[Coops73]

Thought we played well, some of the reaction to the defeat on here and from the likes of Merson is over the top, I actually thought it was one of our better games and let’s face it their goal was bollocks.

Shame to go out but some positives to take, like Sanchos performance, McTominays performance, Varane class again.

 

[Loon]

My Chelsea supporting mate said we are now a joke club. I couldn’t even muster a “feck off” in response. I think sacking LVG after winning the FA Cup was our Cubs Curse moment.

Still, the Cubbies did break it eventually…

 

[suheilsworld]

I’m done with hoping and expecting this season. Time to concentrate all my attention on FPL

 

[(...)]

Thought we played well, some of the reaction to the defeat on here and from the likes of Merson is over the top, I actually thought it was one of our better games and let’s face it their goal was bollocks.

Shame to go out but some positives to take, like Sanchos performance, McTominays performance, Varane class again.

For a split second, I had to check if I was on Redcafe or ArsenalMania.

 

[Berbasbullet]

For a split second, I had to check if I was on Redcafe or ArsenalMania.

Did you watch the game? I mean he ain’t wrong, Varane was great and in terms of performance and making chances it was the best we played in a while. Course the result was awful and the opponent questionable, but nice to actually have someone say something positive for a change.

 

[Denis79]

Thought we played well, some of the reaction to the defeat on here and from the likes of Merson is over the top, I actually thought it was one of our better games and let’s face it their goal was bollocks.

Shame to go out but some positives to take, like Sanchos performance, McTominays performance, Varane class again.

Agree with you, I think the first half was our best performance in a very long time, yeah I know it's a Championship team, but still.

 

[(...)]

Did you watch the game? I mean he ain’t wrong, Varane was great and in terms of performance and making chances it was the best we played in a while. Course the result was awful and the opponent questionable, but nice to actually have someone say something positive for a change.

I agree with him, and I saw a lot of positives, but you guys are usually ruthless after a loss.

 

[Berbasbullet]

I agree with him, and I saw a lot of positives, but you guys are usually ruthless after a loss.

Agreed

 

[Red Shorts]

Really thought it was the most fluid we have been all season. Shame it's a similar story in terms of the finishing, just not clinical

 

[mitchmouse]

I do not understand how a side can go from being so dominant for 60 minutes to almost not knowing how to pass for the final 30 (before AET). But this shows that not only do we need to strengthen midfield (and, for me it must be Rice) but we need to break the bank to get a top top goal-scorer (and that means Halaand).If we'd had a Ruud or RvP or Rooney, we'd have won the game long before Boro scored.

No doubt in my mind that there goal shouldn't have counted - whatever the rules say, common sense needs to be applied: if the lob had gone in, the goal would have been disallowed and that's what he tried to do. That said, he was left wide open by our defence...

I will accept the defeat if we get nine points from our next (should be winnable) three games, but that is highly unlikely. Seven would be OK, less than six and we can forget top four

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

I'll tell you what, I was planning on watching the cup games on TV today but that Boro embarrassment has ended any interest I might have in other FA Cup games this season.

Bruno missing an open goal, omg, I mean why, how???

The talent we had on the pitch & even missing chances galore we really should have won that game at home to a team a league below us, absolutely bonkers that we didn't.

After we beat Villa in the last round, when the draw was made & we got Boro at OT, who on earth thought we'd blow it? Virtually nobody, so angry as I write this two days on. I mean, the players are so much better than that, what's going on? We had 30 minutes in extra time to rectify the misses in 90 minutes & did virtually nothing. First it was England & penalty shoot-outs not going well & now it's my club side Manchester United & penalty shoot-outs not mixing!

Let's hope that this total embarrassment will finally put the fire in the belly of these players to go & do a Chelsea & win the Champions League this season.

 

[Coops73]

For a split second, I had to check if I was on Redcafe or ArsenalMania.

Not really sure what that means.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Can tolerate losing games like this. It's performances like Newcastle that I can't stand. Overall, our performances are getting better which is a positive.

 

[Counterfactual]

Can tolerate losing games like this. It's performances like Newcastle that I can't stand. Overall, our performances are getting better which is a positive.

Needs the Benny Hill theme tune!

 

[matt10000]

I dont blame the ref orVAR for this, he alteration to the rule regarding hand ball is totally confusing both in structure and implementation; the suits who run the game havent got a clue, I dont think any of them have ever taken part in a real match.

If this had happened at the other end to make it 2-0 and finish off the game, it would have been disallowed and deemed deliberate.

But no allowing this goal is what the FA would have wanted and so the refs look for a reason to give it, to interpret it in favour of the giant killer so it makea the news and makes the magic of the FA Cup.

I think this always goes in at a subliminal level but no excuses we should have buried them well before then and not given the ref then opportunity.

 

[Lost bear]

If this had happened at the other end to make it 2-0 and finish off the game, it would have been disallowed and deemed deliberate.

But no allowing this goal is what the FA would have wanted and so the refs look for a reason to give it, to interpret it in favour of the giant killer so it makea the news and makes the magic of the FA Cup.

I think this always goes in at a subliminal level but no excuses we should have buried them well before then and not given the ref then opportunity.

We kind of did bury them- but then the referee and we dug the feckers up again.

 

[matt10000]

We kind of did bury them- but then the referee and we dug the feckers up again.

haha very true - think our team have a very fragile confidence at the moment

 

[Reducation]

Flapping your arms around fully extended doesn’t make anyone unnaturally bigger? Sure…..

There wasn't any flapping. Watmore was off the ground as he received the ball; his arm was extended for balance and due to his miscontrol, the ball hit it.

 

[matt10000]

There wasn't any flapping. Watmore was off the ground as he received the ball; his arm was extended for balance and due to his miscontrol, the ball hit it.

No one knows for sure but the player. For everyone else including the ref it is an opinion.

I don’t like rules that say deliberate or not as unless some smashes the ball at your hand from point blank it is impossible to say and no person is right or wrong.

It may well be natural for balance for your hand to be there but seeing the ball moving away from you wouldn’t take much tonasjuat a little to control withoit being seen.

It is an opinion and the ref chose to give the benefit of the doubt to the little team at OT in FA Cup which kept the game alive, I am not sure the benefit of the doubt would have been given to us when we were 1-0 up.

There is no right or wrong decision here because the ref is allowed within the rules to interpret at as he sees fit.

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

Nobody could give two hoots how we played in a cup tie. It’s simply about winning the game. Putting a positive spin on this game is tough even by the most optimistic of standards. A home tie to a championship club is all you can ask and we we’ll and truly fecked it up…. again.

 

[calodo2003]

 

[Utd Clem]

Makes me even more anxious for March games

 

[Gator Nate]

I really don't know how we lost that match. And I'm absolutely gutted for Elanga, who has quickly become one of my favorites of late with his great attitude and constant drive to match his actual skill.

When you dominate that much of the game, and have that many shots, and that many on target...

 

[VanDeBank]

You clearly didn’t watch the game. Either that or you’re just trolling.

Some people struggle to separate the actual game/performance and the score.

Sometimes, they're a complete mismatch and the better team goes into HT 2-0 down. It happens. This was one of those freak mismatches. Happens to every team once a season.

 

[Lost bear]

Nobody could give two hoots how we played in a cup tie. It’s simply about winning the game. Putting a positive spin on this game is tough even by the most optimistic of standards. A home tie to a championship club is all you can ask and we we’ll and truly fecked it up…. again.

But in a situation where the improvement or otherwise of the team is the most important question - not least when some are calling for RR to go because we lost - it’s really NOT just the result that matters.
Personally I believe that Ralf has done a pretty damn good job considering how absolutely terrible we had become at the close of Ole’s reign, but I accept that it hasn’t fully translated across into results as yet. But the guys played well in terms of controlling the match, chance creation- pretty much everything apart from putting the ball in the back of the net, in fact. I understand football enough to know that that’s the key bit, of course. But even in a cup game, I think that other things matter beyond pure results. We fluked a fair few wins under Ole, while playing like utter shit. Me, I’d rather this loss than those wins. Sooner or later the wins will come.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Can tolerate losing games like this. It's performances like Newcastle that I can't stand. Overall, our performances are getting better which is a positive.

A comedy of erros.

Imagine if this was a champions league semi or something.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Nobody could give two hoots how we played in a cup tie. It’s simply about winning the game. Putting a positive spin on this game is tough even by the most optimistic of standards. A home tie to a championship club is all you can ask and we we’ll and truly fecked it up…. again.

It is generally the opposite i have read. People readily accept we should have been out of sight by 60 minutes.

 

[Tyrion]

My Chelsea supporting mate said we are now a joke club. I couldn’t even muster a “feck off” in response. I think sacking LVG after winning the FA Cup was our Cubs Curse moment.

Still, the Cubbies did break it eventually…

Opposition fans have been saying we're a joke club for a couple of decades.

 

[Red_toad]

There wasn't any flapping. Watmore was off the ground as he received the ball; his arm was extended for balance and due to his miscontrol, the ball hit it.

So his arm didnt go up then conveniently come down in a flapping motion. Looking directly at the ball, when his hand moved towards it. Not sure how VAR can judge intent, not like they asked him. For me he knew what he was doing and I’m 100% certain if one of our players had done that, then it’d have not stood.

 

[croadyman]

Just realised we lost to them at exactly the same stage 20 years ago at The Riverside

 

[Betson]

Thought we played well, some of the reaction to the defeat on here and from the likes of Merson is over the top, I actually thought it was one of our better games and let’s face it their goal was bollocks.

Shame to go out but some positives to take, like Sanchos performance, McTominays performance, Varane class again.

Yes we have no right to think we can compete with the likes of Borro.

 

[Telsim]

Glazers have succeded in lowering expectations it seems. "Positive takeaways" after getting knocked out by a Championship side at home. Don't you all see how sad this is? Yes, our players finally managed to string three forward passes together in the opponent's half against Middlesborough. Good job! The club is buying players for tens of millions and paying them six figures a week so they can "play well" against Championship sides and still lose in the end.

We have finally reached the end of the line - we have become Arsenal v2.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I swear people have a very simplified world view on football. If we win, we’re awesome. If we lose, we’re a shambles. Nuance isn’t allowed in either instance.

It’s as if some people don’t watch the actual match, look at the result, maybe a 3 minute highlight reel and base their opinion from that and don’t look up detailed match stats.

The antithesis of this game is a game that happened quite regularly under Solskjaer where we’d win 2-0. A lot of these matches involved Bruno pulling out some individual magic to score, provide an easy goal with a well worked assist or score a penalty. Throughout the game the opposition is creating chances for fun and we’re looking very wobbly, and we’ve created feck all the entire match. The opposition gain momentum and confidence in thinking they can equalise but maybe because they don’t quite have the quality or they’re tiring, they mess it up and we counter attack with our individual quality and it’s 2-0 in the 5-10 minutes of the game, basically killing the opposition right then and there. The post match thread is then filled with posts akin to ‘We make wins look so hard. How did we not concede. We play so disjointed and this isnt a sustainable way of playing’

And people who didn’t watch the match see the result and think ‘Ah a nice comfortable win for Utd. All is right with the world. Oles at the wheel etc’

 

[Gehrman]

Glazers have succeded in lowering expectations it seems. "Positive takeaways" after getting knocked out by a Championship side at home. Don't you all see how sad this is? Yes, our players finally managed to string three forward passes together in the opponent's half against Middlesborough. Good job! The club is buying players for tens of millions and paying them six figures a week so they can "play well" against Championship sides and still lose in the end.

We have finally reached the end of the line - we have become Arsenal v2.

Personally I think we've become worse than Arsenal when we made fun of them. We've spent big for ages now. At least Arsenal used to win Fa cups when they got the top 4 trophy.

 

[diarm]

Jesus I've just seen the team that started Friday night.

I was working and someone text me giving out so I knew the result and didn't bother watching it when I got home. I assumed though that we'd played a shite team and got what we deserved.

I was wrong.

 

[DSG]

No one knows for sure but the player. For everyone else including the ref it is an opinion.

I don’t like rules that say deliberate or not as unless some smashes the ball at your hand from point blank it is impossible to say and no person is right or wrong.

It may well be natural for balance for your hand to be there but seeing the ball moving away from you wouldn’t take much tonasjuat a little to control withoit being seen.

It is an opinion and the ref chose to give the benefit of the doubt to the little team at OT in FA Cup which kept the game alive, I am not sure the benefit of the doubt would have been given to us when we were 1-0 up.

There is no right or wrong decision here because the ref is allowed within the rules to interpret at as he sees fit.

Under no circumstances should that goal have been allowed to stand. I know the way the rule is written, but the spirit of that was to reduce the VAR time to review things that happen 30 seconds before the goal.

‘Clearly, the ball hit his hand, he gained an advantage, passed to another player for a goal all within 3 seconds.Everyone could see it and BEFORE VAR, it would have been chalked off.

literally every former player and pundit thought it was a poor call and should have been chalked off.

 

[DSG]

I swear people have a very simplified world view on football. If we win, we’re awesome. If we lose, we’re a shambles. Nuance isn’t allowed in either instance.

It’s as if some people don’t watch the actual match, look at the result, maybe a 3 minute highlight reel and base their opinion from that and don’t look up detailed match stats.

The antithesis of this game is a game that happened quite regularly under Solskjaer where we’d win 2-0. A lot of these matches involved Bruno pulling out some individual magic to score, provide an easy goal with a well worked assist or score a penalty. Throughout the game the opposition is creating chances for fun and we’re looking very wobbly, and we’ve created feck all the entire match. The opposition gain momentum and confidence in thinking they can equalise but maybe because they don’t quite have the quality or they’re tiring, they mess it up and we counter attack with our individual quality and it’s 2-0 in the 5-10 minutes of the game, basically killing the opposition right then and there. The post match thread is then filled with posts akin to ‘We make wins look so hard. How did we not concede. We play so disjointed and this isnt a sustainable way of playing’

And people who didn’t watch the match see the result and think ‘Ah a nice comfortable win for Utd. All is right with the world. Oles at the wheel etc’

Agree with the comment about nuance. That plagues society in general, not just the Caf.

Obviously, Ole had to go, totally agree with that, and he should have been sacked after the Liverpool match. I suppose that there is probably some xG that someone could dig up to prove that the team was actually shite and Bruno and company were carrying us. It didn’t feel that way though. There were a lot of easy wins as well. I was most excited as a fan since SAF retired in the 19-20 season.

 

[Betson]

Glazers have succeded in lowering expectations it seems. "Positive takeaways" after getting knocked out by a Championship side at home. Don't you all see how sad this is? Yes, our players finally managed to string three forward passes together in the opponent's half against Middlesborough. Good job! The club is buying players for tens of millions and paying them six figures a week so they can "play well" against Championship sides and still lose in the end.

We have finally reached the end of the line - we have become Arsenal v2.

Even Arsenal would mot embarrass themselves by talking about positives and progress like many on here have since Fridays defeat , there is almost a celebratory tone off some because we gave Middlesborough a good game and were unlucky to lose. It is Manchester Utd not kidderminster Harriers.

 

[sparx99]

Agree with the comment about nuance. That plagues society in general, not just the Caf.

Obviously, Ole had to go, totally agree with that, and he should have been sacked after the Liverpool match. I suppose that there is probably some xG that someone could dig up to prove that the team was actually shite and Bruno and company were carrying us. It didn’t feel that way though. There were a lot of easy wins as well. I was most excited as a fan since SAF retired in the 19-20 season.

We were going behind in games every week for a while under Ole. Neville kept talking about how it wasn’t sustainable to keep coming back etc. So much gets forgotten because of the results.

 

[sparx99]

Even Arsenal would mot embarrass themselves by talking about positives and progress like many on here have since Fridays defeat , there is almost a celebratory tone off some because we gave Middlesborough a good game and were unlucky to lose. It is Manchester Utd not kidderminster Harriers.

I know what you’re saying but I think there is a certain pragmatism in acknowledging that there are signs of progress even if the actual result was shocking.

It’s not necessarily an acceptance of lower standards; more that there have been games this season where we genuinely didn’t look like a football team. So the journey back to competence includes these baby steps.

We all want to be a top 5 side in Europe, title challengers etc but this team has been so low, so disjointed, dressing room divided etc that we are trying to find positives where we can. If I can’t see positives then I’m not watching tomorrow night. I’m trying to maintain my support of the team by looking for the progress to give me hope. Because we really have been hopeless this season.