United (H) Post Match Thread

[Keeper!]

Another poster who thinks Utd didn't play great. They played an exceptional counter-attacking game. Played it perfectly.

Theres no point trying to analyse the game if you are just going to claim your opponent is rubbish. There are some things that Man Utd do very very well and some things they do very badly. If we had scored first the game would have gone very badly for them.

Like it or not, they are 2nd in the table, at this stage of the season the table does not lie.

 

[mancityvstoke]

Not arsed today........had my angry moment and it's history now.

Utd are going to win fuck all. Us however.............

 

[domalino]

Not read the thread but I felt we played well apart from in front of goal.

Some of the situations we fashioned were literally begging to be buried but we didnt capitalise.

Though the rags were shit.

The learning point is based around the penalty imo.

You cannot go in like that and I fail to see what Jesus was even doing there In the first place. The whole incident was avoidable and unprofessional imo.

The early goal played right into their hands and gave them a nice cushion and put is in a position we aren't used to (being behind).

A double whammy so to speak.

You cannot start a game like that and hopefully we have got that kind of silliness out of our systems now.

In fairness our prior form has put us in a position where we can "get away with" an error like that and dropped points but we need to ensure we get back on track immediately.

Jesus was doing what our forwards always do, it's one of the cornerstones of our play - you lose the ball, you get it back.

5 or 6 times a game you will see Sterling or Foden or Jesus chase back 30-40 yards to make up for losing the ball, he just got a bit overeager at the start of a derby.

90% of the time everyone applauds, the rest of the time they give a foul and kill the counter...no one's done it in our box before that I can remember.

Silly mistake but we had 95 minutes to make up for it and created plenty of chances.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I think you're over reacting a bit. We weren't that bad. I genuinely thought we could draw that game until about the 80th minute mark. They were under a lot of pressure.

I think it's a good thing that we get a reminder of the importance of high intensity and quality possession in a game that is not going to do us great damage but will shock us. We might learn something from it. KDB needs to get fitter or not play. Ashe has returned from injury, Bernardo or Foden have gone back to the bench and I don't like that. We should be forcing the opponent into losing the ball but we can't do that with KDB in the side. He doesn't have the intensity to his game to do this. He's still a fine player but I prefer Foden and Bernardo.

Keep faith with Jesus. He made a mistake.

Yes we were bad. It was more likely that they won 3-0 than we got an equaliser. Just look at the chances made dispassionately. I don't think I'm overreacting but I just don't agree with the 'we played well sentiment'. United are not a bad team at their best (and they were pretty much at that yesterday whilst we were back to our worse) but we will play better before the season is out. What was you view of our captains performance yesterday 'not that bad'? Or Cancelo's? Were I do agree with you is we must learn from it if we are going to deliver on the potential of this season.
Btw, I am a Gabby fanboy, he just made a stupid mistake and hopefully will learn from that as well.

There is an outstanding question in my mind as to how the Rags appear to be able to raise their game for these fixtures whilst we do the opposite.

 

[Akira]

i keep seeing "the wrong players were chosen" forget the doom and gloom we dominated that game , we actually played better yesterday than against west ham, we kept the ball and we created chances, that's all that pep can do, he trusts the players he chooses to do their jobs, they did their jobs in so much they had 66% and they also created 23 shooting chances, that tells you what sort of game it was , we dominated possession and we had more than enough chances to win 3 games , rodri puts that in the net and its 1-1 ,united would of shit their pants and we would be 22 games unbeaten , all ifs and buts.

Spot on. It's not Pep's fault our players refuse to put the ball in the net, or choose to concede a daft pen in the 1st minute.

 

[Marvin]

Agreed, but it was all a little too comfortable for United still at the back.

I'm not even sure what Kevin's current role in the team is?

This will no doubt sound harsh, but he has forgotten the thing which makes him so special, his unselfishness.

IMO, this season he has been playing the game much more for himself, essentially a free role, but seemingly more intent on shooting at goal, attempting more 'Hollywood' passes.

A lot of the top players do this when they know how good they are, maybe don't want to trust other players to do the job?

I genuinely think we might have already seen peak De Bruyne from a fitness point of view, there have been tell-tale signs for about a year that while he will catch the eye when he does attempt to press and chase down, he is now more akin to Sergio in this respect, rather than Jesus, in his intelligence of doing it effectively?

Sometimes one of your most potent weapons can also be a weakness, so I would like to see Kev operate the false nine a lot more, rather than be just a big name body into the standard midfield three.

It's his physicality that's a problem. He's just not as quick or powerful as he was and this is fundamental as its long term. Perhaps he just needs a proper pre-season but we also may have to accept that we are never going to see the KDB we knew. We are not KDB FC though. We are MCFC so play Foden/Bernardo. The problem is KDB is our captain and an influential player. A fit KDB on the bench and not laying in the big games might cause us problems.

 

[willipp]

Jesus was doing what our forwards always do, it's one of the cornerstones of our play - you lose the ball, you get it back.

5 or 6 times a game you will see Sterling or Foden or Jesus chase back 30-40 yards to make up for losing the ball, he just got a bit overeager at the start of a derby.

True, but when there are 5 other players already doing that and Martial is going nowhere, he should have the sense to slow himself down and let those other players do it.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Another poster who thinks Utd didn't play great. They played an exceptional counter-attacking game. Played it perfectly.

Theres no point trying to analyse the game if you are just going to claim your opponent is rubbish. There are some things that Man Utd do very very well and some things they do very badly. If we had scored first the game would have gone very badly for them.

I never said they were rubbish but nor were they exceptional.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Agree this was like last Autumn where the slow lethargic build up broke down exposing a static midfield and an off balance defence. Add individual errors , systemic poor finishing , poor subs management and it was back to square one. They didn’t even have to play that great to beat us.Need to bounce back quick.

I thought they played to their best potential whilst we played one of our worst games of the season. Hard to figure that out if it was a one off but it certainly isnt.

 

[domalino]

True, but when there are 5 other players already doing that and Martial is going nowhere, he should have the sense to slow himself down and let those other players do it.

Which is why I said he just got a bit overeager at the start of a derby.