United (A) | Post Match Thread

[Keepingthefaithsince1976]

From Pep; “I said to the players – don’t waste energy thinking what happened. Focus on Spurs.
I would not say we win or lose for this action [the controversial first goal]. Of course, it was involved – an important one. But wasting energy thinking about what happened in the past, you are in the next game.
The best thing to do is analyse the things we have done good, what we can improve and then focus on Spurs. Now it is done. It is gone.”

 

[shevtheblue]

What Rashford does is as distracting as standing in an offside position in the keeper's line of sight, which is very clearly spelt out as an offence in the Laws of the Game.

If the ref has the brains to understand that and looks at appropriate replays on the VAR system, he disallows the goal.

Still furious it was allowed. Rank incompetence.

Whatever fault anyone wants to find with City, if that goal had not be given, it is unlikely City would have lost. The manner of the goal affected the players - easy to say it shouldn't but shutting out the anger and disbelief and leveling their emotions instantly would be difficult for most players.

Walton (I think it was him anyway) agreed it was a legit goal and so did some others. Either the rules have changed, we don't understand them or they're fucking cheats.

 

[Father Paul]

No, it can be on the players.

I don't think for one minute Pep doesn't want them to play Erling in. Of course he wants them to be accurate with the passing and not give the ball away but the man is no fool. Pep knows you can't be successful with every pass / cross in the final third and he tries to get the players to be positioned to manage transitions to deal with that eventuality.

Whetehr Pep is emphasising enough to the players that they should take more risks, we don't know. Kev, who is our main creator, gives the ball away plenty trying things so I think the issue lies more with the players.

Also, teams are simply making it very difficult for City, they are often well organised, highly committed and defending in such numbers that it is really tough for our players to play people in.

City have a puzzle to solve and it's not an easy one. Part of me thinks we may need to do something radical and change several of our players in order to allow Pep to produce a new variant of his basic model of football, which I still believe is a good one and definitely one I favour.

On the other hand maybe Pep's basic model is no longer workable. Hard to know yet really but most teams we play now seem to be easily able to frustrate us.
Alternatively a serious of difficult seasons culminating in last years epic battle with the dippers added to a crazy World Cup has left the players physically and mentally below par.

 

[kippaxchris]

The first half was probably the worst half of football I have ever seen us play, it was so boring watching Ake to Akanji then Akanji to Ake then Ake to Walker then Walker to Rodri then Rodri back to Ake rinse and repeat.

I'm starting to see why people say we play the most boring football it's absolutely awful at the moment.

 

[Rammy Blue]

The first half was probably the worst half of football I have ever seen us play, it was so boring watching Ake to Akanji then Akanji to Ake then Ake to Walker then Walker to Rodri then Rodri back to Ake rinse and repeat.

I'm starting to see why people say we play the most boring football it's absolutely awful at the moment.

You didn't watch the Chelsea first half then?

 

[mjbradley]

It's what happens when our approach to games is passive and trying to manage it with minimal risks.

Teams just try to stay in the game and know we don't create too much, if they can force our passing game sideways.

Then you have results like Everton and United, providing perfect opportunities for dodgy ref decisions into the mix.

I'm so disappointed with people like Phil and Bernie, in particular.

Players I love, but are selling themselves and us way short right now.

Bernie was abysmal and Phil ignored, whatever the instruction was, Jack certainly wasn't impacted by it?

We miss Stones and Dias so much.

I feel so sorry for Haaland, he is doing everything to get involved, but the time must come where we adapt to him or he will lose the joy of being here pretty rapidly, feeding on scraps.

Perhaps ditch the need for two wide men stretching the pitch as wide as possible, to try and create the overloads, and go with an extra man in the centre. It's clear why Bellingham is wanted for the engine room.

Never thought I would ever say this, but would sell Bernie this window and try to get someone else in at left back and put Cancelo as the extra man in midfield?

By the way, Rodri is the best midfielder of his type in the entire world right now.

Something else I never thought was possible from him.

Immense and first name on the team sheet.

We are looking stale, similar to Liverpool, but with the resources to do something about that quickly.

The question is will we do something about it ? Will we go in January and give the squad a lift like Laporte did all those years ago ?

Watching the documentary from last season. it was clear Txiki and Omar were so keen to get across that we aren’t the biggest spenders. However surely now is the time to plug the evident gaps. Lots stop caring what people think of us. Chelsea clearly don’t care. Heck even Arsenal have been throwing it about and would have done more if they could

The big thing for me is there is literally 0 pace in this team

We played Walker to nullify rashford and where was he on both those goals ?

Amazing that Liverpool are at their weakest and we aren’t looking like we will take advantage of this.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

It absolutely PAINS me to say this, but the Rag's winning the league this season will be the biggest phoenix from the flames story since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I genuinely believe the stars are beginning to line up EXACTLY where the PL want them, and after what we all witnessed yesterday they are being given EVERY opportunity to make it happen.

I really hope I am wrong about this...

 

[heslops barnet]

I’ve just watched that part of MOTD and they did highlight a few runs and had a chat about us not looking to play him in, I also know there were other examples I remembered from the game that weren’t shown so there were definitely plenty. Let’s move on from that one though.

No signs currently of us opening the chequebook though this month, buying a decent left footed left back should be an absolute priority and fucking Gomez off to a CFG club.

Left full back needed for a long time now…….

 

[waspish]

It's what happens when our approach to games is passive and trying to manage it with minimal risks.

Teams just try to stay in the game and know we don't create too much, if they can force our passing game sideways.

Then you have results like Everton and United, providing perfect opportunities for dodgy ref decisions into the mix.

I'm so disappointed with people like Phil and Bernie, in particular.

Players I love, but are selling themselves and us way short right now.

Bernie was abysmal and Phil ignored, whatever the instruction was, Jack certainly wasn't impacted by it?

We miss Stones and Dias so much.

I feel so sorry for Haaland, he is doing everything to get involved, but the time must come where we adapt to him or he will lose the joy of being here pretty rapidly, feeding on scraps.

Perhaps ditch the need for two wide men stretching the pitch as wide as possible, to try and create the overloads, and go with an extra man in the centre. It's clear why Bellingham is wanted for the engine room.

Never thought I would ever say this, but would sell Bernie this window and try to get someone else in at left back and put Cancelo as the extra man in midfield?

By the way, Rodri is the best midfielder of his type in the entire world right now.

Something else I never thought was possible from him.

Immense and first name on the team sheet.

We are looking stale, similar to Liverpool, but with the resources to do something about that quickly.

Silva is the one who ticks it over always pointing to pass it back to control the game build up play again what Pep wants! He isn’t the problem with foden is he doesn’t get the luxury of Mahres or Grealish! After the 6-3 derby win pep shouldn’t of fcuked about with it and kept that from three till it didn’t work! Yesterday though Mahrez should’ve been benched and had the Grealish Haaland foden from free then that dirty twat at left back wouldn’t of got away with 8 goals in a game!

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

I've been saying that for months about Bernie, been pap for ages...plus made it clear he would rather be elsewhere. Seems immune to criticism, oddly

If he doesnt want to be here, it is probably better to sell him instead of this yearly speculation about him

Getting the required fee is important though imo, and not just gifting him to fucking Barca because their finances are fucked.