I thought we played alright. City were clearly the better team and had a period where they were really dangerous, found a lot of space. It seems to me that Pep has adjusted his tactics a bit, a more Premier League like style in contrast to what he is known for. Possession play is still Pep's philosophy, but I was surprised how deep they were defending when we were chasing the equaliser.
City won the game because they got the details right. I don't think Pep tactically out-smarted Ole, I thought the game was pretty even tactically. Both teams found space and looked like scoring. I do think Pep's players have a lot more football intellect, it felt like City won every second ball, every duel, and when we pressed City and it was looking like we'd get ahold of the ball, somehow the ball bounced back to them. City also scored two-goals from set-pieces, the other detail they got right. City played some beautiful football at times, but ultimately they focused on the dirty work and that's what won them the game. After the first goal City were the better team and knew when to defend and when to attack.
United didn't look bad either I thought. We looked toothless in attack, sure, but I did have a feeling we could score until City scored their 2nd. We had the ball for a large period of time, but Martial also had an off day which really hindered us. I don't think Rashford is suited to play on the right either. Bruno should've tried to keep it simpler at times, one moment comes to mind when we had a good opportunity to score but he attempted a difficult outside of the boot pass which went wrong. Maguire was solid, but I am starting to worry about his heading ability (attacking-wise), it's starting to become a bit frustrating to see him missing the target time and time again.
The best player of the game was Gundogan I think. Annoying player to face, it was difficult to get the ball off him, couldn't press him at all and he always made the right decision.
I hope we bounce back from this and not make it a bigger deal than it is. We lost a semi-final to Manchester City, it sucks, but we weren't that bad as some people make it out to be, and games at this level can go either way. If we had avoided those 2 set-pieces that City scored from and Bruno's pass made it through to Rashford, or Bruno's attempt went in, we would've gotten praised for grinding out results. Let's not forget we've been on an incredible run, we're 2nd in the table, and fortunately it was just the league cup.