[crossy1686]

Decided to not comment anything straight after the game because I was so mad. Had to go get drunk.

One of our worst games of the season. Terrible all around. Why on earth did Mourinho play Martial on the right? I cant understand it. Why didn't we play with three in midfield, all the sings were there that the game will be difficult if we let them control the center, we have seen it before? Must be one of the worst performances from our defenders ever, Kane was bossing them.

Carry on.

You missed nothing mate. This place imploded on itself, the Jose out camp were making threads left right and centre, some are still going strong, it was, and is unbearable.

I agree with the Martial statement until I think about it for more than a minute. Martial was rubbish last night because he has one trick, pick the ball up deep, run at defence and cut inside, take a shot. 8 times out of 10 this doesn't come off and we're at the point now where if you're a fullback and you've done your homework, you know exactly what he's going to do. The reason he can't play on the right side is that he can't do this on his left foot, and it's not like he's been asked to play DM or something, it's literally the same position just on the other flank. If he wants to develop into the player we all know he can be then he really needs to develop his skillset, because right now he's being found out by good teams.

If you watch the highlights, Pogba was being dragged all over last night which left Matic holding the CM fort on his own, which is why we couldn't hold the ball in the middle. It should have been 3 in there to stop that but Spurs were weak at the back and we could have got at them with the front 4, so it was a gamble that didn't pay off.

Our inability to contain Kane in the slightest was probably our biggest downfall. Made mugs of the whole back line.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

Its ironic how you are defending a player who, yesterday, tried to do exactly this. You Spurs fans are bemusing.

This literally makes no sense.

 

[youngrell]

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me was the difference in tactical positioning between the teams.

Spurs seemed to have 4 or 5 attackers everytime they came forward, yet also had 8 or 9 behind the ball when we pushed up. It was down to their high line and our very deep line – their midfield had far less ground to cover to support in both attack and defence and therefore outnumbered us all over the pitch.

They moved as a unit while we looked completely disjointed.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

This literally makes no sense.

You are dismayed that a poster wished injury upon Alli.

Yet you defend said player for trying to injure other players.

Not very hard to understand.

 

[Tincanalley]

The Black Box of last night. [Scary Music]

Chain of events.

Þ Jose decides to go with attacking line out, pleasing the hierarchy and the fans and showing that he can be an attacking manager. He picks a middle two, Pogba and Matic, behind four attackers.
Þ He lets Sanchez play where he wants to, on the right, and moves Martial left, out of pos.
Þ The team get sucker punched with the kick off strategy by Spurs, who score after ten seconds.
Þ MUTD play well enough for the first twenty minutes, but Spurs press high, and United miss a couple of chances.
Þ The second Spurs goal comes, somewhat unluckily, but also a consequence of good play by Spurs, and Jones could have done better.
Þ Lukaku, well marked has a fairly undistinguished evening.
Þ Pogba goes missing, leaving Matic on his own. Pogba may be pissed about being asked to defend, and do unglamorous work alongside Matic. He may also be jealous that Sanchez, the new much-written-about and equally well-paid guy, has decided where he wants to play.
Þ Pogba taken off.
Þ Fellaini, his replacement, gets injured after three minutes, and Herrera has to come on.​

At that stage the team look demoralised, to a level I have not seen in a long time. Spurs are playing neat triangles around them and closing, fouling, pushing up. Only for Kane missed two or three clear chances could have been far worse. United will come back from this, I am sure. But it certainly was a chastening experience for many of them, and all in all a stern taster for some of the tough tests upcoming in the CL, and even the Premiership.

 

[wolvored]

I was deluded and still had hope, especially after getting Sanchez. At least i am no longer deluded!

lets hope for next season

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

You are dismayed that a poster wished injury upon Alli.

Yet you defend said player for trying to injure other players.

Not very hard to understand.

I've said he's a bit cnuty, yesterday Alli didn't try to hurt Sanchez he tripped him intentionally let's not go overboard here. I still don't get wishing harm on someone you never met, complete childishness.

 

[Verminator]

I've said he's a bit cnuty, yesterday Alli didn't try to hurt Sanchez he tripped him intentionally let's not go overboard here. I still don't get wishing harm on someone you never met, complete childishness.

The City one is an intentional leg-breaker.
I'm guessing his lack of concern for other player's safety attracts that kind of response.

 

[André Dominguez]

Spurs deserved the win in an almost one sided game (sadly), but...

It was not going to be an easy task, but conceding a goal before 30 seconds of gameplay will take down team morale. And the way the goal is conceeded makes it even worst. We took a KO punch early in the combat, we got up before the count of 10, but never really recovered and keep getting jabs all over the place.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Still can't believe Jose started with a 2 man midfield. Compromised balance and we were punished for that

 

[sully1]

I've said he's a bit cnuty, yesterday Alli didn't try to hurt Sanchez he tripped him intentionally let's not go overboard here. I still don't get wishing harm on someone you never met, complete childishness.

you keep saying the same thing
go see the videos i posted above, ive given you 3 different matches where he is intentionally tried to break someones leg

just dont come crying when someone breaks his leg in half, simple.
you wana give it some then expect some back.

 

[David_azul16]

Tactics and gameplan are completely irrelevant when you have all over the pitch, players that are not capable of passing the ball to a team mate in high intensity games. We always have the same problem in the big games.

 

[JohnnyLaw]

I don't get your first point, isn't that just exactly what I'm saying? That the players just had a mare and no amount of tactical planning can account for that. Majority of football matches are won because the other team are more up for it and to me that's all it seemed like.

Again, why is Tottenham matching our defenders to do with the tactics? I can almost guarantee he didn't say, if the full backs go on, don't bother tracking them or tracking runs from midfield. What tactical tweak would have stopped that from happening exactly and why would they have suddenly started listening then?

OK, I can concede those are things he could do about Pogba, but it is a hell of a lot easier for a player to just play the role he's supposed to and be tactically disciplined.

Anyway, fair enough if you think it was all a tactical blunder on Mourinho's part. I think it's much more all the players played like sh*te and didn't fancy it after it was 2-0.

I honestly don't know mate, maybe I'm misinterpeting you and if so I'm sorry.

We definitely had bad luck and tactical planning can't completely prevent it, although I think that it can definitely be used in a way that greatly decimates the effects of chance. I definitely do not agree that the majority of football matches are won due to team mentality, if it were then I'd think Atletico would be a much better team than Barcelona. My problem isn't the intial goal, those things happen and you have to be prepared for that, but the way we played facilitated the possibility of defensive mistakes in that we left Jones et al. under alot of pressure and allowed Spurs plenty of space.

Well, if our defenders are continueously finding themselves in 3v3/4v4 situations we're obviously going to be in trouble especially when the attackers are allowed to attack at pace and run at you and then you leave the game to chance, which killed the game for us yesterday. When you play 3 strikers and one SS in Lingard and Pogba being one of your defensive midfielders you're leaving a whole lot of space behind you which is a major trouble if you're not controlling the ball for the majority of the time, and we weren't. Even when they're doing their defensive duties you're asking them to cover alot of ground while at the same time as they can't focus on their foremost qualities and their performances drop because you're asking them to do things that they're not suited for.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Finally watched the match.
The first 11 seconds killed it but we did play well for about 10 minutes after that.

The defence was all over the place, Jones had a nightmare first half. Completely outnumbered in midfield and nothing come off up front.

Although correctly predicted the line-up , we need to play 433 especially in games like this. Matic is not in the best of form, Pogba had probably his worse game for us, we needed another midfielder in there so that Pogba is freed even when he's playing badly something might happen. Just outnumbered against Spurs.
Thought Mourinho would change it at half time but didn't and then when he did change it still kept the same system.
Sanchez was busy, Lingard invisible and didn't see the point of sending on Mata. Mourinho got that one wrong throughout.

Anyway, bad day at the office all round, let's push on again.

 

[Hughie77]

At least we can stop pretending we have a chance at the league title.

Yep, agree, so let's just keep playing for 2nd at least, and give the cup comps a good go. The performance was the worst I've seen since LVG. Nothing , gave nothing left with nothing. Bad bad, hope this was a one off.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

you keep saying the same thing
go see the videos i posted above, ive given you 3 different matches where he is intentionally tried to break someones leg

just dont come crying when someone breaks his leg in half, simple.
you wana give it some then expect some back.

Ok Vinnie.

 

[Verminator]

Spurs deserved the win in an almost one sided game (sadly), but...

It was not going to be an easy task, but conceding a goal before 30 seconds of gameplay will take down team morale. And the way the goal is conceeded makes it even worst. We took a KO punch early in the combat, we got up before the count of 10, but never really recovered and keep getting jabs all over the place.

You forgot that we punch ourselves in the face too.

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

I'm not sure what I watched last night. I'm going to be optimistic and put that down to a perfect storm of us being at our worst and them playing out of their skins.

It looked like a Championship struggler against a top 5 PL team. Diabolical. How was our midfield bypassed like it wasn't even there, when we've spent so much on it?

Why cant we pass? Why cant we retain anything resembling possession?

Jose seemed mortified, which is promising. He better not let them capitulate like that again.

However, he holds blame too.

Why, when we're being outworked, outfought and outrun, does he bring on two our slowest, least mobile players?

Embarassing. Sanchez will make no difference if the rest of our team play like that, our weaknesses have STILL not been fixed.

Hoping it was a major blip, onto the next game.

 

[Catt]

Aww. Sorry to hear.

Thanks!

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Missed the game last night. Sounds like it was for the best.

Same here. Watched the highlights and that was all I needed to see.

 

[Redman24]

Spurs bullied us the whole night, i mean they were relentless no mercy what so ever. I think in the long run this will do us good. imagine if we parked the boss and the game ended 0-0. No lessons would have been learned but now it is clear as daylight that we need 3 man midfield to compete against decent/ good opposition.

Hopefully. Moutinho realises this and prepares 2 new CM for next season

 

[Toddler]

You missed nothing mate. This place imploded on itself, the Jose out camp were making threads left right and centre, some are still going strong, it was, and is unbearable.

I agree with the Martial statement until I think about it for more than a minute. Martial was rubbish last night because he has one trick, pick the ball up deep, run at defence and cut inside, take a shot. 8 times out of 10 this doesn't come off and we're at the point now where if you're a fullback and you've done your homework, you know exactly what he's going to do. The reason he can't play on the right side is that he can't do this on his left foot, and it's not like he's been asked to play DM or something, it's literally the same position just on the other flank. If he wants to develop into the player we all know he can be then he really needs to develop his skillset, because right now he's being found out by good teams.

If you watch the highlights, Pogba was being dragged all over last night which left Matic holding the CM fort on his own, which is why we couldn't hold the ball in the middle. It should have been 3 in there to stop that but Spurs were weak at the back and we could have got at them with the front 4, so it was a gamble that didn't pay off.

Our inability to contain Kane in the slightest was probably our biggest downfall. Made mugs of the whole back line.

Good to know, but not a surprise!

And yes Martial is quite predictable, I agree but he is still very good at what he does. And If i understood you correctly you are saying that Martial has to be schooled to be more versatile, well yes not a bad thing to do but it isn't the place to do it against Tottenham. Play the combination that is best suited to your players skill sets etc, and Sanchez has shown that he can play in middle or on the right. The decision to put Martial there baffles me still. And the fact is that Martial or anybody on the pitch yesterday did not even get a chance to go at Tottenhams defense properly, we were that shite.

 

[londonredmaniac]

None of our CB are of the level I'd want for out and out regular starters.

We are a class centre mid short.

We don't recover well when we concede first. We continually make the wrong decisions in the final third. Our big players aren't turning up on the big occasions.

Still a long way to go yet

 

[ZAGREB RED]

Last night really was a deplorable, pathetic performance for the most part. Spurs were on song, but United threatened for a few minutes after the first goal then just went to pieces, Spurs pressing was something most of the United players just couldn't handle. Even Matic, who is usually so assured in possession, had a really poor game.
I did think the ref was a bit lenient though, he allowed too many overly physical challenges on Sanchez throughout the game, they were taking turns in kicking him.
That wasn't the reason United lost though, had it not been for DDG and some poor Spurs finishing, it would have been worse. Had Kane scored the goal that Jones did, it would have been described as a great finish, unfortunately for Corporal Jones it was at the wrong end.

 

[Eleven-Eighteen]

I know it's probably still too early...but those 3 chances created between Sanchez, Martial and Lingard in the first 150 seconds after Spurs scored were just nasty. PSG-esque

 

[sully1]

Biggest concern right now is that we dont go in a slump like we did after the City defeat where we couldn't win in the next 3 games

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

Biggest concern right now is that we dont go in a slump like we did after the City defeat where we couldn't win in the next 3 games

We actually won both games after the City defeat. Although we were pretty shit in both of them.

After that was when we had a mini meltdown over Xmas.

Huddersfield at home on Saturday, absolutely no excuse not to bounce back.

 

[sully1]

We actually won both games after the City defeat. Although we were pretty shit in both of them.

After that was when we had a mini meltdown over Xmas.

Huddersfield at home on Saturday, absolutely no excuse not to bounce back.

oh i didnt realise the meltdown of 3 games was after we won 2 games.
damn felt like it was straight after the City match

 

[Acole9]

Where to start... I suppose it'll have to be the goal they scored after eleven seconds! Sure Kane did appear to move into our box before kick off was made (Clutching at straws) but the defending was virtually non existent. Had that goal not have gone in I expect we would've been in for a match where we sit back stifle them and then draw them into making a mistake.

Our response after the goal was very good and positive I thought, we were attacking them and by no means out of it. I didn't really think it at the time but the own goal killed us mentally. The majority of the team had given up at that point and thought we wouldn't get back into it and weren't up for the fight.

In the big games we have to play a three man midfield if Pogba plays. I'm not normally a fan of formations and all that but a 4-3-3 or possibly even a 3-5-2 would've made much more sense than how we were set up.

 

[mehdimike]

This game shows how things can easily go wrong in football. You prepare your team and work on tactics for a whole week and then by the first minute they all seem useless!

 

[sunama]

I was deluded and still had hope, especially after getting Sanchez. At least i am no longer deluded!

Same here man.
I now accept that we can't go toe-to-toe.
Unfortunately, for the time being at least, against the best sides, parking the bus is the best tactic to use.
I do wonder though; what would the score line had been against LFC, had we attacked them.

 

[RedMane]

Yeah playing 4 attacking players and a 2 man midfield with Pogba means parking the bus

I know you are wumming but at least do it better. Don't post such crap.

What makes you think, you can't play negative tactics with 4 attacking players? Mourinho had cesc Fabregas, hazard, William, Ramires, Oscar and Costa at Chelsea, he usually deployed atleast 4 of them, that didn't stopped him from deploying negative tactics.

 

[MrBest]

Same here man.
I now accept that we can't go toe-to-toe.
Unfortunately, for the time being at least, against the best sides, parking the bus is the best tactic to use.
I do wonder though; what would the score line had been against LFC, had we attacked them.

I keep telling myself "bad day in the office". My brain would say Liverpool would have beaten us 5-0!

 

[Full bodied red]

In the big games we have to play a three man midfield if Pogba plays. I'm not normally a fan of formations and all that but a 4-3-3 or possibly even a 3-5-2 would've made much more sense than how we were set up.

Difficult to know quite why and how we were set up last night.

Keeper - tick...

Back four - ?? Young seemed to be playing LB and LMF and LW all at the same time and succeeding in none of them.

Midfield - ?? Matic and Pogba were outmanned and outpaced ( no surprise there - probably the slowest midfield combo in the PL ) because Lingard, Martial, and Sanchez will never be midfielders as long as I've got a hole in my arse and last night they proved it..

Attack - tick...But Lukaku on his own so 'nuff said....He's never going to trouble defences on his own because for all his attributes, getting to the out ball and holding on to it is NOT one of them.

Really, really poor and, even worse, confused selection and performance last night.

A night to forget....

 

[P-Nut]

IMO this is what happened.
For the first time, I think the general feeling was that we had a better squad that Spurs, so could go toe-to-toe with them.
Jose tried it and it failed miserably.
IMO, our team are not yet ready to go toe-to-toe with a top 6 side, so with this in mind, for the time being at least, against these sides, we should park the bus and aim for a goal from counter attacks.
Jose needs to do what he feels is right, because when Jose played the team which most fans wanted to see, we lost.

I don't even think it's about spurs being better than us. They played 3 in midfield Vs our 2. You can only win that battle if you have far superior players. I would have liked to see us go man to man in the middle with them and see how we went.

Pogba is great with space, and having 2 men constantly closing him down due to not having to concentrate on the extra body he was never going to take the game to them.

Matic had to focus on supporting the occasional attacks and he doesn't have the engine for that.

 

[Denis79]

@InLevyITrust Gongrats on a excellent game, I really thought the game would be a more close contest. Watch out next season though, won't jinx it then .

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

@InLevyITrust Gongrats on a excellent game, I really thought the game would be a more close contest. Watch out next season though, won't jinx it then .

TBH our home record against you had been great recently. All I can say I'm glad Eriksen was back for it!!

 

[Denis79]

TBH our home record against you had been great recently. All I can say I'm glad Eriksen was back for it!!

I'm not

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

I'm not

Makes the run in so much more exciting especially if we can get at least a draw at Liverpool .

 

[Denis79]

Makes the run in so much more exciting especially if we can get at least a draw at Liverpool .

You beat them and all is forgiven. Until then I'm not talking to you!