[r0663664]

I hope ETH realise that Bruno, Sancho and Rashford needs to be drop in big game. Bruno is too careless to have any influence, I would swap Bruno with Bernado Silva anytime any day. Rashford is just a player with pace with zero technical ability. Sancho will.never be a top class winger, he is slow by EPL standard. He can't beat his player. In tough games, I want to see Fred, Casimero and Erikson in midfield. Garnacho to replace Sancho.

 

[NinjaZombie]

City are just miles ahead.

That being said, more proof that when the expectations are high, some of these crumble. That first half showing was terrible. The amount of times we gave the ball away was tragic.

 

[Heinzesight]

I’m still flabbergasted at the amount of time and space we gave them on the ball. Like it was the game plan.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

We were that bad. We had feck all intensity, couldn't pass the ball and our defending was a disgrace.

Yeah we shat the bed in the first half, agreed. The lack of aggression is frightening.

 

[Hammondo]

Varane had a shocking game.

 

[VanHaal'sRedArmy]

At least we showed fight. If this was last season, it's a shut-out.

 

[Frosty]

I'd be delighted if we finish fourth. That would be a superb season, all things considered.

 

[justsomebloke]

I don't know if the commentators on Sky mentioned it, but at least their Norwegian colleagues did: WE WERE PLAYING MAN MARKING IN THE MIDFIELD. Bruno on Gündogan, McT on Silva, Eriksen on De Bruyne. Which worked about as well as it did for Leeds against us a couple of years ago. It just created acres of space for Grealish, Haaland and Foden to work in, as our CMs kept getting dragged out of position - there was always free space ahead of our back four. And when we won the ball, there was no structure. That was I think the key factor in our defensive problems, and also in our trouble creating anything much going forward. Additionally, we again repeatedly got caught with too many players too far up the pitch as we lost the ball centrally around their box.

That's on Ten Hag. What on earth possessed him to try an experiment like that, in a game like this? That's the second time this year that sort of nonsense has been a big factor in a horrible defeat (the other being Eriksen as a false 9 against Brighton).

Only positives here; at least we didn't just fold, but clawed a couple back late. Well, it's better than nothing. Thought Dalot had a fairly decent game, and Shaw also grew into it. And Antony's wondergoal. And Martial getting two.

 

[GaryLifo]

Look, it was awful. Really awful. But our season is not really about the results versus the beat team in the country / World at this stage of our new manager getting going.

Beating the likes of Everton, Forest, west ham, wolves etc is what we need to be doing to show improvement on recent seasons.

 

[Semper Fudge]

The gap between the two sides is huge.

The Earth orbits the Sun.

 

[Green Yellow Red]

We can’t even blame Maguire now That’s how bad we were in the first half. A more positive ending to the match for United. United won the 2nd half United 3-2. Quite a feat to be honest, . We won 2nd half cos Casemiro and Martial. Should have started both in this game. No reason to start Mctominay over Casemiro. 6-3, only three difference, I am willing to bet that Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea will be battered with 5 at the Etihad. United have much better days this season - we already have. The wins against Liverpool and Arsenal were impressive. Ten Hag is building something here, and he's only just getting started. Pep has had years and billions to build that City team. To compare them isn’t even fair. Still and always Galzers out.

 

[Thoms]

I'd be delighted if we finish fourth. That would be a superb season, all things considered.

Absolutely! Would be a huge achievement after last season!

 

[SirReginald]

1st goal is legit, but I won't sit down and accept the 2nd and 3rd goal that actually won them the game.

2nd goal no Varane, 3rd goal Varane struggling with his ankle.

Felt like cheap goals for them to claim as the better team. Feck those cnuts.

They are and were miles better than you but really it’s nothing to be mad about. You can’t expect to compete with City after a few months of a new plan and new manager. Even if you had managed to win and win well, you still wouldn’t be the better team over the season. There’s no inquest, there really isn’t much to learn from this, your slightly less shit than you were last season but you have a long way to go.

 

[90 + 5min]

ManCity are to good. Nothing else can be said. I was just shocked how little we wanted. No passion, no determination, no nothing. We looked just afraid from the start. We didn't have any midfield and as much as I like Eriksen, he was brutal. On other hand, you can't give him that role against ManCIty. Sancho, once again, really bad and I have no clue what he gives our team. Anthony better with ball, defensivly nowhere to be seen wich made Dalot worse then he is.

Oh well, last time we picked ourselfs up and won few in a row. Hopefully this time to.

 

[Acole9]

Totally toyed with. Our defence was bossed and midfield chasing shadows. Still a lot to do.

 

[siw2007]

That was a really bad day at the office for us, City we’re on a completely different stratosphere to us this afternoon. We have done well since the Brentford loss but this was a reality check that we are still nowhere near City which is really sad. We try to play a similar game but the speed, dynamism and commitment that they played with today was a different level to what we played with. The one consolation was that we squeaked in 3 goals which was good to see and it means that we are only taking a -3 hit to the GD when it could have been 5, 6 or 7.

We need to not feel sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to win our next two games, re focus and do our jobs properly.

 

[Telsim]

Pathetic, to be honest. Men against boys. Much worse than I expected. Performances have caught up to us, but these two teams are in the same league only by name and nothing else anyway. Goes to show how far competent people can take you. Unfortunately, none of those exist in the structure of our club.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

I’m still flabbergasted at the amount of time and space we gave them on the ball. Like it was the game plan.

It was criminally negligent, like a knife through butter. The players didn't even put tackles in; they were a disgrace.

 

[GinobiliTheGOAT]

Feels like United are half a decade away from being a good team

 

[CM]

Defensively we were really poor, especially in the first half. We lost the midfield battle badly and if we were a bit more composed we might've had a goal or two in the first half.

It feels a bit different to previous thrashings in City/Liverpool games in that we actually played a bit of football for periods in the game and looked okay. That's scant consolation when you've lost the game and conceded 6 goals though. That should be the end of certain players runs in the team - Malacia and McTominay looked particularly off it.

 

[Alan Partridge]

Got the tactics wrong today, that compounded with just the sheer gulf in class between us means we got hammered.

No massive shock. We already knew we’re miles behind City. We have a long way to go, this, although significant, won’t be the last bump in the road.

 

[Giggsy13]

We need quality midfielders

I think our midfield is much better than last season. It’s time for ten Hag to start Casemiro. McT was always going to get found out.

 

[Shakesy]

6:3 is the equivalent of losing 2:1

I’LL TAKE IT!

 

[The Dane]

Thank god Haaland didn’t go to Liverpool.
He will spend a couple of seasons with City and then move on and so will Pep one day, and in the meantime the rest of us just have to focus on top 4.
We are not in their league but we have recently beaten Arsenal and Liverpool, and if we can get back on track against Everton next week then all is good.

 

[Barthez]

Look, it was awful. Really awful. But our season is not really about the results versus the beat team in the country / World at this stage of our new manager getting going.

Beating the likes of Everton, Forest, west ham, wolves etc is what we need to be doing to show improvement on recent seasons.

agreed. We are 2 points off top 4 which was always our target in this re-build new manager era

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

We are still half a team short of competing. Rashford is not a top player, Sancho looks better suited to Aston Villa, and we are relying on 3 players who are already in the twilight of their careers (Varane, Casemiro, Eriksen), so the rebuild has barely begun.

 

[r3idy]

City are just miles ahead.

That being said, more proof that when the expectations are high, some of these crumble. That first half showing was terrible. The amount of times we gave the ball away was tragic.

Agree and your point around expectation is bang on the money. Wouldn't go as far as Neville's Hyperbole they bottled it but fine margins today give City some of their early goals

 

[Orange Tree]

At least that's done for the season. Only Anfield left where we can expect horrible trashing.

 

[Salt Bailly]

Who gets to keep the match ball?

 

[Zippycup]

At least that's done for the season. Only Anfield left where we can expect horrible trashing.

Have you seen Liverpool this season?

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

I don't know if the commentators on Sky mentioned it, but at least their Norwegian colleagues did: WE WERE PLAYING MAN MARKING IN THE MIDFIELD. Bruno on Gündogan, McT on Silva, Eriksen on De Bruyne. Which worked about as well as it did for Leeds against us a couple of years ago. It just created acres of space for Grealish, Haaland and Foden to work in, as our CMs kept getting dragged out of position - there was always free space ahead of our back four. And when we won the ball, there was no structure. That was I think the key factor in our defensive problems, and also in our trouble creating anything much going forward. Additionally, we again repeatedly got caught with too many players too far up the pitch as we lost the ball centrally around their box.

That's on Ten Hag. What on earth possessed him to try an experiment like that, in a game like this? That's the second time this year that sort of nonsense has been a big factor in a horrible defeat (the other being Eriksen as a false 9 against Brighton).

Only positives here; at least we didn't just fold, but clawed a couple back late. Well, it's better than nothing. Thought Dalot had a fairly decent game, and Shaw also grew into it. And Antony's wondergoal. And Martial getting two.

It wasn’t an experiment; it was the same team with the same tactics that won the last 4.

 

[Mickeza]

The first half was a fecking disgrace. No running. No intensity. Won zero battles. They’re good but they aren’t that good. I remember one incident when we were 1-0 down and gundogan had the ball - 5 of our players watching him walk in his own half - he then plays 1 simple 5 yard pass to Grealish who is running at our defence. 5 players bypassed. Utterly shambolic. Beaten before we even kicked off. I won’t bother mentioning Bruno et als passing.

 

[tjb]

I think ETH got caught tactically in the first half.

we chose to play a mid-block and not attack City with a higher line of engagement, in an attempt to block of their passing lanes. I don't think he anticipated how much time City were willing to take to play between the keeper and the back line. This ended up forcing us to engage at a disadvantage and created spaces that weren't covered by our midfield. We needed to either attack them with intensity or drop deep to close off potential spaces. The approach we used simply exposed Eriksen's lack of mobility and Mctominay's lack of positioning.

Additionally, Dalot's early yellow card meant that City could attack that right flank with ease knowing that he wouldn't engage Grealish. Add that to Mctominay's terrible positioning, and it was easy to cut us apart on that flank.

The truth is, even if we were the top team in Europe, I don't think this is a game we'd win. City are too good of a side to lose this sort of home game at the moment and a lot of good teams could easily get embarassed.

In saying that, there were a few key observations:

1. ETH needs to reconsider the current midfield strategy. The talent is there, but he may need to be a bit more creative game to game. Eriksen is a good player, but his performances have been overstated. He doesn't have much acceleration, and in a two man midfield, this gets exposed when playing top sides; a bit like Fabregas at Chelsea. Mctominay may be useful for rotation purposes, but really shouldn't be in the team. I understand why he's decided to play that duo, due to Casemiro's initial lack of fitness potentially pairing with Eriksen's lack of mobility, but Mctominay is not the solution. It's something we need to sort out soon.

2. Ou attack. Rashford is not a striker. He doesn't press like one and doesn't have the strength or aggression. Sancho's lack of aggression is also worrying. I think we need more intensity in our attack and I'm not sure Sancho provides that enough to be a starting player. We may need to play Rashford on the left or potentially shift Bruno left. Garnacho is also an option.

 

[RoyH1]

Sad. But Abu Dhabi and Pep have been building this juggernaut for a while now. It will take a couple of seasons or more to compete with that

 

[Judge Red]

Don’t fret. Without that freak Haaland, that’s a 3-3 against Man City. What a time to be alive.

 

[moodyred]

Don't expect to win the epl this season or the nest, so I'll accept this loss as long as we bounce back and continue to progress.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

At least that's done for the season. Only Anfield left where we can expect horrible trashing.

I wouldn't be so sure. This team is so unpredictable, it wouldn't surprise me to see them throw in a couple of horror shows yet.

 

[Zetrio2002]

The silver lining is Antony and Martial are back in peak form.

 

[Blood Mage]

Martial and Antony the only players to come out of that game with credit in the bank. Everyone else beyond shambolic.

Perhaps Bruno's worst ever performance for United and that's saying something.

 

[Jacko21]

Teams that can’t do the basics will take pastings.