City vs united -live

First topic message reminder :

must win game to shut those fuckers up. Get the title sorted and move onto the dippers.
Worried that Pep said he’s got an eye on the CL game. Rather we went all out to win this in 60 minutes, then tested three key players (Dave, Dino and Kev)

can only add to what has been said was so looking forward to a great birthday present. Cant believe Atkinson has been put forward as one of the refs to be appointed to the world cup panel. would be lucky to do sunday league pub refereeing on that display. profligacy in front of goal has cost us big time we were cruising. I hope in private behind closed doors pep really gets into them.

That's what you get for not taking your chances.   Rags had 3 and scored them all. 

Pep needs to find a plan B though.   Tippy happy is good but sometimes we need scrappy.

Horrible atmosphere in the second half once we started falling apart. So so quiet, only the rag bastard fans singing. So slow and lazy in the 2nd half. So casual it defies belief.

If we'd have won today that would have been pretty much the end of our season. Can't see any chance of us beating the Dippers on Tues so at least now the season is still interesting. Lose to the Spuds as well and my Cityitis will be full on raging

Just want a good go on Tues.  We didn't press as hard today as we have been.  Show me some proper bottle.

Well...the day after the night before. Couldn't post last night. Me and Dawg were chatting walking to our cars - and both of us were deflated and knackered.

The first half atmosphere was the best I been at, at the Etihad (wasn't at 93:20)....the singing was immense. 

At HT, you just thought "how are we not 4/5-0 up". Sterling missed 2 great chances (first one, after watching it again, just bobbled up as he hit it, but the second - no excuses) and Gundogan missed a free header when closer than where Pogba was.

The the second half...the back 4 just fell apart. Otamendi was all over the place. Vinny was caught ball watching twice and Danilo's touch for the free kick for their 3rd summed us up.

Sane was non-existent for large parts of the game. I actually thought Sterling and Fernandinho were our best players in the first half. Gundogan went totally missing in the 2nd half.

I know Otamendi has had a good season and Vinny has done OK....but 2 big games and both crumbled.
Can't see Pep using them both as his first pair next season.

Not sure whether the players tired - but the level of effort and concentration was scary how it dropped so quickly. Pep should have brought on KDB and Aguero much sooner. We should have had a clear penalty and Young should have seen red. Let's see what happens tomorrow morning as he wasn't even given a yellow.

Ferdy misses 2 PL games now after his yellow - so it's not looking great to even win it in 2 weeks time, as we have Spurs next and we need 6 more points.

Very disappointing - so on Tuesday - it's shit or bust for me. If we can create 6 great chances in one half against United at home, then we can do it against the dippers, but we need to be clinical. Any of those 3 clear chances fall to Aguero, you'd have to say 2 out of 3 of them would have been scored.

That beautiful, cruel mistress was back. It's been a while since I've seen her...typical City.

The last 10m minutes of the first half I was saying we needed that third before HT to put it to bed. We were missing far too many easy changes that it was unreal. If we'd gone on 4-0 up it would have flattered them. United were poor, really poor. 

Give DDG no outball, and pressure him, half the time he was kicking it to one of our players 10 yards inside the united half and we'd break at them again.

Second half. What the fuck happened? The drop off in energy, commitment and fight was frightening. When they scored their 2nd, I think Pep should've made some changes.  We needed new energy whether that was from Kev, Serge, Jesus or even Walker, but we needed to change something up.

The crowd were as flat as pancake sin that 2nd half. I've never known it so poor for a long long time. After the first half, I thought we'd be hoarse by the end of the game but we were very quiet reasons we just hadn't expected.

I said to Andy as we left that I couldn't even think of doing a video after that; I felt so down and flat. The sack of chips I had for lunch didn't help 

And the pie!

Got my tweet on the Sunday Supp though - first up.

i'll check it out. You star!

Cheesy is on TS at 14:00....

I wasn't there so I can imagine how you must've felt. I have been feeling shit all day and my enthusiasm for a result on Tuesday has gone completely any optimism I had disappeared when the final whistle went. I tried to take solace from the fact that we still managed to hit the post twice in the 2nd half de gea pulled of a worldy and the refs awful decision meant we still could have had 4 second half. They only had 4 on target all game., but it still came down to the fact we need a serious clinical finisher, or someone is going to have to take sterling by the scruff of the neck in training and ram finishing down his throat until he can do it blindfold.

Incorrect Oz....sorry to disagree.

Sterling is not a natural finisher, nor he is a striker. Yet, even though he's not either, he's our 2nd top scorer and 4th top PL scorer. 

Why we didn't have a natural striker on the pitch is beyond me...but then again, we were 2-0 up at HT. Yesterday came down to some utterly shite defending from Danilo, Otamendi and Kompany. Not Sterling's misses. 

Also, Gundogan missed the easiest chance of the match - the header from 7 yards...one that Pogba scored from further out. He also hit the post from 8 yards out....so not just Sterling.

In fact, @mcfcstat show that Sterling was our most influential player yesterday with 7.8 score.

I even said to Andy that I’d have had Nemcha as we started with the false 9 and looked iffy. 

We didn’t lose that game simply because we couldn’t score goals. We scored enough goals today to win most games. 

But I’ve noticed in some games recently that, if we get too far ahead by HT we can just coast the second half. 

3-0 up at HT against Arsenal and we didn’t bother looking for more in the 2nd half. Same yesterday. Just wanted to take it easy.

Agree...that's a good point. And it's not just because of Tuesday, we've done that all season.

Sergio or Jesus could have played up front. Sterling can't take the responsubilty of playing CF. He's far more clinical when he doesn't have that burden. Poor decision by Pep again. I was worried from the start with the team chosen. If we thrash The Dippers on Tues (very unlikely) then Pep will be vindicated in his choice of team otherwise leaving KdB, Walker & Jesus/Sergio was just stupid

Sterling has to take the responsibility of playing centre forward because rightly or wrongly that is where pep picked him to play. I will defend sterling to the hilt if it is warranted and yes I suppose because I am so disappointed by the result I may seem a bit harsh.

Whilst bi agree also that maybe gundogan should have done better with the header he still managed to get it on target, He also hit the post whilst off balance and a bit further than 8 yards out from what I can remember. If sterling had the same result from his 3 attempts at goal we would be talking minimum 3-3. He couldn't get 1 on target got in the way of otamendi's goal bound shot diverting onto the post. Nothing can be said that is going to change my mind with regards to missing chances. Had De Gea saved them from sterling so be it but hit the target to give uys a chance. Yes I agree the defence cost us through sheer lack of awareness & concentration and I also agree that Pep certainly should have started 1 of aguero or jesus. But you cannot deny that our profligacy in front of goal is as much a factor in the loss as bad defending and poor refereeing so that is why I am pointing the finger more so at sterling than Gundogan.

Fair enough....but what that says is that at 2-0 at HT, we can't defend that. We need to be 3 or 4-0 up to have won that game. 

That's pretty bloody worrying when we play Liverpool tomorrow. 

All 3 of their goals were down to very poor defending. As you said about Sterling making DeGea make a save you could accept - well all 3 goals were from 8 yards out whilst under no pressure whatsoever from our defenders - leaving Ederson helpless. 

I'm not for one minute saying Sterling shouldn't have scored at least one of those goals...but at 2-0 at HT, we shouldn't be making excuses of our poor finishing as the reason, when we lost 3-2 through awful defending. The fingers should be solely pointed at the the defenders...IMO.

ringing round looking for a builder today. First guy I ring is a city fan and he said he's been venting all weekend. 

He mentioned Sterling and I stopped him there. I said Sterling has got us last minute goals to get us an extra 2 points here and there and it wasn't really his fault.

I haven't spoken to a single City fan that would take progression in the CL over beating the rags on Saturday.

Yeah I agree.....it's all Sterlings fault.lol