[Banana Republic]

A plucky performance and fight back, with some players players putting in a really good effort against a far superior team.
Shame our forward line is so poor.

Martial is totally lazy, makes no effort at all to win a ball, to press, to close down or tackle and when we are going forward, isn’t making any attacking runs or getting into good positions.
Greenwood is a great young prospect, but far too lightweight and inexperienced for games like this. He was totally anonymous tonight.
Lingard, shiit shiit shiit, all day long. Lost count of how many times he gave the ball away, got easily bundled off the ball, or broke up our own attacks.

First red card for Matic was soft and the sending off was harsh. Easily our best player by miles and put in a really good performance. Cracking finish too.

 

[Snow]

Yeah, well I didn't want to use another word on a forum, but for me, KdB is miles behind C Ronaldo when it comes to getting the winning mentality. He's just a baby really. That comment he had after losing to France was ridiculous at best, and here, it's the same thing. You couldn't finish off your chances, and you conceded a goal, that's how it works. Nobody says United was to win when they go and waste chances in all those games we couldn't score despite having the chances, and then conceding the goals to either share or lose points. Same story, end of story.

Definitely being a baby here. You see it frequently from Pep's players. City has been that way, Barca were that way. Not sure about Bayern as I don't follow the Bundesliga (at least not post-match comments) but they were that way in the CL.

 

[FootballHQ]

Its odd. We seem to freeze at OT against City.

Man. City also seem to be miles better at finishing off their 1 v 1s at OT for some reason aswell.

 

[SER19]

Still livid that matic gets booked for first foul with what city got away with.

 

[Irwin99]

Weird in this matchup how you tend to do much better in containing Man. City at Etihad than Old Trafford.

I think the set ups of the two teams actually suit being away in these fixtures. The pressure in home games is to play well and get the crowd going and that means you kind of play into City's hands and they dominate you and the gulf in class becomes apparent. Away from home we can soak up pressure, frustrate them and counter attack and just try to nick something which is what we did today.

I'm kind of baffled by both sides of the argument that we were great or that we were shite when in my opinion we seriously rode our luck at times but we did put a lot of effort in and it was rewarded. No one can accuse them of lack of effort at least.

 

[Teja]

I thought we did okay considering the circumstances. Imagine Pool going to the Etihad without Mane, Salah and Henderson, that's the situation we were in.

Without the redcard we would've gambled everything at them in the last 5 mins or so and maybe could've snatched a goal and taken it to pens but it wasn't meant to be.

 

[The Purley King]

That is the final straw with lingard.
Three times in the first half and once in the second he gave the ball away on one of our promising attacks unnecessarily and caused a counter attack.
He is a complete and utter waste of rations.
I don’t care how thin our squad is he is nowhere near good enough. feck off tomorrow to Tranmere please.
Overall decent effort. With mctominay pogba Rashford we’d have had a better chance and may even have turned it around. City are vulnerable this year in ways they weren’t before.
Matic was excellent and a bit unlucky to see red.
C’est la vie I guess.
Not looking forward to wolves seems like we play them every other week lately and they are tedious anti-football merchants atm.

 

[El Zoido]

I didn’t know watch it. At least we won..?

 

[Ronaldo's ego]

wtf are you on about?

It’s in English mate...

 

[ash_86]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Wild Ole appeared all of a sudden

 

[RedNed77]

Not even close to good enough. Manchester City wasn't even considered a rival in the 2000's and we used to blow them away with ease. Now we are smaller than them. Don't care about the performance, only about the end result which is, we're out of the competition.

I’m with you bruh, if we could get back to competing with the likes of AC Milan and Ajax, we’d be kings. I’m pleased the times don’t change. BTW, what do you reckon about this baggy jeans phase, I reckon it’s stoopid.

 

[Utd heap]

Fair play to the lads tonight.

We are an average side with a heart about us.

Ole has something.

 

[TheReligion]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Wild Ole appeared all of a sudden

Ha ha who was he shouting at?

 

[RedDevil-85]

Proud of the team and Ole.
That City line up was filled with quality,thought we would get spanked when i saw their line up.
Glad Ole played De Gea over Romero,the right choice.
In the end,not enough to go through but beating City again at Etihad with all our injuries is a big posetive.

Cant wait to see Bruno playing for us.

 

[One Night Only]

Ha ha who was he shouting at?

Gotta be Lingard

 

[Copa Mundial]

Great to get a win, but don't think we forced a corner tonight.

Just curious but does anyone know when we last played 90 mins without a corner?

 

[TheReligion]

Gotta be Lingard

Yeah Twitter comments suggest he shouts Jesse first

 

[TheReligion]

Great to get a win, but don't think we forced a corner tonight.

Just curious but does anyone know when we last played 90 mins without a corner?

Tonight

 

[Handré1990]

Still livid that matic gets booked for first foul with what city got away with.

Same. So fecking annoying! Rodri should’ve had a first yellow for his tackle on Lingard.

 

[SER19]

Tonight

 

[Castia]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Wild Ole appeared all of a sudden

Actually brought him off minutes later as well.

 

[Copa Mundial]

Tonight

I guess I was asking for that!!

 

[Green_Red]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Wild Ole appeared all of a sudden

Love it. You can tell he doesnt want to be shouting at his players but sometimes its needed. Fergie used to get stuck right in from the sidelines. Bit of fire in the belly doesnt hurt anyone.

 

[Siorac]

Good effort, little quality. Nothing unexpected really, apart from somehow winning the game.

Why in Earth did Fred take that free-kick at the end though... bizarre.

 

[Acole9]

I think we gave a fairly decent account of ourselves tonight to be fair. I just wish there was a bit more urgency at the end, just hoof the ball up the pitch, the defenders passing the ball to each other in our own half isn't going to help us score a goal.

 

[MrBest]

I dont think it was Ole's choice to sell 2 midfielders and not replace them, I am sure he wanted more options like every manager, but no one knows what goes on behind closed doors, so I cant critisise Ole for that. What we do know is Jose was crying out for a centre back, everyone knew we needed a centre back, and he wasnt backed. Just because Ole doesnt scream and shout like Jose in public, dont take that as he is happy with the squad.

When you have better ball players in the team, you can start to pass the ball out from the back and not around the back. If we had Rashfors, McTom, Pogba and Brun tonight it would be a totally different game. Frustrating night, but give him time, he has came up against the 2 best mangers in the world and has took points of both with a worse squad. We need to back him, so does the board.

I understand the optimism you are trying to put forward and I do give you credit for it, I wish I had that positivity left in me. Saying that, I still disagree. I feel Ole has had time, 12 months to implement a style, insert some methodologies and play some good football. What I see, is a team lacking any direction playing like Stoke do under Pullis. We have 34 points, on paper a better team than Newcastle, Sheffield United, Burnley, Everton and co yet we are just 4 points clear of them and possibly playing worse football. I will still back United in every game that Ole is around, but I am firmly Ole out. The board showing faith in him carries no weight for me as I lost faith in them a number of years ago. I agree that Ole has not had a kind journey reporting to these gremlins but his one job is to coach this team. Until the day someone can explain to me how the coaching has improved / they understand the style of play and strategy Ole is looking to build a team on since Nov 2018 until now, I will be Ole out. Everyone makes comparisons to Klopp and how he had time but he clearly implemented his style immediately after joining with a worse squad and finished up in the UEFA and league Cup finals. His first full season saw him finish 4th.

Saying this (and still being Ole out), Bruno has arrived so I am prepared to give him another chance (I do really want this to work for him) and see how he can integrate a truly creative player in the system. March and April will be key for him with Rashy Mctominay and Pogba back.

 

[Fletchageddon]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Wild Ole appeared all of a sudden

This is to Lingard isn't it?

Overall I thought we played some really lovely stuff at the back. Soaked up a lot of pressure and played our way out of situations pretty well (maguires fluff not counted) AWB doesn't seem to have an understanding with either Lindelof or James which often catches us out. Though I dont think it's his fault. He looks like he will kick on in another year or with a winger who understands overlapping and creating space.


Things to worry about are Lingard, Martial and James. They offered absolutely nothing in attack or defence. We really were scuppered after Greenwood went off.

I did feel tonight we played well. We played patiently and the centre backs pushing up really adds something. It's completely mental but it looks like it's going to work against the teams who sit back against us. Fair play for the effort.

 

[Castia]

Was expecting a loss tonight so presently surprised with the result. Unlucky not to go through it was just too much after the first leg.

 

[caid]

As good a performance as you can ask for really

 

[Lee565]

Man. City also seem to be miles better at finishing off their 1 v 1s at OT for some reason aswell.

Maybe they just find it easier to rise to the occasion when playing in front of a massive crowd compared to half a stadium

 

[Whiteside '85]

Weird in this matchup how you tend to do much better in containing Man. City at Etihad than Old Trafford.

Just beat the feckers would ye?, it would be very much appreciated round these parts. Thanks

 

[Devil may care]

We competed well but didn't really create anything and City could have been out of sight by half time if not for De Gea.

 

[Bastian]

Excellent performance tonight I thought, given everything. Not individually, but as a team.

Matic was great in the first half and pretty much up until the sending off. Incidentally, I was beyond disappointed in the ref tonight. Rodri made an identical foul on Lingard, no yellow, then Matic gets yellow for his foul on Mahrez. Matic then commits a very soft foul, and the ref feels the need to pull Maguire aside to warn him. Moments later Rodri commits a cynical foul on Lingard and proceeds to kick the ball away. Yellow. Should have been his second.

Anyhow, de Gea was superb, Matic was our best outfield player and the team stuck to it. Ole did well to get the correct shape and it's just a question of whether to put Shaw in the back 3 or AWB. Considering AWB has done so well against Sterling, I think he made the right call putting Shaw in there (also, Dalot is just getting fit again).

A pretty random observation: starting to see a pattern in our mismanaged throw-ins from the right-hand side. Not sure if it's exclusively an AWB misreading of the game, or if it's how we setup or the players picking it up from that side (Fred, Lindelof).

Much better than I expected.

 

[moodyred]

Good performance from Matic, Fred, De Gea, Williams, Maguire.

Terrible from Lingard and Martial. How much longer does OGS intend to play Lingard? He should come on only when we are 3 nil up in games with 5 min to go.

 

[big rons sovereign]

Kevin friend is a shocking referee. I once saw him send a preston player off for not taking a throw in quickly enough.
Tonight he was only interested in being the centre of attention. The drama he made of the matic 'foul' on aguero was pathetic, calling Maguire over and making a big song and dance.
He was just looking to hand out a red after that and city knew it, throwing themselves on the floor for the rest of the match.
The man's a buffoon.

 

[Luke1995]

Emm.... about that. They are funded by oil. If they had no oil money, pep would not be with them.

Yeah I totally forgot about that!

 

[Luke1995]

Yeah, wrong on both counts there my man. Derbies were never fun, regardless of when during the past 2 decades.

Smaller than them. What? Get a grip.

I should have said smaller on the performance side because they obviously are playing better football

 

[Luke1995]

I’m with you bruh, if we could get back to competing with the likes of AC Milan and Ajax, we’d be kings. I’m pleased the times don’t change. BTW, what do you reckon about this baggy jeans phase, I reckon it’s stoopid.

You being sarcastic

 

[matherto]

Good performance from Matic, Fred, De Gea, Williams, Maguire.

Terrible from Lingard and Martial. How much longer does OGS intend to play Lingard? He should come on only when we are 3 nil up in games with 5 min to go.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Honestly I think this might've been the last straw for Lingard.

Probably wrong but we can hope.

 

[SmashedHombre]

Decent performance. Still annoyed about Matic's first yellow. Never a booking, especially considering what Cancelo got away with moments before that.