[dave1956]

Our full backs were pulled out of position too easily, Maguire has a problem both in defence and attack of heading a ball in any direction other than when the ball is coming from a direct direction. Rashford is not a reliable striker, Martial and Pogba do not deliver when under physical pressure.
It would appear given that this is our 4th defeat in a semi final competition, is it because the players are not mentally prepared by our coaching staff for that final push or the coaching staff are not up to the task in getting the team over that last mental and physical hurdle. Statistics would suggest that as a team we have a problem.

 

[croadyman]

Our full backs were pulled out of position too easily, Maguire has a problem both in defence and attack of heading a ball in any direction other than when the ball is coming from a direct direction. Rashford is not a reliable striker, Martial and Pogba do not deliver when under physical pressure.
It would appear given that this is our 4th defeat in a semi final competition, is it because the players are not mentally prepared by our coaching staff for that final push or the coaching staff are not up to the task in getting the team over that last mental and physical hurdle. Statistics would suggest that as a team we have a problem.

Yeah there is a definite problem in getting past semi finals, know people will laugh but it's very similar to how Spurs lost a load of FA Cup ones

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Can't say I'm surprised. Being near the top of the league has been nice but it's evident that we aren't a great side and are being made to look better than we are due to the falling standards of the league. If Livepool or City perform at even 75/80 per cent of their level, they'll easily beat us to the title. And I think that'll happen. We don't play good enough football and individual brilliance here and there can only take you so far.

 

[Isotope]

You need to think about the children here, before posting that kinky post!

 

[croadyman]

Can't say I'm surprised. Being near the top of the league but it's evident that we aren't a great side and are being made to look better than we are due to the falling standards of the league. If Livepool or City perform at even 75/80 per cent of their level, they'll easily beat us to the title. And I think that'll happen. We don't play good enough football and individual brilliance here and there can only take you so far.

Yeah we saw tonight the levels above us that this City team are when they are on their game, expect them to come roaring back in the league after these last two results.

 

[MikeeMike]

t

Cavani football IQ streets ahead of anything we saw from United tonight

Quality Streets... Sorry . Taxi

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Outclassed by a better team and a better manager.

Can we talk about Ole's in game management???

I thought tactically we were fine how we set up, but the our main 3 attackers were all horrific tonight. That’s as bad as I’ve seen martial and Bruno play in a while, and that last Bruno pop shot from 35 yards out had me raging

 

[croadyman]

Id love Grealish left, Rashford center, Sancho right.

Martial just pretends to be a good player at this stage. His dive was atrocious.

Will only get one of Grealish/Sancho so which one are you choosing

 

[U.N.C.L.E]

My Mrs says she hates disappointing semi's.

With luck you might get pulled off at HT....

 

[Isotope]

The way our players (especially Captain Fantastic and his mini me) just dick around with the ball, when we're 2-0 down and 5 minutes left on the clock, was frustrating. There's no urgency on the field, and no urgency from the sideline.

At least the players and coaches didn't hug and laughing with the City's at the end. That's an improvement.

 

[croadyman]

The way our players (especially Captain Fantastic and his mini me) just dick around with the ball, when we're 2-0 down and 5 minutes left on the clock, was frustrating. There's no urgency on the field, and no urgency from the sideline.

At least the players and coaches didn't hug and laughing with the City's at the end. That's an improvement.

Yeah very true and certainly worried about them in the league with all those games in hand they have

 

[Isotope]

Yeah very true and certainly worried about them in the league with all those games in hand they have

I wish we put more fight though. Just like all those smaller teams when facing a superior team. It's frustrating that it seems like City put on shift as much as us, while being technically superior.

 

[lex talionis]

Given what was going on in America at the same time I didn’t watch the match, but I was ambivalent about this cup anyway. I never want to see us lose, but I just can’t give a shit about this cup when we have much more pressing business to attend to.

 

[parkthebuslads]

Very disappointing performance. I see lots of talk of individuals coming into the side, be it from the existing squad or as transfers and talk of changes to the formation, but when you don't have the luxury of having the better players in a game, it's the respective coaching that is exposed; and the differences between the two teams in that respect was night and day.

 

[SmashedHombre]

Pointless game and not worth reading much into it. The only annoying thing about it is that we played a full-strength side.

 

[Alek M]

Rashford is totally ineffective on the right. Play him on the left or center.

Pogba worked hard. Pleased with his effort and fighting spirit.

Everyone else gets a 4.

Mct gets a 2 for a stupid foul for their goal.

Midfield should have released Rashford few more times in second half.

 

[Giggs86]

We made a covid ridden City look like 2011 Barcelona. Embarrassing. The number of times we lost the ball in the final third is shocking.

 

[hungrywing]

Meh, they're lucky we didn't have Diallo and Caicedo yet.

 

[jackal&hyde]

The diabolical form of our strikers cost us this game, just like the PSG at home one. Very frustrating. Fred and Pogba were also poor.

 

[Volumiza]

Yeah

 

[Dike_Manc]

Bruno gets a free pass because he is our talisman but he could be creative and sensible at the same time. Giving the ball away at every opportunity is just plain stupid. He was proper shite today.

 

[kouroux]

Can't say I'm surprised. Being near the top of the league has been nice but it's evident that we aren't a great side and are being made to look better than we are due to the falling standards of the league. If Livepool or City perform at even 75/80 per cent of their level, they'll easily beat us to the title. And I think that'll happen. We don't play good enough football and individual brilliance here and there can only take you so far.

This is very true, as frustrating and annoying as it is. Last night is the perfect example why pundits are reluctant to consider Utd as a credible shout for the title.

 

[Jeffthered]

You need a target man striker akin to Kane or Calvert-Lewin that can slow down play or frustrate oppositons centre backs by playing them in the air or disrupting their rhythm a little bit.

City were clinical with their chances and Dias put in a brilliant performance but you had good periods too, just weren't ruthless at all and seemed a little afraid.

This. City were better than us. Ran more. And we had an extra day of rest. This game showed our limitations similar to our Europe/Champions League campaign.


Pogba is our best player, (right now).

 

[RedStarUnited]

Its probably the worst attacking display we have put up in a while. So many wrong decisions and errors in attack yesterday.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Think the problem was that the three players we needed to perform to their best tonight to win just didn't. Bruno, Rashford and Martial. Usually even when they are off their game they pull something out of the hat. Tonight they didn't.

 

[MZX7]

You can't win trophies if you rely solely on counter attacks and penalties.

Should be happy with what we get this season as long as we are in Top 4.

We need to defend set pieces better. Our right wing situation is dire. And we desperately need someone who can bench Martial when he's underperforming.

 

[dal]

It was a great game and if our strikers were on it we would have won that game.

The ebb and flow was fantastic, anyone who didn’t watch the game probably thought we were horrendous, far from it.

Im personally just fuming at the set pieces, we were well in the game even at 0-1.

We can serious play and I back this team to beat Liverpool next week.

 

[Oliver_]

Getting fed up of Martial...

Even in the other games he scored he didn't play particularly well.
3 managers now and he still can do it week for week.

how much more time will he get?

 

[Ekeke]

City had far more of the ball and won, thats not very surprising

But when they do more of the dirty work winning the ball as well as dominating the possession and winning, that shows we didnt have enough fight or make ourselves hard to play against either. City have more cultured players in the team, they shouldnt also be harder working and more determined than our players.

Gundogan was the player who stood out winning the ball in midfield. He's far better on the ball than McTominay and Fred, the least they should do is match him in ball winning

Sterling won 3 tackles and made 1 interception. Thats more than any of our players except AWB and Maguire. How can that be right

 

[Inigo Montoya]

"You lot"

Well try and post in proper English. Slang can't always be understood by our overseas posters

 

[No Spring Chicken]

It was an odd game last night. Both teams started really well, then both teams went off the boil after about half an hour and both teams ended the first half really sloppily. In the second half though City came out with a renewed intensity while we carried on being sloppy. For once I think the old fashioned half time team talk is what made the difference. City bucked up their ideas and we didn't. This was nothing like the last time City came to Old Trafford in the league cup though, where they put us through the wringer. Overall it was a tight game and its not a surprise that it took a set piece to break the deadlock.

I think it highlighted how much we depend on Bruno, if that wasn't already obvious. He had a poor game - forgivable, I cant recall the last time he did - but the consequence is that the entire attack failed to function. There's nothing wrong with tactically building your team around a player, but I think the worry at the moment is that Fernandes is also providing all the motivation and attitude. Martial & Rashford looked like passengers waiting for something to happen. AWB and Shaw looked like they were waiting to be told when to break forward. Without Bruno dictating things, nothing clicked.

Easy in hindsight, but I wish Ole had been bolder with substitutions once the first goal went in. We were set up to counter attack and that was no longer an option. We should have gambled sooner, especially as their attackers didn't look like scoring from open play.

In the end though, irritating as a City win is, I don't read too much into the game. It was a tight game where they did the right things in key moments and we didn't. I didn't see some huge gap between the teams. Let just hope the delayed final gives them a congestion headache in the run in and move on.

 

[mitchmouse]

Can't say I'm surprised. Being near the top of the league has been nice but it's evident that we aren't a great side and are being made to look better than we are due to the falling standards of the league. If Livepool or City perform at even 75/80 per cent of their level, they'll easily beat us to the title. And I think that'll happen. We don't play good enough football and individual brilliance here and there can only take you so far.

agree all this

 

[Rampant Red Rodriguez]

We lost to 2 set pieces and a solid defence. Again it showed our need for a specialist RW and CF because Pog Rash and Martial are all better coming off the left. Once we sort out the balance issue, we'll be beating City on a regular basis..

Anyhow, 6 Carling Cup finals for a £billion in expenditure isn't something to be too happy about imo. We want the big 3.. Big Ears, the FA Cup and the Premier League

 

[mitchmouse]

The game showed what realists knew: our current position in the PL does not reveal the truth - and given we have to play away at Liverpool, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs in the coming weeks and months, I'm pretty sure that will be proved.

We are still a long way behind City - look at their bench and then at ours. Look at the team they fielded and then at ours. We continue to deploy two defensive midfielders which tells me either (a) neither are good enough alone or (b) our defence isn't good enough... or both of those. We need a world-class holding midfielder which then frees up a midfield slot for someone much more creative (it's telling that if Bruno doesn't have a worldie, we struggle).

We need a top, top winger and a proper goal scorer. Martial could still be on the field this morning (when everyone else has gone home) and still wouldn't score. he simply isn't good enough at NO.9 for a club like United and we can't afford to have him and rashford both missing 1-on-1 chances. Someone like RvP, RvN or even Rooney used to take half chances regularly. And of course so did Ronaldo.

I refuse to be convinced that AWB is good enough, he is caught out of position far too often and I'm not sure about maguire either (although he had a pretty good game yesterday; he must learn to hit the target with headers at set pieces though).

We have to strengthen if we ever want to truly challenge for trophies - listening to Ole tell us we've improved is simply annoying when we can see the truth.

What really worries me is that under Ole we have good runs and then bad runs. Losing yesterday could be the start of another bad one; thankfully we don't have a tough-looking FA Cup game but if we lose to Burnley I really dread the next few weeks. I remain unconvinced that Ole is the man to truly take us forward. Once more, he look clueless last night

 

[crossy1686]

The problem is that your otherwise saying we are only verified to have success at this club if we have the best team in world football. PSG / Madrid have been a fantastic example in recent years before Zidane that the best players means nothing if they don't play as a team. The only individual for creating a cohesive team is the manager.

We did not lose this game because city have a better set of players surnames on paper, we lost this game because we failed to impose ourselves as a team. Semi finals is SOLSLJAERS ceiling, Bayern have shown that yes a manager does make the difference when the players underperform under one coach and are winners with another. I'm not campaigning for Ole to be replaced but this narrative of blame the players when we lose and praise the manager when they win is unevenly distributed.

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. There are various shades of grey between 'the best players in world football' and Martial. Just because you think Martial is one step under the best in the world doesn't mean he is, same applies for the other players I mentioned.

 

[soapythecat]

This game reflects the reason I still can’t get excited about Ole long term.
Whilst we were in the game we were never a real threat. It was far too easy for City.
Once again, when we play poor the whole team is gash. Ole did little in the game to change it up and I feel he was hoping to keep it as it was a try and nick a goal - which wasn’t happening with the stinkers our front 3 were having.
We deserved to be knocked out.

 

[Meep]

Sorry, I think Martial seems a nice man. But I hated it when he went down by the sideline with 15 min to go. And then just sat there. Nothing special happened tom him.. but no damn urge to jump up and show some will to win. He doesn't really care. Offload in the summer and get someone in that cares. Martial has reached his level and gives nothing extra to many times.

 

[dogwithabone]

Although I wouldn’t want us to play boring possession football all the time I do think we need to be, at times, more comfortable with the ball and for longer periods. City don’t open you up too often, they just wear you down and it has to be easier stroking the ball around than sapping your energy keeping them at arms length.

 

[OLLY ORANGE]

Mctominay was the biggest issue for me in the midfield yesterday. Thought Fred covered a lot of more ground and done a lot more of the dirty work.
To have two holding average midfielders again with only Fred being mildly creative is where we are falling short.
City cut through the middle all too easy countless times, all be it with not a lot of end product far two much with two holding midfielders on the pitch again.
Yes the attacking outlets wasn't happening with Bruno looking tired and Rashfords general play not being where it should.
Mctominay for me was just not up to speed not contributing enough attacking wise and not disrupting enough defensively to gain more control in the middle with another holding midfielder by his side.

 

[Oldyella]

You can't win trophies if you rely solely on counter attacks and penalties.

Should be happy with what we get this season as long as we are in Top 4.

We need to defend set pieces better. Our right wing situation is dire. And we desperately need someone who can bench Martial when he's underperforming.

That's Cavani, but we know what happened there. I would be looking long term now as well and decide if Mason is the long term plan for that position. If so, he needs to start getting minutes there. Not convinced Martial will ever be the answer.