[greggsy]

We would have won this game had Jones not got injured, but I think it is safe to say that we now have seen the worst of Lindelof, can only get better from here. We really need a new left back, I like Young, but he would not start as a full back for any other top 10 Premier League side. And why are we so shit at throw ins?

 

[Siorac]

feck Mourinho for taking off Mata and Martial but leaving Lingard on.

I understand that neither played well but at least with Mata and Martial we know they CAN do great things. Lingard's ceiling is pretty much what we've seen, he rarely does better than yesterday's non-performance.

 

[Maxin]

Vittu perkele @Maxin

What haha

 

[Shiva87]

It was a dire game, but a lot of it has to do with the way we played against Liverpool and Benfica.

Jose took a team brimming with confidence and flair to Liverpool and asked them to forget about football and play defensively. Now the players seem to have forgotten/ lost that swagger of the early season.

It's small margins, but now we will need a big result in the Spurs game to bring the confidence back!

 

[Feed Me]

It was a dire game, but a lot of it has to do with the way we played against Liverpool and Benfica.

Jose took a team brimming with confidence and flair to Liverpool and asked them to forget about football and play defensively. Now the players seem to have forgotten/ lost that swagger of the early season.

It's small margins, but now we will need a big result in the Spurs game to bring the confidence back!

We won't be beating Spurs or Chelsea with Mourinho's big game attitude.

 

[duffer]

We won't be beating Spurs or Chelsea with Mourinho's big game attitude.

You've not watched Chelsea recently I take it!

 

[Shiva87]

We won't be beating Spurs or Chelsea with Mourinho's big game attitude.

Jose is a big game manager but his problem is that he is also stubborn.

His interview after the Benfica game was quite a piss off where he came out and said that there is nothing wrong with defending. I think his love for trying to prove that his way is right, may cloud his otherwise pragmatic decision making.

Against Spurs, we need to play on the front foot and try and take the game to them. If we don't, Kane, Alli and Ericcson will find a way to break our defence. I won't think about the Chelsea game yet given that our Spurs result will have a lot to do with the way we approach the chelsea game. (Also, I'm hoping Pogba will be back for Chelsea!)

 

[sugar_kane]

It was a dire game, but a lot of it has to do with the way we played against Liverpool and Benfica.

Jose took a team brimming with confidence and flair to Liverpool and asked them to forget about football and play defensively. Now the players seem to have forgotten/ lost that swagger of the early season.

It's small margins, but now we will need a big result in the Spurs game to bring the confidence back!

There's an element of this perhaps but at the same time our loss in form has entirely coincided with losing Fellaini and Pogba.

We're currently operating with a makeshift midfield and it's showing.

 

[Pyroblazer]

The nice period is over now, 3 shitty games in a row and Tottenham and Chelsea coming now. Jose need to show balls and win these games now, otherwise I see us already in a difficult situation where we could be 3rd or even 4th with 10 points behind City. Huddersfield was really the worst game to get our first loss. Our playstyle doesn't help either, City just goes out and plays football, smashing teams left and right and building their confidence up, we had a good start and then parked the bus like a small team after the international break. All the confidence and believe that we are a big team seems to be gone. Lindelof looks a pretty bad buy atm, I will still give him time, but he is far away from United-quality so far and it was a position where we weren't allowed to feck a transfer up. We can't rely on Jones and Smalling, we never could, a Jones injury was always going to happen, with Rojo and Bailly too we have huge problems. Our injury luck is again pretty shit, but difficult to blame all on that. Pep has all his fullbacks out and just wins games with Delph as LB, I have the feeling they just need to lineup 11 players and they will smash most teams in the PL, while we look dire in some areas and we have spend a lot of money too.

I hope the club stop with any discussion about a new 5-year contract for Jose, he really should deliver first and let's see how this season ends, it's not like the first one has been great. If we are succesful under him, he can stay here as long as he wants anyway, no need to rush things. Huge game against Spurs now. Could be the difference between fighting for the title with City or falling behind Spurs and Chelsea and have another Top4 struggle season, which wouldn't be good enough this time.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

The nice period is over now, 3 shitty games in a row and Tottenham and Chelsea coming now. Jose need to show balls and win these games now, otherwise I see us already in a difficult situation where we could be 3rd or even 4th with 10 points behind City. Huddersfield was really the worst game to get our first loss. Our playstyle doesn't help either, City just goes out and plays football, smashing teams left and right and building their confidence up, we had a good start and then parked the bus like a small team after the international break. All the confidence and believe that we are a big team seems to be gone. Lindelof looks a pretty bad buy atm, I will still give him time, but he is far away from United-quality so far and it was a position where we weren't allowed to feck a transfer up. We can't rely on Jones and Smalling, we never could, a Jones injury was always going to happen, with Rojo and Bailly too we have huge problems. Our injury luck is again pretty shit, but difficult to blame all on that. Pep has all his fullbacks out and just wins games with Delph as LB, I have the feeling they just need to lineup 11 players and they will smash most teams in the PL, while we look dire in some areas and we have spend a lot of money too.

I hope the club stop with any discussion about a new 5-year contract for Jose, he really should deliver first and let's see how this season ends, it's not like the first one has been great. If we are succesful under him, he can stay here as long as he wants anyway, no need to rush things.

Don't think City go out thinking about the other team at all. They let the opposition worry about them and work out how to stop them. They go out on the front foot and just wear teams down, even yesterday, Burnley held on well, but once they conceded that was it. The other team cannot get the ball to try and get a goal.

 

[iam_kramer]

Turns out I'm still angry about yesterday's match. We were all so poor and it's really worrying, we were poor against Everton despite the 4 goals, Liverpool, Benfica, now Huddersfield. You cant just keep trying to get away with playing badly. Jose might say the best team won, which is true, but why were they the best team? Because we couldn't attack or create chances. The players didn't have a clue what to do against that defense.

Mourinho had Lukaku, Lindelof, Mkhitaryan, and Matic out there yesterday, everyone speaks about Pep buying a new team on here, but Jose isn't that far off a new team, except Jose's players aren't working as well.

 

[Shiva87]

There's an element of this perhaps but at the same time our loss in form has entirely coincided with losing Fellaini and Pogba.

We're currently operating with a makeshift midfield and it's showing.

I agree - but Matic and Hererra are good enough to match Huddersfield in midfield and we should have adapted. That makeshift argument is acceptable against Spurs or a Liverpool, but not against a bottom team.

I was worried when Pogba got injured - because we do look lost in midfield without him, but Matic did well in the two games after that. Pogba coming back will give the players a boost, but Jose needs to stop moaning about injuries and keep the confidence high, and the team mentally prepared for games. That's his job as a manager where he failed miserably yesterday.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Exactly. One player is responsible for everything. He's a bad luck charm. Glad you've figured it out.

It's not bad luck, he's crap, always has been and always will be. Destroys the rhythm of the team.

 

[2 man midfield]

We lost games under Sir Alex - it happens every now and again.

But you just knew the first game lost after this supposed reawakening was going to be like this. The key thing Fergie's teams had though was their response to defeats like this. It's how we play against Spurs that interests me.

 

[Jeffthered]

This has been on coming though, and I sense many feel that way. Stoke, Southampton, Liverpool, Benfica, Huddersfield... we haven't played well in any of these games.

Our limitations are being exposed in my opinion. We have some fantastic players, and a number of good players who when combined, are a very good match for most teams. But, we have players, the Lindgaards, Mata, Mikitahriyan, Martial.. these are supposedly our attacking threat. Well, as we are observing, they may all be decent in their own way.. but they are not THAT good. Do you think these players, combined, will score 20 Premiership goals for us this season? Think about that.

I don't write us off, because I still question Man City defensively, and they will encounter a poor run, every team does, and the rest all have their pros and cons.

But we're struggling, for where we want to be moving towards, consistently, we're struggling. I hope Mourinho tearing into the players like that (and they flipping well deserved it...) will change some things. I also hope that he has seen enough from some players and knows what he has to do.

I love United, absolutely love the club. But I'm a realist. I see Mourninho's style of play, which I have to accept, and how he wishes to organise his team. But we lack a few players. We need another couple of the top performers. And I hope no one is blaming Mourinho for that performance yesterday. That was an Arsenal type performance, and I'm not having that at Man Utd. All those players can go feck themselves if that's how they wish to wear the shirt.

We miss Carrick, hugely. Pogba, Fellani, Zlatan's quality and prescence... they play with an absolute winning mentality, ugly and basic if necessary.

Let's see how the players react, because they really embarrassed the club yesterday. I hope they respond, but some may have sent the manager the wrong signal and that could be curtains for a few of them.

 

[chb23]

Was surprised to see Lindelof being the last man defending. Has been our worst defender all season and he's meant to be a "ball playing" defender, yet is our last line of defence lol

 

[BulgarianDevil91]

I had an awful feeling about this game ever since I woke up yesterday. I am not the most competent football fan out there, but I think that a good right winger would be the answer to all of our problems. We have a great powerful attacker in the face of Lukaku and we should abuse his aerial abilities. Also, a midfielder or two, just to have a wider variety of options when the injuries hit us hard, would be fine.

 

[RetroStu]

Not making excuses for a shite performance, but we always lose 2 or 3 of these games every season, no matter how good we are.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

We won the league in 10/11 by winning only 4 away games all season, and lost 2-1 away to Wolves with a fecking awful performance not too dissimilar to this performance. It happens.

Yeah I was drunk and angry last night

Still, we're not there yet and I don't think we'll click in time to challenge this year.

 

[adz_87]

Their interplay of neat one time touches and passes is just so good. You just know they can score and once they do, it opens it up. Granted, when we play the poor teams at home, we dominate, but city dominate home and away. They absolutely dominated Chelsea in Stamford Bridge.

I do not like saying but I have to go on what I see. City are better than us offensively. They get goals much easier. I have said it repeatedly, when we are away from home, it will be a tough match, because we have a different philosophy to them.

Defensively we are better than them, but their offense is just sublime, as much as I hate saying it. At least it is not Liverpool though.

Are we better than them defensively though? They've conceded 4 same as us whilst playing an attacking brand of football. Stones and otemendi are playing out their skin and Walker is for me the best right back in the league and they now have what looks like a very good goalkeeper.

 

[sunama]

Players should be glad he only said that about them.

They deserved far, far more beating than what he said.

Indeed.
The players got off lightly.

 

[sunama]

With regards to attitude, I think our current set of players need to be shown this short video before every match, to understand the correct mind-set before every match.


If that doesn't fire our players up, I honestly don't know what will.

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Woke this morning feeling shit...............

 

[The Brown Bull]

A defeat that has been coming.

 

[unitedforeveral]

Oh My God that was a pathetic effort on our part. Lately I have a feeling we're not league winner material. We have a lot of baggage in terms of possession, passing and position. None of players know what to do when the pass comes in quick and there is a defender running at them. There are simply no link up play, no one touch passes, no one-two passes, no creativity to fool a defender. Even some of the smaller teams move the ball up and down the field so quick. It's just awful. Jose is probably worried sick as I doubt he expects this kinda team in the heart of Manchester. We don't have a killer pass, we don't have a counter attacking team either. Oh how we miss Pogba. Spurs will teach us a lesson. We definitely need to apply ourselves or we would probably lose the title challenge in the next couple of weeks

 

[RedTillI'mDead]

Poor performance apart from the last 15 when we played like we should have from the start with intensity and by passing the ball forward. Lindelöf hopefully never plays again for us

Or does a Vidic/ Evra level of improvement and some! His start point is way off!

 

[roseguy64]

It's not bad luck, he's crap, always has been and always will be. Destroys the rhythm of the team.

Okay

 

[NK86]

There's an element of this perhaps but at the same time our loss in form has entirely coincided with losing Fellaini and Pogba.

We're currently operating with a makeshift midfield and it's showing.

Makeshift midfield?!!!! That's a 40 million pound top DM and our player of the season from last year there. If that's "makeshift" and a reason for us being shite in attack then God help us when we do have more injuries there.

 

[el3mel]

Makeshift midfield?!!!! That's a 40 million pound top DM and our player of the season from last year there. If that's "makeshift" and a reason for us being shite in attack then God help us when we do have more injuries there.

It's a makeshift. Both are DMs with zero attacking outlet.

In order to play good offensive football you should first have a midfield with offensive threat. Playing with 2 DMFs and a number 10 who loses the ball each 50/50 isn't a good plan to play good football.

 

[NK86]

Quote from Herrera after today’s debacle against Huddersfield... “We now have two very tough Premier League games, you never know, you can win against anyone and lose against anyone.”
... gives the impression 6 points in the next two games is something of a pipe dream. Our players shouldn’t be thinking like this about games against Spurs and Chelsea it’s not befitting of the stature of our club and the top-end fee we pay for players like him precisely to be able to go into those sorts of games EXPECTING wins.

Did Herrera, of all players, say that? That's embarrassing after our display yesterday. But you really cannot blame him. Seems to be coming from the top with our manager being a coward against any half decent side.

 

[ClosetDevil]

I don't think we've ever had any chance of going with Guardiola. I don't believe he ever wanted the job, knowing the amount of dross he had to replace.

I know, still a darn shame we ended up with a super negative manager who is incapable of forming a team capable of putting away minnows and challenging for the title despite the immense amount of resources (money) he was provided over two transfer windows.

 

[NK86]

It's a makeshift. Both are DMs with zero attacking outlet.

In order to play good offensive football you should first have a midfield with offensive threat. Playing with 2 DMFs and a number 10 who loses the ball each 50/50 isn't a good plan to play good football.

You do realize it's the same midfield except for Pogba. Now given it's a loss to lose a player of his ability but it's NOT makeshift. Injuries happen. Fellaini is not a typical attacking midfield. He plays more like a battering ram #10.

That's our best midfield with the exception of Pogba. No where close to being makeshift. You lot make it sound like we are playing Rafael and Park there.

 

[acnumber9]

I know, still a darn shame we ended up with a super negative manager who is incapable of forming a team capable of putting away minnows and challenging for the title despite the immense amount of resources (money) he was provided over two transfer windows.

The amount he has spent has been more than matched by Man City who had a better squad to start with.

 

[el3mel]

You do realize it's the same midfield except for Pogba. Now given it's a loss to lose a player of his ability but it's NOT makeshift. Injuries happen. Fellaini is not a typical attacking midfield. He plays more like a battering ram #10.

That's our best midfield with the exception of Pogba. No where close to being makeshift. You lot make it sound like we are playing Rafael and Park there.

Except the offensive roles Pogba gave us is far more than Herrera.

Fellaini when played also provided 2 very important offensive role : First as a long ball target to bring the ball to his teammates, that frees Lukaku to be ready for the chance created, and second another presence in the box on the far post, giving the opponent defense 2 players to worry about in the box ( Lukaku and Fellaini ), if the ball passed the first, it'll be headed by the next one.

Now it's up to Lukaku to bring the long ball himself, which he's not very good at that, he also has to bring his teammates to play after he gets the long ball, also he's alone in the box waiting for crosses making him easy to defend against.

And without Pogba we have no genuine way to keep possession of the ball because Herrera and Mikhi feck our possession stats each time they get the ball.

All this is accumulation of absence in midfield. You can't possess the ball and can't play long balls, hence you get a very poor offensive appearance.

 

[NK86]

Except the offensive roles Pogba gave us is far more than Herrera.

Fellaini when played also provided 2 very important offensive role : First as a long ball target to bring the ball to his teammates, that frees Lukaku to be ready for the chance created, and second another presence in the box on the far post, giving the opponent defense 2 players to worry about in the box ( Lukaku and Fellaini ), if the ball passed the first, it'll be headed by the next one.

Now it's up to Lukaku to bring the long ball himself, which he's not very good at that, he also has to bring his teammates to play after he gets the long ball, also he's alone in the box waiting for crosses making him easy to defend against.

And without Pogba we have no genuine way to keep possession of the ball because Herrera and Mikhi feck our possession stats each time they get the ball.

All this is accumulation of absence in midfield. You can't possess the ball and can't play long balls, hence you get a very poor offensive appearance.

That's still not a makeshift midfield for crying out loud. That's just our players not doing well enough. Pogba is a miss but Pep actually has makeshift FBs. Still does not mean they suddenly become shite.

Makeshift has a different meaning to me. We have a slightly unbalanced midfield but we still have two quality mfs there.

 

[Twisted Nerve]

Recent away form and performances are worrying.

Though at least we can still get automatic Champions League qualification if we finish 2nd/3rd!

With performances like this there is no way we will make 4th, never mind 2nd or 3rd

 

[el3mel]

That's still not a makeshift midfield for crying out loud. That's just our players not doing well enough. Pogba is a miss but Pep actually has makeshift FBs. Still does not mean they suddenly become shite.

Makeshift has a different meaning to me. We have a slightly unbalanced midfield but we still have two quality mfs there.

A makeshift FB isn't a serious issue as a makeshift midfield. We had a makeshift FBs as well and we're doing fine.

Without a proper midfield that can possess and create, we'll never play good attacking football. Remove KDB and Silva from City and then ask Pep to do his possession football.

 

[Fellaianus]

This performance was nothing short of disgraceful. It looks like our players are only trained at defending. They are lacking creativity, they don't seem hungry to score goals. It's all about nicking that one goal and getting 3 points.

Mourinho is being extremely disrespectful to us fans. I wouldn't mind losing to Huddersfield if we had actually tried to score. I wouldn't mind losing to Liverpool if he had tried to win that game (which we didn't).

Remember when we were hampered by injuries and LvG let Rashford play from start? That would never have happened under Mourinho. Instead of giving this unknown youngster a starting spot he'd let Fellaini or something play as a striker.

Mourinho's tactics are outdated by almost 10 years now. He has to start taking chances on youngsters or unknown players. It is working for Pochettino, it is working for Zidane at Madrid, but the Special One is still stuck in year 2009.

 

[NK86]

A makeshift FB isn't a serious issue as a makeshift midfield. We had a makeshift FBs as well and we're doing fine.

Without a proper midfield that can possess and create, we'll never play good attacking football. Remove KDB and Silva from City and then ask Pep to do his possession football.

City have had Silva missing. Yet they don't turn shite. Plus it's not like we have never had a proper makeshift midfield before. We have had far worse midfields under SAF without our attack being half as poor. You make it sound like we are playing two CBs in midfield.

 

[el3mel]

City have had Silva missing. Yet they don't turn shite. Plus it's not like we have never had a proper makeshift midfield before. We have had far worse midfields under SAF without our attack being half as poor. You make it sound like we are playing two CBs in midfield.

I said remove both KDB and Silva. If one of them is absent the other can compensate for him.

And let's be honest our midfield has been pure shite in the last days under SAF and we were screaming for proper midfield for age it's not like we didn't have any problem at all.