[TheGame]

The injury to Bailly affected us and the constant fouling was disrupting the game. Silly errors were made and it cost us. The lack of squad depth is an issue which needs addressing. No idea why AWB and Fernandes were in the starting lineup when Dalot and Mata should have played. Ole doesn’t seem to trust the backup players so needs to get ones he trusts.

 

[SirScholes]

Chelsea had 2 days extra rest and preparation. Ole made the right decision to rest players. We rested some players and tried to win the game. It didn't work out, but you still need to give it a go and not give up the game.

If Ole made more changes we would have lost the game - our second team can't win anything. He played the team he thought could win.

The last few games have highlighted we desperately need reinforcements.

Personally I think in a FA semi we needed to go full strength but it was a minority view and I do see the reasons why I just differ in opinion.

the only saving grace for me is that the players will be fired up to right this wrong and thump West Ham.

badly need squad depth

 

[Livewire1974]

Ole got the selection wrong, should have been no first choice picks on.

 

[Jonno]

DDG is past his peak, he needs moving on, sadly

 

[Waynenmads]

Kicked off the park, snide fouls, Chelsea knew perfectly well what they were doing, joke of a Referee....DDG throwing two in, Martial stonewall penalty not given at 0-0...disaster of a day

 

[siw2007]

Thought we would lose the game, went and played golf instead and came back to see we were 3 down, so think it may have been a good call.

Can’t comment on the performance but result. Of course it would have been good to win the match but we were never going to beat Chelsea 4 in a row, they would obviously want it more, they had more rest and we have got top 4 as our priority. We take the defeat on the chin and work hard to get these next two games right.

 

[Siorac]

The system that we were forced into changing into?

Obviously he means the 5-3-2 we started with.

 

[El Zoido]

Poor game, we really lose our flow when we can’t play our main XI. It’s a big concern.

DDG what can we say, he’s done. At 1-0 we were still in it, as soon as it went 2-0 it was game over. You can’t build a successful team without a good goalkeeper, and at this point he’s costing us games.

 

[FreakyJim]

I feel sick knowing Maguire and AWB will be first choice for many many years.

(Unless new manager comes and sells them, Like Ole did with Lukaku)

 

[Stacks]

I dont think we have played particularly well for a while now but fortunately our opposition were kind of weak and lacked quality.

 

[HarryRedCrumbs]

Well, tactical disaster. Chelsea strangled the life out of us. We're just going to have to write that one off... I take solice in the fact that even with a loss, it's still better to be a united fan than a larey southern cnut.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Terrible performance. Should’ve just played a 2nd string side, that’s another 90mins in the legs of already tired key players.

 

[Jazz]

Who is voting for DDG as MOTM?

We were bad. Am not going to think about it any further and I hope the coaches and players do the same. Refocus on the upcoming game! They can have a word with Lewis Hamilton on how to refocus quickly after a bad result!

Everyone needs to stay calm.

 

[Majima]

Rested Martial & Pogba, only to still bring them on in the end, Bruno & Matic played the full 90 too.

Congrats Ole you played yourself.

 

[PoTMS]

Which other manager would start an out of form speed merchant as a striker in a 3-5-2 against a team who is playing a high press when you have Ighalo available looking sharp?

 

[Champ]

All these people saying to rest players hang your head in shame.
We rested no one, we looked bereft of ideas throughout the game.
Had we started the game with our full strength team things would have been different,
But nevermind, of course we never wanted to win a trophy anyway right?

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

Lack of press resistance stems from a team with players who need four, five touches of the ball to make an action on it.

Maguire, Matic, Pogba, AWB, Lindelof all super guilty of it. Pressing teams eat us for breakfast.

 

[G-manc]

When we've been pressed in the last 3 games we've been pretty awful and it's really shown the limitations of some of our players when they aren't allowed time on the ball.

Whilst Lindelof and Maguire have (quite rightly) copped for some criticism, i think AWB has been the worst of the lot.

 

[Member 113277]

If your keeper lets in two goals like that against Chelsea you lose. There’s a lot about Chelsea looking better than us, but in reality it is easy if your keeper messes up like that against a CL quality team. Real questions have now got to be asked about our keeper.

I agree with you, but this Chelsea team is a good one and will improve next season - they can challeneg for the PL.

 

[Jacko21]

Just not at it. Unforced errors all over the place. Can’t legislate for the mistakes.

As much as Chelsea got it it right, we made it easy for them.

Just the 21 fouls for Chelsea. Clear instructions from Lampard.

Score a few past West Ham an I can live with not being in an F.A cup final.

 

[Al-T]

Only good thing about today is Leicester looked shot against Spurs so we have every chance of CL next season IF OGS can get a couple more performances.

Looked tired but were holding our own until the Bailley injury.

Romero is the cup keeper and should have started. Whatever happens, there is a decision to be made about De Gea's future

 

[always_hoping]

First defeat in 20 games. A woeful United team display but Chelsea getting their goals from two DeGea errors and OG can't be ignored. Don't think it was wise not to play the cup keeper Romero today but thats all in hindsight now.. and Maguire made so many mistakes after his head injury which it makes me wonder did he get slight concussion?

That tiredness in a number of players have me concerned for the two hugely important games coming up.

 

[Siorac]

That’s what 48 hours more rest gets you- we didn’t get going at all. Can’t blame Ole really for rotating. Gutted for Romero though - he didn’t deserve to lose his spot today and you could argue it was a bit unfair on Ighalo.
positives? We get a week off before the Europa resumes

Also, we can play the second XI against LASK. So the key players can get a mini-break.

 

[Sandikan]

De Gea could have done better for all 3, but that second goal adds another howler for the album.

Williams shouldn't escape blame for a criminal pass just before it.

That utterly killed any chance we had

 

[Untied]

Obviously he means the 5-3-2 we started with.

But that doesn’t make much sense given that we drew the first half 0-0 up until the injury enforced change in system

 

[Infra-red]

Much more concerning than the result was how knackered the key players looked. The final two league games are going to be an enormous struggle and being thoroughly outplayed here won't have helped the team's confidence.

 

[Livewire1974]

Yeah I worry how this affects the confidence and momentum. It will now most likely be a horrible nervy affair against West ham.

Hammers are safe now, so they might be on holidays. We might have tired legs though, which is why no first choice players should have played today

 

[0le]

Personally I think in a FA semi we needed to go full strength but it was a minority view and I do see the reasons why I just differ in opinion.

the only saving grace for me is that the players will be fired up to right this wrong and thump West Ham.

badly need squad depth

Yeah maybe. It is a difficult decision. I was surprised AWB didn't get a rest because his form has been poor and also was very surprised to not see Ighalo start.

 

[Jonno]

Ole got it wrong today. We should have attacked them, not sat back with 5 in defence.

Everybody he wanted to rest came on the pitch chasing the game. Do it the other way round

 

[DarkXaero]

If Ole put out a weak team he'd be lambasted for not going for it. We weren't that bad until the Bailly injury, and then individual mistakes killed us.

Actually, we were bad all game. There was maybe one period in the first half where we were finally able to string together some passes in the final third. But make no mistake, we were shit all the way through. I also think that Chelsea weren't good at all either, aside from their pressing, but our amateur level mistakes made this an easy win for them.

Also, if Ole put out a weak team, it'd be understandable, considering our situation.

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

Maguire and AWB (£130m) in particular are shocking.

City really effed the market with the normalisation of 50m full backs.

 

[r3idy]

The first 20 mins worked against us. Persisting with the playing the ball out from the box rather than mixing it up a bit meant we could never build up any rhythm in the game. After that it was all up hill

De Gea could have done so much better with the first two goals.

Personally think we have left it too late making subs in previous games. The benched players look off the pace and the first XI is looking jaded. That said the extra two days rest/training Chelsea had benefited them. They looked well drilled and a lot sharper.

Onto Weds, freshen it up a little in my opinion. Time for McTominay and Ighalo then we can go into Sunday with a relatively fresh team.

 

[sammsky1]

They were all over us and totally deserved their win.

Upon reflection there was no strategy available to us to win this, Chelsea’s extra rest and our cumulative fatigue. Ole should have known this and played played his 2nd XI.

Instead, Wrong formation, wrong tactics and wrong team selected, we are easily beaten and NONE of our first XI players got rested.

A royal screw up from Ole today.

 

[MissKatie]

Well that was utter crap wasn't it?
Oh my God that was crap.
I am scared this'll kill the player's confidence and we end up 5th or 6th

 

[Member 113277]

This.

Gonna be a lot of posters on here who have been waiting for a chance to slag Ole off and question if he's good enough for Utd and they're going to do it with relish for the next few days.

We had 2 days less rest than Chelsea which was a fecking joke. Ole took a gamble with the lineup and it didn't work, we didn't play well but it wasn't like they created anything really. And then De Gea does what De Gea does these days.

De Gea MUST be dropped for the rest of the season. If we persist with him for the next 2 games we WON'T be in the top 4, it's as simple as that.

Completely agree with your post.

 

[Heinzesight]

Lampard’s comments about United getting decisions pre-match worked wonders and I hope Ole lays in to that bearded prick Mike Dean at FT.

We were terrible. Passes not to feet. Leggy. We looked visibly gassed after 20 minutes and the Bailly injury made made us lose focus even more and De Gea pretty much sewed up the game for Chelsea but credit to Chelsea, they made us shit ourselves with their press and Maguire who’s played pretty much every minute of the season is totally fecked...looks like an oil tanker out there.

Nothing worked. James seems to ruin any flow when he starts and I just hope it was a case of one eye firmly on the league and maybe not been able to be up for it and concerning energy in training perhaps?

Got to get that game out of their heads because West Ham will salivating over that in prep for Wednesday.

 

[Globule]

Shocking performance by pretty much everyone, particularly the defence. Gave the ball away stupidly time and time again.

 

[mazhar13]

If Ole put out a weak team he'd be lambasted for not going for it. We weren't that bad until the Bailly injury, and then individual mistakes killed us.

This sums it up. We had a plan to stop Chelsea and exploit their high line, which was starting to work for us as the first half progressed. Then Bailly got injured, and our lack of central defenders meant that Ole changed our shape. That threw the whole team off, and they took advantage of that. Once we conceded that first goal, the players' heads dropped, especially Brandon Williams'. Chelsea won because of our individual errors and injuries, and their extra days of rest.

We should just move on. We lost. Accept that, learn from it, and look to seal 4th place. There's no use breaking this match down any further as it doesn't give us much insight.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Poor in many ways. We need to pick ourselves up for the last two games, hope we fall over the line in fourth then rest up for the EL.

 

[lex talionis]

Meaningless result.
Keeper mistakes.
Shambolic refereeing.