v Manchester United (H): Post Match

[Lecter]

Incidentally we would have won that match yesterday if Suarez had been playing because I am pretty certain he'd have done something outrageously skillful turned a couple of men and got us a goal

[Alex]

Incidentally we would have won that match yesterday if Suarez had been playing because I am pretty certain he'd have done something outrageously skillful turned a couple of men and got us a goal

Hardly a stretch to suggest that a world class player would have turned that game for us.

Dont really see how it helps though.

IMO If we had Messi we would have won too.

[Chris]

not just one bad game mate, soton, swansea, blackburn, now utd, lucky at times with individual quality winnign us games( i know that's why you have quality players) but the system has not worked at times lately. It has made us more stable at the back though

I think expectations of performances are wayyyyy too high. It's like some expect us to rock up at tough away venues and not come under any sort of pressure at all. I thought we managed Southampton brilliantly, they had a great first 10 mins, a great last 5 mins of the first half and nothing else. Swansea was pretty crap but all they really did was have 2 good long shots. We did ok considering. I think the biggest problem has been trying to fit Lallana, Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge in, one (Lallana) should be on the bench.

[Marina]

Still disappointed about this. Thought we would show up and outperform them. Our team matches theirs on paper and is even better in some ways. And usually there's no shortage of belief among the players, at least these days. Sigh.

[SK]

Hmm I am not convinced thats down to the formation

I dont think we have played well at times but we had this last season. We went on a run winning games and at times we didnt play well but a moment of brilliance (more often than not from Suarez) won us the match

Perhaps it's not down to the system, maybe we're just missing Lucas to cover when our CB goes out to cover the WB, don't know. I do feel it has run it's course. We have to ask ourselves, well the club need to do that, are we confident in playing 343 next season, and are willing to buy players that will fit in that?

[Alex]

I think the biggest problem has been trying to fit Lallana, Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge in, one (Lallana) should be on the bench.

That something that Hodgson gets criticised with England for (Among hundreds of others) Fitting all the good players in the team, rather than making a good team.

I think you are right, we are changing things around to fit in our best players and sometimes it fails and the team is unbalanced. I like our current system, but jamming in the players isnt usually going to work out for the best.

Lallana is the one who Id drop too at the moment, he was wasteful yesterday.

[SK]

I think expectations of performances are wayyyyy too high. It's like some expect us to rock up at tough away venues and not come under any sort of pressure at all. I thought we managed Southampton brilliantly, they had a great first 10 mins, a great last 5 mins of the first half and nothing else. Swansea was pretty crap but all they really did was have 2 good long shots. We did ok considering. I think the biggest problem has been trying to fit Lallana, Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge in, one (Lallana) should be on the bench.

i'm more than happy with the team goin out to the likes of southampton and sit back, soak up the pressure and counter attack, i've no problem with that. But all of those teams have targeted the space between our wingback and the centre-back, and it's becoming a worry that we're not capable of coping with that.

and lets not kid ourselves with swansea, they had enough chances in the first half to put us out of the game

[frank the tank]

That something that Hodgson gets criticised with England for (Among hundreds of others) Fitting all the good players in the team, rather than making a good team.

I think you are right, we are changing things around to fit in our best players and sometimes it fails and the team is unbalanced. I like our current system, but jamming in the players isnt usually going to work out for the best.

Lallana is the one who Id drop too at the moment, he was wasteful yesterday.

He would always be on the bench for me. I personally would build my attacking aspect of the team around Coutinho.

I think the system just needs a tweak as opposed to completely changed. Bringing Gerrard on for Moreno last week gave us that extra man in midfield. I wouldnt be sorry to see Lucas come in for Lallana away to arsenal and that be the only change. I think that a team of:

------------------------MIGNOLET------------------------

-------EMRE CAN-------SKRTEL-------SAKHO------------

--------------------------LUCAS--------------------------

MARKOVIC----HENDERSON------ALLEN--------STERLING

------------------------COUTINHO------------------------

------------------------STURRIDGE-----------------------

would allow for Emre Can and Sakho to bring the ball out a bit more and would also allow Henderson and Allen to take turns at pressing very high up the pitch. With Lucas covering both wide men when they bomb forward, then this could be a very strong tactic.

Personally I think we will eventually go back to a back 4 - and it may be when Flanagan comes back into the reckoning - but it might be a bit risky to do that now.

[Lecter]

Lallana is the one who Id drop too at the moment, he was wasteful yesterday.

I dont know how anyone can level that at solely one player

Sterling and Coutinho were just as wasteful in possession so was the rest of the midfield

Sterling really pissed me off a lot yesterday, he never tried at all. He didnt try and take on Blind, his touch and passing was absolutely appalling

The more I watch him at the minute the less likely I would be to pay him £150K per week and the more tempting £50 million for him looks

Collectively nobody looked arsed yesterday barring Skrtel & Sakho and Gerrard for the 60 seconds he was on the pitch

Thats ****ing shocking to me and none of them could really complain if they were dropped the next game

Oh and I do think you are right one of Coutinho, Sterling & Lallana shouldnt be in the side as shoe-horning all of them in the side has been one of our biggest issues this season imo

[BigChief]

I don't get all the writing off of the formation, it was one bad game!! Perfection doesn't exist. We've been in title winning form since changing to it!! This is mad.

Players **** themselves yesterday. End of story.

Two week break at an ideal time for us and a terrible time for Utd. I was expecting to be 5-8 points behind Utd at this point of the season (either losing to one of City or Swansea). Seems like by beating City/Swansea we bought ourselves this breathing space.

No need to panic yet. Fellaini, Carrick, Rooney and Mata's legs won't be able to keep that pressing game up for too long, specially not against the better teams they've got coming up.

[Lecter]

Players **** themselves yesterday. End of story.

Attitude was the biggest issue

Whether you call that lack of desire / passion, losing their bottle whatever

They werent at the races and didnt look arsed

[BigChief]

Attitude was the biggest issue

Whether you call that lack of desire / passion, losing their bottle whatever

They werent at the races and didnt look arsed

Can't really speculate and don't really want to. Each player that **** themselves yesterday have given us some great performances so far so we owe them that game.

As long as it was just that game and they snap out of it. Sterling is a long way off from being a 150k player (not just because of yesterday). If he doesn't sign at 100k I'd listen to offers of £40m+ (which probably means another English club).

[ChrisDR1968]

Attitude was the biggest issue

Whether you call that lack of desire / passion, losing their bottle whatever

They werent at the races and didnt look arsed

Collectively (both fans and players) think oh **** it's United and freeze. That's been happening against them for a long time with only the odd occasion when we've been up to taking them on

[Chazza]

6 Tackles in the first half

[Tee]

Utd moved that ball around and passed as well as anyone has against us this season (in the first half). Our pressing game was either non existent or totally negated by their football.