[El Jefe]

It's not that we should be going toe to toe with them. That would be insane at this moment.

The question we need to ask is why we cannot go toe to toe with them. Why don't we have a squad that can play football the way the best modern teams are capable of?

That's a fair question to ask and there's many reasons which have been discussed daily on here since the summer window.

What I don't understand is using this match as a stick to beat Mourinho with. They are just a far better team than us and no set of tactics or formations will be able to hide that. If we had a fully fit Pogba and Sanchez I'd understand but without them there was no chance.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

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.

Given today is a century since the end of the First World War, the Somme comparisons come to mind. We were slaughtered, having been led by idiots.

 

[Joeace2020]

They played ok, we made them look much better than they were.

Should have been more positive early and (though subs were good) at 2-1.

Sure the anti Mourinho bunch will be happy.... because he coaches the defence to ignore crosses or marking?

He coaches them to get one shot on target...A penalty! Keep defending him.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Such a fecking meek display, and not for the first time. Have a go at them fffs. The way we just hand over the initiative all the time is maddening. Look, they're a much better team - we all know this - but show some fecking fight. Just bent over and allowed them to feck us.

And this tweet is spot on, to:

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Kostur]

The most annoying shit for me was when we were losing 2-1 and should've thrown everything we can at them, pressing like mad, fouling, whatever, showing some fecking spirit, there was none of it. The whole front-line was standing like dumb fecks looking at them doing those shitty short passed, looked like we've played 10 matches in last 10 days and were gassed. That, or massively disinterested.

Probably the most ballless performance I can remember in recent years.

 

[RedNed77]

Cos he doesn't know how to?

It’s his job, could he really not learn a different way to do it? The evidence over that last 10 years should tell him there’s a better way to do it.

 

[CallyRed]

I'd still rather shag a bucket with a big hole in it, then be a City fan

 

[Canagel]

As painful as it is to ask the question so directly. If Jose is all about results, and he can see city’s style gets results, and he’s the arch pragmatist, then why doesn’t he just play like them?

Because he doesn't know how to. His idea of football is to play with 6 foot lumps in midfield and rely on Martial or someone to conjure a moment of brilliance. If he was City manager would he play the two silvas in midfield and dominate in this fashion? No I don't think so.

 

[liamp]

Gulf in class. On the manager or the board? Both for me.

Absolutely both.

 

[Irwin99]

To have any chance of beating this city side you need every player to have a very good game and we were let down by some really poor performances. I'm a big fan of Ander but he was pretty terrible today. It's frustrating because despite the massive gulf in class we made mistakes that were very avoidable.

Also, I have to say Neville's commentary didn't mention that Shaw was to blame for the first goal and he blamed DDG and Lindelof for the second when Lingard was the one who lost the ball. All 3 were at fault. Irritating

 

[Irrational.]

Jose post match:

- "Not a bad performance, but a performance with mistakes"
- All our goals came from mistakes
- We fought "like animals" vs Juve and that told today. We were physically and mentally drained
- They felt us coming back into the game
- Third goal kills everything
- Refuses to blame DDG for the second - says you can't lose the ball where we lost it
- Refuses to talk about Pogba and how he was missed
- Fellaini is not in a condition to start the game
- The gap between us and City in terms of quality is "12 points"
- Calls today's performance "positive defensively"
- This season we are only going to fight for the top four
- We have many tough fixtures to come, it is almost impossible to win three fixtures in a row.

 

[RedNed77]

Because he doesn't know how to. His idea of football is to play with 6 foot lumps in midfield and rely on Martial or someone to conjure a moment of brilliance. If he was City manager would he play the two silvas in midfield and dominate in this fashion? No I don't think so.

The point is that a true pragmatist adapts. Jose can’t claim that ground if he won’t.

Edit: if he’s not a pragmatist then wtf is he? A: A dinosaur

 

[Foxbatt]

He should have stuck Fellaini as CF and got Fred on and slung everything into their box.

 

[RedDevil5]

Matic looks finished. Chelsea got us.

Herrera was absolutely shite. Just terrible.

Back four once again just not good enough. Anyone else worried about Shaw's form since signing the contract?

Rashford needs to be benched? What does he offer?

Lingard is not good enough for United. Sorry but he just isn't.

 

[El Jefe]

Some of that is true but Klopp has shown that they are getting closer and closer to City. It's arguable that they might push them all the way this season cause they don't look like losing either. This is off the back of a CL final last year.
We look no further on (maybe even going backwards) than we Jose came here. We are still talking about spending more money on the same positions that we've already thought we had resolved.

If the criticism is for how Jose has spent money or how he's tried to build the squad, I'd be first in line to highlight the long list of mistakes but I think that's a different matter.

A lot of posters are acting like toddlers because we lost to the best team in the country 3-1 at their ground. Fergie with a much better team than we have now used to go to the Etihad with chicken shit tactics as well too and received a few thumpings too to City sides less able than this one.

Its hard to take defeats to City but I struggle to blame Jose for the result today because we were doomed from the start tbh.

 

[greggsy]

Fellaini decent, the rest rubbish. Pogba could have made a difference.

 

[Dominos]

I'll tell you -- our players aren't good enough. Watch us in the 2nd half when we had the ball. Absolutely no clue what to do with it, no one showing for the ball, no one moving into the attack.

And you don't think the coaching has any effect on this? Mourinho has signed 3 midfielders and 4 attackers in his time here, and he's had over 2 years coaching the team, and he still can't get the team to create chances...

The team doesn't pass well, press well, or create chances. There's no cohesion in our play.

It's shocking we can have competitive games against the likes of Juve, Chelsea etc. when most of our play is sunday league standard. There's not a single thing this team does well, if we were even half-decent we'd be in a great position in the league.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Fellaini?

You guys are picking Fellaini as MOTM?

I was just deep in a conversation with a rival teams fan who agreed that he ducked everything and just jogged around slightly behind the action. Enough to say he was there but not enough to upset anyone.

Any time he did get stick in City got a fecking FK

MOTM fair enough … just not mine by about 15 players though!

 

[Devil may care]

Their midfield vs ours summed up the difference in how they approach football in comparison to us, we went for a draw with a half hearted hope that the quick front 3 might catch out their high backline. 3-1 flattered us, we offered nothing.

 

[Dumbat12]

Too negative. Mourinho never learns.

 

[Canagel]

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.

Why not?
Chelsea went to City last year and were outclassed with 19% possession or something. Now they a completely different brand of football with virtually the same players. Theyre not going to win the PL but they're closer already in 5 months than they were before. We can make quick changes and compete as well.

 

[Kopral Jono]

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.

Thanks for this, sums it all up for me.

 

[Canagel]

The point is that a true pragmatist adapts. Jose can’t claim that ground if he won’t.

Edit: if he’s not a pragmatist then wtf is he? A: A dinosaur

A dinosaur? Unable to adapt with the times and left behind by other managers.

 

[steffyr2]

We have a huge amount of talent here though.

It's difficult not to think that Pep or Klopp would be able to fashion a better football team from this squad.

No we don't. We have a bunch of newbies who might be good someday, and a batch of old players who are past their best. We also have quite a few of slow and lumbering players who can't jump to save their souls.

Just accept it...we have a excellent manager. This is as good as it gets with this team.

 

[Foxbatt]

Fellaini?

You guys are picking Fellaini as MOTM?

I was just deep in a conversation with a rival teams fan who agreed that he ducked everything and just jogged around slightly behind the action. Enough to say he was there but not enough to upset anyone.

Any time he did get stick in City got a fecking FK

MOTM fair enough … just not mine by about 15 players though!

It is MOTM for United mate. He was our best player. He was the only who ran back and tackled and headed clear in our own box or created any problems in their box when the ball was slung in.

 

[Cloud7]

Ended up going out and watching the match with some guys from a local supporters group, and it turned out to be a fun afternoon out. Probably the only good thing to come out of this match.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It’s his job, could he really not learn a different way to do it? The evidence over that last 10 years should tell him there’s a better way to do it.

Not if he thinks his way is the right way, when it obviously isn't any longer.

 

[Isotope]

Some confused souls here. It’s not all about the result. People watched the game, so the result was just the cream on top of cake. It’s the awful football, big gulf in class, and, if there’s faith that the current manager will be able to close in that gap in the future.

 

[Verminator]

Quite surprised how close to average my team scores are.
I expected others to score the players higher than me.

 

[UncleBob]

I was thinking of Moyes, but he was the one who didn't kick Moyes up the arse in that first transfer window. He just let him dither as usual.

Ah, so the problem is that he didn't force someone on Moyes ?

 

[FootyGirl88]

Such a fecking meek display, and not for the first time. Have a go at them fffs. The way we just hand over the initiative all the time is maddening. Look, they're a much better team - we all know this - but show some fecking fight. Just bent over and allowed them to feck us.

And this tweet is spot on, to:

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Jose's subscribers believe everything he says - he's clearly not setting up the team in the right way.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

But we dont need better defenders

 

[Bilbo]

This is a club that spent £50m on a player that is seemingly of absolutely no use to us at the moment. A very expensive midfielder that, 5 months after signing, isn't deemed worthy of inclusion in a team that's without it's best midfielder.

Also on the bench:

A £90m striker that most on here conclude we are a better team without

A supposed £500k a week player that was thought of as one of the best players in the league before he came here

A £38m player that was POTY at Chelsea for a couple of years. One of the best players in the league before he came here. Rarely if ever used in his best position.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Ah, so the problem is that he didn't force someone on Moyes ?

Moyes was supposedly looking at some pretty good players, but would not pull the trigger without doing more scouting and so we got Fellaini on the lost minutes of a transfer window.

 

[ash_86]

Wonder how we'd taken the result had we lost 6-1 today

 

[Minimalist]

Neville pretty much revealing he doesn't have a clue and is just sticking to his contrarian opinions.

 

[Bilbo]

That's a fair question to ask and there's many reasons which have been discussed daily on here since the summer window.

What I don't understand is using this match as a stick to beat Mourinho with. They are just a far better team than us and no set of tactics or formations will be able to hide that. If we had a fully fit Pogba and Sanchez I'd understand but without them there was no chance.

This is exactly the right match to ask these questions. They are the benchmark. The level we have to reach.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

He coaches them to get one shot on target...A penalty! Keep defending him.

Again, I'm not.

Just that all three City goals were awful defending (individuals and team). Or do you think the defending was ok?

 

[AlecHDR]

I can't believe what I am about to say, but I actually would prefer the Liverpool scum to win the league rather than these.

 

[Kostur]

This is exactly the right match to ask these questions. They are the benchmark. The level we have to reach.

So Moyes was right after all. A prophet, a visionary.