Well I thought we played well and didn't give up. Undone by home grown genius and Lingard. A bit speechless at the moment. Thanks for your company tonight guys.
There was so much that was good, not least never giving up. So good going forward, but the cutting edge is not quite there.
We actually started well but got undone by some quality strikes and bad defending. Plus law of the ex! Actually pleased we didn't just give up and really gave it a go 2nd half. Just a shame we got back into it then let Lingard waltz through us easily. Sums up the season - great in attack but there is a reason why our GD is in - figures.
Those of us who have refereed will know how much an influence Jonathan Moss was tonight. Big team decision making from him. Let them get away with everything and crucified us. Due to work and time constraints I didn't get to look at who was in the middle in my preview. I would have gone for 0-2 and an abject display. Unless you've refereed regularly you wouldn't perhaps understand how biased and poor his performance was. Our penalty could not have been less so if a chainsaw had been used to scythe our man down... left no options. Quote of the evening was from an acquaintance who has frequented the kennel far more often than The Vic: "has Moss got a United season ticket?" No arguing about the finishing, and was Gomes double tonight even better the West Ham? Left with a bitter taste tonight. Not as if they needed any help.
I thought the match was very even until the first goal, and then we just seemed rattled and couldn't pass, defend... do anything. I'm not sure Prodl is up to match fitness, and Kabasele looked a bit lost at times in the LCB role. There were also massive gaps between Kabasele and Zeegelar - I think mainly due to Prodl getting drawn forward, and Kabasele having to move across. At half time I was suggesting to my old man we needed to bring on Deeney for Prodl. Go 4-4-2, put Deeney up top and give their defenders something to think about. 3 against Gray was just too easy. Second half we seemed much better... but mainly form the formation changed when we made the double substitution, and Deeney came on 10 minutes too late - my only criticism of Silva so far this season is maybe his subs can be a bit slow or a little confusing. Although game should have been well and truly over when Lukaku missed that rather easy chance. It was great to see we didn't give up, and also we carried on trying to play good football rather than just hoofing up front every time. Also a little comment on the ref - don't think there were any 'big' decisions he got wrong - but just a lot of little things he didn't do well. Little fouls Man Utd found easy to win... and simple things like Lingaard kicking the ball away. Also a bit of a laugh at Man Utd having to waste time - even at 3-0 up
That's my point, he didn't really make any controversial decisions, just that he was not even handed all night. Had he been more even then it might have been a different story.
Having slept on this I have come to the conclusion that I am disappointed at the result. We played really well overall and had a massive amount of possession and at times Man U really didn't have a look in. Sometimes our ball into their penalty area is a bit late (we always seem to want to take it a little bit further, which gives the opposition time to get back), of poor quality, coupled with some less than sharp finishing. We should not have given away the free kick that allowed AY to score (brilliant thought that was) and perhaps HG should have got a hand to it. Lingard should never have got close to our penalty area, no one challenged him (bring on Cholobas eh!). We kept going to the end to our credit, everyone put in a shift or more and but for Lingard it could have been 3-3. Mourihno looked really unhappy, I sensed he was not happy with his team letting us play. Despite the result the game was enjoyable and our play was entertaining and if we can play like this most games then we will come out on top most of the time. As for the ref, am no expert but I saw no bad errors but I really fed up with the shirt pulling, hugging and grabbing that goes on at times and the FA could easily stamp this out in the same way they are now dealing with divers and fisticuffs - retrospective bookings. There was one shot I saw when 2 Man U players were literally hugging ours right under the refs nose, not that we are innocent in these antics either.
What wasn't shown on MOTD was Young controlling the ball with his arm in the penalty box before clearing up field, had that been given and scored by Deeney they may have collapsed
