[pacifictheme]

Doesn't everyone do it? If not, why not?

I think its just not the done thing.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Slightly skewed there buddy! Depay has been below average and yet to prove he can cut it. Rooney has also been average but has proved he can more than cut it. It's really fair on Depay as he's been stone average. If we had another top class player aka Bale or Ibra then it would be a no brained. But unfortunately we don't! If we had Ibra today my guess is we'd have won today.

Memphis does have an excuse of being young, new to the PL and settling in to a new team. Rooney has no excuses.

 

[Borys]

I don't think we can make any new conclusions after yesterday. We played well in midfield, and were solid defensively. It seems City without Aguero and Silva are equal to us.

It's worrying how easy it is to defend against us. I'm scared every decent team can hold us like City and CSKA did recently.

Right now it makes me sad but I believe we've gotten as far as it gets with Rooney up front. If we want to improve, we should move Martial up top. Shift Roo to the left or bench him and play one of Young/Pereira/Lingard on the left. This is the only way forward.

No goals scored against Arsenal and City is pretty poor, but 2 points off top is great.

 

[ChaddyP]

I believe he would have done a better job today. At times, performance levels "may" drop if there is nothing to fight for. Knowing a win will make us joint top at least, he will perform better than Roo.

Part what of Rooney's problem is that he knew no matter what, he's not getting dropped. He's in for a shocker though, before this season runs out, he will get dropped.

Whether or not Rooney or Rvp would have done better. Fact is they are both currently shite at the moment. At least we got rid of one of the shite. Rvp is in horrible horrible form and I doubt he would have done any better. We already have a better striker in both. Getting rid of Rvp was one of the best transfers we did. I understand the frustration with Rooney Currently but as bad as he is rvp is probably even worse, and is even slower than Rooney.

 

[Andy_Cole]

Whether or not Rooney or Rvp would have done better. Fact is they are both currently shite at the moment. At least we got rid of one of the shite. Rvp is in horrible horrible form and I doubt he would have done any better. We already have a better striker in both. Getting rid of Rvp was one of the best transfers we did. I understand the frustration with Rooney Currently but as bad as he is rvp is probably even worse, and is even slower than Rooney.

He's not slower than Rooney.

 

[Ole90+3]

Harsh words. I agree they were there for the taking and we may not get a better chance to beat City with them not having Silva and Aguero - but City didn't seem very interested to win, probably less so than us. Does that mean they aren't interested to win this year? You can argue being away/home mentality, but surely a win for them today would have given them a huge bonus. Taking off Yaya for Demichellis was extremely negative.

It was an annoying second half. We should have made more chances given the possession we had, and how tucked in City looked - but chances were made and if Lingard scored his lob, Smalling scored his chance, Schneiderlin touched in Smalling's header - then everyone wouldn't be saying these things. We had chances.

City didn't need to win, we did. Mourinho used to set up in a similar manner when coming to Old Trafford as he knew the value of coming away from Old Trafford with anything.

You can bet your ass that City will attack us with serious intent at the Emptihad.

 

[Mutter Merkel]

City didn't need to win, we did. Mourinho used to set up in a similar manner when coming to Old Trafford as he knew the value of coming away from Old Trafford with anything.

You can bet your ass that City will attack us with serious intent at the Emptihad.

Of course they will. We've got a long way to go this season; we'll have to work hard to get out of our group in the CL, though you'd think we should if we win our two remaining home games, and we don't look as threatening as City and Arsenal in the league. Well, certainly not with Wayne Rooney in the team, but we're about as good as I expected us to be this season: better than last season and within touching distance of the league leaders after a difficult set of fixtures. I really do hope Van Gaal can add a player or two in January and get us playing better as the season goes on, as his sides usually do get better as a campaign unfolds.

I don't agree that we needed to win yesterday.

 

[ants7]

Of course they will. We've got a long way to go this season; we'll have to work hard to get out of our group in the CL, though you'd think we should if we win our two remaining home games, and we don't look as threatening as City and Arsenal in the league. Well, certainly not with Wayne Rooney in the team, but we're about as good as I expected us to be this season: better than last season and within touching distance of the league leaders after a difficult set of fixtures. I really do hope Van Gaal can add a player or two in January and get us playing better as the season goes on, as his sides usually do get better as a campaign unfolds.

I don't agree that we needed to win yesterday.

While I agree that is wasn't a "win or die" situation, we should always aim to win your home games. Unless you're playing Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern where maybe a draw is not the worse result.

 

[carlosp]

Should always aim to win your home games, unless you're playing Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern where maybe a draw is not the worse result.

I would agree however City played at home in the CL and didn't need to travel while we played CSKA in Moscow on Wednesday. City should have gone rampant against us, the fact that we out played them and almost scored too goes to say a lot of the lads and how we are playing. City were so poor.

Draw was a good result for us and a poor one for City.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I would agree however City played at home in the CL and didn't need to travel while we played CSKA in Moscow on Wednesday. City should have gone rampant against us, the fact that we out played them and almost scored too goes to say a lot of the lads and how we are playing. City were so poor.

It wasn't just playing in a freezing Moscow, it was that the game finished knocking on midnight. Why wasn't it a teatime kickoff? Probably the TV people didn't want a big draw like us kicking off early.

 

[LeChuck]

If we had played for another 15-20 minutes, we would have scored and subsequently won the game.

The reality is that we only have 90mins per game. LvG should prepare the team in such a way to get the result in the 90mins, not to be the better team in the last 10 searching for a goal.

There's something amiss in our match preparation that we start games so painfully slowly, and he needs to address that ASAP. We only really get going in the 2nd half.

 

[carlosp]

If we had played for another 15-20 minutes, we would have scored and subsequently won the game.

The reality is that we only have 90mins per game. LvG should prepare the team in such a way to get the result in the 90mins, not to be the better team in the last 10 searching for a goal.

There's something amiss in our match preparation that we start games so painfully slowly, and he needs to address that ASAP. We only really get going in the 2nd half.

With the trip to Moscow I can understand why we played so conservative in the first and why we attacked in the second. LvG most probably thought City would attack a lot more in the first and hence wanted us to keep possession. In the second though you can see the lads were trying to win. Didn't help though.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

We had chances to win the game, I'd say more than them. Don't really recall De Gea needing to make a save? I could be having a massive brain fart though. Don't really recall them going really close anyway.

Lingard could have scored for us, Smalling could have scored for us, Schneiderlin could have scored for us. Another day, we'd have won.

 

[noodlehair]

I didn't mind this particular borefest so much, because it gave off the impression of two good teams playing against each other. As opposed to a good team, playing against Manchester United.

That said, there was far too much running to where you should have passed the ball, and then passing it there anyway...and a number of players who seemed to have their footballling ability surgically removed before the game. In particular De Bruyne and Schweinsteiger. I would also say Bony but I'm not convinced he ever doesn't play like that.

The rating on Rooney is a bit harsh I think. His movement all game was excellent and he nearly made something happen a few times. Schneiderlin was excellent. Smallling as usual and Rojo had a reallly good game too. Martial will soon engulf us all.

Even Lingard and Fellaini seemed to offer something different, and if you'd told me they'd be our first two subs before the game I'd have crushed your face.

Also,, if you'd told me before the game it'd be a dull 0-0, I'd have imagined being a lot more pissed off by it than I was.

 

[::sonny::]

Best game of the season imho

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

With Aguero and Silva out, there is really nothing between the two teams.

 

[bosnian_red]

We had chances to win the game, I'd say more than them. Don't really recall De Gea needing to make a save? I could be having a massive brain fart though. Don't really recall them going really close anyway.

Lingard could have scored for us, Smalling could have scored for us, Schneiderlin could have scored for us. Another day, we'd have won.

Their only shot on target was Navas having a hopeful shot from distance that was never going to trouble anyone and it wasn't even a half chance before attempting it (was like 80th minute). Seemed more like a shot just to have a shot on target in the stats then thinking he could score. Went right at De Gea to comfortably pick it up. Other then that, their only real chance was Toure's half chance in the first half where he mishit his shot after De Bruyne's cross, but it wasn't a great chance. We definitely had the better chances, though obviously not many ourselves.