[RedDevilCanuck]

We were shite but I also learned City is better but they aint great at all. They created very little even with us not being able to keep the ball at all and backing off. We really should have equalized and they had to corner flag it for several minutes to relieve pressure.

I thought Young and Matic were our best players along with our CB`s.

Fellaini and Pogba are needed. We also need another midfielder that can hold the ball under pressure and create a counter attack quickly. Pogba is our only player that can do this. It is not Matic`s game and Herrera for some reason has last all creativity.

 

[The red panther]

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.

They didn't even need to be at their best to win against us today. We were playing at home, last chance for us to actually keep the title race a bit open and they won against us without actually ever breaking a sweat.

Yes they scored 2 lucky goals, so what ? Our goal was also lucky and came from a mistake of Delph. They also had more possession, more chances and quite literally camped for most of the game on our side. And they didn't even have to play their best football or break a sweat to do it either and now they lead by 11 points already in december.

I absolutley hate it that I have to say this about City as I hate their gutts but they are simply miles ahead of us and it is painfull and embarrasing to watch us play against them.

 

[DevilRed]

We should have come out with a draw today. Im actually encouraged that our defence continues to be rock solid in open play. We were only undone by Lukaku having an absolute nightmare on both ends.

We were always 1 year behind citeh in terms of rebuilding the team. Its a really shit result but hopefully we kick on and close the gap during the Christmas period. We have the personnel to do so. Hopefully we also get everyone back healthy for an EXTENDED period of time. Honestly we have just dealt with suspensions and injuries for months now. Its almost like we never get to see our best 11 play together.

 

[desmondisback]

I hate to say it but City tick all the 10 boxes I wish United ticked more often.....

1) Pass and move with speed and expression(often one touch)
2) Get the ball back asap with equal speed and intensity
3) Do not retreat or cower too deep back into your own box
4) Don't hoof it aimlessly unless you have to
5) Play with courage and belief (not an inferiority complex)
6) Compete in the tackle but also be streetwise with it.
7) Make it as hard as poss. for the opposition when they have it
8) Take the initiative rather than wait for things to happen.
9) Play to win rather than avoid defeat (without fear)
10) Believe that football (not anti football) will prevail

Guardiola is a genius at these things. Mourinho ? I'll leave that for you to decide. Who knows what United would be like if we had more of these 10. Their players are not so significantly better maybe? They had all the luck today but then again teams that sign up to these 10 footballing values deserve the luck they get.

What hurts me is not the result so much , it's watching a United team score fairly badly in these 10 tick boxes. We've got a mini Barcelona on our doorstep. It's time to be humble enough to try and copy them.

It's the future of football. Mourinho is the past.

 

[Peanut Butter]

Basically this. We're where we deserve to be, I'd be disappointed if we don't finish 2nd mind, we're clearly the 2nd best team in the league.

I agree. Since beginning of season I have targeted a Top 3 finish for us as that's huge progress in a short space of time.

I think we're good enough to finish runners up and win a cup or two.

 

[emperortan]

Mancity had full 1st team vs us. And their 1st team is currently much better than us. We lost Pogba, Bailly and 100% condition Phil Jones. Lost is predictable. But Lukaku is still a disgrace this match.

 

[GM K]

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.

I have to admit you are right mate. We lost today's game last week when Pogba got that red.

 

[J-Stander]

Better team won. They’re clearly better than us in nearly every department. It’s a shame some individual errors cost us but we wouldn’t have deserved anything anyway. Lukaku not good enough.

 

[christinaa]

Agreed. We were up against one of the better sides in the history of the prem.

In the 'history' of the Premiership !

Hey hold your horses mate Utd under Fergie had a couple of better teams than this City team!

 

[Baby Groot]

City are the luckiest team in the world, add Oliver on top of that, and I can't really be arsed about the game.

This. Feel the same about this game. But it must be said City's luck must run out at some point. Who knows what happens if they actually lose. If this copy paste from last season where they started amazing then started to tall of prior to playing us, still won, then lost not to long there after.

 

[DevilRed]

Would really like to have a full team for the next few months and see whether we can catch them. We have just been so unlucky with injuries and suspensions yet again. Seems like every year is the same.

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Guardiola won spectacularly with Barca and now he is going to win spectacularly with City. I didn't think a club or manager could dominate the EPL, but it looks like that could be the case for the next 3 to 4 years. Kudos to City.

Nah I don't think it'll be like that anymore. The time when teams dominate for three, five or ten years is over. One year it''ll be City, then Chelsea, or United and someone else.

 

[The red panther]

Jog off, please.

I think he must improve our attacking play, but to call him a bitch or not cut out for big games is embarrassing considering his record.

Mourinho has not been great at all in the big games as United manager. I'am not talking about his record at other teams, I'am talking about him as a United manager.

And compaired to Pep he is far inferior, Pep his record is actually better than that of Mourinho and Pep seems to win win very easily versus Mourinho aswell.

 

[PlayerOne]

Agreed. We were up against one of the better sides in the history of the prem.

I haven't read all posts on here but you have to understand the frustration of the fans, City might have just won the league in December at OT and I felt they didn't play that well

 

[iKeano]

Grabbed grabbed our ankle socks at home to gift wrap the league for City. Simple as.

Lingard and Rashford the only two players out there that seem to know what it means to play City.
Lukaku was the worse No.9 I’ve ever seen play at OT.
Smalling would play with a square ball if he could.
Valencia I saw the worst captain I've ever seen, didn’t have one single word with that pr1ck Oliver the entire game and had an utter mare.
José waiting til 70+ mins to make any sort of change, then leaves Lukaku on!

Utter, utter crap. Will struggle to make top 4.

 

[Marcky411]

Yes it’s seems he always get the better of mourinho I wonder why

Because Mourinho is like a donkey, when your football tactics don't work then keep trying the same cr@p over and over again and hope for a different outcome, dinosaur tactics, so predictable it would really shock the world if he ever changed something.
While Mourinho is our manager we must accept being second/third/fourth best and to play park the bus when you play any top 6 team. No free flowing football and a lot of hoofing. We could spend another 500mil on new players and end up playing the same cr@p we playing now. If United ever want to compete again, at the highest level, playing some decent football they will have to get rid of Mourinho first.

 

[Cee90]

Why was I so happy when we signed Lukaku again?

 

[Zlatattack]

Renewal of Mourinho's contract should be subject to him winning the title. The only reason I put up with his BS negativity is because there are titles at the end of it. Cups just fill the gaps as consolation prizes.

 

[FrenchRed]

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.

This sums up my thoughts exactly. We needed to not give away easy chances and put away ours. Lukaku did neither.

Next weeks another game. All is not lost. We MUST get second.

 

[BigBebe]

Why is Lukaku given defensive responsibilities when his touch is clearly not good enough?

 

[Stookie]

Even forgetting the result and City, why are we frightened to try and pass the ball? Hoofball in the general direction of Lukaku or Lingard is so league 2 football. Every time we had the ball the defence or deep lying midfield hoofed it up and 90% of the time gave possession back to City. We should have played 3 in the midfield to combat their 3. Oh well we can fight Chelsea for 2nd.

This seems to be A José tactic against teams who press high. He wants to cut the pressure by shunting the ball upfield and rendering their pressing useless. He did it against Ajax in the EL final and it worked well then but today it really didn’t. For it to work you really need a target man who is capable of holding the ball up and other players up for the second ball. We had neither today and this just gave them possession straight back to them. We showed them to much respect today, it seemed like they were scared stiff of tackling KDB!

 

[Raoul]

I haven't read all posts on here but you have to understand the frustration of the fans, City might have just won the league in December at OT and I felt they didn't play that well

We didn't play well because City are that good. We did have our chances (as did they) and the result could've gone either way, so its not like it was a total domination on their part.

 

[royboy16]

At least it wasnt 5-0

 

[Baby Groot]

1.8 rating for Lukaku currently

I'm shocked that its t that high

 

[Ban]

The red panther.

Looks like a dangerous nickname, so I'll have him on alert.

He's insufferable.

 

[Marcky411]

We all thought we were getting drogba but got heskey

Truth really hurts , Mourinho knew what he was like and still went out and spent 75mil on a player he got rid of, says it all about Mourinho

 

[Sokz]

I reckon pep would win the league with this exact mufc team. We can actually play really good football but we play in a style that amplifies our weaknesses.

 

[PlayerOne]

We didn't play well because City are that good. We did have our chances (as did they) and the result could've gone either way, so its not like it was a total domination on their part.

I don't fully agree, some of the players let us down today. Heads dropped far too easily. Both of their goals came from our mistakes and Lukaku should have made it 2-2. City can play much better

 

[FreakyJim]

Why is Lukaku given defensive responsibilities when his touch is clearly not good enough?

You'd think he'd be able to clear a ball or win a header. Not today though.

 

[Garethw]

Switch the managers and United would have won that today.

Jose picked an extremely attacking line up and then didn’t set them up to actually attack and cause City problems. It beggars belief.

 

[Trophy Room]

Renewal of Mourinho's contract should be subject to him winning the title. The only reason I put up with his BS negativity is because there are titles at the end of it. Cups just fill the gaps as consolation prizes.

There is no one else who can come in and beat Pep currently in the Premier League.

 

[Aziz2112]

As one of the most defensively competent teams in Europe, today was shameful. Where was all the spirit and momentum from the Arsenal game?
Lukaku needs to spend some time on the bench for the second goal we conceded today, absolutely terrible.

 

[M Bison]

Where can you see distance covered stats? Souness made reference to it in the analysis but not seen it?

Wrong thread. Anyone?

 

[Raoul]

I don't fully agree, some of the players let us down today. Heads dropped far too easily. Both of their goals came from our mistakes and Lukaku should have made it 2-2. City can play much better

Lukaku was obviously off today as he has been for some time. That said, we were basically one great Ederson save away from a draw. The ball bounced their way today. We will move on and regroup for the next one.

 

[redom]

The only way those type of tactics should be acceptable is if they're successful, so far in the big games we've just looked out of our depth more often than not, the approach to this game from each team was so stark it's hard not to be pessimistic about the direction we've taken, the expression and courage you want to see was almost non-existant.

 

[Jim Beam]

Mourinho has not been great at all in the big games as United manager. I'am not talking about his record at other teams, I'am talking about him as a United manager.

And compaired to Pep he is far inferior, Pep his record is actually better than that of Mourinho and Pep seems to win win very easily versus Mourinho aswell.

He took the team which finished only once inside top 4. Got 2 cups and we're comfortably in second place. No, we're not there yet but we're still in the best position since Fergie's gone.

And yes, maybe he is not the manager who will take us to the title, but some perspective would be nice. In 2010 he owned Pep, now everybody says Pep own him. It doesn't go that way. It's not black and white, that's my problem.

 

[JG3001]

People are gonna complain about Mourinho and tactics, conveniently forgetting our set up at Arsenal last week. Ultimately players take the blame for me, it's not acceptable to keep having matches where you can't string two passes together.
Herrera and Lukaku were complete trash. Everybody afraid of the ball. It's not even as if city are great at the back where you need clever passing to get through. If we passed and moved like we did against Arsenal we might have actually gotten something.

It’s a valid point to an extent, the players looked scared of the ball, like a deer in headlights everything time a city player closed them down. Lacking in effort and ability.

However the set up does not help, we put ourselves on the back foot from the start. And being honest we rode our luck at Arsenal for a lot of the game, with De Gea ultimately having the game of his life.

Can’t see Mourinho here beyond his 3rd season. Probably for the best as well imo

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

That sinking feeling when you've been second best in every single area of the pitch and then you also realize that it's actually your own mistakes that have cost you the match.

Some will blame the tactics or the formation, some will blame the poor defending at set-pieces and some others will blame Lukaku. The truth of the matter is that when these two managers clash, Guardiola will almost always have the upper hand. After all, his brand of football came to become the nemesis of the football world in which Mourinho thrived. I'm not talking about Mourinho's ability to build a title-winning squad, only about the times these two particular managers face each other.

We saw again today that City's dominance on the pitch was a product of their passing in deeper midfield positions. That's where they establish control of the game and that's where their creative players get all the time on the ball they need in order to see the off the ball movement/overloads ahead of them and spot the right and purposeful pass. Even their best chances before the goal came from those positions (a KdB pass that tore apart our transition for the Jesus chance and a free cross from the left half space for the Sane one when they had us pinned down). If you're not pressing in those areas for the ball, you become a sitting duck simply because you put all your eggs in one basket: Clear everything out of your box. But even when you manage to do that, you need defenders who are good on the ball in order to bypass their high pressing and hit on the counter but also in order to keep the ball at your feet for a while and break their rhythm (see Bayern vs Real/ Pep vs Ancelotti).

We don't do the former, we don't have the personnel for the latter (at least not until both Bailly and Lindeloff play together), so we're forced to come up with a heroic defensive performance a la Atletico. Well, then we must avoid silly mistakes. And you can blame Lukaku all you want and rightfully so but... dear Ander you never, n-e-v-e-r, tackle from behind in hope to turn a lost possession into a 50/50 ball. You know why? Because you might give away a foul on the edge of our own box. Besides our game on the ball, these are little details that we still need to cut off from our game off the ball.

Still, the team is progressing overall and we could be on 40+ points half-way in the league. And no matter how each one of us wants to see United play on the pitch, that's clear, tangible progress.

 

[The red panther]

I hate to say it but City tick all the 10 boxes I wish United ticked more often.....

1) Pass and move with speed and expression(often one touch)
2) Get the ball back asap with equal speed and intensity
3) Do not retreat or cower too deep back into your own box
4) Don't hoof it aimlessly unless you have to
5) Play with courage and belief (not an inferiority complex)
6) Compete in the tackle but also be streetwise with it.
7) Make it as hard as poss. for the opposition when they have it
8) Take the initiative rather than wait for things to happen.
9) Play to win rather than avoid defeat (without fear)
10) Believe that football (not anti football) will prevail

Guardiola is a genius at these things. Mourinho ? I'll leave that for you to decide. Who knows what United would be like if we had more of these 10. Their players are not so significantly better maybe? They had all the luck today but then again teams that sign up to these 10 footballing values deserve the luck they get.

What hurts me is not the result so much , it's watching a United team score fairly badly in these 10 tick boxes. We've got a mini Barcelona on our doorstep. It's time to be humble enough to try and copy them.

It's the future of football. Mourinho is the past.

It is what Mourinho critics have been saying from the start.

We need a manager that tries to improve our team on those 10 points. Mourinho is not that manager.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

Lukaku missed an opportunity free on goal, and gave both goals away.. How anyone can give him more than a '1' is beyond me.