Well what can I say? Today was a complete reality check and it hurts me to say it, but we were not good enough and were beaten by much the better team.
The 6 – 1 mauling from the blue half of Manchester had been coming for a while. United have been merely covering the cracks for a good few weeks.
The Reds came out of the traps flying this season with emphatic wins over Arsenal and Bolton. Cruising, playing at a quick and scoring for fun, it’s as if we have become complacent lately.
We were lucky in beating Chelsea who had a hatful of chances, poor in picking up a point at the Brittania with only De Gea to thank for that, had to resort to a last gasp equaliser having given up a two goal lead against Basel, Norwich City had a host of chances in losing 2 -0 at Old Trafford, fortunate to get a point at Anfield with De Gea again the hero and likewise we were un-inspiring in Europe on Tuesday evening.
That is a pretty long list so you could say this result today was expected. However, no-one could have predicted a 6 -1 home defeat, United’s biggest home league defeat for 85 years.
People including myself will point out the fact that the sending off of Jonny Evans (of which no-one can have any complaints) completely turned the game and of course it did. With 11 verses 11 on the field it would have been a tighter affair, but United definitely deserved to lose.
We were very, very poor and as I said, have been for a while.
Jamie Redknapp quite rightly pointed out, he hadn’t seen United give the ball away as much as we did today. The tempo of our play was just not quick enough; often we were playing at walking pace – a shadow of ourselves in the opening games of the season.
We were especially poor at the back yet again. Oh how we miss our leader, our skipper, our foundation Nemanja Vidic. We look all at sea without him. Nobody picking up runners, nobody communicating, nobody taking charge.
The fourth City goal summed it up, a complete mix up between Rio Ferdinand and David De Gea.
Don’t get me started on Patrice Evra. He was once regarded as one of the best if not the best wing back in Europe, but I wouldn’t even put him in the top ten now. In my opinion, he’s a winger not a defender. I see more of him going forward than I do defending. He forever ambles back to his position when the oppositions on the attack and never seems to track his runner – schoolboy stuff.
Fergie often makes me wonder to. Why oh why not start Hernandez in such a big game. His goalscoring record is phenomenal, his movement is top class, yet Sir Alex starts him on the bench?
Maybe because he was worried of City’s height, so he opts for Welbeck for that extra physical presence. Hernandez, came off the bench to good effect last weekend at Anfield, perhaps Fergie had that in mind again today. But to me Chicharito has got to start.
Some of you may think I’m being a tad harsh, but we need to realise we aren’t unbeatable and we have been very poor of late. With Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and now of course Man City we can’t afford to be so poor if he want to retain the cherished possession in English football.
But you have to give City credit. They were excellent. Although United started the brighter of the two teams, City defended well. It’s often tough against ten men, but City made it look easy and picked United off for fun. I can’t pick one United player out of that team today that played well.
I also can’t fail to talk about their little magician, David Silva. This lad is a different class. His movement, trickery and creative play is so difficult to defend against and he makes City tick. He plays in the hole and floats around with freedom – this is certainly something United miss in their midfield.
When I saw Mario Balotelli’s name on the team sheet I must admit I was rubbing my hands together with delight. He was sure to be sent off in my eyes, but give the boy credit he took his two goals very well and is certainly a character – “Why is it always me?”.
Sir Alex said: “This was our worst ever day.” And who can disagree? It was tough to take, but we must all take it on the chin and move on. We must improve. We have another tough league game away to Everton on Saturday. United, as we always seem to do, must bounce back and show City that we are up for the fight.
After all, we are the champions and champions never lie down.
You can also follow Jamie on twitter: @Jamie_Journo
Well done City – from all your new friends on the KOP!!!
Haha the same City that stole your place in the top 4? Fuck off you idiot
Calm down, calm down!!!!
City didn’t really steal their, Pool just aint good enough anymore. City will soon acquire the tag of United’s fiercest rivals leaving Pool in a lurch, since that’s their USP isn’t it ?? Huyton8 … you should be scared. Pretty damn scared.
The day the balance of power shifted in Manchester and in England. City are a superb, remarkable side. The amazing thing is that I expected City to win, at Old Trafford! I havnt expected Man U to lose at Old Trafford in 20 years. I expected them to lose and they did! City are now the best side in the country. Chris, City never took Liverpools place in the top 4, Spurs did. So get your facts right before calling others an idiot!
No your fucking idiot Spurs didn’t, whilst they were in the top 4 momentarily. It is City that have permanently entered the top 4 and the team that have missed out is Liverpool.
i also thought city might get something today but i don,t think the balance of power has shifted if evans wasn,t sent off utd would of came back into it and could of won also if kompany and silva who was great today were out missing like vidic and cleverley are for us and city got a player sent off at the start of the second half utd would of put them to the sword so lets not get carryed away but utd do need a centre midfielder but one in the schweinsteiger mould leting anderson or cleverley do their thing in the hole with rooney. scholes had keane cleverley needs a midfield general and schweinsteiger is the man and hes a winner too thats what we need…
I never said anything about top 4, I was merely stating the teams that are vying for the title.
My view about our defence.
Might sound like I’m about to bash on the guy but the turning point was Jonny and for the life of me I can’t comprehend his inclusion in the starting line up. Yes Evans does have good games for us, but if you look closely i’m pretty sure i wont be the only one to put him in the category of mistake-prone type of players?! TRUE we lose as a team, TRUE we didn’t have a settled back 4 since the start of the season but after the gamble at Anfield (which in retrospect didn’t pay off given the humbling at home yesterday), I really expected us to put out a combination that is tried, trusted and known to work: Vida & Ferdinand. People might want to point out that Vida only just came back into the team but I’d like to remind them this isn’t any game. This is a derby, at home at that. Pride should and usually does carry most players, wether they had game time or not through the game. But lets not forget the senior players of the back for.
about Evra, I do agree with his ridiculous decline. I just wish the twins weren’t so injury prone. At this precise moment, theres no one to challenge him and that resulted in his casual attitude towards defending. The lack of leadership and communication from Ferdinand is a hard one to swallow tbh and that’s all I’ll say about those two.
Verdict: Annoyed at the selection. Expected a lot more from the two senior players.
My view about the rest of the team
Simply put, the most important part of any team, the engine room.. well ours didn’t show up. Protection of our FRAIL back four was non existent (stats says we have conceded 91 chances at old Trafford so far, i felt genuine pain during MOTD) so you can’t say it wasn’t coming. Possession/distribution especially from Ando was shocking and that was when we had 11 men. Down to 10 it became suicidal. In the west end we tried our best to push the team but the overall pace was just lacking, no urgency whatsoever. Also, even though Danny did well for us so far yet again I would have loved to see a combination that is tried and trusted: Rooney & Chico up top with Giggs pulling the strings behind them. We’ve been crying out for an enforcer for the past 4/5 seasons and a world class playmaker since Scholes retired. Either of them could have easily made a huge difference today but obviously this is merely speculation. But you’ve got to admit, those Spanish player really know how to put us to the sword with ease.. xavi & iniesta, silva, and even mata slightly had a field day… this is not a coincidence.
Verdict: Hurt by the performance from our usual match winners. Yet again annoyed at the team selection. We got a challenge on our hands but that’s nothing new… we’ll see shitty’s off come may. Despite the hurt and everything, in Sir Alex we trust.
The 2nd half was played against ten men.
3 goals scored in the last 3 mins.
It’s the score line that’s hard to take.
Not the defeat.
No excuses.
We can’t even have a go at the ref who was spot on for a change.My head dropped when I seen Clattenburg had the game.He’s normally a poor official IMHO
But lets not get carried away here.
Yes City do at the moment look strong.
But so did Chelsea this time last season.
Even Arsenal came back into it when Utd got beat there.
Early days.
Remember the loses at Chelsea 5-0,Southampton 6-3,Newcastle 5-0.
Beaten last year at Wolves,beaten at Burnley.
These results seem to happen to Utd every now and again.
It’s how we react that matters.
Now we all know what it’s like at Everton.
A perfect chance to get back on track.
It’s happened before and it will happen again.
Take the laughs and jokes because as always Utd will have the last one.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer.
Who didn’t see this coming. City have been buying big and building a team with the best players. We refused spend on the midfielders that we needed and now we pay the price. We don’t really have one midfielder that should be in the first team on a regular basis and when you couple this with the inexperience of our defence…well, nuff said.
Although this has happened we still wont go and buy the players we need.
I can take the defeat, but it was the manner they conceded three goals in the last 2 minuets that I can’t accept. The players summed themselves up in that moment. They were naive, complacent and unintelligent. We should have accepted that City had been better and that we wouldn’t recover a 1-3 scoreline. Instead they played like idiots and allowed them to rip us apart.
The centre of midfield is a joke but it has been for a while, its not a new problem. I don’t think Anderson or Fletcher won a single tackle yesterday. They couldn’t get near Silva who was brilliant. They couldn’t keep possession, tackle, pass the ball or create any chances. Nani and Young played badly and defended badly as well.
Most Man Utd fans wouldn’t have played Evans yesterday, but Ferguson is seeing something the rest of us don’t. He is clumsy and against top players he is left founding. I watched him against Norwich and he was poor. Why Jones was on the bench is beyond me completely. He has been our top players this season and we left him on the bench.
I agree that Evra has been poor and I think we need to sign a new left back to really challenge him again. He knows we don’t have another left back and so he is complacent.
It was the worst result I’ve seen since watching Man Utd, even though losing to Southampton 6-3 in 1997 didn’t feel great either. I do think we have a good set of games now having played Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham now. We have to go on a winning run now to ensure City are pressured when they play Chelsea and Liverpool.
Utd played OK, i think.
City didn’t win because Utd were crap.
They won because of possibly the most skillful, fast, free-flowing football I’ve ever seen at Old trafford. And they’re getting better from week to week.
We were lucky not to go down to 9 men. The ref didn’t see Anderson wrap his leg round Micah richards’ in the penalty box.
When they knocked 3 in during “Fergie time”, it was the ultimate slap in the face.