[Paul the Wolf]

It's so predictable. We start so poorly yet again.

You may come back against teams sometimes, you can't keep giving teams a goal start every time.
Without Pogba we had no creativity.
Fellaini did quite well and as usual Martial was the only real attacking threat.

Just to make sure we start badly again we play Lingard whose contribution was give away 3 fouls to keep us under pressure, not bother to close down Sterling for the first goal, mis-control the ball for the second goal and get outsprinted by bloody Fernandinho in his only forward venture. 1 is too high a score.

Herrera kept losing possession and Matic seems to have lost it.

For the umpteenth time we we were reactive and not proactive. We get a few decent results recently but it's still the same tactics.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

The subs aside from the penalty did nothing to change the game. Not sure if they even got the ball lol.

Don't think they did.

 

[rpitchfo]

Even with our best 11 and playing at our best we still lose that game. I wouldn’t worry about the game in isolation it was unwinnable. Worry about it in the context of our season so far and what it means for the rest of it.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

If Jose had started that match with the same back four and just put Lingard in for Pogba (that guy had better not show for international duty btw!) and kept Mata, Sanchez and Martial as the front three I think we sneak at least a draw.

At least we could have played some football instead of having to watch Fellaini play "dodge-ball" all game. This is one game I will not be watching back because my eye will always go to him and I cannot bear to watch him jogging around "just behind" the action as if he's "doing enough"

He's not a United player … he'd barely be a Chelski player. it's like getting excited about Peter fecking Crouch!

That is not the football we aspire to!

 

[Strachans Cigar]

Well, we tried. Cant fault them for effort. Especially coming back from a tough European game against Juve, when City had a walk in the park at home. And we missed Pogba obviously.

That said, City are just better at the moment, they are the best team in England & they will probably walk the league again so no shame in it really. The important thing is we don't dwell on this as we are improving. Slowly.

But my god, Herrera was shit today, if that's his form no wonder he isn't starting.

 

[Borden]

As much as I’m Jose out, my fecking god our players are so fecking soft and timid. Allowing themselves to be humiliated like that. Have some pride ffs.

 

[El Jefe]

City are by far the best team in the league and possibly the best attacking side we've seen in the PL yet people wanted us to go toe to toe with them

We cannot defend for shite right now so defending and remaining in the game was always going to be our best route especially with Pogba out. It's not pretty but expecting anything else was quite silly.

There's a lot of undeserved criticism for Mourinho imo. Our team doesn't match to there's at all especially without Pogba. We could have had Sarri, Poch etc as our manager and the same score would be likely.

 

[edgecutter]

Let's be honest, none of our starting line up would make that city team and I am including de Gea as well. Too many passengers and not quality. I am honestly surprised Fred wasn't sent on at half time to shore up a dodgy midfield.

 

[Irrational.]

Very disappointing, but the writing was on the wall once we saw the starting line-up. Once you set up like the underdogs, to contain rather than to win then you are asking for a rogering - and that is exactly what City delivered. Our luck finally ran out.

Fellaini our best player. Matic, Young, Herrera, Lingard all atrocious. Disgraceful. We were pressed and bullied off the park, and you can see the exact thing happening once we play Arsenal or Liverpool.

DDG's distribution was crap, and beaten at the near post for the goal is kind of unacceptable.

Match ratings:

DDG: Crap - 4

Young: Was butchered by their left side - 4
Smalling: Lucky not to concede a pen, panicky in possession - 5
Lindelof: Poor -5
Shaw: Subdued - 5

Matic: Get out - 2
Herrera: Shambolic - 3
Fellaini: Best of a bad bunch - 6

Martial: Toiled - 5
Rashford: Disappointing - 4
Lingard: Anonymous - 3

Jose: Cowardly tactics but subs were appropriate - 4

Anthony Taylor: Fecking wankstain should be investigated. Bald prick was set on not punishing Fernandinho or any of their players. But did give us a barn door pen - 1

City fans: Olé-ing, shell suit wearing, foul mouthed wankers.

In conclusion, City much the better team and thoroughly deserved the win. Every player runs their socks off and they're so good at nicking the ball. They are a class above, and maybe Moyes was right. That is what we need to aspire to. I suppose I'd rather them at the top of the league than Liverpool.

I long for the day the oil empire crumbles and City meet their demise. I won't hold my breath though.

 

[Litch]

We were outclassed; City are miles better than us just now. It hurts to be in the position they were in most of their history, but that's the reality. We are playing catch up and need to catch up fast. We can't allow this to continue.

Pretty much it.

 

[The Real Treble 99]

Worlds apart. Nothing much to say! Our forward line playing 15 meters apart from each other. Our midfield has no playmakers & our defence look like school kids. TBH I never had hope, at the most a lucky draw but what’s frightening is this was a bad day at the office for City & they still smashed us.

 

[siw2007]

Best team won. They outclassed us all over the pitch and to be fair the score could have been worse.

Their midfield was just different class today and we couldn’t get near them.

Had a few great results lately but this shows how far we’ve yet to go.

 

[Dec9003]

They're massively better than us, without Pogba more so.
We tried to defend but we know we can't. We didn't have a single good performer really, De Gea, the defence and Herrera in-particular were all below par. The attack weren't much better.
Even if we switch the manager it feels like we'll replace him wrong and get more players in who aren't at the required standard, its pretty depressing.

 

[simplyared]

The difference between the teams is way more than 2 goals. Which imv means we played to our maximum capacity in terms of what we put out on the pitch. Not only that we play with ten men with Lindelöf in the line-up, which makes our performance even better. I've no axe to grind with the player but it just amazes me he is starting games for us.

 

[Renegade81]

We are fecking shite. The team throughout is shite and incapable. The problem with letting teams have possession and seeing so little of the ball is when we eventually regain possession we are fecking clueless with it. Again results like against Juve here and there will be enough to keep Mourinho clutching on. We are a shambles.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

I would have really really loved it if any player in a red shirt had made a frustrated red card worthy tackle. Or at least put in some fouls to disrupt their passing. Some nasty hurtful ones to show them they can't keep humiliating us for lolz.

But well, they did.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Let's be honest, none of our starting line up would make that city team and I am including De Gea as well. Too many passengers and not quality. I am honestly surprised Fred wasn't sent on at half time to shore up a dodgy midfield.

I agree about DDG. He just doesn't fit in with their style he is a great shot stopper, but his distribution would not suit Pep.

 

[Berbaclass]

The difference between the teams is way more than 2 goals. Which imv means we played to our maximum capacity in terms of what we put out on the pitch. Not only that we play with ten men with Lindelöf in the line-up, which makes our performance even better. I've no axe to grind with the player but it just amazes me he is starting games for us.

 

[Bilbo]

Mixed emotions.

With 15 minutes to go and still in the game I'm thinking that this isn't a bad defeat (if there is such a thing) away to the best team in the league.

Now in reflection it really says something that I even felt that way for a moment. It's not a particularly upsetting defeat because we had a punchers chance at best. What is upsetting is how much better the elite are than us.

There are probably 6 to 10 teams across Europe now that will come to Old Trafford and dominate against us. That's at our ground. Away from home the number rises again.

I honestly don't know any more whether it's Jose's tactics or that our players aren't good enough. It doesn't even really matter.

 

[Todd]

The only thing on the pitch that looked worse than we did was Aguero's hair

 

[DocRockter]

We were close to get a draw but we really needed to win the game.. Too bad Pogba was out, but Jose was right with his tactics for the most part. Our set-pieces were awful and maybe that would had changed the outcome if we'd been able to use our dominance in the air.

 

[Drawfull]

They had that many passes leading up to the last goal.

Ai, saw that after, sorry and thanks

 

[Moriarty]

We were outclassed; City are miles better than us just now. It hurts to be in the position they were in most of their history, but that's the reality. We are playing catch up and need to catch up fast. We can't allow this to continue.

There's no quick fix. As much as I dislike City, their forward planning over the past few years has been worthy of a Bond villain. They set up the club so that all Pep had to do was book a plane ticket from Munich to Ringway and turn up. Our forward planning has been worthy of the British general staff at Dunkirk or Sebastopol. £1 billion has been taken from the club to pay bankers. Half of that invested in our academy and some on well thought-out purchases might well have bought us stability and continuity. Instead, we muddle along, getting the odd good result. You saw the difference today.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Way too much respect for a City side, who have been known to struggle against teams who press them.

We allowed their centre backs all the time in the world to either pass out from the back or progress up the pitch with it.

Once they got out of the first phase, that's when it was trouble. Both Silva's were able to get the ball in between the lines and dominate the game.

Despite City giving the ball away carelessly at times, at no point did we look like threatening. Due to us being so deep, on the odd occasion we did win the ball back, we had very little options ahead of us to cause them problems on the counter.

Was baffled at the way our midfield was set up. When I saw it, I assumed Fellaini would replace Pogba in that advanced 8 role. As it was, Fellaini was our deepest midfielder, with Matic on the left and Herrera on the right. Screamed no balance, and it showed today.

Sky will harp on about how good City are, but we made them look good by allowing to have the ball under no pressure.

 

[Chicharo]

Shaw was awful and hasn't been great since he signed his nice big contract, funny how that happens.

Maybe, but the talent and age are on his side. Which hardly can be said for the rest of that lineup
Anyhow, we are shit

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

The difference between us and them is frightening.

They weren’t at their scintillating best but still made us look like a pub team.

Don’t know where to start pointing the blame at (glazers, ed, jose, the players) as to how it has come to this as I will just go off on a tangent.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

We were close to get a draw but we really needed to win the game.. Too bad Pogba was out, but Jose was right with his tactics for the most part. Our set-pieces were awful and maybe that would had changed the outcome if we'd been able to use our dominance in the air.

We could have got a draw, but didn't really go for it that much. We should have just gone for it, we were losing anyway, so why not go all out attack?

 

[Joseunited]

Expected result, expected performance. No change as long as Mourinho is in charge.

 

[reddaz71]

One team looks like its had a billion pounds investment while the other looks like its had a billion drained out of it,its a systematic failure from Utds perspective that expectations have been lowered and thats largely down to the Glazers running of the club and Woodwards disastrous football making decisions regarding managerial choices and the dismal recruitment! no wonder we are 8th!!!!!

 

[UncleBob]

We were close to get a draw but we really needed to win the game.. Too bad Pogba was out, but Jose was right with his tactics for the most part. Our set-pieces were awful and maybe that would had changed the outcome if we'd been able to use our dominance in the air.

At the start of the match when it was 0-0 ?
Apart from that, we were pretty far away from being close to getting a draw

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Mixed emotions.

With 15 minutes to go and still in the game I'm thinking that this isn't a bad defeat (if there is such a thing) away to the best team in the league.

Now in reflection it really says something that I even felt that way for a moment. It's not a particularly upsetting defeat because we had a punchers chance at best. What is upsetting is how much better the elite are than us.

There are probably 6 to 10 teams across Europe now that will come to Old Trafford and dominate against us. That's at our ground. Away from home the number rises again.

I honestly don't know any more whether it's Jose's tactics or that our players aren't good enough. It doesn't even really matter.

I see what you're saying. I would add the other hurtful thing is how abysmal the defending was for their goals, particularly the last one when we had a draw to play for and we let a player walk into our box to meet a good cross.

 

[UncleBob]

One team looks like its had a billion pounds investment while the other looks like its had a billion drained out of it,its a systematic failure from Utds perspective that expectations have been lowered and thats largely down to the Glazers running of the club and Woodwards disastrous football making decisions regarding managerial choices and the dismal recruitment! no wonder we are 8th!!!!!

We've spent an absolute fortune under LVG and Mourinho, money spent isn't the issue here

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Way too much respect for a City side, who have been known to struggle against teams who press them.

We allowed their centre backs all the time in the world to either pass out from the back or progress up the pitch with it.

Once they got out of the first phase, that's when it was trouble. Both Silva's were able to get the ball in between the lines and dominate the game.

Despite City giving the ball away carelessly at times, at no point did we look like threatening. Due to us being so deep, on the odd occasion we did win the ball back, we had very little options ahead of us to cause them problems on the counter.

Was baffled at the way our midfield was set up. When I saw it, I assumed Fellaini would replace Pogba in that advanced 8 role. As it was, Fellaini was our deepest midfielder, with Matic on the left and Herrera on the right. Screamed no balance, and it showed today.

Sky will harp on about how good City are, but we made them look good by allowing to have the ball under no pressure.

I would have had Herrera in Matic position with Fellaini and Fred ahead of him. He has to drop Matic, but he damn well won't and he will cost us again.

 

[ice-bionic red]

feckin shit! Pathetic! Nowhere near them, absolutely miles away!

 

[Red_toad]

Better team won. I’d say we have 3 players who’d get into this City squad, so the gulf in class is always going to make it hard for United.
Nice to see the usual stuff insulting our players/ manager etc is going on and we call other fans classless. I got the score correct in my prediction and thought the team fought very well, but wasn’t enough. Team needs major investment to be Champions again.

 

[reddaz71]

We've spent an absolute fortune under LVG and Mourinho, money spent isn't the issue here

Spent on dross!

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Stop being a Mourinho fanboy we were totally outplayed if not for the lucky penalty could of been 5 or 6 easy for them seriously i don't get the Mourinho fan club deluded as feck.

Is it past someone's bedtime?

Find me one pro Jose comment in my post? I thought tactics were wrong (you don't sit and have a haphazard press against a team like City, it's pointless). I also said we (which includes Jose) should have been more positive? I also haven't voted "keep Jose" in the poll..... check.

Try reading, then thinking and using "fanboy" in your post doesn't make you big or clever.... or (in this case), correct.

(And it's "could have been" not "of").

Have a nice evening.

 

[Minimalist]

“City didn’t have to play well”...”training session for them”...”like an exhibition match”

feck off. They were busting a gut and played very well.

LOL you were watching something else.

 

[FelixFelixFelix]

We have to adjust tactically for all these average players to play against top class opponent To be fair, the team plays okay today and I think the team has been improving. I respect the players and they are trying to play today instead of just sitting back. Some of the passing are good today and I have watched these kind of passing for ages.

But our defenders including Matic are simply not good enough at this moment. For example, Young played well but he is not quick enough and strong enough to face top class players. Matic's performance seems drop a lot this year and he needs to take responsibility to many poor defending. Shaw is still young and need time to learn. I hope that we can keep improving and finally, we can beat them at home. At this moment, Manchester City is a very mature team and we need face the reality and down to Earth.

People said that Mourinho has spent so much money for these group of players but he failed to train up the players. If we use this logic, then all students at school should score full marks in the exam and no one will fail in an exam. Mourinho wanted to play less defensive and at the same time, he knows that the existing defenders are not up to standards. At the end, he can't get a new defender and we are suffering from this.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

feckin shit! Pathetic! Nowhere near them, absolutely miles away!

You have stated the obvious. We are a million miles away and that is down to bad recruitment on firstly the managerial front and then the choice of players said managers have made.