Positivity after City

We saw a few players today overwhelmed by the occasion. Malacia letting the ball roll under his foot was a prime example. A few wayward passes too. It's all part of the learning process. Was expecting a humiliation but the fact we clawed it back to the minimum I expect in the second half gives me reason to believe we can bounce back. If Varane is out for a while I'll worry a bit, but happy to shove the result under the rug and see how we react in the next game.
 
Hard to take any positives from today but to be fair, we should expect some bumps in the road in ETHs first season.

I just hope that's all it was.
 
Martial scored a couple goals which is a positive for me as he is IMO our best option for CF this season
 
I don't think there are many positives. We kept going and got 2 late goals to make it a bit more respectable at least. I remember Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs under Poch getting beat 4-0, 5-0 and 5-1 in recent times, but it will be sensationalied as United are involved.

I think ETH will have learnt a huge amount about his squad after today. I'd be surprised if Bruno and Eriksen won't start in midfield together against one of the very top teams I think.
 
Positives:
  1. Martial - back from injury and did well to score a strikers goal and win the penalty.
  2. Antony - what a goal nice to see him show that threat
  3. Fred - came in did well in my opinion
  4. We can see the level we need to reach and how far the current squad is from that, no hiding no papering over cracks and we can learn from it.
  5. We scored 3.
  6. We did the classic “win the second half”
 
When was the last time a team scored 3 goals at the Emptyhad? Granted we let in half a dozen, but scoring 3 goals without an established CF in the team is....something to clutch at?
 
I don't think there are many positives, but still, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs have taken heavy beatings at the Etihad in recent times, but this will likely get sensationalised.

I think ETH will have learnt some harsh lessons today. I'd be surprised to see Bruno and Eriksen start together in midfield against top opposition again. Likely Bruno from a tucked in wing position and Eriksen in No.10 to shore up the middle with a centre of Casemiro and Fred (for example).

SAF used to do it against Arsenal and often away in Europe. Against Leicester and Co we can get away with McTominay and Eriksen as a duo. Against top teams, it was a poor selection by ETH (hindsight is 20:20 of course).
 
He’s starting to know himself who he can rely on, whatever Rangnick said. He also has a crash course in what Premier League football Is. He pretty much said it himself post match about belief. We were shitting it at kick-off.

He’s seven games into his job. Seven.
 
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We made City play in the 2nd half and while they weren't in 5th gear they certainly weren't in 2nd gear either.

ETH is sticking to his philosophy and will come good in a season or so. We were never beating city today no matter what we did. We put 3 goals past them at the Etihad and I would be surprised if any other team is able to do that all season.
 
We're playing for the top 4 not the title, today's result is crap but it wouldn't have mattered if it was one goal or ten, we lost.

It happens, City can blow teams away.

It's about growth season on season. I'm happy that games out of the way. City will destroy the league this season and a fair few teams will feel the same fate.
 
Kaos said:
When was the last time a team scored 3 goals at the Emptyhad?
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Real in April. Spurs in February. Leicester in December. Leipzig in September. Happens every few months. Hardly a collector's item.
 
Varane and Martinez still looked solid despite having absolutely no support whatsoever.

And obviously Martial. We're crying out for a CF that can hold the ball up. While he didn't see much of that, he scored twice and won a penalty so we can presume he's sharp.
 
Positives…. The style city play is what Ten Hag will try to create with us although it may take a few seasons. City have been together for years with the same manager, we’re 7 games into the season with a new manager and a bunch of new players who haven’t been together for long. Team cohesion will happen once these players have spent years training together… another positive is that we’re still only 2 points of top 4 with a game in hand so this result doesn’t effect anything really… let’s remember we’re fighting for top 4 not the title… we’re still above the scousers who are having a worse season then us, I also think we’ll finish above Chelsea because the job will be to big for potter to handle. Let’s stick together… fight together. Let’s all remember Liverpool are in a worse mess then us right now…
 
Antony showed he can score stunners as well as tap ins :eek: :eek: :lol:
Onwards and upwards.
 
We scored the last two goals in the game which has made some people feel happier about the performance than they should, hence the thread.

The main positive is that ETH has proven he can get us to bounce back from a terrible performance already.
 
The positives are

1. Martial is back and looks good
2. Surely ETH must now realise the importance of getting Casemiro in the team and persisting with him until he hits top form
3. We learnt a lesson about lack of balance in a Eriksen-Bruno midfield in games where we need physicality and defensive nous.
4. We bounced back after Brentford so no reason we can't do the same after this. As long as we win our next league game, this derby is just a loss at the end of the day, it doesn't have to be any worse than a 2-1 loss although it might feel like it.
 
We gave up 6 goals to City. There is nothing to be positive about. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is the type of thread we used to make fun of RAWK for.
 
fergiewherearethou said:
Positives:
- We scored 3 games at Etihad
- We tried to beat them at their own game, by keeping players upfront and trying to keep the ball, it backfired but at least it shows a healthy mentality and a hopeful direction.
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I really don't think that was the case. We were prepared to defend deep and rely on transitions just like we were against Liverpool/Arsenal. City breached our deep defence within 5 minutes and scored from a corner to make it 2-0 - from that point the original game plan went completely out the window as we had to try get back in the game.
 
I feared we would revert to type after the International break. We had made some progress after the poor start which was clearly related to a lot of work on the training pitch.

With the lads all being off all over the World, I had a feeling we'd be chaotic and lacking in the basics today because ETH hasn't had the time yet to make all this stuff stick properly

Also, City were really good, or at least, KdB, Haaland and Foden were immense. We might have gotten away with being sloppy against lesser sides

The positive (I am hoping) is that we have a long run now with plenty of fixtures. I would hope we can start putting into practice ETHs methods again
 
I think under Ole we'd have totally collapsed and lost the game by 7 or 8 and become national laughing stocks.

Under Ten Hag, we did keep going but still gave up 6 goals and are now national laughing stocks.
 
At 1-0 City were dominating the ball but not creating anything of note. Scored from a set piece when we were down to 10 men, missing one of our better aerial defenders and then scored a third when that same defender couldn't really run properly. Game over.

The offside didn't look clear to me and I haven't seen a replay since. Was it off? And the ball definitely looked like it went out for another goal.

As dominant as City were, I think they had a tiny bit of luck at a key moment and it killed the game as a contest.
 
Finding positives after being outplayed while all our players looked shot right from the start? Nah I’m not having it. It was a disgraceful performance yet again. City is good but Newcastle and Villa and Palace can have a go at them with a far worse side (at least on paper) so why can’t utd? If the team mentality won’t get better we will be stuck in this 9 year period of failure after failure for a very long time to come.

Ten Hag let the players run some extra miles after Brighton, he should do the same again until they can be arsed to run their lungs out because this was purely a mentality problem. There is absolutely no need to go light on them now!

Some of you seem to go easy because we scored 2 goals at 6-1 down, ridiculous, the game was long finished, especially once Pep did 4 subs at once.
 
I can't even get mad today. City is playing on a whole other level. It will take time and good dealings for us to catch up.

Positives: Martial is back.
 
Varane around town said:
I think under Ole we'd have totally collapsed and lost the game by 7 or 8 and become national laughing stocks.

Under Ten Hag, we did keep going but still gave up 6 goals and are now national laughing stocks.
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You don't have to think what might have happened under Ole.

Ole was our manager remember. Had a pretty good record against Pep and City.
 
Not a single fecking thing. Not one.

Look at City's 6th goal.

There's 6 United players VS only Foden and Halaand yet they were able to score. 6 United players, SIX !!!!!!
with 2 United players holding their hands up the moment Foden gets the ball. I HATE that shite. Play to the fecking whistle.
One of the idiots holding their hand is up is the one who played Foden onside in Shaw.

Comical if you can't defend your goal when you're 6 vs 2.
 
I couldn't bear to concentrate on the match. Thought Martial did well to score 2, and he always has this ability to draw fouls in the box. His penalty was class.
 
Big Ben Foster said:
We gave up 6 goals to City. There is nothing to be positive about. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is the type of thread we used to make fun of RAWK for.
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I think that's a little off base.

This type of thread was not the type of thing that would be mocked mostly. It would be more the intense bitterness and conspiracy theories.

Trying to find some positives after a year of misery is actually quite helpful. For instance another little flash of what Antony is capable of or Martial looking pretty excellent is fairly comforting.
 
I posted this in the post match thread, but it’s my summary of thoughts on todays game.

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Even though I’m bitterly disappointed, realistically, away at City is probably our most difficult game of the season. I didn’t expect anything better than a draw.

Having said that EtH got a few big decisions wrong that I would have expected him to anticipate going into the match.

1. The reason City keep the ball so well in the opposition half is because they have excellent technicians, players who have great close control and can dribble and slide past a challenge or two - Grealish, Foden, de Bruyne, Gundogan, Bernardo…that’s 5 out of 6 of the front players. And it’s why Haaland doesn’t need to get too involved in the play (although he’s so good at it.

Contrast that to us…where we have Sancho, Bruno, Rashford, Eriksen, Antony, and McTominay. Out of that 6 only Sancho, Eriksen and Antony can fit that profile. Rashford and Bruno are great counter attacking players but they are so careless and haphazard with the ball. McTominay is slightly better but still a level or two below City’s.

2. Although Rashford has had a mini renaissance this season, there were two instances that really pissed me off and shows me he doesn’t have the stomach for the fight. The first was in the first half when there was a poor pass from Akanji to Ederson and Ederson faffed the pass back. Rashford won the footrace, got ahead of Akanji and was so easily shrugged off the ball. Really pathetic attempt.

The second was a poor Gundogan pass back to Ederson, and Ederson just thwacked it into the air. Rather than contest for the ball against Ake, especially when he was in the better position, Rashford just watched Ake head it out. You could see the difference when Martial came on.

3. Eriksen and McTominay have done well but we’re playing the best team in the league, who are blitzing teams at home, and are probably going to win multiple trophies this season. Playing these two against City’s three was suicidal. Surely this was the time to solidify the middle. Casemiro, the world’s best DM and two out of Eriksen/Fred/McTominay would have been the way to go. With Fred and McTominay they could just push up and press all day long and leave the defending to Casemiro.

It was tactically naive from EtH, and I thought as a progressive exciting manager he would have realised that before kick off.

4. Man City deserved the win of course, but the 2nd and 3rd goal came because Varane was injured in my opinion. I think he would have picked up Haaland for the corner and I think he wasn’t running right for the 3rd.

5. Bright spots were Martial, and Antony. Rest were pretty poor.

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Some additional thoughts:

There are a few positives from today’s game. I’m glad we still attacked until the final whistle. Under previous regimes we would have just put 11 men behind the ball. Also, despite the score line, I think if we played Casemiro from the start it would have been a much closer affair.
 
Chief123 said:
Agreed. We kind of needed a reality check to know where we are in the rebuild. We even had some talking of a title challenge on here after our 4 wins.

A big positive for me is you can see we are increasing in the technical players in the team who are actually able to do something with the ball at feet.
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Technical players like Sancho that get overrun and nullified as soon as the intensity is cranked up :lol: :lol: :lol:
Chief Muppet strikes again :eek:
 
City are an excellent team. We are a decent team who are improving. They are levels above us and the result is no surprise. My gripe would be how easy their goals were but they make everything look easy in fairness. And I’m annoyed that chav Foden scored a hat trick.

We’re doing ok. A result would have been nice today but not expected. We have so much work to do.
 
Bondi77 said:
Technical players like Sancho that get overrun and nullified as soon as the intensity is cranked up :lol: :lol: :lol:
Chief Muppet strikes again :eek:
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Yeah we’ve got some technical players like Antony who can score tap ins. :lol: Bondi Bollocks.
 
Santoryo said:
Never understood how people predict losses then act like it's the end of the world when you do indeed lose the game.

Most in here predicted we'd lose which happened. And people predicted that for a good reason, being that currently City are a better team than us. Losing against them shouldn't warrant calls for sacking everyone and whatsnot.

Most are or should be aware of the fact that we're a work in progress therefore defeat such as today against the likes of City isn't necessarily a surprise. All we ought to do is learn from this and move on.
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Its the manner in which we lost.

- Their 6th goal it was 6 United players vs 2 City players at the edge of our penalty area (Foden & Halaand) and they still managed to score. You won't see this kind of shambolic defending in a Sunday league game. It's basics.
- How many times did we leave their CB's to run (unchallenged) right through a gaping midfield and lay the most simplest of passes off to KDB and Foden in very dangerous areas.
- When we had the ball we didn't know what to do with it. De Gea lumping it upfield when we don't have anyone up front who can challenge for the ball, ceding possession to City to invite yet another attack.

I can forgive having a plan and trying to implement that plan but then failing but this honestly looked our team looked like a bunch of randoms that met each other the day before at the pub and decided to have a kick about.
 
The Corinthian said:
I posted this in the post match thread, but it’s my summary of thoughts on todays game.

—————————
Even though I’m bitterly disappointed, realistically, away at City is probably our most difficult game of the season. I didn’t expect anything better than a draw.

Having said that EtH got a few big decisions wrong that I would have expected him to anticipate going into the match.

1. The reason City keep the ball so well in the opposition half is because they have excellent technicians, players who have great close control and can dribble and slide past a challenge or two - Grealish, Foden, de Bruyne, Gundogan, Bernardo…that’s 5 out of 6 of the front players. And it’s why Haaland doesn’t need to get too involved in the play (although he’s so good at it.

Contrast that to us…where we have Sancho, Bruno, Rashford, Eriksen, Antony, and McTominay. Out of that 6 only Sancho, Eriksen and Antony can fit that profile. Rashford and Bruno are great counter attacking players but they are so careless and haphazard with the ball. McTominay is slightly better but still a level or two below City’s.

2. Although Rashford has had a mini renaissance this season, there were two instances that really pissed me off and shows me he doesn’t have the stomach for the fight. The first was in the first half when there was a poor pass from Akanji to Ederson and Ederson faffed the pass back. Rashford won the footrace, got ahead of Akanji and was so easily shrugged off the ball. Really pathetic attempt.

The second was a poor Gundogan pass back to Ederson, and Ederson just thwacked it into the air. Rather than contest for the ball against Ake, especially when he was in the better position, Rashford just watched Ake head it out. You could see the difference when Martial came on.

3. Eriksen and McTominay have done well but we’re playing the best team in the league, who are blitzing teams at home, and are probably going to win multiple trophies this season. Playing these two against City’s three was suicidal. Surely this was the time to solidify the middle. Casemiro, the world’s best DM and two out of Eriksen/Fred/McTominay would have been the way to go. With Fred and McTominay they could just push up and press all day long and leave the defending to Casemiro.

It was tactically naive from EtH, and I thought as a progressive exciting manager he would have realised that before kick off.

4. Man City deserved the win of course, but the 2nd and 3rd goal came because Varane was injured in my opinion. I think he would have picked up Haaland for the corner and I think he wasn’t running right for the 3rd.

5. Bright spots were Martial, and Antony. Rest were pretty poor.

————————
Some additional thoughts:

There are a few positives from today’s game. I’m glad we still attacked until the final whistle. Under previous regimes we would have just put 11 men behind the ball. Also, despite the score line, I think if we played Casemiro from the start it would have been a much closer affair.
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Eriksen is just as much of a haphazard with the ball.
 
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