Bouncing back from a defeat

bosnian_red

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Defeats and bad games will happen. Ideally not like today, but ultimately they will happen. Can whinge all day long about who deserves to be sold after today, but what is actually important is how we respond. I am confident we'll be fine. Looking back to the past few months, we have responded to every defeat fantastically.

After the 6-3 City defeat:
  • 7 wins, 2 draws, 0 losses
After the 3-1 Villa defeat:
  • 9 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses
After the 3-2 Arsenal defeat
  • 9 wins, 2 draws, 0 losses
  • 1 cup win
Next run of games are:
  • Betis (Europa)
  • Southampton
  • Betis (Europa)
  • Fulham (fa cup)
  • Newcastle
  • Brentford
  • Everton
  • Europa League QF
  • Forest
  • Europa League QF
  • Fa cup semi final
Good time to go on another big run.
 

Nero

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Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
Yes frame the result and worship it to give it even more importance than necessary

I swear most of you care more about your social media meme talk than the actual progress of the club.
 

Zoo

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Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
So you’re not gonna watch the team for the rest of the season then?
 

DavidDeSchmikes

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the 4 games before the international break can go some way to repairing the damage from tonight
Beat Betis and Fulham and we'd be in one QF and 1 SF
 

M Bison

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The worry is the volume of games, i do think we'll be fine and get top 4, but today was a real wake up call and shows how delicate the team is and that we are lacking in quality in a lot of areas.
 

Irwin99

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Good thread. Against all better judgement I did succumb to all the title chance talk (which goes to show what miracles EtH has been performing that we even did talk about it) but this is a good opportunity to focus on securing top 4 and winning those two other trophies.

Fairly kind fixture list coming up and our worst fixture over and done with.
 

bosnian_red

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Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
In 98/99 we lost 3-0 to Arsenal and just months after Ole beat Bayern, we lost 5-0 to Chelsea, before walking to the title.

It's 1 defeat in the competition where we have the most breathing room. It was a shit half. But at the end of the day, that's all it is. It isn't a recurring theme (beyond having 1 shit game every 10 or so games, which I will take that every single day if so, as that leads to title challenges if you can keep that up), and we are on a very positive trend before the odd shit game. Which is the point of this thread. The important thing about defeats is how you respond to them. I'd rather lose 7-0 and go on a 10 game great run than lose 1 or 2-0 but then after become inconsistent where you lose frequently. So it's important United respond the same way we've responded to the previous 3 defeats.
 

Pat_Mustard

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A never-nude? I thought he just liked cut-offs.
Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
Were you supporting us back in 1996, and if so did you ever manage to forgive Keane, Beckham, Scholes and Cantona for their parts in those back-to-back pumpings by Newcastle and Southampton? Bobby Charlton played in 4-0 and 6-0 losses to Man City. Should we do the decent thing and tear down his statue, as nothing he did before or after those matches really matters?
 

bosnian_red

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No game actually matters then
If I was somebody making actual decisions, thinking rationally means eliminating all emotion from your thought process and looking at the big picture every time. So technically, no, no individual game actually matters more than the big picture and overall growth and momentum. You don't sell a player because of a bad day at the office if 9 of his last 10 were excellent games. It sucks losing vs Liverpool, but what actually matters is that we are comfortably 3rd, we won a cup for the first time in 6 years, and are in 2 more cups. Even if we finish the season poorly and finish 4th with no other cup wins, guess what? Big picture is this is still a good season where we got top 4 and won a cup.
 

Tom Cato

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If I was somebody making actual decisions, thinking rationally means eliminating all emotion from your thought process and looking at the big picture every time. So technically, no, no individual game actually matters more than the big picture and overall growth and momentum. You don't sell a player because of a bad day at the office if 9 of his last 10 were excellent games. It sucks losing vs Liverpool, but what actually matters is that we are comfortably 3rd, we won a cup for the first time in 6 years, and are in 2 more cups. Even if we finish the season poorly and finish 4th with no other cup wins, guess what? Big picture is this is still a good season where we got top 4 and won a cup.
Big picture is fine. We can all agree that the team has had a good season, while at the same time agreeing that what happened tonight is a massive black mark in the clubs history.
 

Slevs

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fecking hell what a baby
Its an overreaction for sure but honestly, this group of players have had our hopes up so many times in previous seasons only to get humiliated every once in a while after we all seem to think "hey they're really not bad and have standards".

I'm obviously not including the new signings but the players who have been here for years, man honestly some of the humiliating defeats they've had, just kills any hope you have in the club.
 

Chippa62

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It was a cr@p result and although more difficult than before, we are still in 3 competitions with a trophy in the cabinet. What have the dippers got? The best way to get back at them would be to try and win two more cups and get as high up the league as possible (preferably top :)).
Onwards and upwards.
 

GazTheLegend

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Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
If we win the next 3 games it's already ancient history. That's the way it is in football. I can't forgive the hammering at Old Trafford last season but this one at least comes after we've won a trophy and knocked Barcelona out. It's an aberration and not the norm this time.
 

Rusholme Ruffian

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Tonight is the first step in putting Sunday's aberration behind us. Really hoping for a committed and professional display. The best chance the players and manager (and by extension us fans) have of reducing the momentous nature of the Liverpool scoreline is to crack on and achieve our goals for the season. The more that game stands out as freak result the better, and ensuring that is the case is in our hands - we have some control over the narrative moving forward. MAYBE, and I might clutching at straws here, it could even turn out to be the galvinising factor that focuses minds for the run-in and banishes any of the complacency that may have started to creep in. This is where a top manager really earns his corn and I have faith that ETH will find a way of squeezing some positivity out of such a negative experience.
 

redcucumber

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If I was somebody making actual decisions, thinking rationally means eliminating all emotion from your thought process and looking at the big picture every time. So technically, no, no individual game actually matters more than the big picture and overall growth and momentum. You don't sell a player because of a bad day at the office if 9 of his last 10 were excellent games. It sucks losing vs Liverpool, but what actually matters is that we are comfortably 3rd, we won a cup for the first time in 6 years, and are in 2 more cups. Even if we finish the season poorly and finish 4th with no other cup wins, guess what? Big picture is this is still a good season where we got top 4 and won a cup.
Well said. Losing 7 nil to Liverpool shouldn't be allowed to happen again (and I doubt it will), but all metrics point to United being on an upward trajectory. Saying things like "the season is ruined" is utter nonsense.
 

Baneofthegame

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Just be professional, bounce back and carry on the season, seal top 4, try and win both cups.

But it seems people on here obsess over it and let it define the club, they basically scored with every shot on target which is unheard of.
 

GueRed

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the players cant dwell on it.

there's still a lot of points and prizes to play for.
 

NewDawnFades

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Everyone talking about not forgiving the players has it wrong. We should be asking when we can forgive the badge, that is the main thing.
 

JimmyWils

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Never forgive, never forget. No good run can make up for that shit from them today.
I really hope people save this post so that (hopefully) when we end the season solidly in the top 4 with the EFL and maybe another cup won, this serves as an absolutely solid reminder.

If we finish the season like I just described, are you going to celebrate? Sounds like you might sit in a corner silently and dwelling on the one loss that was crappy to deal with temporarily.
 

Skills

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I really hope people save this post so that (hopefully) when we end the season solidly in the top 4 with the EFL and maybe another cup won, this serves as an absolutely solid reminder.

If we finish the season like I just described, are you going to celebrate? Sounds like you might sit in a corner silently and dwelling on the one loss that was crappy to deal with temporarily.
Celebrating finishing top 4 itself is a bit pathetic tbh.

If we win a trophy, I'll celebrate that moment - but this won't be a season I look back at fondly. Another one to forget it ever happened in the first place.
 

Mike Smalling

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My main concern is that some of the underlying reasons for the defeat will still be there. Mainly players being overplayed and lack of quality in some key areas.
 

JimmyWils

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Celebrating finishing top 4 itself is a bit pathetic tbh.

If we win a trophy, I'll celebrate that moment - but this won't be a season I look back at fondly. Another one to forget it ever happened in the first place.
I didn't say celebrate solely the top 4 finish, but when you look at the season as a whole it will be combined with the other bits as something we got done.

I think people are judging this season based on the insane run of form that we've had, but over the summer we all thought this rebuild would take forever. It still likely will, but we've so far gone above and beyond the pre-season expectations. If you'd offered top 4 to most people before the season started they'd have bitten your hand off and been very happy about it.

Personally I would say that ahead of the season finishing, saying it will be one to forget feels very negative. When Mourinho won trophies were those seasons wholly negative too? To each their own I guess.
 

Rusholme Ruffian

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Celebrating finishing top 4 itself is a bit pathetic tbh.

If we win a trophy, I'll celebrate that moment - but this won't be a season I look back at fondly. Another one to forget it ever happened in the first place.
hang on, if - say - we finish 3rd and win 2 trophies, given where we were in the summer, you will want to forget this season?
 

Zeno

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When you support this club for long enough you know that there will be good days as well. Age brings perspective. For me, at the time, the 1991/92 season scarred more than Sunday’s result. Losing to QPR at home and then that nightmare run in April, culminating at Anfield (where else!). I thought we would never win the league. But it happened, and lots besides.

So cherish the pain of these darkest days. The good days are just around the corner and will shine more brightly because of the journey.