Anyone else feeling ok after losing to City in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup?

rotherham_red

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I am not bothered but isn't that just accepting we are shit/not good enough? Shouldn't we as fans, especially of our club, not expect us to be equally as fired up? Should we not be annoyed that it's so easy just to accept they are better than us?

I am not bothered as football has lost a lot of appeal for me in the last few years as other things became more important. But it does slightly bother me how at ease I am with just shrugging it off that City and co are better
No, it's recognising the progress we've made but that more needs to be done.
 

Compton22

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I said in the match day thread that City wanted to win more than we did. It was plainly obvious in our half hearted counter attacks and our play in the final 3rd was just so disjointed.

It doesn't bother me so much in the sense that we were beaten by the better team, but I can't abide players not giving their all in a game, especially in a derby.
 

K Stand Knut

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I don’t understand all this fornication over city and their performance.

They were mildly the better team. Very much mildly. Two poor bits of defending by us cost us the game on the night.

There was no brilliance from them, and unfortunately, less from us.

They are the better team and squad in almost every aspect and it showed but I’m bored of hearing how good they were in the game. One long range shot and a tame header from Sterling is all they had for such a ‘masterclass’ from Pep. And I use the word Masterclass because two bitter mates have used that term directly about the game last night
 

VivaObertan

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I don't mind because:

a.) It's the League Cup
b.) We lost to the most expensive squad ever assembled, who have played 2 games (or so) over the past fortnight vs our 5.
c.) Playing City is a good assessment of how much we've improved. We're no longer petrified of the ball when pressed and likewise we've improved our pressing system to the point whereby City need to play long. We also created some good chances and controlled the game in our way.

2x goals from set pieces were the difference - that's football unfortunately.
 

simplyared

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I'm ok with the defeat however 2 things that were made obvious to me from the game:

1) Pogba playing in that company was made to look bang average. Grossly overrated and hoping for Grealish to replace him asap!

2) Seeing Foden made me wonder what has happened to Greenwood. Foden's development obviously down to Pep, so what are we doing with Mason??
 

No Spring Chicken

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The irritating thing is losing at the semi stage. With the league cup, if you dont win the competition, you're better off going out in the first game. There's no such thing as a memorable run to the semi final of the league cup. Its just unnecessary extra games against nothing teams.
 

Ronaldo's ego

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I’m very disappointed. Not even because it was City but because this squad need to start building a winning mentality and have the knack of getting over the line in big games. I don’t care if it’s ‘only the league cup’ as we need to win a trophy, any trophy.

It’s all well and good going for bigger trophies but by the time the league cup final comes around we might be 10 points behind the leaders and then what, concentrate on getting a CL place for next season?
 

Adamsk7

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You know what? I am totally fine with it. Never like losing games but considering the form they are in, I thought we were relatively comparable in many ways. This is also the first time Ole went for a less defensive line up and we caused them problems. Sure, some of our game changers weren’t quite on it tonight and it’s those fine margins that gets you wins against other top teams but I will take great heart that you couldn’t really tell much difference between the teams and squads and more importantly for me, the style of play.
We’ve still got the league, FA Cup and Europa and I honestly can see us going on to win one of those. No harm in a bit of optimism!
 

Borys

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Worst game of the season for me.
Against Tottenham I was angry but I could see fitness issues/Pogba in midfield didn't work out well.
Against RB/PSG it felt like we were quite unlucky to lose, and on another day we would get a good result on one of those 2 games.
Against City yesterday they had us from the start to finish, running circles around us with some key players missing. Feckin hate being outplayed by Pep teams.
 

JJ12

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People acting as if we were completely outclassed for 90 minutes. We were out of form in the final 3rd.
 

tenpoless

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I feel bad not about losing the match but about Ole losing a chance to win a throphy. As I have said before its what he needs, even Mickey Mouse trophy. If that happens he shall level up, evolving.

But now the pressure is on him. Could only get a semi, etc.
 

Jeffthered

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Never thought I’d say that after losing to City but I’ll take that defeat.

I’m looking at the opposition. City were fired up last night. A different team with a totally different approach in comparison to the team we played in the PL the other week.

Going on the performance and the level of opposition, it amazes me how we resort to slagging off our players. Ffs we’ve played far worse than that and won games before.

A reality check, nothing more and time to kick on!
This is worrying. I keep saying that we are becoming Arsenal under Wenger in his latter years... some of us are accepting mediocrity. We have a home tie, and a chance of winning a trophy. We lose, and are clearly second best. And we accept this. It's exactly what has happened since our failure to reach the latter stages of the CL.

Let's just continue to have reality checks then, right? And what does that actually mean?
 

cyberman

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Yep. Its weird. I was just looking forward to a good game, i have no interest in the cups this year.
Buys, mad schdule, abandoning 2 leg semis. Its all a bit watered down for my liking.
 

b82REZ

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This is worrying. I keep saying that we are becoming Arsenal under Wenger in his latter years... some of us are accepting mediocrity. We have a home tie, and a chance of winning a trophy. We lose, and are clearly second best. And we accept this. It's exactly what has happened since our failure to reach the latter stages of the CL.

Let's just continue to have reality checks then, right? And what does that actually mean?
Basically the rhetoric that is forming is that the manager cannot be expected to compete with the top 2 until he has a world class player in every position and has world class players as backup.
 

OleBoiii

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Not nearly as annoyed as I'd usually be.

I don't care too much about domestic cups, the defeat wasn't that ugly, and we've had a very good run in the PL(i.e. the most important tournament in my opinion).
 

meamth

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...I felt nothing?

That's weird though. It's not like City battered us with 70% possession and 25 attempts on goal though.
Very very close game, who got the first goal will win.
 

cyberman

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Basically the rhetoric that is forming is that the manager cannot be expected to compete with the top 2 until he has a world class player in every position and has world class players as backup.
Who the feck is saying that? We are competing with them ffs. Its the naysayers who claim we cant get close every week thats on the extreme side of things.
 

meamth

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Standards have dropped so low that we are happy when we lose now? to City? Regardless of the situation or circumstances we should never be happy in a loss
Who is happy?

What do you want us to do? Enraged, tantrums?
 

crossy1686

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I feel like it was our best chance at a trophy this season wasted. People can talk down about the league cup, I've always enjoyed it personally, but it would have been great for this side and manager to win something.
Completely agree, I felt we really had to win this to have quantifiable progress but lets just hope it's another learning curve for the team next time we get to a semi final or in the league run-in.
 

R'hllor

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Over the moon with it, winning last night would feel meh a bit, also threads afterwards about clear progression from days when we were losing semi finals would pop all over the place, who wants that.
 

Focusmate

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Trophies are what its all about for me so im disappointed since this was our best chance of silverwear this year.
Also going to wembley and winning a trophy would do wonders for the squads mentality.
Couldnt get my head around people wanting to ditch league/f a cup semis for a shot at top 4 last season. Silverwear now please not a top 4 shot!
 

Dosse

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Dont care much about the loss. As long as the overall progress is there, and it js by miles! We will turn semi-finals into finals im sure!
 

ExecutionerWasp001

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I'm annoyed as this City team of 20/21 aren't really that good & the game was there for us. We somehow managed to shoot ourselves in the foot & gift them 2 goals.

It is a worry that we don't seem to turn up in an attacking sense in SF's. Making basic errors in defence makes the job doubly hard.
 

MS4

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It's the sixth year i am a newbie and i can tell you, this feels way worse than losing to city in this pointless Cup. Nontheless i had gladly accepted a trophy, can't deny that
 

passing-wind

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I think it summarises the lack of purpose that Solskjaer has as a manager. Was he brought in to bring stability because he's already done this. Was he brought in to redefine the quality of the squad because we have the best team since SAF retired and one of the best squads in the league. How do we define the managers purpose ? Ole is more or less doing what Poch did with far more resources yet the argument against Poch is he won nothing.

End of this season Solskjaer will have been here for around four years, if we haven't won anything why is he not being scrutinised more to the same extent that any other manager would have been heavily criticized. This isn't about sacking the manager but more that the fans have allowed Ole to coast in a passive not win anything but get along position and somehow deemed this as progress.

Who was the most successful manager to join since SAF retired ? Mourinho, why, because he won trophies. That is ultimately the definitive aspect of success at a club so fans turning a blind eye, I feel your inadvertently not supporting Solskjaer because eventually it will get to a point where people will start to turn their nose up at this.
 

Adam-Utd

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Disappointed obviously, but they're a very good team and it's a 1 off match. A few key moments didn't go our way and that made the difference.

Unfortunately it's still a case that if the best city turn up, they'll more than likely beat us. We are still growing towards that level but things are still more positive compared to a few years ago.
 

justsomebloke

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That isn't even a good team, they struggled to score from open play as much as we did and de Bruyne had as poor a game as Bruno. What infuriates me is losing two set piece goals to a team of midgets when man for man we had the height advantage over them. They wanted the cup more and I care less because its the league cup. Just wish we'd set up with more reserve players getting minutes as they would have been hungrier to put in a performance.
The team didn't look like they lacked hungriness to me. And what are yo on about, City were excellent. No way de Bruyne had a poor game.

Having the height advantage isn't much help to prevent two goals not scored from aerial duels. On the first, Maguire was again too passive in letting the ball pass rather than attempt a dangerous clearance. On the second, the trouble comes from Martials poor first clearance and lack of concentration on the first post.
 

noodlehair

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Annoyed a bit as I thought we could have won if we weren't so wasteful in attack trying hollywood stuff instead of playing simple passes...but it's the league cup, and a final against a Jose side would have been drab. I don't buy all this stuff about needing to win any trophy to be taken seriously. No one takes you seriously if you win the League Cup then finish 30 points off the top of the league.

It's more important that it doesn't affect us in the next few games as that's what will show whether we've actually progressed.

Obviously would have preferred to win but it'll be forgotten about if we beat Burnley next week.
 

marf

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I can agree to that. In my opinion we played well yesterday but unfortunately city played even better. But turned off the game with a feeling that it was their day today, on another day we could just as well have won it.
Shit happens I guess
 

simplyared

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This is worrying. I keep saying that we are becoming Arsenal under Wenger in his latter years... some of us are accepting mediocrity. We have a home tie, and a chance of winning a trophy. We lose, and are clearly second best. And we accept this. It's exactly what has happened since our failure to reach the latter stages of the CL.

Let's just continue to have reality checks then, right? And what does that actually mean?
Going out of the CL was different. We could have done better, we should have progressed in the tournament but through bad decisions, players underperforming, wrong tactics etc we failed. A huge disappointment for everyone associated with the club. No doubt about that.
Yesterday we lost in the semi-final of a minor competition which if you win gives you no more than qualification to the Europa League. I don't think we could have asked more from our players yesterday against an establishment who has the clout to put top quality in every position. So with regards to the status of the competitions mentioned and the level of opposition we came up against. It's night and day comparing the two. We are deluding ourselves if we believe we should beat City with our current squad and both teams playing at their best.
 

Solius

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It's annoying but I'm fine. We were second best.
 

padzilla

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I don't mind losing the odd game. What I would worry about is that under Ole we have a history of allowing a bad result to usher in a run of terrible performances. If the team takes it on the chin and play well and get good results in next few games then I won't worry too much about losing a league cup tie.
 

pascell

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Feeling ok after a loss is never a good thing, people are happy enough to call us title challengers but then also happy enough when we lose in a semi final at home?
 

Bastian

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I'm more relieved that we got knocked out of the CL during the group stages, as it would have been even more annoying to get knocked out down the line.

Joking aside, I expected City to beat us, but I was still disappointed in our performance, especially in the final third.
 

Tom Cato

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We were always going to lose games this season. There isn't a team that won't.

I'm dissapointed we didn't won, of course. Considering how comfortable we were against this lot last season I was expecting a better showing. But the road is never a straight one.

We need a win against Burnley now to sit at the top of the table for a few days at the very least.
 

markhughes

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I’d rather lose this game than any league game right now to be honest. It was a good benchmark for us and there is no shame losing to an in-form City team.

On our best day we can get get a result against City but on this occasion we fell short. Overall I’m actually pleased with the progress we have made and for the first time since 2013 I am looking forward to us challenging in the league this year, even if we come up short a title challenge is more than I expected at this stage, progress!