I honestly don't know what to make of that yesterday. The only highlight I can think of it that I didn't spend a small fortune on tickets, travelling down, hotel for the night, food, bear, programme etc.
Look, I know the 4 titles has never been done before and I'm a massive Pep fan but that yesterday was really poor. I don't expect to win every game, but I at least expect the team to try their best.
I was surprised at the line up that we seemed to be very cautious. United haven't tried to out-football us for years now and I fully expected them to sit back and counter which they did to the script that we've all seen before. Did we really need 2 holding midfielders in there? Even if the 'trick' was that Fernandes was a false 9, the plan was still to counter. Why play Stones and Ake when we didn't need to is beyond me.
The first goal was laughable really - literally a ball over the top and neither the full back or keeper shouted. Would Ederson have done anything different? Possibly, but even so that type of error is inexcusable at this level. The second goal was from a counter and we just had people practically free in our box.
The overall approach from us stunk the place out - slow, predictable, pedestrian and to be honest it was boring. We were close several times to losing the ball around our area. I honestly don't know what Pep was expecting as we couldn't find Foden, KdB, Bernardo and especially Haaland. Only when Doku came on did we have anyone who fancied winning that game. Kovacic did well but he nothing to work with.
I really don't mind losing games to anyone if we do our best, but yesterday we didn't. We were a LONG way off our best. It rankles me a bit that we save these performances, cock ups and strange changes for big games - United in the FA Cup Final, Lyon in the CL, Liverpool in the CL, Chelsea in the CL final etc. Just play the best team that's available when we need to.
I don't know if people were hungover or what, but those celebrations could've waited a week. I know they need to let off steam, that's fine, but not when you have the chance of another double against a poor United side with no morale and a manager who's about to be sacked. If we just didn't fancy the game, why not put the kids out in the 3rd round or something? We did something similar against Liverpool I think a few years ago, just put barely any effort in.
Hopefully we will beat them in the Community Shield. However, after a brilliant and unprecedented season it does feel a bit flat to miss out on a double given the way we approached and played the game.
Fair play to all of you who went down.