[GaryLifo]

It's all fine margins. City were the better side by a small amount and yet we really should have equalised with that double chance near the end.

City have scraped a few wins from losing positions this season and that's really the difference. You'd honestly think they tore us to shreds reading some of the immature garbage from our so-called fans on here.

Suck it up people, we lost a football match against a very good team. Even so, could easily have drawn and nobody could have said a draw wasn't a fair result.

 

[Tribec]

Call me bitter, but City didnt blow me away.

Yes, they dominated the game - that was to be expected, but what clear cut chances did they create?

Apart from the two goals, which were from set pieces, I cant remember them pulling us apart and creating goalscoring chances.

I think thats why Im really pissed off.

All before the game, all the talk were about how good City were at creating chance after chnace. They didnt. Actually, Arsenal created a lot more.

That said, we probably didnt deserve anything out the game anyway.

Despite being a bit better in the second half, on the few occasions we did attack, we didnt do enough going forward.

People will talk about how good City are now and thats there's a gulf in class, but we were missing our best player in Pogba, and Fellaini, who, would have been perfect with the way we played today.

We simply didnt have the quality in midfield to beat the press.

This is why Pogba and Fellaini were a massive miss.

Pogba, as we saw against Arsenal, has the ability to keep the ball under pressure and pick out a pass to start the counter.

Fellaini in Lingards position would have been an outlet for us to find, where nine times out of ten, he holds it up and gets us up the pitch.

Had we had those two, im confident we'd have got something.

Unfortunately, we didnt, and yet again, we've gone into a big game without having our strongest team. City, on the other hand, have been able to field more or less the same side every week. Thats been the difference.

I agree this as have others, though I thought Lingard did the job asked to today and was one of the only ones up top chasing down the ball from the City defenders. He's an easy player to sub, and won't moan. However it would have been easy to pull Lukaku or Martial off for all the effectiveness they were

I hate losing to that lot, and it hurts loads, but today it's frustration as I can only remember 2 real saves that DDG had to make, and that was as we were chasing the game.

 

[The red panther]

And a team who is 2nd now and not 6th. So just because of one loss let us not blindly overreact. We have made improvement , a considerable one. Finishing 2nd this season will no way be bad.

It is not enough, we needed a title challenge.

I said it in the summer, our season can not be regarded as a success if one or more teams finish ahead of us with more than 10 points difference. I can handle City winning the title but this year if we had really improved we should have atleast been able to be in touching distance. That required a win today.

There is improvement but if you compair to other teams, the speed with which we improve is like a snail compaired to a ferrari. The gap between us and City was not this huge last year and last year I had to say the same about Chelsea aswell.

 

[Nate Dogg]

Who would you replace him with, enlighten the caf?!

Poch?

I guess the question if we fail to win the lge this year then we shouldn't renew his comtract until we see real progress.

 

[Lentwood]

The only headline to come out of that game today should be "XI very good footballers beaten by XI slightly better footballers"

No more or no less to it than that

 

[The red panther]

So, who do you think would do a better job?

I would like someone like Pochettino as United manager.

 

[Pennywise]

Pep took over arguably the best squad in the league, has spent the most and after a poor first season has them firing this season. City will win the league now.

Today we shot ourselves in the foot and Lukaku looks a very poor buy so far.

BUT. I don't think it's all doom and gloom for the future, we simply have to address the left back issue as good as young has been recently. We have to replace Carrick so we have real competition and technically gifted players to come in there and compliment pogba and we need a new number 7.

Frustrating times yes but I think we have to stay with Jose, back jose and the good times will come back soon

 

[AshRK]

It is not enough, we needed a title challenge.

I said it in the summer, our season can not be regarded as a success if one or more teams finish ahead of us with more than 10 points difference. I can handle City winning the title but this year if we had really improved we should have atleast been able to be in touching distance. That required a win today.

There is improvement but if you compair to other teams, the speed with which we improve is like a snail compaired to a ferrari. The gap between us and City was not this huge last year and last year I had to say the same about Chelsea aswell.

Rather than comparing with others I will look at how we have developed. If we finish the season with 85 odd points and 2nd, that is progress made. Whether I will celebrate that progress? No but I wont also downplay us.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Call me bitter, but City didnt blow me away.

Yes, they dominated the game - that was to be expected, but what clear cut chances did they create?

Apart from the two goals, which were from set pieces, I cant remember them pulling us apart and creating goalscoring chances.

I think thats why Im really pissed off.

All before the game, all the talk were about how good City were at creating chance after chnace. They didnt. Actually, Arsenal created a lot more.

That said, we probably didnt deserve anything out the game anyway.

Despite being a bit better in the second half, on the few occasions we did attack, we didnt do enough going forward.

People will talk about how good City are now and thats there's a gulf in class, but we were missing our best player in Pogba, and Fellaini, who, would have been perfect with the way we played today.

We simply didnt have the quality in midfield to beat the press.

This is why Pogba and Fellaini were a massive miss.

Pogba, as we saw against Arsenal, has the ability to keep the ball under pressure and pick out a pass to start the counter.

Fellaini in Lingards position would have been an outlet for us to find, where nine times out of ten, he holds it up and gets us up the pitch.

Had we had those two, im confident we'd have got something.

Unfortunately, we didnt, and yet again, we've gone into a big game without having our strongest team. City, on the other hand, have been able to field more or less the same side every week. Thats been the difference.

Sums up how I feel about it tbh. Expected us to be creamed but there wasn’t that much between the two teams. They deserved to win, mind you. And that’s depressing. They’re definitely better than us right now. We’d be kidding ourselves to think otherwise.

 

[ash_86]

I couldn't watch the Match, but looks like Lukaku had a mare. Though it's frustrating to see City life the title (unless they have major injuries) , we need to assess our performance based on last season. Last season we finished 6th, we are in way better position now. We need to rebuild over next few transfer window and keep pushing forward. There is no hiding that our whole squad needs to be rebuilt with proper quality and let's focus on that. This is a disappointing result Yes, it's not even Christmas , so lets focus on bouncing back. If we could finish 2nd with a cup and CL semi's , that would be a great season IMO.

 

[Paxi]

Jose is not the right fit for United. I never want to see Rojo, Smalling, Lindelof pumping balls up to Lukaku (who was completely isolated by the way) again.

fecking shambles tactics.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

A loss was an unfair result today. That is why Lukaku's interventions have rankled so much.

 

[Redag12]

It's more frustrating how we lost, not that we lost. Felt like the game was there for the taking. City are not a crazy, unstoppable Juggernaut the media have made out. If the team can stay healthy and un-suspended we could beat this lot next go round.

 

[Jim Beam]

I would like someone like Pochettino as United manager.

Well, he sure owns Pep for a while now.

 

[Heinzesight]

We also could’ve at least tried targeting Walker a bit more considering he was on a yellow from 3rd minute.

Pissed off but the better team won but it wasn’t a landslide. Just wish we’d play to our strengths than worrying mainly about them.

Lukaku cost us. I like him. He’ll come good again, he just needs some confidence and a backbone at the moment.

 

[Bilbo]

It's difficult to know how to feel about today. Jose was obviously shit scared of City and it transferred itself over to the team.

Let's not mince words here. This was completely unacceptable and Mourinho's limitations as a coach have been utterly exposed over the last few weeks, ever since we stank the place out at Anfield.

As fans we need to be (and most seem to be to our credit) realistic about where we are at the moment as a squad. We obviously still lack leaders and are hugely reliant on Pogba. City are going to get stronger and we look like we will have to accept being 2nd best for the foreseeable future.

It's a sad day to be a United fan. Totally and utterly outclassed on our own pitch. Say what you like about Pep but he is a brave coach. I'd swap ours for him in a heartbeat.

 

[AlwaysRed66]

Herrera is just a diving cheat, who has the same application to fall down as the Man City players, but is too poor to get anywhere near their squad. It was funny how our manager & Klopp were both getting worked up by totally correct penalty decisions by their respective refs, as they saw the opposite to the vast majority.

This was a another negative masterclass from our manager, booting the ball up front to one static lump, then later a second past it one. I see Lindaoaff was as useless as ever when coming on, but obviously liked by Mourinho as he boots long balls up the pitch. De Gea made two quality saves again today. I shudder to imagine where we would have been the last few years without him.

As others have mentioned, bring in Poch, he at least knows how to play football.

 

[Ali Dia]

This sucks! Haven’t been this annoyed after football in a long time. I thought we were turning the corner but it’s always 2 steps forward one step back. We need backup for Pogba and some creativity at the wing back position. They constantly had men over on us who were dangerous, or at least kept our players pinned back. I also Wish we’d signed KDB while he was available. Jesus looks a bargain too compared to lukaku

 

[TheRedHearted]

City lucky to beat West Ham and we were unlucky to not draw. Lukaku going for power as opposed to placement on that final chance is crazy.

Anyone want to explain to me the difference between Silva’s tackle and Pogba’s?

 

[Gary Byrne]

They are better than us. Deserved loss. We are not good enough to compete.

Liverpool fan from dublin . Thought utd would have won . Would not see that performance under Alex. They seemed to afraid to take city on . Pity because I think city are there for the taking if teams have a go at them

 

[Roboc7]

Beaten by a much better team, better players and a better manager. We simply weren’t good enough to cope with their pressing and gulf in quality between most of their players and ours is obvious.

They will run away with the league and are in a different class to us, lots of work still to be done with this squad in order to really compete.

 

[Ban]

It's difficult to know how to feel about today. Jose was obviously shit scared of City and it transferred itself over to the team.

Let's not mince words here. This was completely unacceptable and Mourinho's limitations as a coach have been utterly exposed over the last few weeks, ever since we stank the place out at Anfield.

As fans we need to be (and most seem to be to our credit) realistic about where we are at the moment as a squad. We obviously still lack leaders and are hugely reliant on Pogba. City are going to get stronger and we look like we will have to accept being 2nd best for the foreseeable future.

It's a sad day to be a United fan. Totally and utterly outclassed on our own pitch. Say what you like about Pep but he is a brave coach. I'd swap ours for him in a heartbeat.

Last few weeks? Since Liverpool?
Since Liverpool we won a fair amount of games and progressed to the last 16 of CL.

 

[whatwha]

Truth really hurts , Mourinho knew what he was like and still went out and spent 75mil on a player he got rid of, says it all about Mourinho

Up to £90m really, after selling him to Everton for £28m.

 

[deafepl]

City lucky to beat West Ham and we were unlucky to not draw. Lukaku going for power as opposed to placement on that final chance is crazy.

Anyone want to explain to me the difference between Silva’s tackle and Pogba’s?

More like City were lucky that our own striker assisted two goals for them

 

[King Eric 7]

Disappointed but was realistic before the game which meant I wasn't too surprised when we lost this match. This is the match that has brought a lot of our fans down to earth, despite other matches where we haven't played well. We're just not good enough to win the league this season but a solid top three finish and a good run in at least one of the cup competitions would be a fair reflection of where we are and I would be satisfied with that.

It's always disappointing to be outplayed at home by one of our bitter rivals, especially in a crucial match we need to win to close the gap. City are clicking pretty well this season and we're not quite there yet, at least not consistently enough. Not quite time to throw in the towel just yet as things can change in the latter part of the season, but I wouldn't expect them to have a significant enough wobble this season to allow other teams to catch up, unless they suffer some bad injuries to key players.

As for Lukaku, he still has room to improve but it's disappointing to see him playing so poorly against the better teams. Our next few fixtures are a lot easier on paper so I would expect him to regain a bit of form sometime soon and start banging them in again.

 

[Raoul]

Truth really hurts , Mourinho knew what he was like and still went out and spent 75mil on a player he got rid of, says it all about Mourinho

What does the cost have to do with it. He had a role to fill and he filled it. Lukaku, despite being in a funk, is still on course to score more goals in all comps than he did last year.

 

[acrebo]

The long ball tactic was really odd. In other games where we’ve gone defensive (Liverpool for example) I still remember us trying to break intelligently when we got the chance.

It almost felt like we were deliberately giving the ball back to City’s defence to invite them further up the pitch.

City looked good in the first half but I didn’t think they were particularly impressive in the second. When we pushed up and played the ball to feet, at pace, we seemed to cause them problems. But we just couldn’t sustain it / weren’t comfortable doing it.

It’s very frustrating watching their players get away with things just because of who they are. Jesus dives and no booking yet Herrera does it (and certainly a challenge ‘closer’ to contact, if that exists) and a yellow.

It’s important to keep this in context, we’ve made big improvements this season over last. We clearly have a long way to go though and it’s frustrating that our midfield still looks inadequate when one player is missing.

 

[RedPed]

We are better than we were under Moyes and LVG if that is the measure you want to use for Mourinho but we are crap compaired to United under SAF and we are crap compaired to City under Pep.

And we won't win the title now for the 4th year in a row whilst we will have to bear seeing City lift their next one.

Also wouldn't be surpised if we would end up giving away our second place and might end up struggling for top 4 again if shit hits the fan.

In the end I'am just expecting United to be alot better than this both in results but most all in terms of the quality of the football.

Hang on a minute! People were saying that City aren't even considered as rivals?? Let's get a little perspective here. Chelsea lost away to West Ham. Liverpool drew at home to Everton and Arsenal managed a late draw away to Southampton. Shit happens!

We lost at home to City by two stupid goals. They really weren't that brilliant, though they were better than us. We got hammered more by Arsenal but managed to put our chances away and nobody complained. It just wasn't our day today. We're still safe in second and have a good run of games coming up. I still believe that City will drop points.

They haven't been that brilliant. Everybody else has just been patchy...much like when Chelsea won the league last season.

All the whining...for feck's sake!

 

[noodlehair]

Nowhere near goood enough. No composure at all in our play, so regardless of what game plan we'd had, what tactics e'd used, it just wouldn't have worked, because no matter what, the players would be too busy panicking and acting like the balll was a hand grenade.

For City to beat Chelsea, they had to put in a really top peroformance, be on their game the whole 90 minutes, and play them off the park.

Against us, it was just, turn up and don't do anything stupid, or rather, just make sure you do slightly less stupid things than us.

If that's the standard required for a good team to better us then we doon't have much hope really.

 

[Marcky411]

Sorry to say this but we can keep throwing money at this team, buying players every transfer period but that won't change a thing in our style of play or tactics in big games. As I mention is another thread, we have got the broken version of Mourinho, we did not get the fighting version, Chelsea and Inter and even Real Madrid had, that fighting spirit he had, winning at all cost and tactical masterclass is gone.
Mourinho had a team at his disposal at RM, that the world coaches would given an arm and a leg for and won some domestic cups and one title. After he left 2 coaches with the same players have won the CL 3x, same player different tactics.
As I have said before, until we trade Mourinho in for a more attacking minded coach we won't improve. Since SAF left we have had 3 defensive minded coaches, spent a fortune and are no better for it or looking like real title challengers. You would expect after all these defensive coaches we wouldn't be so shaky at the back and todays goals are proof of that.

 

[Dante]

City didn't have a lot of chances, but managed to score through sheer persistence.

Our problem was that we couldn't transition out of defence into midfield and then into attack. That made the forwards look worse than they were. This was the sort of performance Fergie had against Pep as well.

Pogba would have solved our main problem and made the match winnable. If we could buy a second box-to-box midfielder that does a similar job in a midfield three, and fill in for Pogba whenever required, we'd be more or less there.

I also think we could do with a playmaker at rightback. Our left flank already contains plenty of threat, but the right is a bit of black hole of creativity. As good as Valencia is, he can't put his foot on the ball and pick out a clever pass. I'm not even fussed about his crossing. It's his lack of imagination that hinders our ability to play out of the back on that side of the pitch.

City are a better team than us, but this was a game won on quite fine margins. They dominated because of us executing a couple of small things poorly and that tipped the balance decidedly in their favour. If we had the personnel to fix those things, that tipping point could have been avoided. Games against possession-based teams always follow that same pattern. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone.

I'm still optimistic about our overall quality. We won't win the league this season, though. Lets blood some youngsters and concentrate on the cups.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Nowhere near goood enough. No composure at all in our play, so regardless of what game plan we'd had, what tactics e'd used, it just wouldn't have worked, because no matter what, the players would be too busy panicking and acting like the balll was a hand grenade.

For City to beat Chelsea, they had to put in a really top peroformance, be on their game the whole 90 minutes, and play them off the park.

Against us, it was just, turn up and don't do anything stupid, or rather, just make sure you do slightly less stupid things than us.

If that's the standard required for a good team to better us then we doon't have much hope really.

Another issue is that when we pressed, we either pass back or we hoof. No one seems willing or confident enough to pass forward and move. It's either hoof or pass to De Gea. It was nice to see Lindelof actually pass forward with accuracy and Matic actually hold the ball up when under pressure. Everyone else simply seems scared.

 

[Alex99]

It is not enough, we needed a title challenge.

I said it in the summer, our season can not be regarded as a success if one or more teams finish ahead of us with more than 10 points difference. I can handle City winning the title but this year if we had really improved we should have atleast been able to be in touching distance. That required a win today.

There is improvement but if you compair to other teams, the speed with which we improve is like a snail compaired to a ferrari. The gap between us and City was not this huge last year and last year I had to say the same about Chelsea aswell.

Ah feck off with this black and white bullshit. You can't determine progress or success based on arbitrary points gaps between teams.

City have just broken the record for most consecutive wins in a single league season, and are now unbeaten 16 games in, having dropped points in just one. I think any team's going to have a hard time catching them now, but you simply can't account for a team going on a run like they have. They've been in ridiculous form so far this season, scoring for fun in a number of games, but possibly more importantly getting what we'd probably have called champion's luck if it were us under Fergie.

They're winning games late. Very late. They're scoring scrappy goals completely at odds with their brand of football. They'll have a minor hiccup at some point, but I can't see them losing top spot now because it'd take a collapse of unheard of proportions. They're winning games, and there's not much any other team can do about it, so all we can do is concentrate on staying above everyone else, and hope that in doing so we'll close the gap to the one team above us.

This time last season United were 6th, 3pts off 5th, and 6pts off 4th. We were already faltering in the race for top 4, never mind the title. We'd scored fewer goals than West Brom, and drawn as many games as Middlesbrough. This season we're ahead of Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal, behind just City. We've also scored the 2nd highest number of goals, and conceded the joint fewest.

We're in much better shape than last season, and I firmly believe we'll be in better shape again this time next season. The title may now be a fairly distant hope, but we're well on course for 2nd or 3rd, which is a massive improvement over last season. We're also in the CL knockouts for the first time since bloody Moyes, and we've got both domestic cups still to go for.

Calling this season a failure unless we mount a title challenge within a certain number of points of the winners doesn't take into account the fact that the team currently leading the division are breaking records for winning streaks. If you'd have told me this time last season that we'd be where we are now, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

 

[Wengerscoat]

United should have drawn the game, despite City's dominance they didn't really create much. I feel if United showed more intent they could have got much more. City had no pressure on them.

 

[GhastlyHun]

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

That's a conclusion I can't follow either.

 

[ruairifionnan]

Don`t think we are that far away , Lukaku had a shocker and Herrera`s form is a real worry .Maybe its time to give McTominay a few starts instead of Herrera . Thought we were

worse when Lindgard went off and Zlatan is nowhere near fit . The difference Pogba makes to this team is staggering . Throw Rashford up front and rest Lukaku for a few games

, his confidence is shot to pieces . We could suprise a lot of people yet .

 

[Shiva87]

The Lukaku hate on here today is abysmal. He had a very poor game - but he has a role in Jose's team.

As a one off result, today wasn't the worst. But, in the context of what City are doing, (only 2 points dropped from 16 games!), it looks bad. We need to have some perspective here. I hope City slip up 2-3 games in a row to make the league look like what is should - but if they play like they have so far, they'll well be beyond 100 points this season.

I'd still like to think that Jose is doing well - and he is adapting to what United want - i.e., youth in the starting XI. But now that the chess board has been completely changed by City - we may well need a big purchase in January to give the squad a boost and the belief that they are as good so that we can keep up (as far as possible) with City and increase the pressure.

I really hope we buy Griezmann so that he can fill the hole that Mhiki has left in the squad with his very poor performances. Lingard did well today, but we need someone else (with the winning mentality) that the squad can look to when the chips are down. Pogba alone can't do it for us. 1 injury to him (or suspension in today's case) shouldn't result in such a huge ball retention issue for us!

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

Just my two-penneth worth. First of all, I'm going to say well done to City. It's easy to be gracious in victory; graciousness in defeat is much harder. City deserved that win today; in fact 1-2 flatters us, much like last season. Guardiola now has them playing the Barca possession game and pressing the ball when the opposition have it. They dominated the possession and passed around us in midfield so many times. They are all very comfortable on the ball, including the defenders - even the keeper can play. In all honesty, they looked like the home side today, which is very impressive, considering we hadn't lost at home in fourteen months.

From our point of view, we really missed Pogba in midfield. Having two defensive midfielders in there meant City would dominate possession even more. I can't fault Jose for his tactics. Knowing we had to win, he went with a front four, which was brave against a very good team. For the most part we couldn't get those four attackers on the ball, as we were increasingly pushed backwards. I thought we defended well, as you'd expect, and both City goals came from deflections off Lukaku, who, by the way, had a hellish game. We got the equaliser very much against the run of play, and I thought/hoped it would really push us on in the second half. However, the second half turned out much like the first, with City bossing the possession. Even so, only a brilliant double save prevented us from equalising again.

Ultimately you can't be a threat when you don't have the ball, and we didn't have much of it. City are miles ahead of the rest of us at the moment. It hurts to lose a derby, especially at home, but we were just beaten by a better side today, and there's no shame in that. We now know we have ground to make up in terms of quality, and should use the rest of the season addressing our shortcomings and planning ahead. There isn't now going to be a title race this season, so to that extent the pressure is off. We'll definitely make top four, and Jose can think about what he needs to do to make us number one again. We need to rebound from this and prove we're the best of the rest, whilst looking towards signings who can take us to the next level.

Hurting tonight but not devastated; perhaps because we knew it would be a big task today. I want to get back to feeling devastated after a derby defeat because it was so unexpected. I feel introspective more than furious or embarrassed.

 

[NK86]

Cheers mate. All I hear was whining about the penalty and saying they are better at keeping the ball. He clearly forgets our goal also came from a gaffe by their defense so he has no leg to stand on with the performance in the first half.

 

[Ban]

That's a conclusion I can't follow either.

It's not new too. I keep hearing that last few months like we're going to fall in some huge crisis, yet here we are still 2nd. We wont win the league but we'll be 2nd imo, 3rd at worse.