Spot on. We were our own undoing yesterday. First goal Ward made a mistake then corrected it for a corner, Townsend was trying to trap a high ball just outside the box and made a hash for 2nd, 3rd lost possession in our own third after trying to play out from defence resulting in corner, 4th poor tackle right on box for a dangerous free kick. These were the errors shown just on the highlights of the goals. Unfortunately you cannot get away with these type of defensive errors for 90 mins against a quality attacking team. Some of these may of been attributable to age of the squad or just basic technique, perhaps a bit of both.

Edited by Booted Eagle (18 Jan 2021 1.54pm)

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Forget this game - everything was against us and we were 20-1 to win this game before the kick off. Why because Man C were bang in form are use to playing 2 games a week and we had less rest and are not use to playing 2 games in a week. We have rested Zaha Benteke and Kayoute and will be ready for the winnable games we have coming up. It would have been foolish to run ourselves into the ground get players suspended / injured in a game even if we were at our best we would likely lose. Next time we play them at home we might they may have played away in Europe in the week and we have a few extra days to prepare and we will give them a game.

I want to forget the game but it is difficult to understand how all players including subs performed so badly when even WBA held them 1-1 at the Etihad. Their passing of the ball last night was some of the worst I have ever seen you would think for the wages they earn they would at least try to make a game of it even if the odds were stacked against them. They all should donate their salaries for last night to the NHS!

I totally get the points being made around top teams being generally beyond our reach. Also that we should scratch together enough points this season to survive.....just.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE NEGATIVE WAY WE PLAY!

It’s dour to watch and I think the dogged insistence on repeatedly doing the same things (regardless of them being totally ineffective) is Roy main failure. It’s his stubborn refusal to alter to a clearly failing game plan that frustrates me.

I don’t mind losing (let’s face it we all got used to it over the years) but we’ve got to show something, some intent, some purpose in defeat.
Going into these games hoping to keep the goals against down and viewing a 1-0 defeat as the some sort of comfort/ objective- tells us everything we need to know.

Roy is an absolute gentleman and I am grateful for what he has done for the club, but his skills would be better deployed in some other capacity at the club - preferably supporting a new manager with a more positive approach.

Exactly this.
We all know we’re going to struggle against the top sides sometimes, but these days it feels like Roy’s negativity has the effect on the team of throwing the towel in now before we even start. I too love Roy, he’s done us proud, but it’s too one dimensional now and no plan b. Also let’s face it, we’re not that good at Roy’s main strength anymore, which is keeping the ball out of the net.

Edited by monkey (18 Jan 2021 6.35pm)

We're still playing but haven't had any shots yet.

Red and Blue Army!