi, but he failed to pull his weight and we're desperate to relieve pressure via Lukaku.

 

[Klopp_De_Klown]

Went for the draw...

We got the draw!

no more to be said except... If Lukaku had of shot low at the near post, ala the west ham goal. All the moaners would be calling Jose a smash n grap genius.

On we go, Benfica

 

[red_devil83]

Decent result. Total non-event of a game. Looks worse on a day where Citeh spanked 7 in mind.

I don't know what anyone was expecting really. It's Mourinho, away from home against a rival. He was always gonna keep it tight.

 

[automaticflare]

I'm sick of the nonsense in this thread about parking the bus and playing for a draw when we played the exact same system as we have all season.

We had inferior players in midfield today pogba > Herrera but even still Herrera has a mare it's plain as day as to why nothijgnin attack worked. And miki too was appalling.

 

[Baby Groot]

I was bit shocked that Mata never got the look in given that he has had some excellent game at anfeild in resent years.

 

[breakout67]

I'm sick of the nonsense in this thread about parking the bus and playing for a draw when we played the exact same system as we have all season.

We had inferior players in midfield today pogba > Herrera but even still Herrera has a mare it's plain as day as to why nothijgnin attack worked. And miki too was appalling.

Ive been trying to say this but the doom mongerers arent having it.

Our shape was the same as previous games. 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 for most parts of the game with a bit of 5-3-2.

But apparently we played a back 6 for large parts of the game

 

[Sereques]

Regardless of the formation or the plan, I felt the players didn't perform. Matic and Herrera didn't do enough, I was suprise to find both them dominated by Henderson and Wjdalum or whatever his name is.

Wondered why Mata didn't get a game time.

 

[RedPnutz]

Pragmatic my arse.

Have some faith in your fecking players Jose. This was utterly pathetic. But we got the point? This performance is like going to Hull for a point, or Everton for a point.

I'd rather lose but have a go, every single day of the week.

And will you be one of those that carry the Mourinho out banner should we lose the title to Man City on goal difference at the end of the season, just because we went gungho and lost just to appease your naive view of how Football aesthetics should look? Probably, given your lack of perspective.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Poor. We were in the game in the first 45, Lukaku had a good chance. Then we did nothing.

 

[don't sign old players]

A lacklustre performance coming off the national teams break. We miss Pogba too. The attack was isolated because of lacking movement in midfield. A point gained though because Liverpool dictated the course of play. De Gea best on ground, best around etc.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

Let's all calm our tits please. They smashed us today and couldn't find a way through, we were missing several first team men, they were missing 1. Mourinho got exactly what he came for. Result. We'll smash Huddersfield next weekend and spurs will beat them and then this result will look an awful lot better.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

look at these two knobs, they are pretending badly that they arent raging

Signs of desperation, bigging up Man City and using them as a decoy to fight their battles for them because they are doing shite. Reminds me of 6/7 years ago. This is music to my ears.

 

[marukomu]

I suppose they are now us in the 80's. They didn't beat us in the whole decade because it was our cup final.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

look at these two knobs, they are pretending badly that they arent raging

We were poor today. The United fella is talking as much shite as the scousers. We're both behind City, let's face it, but I'd rather have our problems than theirs.

 

[Camy89]

Really happy with the 0-0.

They pounded us the whole game and we got away with it. Imagine the disappointment with a 1-0 loss? So a draw for me is a good result, it wasn't a pretty performance and it's certainly the worst I've seen us play so far this season, but we got away with it.

The pessimism around here is laughable. Woe is me we're second in the table and 2 points behind City after 8 games with +19GD.

We move on to Benfica, the lads will have learnt something from that game but the confidence will still be there as we didn't concede.

The world's not crumbling around you, it's just a 0-0 draw. Drama Queen HQ this place at times, jesus.

 

[prtk0811]

Really happy with the 0-0.

They pounded us the whole game and we got away with it. Imagine the disappointment with a 1-0 loss? So a draw for me is a good result, it wasn't a pretty performance and it's certainly the worst I've seen us play so far this season, but we got away with it.

The pessimism around here is laughable. Woe is me we're second in the table and 2 points behind City after 8 games with +19GD.

We move on to Benfica, the lads will have learnt something from that game but the confidence will still be there as we didn't concede.

The world's not crumbling around you, it's just a 0-0 draw. Drama Queen HQ this place at times, jesus.

We have to improve on the ball in possession,we failed to test their absolutely shit defense we could have got 3 points today.

Since last season we have scored just 1 goal against every top 6 opposition's. There is obviously a need to hold the circulate the ball much better to create much better which we fail to do in every game against top 5 .

If we set up away at Chelsea arsenal Tottenham city the same we will drop too many points and chances are to drop points against them at home too. Because of our approach to passing.

 

[ghagua]

We have the wrong manager for the football you're trying to watch.

Not a fan of Mourinho, but the players are responsible for passing the damn fecking ball. I do hope Mourinho gets out of this cowardly way of playing and let the opposition worry anout our attack, but the players need to learn how to play against the press instead of hoofing the ball up the pitch. I can see this trend continue against all of the top 6 teams.

 

[RedDevil@84]

1 pt. Crap performance. So will take it. We can keep talking about what ifs. But the players on field should have done enough to create a few chances for Lukaku, Martial or Rashford.

 

[prtk0811]

Not a fan of Mourinho, but the players are responsible for passing the damn fecking ball. I do hope Mourinho gets out of this cowardly way of playing and let the opposition worry anout our attack, but the players need to learn how to play against the press instead of hoofing the ball up the pitch. I can see this trend continue against all of the top 6 teams.

Players know how to play and against press, its is the managers instructions to play it to lukaku and beat the high press that way.

Mourinho believes if we play it long what will they press? This is his approach to tactics and he remains stubborn in his own way.

It works when you are an efficient counter attacking team , but this group of players are not a counter attacking unit who canrun 100 m from defense to attack.

 

[Nakhon Phanom]

At the start of play I'm sure most of us would have been satisfied with a point.
We missed Pogba and Fellaini and our midfield was unable to get a grip on the game.Mkhitarayan was poor again and surely Mata is a better bet than him currently.
Bailly was injured on international duty and Rashford had a knock,also.
So take the display in its context......
But a great defensive display especially from Dave.

 

[johnamiri]

All those years Man Utd spent building a reputation as an exciting attacking team will be undone by Mourinho in about 2 seasons. If he thinks he is going to win this league playing football like that he is mistaken. What will he do when you play city? That should be 2 very interesting games. Is it just because its Liverpool or is he going to play this way every time he meets a team he thinks is capable of giving them a game. Man u were very disappointing yesterday. I would think the older fans would be bitterly disappointed and the younger fans happy with the point

 

[Hojoon]

All those years Man Utd spent building a reputation as an exciting attacking team will be undone by Mourinho in about 2 seasons. If he thinks he is going to win this league playing football like that he is mistaken. What will he do when you play city? That should be 2 very interesting games. Is it just because its Liverpool or is he going to play this way every time he meets a team he thinks is capable of giving them a game. Man u were very disappointing yesterday. I would think the older fans would be bitterly disappointed and the younger fans happy with the point

If it hasn't been ruined by Moyes and LVG then it won't be ruined by Mou who already had a reputation long before he joined us. This match was basically an attack vs defense training session.

 

[RedDevil@84]

All those years Man Utd spent building a reputation as an exciting attacking team will be undone by Mourinho in about 2 seasons. If he thinks he is going to win this league playing football like that he is mistaken. What will he do when you play city? That should be 2 very interesting games. Is it just because its Liverpool or is he going to play this way every time he meets a team he thinks is capable of giving them a game. Man u were very disappointing yesterday. I would think the older fans would be bitterly disappointed and the younger fans happy with the point

I don't think anyone see Utd as an attacking powerhouse any more. Moyes and LvG have killed it already. Jose is a pragmatic manager. As long as we do well overall in the context of PL, I am happy. Don't think Pool were there for the taking. This fixture was never easy at Anfield for ages.

 

[AN17]

We all know by now that this is the " Jose Mourinho away game template" for the big games.

I have resigned myself to the fact that watching United in these games would be as excruciating and dull as most games under LVG. At least these will be few and far between. But still a chore.

 

[AgentP]

This has not been a bad week overall for us. Only City and Spurs gained on us. The rest have only fallen further behind.

 

[nikineil]

Well, we didn't lose. But, FFS, I got up at 4:30 for that.

This feeling exactly. I was just so pumped for the game and then there was that.

 

[buckooo1978]

when you approach a game the way you did you have to control the opposition well and take your opportunities

we did control Liverpool reasonably well and restricted them to one great chance

in terms of taking our opportunities let's not sugarcoat it. We were dog shit.

- corners and crossing was awful with us wasting opportunity after opportunity

-passing was awful and Young/Martial played far too deep at times - we've seen this before from Mourinho obviously and it's a bit gutless - had we left them up and trusted our other 7 players to defend centrally we may have got a reward

- some of the players let us down badly- Mhiki truly awful, Herrera poor And diving in far too much, Darmian poor, Lukaku unable to get in the game, our defending was a bit desperate at times. felt that only Valencia, Matic and Young seemed to have composure

- Martial was ok in the first half but he tended to take too many touches. he and Lukaku did link up very well in our only real chance

- Lukaku has done well for us so far - he does need things given to him on a plate though - this was a game we needed a world class attacker and I wonder if Rashford's energy and work rate would have been better at 9? this isn't the first time this season Lukaku has struggled to get on the ball.

-second half we just looked like a team hoping for a draw which was very disappointing

 

[DomesticTadpole]

when you approach a game the way you did you have to control the opposition well and take your opportunities

we did control Liverpool reasonably well and restricted them to one great chance

in terms of taking our opportunities let's not sugarcoat it. We were dog shit.

- corners and crossing was awful with us wasting opportunity after opportunity

-passing was awful and Young/Martial played far too deep at times - we've seen this before from Mourinho obviously and it's a bit gutless - had we left them up and trusted our other 7 players to defend centrally we may have got a reward

- some of the players let us down badly- Mhiki truly awful, Herrera poor And diving in far too much, Darmian poor, Lukaku unable to get in the game, our defending was a bit desperate at times. felt that only Bailly, Matic and Young seemed to have composure

- Martial was ok in the first half but he tended to take too many touches. he and Lukaku did link up very well in our only real chance

- Lukaku has done well for us so far - he does need things given to him on a plate though - this was a game we needed a world class attacker and I wonder if Rashford's energy and work rate would have been better at 9? this isn't the first time this season Lukaku has struggled to get on the ball.

-second half we just looked like a team hoping for a draw which was very disappointing

Bailly? Easy to look composed when you didn't play.

 

[R'hllor]

 

[buckooo1978]

Bailly? Easy to look composed when you didn't play.

whoops fixed typing on autopilot

 

[clarkydaz]

i wonder what LVG thought of that today

 

[SirAF]

All those years Man Utd spent building a reputation as an exciting attacking team will be undone by Mourinho in about 2 seasons. If he thinks he is going to win this league playing football like that he is mistaken. What will he do when you play city? That should be 2 very interesting games. Is it just because its Liverpool or is he going to play this way every time he meets a team he thinks is capable of giving them a game. Man u were very disappointing yesterday. I would think the older fans would be bitterly disappointed and the younger fans happy with the point

 

[DomesticTadpole]

He does it against the big teams away. Everyone knows that. I call it sensible. We don't have a KDB, so why in hell would you let him play how he likes, we don't have a form Eden Hazard, he sorted him out last season at OT and nobody complained when we won it was a masterclass.

 

[Tapori]

I've noticed that really good managers adapt the immediate gameplan not only for the current game but also for the next game as well. SAF does this and so does Mourinho. This is not cowardice. This is a long term chess game in 3D. We've just come from a international break and are having injuries in some really major areas. We needed to adapt our game to that today and beyond. We can't afford to have any more injuries and we needed players to shake off any rustiness. I'm pretty sure the players today were advised not to push themselves beyond a certain limit. We also needed to retain the players for use in more crucial matches. We have an away CL game coming up in just 4 days and then another one 2 days after that. That's a very tight and draining schedule.

Pushing players to go all out today after a certain point in this game might have been disastrous if we were to lose any more players or tire them out because they over-committed. Which is probably why Mata didn't play and Martial was substituted or also probably why Mourinho kept Martial from playing when we were leading Southampton 1-0 because of the CSKA Moscow game. He never uses players unnecessarily if he can help it. Availability gives him opportunities to plan better. Some games are always going to be a little more boring than others but in the end it's really good for us because it's the smart play.

Superb well reasoned and thought out defence of todays performance and I wholly agree that could well be a part of why.
Our deficiencies to counter/hold up the ball to one side, you could see they were under instructions not to bust a gut forward considering our injuries and fixtures coming up.

Klopp didn't go for it and break that midfield 3 up in the last 3rd of the match for the win and that was a credit to Mourinho.

As a bonus, the sheer amount of hate this performance has generated amongst the koppites is worth it! "Why didn't you attack? Why didn't you ignore tactics and play with the space to allow us to beat you? Why did you make Klopp not gamble for the win? You guys are a disgrace la."
Fantastic. In Jose we trust; literally stopped them winning that League that year.

 

[Tapori]

Jose going on about the 2 v 3 in centre midfield, surely Blind and Matic with Ander in front could have worked better?

Yes agreed, but Blind hasn't played centre mid for ages so Jose is unlikely to risk that. He should be used more.

 

[SirAF]

He does it against the big teams away. Everyone knows that. I call it sensible. We don't have a KDB, so why in hell would you let him play how he likes, we don't have a form Eden Hazard, he sorted him out last season at OT and nobody complained when we won it was a masterclass.

Exactly.

 

[11101]

DDG - earned his clean sheet with that save
Valencia - did his job well
Darmian - also did what was asked of him and mostly recovered well when beaten by Salah.
Jones - solid all game
Smalling - not up to it mentally. Great man v man but poor positionally and made a few stupid errors.
Young - did what was asked of him i.e support Valencia
Matic - had a bad day. Looked tired and let his man get away far too easily. Also sloppy with his passing.
Herrera - pressed well as asked but had no idea what was going on between him and Matic.
Miki - pressed relentlessly so had little chance to do anything of note. Probably shouldn't play games where he won't get space to run into.
Martial - also did his main job of buffering Darmian but closed down quickly before he had chance to start running at his man.
Lukaku - isolated but didn't do enough to try and get involved.