Why Man United's Wembley embarrassment runs deep 

Anka one of the most likable footie journalists out there

Disappointed at how little talk their was on how responsible the players were for such a collapse. It was a completely solid performance before being 3-0 up, then they totally switched off. You could see it on the pitch once Mainoo came off. They started being careless with the ball, taking bad chances, failing to track their men. Ten Hag has made plenty of mistakes this season but allowing Coventry to score 3 times after the 70th minute is on the players on the pitch. It reinforces a broader point that these players are not good enough, by and large, and returning United to the top is a far bigger task than just swapping out the man on the touchline.

Definitely embarrassing, but everyone is crying like they lost the game. It's almost as if both the media and a large portion of United fans wanted to lose that game, which is even more pathetic than the last 25 mins. No matter what happens, it will take time to rebuild the club for success- that being said, 3rd cup final in 2 years isn't too shabby for a struggling team.

Anka's comments are gold

Incredibly disrepectful to Coventry who put up the most incredible "never say die" performance. Yes, United are a basketcase, but to go three down and still be chasing every ball, was laudable.

The Manchester United way is not what Anka said. It's quite clearly expressed in Sir Alex's "Leading" book. It involves winning matches; having a core of players from the UK and Ireland, and ideally Man United will have the best players from those nations; wingers need to be brave and direct; strikers need to be brave and ruthless; the rest of the team need to be grafters; there needs to be at least one academy player featuring every match; the most exciting foreign young talent need to be brought in. And Man United's attack needs to attack with pace, power and unpredictability. And to sum it up, Man United's way is how Liverpool has been playing under Klopp. It's *exactly* that.

Coventry should be very proud of their team and their fighting spirit. That was one of the best comebacks of all time. I am not proud of my team at all. Over paid, lazy, disrespectful. They are not playing for the shirt or the fans. I don't know what to think or how to feel anymore, but something dramatic has to change starting with the manager.

As a United fan I should’ve been on the edge of my seat in the last 20 mins of normal time yesterday. Losing goals, penalty decision right at the death and then extra time and a penalty shootout. I don’t think I’m alone here in saying I actually didn’t care if we were to get knocked out. I’ve never been so relaxed during a penalty shootout involving my team. Sounds odd to say but I’ve heard many fans say similar. A lot saying they have been happy if Coventry progressed.

Ten Hag guided Ajax to the semi final of the Champions league but 2 v 0 ahead, at home, second half, 2nd leg, against Spurs, and Ajax collapsed, loosing 2 v 3. Onana was in goal. Ten Haag has history when it comes to his teams collapsing in games!

Very insightful discussion

It was embarrassing because it took only 20 minutes for Coventry to score 4 past us. They approached the game very sheepishly and didn't play the dynamic and high energy football they played vs Wolves. As soon as they reverted back to their favored formation, it stopped being a competition, they completely outplayed us.

Blaming injuries is a joke. Every club has had injuries. Aston Villa have lost 3 first team players to ACL injuries but nobody talks about that.

These three have great chemistry

Nice to see you here Carl ! its been a while

Think Carl very well balanced in assessment. Assigns 'blame' (more rationale) fairly to multiple parties. The style of play arguments out there are tiring. There is a tactical plan but the tactics and tools do not marry (especially with injuries) giving the illusion of no style. People talk about rebuilds but really aren't willing to ride the squad overhaul out. Find a player in the Arsenal squad who was there when Arteta took over...can't be many.

Should never had been a pen against wan bissaka. That game was finished after 90’

It's a very different situation but at Villa we needed three different managers in my opinion. We needed Bruce to steady the ship and bring back a professional culture to the dressing room. We needed Dean Smith to bring a positive modern footballing philosophy to the pitch and reconnect with fans and we have needed Emery to take us to the next level of performance.

I don't know if I'm representative of all man united fans, but.. I think most of us know that, if by some miracle someone would come in and start appointing best in class in all aspects of our footballing stricture, it would take about 5 years before we win anything of significance. I've said for years that we're not winning anything without a decent CDM. We got Casemiro (yes, he's dusted now) and won the Caraboa. Plus, we're not winning anything of significance until thy Glazers are gone. They're still here! I think we can win the League and Champions League within 5 years IF .... Ineos continue to recruit best in class, complete a meaningful restructuring of the footballing aspects of our beloved club, and back a manager with patience. Fans need to be patience, and so does the ownership. All we need is just a little patience!!! (Alex Rose, Circa 1988)

It could be multiple years? Its been over a decade of waiting to be a decent team

I honestly think that the best thing that could happen is for City to absolutely thrash them at the final. After that they could accept that change must occur, reset and start from a clean slate. As long as they keep coming up with random results and performances there’ll still be a bit of hope that things will just fix themselves.

Brilliant Panel 👌🏼

Sir Jim Ratcliff finished marathon in time to watch the game and noticed he can run faster than Rashford.

I think people forget about the love of the cup anything can happen in cup games is the beauty of the FA Cup

Give Ten Hag more time…Onana and Martinez and Malacia have been decent signings although injuries have limited their impact. Yes Antony has been disappointing but injuries and other probs have meant he plays….no Greenwood/Sancho that is massive blow as they are creative forces. Also one striker all season! And he is young and new to PL coming into an injury decimated squad…he arrived injured. Some clubs have squads where they can ‘hide’ a player not in form…that isn’t the case for Ten Hag. I am sure if he had the budget he would by at least 3 new centre mid 3 new centre backs and a left back and two strikers. 8 players

why was the offside line drew through wan bissakas boot?

2:22 sums it up. United are FINALLY consistent. Unfortunately only in bottling leads and having new back-four. But why did you take us back to Westeros or whatever it was when those recordings were played? Mark was crying at the end!

highest win rate in our clubs history. 3 cup finals and a trophy in two years. with the worst man utd players possibly ever, all the off field issues, all the injuries, takeover nonsense etc etc etc... imagine if ten hag is backed correctly and the bad players are removed?

I don’t feel embarrassed , have to enjoy being in a final

Changing the manager is certainly the easiest solution and the solution made previously under the Glazers because it was much cheaper than changing most of the squad. But it's also the wrong solution for sure this time around because Ten Hag has done well especially last season and as we've seen with Klopp and Arteta everybody needs to be patient during a rebuild. It takes many years to do a successful rebuild - especially when most of the players are injured most of the time and the reserves not good enough. United still need to win every game to satisfy most of the fans. If Ten Hag is fired the rebuild needs to almost start over and will take considerable longer. It will also bring United into another evil circle where a new manager at first will maybe be a success compared to the season before (Moyes was doomed to fail though following Ferguson) but the new manager will fail again because of the lack of patience from United fans not wanting to suffer sometimes during a rebuild. But the evidence is there - Liverpool and Arsenal have been patient (especially Arteta didn't do well in his first 2 seasons) and has ultimately been rewarded for their patience. So United including the fans should in my opinion be patient because I still believe Ten Hag is the right man for the rebuild. Ten Hag just needs more available players who can play the kind of football he wants to play which can be very entertaining and attacking. A big summer clearout is certainly needed and especially the defense needs to be strenghtened because we've seen how United can fall apart when Martinez, Varane and Shaw hasn't been there to steady the ship. My fear is though INEOS will sack Ten Hag because it's the easy solution but I really hope they won't no matter what! If things also go bad agasin next season I guess they have to though but as I said I don't think so.

@Carl, @13:20 ‘The Manchester United way of winning’ has only been under two managers historically, let’s not forget!

very nice, civil vibe... not the usual incoherent, pub-level, sweary ''Goldbridge'' stuff. I'll sub that.

I don't I'll be able to bring myself to watch the final. Desperate it is. GGMU 🇾🇪

Whether the manager stays or goes, over half of that team needs to be shipped out!

I dont know what to do with Ten Hag honestly. We changed so many coaches and there are defiantly questions to Ten Hag. His happy comments, weird transfers, weird subs, risky tactics dont help. On the other hand, he developed good young players, his first team with no injuries can be capable of a title challenge imo, he has a great winning mentality with hard work and equality in dressing room. Maybe give one more year if we dont drop to 8th or win fa but I might be happy with De Zebri or Nagelsman

The best podcast 😎

People keep harping on about Ten Hag’s job being on the line after these performances, but it’s the players who are throwing these games away. You can point to a bad substitution maybe, but I have never seen a squad of so many players at my club in my 35 years as a fan that do not represent our historical values and attributes. Bruno is a horrible captain, I’m sorry, Casemiro has been a great player but appears to be a mercenary cashing-out at the end of his career in a league not based in the Middle East… Our defense this season has not been Ten Hag’s fault… But there is a real lack of football IQ and leadership in this team. I don’t see those things as Ten Hag’s fault alone. This squad has been horribly assembled over 6 or so years, which is what Ineos appear to be trying to address before all else with their pending appointments.

Scoring in fergie time has a whole different meaning these days!

Honestly we deserved to lose, can’t blame the fans for leaving straight after or players for not celebrating with Hojlund. What’s there to celebrate??

I was fed up and angry after that result. But i wouldnt blame the manager, there are always things all fans can be critical of managers for. It was the same for Sir Alex and happens wih Pep. Its not exclusive to lower level managers. I blame the players because they had a 3-0 cushion, it was a very experienced 11 against a championship team. All they had to do was hold the ball, run the clock down and give no easy chances away. They did the exact opposite, also there were players strolling around that pitch like they didnt care. Who was willing to bust a gut to cut out the danger? Coventry City players left everything on that pitch. Can Man United players say the same? Fergie, Klopp, Pep etc will tell you that you have to win the battle first before the talent can win the match. United have a soft underbelly. Any team with an ounce of fight in them can beat this team. We have a bunch of cowards!

Tainted Love 🔴❤️

Just admit it really pained you lot that United still went through to the final despite the "embarrassment"

Is the Man Utd way not just throwing money at all the top players, no matter whether it works out and then being bailed out by academy graduates seizing chances when the top 'stars' are injured? That's the way it was under Fergie and every manager since. Only 1 of their top 10 most expensive signings can be considered successful (Fernandes), the other 9 are all failures totalling over €650m. They broke the British transfer record 3 times in a row in the early 2000s, as well as on Cole in the 90s, would have broken it again (and the world transfer record) if Shearer hadn't turned them down during that decade. They also broke the record for most expensive teenagers (Rooney, Shaw, Martial) three times in a row, with those coming under Fergie and after. They were always the team that threw money about for years (even with Chelsea's takeover) until owners with deeper pockets came along in City. People have short memories and too many on football social media don't know about what happened before they were born.

Maguire is only good with everything in front of him out of possession. In possession he’s so slow and ponderous on the ball it hurts my eyes.

It's a rebuilding of United's A marathon then they have just completed the warm up. Have an even got to start line yet

Why are people here liking anka? He lied about so many things and nearly always makes wrong prognoses.

Never mind…£1 million question - is Critch rocking a mullet?

I hope the Media go full on Slott if he takes the Liverpool job and start calling for his head after a few bad performances after in his 1st season. But they won't because it's Liverpool. There has been no System at United in 20 years and the players are not good enough!

With the way everyone's been going on, you'd think United got battered ffs. They were in complete control for 70 minutes, let in one good goal, one freak deflection, and a dodgy af penalty. Yeah they should have managed the game better but it's hardly the catastrophe all the pundits are pushing (copy) it as.

Who would be a Man United manager. You get to a Cup Final and you are cast into shame.

Someone finally says it. Give this team back to Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, build a structure around him, get the players he identifies & give him 3 years. His team has played the best football since SAF. And he a lot of the criticism he faced was unfair.

These executive appointments will be pointless if NOTHING is done about Rashford. If they can't pass that test, they have no business being in their positions. This plater and Bruno are toxic influences on the team. It will be an interesting summer.

Carl, the analogy, the teacher and advanced calculus, perfectly sums up the united players..

Carl is always a riot.

Manchester United need to do with Ten Hag exactly what they would do if they brought Guardiola or Klopp today, and thats changing the whole team. How many players in this current team can execute ideas and tactics that those manager would bring? Zero. And thats exactly how many players can execute Ten Hags ideas and tactics. Then don't keep players and sack manager again because it makes no sence and it would not make any difference whoever they bring as a manager.

I think the caveat to the united way would preclude playing boring footy. Using transitions effectively is a big part of 'the united way' imo

Lots of talk in the media about the amount of injuries that Man Utd have had this season, however no-one asking why? Is it just poor luck or are the medical team at Utd at fault?

you guys need to realize that Man Utd not the Man Utd that we know from Sir Alex era. We need to realize that we are not the top 3 team in PL. So, yes we should not be embrassing with this winning. Yes, we struggled but we won the game. Be patient guys. ETH building something here.

Mark looks like a crossover between kdb and valverde

Parasites who didn't see SAF's first few year's, or Klopp's, or Arteta's. Ten Hag is not the issue at United. He's the reason we won the Carabao, qualifies for the CL, and are in our second FA Cup final. He has the highest win ratio of any United manager, and is the quickest ever United manager to get to 50 wins. Meanwhile, Rashford is on the 6th manager, Bruno on his 4th, Mctominay on his 5th, Maguire on his 4th, Lindelof on his 4th, Shaw on his 4th....Rangnick was right about 13-14 new players being required. Ten Hag is forced to play with repeat failures, backstabbers amd primadonnas. Get rid of them ......and work with him to build a culture, squad and playing style.

Coventry beat wolves, who is calling wolves out!

We played in the first twenty minutes of this match how we should have played in the entire second half….boring, 30 touches each, no threat or risk.

Usual online crap, the media, journalists, and pundits do nothing but try and get managers sacked. It creates big headlines, and they get awarded a packet of ginger nuts for their pathetic efforts. Ten Hag is going nowhere..he has performed far better than Klopp and Arteta in their first two years. He walked into a disfunctioning club, a complete bag of worms. So give it a rest and change the tune. it's all getting rather nauseating.

I am a United fan and that game really pissed me off. Any United fan that wants to keep ETH as our manager is utterly clueless about football. ETH has proven the entire season and for much of last season that he has no plan B, do NOT understand what is happening on the pitch and has utterly useless in game management. And what Antony did after the "win" made me want to seek him up and beat the crap out of that shit bag. We have seen the entire season from the first game that ETH have had a tactic where we have left way to much space in the middle and he has not once tried to fix that. We have seen the entire season that we have conceded insanely many shots and he has not once tried to fix that and he even said in a press conference that he didn't see that as a problem. We have also seen the entire season that ETH has not adjusted his formation/tactics to the strengths and weaknesses of the players he has on the pitch. It is EXTREMELY obvious that you can't ask Erikson to do the same as Mainoo can, but still ETH did that in this game. Of course the midfield became an open door when you sub Mainno off and put Erikson on and still play with the same space for the Coventry players to try to explore. And ETH has done similar things the entire season. Being extremely stubborn and played his "tactics", no matter what players he had on the pitch and what team we played against. Most of our games have been basketball games, so it is NOT strange at all that many players have gotten muscle injuries. And playing basketball games with aging players like Varane, Casemiro and Eriksen is totally insane. Even MANY players in their mid 20s struggle a lot with that. If INEOS decide to keep ETH, then I totally give up on my club that I have been a fan of for more than 40 years. Then INEOS as well prove that they know as little about football as the Glazers do. And if that is the case, then our last hope is gone.

You know what was more embarrassing losing to Middlesbrough at home in the 4th round

It's normal for a team in a huge match to gain momentum after scoring just one goal. Get a grip.

Whoelse is here after manutd winning the fa cup

Your the Embrassment. 3 finals in 2 years - what matters is the result, not the make up of it. Its a cup game. It's the way a heavily weakened team due to injuries has played all season.

United is still dining out on Fergie's achievements. We 3 points. We're still not humbled by what Fergie (and the Class of 92) did. And like Liverpool, it might take years more or even decades for that expectation to wear off and for the club to remember that noting in life, not even with a trillion pound to spend, is guaranteed.

The new guy is a major upgrade, the club had Darren Fletcher on that role laying out cones, and carrying kits and boots for players. Embarrassing!

A manager swap with Barcelona for Xavi?

Keep Ten Hag and send a message to the players and supporters, "We have a plan, the players need to be held accountable - no more knee jerk reactionary actions." Get rid of the dead wood, players need to be sold, let Ten Hag steady the ship with his values which are universal. The board identifies a style of play, manager and players to be incoming. 2024 seems just about right for any judgement.

Is giant killing part of fa cup traditional? Doesn’t a giant suffer embarrassment of being killed in the da cup? Man U were terrible for a short spell. But it’s not an embarrassment to lose to 11 men playing the hearts out punching above their against you. It’s a terrible loss not embarrasing.

We been what since 2013 , havent we waited enough . winger in time of Sir Alex would play wide, beat a man and CROSS the ball Rash, Gnacho, Antony , Amad don't so selfish , can all get binned , buy winger that cross .. stop playing inverted wings make the selfish .. Hoj would have double the goals if we cross to him ... in the 39 years of supporting UNITED this is the squad I like the least , if I could I would keep Martinez , Kambwala, mainoo Hojlund and maybe bruno everybody else bye bye..

There is no team spirit og fight in this united team. They have given up on the manager. It's clear for all to see. Ten Hag deserves better.

Too many comments here eager to downplay Utd's history of success. Utd is a big club, yes, but they are unlike the Bayern monopoly in Germany and the Real-Barca racket in Spain where almost all the cards - social, political, geographical factors - are stacked in those clubs' favour. I mean, even within England, is there a good reason why Utd should be more decorated than a host of London clubs of similar stature and historicity? I don't think so, and yet none of the big capital clubs can match Utd's overall honours tally. Fact is all clubs go through periods of wax and wane and Utd's ability to make their own success deserve a bit more respect than what's being said in this comment section.

Passing on a wealth of knowledge, soft knowledge, is not being a Technical Director. How is a publicly listed organization making amateur decisions.

Blue Peter?

Rashford one of our best players? Lol

I think the betting house is very happy with United this year. They make a lot of profit for them this year

I've lost count of times I've heard the word embarrassment and it's tiring at the end of the day we're in the final not Coventry

Do you watch football? The best teams don’t always win Cup finals.

Man u way currently..Is a system called "chaos"..Not Peps possession or Klopps high press..😂😂😂😂

We made it to Wembley. Arsenal and Liverpool and Arsenal didnt. 60+ injuries. Over played players that have barely had a break.

Manchester United have a long rich history but countless poor decisions. over last 10 years has led it to such a scenario

should real madrid be embarrassed, they were bitch slapped by city but got through on penalties, asking for a friend.

They even put sound tracks to it.. Man Utd losing or playing poorly definitely gets people content don't know what they will be doing when we start winning again.. coz we will be back very soon 😂 😂

Save this comment. United would be very dangerous with Ten Hag next season

Strange? It has been quite easy to explain. Coventry did not play their usual high-press football in the first half but switched to an unusual setup with 532 - which explained why they conceded two goals because they weren't used to the setup. Then they reverted back to high-press, transitional football (which you could see in their FA Cup game with Wolves), which United has failed to deal with for the whole 2023/24 season. Both the first and second goals Coventry scored were tactical: transitional goals, a common theme of ETH. United was being made worse by subbing Garnacho (the most creative outlet) and Mainoo (the most anti-press and dynamic midfielder) and replacing them with Antony and Eriksen. The latter two were particularly prone to transitional football (Antony, slow, and Eriksen, even slower - how could they play transitional football?!). Playing AWB as LB also partly explained his discomfort, as well as why he conceded the penalty. And the final 20 mins and 30 mins of extra time? Coventry was clearly the better team in transitional play, as United was both tired and mentally off. So, the first, second, and third goals United conceded were all connected to the manager's setup. Fans still want him to stay?

Coventry were brilliant

You are either on or off. Just isn’t in it.

While almost blowing a 3 goal lead to coventry is unforgivable the injuries are going to take thier toll. No LB for practically the entire season. 5 CBs currently injured. 5 u18s on the bench Over 60 cases where injury or illness has prevented a player being selected. No team can function like that, not liverpool, not City, not madrid.

Everyone needs to calm down. Massive over-reactions. What's more embarrassing? To be in the FA Cup Final, or to have been knocked out in a quarter final by a team as bad as Utd? Utd have been fragile all season. No surprises there. We have 3 fit defenders. Five teenagers on the bench. No left back. A CDM (makeshift CB) who is carrying an injurry and cannot run. 27 million different back fours and formations. Coventry were always going to have a go. Their first goal, our back four was all over the place. Fair enough - a decent team should be able to stop that. 2nd goal was a freak deflection. 3rd goal was a pen that according to the Che-City and Eve-Forest refs is not a pen. And then Cov have the momentum. Utd hit the bar 3 times. XG was Utd 2.33 to Cov 1.74 (including a 0.78 pen). Coventry didn't deserve to win. Did Utd against Arsenal when Garnacho was offside by the same amount? We weren't the best team but nearly got away with a smash and grab. I've been to Wembley 4 times in just over a year and will hopefully be going back again in May. Utd are in the final. This anti-Utd narrative on the Athletic is getting boring. According to Critch, losing an FA Cup semi-final would be "the worst result ever". What??! I can understand it from the likes of Sutton, Agbonlahor, Cundy - but come on guys you are better that this. Be objective.

A "possibility of winning a trophy". Does 0.0001% count ?

i actually dont think man utds team atm would get promoted from the championship, the leagues too brutal for them

Do people realise we had our 3/4th choice centre back playing and an emergency midfielder playing cb We have also our third choice left back option who is not a left back United a issues recently are not complicated Put shaw Martinez and varane in that team and you’d see a completely different team Even shaw and varane cb with malacia left back

A win is a win.

🎉q

The Athletic have been consumed by their own echo chamber. Address the role of the players, please, attempt objectivity. What has happened to The Athletic at all?

Ole was sacrificed for this 😭😭

Win the cup and shut them all up