Post match thread

[Red_Al_77]

Very disappointing performance. People talk about fine margins but its about taking your chances when presented to you. Also people say we were tired from our midweek game. Well if that is the case we'll never win the league. Great teams don't play on excuses, they just get on with it. We ****ed up at Readng and today we had plenty of goalmouth scrambles to sink them. It's become habit against Manure and something that needs to be addressed if we ever want to be champions again. We ran around like headless chickens today.

[Redlife]

I would have started Crouch instead of Kuyt.


The title race isn't over. That's obvious. Let's not be so pessimistic.

[disco]

Just back, thought we were very unlucky - you don't create many chances in these games, but we managed to miss all of ours.

I've come to realise that the TV simply does not do justice to how 'professional'/'cynical' Man U can be. Constant ref and linesman harrassment, cunning fouls, kicking the ball away, but just not far enough to justify a booking. Van Der Saar even circled the goal to take a goal kick

I'd love to see how long the ball was in play in the second half. My guess is about 5 minutes

Thing is, I genuinely don't want us to play like that. Man U and their fans are suited to each other.

Oh, and thanks to Howard for the reminder - Halsey was terrible. Can't believe he let them get away with so much.

[Craig_H]

Game of fine margins. We should have had a penalty. A draw would have been the best result. We played well second half and totally dominated against a team playing men behind the ball. It was luck again if we had had the penalty.

Move on ... We're progressing and closing the gap. Not much between us.

Fine margins yes, but it seems no concidence that we're on the wrong end of those margins.

No, we shouldnt have had a penalty.

No, a win would have been the best result.

We didnt play that well, we just had lots of possession in non threatening areas because they got their tactics spot on and allowed us to have it where we couldnt hurt them. When we got into the final third, they snuffed us out without too much difficulty.

There were specific reasons why we were so useless in the final third, but i wont go into that now. The long and short of it is Ferguson sadly outclassed Rafa tactically and their smash and grab gameplan worked. Nothing really to do with luck, they just formulated and executed a very good tactical display.

Extremely gutted.

[Red_Al_77]

Just back, thought we were very unlucky - you don't create many chances in these games, but we managed to miss all of ours.

I've come to realise that the TV simply does not do justice to how 'professional'/'cynical' Man U can be. Constant ref and linesman harrassment, cunning fouls, kicking the ball away, but just not far enough to justify a booking. Van Der Saar even circled the goal to take a goal kick

I'd love to see how long the ball was in play in the second half. My guess is about 5 minutes

Thing is, I genuinely don't want us to play like that. Man U and their fans are suited to each other.

You can't be unlucky if you don't take any of the chances presented to us by their calamity keeper. We had plenty of attempts to bury them. We didn't take them and that is down to not being clinical. Never though we were unlucky at all in the game.

[Craig_H]

Wrong. The game in midweek took a bit out of us. Again, the gap won't be closed in a year. It's a gradual process but we're closing it. With more money we'll be there.

Not if we keep playing the likes of Kuyt and Kewell.

Almost robotically slow, it's like watching slow motion replays. By the time they've controlled the ball, they're losing it. Horribly painful to watch.

[disco]

Whether you call it luck or losing concentration for 2 seconds, but Rooney's mi**** shot leading to their goal was all they really did and they played counter-attacking for the remainder of the game.

We would have done the same if we scored first

First goal wins these games

[Howard_lfc]

We've drawn 2 (one on a ridiculous penalty for Chelsea) and lost 1 on a jammy goal against the top three. We are not that far off the pace. 2-2 with Spurs and 0-0 with Birmingham and Blackburn and 3-1 to Reading are the issue AS ALWAYS. Look, you all bitching about the money can say all you want, but we have been tactically poor and made mistakes in team selection in all of those matches, save against Arsenal and Chelsea.

The issue for me is not getting it wrong initially, although for all of the "preparation" nonsense Rafa talks about, he shouldn't be selecting a formation that leaves Gerrard adrift in the midfield. It is Rafa's absolute inflexibility to change during the match; The subs and formation changes don't happen as needed, they happen at 60 minutes and 75 minutes every time, regardless of what happens during the match, and even then, today they were backward. Kewell should have come off after Kuyt-- who else was going to provide width and service to Crouch?

Rafa is, as I have always said, a top-flight manager, but he has very human flaws and he has to correct them or we will continue to flounder in WINNABLE matches. Man United didn't even play well, and they won. How many times do we say that?

Very good post mate.

[Craig_H]

Stupid lineu up today aswell, Crouch and Babel should have ben shoe-in starters.

I'm ****ing fed up with our inability to ****ing SCORE against the likes of UTD, never mind win a bloody game.

Spot on mate.

Kewell is horribly slow and when he plays against good opposition, he gets exposed emphatically.

Kuyt, same thing. But slow, weak, poor touch and lack of footballing intelligence. Doesnt play as a striker, left Torres isolated, outnumbered and unable to influence the game.

Babel's pace and directness would've been an asset, especially once Brown got booked. Crouch would've played up top and when he gets the ball, he makes it stick, meaning Torres could've made runs and/or Gerrard etc would've had time to get up in support.

Without Crouch, we simply saw Torres trying the impossible task of getting the ball while up against 3 or 4 defenders, and trying to keep hold of it on his own.

It was never going to work and the 'tactical master' was totally outfoxed today. Depressing to see.

[Craig_H]

Fine margins. They had their full team.

Oh my ****ing lord, you've ALWAYS got an inane excuse....we never do wrong, we're just always 'unlucky' or hard done by...

[disco]

You can't be unlucky if you don't take any of the chances presented to us by their calamity keeper. We had plenty of attempts to bury them. We didn't take them and that is down to not being clinical. Never though we were unlucky at all in the game.

Yes, I agree, although you have to give their defense some credit for the clearances and blocks.

I choose to use the word 'unlucky' because a different day Kewell's volley goes in, Gerrard and Babel's shots fly in..... and a striker other than Kuyt is on the end of a sitter.

[Craig_H]

you mean the one that won 4 - 0 in midweek and which rafa didn't rotate......

Are we now comparing Marseille with Man Utd?

Dear god...

[Craig_H]

Yeah, I think he means that one

Crouch would have got as little change from Vidic and Ferdinand today as Kuyt did.

One sloppy set piece undid us today. We weren't as bad as people are making out though.

Not so sure mate, Crouch would've actually PLAYED up front and given poor Torres some help.

When Torres DID get the ball, he had no support because Kuyt was miles back and by the time support arrived, torres was outnumbered and had lost the ball.

Crouch also has a good knack of keeping possession when he gets it and holding up the play allowing support to arrive. Kuyt, well....doesnt.

[Red_Al_77]

Yes, I agree, although you have to give their defense some credit for the clearances and blocks.

I choose to use the word 'unlucky' because a different day Kewell's volley goes in, Gerrard and Babel's shots fly in..... and a striker other than Kuyt is on the end of a sitter.

Now that is unlucky

[AFII]

Fine margins yes, but it seems no concidence that we're on the wrong end of those margins.

No, we shouldnt have had a penalty.

No, a win would have been the best result.

We didnt play that well, we just had lots of possession in non threatening areas because they got their tactics spot on and allowed us to have it where we couldnt hurt them. When we got into the final third, they snuffed us out without too much difficulty.

There were specific reasons why we were so useless in the final third, but i wont go into that now. The long and short of it is Ferguson sadly outclassed Rafa tactically and their smash and grab gameplan worked. Nothing really to do with luck, they just formulated and executed a very good tactical display.

Extremely gutted.

It's a penalty 10 times out of ten when the ball hit the arm/hand when you don't have your arm close to your body, and Tevez had his arm a long way from that and the ball hit his arm.

A very clear penalty that should have been given 10 times out of 10. It won't matter if it's ball to hand/arm in this case.