United (H) Post Match Thread

[come-on-barney]

Well train delayed and did not get until 1.20am. Reds taking the piss on the train what a day. As I am sure others did I turned round and said we might rue those Sterling misses. Stones needs to be in Tuesday and Pep needs to start readying Laporte and Stones for next season. What makes it hard to take is the rags were shocking. I still don’t know how we lost that. The last two games hurt more after the season we have had.

 

[argyle]

That is a fans blinkered view though (we all wanted to win it against the rags) and if we are all honest, at half time we thought we were going to do that and in some style to boot. He cannot be blamed for the team selection, eyebrows can be raised at the timeliness of his subs though when players started to switch off.

If Barca had lost to Madrid in a game they could have won the title and Pep had rested Messi and Iniesta, do you think he wouldn't have been blamed?

 

[mosssideblue]

I dont think anyone is questioning the 1st half mate but for me the team selection showed lack of intent, it sent a signal to the players/fans that this game didnt have the same importance to him as it did to us(the fans). No surprise, we switched off in the 2nd half, as from the boss down we were thinking about Tuesday. Yes, we played some wonderful football in the first 45mins but that wasnt because Pep had us setup to win. His first thought was putting out a weakened side and if we could still play well/win, that would be a bonus....it was clear that the Number 1 priority was not to put out the best team possible, to put us in the best position to win against the rags. We played that 2nd half as if our hearts/minds werent 100% committed to win it and clearly Pep felt the same way otherwise he would have setup differently.

Too much speculation there bud.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Tried to stay calm and positive and given myself over 14 hours to calm down.

It hasn't worked I AM AS PISSED AS HELL ABOUT YESTERDAY!

I was pretty well set up before the game began for a reverse. By HT I was in muted celebratory mode. By FT I had come to terms with another example of the curse of the two goal lead. I sat in Blue car park fuming at Atkinson trying to pass that performance off as refereeing. This morning I am well and truly pissed off with shitty finishing, shitty defending and, worst of all, shitty refereeing!

 

[SamBlue]

The whole team has been playing on automatic like champions-elect for some time now and that is the main cause - my opinion of course - for pretty abysmal week which can turn in two shocking weeks for us with the second leg of CL and Spuds game coming. The mental ability to shift into another gear and do something meaningful when the game is running away from us is gone completely. We look no more like a team on a path to achieve something big, just the team that wants to get it over line.

 

[typicalcity...]

Just listened to peps post match presser saying we can't complain about this season and making no apology for yesterday.
He still doesn't get it, I'm absolutely livid.

Lol. You really don’t look at the right quotes of peps do you? He said sorry to the fans!!

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

Too much speculation there bud.

sadly, thats all any of us have mate...putting out a weakened side is the only fact we really know!

 

[i8rags]

Don’t agree with anyone who thinks pep got the team right, I’ve read all the “if we’d put the chances away it would be justified” posts and I dont get the theory, coz for me the chances fell to the wrong players in the wrong positions, no way on gods earth that aguero would have blazed those chances or missed a header such as gundogan did.
We should of made a change at the half to keep possession and see off their early push but we didn’t.
We were 45 mins away from the title and the second 45 team should of reflected that fact.

 

[@BluePhil8]

He doesn’t get it.

I think he thinks the only derby in the world is Barcelona and Real Madrid. I don’t think he thinks any other derby matters. I don’t think he understands that every derby everywhere matters the same to everyone.

Resting De Bruyne and Aguero for us would be the equivalent of him resting Messi and Iniesta for Barca vs Madrid. Hope those 2 players score 8 between them on Tuesday now otherwise we've voluntarily surrendered the end of our season.

 

[mosssideblue]

If Barca had lost to Madrid in a game they could have won the title and Pep had rested Messi and Iniesta, do you think he wouldn't have been blamed?

Not if they were winning 4-0 at half time which we should have been doing. Pep didn't lose us the game I'm afraid.

Whilst I think the team that Pep put out surprised some, it was more that strong enough to beat the rags as was proven so beautifully in the first 45. Players switching off once the whistle has blown for the second half is out of Peps control, other than he subs off players, which IMO he was too late in doing.

Had he put out what some consider the "best 11", would the result have been guaranteed? would we have been as dominant - who knows