Really proud of the team tonight

Considering the context, the team did well. Besides, let's be frank, going out of the FA Cup is good for the them right now. We can go on and on about how Manchester United is the biggest club in the world and should never settle for mediocre targets. That's fine but the reality is that at the moment, the team is in transition and lacks the quality for a treble run. I see this season as a preparatory one. Let them focus entirely on the league and the EL so that Manchester United can play in the UCL next season. This is crucial for good transfer business in the summer. I am confident that all scores will be settled with Chelsea next season.
 
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itso 7 said:
You are ignoring the context under which the match was played just to drive home your point, we were missing to key players who, even if they had been available, would have given us a fighting chance but would still leave Chelsea with a better team. That was before the sending off has been taken into account. These were extremely difficult circumstances that we played the match under and I'm proud that the team held out the way they did.
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i dont get this

we had Premier League winning players in the team last night, guys who have played in World Cup finals, guys who have played in European Championship and Champions League finals, guys who cost us a fortune, players with huge experience, guys with huge potential ..... yet you don't think they are capable of 'giving us a fighting chance'.
 
buckooo1978 said:
i dont get this

we had Premier League winning players in the team last night, guys who have played in World Cup finals, guys who have played in European Championship and Champions League finals, guys who cost us a fortune, players with huge experience, guys with huge potential ..... yet you don't think they are capable of 'giving us a fighting chance'.
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I believe he said that if they had been available, they would have given us a fighting chance even though Chelsea has a better team at the moment. I totally agree with his point about 'context'. It wasn't just the non availability of Zlatan, Martial and Rooney, Chelsea was well rested, playing at home and not distracted by a coming season defining Thursday match. That's apart from the fact that they have been a boogey team for United in recent years, had no injuries and is currently the league's best team. And perhaps most importantly, they had an extra man for almost 60 minutes. Any analysis of the game must consider the contexts.
 
buckooo1978 said:
i dont get this

we had Premier League winning players in the team last night, guys who have played in World Cup finals, guys who have played in European Championship and Champions League finals, guys who cost us a fortune, players with huge experience, guys with huge potential ..... yet you don't think they are capable of 'giving us a fighting chance'.
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United now has a small club mentality. No way of sugar coating it now
 
Red Star One said:
It really shows how deep our crisis is if proper and long-time United fans are proud we matched Chelsea for 35 minutes.

Shambles of a performance IMO, as frustrating as Bournemouth game. Of course this ridiculous red card didn't help, but there was no passion whatsoever. If it wasn't for Costa being poor and Dave's efforts it would've finished 2 or 3-0. Pogba was tragic, once again extremely wasteful and completely unreliable - and yes, I won't cheer myself up with this out of the world potential, he's turning 24 this year, playing in top flight for many years, spent few years in England, I believe I can expect at least some effort from him, not fecking jogging and throwing hands around. Than again, we didn't create a single clear chance (not even a non-clear one probably, bar Rashford's solo effort). So yeah, I'm anything but proud of the team tonight.

Happy for Rojo, Valencia and DDG though. Also probably for Ander, as the first foul was never a yellow card and I can't blame him.
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Tend to agree with this. We played ok for the first half an hour but were still outplayed in spells, and we had to resort to kicking Hazard to stop him creating anything. The red card killed any chance of us growing into the game and taking anything but we'd still have lost 11 against 11 in my opinion. They're the best team in England for a reason, and it showed. They had at least 3 clear chances to our one, and could have ended it by half time had De Gea not been in such good form.
 
Adam-Utd said:
more than matched Chelsea until the red.

1 long range strike, apart from that we kept them pretty quiet. A team that's been scoring for fun against most the league.

Sure we could have done better with the ball but a 1-0 loss is nothing to be disappointed about, many fans thought we would lose by more with 11 men.

Well done boys, let's get Thursday won and crack on.
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The thing is you could say Mourinho didnt want to lose heavily than try and win the game. Would Fergie have played like that, Would Pep? They would of made positive subs probably sacrificed Darmian and left Miki on, or changed formation. You might as well have a go as its a one off game and go out fighting for it.
 
wolvored said:
The thing is you could say Mourinho didnt want to lose heavily than try and win the game. Would Fergie have played like that, Would Pep? They would of made positive subs probably sacrificed Darmian and left Miki on, or changed formation. You might as well have a go as its a one off game and go out fighting for it.
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Agee with this totally.

There was no point trying to play without the ball and nick a goal on the break. That will have left the players more tired than just going for it, as it's always more knackering to play without the ball.
 
GM K said:
I believe he said that if they had been available, they would have given us a fighting chance even though Chelsea has a better team at the moment. I totally agree with his point about 'context'. It wasn't just the non availability of Zlatan, Martial and Rooney, Chelsea was well rested, playing at home and not distracted by a coming season defining Thursday match. That's apart from the fact that they have been a boogey team for United in recent years, had no injuries and is currently the league's best team. And perhaps most importantly, they had an extra man for almost 60 minutes. Any analysis of the game must consider the contexts.
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Would Martial and especially Rooney made any difference if available though? They havent exactly been performing in most of the games they have played in
 
JohnnyKills said:
Agee with this totally.

There was no point trying to play without the ball and nick a goal on the break. That will have left the players more tired than just going for it, as it's always more knackering to play without the ball.
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Thats right. As I said I think it was more to do with Mourinho saving face with the Chelsea fans by not having another hiding, than trying to make some sort of effort to snatch an unlikely win.
 
wolvored said:
Would Martial and especially Rooney made any difference if available though? They havent exactly been performing in most of the games they have played in
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They could have and as long as they could have, it mattered a lot that they were absent. No matter how bad your options are, it is a massive disadvantage to have little or no options.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Agee with this totally.

There was no point trying to play without the ball and nick a goal on the break. That will have left the players more tired than just going for it, as it's always more knackering to play without the ball.
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That's not even close to being true. Sitting deep and being compact will always take less of a toll, physically, than trying to play a more expansive game.
 
wolvored said:
Thats right. As I said I think it was more to do with Mourinho saving face with the Chelsea fans by not having another hiding, than trying to make some sort of effort to snatch an unlikely win.
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If Rashford gets a good placement shot off on his breakaway and nets it (which he probably should have), then we are at 1-1. Playing a man down, had that happened, and we managed to at least take it to extra time, I'd think we'd all say it was a successful strategy.
 
Kind of sick when people slags off JM's defensive tactics as simply parking the bus. That is seriously discrediting the efforts required in training and tactical planning. If it is so easy, why don't all the teams play like that in SB? Fergie tactics in the 90s and early 2000s were terribly naive in the CL and that explains his relatively poor record. It was only when Fergie adapted to the continental approach that we saw more successes and went further. Look at JM's Inter against Barca, or his Chelsea against a rampant Liverpool or his Madrid team against the greatest ever team, Barcelona.. Its really genius and it seriously pissed me off that football is probably the only sport that doesnt give credit to defensive tactics unlike Basketball and American Football. I will go as far as saying JM would have made MU give a better account against Barca in both CL finals losses and i am a huge Fergie fan.
 
wolvored said:
The thing is you could say Mourinho didnt want to lose heavily than try and win the game. Would Fergie have played like that, Would Pep? They would of made positive subs probably sacrificed Darmian and left Miki on, or changed formation. You might as well have a go as its a one off game and go out fighting for it.
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Yeah, I've backed Mourinho a lot this season but his reaction to Herrera's red card pissed me off. He decided to make the game about how well we can defend our penalty box for the remaining 60 minutes by bringing on Fellaini for Mikhi, instead of giving us the tools to sit back and counter.

We had Blind, Carrick, Fellaini, Lingard and Mata on the bench but by bringing Fellaini on for Mikhi, Jose backed himself into a corner about what he could do tactically to actually win the game. The team already had a defence and midfield packed with strong players that use the ball badly (Smalling, Darmian, Jones, Rojo, Young). I'd have liked him to have brought Carrick for Darmian, switched to a 4-1-3-1, have us sit back and get Rashford, Mikhi and Young playing on the break. We may still have lost but at least it opens up the possibility of winning.

I feel like he wanted both Jones and Darmian to stay on just to track Hazard and Willian. Problem is, when you are down 10 you don't the luxury of assigning markers for Hazard AND Willian.

Overall, the game was a black mark against Jose, for me.
 
I think Jose just didn't want to risk confidence being severely hit from taking another walloping there after going down to 10 men. The team showed maintained good organisation and defensive spirit for the rest of the game, which will be important now in the 2 more important competitions we have left to play.
 
Started very well. Sending off killed the game. Why do Chelsea get all the luck in games against us. Every decision seems to go for them.
 
Zoo said:
I think Jose just didn't want to risk confidence being severely hit from taking another walloping there after going down to 10 men. The team showed maintained good organisation and defensive spirit for the rest of the game, which will be important now in the 2 more important competitions we have left to play.
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We were outplayed, put in a limp and weak performance, and eventually lost the game. What's to be proud of?

Bar DDG who again proving that he's a world-class Gk, nothing positive about that game. Just move on to the next one. United still have trophy to win.
 
2 Man Midfield said:
Tend to agree with this. We played ok for the first half an hour but were still outplayed in spells, and we had to resort to kicking Hazard to stop him creating anything. The red card killed any chance of us growing into the game and taking anything but we'd still have lost 11 against 11 in my opinion. They're the best team in England for a reason, and it showed. They had at least 3 clear chances to our one, and could have ended it by half time had De Gea not been in such good form.
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I think we handicapped ourselves prior to the game: with the knowledge of how Chelsea slaughtered us in our last game and the whole of our attack unselectable for one reason or another, I think our manager's strategy was to smother Chelsea with a defensive line-up and wait for a few chances and hope that a sick Rashford might sneak a goal.

I think the pressure of three-games-a-week and playing for ever competition has got to Mourinho and (possibly) the awareness that some of our squad players are not good enough to produce an impact that is needed in such high-pressure games.

We weren't just missing Ibrahimovic, Martial, Rooney but we were also denied the services of Myhatarian(?). Considering the season overall, I am pleased with the progress.
 
APJRed said:
No shame in that result given Herrera's sending off. Great opening and thought we were going to confound the pundits. Valencia was immense and a good game too from Rojo. Pogba needs to step up though, failed to assert any real authority and I'm tired of seeing him shooting wide and then holding his head in his hands. Overall the commitment was excellent until we tired at the end. Why can't we show that against Bournemouth and others?
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I think this is a good recap.
Nobody really expected us to get a result away to arguably the best rested team in the EPL especially without a couple of our key players.
In fact, as much as we never like to lose, I'm sure that not too many of us wanted another round in this competition interfering with what's really important for us; CL qualification!

Even though a trip to Wembley would have been fun, Jose made it clear from the off where he felt our priorities had to be & it wasn't the FA Cup. That said, he couldn't & wouldn't allow another embarrassment in front of his old supporters. So the line up he chose was yet another example of Jose as a master tactician. He made it tough for them to break us down and focused attention on their one main threat, maybe we were a little too aggressive and I was particularly disappointed in Herrera's rash challenge. He knew the ref was a wanker and was bound & determined to have an impact on the match as he always does.
Mourinho's plan was clearly to perhaps sneak a goal & steal a win and embarrass the cockney tw*ts while he's at it! Didn't pan out that way, although despite Herrera losing the plot & Pogs again out-of-sorts, a more experienced Rashford might have put a mighty large spanner in the works.

Let's maintain a glass half-full mentality here on the caf please; Life's too short to whinge & whine because we don't have the perfect team .... yet!

Celebrate the fact we have a really good deep squad, short of "great" by probably four more top quality players, and with Jose at the helm (and with CL competition) they will come!
 
EyeInTheSky said:
Nice logic. What about the shots on target after the sending off? and the Rashford 1 on 1 with 10 men?

Poor post
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You mean the one shot on target from Rashford?

Getting onto the end of one hopeful punt is not my idea of being well in a game.

So "Poor post" back at you.

oh, so proud of us only losing 1-0!
 
PogbaUnited said:
Proud of what seriously? We barely manage to have a shoot on target with 11 players and we were dreadful after the red card. Rojo and Valencia showed some great passion and de Gea went in de God-mode again, but what is there to be proud of? We lost once a time again to a better team and we struggled too much.

It seems people have forgot what club this is and the standards of it. It's only because of de Gea that we didn't lose 3 or 4-1. That's nowhere good enough.
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This. I don't get why people aren't turned off by the whole thing.

Those last 45mins you just knew we wouldn't score unless it was by some amazing bit of action, like Rashford making an incredible chance for himself off a random hoof.

I was literally ticking the minutes off, probably only the Chelsea 4-0 was a worse game for me this season
 
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