[Robin Your Persie]

I don’t feel City we’re that much better today, first half we let them have the ball until they scored (God knows why we couldn’t press from the start) and it didn’t help the endless amount of long balls to which Lukaku very rarely wins and they get the ball again rinse and repeat. As soon as they score me we looked more threatening and managed to get a quicker equaliser.

Seriously though Lukaku just isn’t the right fit for this club, his touch his hopeless and against the Big teams abit of pressure off them and he loses it straight away and you can’t be having that when the tactics are to counter attack.

Michael Oliver is a complete joke of a ref how can he book Rashford for slamming the ball on the floor yet fail to book a number of players who blatantly foul to stop counter attacks

 

[Lawman]

Thought it was a poor game today. Think Souness Nev etc are building City up way too much. Both teams showed their limitations today.

 

[Jim Beam]

He's insufferable.

Nah, he's not bad considering his twelve.

 

[Baby Groot]

Weird choice to take Lingard off for no one and decide to play with 10 men.

9 if you don't count Lukaku.

 

[wolvored]

This seems to be A José tactic against teams who press high. He wants to cut the pressure by shunting the ball upfield and rendering their pressing useless. He did it against Ajax in the EL final and it worked well then but today it really didn’t. For it to work you really need a target man who is capable of holding the ball up and other players up for the second ball. We had neither today and this just gave them possession straight back to them. We showed them to much respect today, it seemed like they were scared stiff of tackling KDB!

This is so true, and as we dont have a target man never seems to work against the better teams. The chances we create with this tactic are so few and far between as well.

 

[bosnian_red]

Wasn't happy with the first 40. Pretty happy with how we did for the remaining of the game, but I don't like how Mourinho sets up like this in big games. Though it's understandable since Pogba was out. On Pogba - was a huge loss for us in the game. Would've made a huge difference, though at the same time, only so much anyone can do when your 75m pound striker assists 2 goals for the other team and then misses a sitter for your team. Don't even want to talk about him. But he was pitiful.

Martial, Rashford and Lingard were positive. Martial can't play on the right but then was a constant threat (when he had the ball) on the left. Rashfords off the ball movement on the right works, but his on the ball ability is still inconsistent as you'd expect for a youngster. But our attack should be built around those 3 from the attacking players we have.

Defence... Individually pretty good? Lindelof did well too. But the starting tactics gave up too much space. Don't think City really created anything too good anyway. The 2 goals which were really their main chances until the counters at the end were both Lukaku brainfarts.

 

[MooseTheMooche]

So that's it folks. Season's basically over in december. Yeah, we still have to challenge for that top4 spot, but all in all our title challenge is gone. In the CL we may bump into Madrid or Munich, and that will be a disaster for us, and our style of play. As for the game, well there is not much to say. We are shit in every department, especially mentally and tactically. We are playing derby at our ground and we serve this fecking shit? Just hoof it, or give the ball away to city. Absolutely terrible to be honest. In the first 45 minutes DDG was the only player that had 5 passes. Lukaku is a complete joke of a striker. 75 million quid for a complete deadwood. Can't head the ball, and his first touch is abysmal. What is even worse is that there is not much progress in our overall "style" of play. Mourinho is in his second season and he resorts to hoofball almost everytime (especially against top 6), even Moyes with his west ham kept the ball better when they were playing against city earlier in the week. Unfortunately this won't be solved even by all the Griezmann's, Messi's and Ronaldo's of the world. We lack game plan, and overall "cohesion" in the game. If you look at city, you see how the players are switching positions, and are showing up to claim the ball. We, on the other hand, play this frankenstein of football that is just straight out of Tony Pulis Stoke playbook.

 

[Sing you a song]

Completely out thought and out classed , City have a game plan and stick to it pass pass pass , we were just banging the ball to lukaku who was diabolical again .I understand why Jose knew that without Pogba we had nothing in midfield to compete with debryne and Silva so he tried to bypass them whenever we had the ball , the problem was every time City had the ball those 2 pulled all the strings we got nowhere near them .
Lukaku turning into a liability he looked totally inadequate today and should be credited with an assist for both City goals . A real wake up calll city will walk the Orem I would guess they will win it by at least 15 points
Without Pogba we have no class

 

[The red panther]

He took the team which finished only once inside top 4. Got 2 cups and we're comfortably in second place. No, we're not there yet but we're still in the best position since Fergie's gone.

And yes, maybe he is not the manager who will take us to the title, but some perspective would be nice. In 2010 he owned Pep, now everybody says Pep own him. It doesn't go that way. It's not black and white, that's my problem.

Look buddy today was Mourinho versus Pep 20th edition.

Pep has won 10 times now and Mourinho has won 4 times.

Many were also saying his success at Barca was because of Messi (and I actually was one of them) and that in the EPL Mourinho would do much better because his tactics are alot more suited to it. But Pep has beaten Mourinho at his home two times in a row now in the EPL. And Mourinho is notoriously difficult to beat at home but Pep has done it twice in a row anyway and without any players like messi or whatever. Pep just seems to be better, end of story.

 

[bdspeedy]

Ok. Not the end of the world. We were outplayed but could have drawn this game with some luck. We got through this stretch of games against top prem sides with basically a wash. Two wins, two losses. We have a ton of games the next few weeks that we need to win. Hopefully Citeh drops a few points. They're due to have a poor run. 11 points this early in the season is not a lock. We are a BIG club. Lots of our squad players have been getting minutes the past few months. We should get Jones, Fellaini, Bailly and Pogba back in the squad soon. Time to turn it on you Reds!!!

 

[Klean]

Lots of overreaction here today. The game plan was what we all expected, sit deep close off the passing lanes and hit them on the break. I thought the ref performance was below average today and we were just unlucky. When you figure we conceded 1 set piece goal all season and we give up 2 today (both on individual mistakes) it just wasn't our day. We had a chance at the end to level and their keeper made a fantastic stop to basically win them the title.

Moving forward we can only address the issues we saw today and bounce back with a win.

 

[Ban]

I keep hearing we'll struggle to make top 4. How exactly?

 

[Darkhorsez]

Grabbed grabbed our ankle socks at home to gift wrap the league for City. Simple as.

Lingard and Rashford the only two players out there that seem to know what it means to play City.
Lukaku was the worse No.9 I’ve ever seen play at OT.
Smalling would play with a square ball if he could.
Valencia I saw the worst captain I've ever seen, didn’t have one single word with that pr1ck Oliver the entire game and had an utter mare.
José waiting til 70+ mins to make any sort of change, then leaves Lukaku on!

Utter, utter crap. Will struggle to make top 4.

Also let’s add, a new low on the Cafe!

 

[The red panther]

Completely out thought and out classed , City have a game plan and stick to it pass pass pass , we were just banging the ball to lukaku who was diabolical again .I understand why Jose knew that without Pogba we had nothing in midfield to compete with debryne and Silva so he tried to bypass them whenever we had the ball , the problem was every time City had the ball those 2 pulled all the strings we got nowhere near them .
Lukaku turning into a liability he looked totally inadequate today and should be credited with an assist for both City goals . A real wake up calll city will walk the Orem I would guess they will win it by at least 15 points
Without Pogba we have no class

Without Pogba we look like a team that doesn't belong in top 4.

Him and DDG, that are the only 2 worldclass players we have.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

I'm done.

The way we lost is even more frustrating.

Feck football. It is just a rich boy playground now and there's finally one kid who's dad has more money than everyone else and always will so there is no contest anymore and therefore no point.

Im done until they lose that ill-begotten record.

Hope all fans lose interest and Mansour loses millions on his pet teams. I know it won't happen but it's what they deserve.

Sorry to point it out but it's been a money game one way or another since the PL started. You have to stick with your team.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Two set pieces and two mistakes. They did not create much until the end when we were pushing men forward.

Lukaku should have buried his chance.

Smalling as well just seemed to launch the ball forward every time. So frustrating.

 

[Redlambs]

No plan B.

 

[NK86]

We didn't play well because City are that good. We did have our chances (as did they) and the result could've gone either way, so its not like it was a total domination on their part.

Did you miss watching the first half completely? If not, then I cannot think you actually believe they didn't dominate us. Once they were ahead they just controlled the game and apart from the Lukaku chance we barely had sight of their goal. They had more clearer chances than us the whole game and the only reason we didn't concede more is because Mourinho is not good enough to go toe to toe with Pep, so he just shuts shop every time we play them, right from the first minute.

 

[Marcky411]

If Pogba played it would've been a different result.

No it wouldn't have, as he is so prone to losing possession that he ends up trying to fix up his messes and fouls player in dangerous positions. With or without Pogba makes no difference in the big games, he has shown in the past that he too goes missing and has no impact on the games.

 

[NK86]

Post match comments from Mou?

 

[PlayerOne]

Lukaku was obviously off today as he has been for some time. That said, we were basically one great Ederson save away from a draw. The ball bounced their way today. We will move on and regroup for the next one.

That's the problem right now, we're 11 points behind and the way City are playing the league is pretty much over, hence why some of the fans are upset.

 

[Raoul]

Did you miss watching the first half completely? If not, then I cannot think you actually believe they didn't dominate us. Once they were ahead they just controlled the game and apart from the Lukaku chance we barely had sight of their goal. They had more clearer chances than us the whole game and the only reason we didn't concede more is because Mourinho is not good enough to go toe to toe with Pep, so he just shuts shop every time we play them, right from the first minute.

They were definitely on the front foot but that was a result of us missing Pogba and relinquishing a bit of midfield control. Still it was 1-1 at the half so not exactly 3-0 type domination on their part.

 

[Eriku]

It really sucks to see us be second best against City at OT for most of the match. It sucks even more when they score two jammy goals to win it.

That Lukaku-Mata double towards the end fecking killed me.

 

[Stubble]

Buy a backup for Pogba for Christ's sake no creativity when he' owt ! This is Carrick's last season i guess and Fellaini may be off as well. If we're having the usual midfield crisis next year i'll blow a gasket ! A creative and reliable no.10 is also a must. Amazing we are second still with these major deficiencies ...

 

[NickJ]

City better team today but like peps Barca they get such an easy ride from refs and pundits. Always commiting fouls but rarely get booked. silva committed countless fouls today and could easily have been sent off!

 

[MacabbiUnited]

The annoying thing is we lost because of our approach. We can be much better but we werent tryimg to be good. We gave them to much respect and attempted nothing.

It's Morinho's loss, wrong tactics, wrong approach in a must win game. We could have won this had we played like a football team

 

[Raoul]

That's the problem right now, we're 11 points behind and the way City are playing the league is pretty much over, hence why some of the fans are upset.

I viewed the league as over before a ball was kicked today as I don't expect this City side to drop 8 points to us between now and April. Therefore the disappointment is sort of tempered by the inevitability of what will happen this year.

 

[Fully Fledged]

Post match comments from Mou?

 

[Canucantona20]

Was always going to be a tough game without our best outfield player. We need more quality in the middle, look at the gulf of class City have compared to us. KDB and Silva compared to Lingard and Mata says it all really. KDB is different class, completely ran the show today. Lukaku was shit, his technique is crap at times which is frustrating at times. I wouldn’t say the league is over as it’s only December but if City continue their run of form into the new year it’s looking bad.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Tough game to watch. Didn't think we had a chance, but yet we had a chance to snatch the draw.

I don't know if buying better quality players will even see a change in approach with Mourinho at the helm. I don't think City's players are MUCH better than ours. It's fairly marginal.

Pep coaches his teams and plays football the way I like, so it really sucks to see City play the way I wish we could.

 

[sewey89]

Post match comments from Mou?

From what I’ve seen on Twitter, he seems to have been claiming we were denied a clear penalty when Ander was booked

 

[vidic blood & sand]

He couldn't bring himself to say "we were well beaten". A touch narcissistic .

 

[Raoul]

Its amazing what a great football club endless amounts of LNG from the Persian Gulf can buy.

 

[Manchester Dan]

I’m obviously chuffed with the result but I won’t come here to talk about that. I’d be really annoyed as a United fan watching that game. You had one good moment in the final third in the entire match (Ederson double save) where you played football to get in a good position. City will get the plaudits but I was astounded how easy United made it for us to defend.

Delph, Fernandinho and Mangala all played in our defence today and United made absolutely no attempt to exploit that and put them under real sustained pressure. In a game you had to win, on your own turf, that must be really frustrating. Mourinho can talk about the Ref (it wasn’t a penalty in my view) but it wasn’t even close today, not because City were excellent, but because United made it so easy for them to completely control the game. I’m still astonished.

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Pep coaches his teams and plays football the way I like, so it really sucks to see City play the way I wish we could.

It kills all of us to see City play like us in 99-2001. We'll be back though.

 

[HJ12]

We have enough in this team to play waaaay better than what's currently happening. The most painful thing for me is that from the kick-off, we just seemed allergic to the ball! As good as City are, there's no excuse for our players refusing to at least attempt to string 2 passes together. I honestly believe that had we at least tried to play from the off, we could've beaten City, or worst case, we would've lost but at least I could've handled watching this.
Yes we missed Pogba, but that is a convenient excuse for what was a really piss poor performance from a team that is 2nd in the league.

 

[Fully Fledged]

I’m obviously chuffed with the result but I won’t come here to talk about that. I’d be really annoyed as a United fan watching that game. You had one good moment in the final third in the entire match (Ederson double save) where you played football to get in a good position. City will get the plaudits but I was astounded how easy United made it for us to defend.

Delph, Fernandinho and Mangala all played in our defence today and United made absolutely no attempt to exploit that and put them under real sustained pressure. In a game you had to win, on your own turf, that must be really frustrating. Mourinho can talk about the Ref (it wasn’t a penalty in my view) but it wasn’t even close today, not because City were excellent, but because United made it so easy for them to completely control the game. I’m still astonished.

I can't argue.

 

[Frank Grimes]

I know Lukaku is getting all the hate but there is a lot more wrong with Manchesteer United than Lukaku's poor form.

City were not great but they are clearly a better side than us and will win the league at a canter now.

We need to sign 2 players in January, have them bedded into the team for next season. Get 2 or 3 more in the summer.

 

[Hed Zitin]

Wow the team that spend the most money by a mile is going to win the league. Shock horror...

 

[Newman123]

Can't stand the media and what they say about City. We tried and we lost to a better team today with very important players out, Pogba and Bailly as it's still 22 games to play for any one think we still have a chance? IMO i think right now no one can stop city.

No one in this league sure. I do think that they'll lose against an inform Real Madrid though or Barcelona.