United (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

To lose against them is obviously pants but the manner of this defeat was the worse bit. Their 2nd goal especially was beyond dreadful from our point of view. We offered nothing, really disappointing all round tbh.
That second goal has happened so many times ,when Rico Lewis is playing in defence. He just has no awareness and stands around all the time letting his player tap in an easy goal, how Pep can still put him out there is baffling. He should be sold ,he will never be good enough for this team aspiring to win all the trophys every season.
 
We need to just forget this derby game now, it's gone... just concentrate on winning against Bodo and Wolves, and NOT losing any more matches !

Analysing it now as fans isn't gonna help, unless the players and manager themselves are doing the anylysing , and actually learning from it .... its all about how we respond to that defeat now, do we slump into a run of bad form, or do we react positively and hit back instantly? ..... we just need to move on and make sure sure we compete and defend much better in the remaining games.
 
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At the end of the day they spanked us
We need again to use this experience to be better and improve where required

We are always shit in big away games so I expect a few more of those to come this season (Chelsea, dippers, spurs)
Teams just outwork us

Right back is a big issue
We don’t have legs in midfield
Haaland is not doing enough in fact doing nothing and we don’t have an alternative
Phil needs to step up

Recent signings have been good, but we have lacked energy for two seasons now and that’s in the middle of the pitch
agree ,but we used to work harder than other teams , need a bit more than good signings i think , need to go after some very best midfielders and full backs.
 
That second goal has happened so many times ,when Rico Lewis is playing in defence. He just has no awareness and stands around all the time letting his player tap in an easy goal, how Pep can still put him out there is baffling. He should be sold ,he will never be good enough for this team aspiring to win all the trophys every season.
Agreed, he seems to lack awareness ..... although it would have helped if the city player out wide had of been more alert and done better in preventing that cross coming in in the first place !
 
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The most galling aspect of that defeat was utd handed us the rope to hang ourselves.
Defend deep and break fast. City high line was a gift they couldn't refuse.
That 1st goal was ridiculous, and demonstrated how we woefully mismanaged the game.
The 2nd goal was basically us giving up.
I cannot recount another game in my memory banks that was as disgraceful as this one.
Injuries or not. We were out thought, out fought, out muscled, out played, and out of ideas.
I said earlier in this thread... It feels like yesterday, football passed Pep by.
 
That second goal has happened so many times ,when Rico Lewis is playing in defence. He just has no awareness and stands around all the time letting his player tap in an easy goal, how Pep can still put him out there is baffling. He should be sold ,he will never be good enough for this team aspiring to win all the trophys every season.
That goal was bad to concede at any level, but for a top team borderline unforgivable.
 
All fair points and I generally agree. Pep can have the best tactical plan around, but if the players don't carry it out correctly, or make mistakes, then it's difficult.

Pep isn't perfect though, and neither are the players. Ake, for all that he always does his best, can't carry a defence any more. Pep seems a bit obsessed by having an older head in there, but that only helps if they are still top level. We'd have probably been better with O'Reilly there from the start - though having said that, he struggled to get into the pace of game and seems totally worn out. There was also Ait-Nouri now, and at least he is match fit now.

Cherki put in a similar ball in another game recently. That free-kick was too central to put in a cross like that. I'm surprised he wasn't told to work it wide. Bad crosses happen though, loads do them - I was more annoyed that by clearing it and getting past him they were more or less in on goal. That's a poor set up in a game that's 0-0 with plenty of time left.

Second goal was poorly defender all round too.

They were better than us on the day, but we were particularly poor. It's very disappointing but we just need to move on and start winning again. I'm not even thinking about the title - if we don't pick up a win in the next game or two then we'll going to start looking at what's behind us.
I've never really been one for analysing every match, every move, every mistake and so on. First of all there's no point, we can't change anything so it doesn't acheive anything. You get some on here who analyse every single bad move. It's just stupid in my opinion.

I just look at the overriding factors, the schedule, the types of matches we've had, the schedule and so on. Very tough game at Sunderland and easy to see why they're unbeaten at home, followed by an equally tough one where I though we were very unicycle against Chelsea, and again v Brighton where we did enough to win it, all with an injury hit side.

But that's 6 matches in 16 days, this is why we go so many injuries and it's tough to keep up that sort of pace. I think it will hit Arsenal too, in fact we're already seeing that, that have had chances to pull well clear and they can't. We're still well in this, 7 points is nothing.

A lot are making the mistake of thinking we can't afford to make mistakes, we have to be 100% perfect every week. We don't. Because Arsenal won't be. A lot are thinking about the 100 point seasons and thinking we won't win it because we're miles off that point. We don't need to, the winning team won't get anywhere near that. Liverpool's winning points tally wouldn't have been enough to catch us in ANY of the last 6 seasons that we won it.

Arsenal are yet to have their bad patch but they will, and we have Sememyo and Guehi (sp?) to come in, Ait Nouri and Marmoosh to come back, the latter should take some pressure off Haaland, and this is the time when we usually go on a run. We're having a decent enough season overall so far and it could still get better.

Crucial game in the freezing Arctic to get out of the way now though, bet Ait Nouri won't be looking forward to that one but the temperatures should ensure we're pretty mobile for that match if nothing else.

Onwards and upwards!
 
If the red card was given as it should have been then different result
Probably, but do we really need the rags, or any other opponents, to be down to ten men in order to create chances against them? Two full backs were on yellow cards very early, and while it's doubtful Taylor would have given either a second yellow we should have given them something to think about.
As for Haaland; we've nobody who can play a defence-splitting pass for him to run onto. And if we give him a rest and use Marmoush then he too will be level with the last defender and waiting in vain, just as Alvarez often was. Doku might have some ability when he's not running down blind alleys or tackling himself but he's completely unpredictable and Haaland has no idea when a cross is likely or where it will be aimed. Good work against the rags and dippers at home and when setting up Semenyo at sid James Park but far too inconsistent. As for the other wingers, Bobb and Savinho, neither appears good enough.
I'm hoping Semenyo will work well with Haaland given time as that seems our best chance of creating chances for him.
 
Crucial game in the freezing Arctic to get out of the way now though, bet Ait Nouri won't be looking forward to that one but the temperatures should ensure we're pretty mobile for that match if nothing else.

Onwards and upwards!

Lol, there probably won't be a whole lot of difference in the Arctic to our performance at Old Trafford ..... most of our players looked frozen solid, all iced up, and rooted to the spot !

Lewis might have marked that Igloo, i mean Doglu, a bit better ....

I bet they'd have moved a whole lot quicker and at a faster pace had a f'kin big polar bear been chasing them down Matt Busby Way!

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The most galling aspect of that defeat was utd handed us the rope to hang ourselves.
Defend deep and break fast. City high line was a gift they couldn't refuse.
That 1st goal was ridiculous, and demonstrated how we woefully mismanaged the game.
The 2nd goal was basically us giving up.
I cannot recount another game in my memory banks that was as disgraceful as this one.
Injuries or not. We were out thought, out fought, out muscled, out played, and out of ideas.
I said earlier in this thread... It feels like yesterday, football passed Pep by.
Fair summary. Our tactics were not working and we changed ...nothing. Could we not have just sat back in numbers for a bit and let Haaland, Doku and Semenyo have some space to run into for a change?

City had 68.2 possession in a match United dominated!
 
rewatched the highlights, wow this was worse than I realized. literally could have been 6-7 goals from them if they are lucky with the shots/post/tight offsides.

Carrick of all doing this to Pep is mindblowing. with the help of master tacticians like Jonny fucking Evans and Woodgate.
 
Every outfield player today played against Toon. How often do you actually see all outfield players from a League Cup game turning out in a derby just 3.5 days later? And all of the outfield players, except Foden and Aït-Nouri, were involved in the game against Exeter. That says something about the injury situation in our squad, and perhaps about our priorities as well.
It's also a punishing schedule when you have injuries and rotation options are limited. We still have players getting used to playing with each other, a match every 3 - 4 days gives little time for 4 and to work on anything properly,

This month we've already played 6 in 16 days, all but the Exeter one were tough matches and given that we're obviously not favourites to win the league or the CL, while it's to early to tell in the FAC because it depends who we're drawn against and who is still in it in the later stages, it makes a lot of sense to go for the Carabou when we're 3 matches from lifting the trophy, especially when 2 of them are over the 2 legs when the stronger team has the better chance of making the final.
 
Really slow build up play allowed them to get into a good shape to allow us nothing in front of their 18 yard box through the middle. Gvardiol is a big miss as there is no one to pass out from the back. Ake did not look comfy having the ball played to him at full back and couldn’t help Doku with overlaps.

The two goals were unforgivable for lack of anticipation of a break and not tracking runners for number 2. What a shit day.
 
One of the poorest/strangest performances I've seen from City in years, maybe even decades. Inexplicably out of sync with each other. Inexplicably lacking the basic things you need to win a game of football. It was so bad that I almost feel like you have to park it until they play next, and see how they react.

It was all very odd why went on. They did nothing well, less Donnarumma and Kusanov

It doesn’t feel any better in the come light of day, I can’t think of any semi-positive

There needs to be consequences. Players need dropping after that, they cant carry on like it never happened. It was appalling
 
Looking back and even at the time, there were no good options in defence

We didn’t get any better when Ake went to centre back and O’Reilley got booked straight away and then done for their second

It was a shit show
 

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