[Sassy Colin]

Me neither. He barely did anything. Martial and Valencia are the only two who had a decent game, IMHO.

Yup, I put Martial MotM

 

[Oyibo]

Was this not a case of us settling for 2-0 rather than a 1-6 humiliation ?

 

[RooneyLegend]

Our poor pressing of the opposition has hurt us in a few big games this season. Spurs was another. We need to learn to press effectively to win the ball back.

Never been part of our coaches philosophy, so continue dreaming...at least until 2021.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Yes, sir. If there was a click for approval, I would be clicking. No doubt if he had been more defensive, he would have got lots of criticism in here. Say a nil all, it would have been meltdown. Ironically, its almost more tolerant of him going for it, albeit cack-handedly, and losing.

He should have just stuck to his guns and gone with his usual tactics against the big teams. Sod what the media say it is results that matter.

 

[sincher]

I was expecting us to lose to be honest and all the more so when I saw the line up. Disappointed just how badly though. Credit to Spurs, they are capable of really top drawer team performances and this was one of them.

 

[El Zoido]

He should have just stuck to his guns and gone with his usual tactics against the big teams. Sod what the media say it is results that matter.

It’s not the media, it’s our own fans who seem to think we can just go out all guns blazing and put other teams to the sword. As if the only reason we didn’t beat Liverpool was because we didn’t attack. Sick of it.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It’s not the media, it’s our own fans who seem to think we can just go out all guns blazing and put other teams to the sword. As if the only reason we didn’t beat Liverpool was because we didn’t attack. Sick of it.

Unfortunately a lot of fans think play FM or FIFA is the equivalent of getting your coaching badges.

 

[NK86]

Yup, I put Martial MotM

Martial was good in the first half but diabolical in the second. Was strolling around the whole time.

 

[Pass and Move]

What a disappointing performance.

Three take-aways from the game for me were:

The team needs to press better as a whole. We were chasing the game and yet had just individual players pressing their defence. Unless you press as a team then the opposition will always have an outlet and you simply waste energy.

Martial needs to release the ball sooner. He slows down the attack too often at times, or runs into defenders before releasing to a teammate.

Smalling is really not good enough. I was a big fan of his under LVG. His pace really suited our high defensive line, however he's so poor on the ball. He never finds a midfielder between the opposition attackers, choosing instead to play to Valencia or de Gea each time. He also never moves to the sides to give de Gea a short pass option, instead he plays it back to him and just waits around the D, no use to anyone.

 

[NK86]

Every man and his dog could see our left side was getting exploited as Young was left isolated with Alexis tucking narrow. However Mourinho decided that it was fine or he was too blind to even see it. Don't know which is more damning.

 

[minoo-utd]

We should have started 5-3-2.

 

[Redlyn]

The problem for me was midfield. It was regularly by passed. He really should stick to counter attack away at top 6 until we sort out the missing pieces in midfield. While the players didnt have the best game, that team selection was very un -jose like. Basically Herrera should have started.

 

[Vagene]

Shocked at that performance, outclassed in every area of the pitch.

Felt sorry for Sanchez as he was trying to carry the ball forawrd and find space for others but once again our forward line was static and lazy.

4-2-3-1 does not work, pogba is invisible in a midfield 2 also Matic was poor yesterday getting over run time and time again.

I like Jones but he had a shocker yesterday, can’t wait to have Bailly back.

Better hope to god that we win our home games against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea or we could looking over our shoulders a bit too much for my liking

 

[Stretch]

Everyone at fault basically. JM started with wrong formation, wrong team selection and he made the wrong substitutions. Our players though should have a good look in the mirror after literally giving up the ghost with more than 30 minutes to go. Appalling. Just want to move on from this and pray we're better in the next big one. It can't keep going on like this.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

For a brief moment this morning I forgot about this shite.

Was a good few minutes.

 

[Jeffthered]

Thing is, I'm not even surprised. Poor, almost cowardly approach to games against decent teams. We often 'grind' teams down rather than outplay them. Tottenham were not 'brilliant' and the goals were a joke indeed.

 

[stu_1992]

Absolutely disgraceful performance. That second half was probably the most frustrated I've been while watching a football match in a long time. Couldn't get near them, and when we did touch the ball it was inevitably incredibly poor and lacking any quality whatsoever.

i do think the early goal killed us as I think the some of the players got a bit desperate to try and equalize early and it left us open quite a bit. Then to concede the second goal in the manner that we did looked to completely knock any confidence that we had. I'm pretty sure the team showed up physically in the second half, but mentally were completely elsewhere.

 

[Silas]

Thing is, I'm not even surprised. Poor, almost cowardly approach to games against decent teams. We often 'grind' teams down rather than outplay them. Tottenham were not 'brilliant' and the goals were a joke indeed.

How was our performance cowardly? We were just shite.

 

[Neilwij]

Think we were absolutely awful but we could see that midfield being over run. Unfortunately a 2 man midfield with Pogba in against a top side just doesn't work. He was crowded out. Going forward hes been very good but defensively hes shocking.
If herrera and matic were behind him he might have been better.

The thing is i dont think we can play Lukaku,lingard, sanchez, martial and pogba all at the same time especially against the top teams. We need to drop one of them and put herrera on. But then Mourinho would probably get slated on here for being too negative.

 

[cyril C]

He should have just stuck to his guns and gone with his usual tactics against the big teams. Sod what the media say it is results that matter.

Agree. Mourinho forgot his Mourinhoism in big game. Liverpool away it almost work had Liverpool been more ambitious. Arsenal Away was OK to be ambitious if you know your opponent. Spurs Away should have been more pragmatic with 433 or 343 formation, instead of fielding 4 attacking players plus 2 wingbacks. Pogba was outplayed by Dembele and he might get a better chance if Herrera was around to help him. Jones and Smalling simply couldn't handle Kane, Son and Ali. If the instruction to the team for 1st half was to hold and counter, Jones and Smalling might have been more focus hence avoiding the 1st goal.

 

[Godfather]

Is it too late for Mou to get a grip against the Top 6 teams in the PL? He pisses me off in these games. He seems to have absolutely no idea what to do in big games.

 

[boxykronikle]

A bad bad bad .... bad day in the office. Thinking of the days when LVG and Moyes were the managers, every match day were like this.

A shambolic performance and I knew we were going to be overrun in midfield once I saw the lineup. Pogba is worldclass when there is less defensive duties for him. I really thought Mou was going to put Herrera to partner Matic in defending the midfield. I do think that it was too early for Sanchez to play in the side.

Mou has to rectify this. What upsets me the most that it was like there was no determination at all in the team to fight and claw our way back into the game.

 

[dogwithabone]

Thought Sanchez was our best player in terms of industry but he just got bogged down once it went 2-0 and Spurs raised their game.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Martial was good in the first half but diabolical in the second. Was strolling around the whole time.

I don't think anyone covered themselves in glory

 

[Fivehotchillies]

The composure in the team is a serious issue. Every time a team plays us and presses and fights for the ball, we look out of our depth and the panic sets in, a few sloppy tackles and the crowd getting behind the opposition suddenly melts our players minds. Against smaller sides we are allowed time on the ball and can see the quality of the players we have and I find it difficult to read so many posts about how each player is not good enough rather than our collective tactics being at fault.

Clearly practise in dealing with a press needs to be worked on ASAP as the majority of Champions League teams will employ some form of press, and also to get the team thoroughly comfortable in dealing with a press for next season. I have no worries about playing the smaller sides as our superior quality can see us through the vast majority of games even when we play poorly, but against the top 6 there needs to be some serious improvement.

 

[Ramshock]

Basically what happened was two evenly matched heavyweights had a fight and one suffered a flash knockdown from the first punch and never recovered.

 

[FCBarca]

I had just switched to a new 4k channel in my guide and amazingly was able to watch the match from the first whistle. Stunned by the opening sequence and that clearly set a tone for the rest of the match. Yet, United had some chances to at least level as they got in dangerous areas but couldn't put it together in the final third. From there, I honestly think it became an uphill battle mentally. Even after halftime when you expected a reaction from United, Spurs defused any early chances at danger and had them on their back foot for the majority of the match

Alexis has barely arrived, will take time to develop not just chemistry/understanding with his teammates but whatever system/tactics Mou et al intend to employ. The slick passing Spurs were putting on display would not have been realistic to expect from Sanchez & Co. this soon.

Alexis is a baller though, barely at United and already commanding the team. Now just a question of whether Mou can organize both a potent attack and stable defense

I think it's the 2nd time I've seen a full 90 minutes from Tottenham this season, so many impressive performances from the squad - don't understand why they aren't higher in the table

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I had just switched to a new 4k channel in my guide and amazingly was able to watch the match from the first whistle. Stunned by the opening sequence and that clearly set a tone for the rest of the match. Yet, United had some chances to at least level as they got in dangerous areas but couldn't put it together in the final third. From there, I honestly think it became an uphill battle mentally. Even after halftime when you expected a reaction from United, Spurs defused any early chances at danger and had them on their back foot for the majority of the match

Alexis has barely arrived, will take time to develop not just chemistry/understanding with his teammates but whatever system/tactics Mou et al intend to employ. The slick passing Spurs were putting on display would not have been realistic to expect from Sanchez & Co. this soon.

Alexis is a baller though, barely at United and already commanding the team. Now just a question of whether Mou can organize both a potent attack and stable defense

I think it's the 2nd time I've seen a full 90 minutes from Tottenham this season, so many impressive performances from the squad - don't understand why they aren't higher in the table

They're a bit Liverpooly... in that they'll always be up for a big home game but they'll drop silly points against small teams when they really shouldn't. The Wembley factor hasn't helped them either.

They're also crap away from home against big sides, probably because they can't keep that sort of tempo up away from home.

 

[::sonny::]

Smalling and Jones are average as feck

 

[Trizy]

Doesn't help fill the team with confidence when you're back line is fecking about, shitting themselves under pressure and constantly passing the ball back to the keeper who drives it up the field and loses possession.

Why did Smalling keep passing it back to Dave? If De Gea is only gonna boot it up the field, why can't Smalling do the same? There was one stage of the second half where Valencia on near the half way line, passed it back to Smalling who was close to him, Smalling turns around and back passes like 40 fecking yards back to De Gea. If Smalling put his foot through the ball he'd get it much further up the pitch. Inviting less pressure if we lose possession but given a great chance to score IF somehow we managed to control it.

 

[minoo-utd]

We need high rated C.B besides fit Bailly.

 

[Tony Babangida]

Damn you coin toss.

Valencia should have done better there tbh. Schoolboy error - we need a captain who can win the toss ffs.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Valencia should have done better there tbh. Schoolboy error - we need a captain who can win the toss ffs.

Funny thing to think about really... the coin toss goes a different way, and the game probably plays out in a completely different way, and we're all here talking about slightly different reasons as to why we lost the game.

 

[settembrini]

With a provisional rating of 3.7 this is currently the lowest rated performance by United under Mourinho. Last year's 4-0 at Chelsea had a 3.8, another game where the opposition scored in the first minute and we seemed to mentally collapse.

 

[mitchmouse]

Yup, I put Martial MotM

what? he did exactly nothing

 

[devips]

0-2 loss is something I can accept, but the total surrender in the second half was inexplicable. Where has our legendary fighting spirit gone? That second half performance is probably the worst I have seen from United so far. The lack of spine and fight was so cringeworthy. Are we turning into Arsenal?

 

[mitchmouse]

If spurs had gone home and we were still playing, I'm not sure we'd have scored. Players went missing, chances went begging and the passing was at times, appalling. Did we actually give the ball to Sanchez? he'll be regretting his decision soon!!

 

[youngrell]

Very poor performance from the team and the manager. Horrific start and never recovered.

Only Valencia, De Gea and Sanchez looked like United players last night. Matic was absolutely hopeless and how he survived 3 midfield changes I'll never know.

Jones and Smalling looked shaky throughout but I'm loathed to blame them entirely as they had next to zero protection – most of Spurs' attacks came from Matic losing the ball in midfield and their directness then bypassing our whole midfield.

The main difference in the teams, apart from overall intensity, was Spurs' midfield runners. They got beyond Kane time and time again whereas Lukaku had nobody close to him throughout. Not that it would make much difference as Lukaku hardly won a ball all game. Why can't he judge the flight of the ball? Always jumps a foot or so under it when going for a header.

 

[Sassy Colin]

what? he did exactly nothing

Who did do anything?

 

[JohnnyLaw]

When I saw the line-up my first thought was that we were going to see a different approach this time. We also had more than enough chances to score, I'm not disagreeing on the fact that we have been abysmal in the big games, I'm just stating that this game went tits up after 13 seconds, and that is on the players.

That's ridiculous, it's a goal in the first minute, there's 90 fecking minutes left to rectify it. Just ignore the scoreline and play as you would. With some of Tottenhams luck we'd equalised the game just the minute after they scored.
Mourinho got the plan all wrong. IMO he should've started Rojo and dropped one of Sanchez or Martial. Normally we'd expect that to happen, I don't know why he thought it'd be a good idea to go full-out attack vs Tottenham at Wembley. I'd be reserved about even setting up the team like that at home to Tottenham, and Mourinho obviously was too.
If you look at that Spurs team, all of their attackers come centrally with the fullbacks providing the width. Put Smalling on top of Kane to stop their initiation, Matic to block the hole ahead of defence to stop the supply, put Young and Valencia on man-marking their opposing fullbacks and let Rojo and Jones plug the holes as their midfielders drift into central positions.
We should've relied more on the counter-attacking power we have in Lukaku, Lingard and Martial/Sanchez to create chances for us on the break with Pogba and Young supporting.