[bleedred]

Our tactics were wrong from minute 1. Silva and KDB got lot of time and space and Jose didn't bother to change it atleast during half-time. 442 with 4 forwards against the best midfield in the league was never going to work.

City was there for taking and DDG just had to make one save (conveniently ignoring the saves after 85 mins since the game was very open by that time)

One game where I thought, Jose would go with his tried and tested method, he completely changed the line up and made it too attacking.

Spurs - please do us a favor. They are beatable. Just go physical and they will cry like babies.

Just got back. We were thoroughly dominated, Silva rang rings around us today. They are just a far superior team, we had absolutely no answers. The amount of time we would just play short passes between our cbs and eventually kick it long was pretty infuriating, we really don't have any style of attack.

I don't see why people keep bringing this up to attack mourinho's tactics today. If Silva, and KDB had run rings around our players, they would have created better chances and scored better goals than scrapped two from our own mistakes.

So I cant understand how you can blame the tactics for it. For all the possession they had, DDG had like 2 saves probably to make.

What if we lost still parking the midfield, then people would be moaning about not playing all the forwards and going for it.

All games between the top 6 would be usually scrappy. Last week we got the rub of the green and this week city did. They didnt really threaten to open us up anytime, except for the last 10 minutes with counter attack.

 

[NK86]

I thought since we scored so many goals this season that actually at home we're playing offensively. But what do I know.

Yes we did against cannon fodder or late on in a flurry. Not really battering a lot of these teams. Plus against the big teams or ones who are half decent in keeping possession, we aren't half as good.

 

[Chairman Woodie]

I am more disappointed with the result because the two goals United conceded was the result of sloppy defending. On another day the match would have finished in a draw.

For all of City's dominance they didn't create too many chances. Fair play to City, they have been grinding out victories in recent weeks, and again today. I think City will slip up soon. But I felt United deserved a point.

 

[AN17]

1. We let them play to their will, unchallenged and without showing an ounce of fight except maybe for 10-15 minutes.

2. The difference in quality of between the two sides is quite significant. This difference is not just with regards to players but the cohesion between them, the instructions and tactics that's asked of them to perform and how they actually execute it. Quite simply put, it was not only that our game yesterday was defensive and cowardly, but it was terribly executed as well. If you are going to bore the shit out of us, at least do it correctly.

3.Jose and Pep started around the same time at their respective jobs, albeit Pep with a better foundation and an easier rebuilding job. Their football till then was to an extent keeping in line with how Pep likes it. It was focused on quick attacking football by skillful players. Pep just added his possession football and other stuff to it. Jose took over from a rigid possession based system that we were quite drilled in, completely demolished it and incorported his way of playing. It's a mixture of reactive and proactive tactics. Against small teams you are the initiator and aggressor, but against teams that are better or quite capable of playing football, we become a reactive side. We let them play their game, keep our shape, defend in numbers and play on the counters.

It's a known thing that if you do the same stuff over and over again, practice it and perfect it, you become an expert in it. That is Manchester City of today. For the past one and a half seasons, they've played this way. Whether it is against low league side in a league cup game or versus the likes of Monaco or Napoli in the CL. They've had off days, they've looked as blunt as we did under LVG sometimes, they've lost to Barca in CL because they weren't pragmatic enough, but still they have stuck through it and now they have perfected a team that's rumning away with it. Compare that to our approach where every previous result resulted in chopping and changing, each different team has us playing a different way each day and the general focus on getting it defensively right than going for it from an attacking pov.

4. Even if we fix our squad troubles in winter or even next summer, what chances are we get all of them performing to the required level from the start ? Won't they have a settling in period ? When is this cycle of recruiting-settling in-clearing out ever going to end ?

I want Mourinho to succed as much as every loyal fan out there, but it's days like these that makes you wonder whether all of it is going to plan as intended.

 

[Tapori]

I am more disappointed with the result because the two goals United conceded was the result of sloppy defending. On another day the match would have finished in a draw.

For all of City's dominance they didn't create too many chances. Fair play to City, they have been grinding out victories in recent weeks, and again today. I think City will slip up soon. But I felt United deserved a point.

Well said.
The narrative will be City were marvellous; and they were good but in terms of clear chances they only had them once the game broke. The goals they scored and prior to scoring them they never really tested us the way people will make out. 2 bad mistakes and all the hard work was thrown away to scrappy goals.

I wouldn't put it past City to have a wobble between now and the next round of CL games. the title race is far from over.

 

[Tapori]

Although I am not a fan of our approach, by focusing on the tactical side of the game you run the risk of ignoring the bigger issue - the performance.

Ugly as it may be, Jose could defend that game plan but the execution of it was genuinely embarrassing. And given that most of our recent games against the better teams have unfolded in a similar way (with or without Pogba), the blame has to fall on his shoulders.

Matic was a big disappointment; Passed to safe and missed opportunities to make simple quick passes into space when others made themselves available.

 

[AN17]

Stop spouting this shite excuse that City's goals were scrappy and gifted by us. Isn't that how most of our goals come these days? What does that make us then ?

 

[steffyr2]

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

Because we're doomed. Aren't you reading the posts? We're doooooooooommmmmmed!

 

[caid]

Stop spouting this shite excuse that City's goals were scrappy and gifted by us. Isn't that how most of our goals come these days? What does that make us then ?

We usually force errors by putting defenders under pressure. I'll give credit where its due, Ottamendi did well for their first goal.
But the 2nd was totally unenforced, he probably had the time and space to take the ball down before clearing it.
Same with the goal they conceded. Ottamendi should have got the clearance really and Delph and Ederson could have reacted better,

It didn't come from us peppering their box with crosses or putting players under pressure though, Rashford was well placed to take advantage thats about the best you can say about it really.

 

[AN17]

We usually force errors by putting defenders under pressure. I'll give credit where its due, Ottamendi did well for their first goal.
But the 2nd was totally unenforced, he probably had the time and space to take the ball down before clearing it.
Same with the goal they conceded. Ottamendi should have got the clearance really and Delph and Ederson could have reacted better,

It didn't come from us peppering their box with crosses or putting players under pressure though, Rashford was well placed to take advantage thats about the best you can say about it really.

What I don't understand is City had us hemped in our box for most part and some people talk as if we were resilient and they had no clue how to break us. Doesn't matter whether their goals were scrappy, they forced those errors from us by frustrating us and running rings around us. That sort of incessant pressure will eventually reap dividends especially when the other team wont even try.

 

[suhaylah]

Pep has better players to work with because he bought better. We have Mkhitaryan who is so shit he can’t make the squad and that donkey Lukaku upfront. We haven’t got good enough players in attack and have to address it in January if even possible.

Who brought them to United ? I think Mourinho is at fault too for United bad performances in many games this season.

 

[joleb]

I might be from the minority here but I think Mou did a great game tactically.

For all their possession, city were toothless, we weren't threatened during the game. The most dangerous and obvious chances came from us.

On a side note, it was nice seeing Pep frustrated at the side lines and replacing an attacking midfielder by a defensive one.

Hard luck to us, we deserved at least a draw, Lukaku was very unlucky.

 

[Water Melon]

What I don't understand is City had us hemped in our box for most part and some people talk as if we were resilient and they had no clue how to break us. Doesn't matter whether their goals were scrappy, they forced those errors from us by frustrating us and running rings around us. That sort of incessant pressure will eventually reap dividends especially when the other team wont even try.

Millions times this. It is good to counter-attack efficiently, but it is not good to park the bus and hoof the ball hoping for a miracle. There is a huge difference between Mou's United and Mou's Porto.

 

[vayid]

This was a self inflicted defeat. Costly mistakes at the back, playing hoof ball and allowing city to have the freedom of Old Trafford. Our players just didn't turn up, when was the last time valencia was so ineffective for us.

I still think Jose got the tactics wrong here, everyone is laying into Herrera and Matic but if you watched the game it was clear to see that they were instructed to go long which was not working for us. Matic, Herrera and even Lingard were available for short passes but the defence was just booting it up to Lukaku. On the subject of Lukaku, yes he made some defensive mistakes, his first touch was bad and he didn't make runs into the 'channels' but the problem with him is that his starting to miss some important chances for us. In a game of this magnitude, he simply should have buried that chance.

If Pogba got a red for that tackle on bellerin, why did david silva stay on the pitch. It was shin high, reckless and he used excessive force. On the penalty incident, if it was any other player except herrera and young it would have been given. There was clearly contact on Herrera's foot. Why does Oliver hate us so much?

As a United fan, the thing that most disappoints me was the fact that we were losing a derby and no aggression, no intensity and no passion was shown by the players to try and get at least a point.

On the balance of play, City deserved the win but not because they were miles better than, we let them be better than us. I still think city will drop points but we need to win all our games.

 

[shield]

I'am sick of this, have been saying this for 4 years now

How the mighty have fallen.

I know. Makes me sick as well. But there is literally nothing that can be done now. We need better players and our transfer activity was inadequate. This can only be fixed next summer. We can do some patch up job in the January window, but realistically, the only way we can expect any significant improvement, is by adding better players in the summer window.

 

[BULB]

What I don't understand is City had us hemped in our box for most part and some people talk as if we were resilient and they had no clue how to break us. Doesn't matter whether their goals were scrappy, they forced those errors from us by frustrating us and running rings around us. That sort of incessant pressure will eventually reap dividends especially when the other team wont even try.

Exactly my thoughts, I have no idea what game some of these people were watching.

It was obvious after 20 mins, if not earlier, we were playing right into their hands and would lose.

The only time they looked fragile was after their goal and started running at them.

At half time Jose thought 'you ripper it's 1-1 my plan is working perfectly' and persisted with the same dumb tactics.

As crazy as it sounds, scoring that goal right on half time hurt us rather than helped us.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

In the grand scheme of things that wasn't all that terrible, we played to limit City and they for the most part were quite limited in the wider scope of the game. We simply can't just go toe to toe with them and that is obvious, we don't have the personnel.

Couple of bang up flukers for them spoiled the party. Keep the faith though, it ain't over until it's over. That is the United way baby!

 

[midnightmare]

Kompany?.

They had shit loads of fullbacks, who were all released. (Navas, Zabaletta,Kolorov,clichy,sagna). Even Jose didn't have fullbacks and is currently playing wingers.

One functioning midfielder?. What about Silva and KDB?? or are they wingers?.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the spine of their team has been consistent for nearly 5 years. Kompany, Fernandhino, Silva and Aguero.

Compare that to the squad Jose inherited, I would say only DDG and perhaps to a degree Smalling are the only constants. That's a hell of a lot of overhaul compared to city. Both had similar amount of deadwood to clear out and both did a good job of it.

But Pep had way more quality at his disposal than Jose did for several reasons. I dont think anyone can disagree on that!

This! I don't get it when people argue that Jose and Pep had equal rebuilding jobs to undertake. Pep had the most expensive positions in decent shape - striker (Aguero), wingers (Sterling), AMs (Silva, KdB), and also had Fernandinho, Kompany and serviceable alternatives in Otamendi and Yaya. By way of comparison, clearly Jose didn't (quite correctly) trust Smalling or Jones (his current spell is indicative of how fecked up it is if he's a first-choice starter) and had just Herrera (look at him now!), Fellaini, Rooney and co. He has had to buy for some of the most expensive (and rare) positions going and yet been outspent by Pep, while not even getting all his squad filled up for a first-choice 11 (look at our FBs and wings).

I said at the start of the season (and was called a doom-monger by fellow Reds) that I would be fine with a top-3 position at season's end, given that I feel our weaknesses still outnumber our strengths. Oh, and that was before Lukaku proved me right in my assumption that he's basically just not up to our level.

 

[Sagittarius13]

When his defensive error leads directly to 2 goals for the opposition and fails to convert an equaliser from 2 yards - I feel we can hold him responsible.

You are right, I didn't explain myself right though, what I meant to say is that Lukaku is not the only responsible for our loss, I think Mou messed up with the formation too and wanting to play only in counterattacks, we should have a more attacking approach. To me Mata should've start as number 10 linking our midfield to our attackers, the long balls in this game were more of an act of desperation than an act of a real idea. Sorry for bad english.

 

[onwardsandupwards]

United these days remind me so much of Liverpool in the late 80's/early 90's.

I grew up a Liverpool fan and vividly remember as that decade drew to a close the feeling of seeing my team get pulled back towards the pack where once we had dominated. It was gut-wrenching. Especially as I live in Manchester.

Thank god I then found United and a new love was born. The last few seasons have reminded me of that feeling. I do not want to go through it again. I could never support city, they are a plastic club but United these days are so hard to be around.

I'm despondent.

 

[AngliaRed]

Gomes liked a city players tweet of “ Manchester is blue” not really a bright idea after the senior team loses a big match of this magnitude.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

What I don't understand is City had us hemped in our box for most part and some people talk as if we were resilient and they had no clue how to break us. Doesn't matter whether their goals were scrappy, they forced those errors from us by frustrating us and running rings around us. That sort of incessant pressure will eventually reap dividends especially when the other team wont even try.

You clearly watched a different game. City didnt force a single error to get any goal they scored. And if they were truly 'running rings' around United, for all their possession they wouldnt have only had 2 more shots on target than the home side. It was a very balanced derby yesterday and the luckier team won.

 

[Jazz]

What we need is to make sure we don't let this feck up our other fixtures. Need to keep going as we don't want to be sliding down the table. Our lads need to put it behind them and get on with it.

 

[minoo-utd]

United these days remind me so much of Liverpool in the late 80's/early 90's.

I grew up a Liverpool fan and vividly remember as that decade drew to a close the feeling of seeing my team get pulled back towards the pack where once we had dominated. It was gut-wrenching. Especially as I live in Manchester.

Thank god I then found United and a new love was born. The last few seasons have reminded me of that feeling. I do not want to go through it again. I could never support city, they are a plastic club but United these days are so hard to be around.

I'm despondent.

Then support some other team because it's not going to be pretty.

 

[minoo-utd]

What's important now is to bounce back after this set back.

 

[Craig Ward]

Typical Jose, went too defensive for a massive must win game.

Picked a very offensive front 4, but didn't play attacking at all. Reliant of long balls and luck.

Never going to beat city like that.

We have improved massively, but not quite at the elite level. Tactics cost us the game yesterday

 

[pocco]

Gomes liked a city players tweet of “ Manchester is blue” not really a bright idea after the senior team loses a big match of this magnitude.

Sounds like a petulant little twat. One that is on his way.

 

[Quizierda]

Just another failure of Mou's "scared-kid"-tactic..
Very disappointing and a deserved win for Citeh. Happy that we didn't score the late chance honestly as we didn't deserve anaything for this "performance". Mou has been outcoached once again by Pep even though it's an open book that parking the bus doesn't work against Pep teams. You need to press and attack them in order to gain some benefit from their high standing on the pitch. Instead we stood around our own penalty box and looked like schoolkids watching their idols play.

Honestly think Mou is not the coach who will bring us back to the top. His tactics are overused and there are too many solutions to it in modern football. If Mou is not able to evolve his style of play we will fail again and again against the big teams (Citeh, Chelsea etc.)..

 

[Pogue Mahone]

United these days remind me so much of Liverpool in the late 80's/early 90's.

I grew up a Liverpool fan and vividly remember as that decade drew to a close the feeling of seeing my team get pulled back towards the pack where once we had dominated. It was gut-wrenching. Especially as I live in Manchester.

Thank god I then found United and a new love was born. The last few seasons have reminded me of that feeling. I do not want to go through it again. I could never support city, they are a plastic club but United these days are so hard to be around.

I'm despondent.

Eesh...

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Gomes liked a city players tweet of “ Manchester is blue” not really a bright idea after the senior team loses a big match of this magnitude.

Oh dear not great on social media but let's not overreact to this. He's a kid, Doesn't mean he wants a move

 

[Inigo Montoya]

United these days remind me so much of Liverpool in the late 80's/early 90's.

I grew up a Liverpool fan and vividly remember as that decade drew to a close the feeling of seeing my team get pulled back towards the pack where once we had dominated. It was gut-wrenching. Especially as I live in Manchester.

Thank god I then found United and a new love was born. The last few seasons have reminded me of that feeling. I do not want to go through it again. I could never support city, they are a plastic club but United these days are so hard to be around.

I'm despondent.

You grew up a Liverpool fan then changed allegiances...says it all really! Sounds like you haven't grown up TBH

City would love a fan like you. Goodbye and good riddance

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Typical Jose, went too defensive for a massive must win game.

Picked a very offensive front 4, but didn't play attacking at all. Reliant of long balls and luck.

Never going to beat city like that.

We have improved massively, but not quite at the elite level. Tactics cost us the game yesterday

If the tactic was to employ Lukaku as a last ditch defender then yes it failed massively. He was their best attacker at set pieces

 

[Red Devil Rising]

To be fair, Di Maria would shive under Jose instead of LVG. Our attacking play is better than City even without Pogba but we gifted them 2 goals.

However, you put all list that has been flopped but not bother to put City player who flopped?

You have got to be joking?

 

[Cpt Negative]

Whats luck? Lukaku with his dimensions lost the air ball in the first case and gifted in the second then when we had a chance fecked it up. They played better, we had no control, no tactics and no organization.

9 times out of 10 Lukaku clearance doesn’t hit another united player and fall to the only city player in the 6 yard box...

Similar to the first goal

Huddersfield - ball hit sterling who knew nothing about it and went in. Second time this season (Bournemouth being the first)

Offside goal against arsenal

Dubious penalty against Arsenal

 

[Annihilate Now!]

We were too scared of them for long periods of the game... feck knows why. When we actually stopped shitting ourselves at the idea that one of their players might close us down, and we can actually pass the ball around them as opposed to just hoofing it long, we actually got bits of joy.

We just weren't tough enough in the game I don't think, mentally or physically.

 

[Neilwij]

That was very poor from Mourinho today I know Pogba is important and missing him was a blow but it didn't mean we had to resort to sitting so deep and using the long ball game. On the few attempts that we did run at them they looked vulnerable at the back which makes it even more frustrating that we continued with this game plan. It is like we are scared of city. Even if we had a go at them and lost at least we tried but it's just disappointing.

All we can do now is hopefully go on a run and finish as high in the table as possible. I cant see city slipping so badly but you never know. We have improved but one thing I know is that we can't keep approaching the big games with this sort of mentality.

 

[iportman]

I don't think it's we're in a pound shop: just look at the money that has been wasted since Fergie finished. We've spent massively; much more than Fergie was ever given. Trouble is we've squandered much of it.

pound shop material not pound shop prices , the decision to bring lukaku in instead of morata certainly is a questionable one , not sure that boy has the head for a big stage. The reality is Mourinio has a deep lying inferiority complex especially against the likes of Guardiola which he hides by his bravado but is totally exhibited by his team and his tactics yesterday .Man for Man the City squad is not that much superior to UTD but it is in a few key areas most notably in wide areas and midfield

 

[Bruno8]

Second half was evenly balanced and we conceded during a period when we were on top

 

[Ronetta]

United these days remind me so much of Liverpool in the late 80's/early 90's.

I grew up a Liverpool fan and vividly remember as that decade drew to a close the feeling of seeing my team get pulled back towards the pack where once we had dominated. It was gut-wrenching. Especially as I live in Manchester.

Thank god I then found United and a new love was born. The last few seasons have reminded me of that feeling. I do not want to go through it again. I could never support city, they are a plastic club but United these days are so hard to be around.

I'm despondent.

This has to be a wind up???

The irony of a glory-hunting "fan" who swapped from Liverpool to United, calling City a "plastic" club???

 

[Ronetta]

You clearly watched a different game. City didnt force a single error to get any goal they scored. And if they were truly 'running rings' around United, for all their possession they wouldnt have only had 2 more shots on target than the home side. It was a very balanced derby yesterday and the luckier team won.

It all changed when we brought Aguero on and decided to go for your throats.

Oh wait, we didn't need to.

Sorry, couldn't resist. On a more serious note, I was surprised how much you didn't really have a go. Yes there were a few moments, but I thought you were very passive for far too much if the game. You hardly really pressed us and I wasn't expecting that.

I don't think either side played well, but you played just a bit worse. Both teams are much better than that.