Jim D

Don't forget: "Going through the motions" and "Not trying to make something happen" after "Got an early goal".

Shocking performance as a team, a lot of players below par and two pieces of individual skill from out of nothing stole us the points. We play this bad against City we will come away from Eastlands with absolutely nothing. Possibly our worst League performance under Rafa, worse than Everton this season.

Garbage performance, we're giving Derby plenty of encouragement to get back into this game.

They are, but what is worrying they may get something out of this game, we are playing s***e ourselves. No cohesion or intent in our attacking play, we've rarely threatened second half so far.

Totally, there is a massive gap between attack and midfield, our defenders at every opportunity are going for the big hoof to a front man. Voronin isn't good enough he either can't control the ball when he receives it or falls over. Derby are a poor team and really we should be taking them to the cleaners but we have only been slightly better than them. Why is our defence holding such a deep line anyway? It should be us compressing the play, is there some negativity creeping in?

Why did we have everyone back for the Derby corner? Ball was cleared, there was no one there to pick the ball up on the centre circle.

Just the way it goes, scarcely deserved the wins at Anfield over the past two seasons, there have been many games this season similar to today's where they have struggled to create anything but lady luck on their side they come away with 3 points.

Ridiculous pen to give away, Giggs was going absolutely nowhere, gift wrapped three points to the Mancs.

Rafael Benítez bought 45 players for £126,296,000 and sold 46 players for £63,375,000. Net expenditure = £62,921,000 Indeed Rafa has had his work cut out in overhauling the squad he inherited, the number of players in and out indicate that! Despite this we have remained competitive particularly in Europe but falling short in the League. I feel from next season Rafa cannot have any excuses because the squad he has is HIS squad. What is worrying for me is we will see A LOT more in's and out's come January and the summer because some of his recent signings have not been successful. This just adds to new players having to settle and becoming familiar with new team mates. Time is certainly not on Rafa's side but how much more time does he have left? Is spending £63million in 3 and a half years on transfer fees alone enough or does he need more cash?

Exactly, spending £10million on one player isn't actually that much in today's game, if you want to buy the top quality players you got to spend £20-30million on one player. Which has possibly been our downfall over the past 5 years under GH and Rafa. Both managers have bought mainly squad players. Why buy 5 good squad players for £50million when you can get two outstanding players for the same amount of money.

The Mancs are doing what we did against them under GH, keeping it tight, solid at the back and in Midfield and then nick a goal on the counter or from a set play. That is precisely what has happened for the past three games against them. Would Rafa need to adopt similar tactics to overcome the big teams?

Man for Man our midfield players are better than theirs but collectively and tactically they are better than us as a midfield unit. A draw was a fair result today, key players on both sides never got a sniff but ultimately again a set play has been the difference. Its not like they have totally outplayed us recently.

Set plays once again been the difference, past three games against them we have lost courtesy of a set piece.

Kewell and Kuyt are really struggling to hold onto the ball and can't handle the pace of the game. Our midfield is getting closed down very quickly by them and any forward passes are constantly going astray. Despite that, the Mancs have had luck on their side, had run of the ball for their goal and Van De Saar has been caught flapping twice with two efforts off the line. What a difference that would have made, we could be going in 1-0 up rather than 1-0 down.

Van De Saar looking very dodgy, think we got to keep putting the ball in the mixer, christ two shots off the line.

So scrappy, 30mins of pure intensity..

Mancs winning the battle in midfield at the moment, winning the 2nd balls.

Mancs team Van de Sar Brown Evra Ferdinand Vidic Ronaldo Giggs Anderson Hargreaves Tevez Rooney

We are unchanged from the game against Marseille... Reina Arbeloa Carra Hyypia Riise Benayoun Gerrard Mascherano Kewell Kuyt Torres

Well we have in the 1981 European Cup Final, Barney Rubble anyone? But as Big Wayne points out we've never played them at the Bernabeu or at Anfield in a competitive game. I would like either Real for the above reason or Inter simply so we can get revenge for that 1965 Semi-Final defeat where they cheated us out of winning the European Cup for the first time.

Marseille used all their subs!

Unnecessary free kick conceded from Riise there! Stupid challenge, pressure still on, corner to them. The ref is gradually turning into a Homer......wait a minute, free kick to us 20 yards out

Should have seen AT LEAST 2 bookings already for Marseille players!

Like I said we will play worse this season and win, I don't think we were that bad but the only thing I can question about Rafa is not so much his rotation but he seems to have a habit of playing players out of position or playing players that are not on their game. Sissoko's inclusion can only be justified to combat Reading's physical approach but you've got Mascherano beside him. Is it another case of Rafa worrying about the opposition rather than let them worry about us. Voronin is another strange one, I don't know where he plays now!

Yes and in the past five games we've been rotating but no one was complaining about it then. One team selection later and everyone is jumping on the rotation bandwagon again. We will play worse than that this season and win, like I said in the match thread it just wasn't our day, everything went against us. Less I say about the officials the better.