[Silverman]

Overall bad performance, awful result. Fellaini and Pogba doesn't work in a midfield two, so must be addressed. Move on now and prepare for next weeks games. Its only an early league loss.

 

[legball]

Really? Do you think Lingard would even make the bench let alone the squad? Would you rather have Stones/Otamendi or Blind in central defense? Rooney or KDB? Listen, I'm not saying we are bad, and in fact we look far better than any point in the last 3 years. I just don't think we have as good of a squad as City atm. They absolutely hammered us in the first half.

Because they got their tactics spot on. Convenient for you to pick Lingard, who is at best a fringe player for us, well, I won't have Bravo, Kolarov, Nolito or Sterling ahead of our players in their position. I am not disagreeing with you (about squad), I am saying, they had the better tactics today, that was the main reason they won.

 

[Manchester Dan]

I think the first 40 minutes were as good as we've played in a long while, but it's frustrating that we can dominate the first half of the game and still find ourselves in a close scrap. I guess that's the beauty of the premier league but it's happened a few times now already this season. Overall I think we deserved the 3 points.

 

[worcesterred]

I think the first 40 minutes were as good as we've played in a long while, but it's frustrating that we can dominate the first half of the game and still find ourselves in a close scrap. I guess that's the beauty of the premier league but it's happened a few times now already this season. Overall I think we deserved the 3 points.

I know you're a City fan, and as such are inherently unable to offer a balanced view on the sport, but that is complete codswallop.

 

[MarkC]

Thought we were unlucky not to get anything from the game. The first half was a disaster but for as good as City were to go in only 1 down and play so much better in the second half I think we were unlucky.

City were always going to get chances on the counter.

Some of the new additions were disappointing but still early days. Lingard was shocking but apart from that it wasn't a bad performance after the first 40 mins.

I see the usual culprits are all here praising City. Mostly the same ones who were telling us how much better City are and how they will win the league after 4 games last season.

Great game though look forward to a few more battles with them. I remember Jose first game against Barca he got it totally wrong and got beat 5-1. You could see he learned from that though and can't remember them making a mistake like that again. Hopefully a good sign.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Mourinho's starting team cost us the game.

Asking Pogba-Fellaini to cover all that movement. He left them on an island. Then not playing either Martial/Rashford to give us an attacking edge. It was an uphill battle. We fought back well and had chances. Should have had a penalty too. But they do look the better side at the moment.

I also think this game has exposed our midfield somewhat. We still need another player in there who's got an ability to dictate from deep. We struggled to cope with their pressing throughout, but it did improve once Herrera came on.

It was quite amazing how we made De Bruyne to look like the 2nd coming of Messi out there. Frustrating game, but positives to take.

 

[Fully Fledged]

I know you're a City fan, and as such are inherently unable to offer a balanced view on the sport, but that is complete codswallop.

It's not. They were the better team on the day and deserved the win. No matter how much it pains me to say it.

The thing is that the season has just started and nothing is set in stone in the first month. We need to pick ourselves up and go again on Thursday.

 

[sincher]

Overall bad performance, awful result. Fellaini and Pogba doesn't work in a midfield two, so must be addressed. Move on now and prepare for next weeks games. Its only an early league loss.

This kind of black and white thinking is crazy. Pogba and Fellaini is a very good midfield, they just did not get enough support today when up against 5. Should have played another and harried them more, but we were much better once Herrera was in there. Against many other teams it would be just fine.

 

[Silverman]

This kind of black and white thinking is crazy. Pogba and Fellaini is a very good midfield, they just did not get enough support today when up against 5. Should have played another and harried them more, but we were much better once Herrera was in there. Against many other teams it would be just fine.

Pogba is too attacking for a midfield two imo. Herrera or Schneiderlin are needed to help protect the back four and let Pogba attack with freedom.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Pogba is too attacking for a midfield two imo. Herrera or Schneiderlin are needed to help protect the back four and let Pogba attack with freedom.

Herrera or Schneiderlin in place of Fellaini wouldn't have done much.

The issue was playing 2 midfielders against their constant flooding of the midfield. Didn't matter who we used.

Even Iniesta-Busquets would have struggled out there.

 

[pocco]

Pogba is too attacking for a midfield two imo. Herrera or Schneiderlin are needed to help protect the back four and let Pogba attack with freedom.

I don't know if it's Pogba or something tactical. He should be playing a bit deeper and arriving into space in more advanced areas instead of starting amongst the hustle and bustle around the opponents area..

It was a hard game to judge Pogba on. I don't think he was that bad but in the second half we bypassed him with those long balls. That can't be a legitimate tactic going forwards, but i think we'll eventually find ourselves playing better football with a more conventional system which involves the wingers actually staying out wide. That was my biggest gripe today.

 

[Silverman]

Herrera or Schneiderlin in place of Fellaini wouldn't have done much.

The issue was playing 2 midfielders against their constant flooding of the midfield. Didn't matter who we used.

Even Iniesta-Busquets would have struggled out there.

I didn't mean instead of Fellaini, I meant along with Fellaini and Pogba

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I didn't mean instead of Fellaini, I meant along with Fellaini and Pogba

Ah fair enough. I agree then.

 

[DevilRed]

Rooney really should have dropped into midfield to make it a 3. He has done that before for LVG and it is effective.

Mourinho tried to go the attacking route, but was let down by his wingers and to a certain degree his centre backs and no.10.

A shame we didn't start with a more compact midfield like the second half. Would have been much more interesting to see how we fared for 90 minutes in that way.

 

[sincher]

Pogba is too attacking for a midfield two imo. Herrera or Schneiderlin are needed to help protect the back four and let Pogba attack with freedom.

I am not sure I agree. Pogba has to dig in and he certainly has the game to do it. If he doesn't he will never be a great player because he is not special as an attacker. He is special as an all-rounder.

He is not quite at peak fitness IMO.

 

[parisite]

Pogba is too attacking for a midfield two imo. Herrera or Schneiderlin are needed to help protect the back four and let Pogba attack with freedom.

this is the way it should be, Pogba is seriously limited defensively but then I thought we all knew that anyway and bought him regardless. He needs to be on the left in a 4-3-3 system because it's the only role he's been any real good at.

 

[WyoManU]

Because they got their tactics spot on. Convenient for you to pick Lingard, who is at best a fringe player for us, well, I won't have Bravo, Kolarov, Nolito or Sterling ahead of our players in their position. I am not disagreeing with you (about squad), I am saying, they had the better tactics today, that was the main reason they won.

Well, Lingard started for us in the derby. Of course I am going to highlight this fact.

 

[Manchester Dan]

I know you're a City fan, and as such are inherently unable to offer a balanced view on the sport, but that is complete codswallop.

I see. On what basis didn't City deserve the 3 points in your view then? I'd say the general concesus on the forum has largely been that City were the better side.

 

[red forever]

£150 Million spent on players this summer a squad worth £100's of millions full of internationals, a manager who was going to turn us into winners again. And the first decent team we come up against and what is the solution launch the ball into the box and hope we can get on the end of a knock down. Mourinho was quite simply tactically outclassed again by a far superior manager in Guardiola. Guardiola picks his young striker in Iheanacho and he scores the winner and Mourinho does not pick his young striker in Rashford and instead picks an unfit Mkhitaryan, he has not faith in youth.

Pogba is never a £90 Million player he went missing today a day when you need your big players to stand up its okay doing at home to Southampton but games like today are where he needs to justify the fee and he was poor.

And can we please drop Rooney he is not good enough anymore every time he gets the ball he slows play down and then most of the time loses it, if Rooney was any other player in the pitch (i.e. not England captain) he would have been sent off he committed numerous fouls before he was booked and he was constantly arguing with the ref after every decision.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Herrera or Schneiderlin in place of Fellaini wouldn't have done much.

The issue was playing 2 midfielders against their constant flooding of the midfield. Didn't matter who we used.

Even Iniesta-Busquets would have struggled out there.

It had to be Fellaini/Pogba/Herrera from the start. Three man midfield. Hopefully he has learnt from this and it won't be allowed to happen again, or if he is going to persist with the first half tactics, the players actually do as they are told.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

It had to be Fellaini/Pogba/Herrera from the start. Three man midfield. Hopefully he has learnt from this and it won't be allowed to happen again, or if he is going to persist with the first half tactics, the players actually do as they are told.

Yeah exactly.

Hopefully when we play them at the Etihad, Mourinho has learned from this game.

 

[diarm]

We are not going to see the best from Pogba or Ibrahimivic so long as we keep shoehorning Rooney into a 4231 formation.

Pogba needs to be the roaming player at the point of that midfield with two more disciplined players behind him. Ibra in front with pace and guile in Rashford, Martial, Memphis or Mkhitaryan out wide.

Their midfield today consisted of Fernandinho, De Bruyne and Silva. Yes they receive support from the fullbacks and from elsewhere but by playing 3 proper midfielders against essentially Fernandinho when we have the ball, we should have been exploiting the space those supporting fullbacks leave behind.

Sometimes football managers can over think things. Every man and his dog can see that United should be playing a 433 and Rooney should be sitting on the bench, especially against a side like that City team. How can a man with so much more football knowledge and experience not see it?

 

[DomesticTadpole]

£150 Million spent on players this summer a squad worth £100's of millions full of internationals, a manager who was going to turn us into winners again. And the first decent team we come up against and what is the solution launch the ball into the box and hope we can get on the end of a knock down. Mourinho was quite simply tactically outclassed again by a far superior manager in Guardiola. Guardiola picks his young striker in Iheanacho and he scores the winner and Mourinho does not pick his young striker in Rashford and instead picks an unfit Mkhitaryan, he has not faith in youth.

Pogba is never a £90 Million player he went missing today a day when you need your big players to stand up its okay doing at home to Southampton but games like today are where he needs to justify the fee and he was poor.

And can we please drop Rooney he is not good enough anymore every time he gets the ball he slows play down and then most of the time loses it, if Rooney was any other player in the pitch (i.e. not England captain) he would have been sent off he committed numerous fouls before he was booked and he was constantly arguing with the ref after every decision.

Pogba will take more games to get up to match fitness, remember he didn't have any pre-season, but I agree it was far too much to pay. However that was the going price.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

The occasion got to our players. Bringing Mkhi and Lingard in straight away was not good. Pogba did okay. Our defence was bad. Herrera stepped up but even with a 433 we were still shit.

In These big games we need characters. I hope that Mata starts the next big game and so does Rashford. Herrera should also be brought on for Fellaini. Rooney stays and Mkhi/Martial get their heads sorted. Blind should be excluded because he can't deal with pressure.

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Smalling Shaw
Herrera Pogba
Mata Rooney Rashford
Zlatan

 

[robinamicrowave]

Not sure this is panic stations for United.

We dominated the opening 40 minutes and should have scored a third late on when De Bruyne hit the post, but once you went to 4-3-3 with Herrera, Pogba and Fellaini in the middle you started to turn the screw. On another day you'd have had a penalty for the Bravo tackle and you'd be talking about the heroic fighting spirit to come back from 2-0 down, etc. etc.

The first 40 minutes was a worrying sight for United fans but you kept yourselves in touch and made the second half more difficult than it might have been. Encouraging enough considering half the players you had there today clearly weren't fit.

 

[SteveW]

Mourinho has picked the wrong team in every game so far and got away with it up to today. Doesn't seem to understand that you need pace in attack. Irritating to say the least.

 

[reddevil702]

£150 Million spent on players this summer a squad worth £100's of millions full of internationals, a manager who was going to turn us into winners again. And the first decent team we come up against and what is the solution launch the ball into the box and hope we can get on the end of a knock down. Mourinho was quite simply tactically outclassed again by a far superior manager in Guardiola. Guardiola picks his young striker in Iheanacho and he scores the winner and Mourinho does not pick his young striker in Rashford and instead picks an unfit Mkhitaryan, he has not faith in youth.

Pogba is never a £90 Million player he went missing today a day when you need your big players to stand up its okay doing at home to Southampton but games like today are where he needs to justify the fee and he was poor.

And can we please drop Rooney he is not good enough anymore every time he gets the ball he slows play down and then most of the time loses it, if Rooney was any other player in the pitch (i.e. not England captain) he would have been sent off he committed numerous fouls before he was booked and he was constantly arguing with the ref after every decision.

It's one game! Iheanacho did nothing outside getting a lucky bounce there. De Bruyne completely bossed our midfield but a lot had to do with City overloading the midfield, which was a mistake tactically by Jose which he fix by switching to a midfield 3. Reason why City weren't as fluid in the second half.

Is there something I missed as to why you say Mikki isn't fit? I thought the entire squad was fit. Mikki and Lingard were both shit but the most people on here were calling for Mikki to come in, so his off game was a surprise. And if he didn't have faith in Rashford would he have brought him on in such an important time?

 

[bosnian_red]

Not sure this is panic stations for United.

We dominated the opening 40 minutes and should have scored a third late on when De Bruyne hit the post, but once you went to 4-3-3 with Herrera, Pogba and Fellaini in the middle you started to turn the screw. On another day you'd have had a penalty for the Bravo tackle and you'd be talking about the heroic fighting spirit to come back from 2-0 down, etc. etc.

The first 40 minutes was a worrying sight for United fans but you kept yourselves in touch and made the second half more difficult than it might have been. Encouraging enough considering half the players you had there today clearly weren't fit.

Agree for the most part. Though on the fitness thing... I think it was mainly Rooney and the midfield that looked short of fitness. Pogba okay might be lacking a bit of fitness, but Fellaini has never been that mobile anyway and Rooney just can't run for more the an hour and visibly tired more then anyone on the pitch.

 

[Raoul]

Mourinho has picked the wrong team in every game so far and got away with it up to today. Doesn't seem to understand that you need pace in attack. Irritating to say the least.

He hasn't picked the wrong team other than today.

 

[David Court]

Mourinho has picked the wrong team in every game so far and got away with it up to today. Doesn't seem to understand that you need pace in attack. Irritating to say the least.

Honeymoon over already?

 

[Manny]

Not sure this is panic stations for United.

We dominated the opening 40 minutes and should have scored a third late on when De Bruyne hit the post, but once you went to 4-3-3 with Herrera, Pogba and Fellaini in the middle you started to turn the screw. On another day you'd have had a penalty for the Bravo tackle and you'd be talking about the heroic fighting spirit to come back from 2-0 down, etc. etc.

The first 40 minutes was a worrying sight for United fans but you kept yourselves in touch and made the second half more difficult than it might have been. Encouraging enough considering half the players you had there today clearly weren't fit.

The problem is Mourinho will go right back to 4-2-3-1 next time he plays City. He's got a glitch where Pep is concerned. If history is anything to go by we'll probably try a midfield of Fellaini, Schneiderlin and Carrick just to avoid giving you space in the middle of the park with Smalling charging around in a free role.

Pep is only a couple months into his tenure and players are doing a decent job of trying to implement his style of play. I fully expect you guys to be up and running next time we play you.

 

[Sarni]

£150 Million spent on players this summer a squad worth £100's of millions full of internationals, a manager who was going to turn us into winners again. And the first decent team we come up against and what is the solution launch the ball into the box and hope we can get on the end of a knock down. Mourinho was quite simply tactically outclassed again by a far superior manager in Guardiola. Guardiola picks his young striker in Iheanacho and he scores the winner and Mourinho does not pick his young striker in Rashford and instead picks an unfit Mkhitaryan, he has not faith in youth.

Pogba is never a £90 Million player he went missing today a day when you need your big players to stand up its okay doing at home to Southampton but games like today are where he needs to justify the fee and he was poor.

And can we please drop Rooney he is not good enough anymore every time he gets the ball he slows play down and then most of the time loses it, if Rooney was any other player in the pitch (i.e. not England captain) he would have been sent off he committed numerous fouls before he was booked and he was constantly arguing with the ref after every decision.

Wow you're one negative fella. He's praised Rashford after the game and will give him more time and he actually played our youth product Lingard on the other side. And Pogba is 23, he had one bad game, everyone has them once in a while.

 

[HabeasC]

Obviously the result didn't go our way, but I wasn't left frustrated like in the last couple of seasons when we were down and nothing seemed to be happening. Last year if we need a goal we would still be passing it between two defenders.

At least you can tell we properly went for it in the last period. Better, but a long way to go.

Also, pogba fellaini in a two doesn't work when both are at their best going forward. This was especially the case with so many city players central. We couldn't get any control in the middle.

 

[PieCrust]

I don't know that Mourinho picked the wrong team. Many on here have been clamouring for Mhikitaryan to start. Lingard was a bit of a surprise, but Martial has been awful so far this year. But those players didn't perform, so it's easy to scapegoat them since they were the new guys plugged in this week.

City dominated the game and Clattenburg missed a penalty on Bravo that cost United a draw. That's really the game in a nutshell.

It was disappointing from United's prespective that Jose took until halftime to address the KDB issue and to insert a DM and/or change the player instructions to keep either Fellaini or Pogba in a more defensive role instead of both always wanting to get forward and neither working hard in defence off the ball to mark and harass the City midfield.

Also no support from either Shaw or Valencia. I don't either managed a cross in the box even once. Maybe Valencia had some blocked attempts. In any case, Shaw continues to disappoint for me going forward and supplementing the attack.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Wow you're one negative fella.

These results do tend to bring that out in some people. I see it as a loss in the 4th game of the season, at the beginning of a long season. For all the negatives, most of which should improve, there were positives as well.

 

[GazTheLegend]

Not too disappointed with that, really. Honestly, what can you do when Lingard and Mikhatryan are having up there with the worst individual performances I've seen in Manchester derbies?

Mourinho was spot on, he was let down by those two today more than anything, we can quibble about systems but they just weren't up to it.

Second half much better, City deserved the points, but luckily this is early in the season and we'll get over it and get better. Jose's learning what works and what doesn't, and guys - Herrera haters- you might not like Ander but he will become BIG for Jose, he will love him, he improved us hugely second half.

 

[FlawlessThaw]

Moirinho was not. That is why he rang the changes immediately at halftime and our performance from then on was as different as night and day. City were always set to dominate possession. But we were never supposed to give them the acres of space to start up attacks like we did a first half.

Fair enough and you could be right. But nothing you have said is convincing that it wasn't mourinhos plan in the first place not to press up. He rang the changes because because lingard was awful and he knew we needed an extra midfielder in the middle.

 

[Sarni]

These results do tend to bring that out in some people. I see it as a loss in the 4th game of the season, at the beginning of a long season. For all the negatives, most of which should improve, there were positives as well.

Yep. Criticism for Mourinho and Pogba today has been particularly awful to read. We had 30 bad minutes against City, we played very well from then and should have probably equalized and got a penalty. Plenty of times a game like this we would not lose and we were actually competitive against a very good team in good form.

Mourinho has only been in the job for 3 months and the improvement is huge, next time we play a big team I'll again feel confident and we look like a good team. I'm extremely positive about future, I'm not even thinking about already winning the league this season - I just want us to go back to being a threat for now which it looks like we are doing. Martial will get better, Mkhitaryan and Pogba will gel with the team and get themselves into form, future's bright and if anything, today's game just confirmed to me that we are finally a good team. Last three seasons the game like this, with City in this shape, we would have easily lost 3-0 or 4-0.

 

[Chorley1974]

Some shocking individual performances today, but let's not make this the night of the long knives please.

 

[Siorac]

Yep. Criticism for Mourinho and Pogba today has been particularly awful to read. We had 30 bad minutes against City, we played very well from then and should have probably equalized and got a penalty. Plenty of times a game like this we would not lose and we were actually competitive against a very good team in good form.

Mourinho has only been in the job for 3 months and the improvement is huge, next time we play a big team I'll again feel confident and we look like a good team. I'm extremely positive about future, I'm not even thinking about already winning the league this season - I just want us to go back to being a threat for now which it looks like we are doing. Martial will get better, Mkhitaryan and Pogba will gel with the team and get themselves into form, future's bright and if anything, today's game just confirmed to me that we are finally a good team. Last three seasons the game like this, with City in this shape, we would have easily lost 3-0 or 4-0.

We were quite good against our direct rivals under Van Gaal. City, for one, never outplayed us to this extent since Moyes.