Positivity after City

Gordon Godot said:
Really poor team selection, but ETH deserves time. We seem to have lost sight of the bigger picture. Our team cost more than City's and we pay them more... Let that sink in. Nothing changes with Glazers at the helm
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We have too many players that just aren't good enough to be a title winning team. It's going to take a number of transfer windows to get close to that level. ETH is currently working with some of the disaster's we've made in recent years.

I am 100% confident he is the right person to turn it around though. Once we get rid of the likes of Ronaldo and De Gea in the summer that will significantly bring the wage bill down. Getting rid of some of the other deadwood will prove to be a much bigger challenge though due to the high wages!
 
City away was always going to be the toughest game of the season. Let's just be glad that it's done with and that we made the whole thing a lot less embarrassing in the second half. Losing 6-3 away to the arguably best team in the world with the arguably best player in the world in top form is not that awful. No one expects us to challenge City for the title this season anyways. The loss also comes after beating Liverpool and Arsenal, so that makes the whole thing a lot more tolerable.

There are some positives from the game itself too. We adjusted well after the break, which is an important ability to have. Antony was really fresh in the 2nd half and scored a beautiful goal. Martial also had a very positive impact on the game.
 
1. On another day, 3 goals are enough to beat City
2. Ten Hag admits what we could have done better and is looking to solve it immediately. He seems to know what went wrong and thats important
3. Antony showing his quality by scoring that goal. Basically out of nothing
4. It looks like it cant get worse than that game for this season and even so we did not look hopeless
 
I think it should be stated more just how good City were yesterday, even the best sides in Europe would have been thumped. The best performance I’ve seen by any club team in Europe since Guardiola’s Barca with Messi at the height of his powers. And I watch a lot of football from all the main European leagues.
 
This was always going to be a good indicator of how the manager, players individually and collectively, tactics and fitness were at this moment. I think it was also unfortunate that we had around a month with no games, and many of the players away with their respective countries, so it is like starting the season again.
I think that Ten Hag was a little naïve in his set up, and in hindsight, bringing Casemiro in could have been a wise step, but I applaud his desire to try and take the game to city.
I remember when Vidic and Evra made their respective debuts against city, and both were dismal, but look how they turned out!
Ten Hag will now have a better idea of the strength of the top team in the EPL, and more importantly, the strengths and weaknesses of his own squad.
I do worry about a our lack of good CB's, and our under performing forward players. Sancho has not really shown much so far, Rashford has yet to get back to where he was, Ronaldo also looks a bit remote from the other players, and Fernandes has not yet hit the heights of a couple of seasons ago, but it was good to see Martial back, Antony will get better, as he gets used to the EPL, and midfield wise, Casemiro will come in and get more game time.
This is another step on the way back to the top, and we are only on the first few steps, there's a long way to go, but the team will improve, a few players will move on, and some will come in, and possibly some academy players will get the opportunity.
 
I'm amazed how many people are taking any sort of comfort from the second half. It was a completely meaningless period of 45 minutes, as we were never going to win it a by a four-goal margin to get anything from the game. We knew that. More importantly, City were completely confident in that.
 
Martial, I would say. I have been very skeptical of him in the last couple of years and already thought he was done here for sure, but so far every time he played this season he was actually a bright spot of hope. I really hope he can turn things around and become the striker we all hoped he could be.
 
Who's Kissing Cameras? said:
We kept the ball a lot better in the second half and showed nice patterns of play with Casemiro at the base.
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Who knew one of the best DMs in the world would add stability to our midfield. Someone please let ten Hag and the coaches know that we actually have a world class option in midfield that could finally add some balance to Eriksen and Bruno.
 
Thought we were really unlucky for the most part. Sancho, Rashford and Mctominay, and to a lesser extent, Ericksen were absolute shite. Didn't really see what Citeh did to stifle them, or how the tactics were so wrong, rather they were just not up for it and played horribly. Attitude problem. Their first goal came off a terrible Sancho pass that gave them massive momentum going forward and Ericksen got caught inexcusably ball watching for the first goal. The second and third goals were directly off the Varane injury, and the forth goal was an absolute milimetrically perfect pass from De Bruyner. With a bit of luck we could've survived that first half at worst, one nil down, and that Anthony screamer would've massively changed a close match.

Were also unlucky to run into the cyborg form of the Norwegian Ihni binni dimi diniwiny anitaime. That shit eating grin from papa Alfie after his boy's third goal was deadly. Thanks Roy, haha. We defo improved with Martial coming on and Anthony showed some much needed cojones for the poor attitude and form of his teammates. Think it will be a good wake up call for McTominay, and especially Sancho and Rashford. You just can't be so shite, and less so away in the derby against the best side in the world. Casemiro's form continues to be worrying, but I have faith in him and an inform Casemiro will keep us in matches like these.

I believe ETH will have learned a lot of lessons from this match.
 
TMDaines said:
I'm amazed how many people are taking any sort of comfort from the second half. It was a completely meaningless period of 45 minutes, as we were never going to win it a by a four-goal margin to get anything from the game. We knew that. More importantly, City were completely confident in that.
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This.

All this talk of the 'two goals we scored' completely ignores that city had substituted their entire midfield except Bernardo by the 76th minute
 
i guess one positive i can draw is that our expectations of getting something from the game were high enough, if we had played with the same intensity as against arsenal and liverpool. we didn't get it but i would expect us to go out and hammer the sheeeeeiiite out of nicosia and everton.
 
Nobby style said:
Thought we were really unlucky for the most part. Sancho, Rashford and Mctominay, and to a lesser extent, Ericksen were absolute shite. Didn't really see what Citeh did to stifle them, or how the tactics were so wrong, rather they were just not up for it and played horribly. Attitude problem. Their first goal came off a terrible Sancho pass that gave them massive momentum going forward and Ericksen got caught inexcusably ball watching for the first goal. The second and third goals were directly off the Varane injury, and the forth goal was an absolute milimetrically perfect pass from De Bruyner. With a bit of luck we could've survived that first half at worst, one nil down, and that Anthony screamer would've massively changed a close match.

Were also unlucky to run into the cyborg form of the Norwegian Ihni binni dimi diniwiny anitaime. That shit eating grin from papa Alfie after his boy's third goal was deadly. Thanks Roy, haha. We defo improved with Martial coming on and Anthony showed some much needed cojones for the poor attitude and form of his teammates. Think it will be a good wake up call for McTominay, and especially Sancho and Rashford. You just can't be so shite, and less so away in the derby against the best side in the world. Casemiro's form continues to be worrying, but I have faith in him and an inform Casemiro will keep us in matches like these.

I believe ETH will have learned a lot of lessons from this match.
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Not sure how none of the defenders are included in the terrible group - we conceded 6 goals.
 
Not easy to find positives from that. We could easily have been 7-0 down at half-time. Martial getting a couple of goals is a positive, and Antony took his goal really well. However, 6-3 actually flatters us, so when you look at it like that, it's difficult to find positives. We need to find character now; defeats like those aren't easy to put behind you. Big test for the players in the next few games.
 
Lecland07 said:
Not sure how none of the defenders are included in the terrible group - we conceded 6 goals.
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The two full backs were murdered all game, but the set up was wrong. We were completely overrun in midfield; there was no protection for the defence. ETG played far too open; it was a naive team selection and formation to play at the Etihad.
 
Someone said “we didn’t seem to be up for this match.”
If you can’t be “up” for a local derby, you shouldn’t be in the squad.
Too many times this season, players strolling through a game with the minimum of effort.
We desperately need a real leader like Roy Keane.
 
simonhch said:
I am not going to flip out. We are so early in the process with the new manager. I see so much more about this United side than I have done in previous seasons. I think we will come good. No point throwing the baby out with the bath water. We've already played Liverpool, Arsenal and City, at a time when the manager is trying to revolutionise the way we play. This game simply came too soon for us. I think it will be a different performance in the reverse fixture. It's easy to get despondent but that isn't going to help anything. We have to do what we did before, after the Brentford drubbing, dig deep and produce some results in the coming weeks. Having Martial back will help A LOT, and now is clearly the time to integrate Casemiro and start playing the first XI that we know is best. Hopefully Varane isn't out for long, because we need some defensive consistency. Think this may have been a different game, as in not quite so brutal, if we hadn't conceded that second goal from a corner when Varane was off the field. Just another example of what a cnut Michael Oliver is. Should've just worn his City shirt.

I am simply not going to throw in the towel because we have been hammered by Sports Washing FC. feck them and everything they stand for. As far as I am concerned, nothing they do counts for anything. A cnuty club, owned by cnuty people. They have unlimited resources and happened to be managed by the best manager of his generation. What are you going to do? Just have to learn from it, be humble, work hard, and as ETH said, learn to be brave and believe in ourselves. The season is long and I am still very hopeful of what we will accomplish this season, and the foundations we will lay. City are off to a flyer, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that Haaland won't stay fit all season, and they will have a big dip in form at some point.

The most painful point today was watching Haaland turn so slowly and clumsily outside the area, as to look like Bambi on steroids on ice, get tackled by Casemiro, only for the ball to fall to Foden and him to complete his hattrick. That passage of play was pathetic. Haaland looked as clumsy and slow as Lukaku, and it still resulted in a goal. No excuses for that shit.
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Well said mate.
 
When the game was done at half time Ten Hag had 4 more substitutions left and it was a positive move to give players game time for match fitness that actually want to be at the club and fight for a place in the team. It was the right decision to leave Ronaldo on the bench.
 
The only positive was the players got another kick up their arse on where they need to be. Scoring a few easy goals on their second string dose not point us in any direction. I’m guessing ETH still scratching his beard on wtf.. Loved how he held his hand up at half time. “Maybe it’s my fault, not being clear enough”
 
Giggsy13 said:
Who knew one of the best DMs in the world would add stability to our midfield. Someone please let ten Hag and the coaches know that we actually have a world class option in midfield that could finally add some balance to Eriksen and Bruno.
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I don't have an issue with Casemiro not getting into the team immediately, McT has actually been very good in this run of wins we've had, as long as he now has a chance and starts games. We haven't really had meritocracy in our squad for years, it will be nice if it returns. Play well, you keep your place, play poorly and someone else gets a shot
 
TMDaines said:
I'm amazed how many people are taking any sort of comfort from the second half. It was a completely meaningless period of 45 minutes, as we were never going to win it a by a four-goal margin to get anything from the game. We knew that. More importantly, City were completely confident in that.
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City were still pressing like crazy in the second half.
 
I just hope ETH understands now that the current starting midfield doesn't have any balance, and is prone to get overrun.

Also, we really need our forwards to step up. When was the last time they scored out of nowhere, like Antony last match? I feel like a front 3 of Sancho, Rashford and Antony just doesn't have enough goals in them.
 
Scoring 3 goals is good even if you let in 6. Same for City, conceding 3 goals is bad even if you score 6 yourself.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I don't have an issue with Casemiro not getting into the team immediately, McT has actually been very good in this run of wins we've had, as long as he now has a chance and starts games. We haven't really had meritocracy in our squad for years, it will be nice if it returns. Play well, you keep your place, play poorly and someone else gets a shot
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I agree with this but we already had an idea of what McT was about and his level, which was exposed brutally yesterday. I think you have to trust the experience and world class of Casemiro now and give him a fair run of games so that we can get the best out of his last few prime years.
 
Solius said:
Maybe we see it differently then but for me the amazing thing about supporting Utd (when we were good) was the fight and how tight and dramatic some games were. There was rarely a huge gap between us and other teams, to the extent there is now. 90+ points is becoming the norm. Watching a team just steamroller everyone else in the league does not make the sport fun.
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My problem with this is that it arguably makes the ESL more likely to happen. All the top European Leagues have now become 1 or 2 horse races.
 
While losing is never positive I want to believe that this will show our group that we are far off and only hard work will get us where we want to be. Hopefully, they will take it right way and work even better. Some got carried away with four game winning streak so coming back to reality doesn't need to be that bad.
 
UpWithRivers said:
1) We never really made a huge fk up. Sure we played them onside - Shaw. Lost a man for a goal etc but it was not glaringly obvious give away a goal scenarios like in the past. It was mistakes down to pressure and good play by City
2) Yeah City slowed down and subbed players etc but it seemed like we kept at it. We didnt totally down tools like in the past.
3) I think tactical naivety made us look worse than we are. Sure City are miles ahead of us but I dont think we are that sht. When Real play prime Barca they dont go toe to toe with them. They defend and hit on the counter. McTominay and Eriksen was a mistake. Something we hopefully learn from.
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This is all true, but would not have been so catastrophic if McTominay and Eriksen played like they did against Liverpool/Arsenal. Both had bad games, whether through tactics not working or simply being outclassed, or likely both, but we needed at least one firing and both were largely anonymous. I think City used Grealish and Foden wide and made their attacks through them so that McT and Eriksen were taken out of the game.
 
RedOrange said:
City were still pressing like crazy in the second half.
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Not being smart about this at all. Seriously…go watch the second half again. City were not pressing like crazy and more importantly, their pressing wasn’t as coherent.

Utd were flattered to get on the scoresheet.
 
MegadrivePerson said:
We have too many players that just aren't good enough to be a title winning team. It's going to take a number of transfer windows to get close to that level. ETH is currently working with some of the disaster's we've made in recent years.

I am 100% confident he is the right person to turn it around though. Once we get rid of the likes of Ronaldo and De Gea in the summer that will significantly bring the wage bill down. Getting rid of some of the other deadwood will prove to be a much bigger challenge though due to the high wages!
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Yeah Erik will have never worked with owners who couldn't care less about what happens on the pitch and is a test of his resolve.
 
captaincantona said:
Not being smart about this at all. Seriously…go watch the second half again. City were not pressing like crazy and more importantly, their pressing wasn’t as coherent.

Utd were flattered to get on the scoresheet.
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I already watched it. You're wrong, as usual.

Feel free to provide some clips of their incoherent pressing though, whatever tf that means.

Also I guess you missed the thread title. Keep working at it though mate, you'll pick up the language soon enough.
 
I think TH learned that the 4 wins we had were unsustainable once we played a team who scored first. He should stick to his principles and drill this team to play the way he wants and if any big name cant or wont do it, get a reserve in who will try. He has a free pass really this season to get it right. I dont think we will finish lower than 6th and any higher needs to be looked at as a step in the right direction.
 
wolvored said:
I think TH learned that the 4 wins we had were unsustainable once we played a team who scored first. He should stick to his principles and drill this team to play the way he wants and if any big name cant or wont do it, get a reserve in who will try. He has a free pass really this season to get it right. I dont think we will finish lower than 6th and any higher needs to be looked at as a step in the right direction.
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I don't think it's this at all. It's just we came up against the best team in the world class and an all time great manager, we had a collective off day right from the first minute with sloppy touches, and they were ruthless.

It'll take us time to get to a level where we can play City and Pep to a close even level, and even then, we likely won't ever reach their current level. We hope EtH can be close to Pep. We hope our recruitment strategy can get lucky for a few years to get a squad like they have. But realistically we are building to be able to compete with the best, and by then Pep will likely be gone anyway.

The reality is that they are capable of hammering any club on any given day, and that happened to us on Sunday.
 
- We had only 2% less in passing accuracy than City.
- Meanwhile, we had an overwhelming 64% of shots on target to City's 41%.
- Also registered more clearances than City by far, with 12 clearances to their 5.
- We had zero offsides, to their 1 offside.
- We also had the edge on throw-ins with 19; City only managed 11.

Silent domination.
 
Only positive for me is that we responded at least in the 2nd half and didn't lay down further like last season with City and Liverpool.

Also silver living in that Martial is back and fit, he should be what we've been missing up top in attack for ETH's system
 
bosnian_red said:
I don't think it's this at all. It's just we came up against the best team in the world class and an all time great manager, we had a collective off day right from the first minute with sloppy touches, and they were ruthless.

It'll take us time to get to a level where we can play City and Pep to a close even level, and even then, we likely won't ever reach their current level. We hope EtH can be close to Pep. We hope our recruitment strategy can get lucky for a few years to get a squad like they have. But realistically we are building to be able to compete with the best, and by then Pep will likely be gone anyway.

The reality is that they are capable of hammering any club on any given day, and that happened to us on Sunday.
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TH doesnt want to play counter attacking football. He said he wants to play possession/hard press like City. The 4 games we won wasnt his football at all. He just adapted because the players who have been here a while cant or wont play his style. I agree we played probably the best team in the world right now, but to get completely hammered when 'lesser' teams havent conceded 6 against them, is unacceptable and thats why TH should stick to his principles.
 
wolvored said:
TH doesnt want to play counter attacking football. He said he wants to play possession/hard press like City. The 4 games we won wasnt his football at all. He just adapted because the players who have been here a while cant or wont play his style. I agree we played probably the best team in the world right now, but to get completely hammered when 'lesser' teams havent conceded 6 against them, is unacceptable and thats why TH should stick to his principles.
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Don't see him having the team to play his possession based football for at least another 2/3 windows as still so many to shift.
 
croadyman said:
Don't see him having the team to play his possession based football for at least another 2/3 windows as still so many to shift.
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True, but he cant just drop it he needs to find a way to adapt the mindset and skills of as msny as he can.
 
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