[Strelok]

Terrible performance, especially our defence. Tuanzebe for all the hope and the hype ...

Imagine watching that shit show at 3:15 AM and went to work at 6:30 AM, then got mocking by co-workers and friends since

 

[Luffy]

I'm not surprised with the result. We usually lose against relegation candidates. That was the case with Sir Alex. It is part of United DNA.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Personally I think this team has done enough to be forgiven for last night depending on our response. Yes we were shocking against and equally shocking team but shocks happen every season and as many of us have repeated we are not the finished article so we are bound to slip up.

The sign of a good team is responding to mistakes and failure, we now have to prove we deserve to be in the title race by beating an in form Arsenal away from home. The truth is if we can manufacture another 15 game unbeaten streak after today then that result will merely be a blip. Ole just can’t afford this to become a bad streak as we could very quickly slip into the pack.

Conclusion: no need to panic yet or kneejerk, no need to ask for Oles head or be overly negative. We know where we need to improve and nothing has changed. I just hope we can turn around the form of our attackers or it will continue to cost us vital points.

 

[The Urban Goose]

It was always going to be a difficult one mentally after the high of the weekend, this was the comedown match, so not surprised the intensity etc. wasn't there.

Agree with the comments about Martial but Cavani can't start three times in a week and the plan is surely to start him at the weekend.

Ole has to put some trust in Martial, but given that he seems to have been sulking all season after Cavani came in, rather than rising to the challenge, that trust must be wearing thin.

We know this is the current iteration of DDG. He's good when we're the underdogs and he has lots of shots to block, he's shocking when we're the dominant team playing a group of bruisers who will bully him. That's why I'm surprised we didn't play Henderson, but to be fair to Ole Henderson didn't exactly play well in the reverse fixture.

Still work to do; a good kick up the arse before playing the arse.

 

[Pearl's a minger]

Can anyone honestly say they didn't see that result coming? I've lost count the amount of times we've been poor and somehow managed to come away with 3 points. It was just like the palace game where you could see a mile off what was going to happen after we'd got back in the game. Too many poor performances. Lazy in possession, wasteful wayward passing and no real energy.oles substitutions astounded me.How martial got a whole game made me think perhaps I was watching a different game. He was pathetic throughout, constantly losing the ball then ambling around. It's been said a million times already but oles in game management when a team sits off utd is embarrassing. Throw in the fact most our game changers were also pony last night and all of a sudden we look devoid of ideas. There's a reason this lot have lost 4 semi finals in a row and it's because they are predominantly weak as piss and serial bottlers.

 

[pauldyson1uk]

Even after a nights sleep . I am still fuming about it.
I did not see it coming, I was expecting a tough game , but still a decent win.
To be run ragged by a 38 year old is unacceptable, to be run ragged by the rock bottom team is unacceptable
OK we have lost many times to teams like this, but the way we lost was the worst part for me, we looked like we did not give a toss !
I said it last night we were top playing shite and last night we were caught out, we need to forget this no and get a good win in our next game.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Even after a nights sleep . I am still fuming about it.
I did not see it coming, I was expecting a tough game , but still a decent win.
To be run ragged by a 38 year old is unacceptable, to be run ragged by the rock bottom team is unacceptable
OK we have lost many times to teams like this, but the way we lost was the worst part for me, we looked like we did not give a toss !
I said it last night we were top playing shite and last night we were caught out, we need to forget this no and get a good win in our next game.

Same woke up instantly fuming.

 

[Fahad Jawaid]

The thing is i won't mind a loss, but its the manner in which we lost which was very disappointing. We never really tested their keeper and i could never sense that the goal was coming. Normally you see keepers making world class saves and all, however we never looked like scoring.

Special mention to the defending for the second goal. We had like 3 chances to clear the ball but clearances from Maguire, DDG and Tuanzebe all were pretty shit. Furthermore, when on earth will AWB start to actually put in crosses from the right, time after time he kept passing it to the midfield and we became loopsided and easy to defend.

I hope we shake it off and go on a run, and this does not become a blueprint for lower sides on how to beat us.

An all round terrible day for me with testing covid positive and then Utd going on to lose aswell.

 

[Nemanja Ferdinand]

Special mention to the defending for the second goal. We had like 3 chances to clear the ball but clearances from Maguire, DDG and Tuanzebe all were pretty shit. Furthermore, when on earth will AWB start to actually put in crosses from the right, time after time he kept passing it to the midfield and we became loopsided and easy to defend.

That situation is by far the worst defending I've seen us do in years! And for AWB, I know why he don't cross that ball and that's because we don't have any players in the box.

 

[MikeeMike]

After calming down I watched again and some thoughts as follows (maybe not in order)

Rashford missed a dolly early on. Shot wide of post when goal gaping.
Martial header was poor even though he was under pressure from defender.
Greenwood skewed a shot wide when through.

After seeing camera angle from behind the goal it is a clear barge on DdG . I can only assume 1) they thought it did not affect the outcome as scorer didn’t impede DdG 2) DdG shoves Bryan just as corner is taken. 3) They thought Maguire pushes defender into DdG.

Subbing Greenwood? Mystifying. For me it was Martial or Rashford to make way. Also WHY WHY WHY wait so long to make the change.

I thought Maguire did impede their keeper , no complaint.

Overall, Sheff Utd hardly sat back in 2nd half and our persistence to play from keeper simply failed.

Pogba caught on ball and lost possession over and over.

 

[Tom Cato]

I am still mad at everyone. They let the club down. Every single one of them. No one gets to walk away from that game thinking that was good enough.

 

[Butty19]

I can accept a bad result or even performance but what I can’t accept is the lack of effort in defending their second goal. No desire to get back, close down or win the ball back, especially Matic and Martial. You take Fred and Shaw out of the team and we lose a lot of energy and it showed last night.

 

[Andrew Richmond]

Only positive was it was a 7.15am kick here in Sydney so I didn’t have to set my alarm to get up 4 or 5am to watch this rubbish performance. Fred not playing cost us, it shouldn’t have with the supposed talent at our disposal but without his drive, determination and passing we were woeful. With so much to play for to turn in such a performance against the bottom side was appalling and half a dozen or more of our starters should be ashamed of what they dished up.

 

[Meller]

After calming down I watched again and some thoughts as follows (maybe not in order)

Rashford missed a dolly early on. Shot wide of post when goal gaping.
Martial header was poor even though he was under pressure from defender.
Greenwood skewed a shot wide when through.

After seeing camera angle from behind the goal it is a clear barge on DdG . I can only assume 1) they thought it did not affect the outcome as scorer didn’t impede DdG 2) DdG shoves Bryan just as corner is taken. 3) They thought Maguire pushes defender into DdG.

Subbing Greenwood? Mystifying. For me it was Martial or Rashford to make way. Also WHY WHY WHY wait so long to make the change.

I thought Maguire did impede their keeper , no complaint.

Overall, Sheff Utd hardly sat back in 2nd half and our persistence to play from keeper simply failed.

Pogba caught on ball and lost possession over and over.

Yeah decent summary. The lack of effort was the worst part however, both from the players and the coaches. One of the worst performances I've seen from us in that regard.

 

[Beans]

Sorry boys and girls I watched this one, what a mare. I'll go back to not watching again.

It’s my fault, I decided to try to get excited about the game and believe we’d come back when usually I don’t think we will. I’ll go back to having no faith!

 

[mitchmouse]

I cannot believe some people here are making excuses (actually I probably can). This is what we are actually like - we've been punching above our weight for a while (and so has Ole). Nowhere near good enough to make a real title challenge and I'm far from convinced we'll finish in top four. We have now lost at home to Palace, Arsenal (when they were worse than us) and Spurs, and just managed to struggle past WBA.

A game that world-class players should dominate yet once again Pogba did not, and once again when Bruno is quiet we are back to where we were 15 months ago. Just what Ole thought he was watching, I have no idea: you could see 15 minutes in that Marital couldn't hit the proverbial barn door - his touches and passing were suited to the Sunday park football at times. Meanwhile, Rashford is back to one game where he's almost unstoppable while pretty anonymous the next. Keep hearing pundits so how strong the squad in, but Ole brings on defender Shaw to save the day. What the very feck?

It's true to that the ref was utterly useless - would have been booed in the national league -- but my guess is Sheffield U will be at least two down at City after 20 mins on Saturday. Can't see us recovering in time for Arsenal.

 

[Alan Partridge]

We are just so bad in possession, no tempo, no intensity. We get the ball and the play stops dead - while the player with it takes 3 or 4 touches, ponderously deciding which of the static, well marked, forwards to give it to. Then turns around and passes it back to Maguire. Our defense then proceeds to pass Bisaka into a cul de sac in a sweeping move as the fans cry “we need a better right back”.

The reason Bruno had such an impact is because he is something we still lack so dearly, dynamic, clever players. Martial and Rashford basically try do the same thing everytime they get the ball, from a standing start (of course) they attempt to run as fast as they can directly at the goal, crossing or passing or giving and going is such after thought that it’s almost always of inadequate quality.

And let’s not even get into the quality of our back 6 in possession. We’re miles behind the top and I won’t be surprised if we never see the summit again this season. Maybe our players are just limited. Maybe our whole approach is wrong. We look impotent and devoid of ideas.

 

[Slysi17]

Lost to a garbage team. Amad Diallo would probably be better than most of these pathetic players

 

[ghaliboy]

It’s my fault, I decided to try to get excited about the game and believe we’d come back when usually I don’t think we will. I’ll go back to having no faith!

I've missed every game since the new year. I thought it was a little good luck charm, I snuck back for a "lads... It's Sheffield" expecting to see a Martial return to form hatty or something similar. God how wrong were we.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Nah we beat them twice in that 07/08 season when they got lowest ever total but never forget that 96/97 when Wanchope danced through our defence

They got relegated though didn't they? We seem to like giving relegation threatened teams a boost.

 

[Matt007a]

Poor performance across the board. Whether De Gea was partially impeded or not, he should still be cleaning out man and ball if he’s going to come. He’s terrified of taking a hit, which for a goalkeeper is unacceptable.

We really missed the energy of a Fred or McTominay. We don’t need both unless we play one of the top teams, but with neither of them we are so slow and gutless in midfield. The defending was awful for the 2nd goal but I can’t help feel if one of them was on the pitch that wouldn’t have happened. Fred has his flaws but he would have got tight to someone and made a block somewhere.

Leaving Martial on was a strange one too. He’s bang out of form and if he’s not scoring goals he offers nothing because he doesn’t move.

 

[Red & White]

This one is gonna frustrate until we (hopefully) get a result at the weekend.

I don’t know if I've ever seen a goal like their second one at this level before, in terms of the defending. It was almost a bizarre collection of what not to do. The individual errors and then just constantly giving their players space in the area. Imagine looking back at that on the training tv screen in the coming days, I’d be embarrassed if I was anyone involved in that.

Does anyone else hold their breath every time a team gets a corner against us? When did we become so poor at defending them? We’ve conceded so many goals from corners and set pieces for a period of time now, so it’s clearly not being addressed correctly.

Anyway, like others have said, it’s an odd season so hopefully we can pick up and get a good run going again. The margins are so fine at the moment, we could be first or 7th in a months time.

 

[Godfather]

Still baffled at the tempo we played with yesterday. The only sprint I can remember was when Bruno chased his man down deep into our own half. Apart from that we strolled around the pitch with no care or plan. Overpaid bunch of bottlers.

 

[Tribec]

Been here before haven't we!!! For all those still angry at the performance, all I'll say is that last night wasn't a patch on watching QPR beat us 4-1 at OT years ago.

We are better than people said we were at the start of the season, but no where near as good as some of the pundits have been suggesting of late. We are possibly a season or two away from being in a position to really challenge, hopefully they'll learn from this go to Arsenal on Saturday and maintain the away record and we'll forget about this.

 

[Godfather]

Been here before haven't we!!! For all those still angry at the performance, all I'll say is that last night wasn't a patch on watching QPR beat us 4-1 at OT years ago.

We are better than people said we were at the start of the season, but no where near as good as some of the pundits have been suggesting of late. We are possibly a season or two away from being in a position to really challenge, hopefully they'll learn from this go to Arsenal on Saturday and maintain the away record and we'll forget about this.

Fair assumption. Although I have my doubts whether we will ever make that big step forward under Ole.

 

[Roboc7]

We are still too static on on off the ball, that won’t change under Ole and has been same for years.

It was terrible last night but essentially we’re a pragmatic, cautious and counter attacking team that often look poor in these type of games. On another day a moment of individual brilliance saves us, but we hardly put them under any pressure and some worrying signs that players look tired and/or out of form.

 

[NFM]

If that was a horse race there would be a stewards enquiry, doping or the jockey being paid off.
SU said we will not run round, get in your faces, to get past us it will hurt. Too many United payers consistently don't like the last bit at all. OSG said after L'Pool that he would find out if they really wanted it last night. He got his answer, too many mentally ( and some physically) not up to the consistent level required to win things.

 

[always_hoping]

Still very annoyed with that defeat, the pure manner of it. As they say hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard enough.

 

[GBBQ]

Whether you're viewing United as genuine title contenders or feel that aiming for top 4 is a more realistic goal, a loss of that nature to Sheffield United is just unacceptable. I mean Sheffield United defended well and are fighting for their lives but they're hardly world beaters. Our usual game changers didn't turn up, Martial has lost whatever form he had from last season, the shaky defence returned. Just when things were getting interesting interesting!

That being said, its about how we rebound now. We have to beat Arsenal convincingly and get back on the winning trail. With the number of teams in contention for a top 4 finish its absolutely essential we don't let our form drop.

 

[Craig Ward]

I was worried from the team selection at the beginning.

Tuanzebe just doesnt seem to be kicking on and needs the luxury of game time, unfortunately playing here and there for a CB is no good. He knows he wont play the next game, he's got no rhythm and will obviously be a bit rusty.

Matic & Pogba. They cannot play together. Pogba is a defensive liability and Matic hasn't got the legs to cover him. Matic has become so invisible in games, and his persistence to sit behind the CB's just makes us so deep and slow to play out.

Martial. What is he these days? Another atrocious display. No effort, no commitment, no quality.

Individually we were poor, we didn't look upto the fight and we lacked that spark to get us over the line. To beat teams at the bottom, you have to out battle them and play with quality.

We often start poor and lose a sloppy goal but we've found a way recently. Playing that way is pretty much suicide so this result was coming but i would have expected us to work harder.

Subs should have been quicker and better - but we only have ourselves to blame. We need to pick it up and not let this turn into a negative run.

We'd expect our better players to show a bit of quality but again Pogba was outworked and sloppy, Bruno tried but it didnt come off, Rashford could have done more, Martial was a no show and Greenwood was quiet. It's not good enough

 

[mitchmouse]

Can anyone honestly say they didn't see that result coming? I've lost count the amount of times we've been poor and somehow managed to come away with 3 points. It was just like the palace game where you could see a mile off what was going to happen after we'd got back in the game. Too many poor performances. Lazy in possession, wasteful wayward passing and no real energy.oles substitutions astounded me.How martial got a whole game made me think perhaps I was watching a different game. He was pathetic throughout, constantly losing the ball then ambling around. It's been said a million times already but oles in game management when a team sits off utd is embarrassing. Throw in the fact most our game changers were also pony last night and all of a sudden we look devoid of ideas. There's a reason this lot have lost 4 semi finals in a row and it's because they are predominantly weak as piss and serial bottlers.

certainly saw there second goal coming for at least five mins before it happened. we equalised and then went back to being crap

 

[christinaa]

Two months of good work thrown down the drain last night.

 

[Judge Red]

Mentality midgets. The chance to go top, open up a gap between those below us and go nine points ahead of Liverpool. And the outcome was a pathetic performance with comedy defending.

That result wasn’t about bad luck or tiredness or Sheffield Utd playing out of their skins, it was about wilting under pressure. We’ll probably need to drop to 4th or lower now before we see them attempt to come out of their shells again.

 

[G-manc]

I was absolutely fuming last night and i must have slept with a frown on my face cos i've woken up with a banging headache and i'm still raging. I think i'm most annoyed at being annoyed because we've had these sort of games frequently since Fergie left and i've got sucked in to the title hype. It's my own fault.

I'd been saying to my work colleagues i thought it wouldn't be as easy as made out but that's cos i expected us to rest a few for the weekend and play Mata, James etc. but that was just awful in every single way - no real effort, no intensity, no ideas how to break them down. It's not even worth picking out individuals it was so dire from 1-11.

I live in Leeds now so thank god i'm off today.

We have to win at Arsenal, Have to!

 

[Zhagzi]

How come when we play against a defensive side, we put Matic on? Is it to please the lad with some game time here and there? There was frustratingly little dynamic in the team yesterday. The backline had the ball with Matic and Pogba laying between the two CBs, and then there is a complete Sheffield United player-filled midfield, and Martial, Greenwood, Rashford, and sometimes Fernandes all running WITH the freaking Sheffield backline. There was no movement, no urgency, no willingness to take the ball in midfield and drive it forth. How the hell can something like this happen for a full 90 minutes? Where's the coaching in movement without the ball? City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester, and Tottenham are all doing it, game in and game out. We really cannot rely on individual brilliance every damn game for a full season - it just doesn't work like that. I fail to see a TEAM playing together, rather than players trying things on their own here and there.

 

[Danville vanheerden]

Awful performance, was sure we'd get back on top.
Even with Sheffield scoring first I was confident we would get back to winning it like the previous matches.

I know we are hurting guys but how about a like here and there over the course of time to become a full member?
Hopefully we bounce back against Arsenal.

 

[Hughes35]

Absolutely shocking performance and result. We never really looked like scoring. Did Ramsdale even make a decent save?

- Martial just isn't good enough. Hopefully this is the final realisation of that.
- Axel was shocking. Still has a long way to come if he wants a future here. The first goal he really should be heading away and also had several other very shaky moments.
- De Gea was weak as usual for the cross. We know that's a weakness so wasn't too bothered. The second goal is one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen though. Casually passing it to Sheff Utd. At least knock it for a throw!!!!!
- Love Bruno's mentality but my god he loses possession a lot against teams like this.

Really not many positives about yesterday. Puts an awful lot of pressure on to the Arsenal game now. Lose that and the wheels have fallen off again.

 

[OrcaFat]

After some reflection, I’m not too concerned in the long run.

Last night was a bit of a typical step along the way of a developing team. Even when things look sweet, the team can lose to anybody on its day. That happens to all teams but especially those who have to rotate players who are not quite on the required level yet.

A few more players in the key positions we are lacking, DM, CB, CF and (Diallo if possible) RW and the whole thing will look very different.

I still think we can put up a good challenge, assuming City don’t go on a massive winning streak. Second would be okay, or even third with a lot more points than last season.

Terrible result yesterday but overall I’m happy.

 

[André Dominguez]

The second goal sums it all about our players teamwork on defence. Too embarassing to see some of the highest paid footballer in the world defending like a Sunday league team: no proactivity, no zone pressure, nothing. Just standing there and see what happens.

 

[Counterfactual]

I couldn't believe what happened with Sheffield's second goal, so I re-watched it.

If you look closely, you'll see that several players care less about clearing the danger than the glory of our next counter-attack.

Martial is stood waiting for the ball, as is Cavani, as is Bruno. Rashford is out of shot, so is presumably waiting on our right hand side.

Pogba is in the penalty box, but stands there doing nothing, like his job is to feed Martial, Bruno, Rashford or Cavani, not defend.

It's as if all those players are already thinking about our counter-attack, because Sheffield are so far up the pitch, that's the time to pounce.

That's why seven Sheffield players could pass it so easily around our five actual defenders (the defence + Matic)

We didn't clear the danger. We got punished.

Next time, defend first, counter-attack second!