[Infra-red]

Reminiscent of the nightmare days of 3-5-2. A woeful team performance, littered with some abysmal individual displays, in particular Valencia and Blind. Di Maria is a complete waste of space. The side looks very soft-centred without Carrick in midfield.

 

[kundalini]

Terrible performance. So slow in possession, rarely created anything. Everton's players faster and stronger. Defence was shambolic. Valencia and McNair absolutely awful.

 

[siw2007]

Away day blues continue. Perhaps a defeat that has humbled us all today and definitely a performance to forget. Fair play to Everton, they were man for man better than us today by a wide margin and we couldn't live with them. We were slow and predictable on the ball, but also very weak without it.

I thought the only players who remotely played to an acceptable level were Rooney, Smalling, Young and maybe Herrera (and thats kind), while the rest were well below par. It was awful to watch us lose those goals, Blind, McNair and Valencia were all weak over all of them. I expected more from Mata in the final third who had a number of touches of the ball but couldn't do anything of note. I voted Rooney MOTM but if I could, I would give it to the away fans who were top notch, even when we were 3 down.

These last two games have knocked us back to reality, but we are now posed with the question of how we deal with counter attacking sides because we don't look like we can cope with it at the moment. Hopefully Wayne recovers from his knock because we need him and the rest of the team at their best next week. This season CANNOT unravel and we CANNOT accept anything less than a win against West Brom.

 

[WyoManU]

Quick reminder for me of how average of a side we actually are. A lot of work for Woodward again this summer.

 

[Viral United]

Just one word Awful.
Can't believe we just work against City,

 

[Kostur]

Or, get Carrick fit.

And if we don't manage to get him up for the game?

 

[Devil may care]

That was the most disappointing performance of the season in context, to take such a big backwards step at such a vital point is disheartening.

The defensive performance of McNair and Valencia will rightly be scrutinized by it's naive to blame only them, they had zero protection from midfield and any doubts to how much this team needs Carrick ended today.

However we need to take a look at the top end of the pitch, if you play 4-3-3 all 3 need to be genuine goal threats, today none of them were, no hold up play from Rooney, Young mostly on repeat and Mata and Di Maria absolutely useless, Baines had the easiest afternoon of the season.

 

[pauldyson1uk]

WTF I have just heard Souness defending us and saying he feels for us .

 

[Robbie Boy]

The match was finished WAY before the final whistle.

Obviously. Still hilarious wanting to desperately be the one to get the thread in first.

 

[Burrow]

I personally blame the locking of the "bye bye top 4"-thread.

 

[Charlie Foley]

 

[Zoo]

Souness and Henry are right, that third goal should never have been allowed. Just an awful game, can't wait for the day we smash Everton and smug Martinez.

 

[Jed I. Knight]

And if we don't manage to get him up for the game?

Well, or odds of getting something will be far worse than if we do. It's amazing how much we rely on him, really.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

I personally blame the locking of the "bye bye top 4"-thread.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Such a shame. We looked to be onto a good thing and now it's two defeats on the bounce. It's completely taken away the feel good factor. After the Chelsea game, the optimisim was still there but today we were a shambles.

Bring on WBA, we need to get back to form in that game. No guessing what tactics they will deploy against us and no better man than Pulis to set-up a defensive team.

 

[The Man Himself]

Defensively awful and lacking penetration in attack. Overall team didn't turn up. We need to work on strategy to unlock defensively setup teams. We have lost too many points in such scenario this season. Hope team puts this defeat behind and focuses on winning remaining 4 games.

 

[NK86]

McNair I said was the only positive - nice to see a young player play with so much confidence, especially against such a physical player like Lukak

Did you even see his attempt to clear the ball for their first goal or the multiple times when Smalling had to bail his ass out?

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Souness and Henry are right, that third goal should never have been allowed. Just an awful game, can't wait for the day we smash Everton and smug Martinez.

He was only a game away from being sacked IMO

 

[#07]

Worrying signs that, just as we showed the Premier League how to handle Liverpool's 3-4-3 at JuAnfield, Mourinho has showed the Premier League how to deal with our 4-3-3.

Although they were helped by the slowness of the ball out of defence, Everton played us perfectly today. They sat deep and defended their box, packed the space between midfield and defence to isolate the players that form our left and right triangles in midfield, and then challenged us to make a pass perfect enough to cut through their defensive lines.

As we didn't really press them into making any mistakes, apart from that missed Fellaini chance at 1-0, Everton were comfortable. They watched us switch it over and over in front of them, waited for the inevitable cross, cut it out and countered. We were beaten comprehensively and Van Gaal had no response. Deep into injury time we were still switching it wide (mostly to the left) and sending crosses in for Everton to turn into counters with quick clearances. No instructions came from the bench to do anything different. Poor.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Just one word Awful.
Can't believe we just work against City,

The city game hurt us more that we thought. The injuries that is

 

[77]

Just got it completely wrong tactically, coupled with a naive defence and senior players off their game. We shouldn't bother playing Wayne at Goodison ever again.

 

[Womp]

One of those days, not enough reason to speculate that we're undergoing some severe regression stylistically, or that we've been found out, or some of the other bollocks I've had the displeasure of reading during the past hour.

The goals conceded were abysmal. When your defenders are going to behave like that then tactics and game plan get thrown out the window.

This might be the kick up the arse we need, however. We've got the points when we've needed them all season long and I expect it to continue next week with a victory.

You're doing it all wrong. Don't you know we're supposed to be knee-jerking right now?

 

[Triple.Threat]

three mistakes = three goals today. We were very poor and deserved nothing form the game. Lets move on.

 

[Rolandofgilead]

It isn't often that I find the need to rant or complain at a performance, I genrally take the rough times with the good times, but that was pathetic.

First of all as I said to @langster earlier, LVG for all of his good traits has no plan B, he doesn't change the shape, the tactics, nothing.

secondly, without Carrick in the side we are clueless, we have nobody (yes herrera and blind included) that has the ability to be the midfield anchor and it makes us so easy to play against, pack the middle of the pitch, stay disciplined hit us on the counter, goal, repeat.

Whichever way you look at it, Valencia is terrible, he's not been good since he returned from his leg break, as a winger he is too scared to take on his full back, as a full back he is naive, clueless with his positioning and generally poor, not his fault but it's a fact.

We are so easy to play against it's unreal. let's just get this season over with and make sure we finish forth.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

McNair I said was the only positive - nice to see a young player play with so much confidence, especially against such a physical player like Lukaku.

He was totally bullied by Lukaku and was our worst player of a poor display by all of them

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I personally blame the locking of the "bye bye top 4"-thread.

Somebody said it would jinx us. Get it back open.

 

[Burrow]

Seriously though, avoid the first goal and we would've walked it. Everton offered very little, and scored a fluke goal, a set piece and a horrorshow of an offiside-goal. Fellaini scoring right after we concede, and we would've destroyed them. We lost all our motivation and composure, or the players stopped believing they could win it, when we were still 2-0 down with only 30 minutes to go, but these things happen. Van Gaal will surely try to figure out what to do when his Fellaini-tactic is countered like these last couple of days. I'm gutted and angry about this, but we cant let this one game destroy the mood and general buzz around our team that's been created due to our last 4-5 great performances.

 

[Kag]

He was totally bullied by Lukaku and was our worst player of a poor display by all of them

Indeed.

 

[Listar]

No one performed. McNair I said was the only positive - nice to see a young player play with so much confidence, especially against such a physical player like Lukaku.

Looked like our old ways today - no end product and silly errors.
We just have to be thankful I guess that Liverpool didn't win. We really do have to make sure we win our next two games against West Brom and Palace. I'd hate to go into that Arsenal game knowing a loss could knock us out of the top 4 with a Liverpool win elsewhere.

No McNair was horrible. Nervous as wreck.

 

[Darwin09]

Seen the replays of the 3rd goal a few times now. It's offsides in my book - Lukaku pauses but he is clearly involved in the play and as a result distracts the entire defensive line. The only situations where this is not offsides is if he is in another part of the field and not involved at all. Poor refereeing for me and it may not have mattered at the end but there is always a chance at 2-0 whereas 3-0 is game over.

 

[markorm]

I think the yellow for Fallaini was a big problem for us, nullifying that threat quite from the start.

We were weak in front of goal, and no creativity after Fellaini went off. We don't really have a plan B at the moment other than put Falcao and Di Maria on, and the team looks a bit lost.

65% possession I heard, which is positive.

We get carried away with 'We could have won it this year' '2nd spot is ours' talk, this shows we're not quite there yet. Nearly... but not quite.

Summer can't come soon enough.

 

[JoaquinJoaquin]

The match ended when Falcao came in

Great post.

 

[Wumminator]

Btw. Well played Everton. Very good performance.

 

[Freak]

I honestly hate teams that raise their game against us. Everton are one of these teams. Cnuts.

 

[2 man midfield]

Three nil. To Everton. No team should ever lose three nil to Everton...

 

[Inigo Montoya]

I honestly hate teams that raise their game against us. Everton are one of these teams. Cnuts.

They didn't have to raise it that much. We gave them 2 goals start

 

[Americano]

I think it's what a lot of us have said for a long time - we need more pace up front. Every single time we attacked, Everton had the time to leisurely fill the box with all their players before we bothered to get a cross in.

Something that stood out to me was at the end of the first half. With less than a minute left, we had possession, but no way to build an immediate attack in the time left. The seconds ticked away as we diddled the ball around the halfway line. Our attacks take so long to build, and that's not always the best strategy.

 

[Natener]

1. Not as sharp with our passing as we can be.
2. Dwelled on the ball too much.
Doing both of the above meant the team sitting deep would have a much easier time staying organised. Our bad day out made their game look good.

 

[ThanksBoss26]

I think the yellow for Fallaini was a big problem for us, nullifying that threat quite from the start.

We were weak in front of goal, and no creativity after Fellaini went off. We don't really have a plan B at the moment other than put Falcao and Di Maria on, and the team looks a bit lost.

65% possession I heard, which is positive.

We get carried away with 'We could have won it this year' '2nd spot is ours' talk, this shows we're not quite there yet. Nearly... but not quite.

Summer can't come soon enough.

Yep, the first ten minutes set the tone. Conceded a crap goal, Fellaini missed a sitter to equalise straight away and got booked so was on eggshells.

A bad day at the office. A bit of a wake-up call and time to move on.

Would be nice if Liverpool drop points at Hull this week though. I don't see the top four scrap as finished yet though we should still do it.

 

[Sean_RedDevil]

I'm really happy now that i couldn't go to the game.....big thanks to my car.

To be honest i'm happy too that we have lost 3-0 rather than 1-0.....at least that shows our squad is still only the 4th best in the country and we still many more quality players for the starting XI.
Not everything was bad today because we've played good football in the 1st half and we had good chances to score 2-3 goals.
But it was shocking that we have made so many individual mistakes and had no plan in the 2nd half to improve our game.

Van Gaal and his coaching staff must work a lot harder next season for the away games because our performances away from Old Trafford are pathetic for most times.