CL L Champions League Quarter-Final 1st Leg

Manchester United 0:1 Barcelona

Post-match discussion


Wed, 10 April 2019

Not enough, the class does tell in my opinion. Few players showed a little ambition, Scott and Fred showed desire. I just wished we came out with some balls. I'm sick of bowing down at OT, not taking the game to the opponents. Too many people that don't want to be there in my opinion.

Posts like this make me think hard whether people who comment on here actually watch these games or have a generic comment prepared beforehand ready to use as long as we lose.

We lacked quality but we did not lack ambition and we did try to go at them. It’s just that we did not have the personnel to make the best of it.
 
All we need is effort these days. Workrate, grit, hooray. I have no idea how sitting back like that at home is acceptable. Dalot in attack FFS. Everytime we put in a lame cross or even into the final third, there's a sense of delirium as if we are Stoke City playing a top team.

I know I'm being harsh. But I don't know when we're going to scrap the scrappyness and start focusing on proper excellence. Again, as with Mourinho, we are relying on an individual something to result in a goal. No real team play and cohesion. Disappointing.
 
Is it just me that is annoyed by the way Pogba especially,hug and smile the so called top stars of the barcelona opponents both before and after the game like they have some kind of a we-belong-together-because-we-are-super-gifted bond?
I find it utter appalling, to be honest.
Espescially when pogba didnt put his heart in the game like mctom, fred, shaw and smelling.none of these showed the overeageeness to bond with the barcelona stars before and after the game like pogba either.

Sorry for typos.bad sight on phone with small letters
 
Last edited:
I think we played pretty well tonight expect for scoring some goals which has been a problem with our team for a while. Mctom played brilliantly and so did Fred. To be really honest I only see mctom and Shaw playing their heart out every game. Shaw concided am own goal today but I don’t see it as his fault. I think rest of the team needs to step up, especially the big boys i.e. Pogba and Rom.

Rashford was trash today. I hope he had taken his chances.

Young was awful. I wish he could cross better.

Smelling was decent while Lindelof was okay.

It’s highly unlikely but I hope we can turn this around in second leg.
 
Posts like this make me think hard whether people who comment on here actually watch these games or have a generic comment prepared beforehand ready to use as long as we lose.

We lacked quality but we did not lack ambition and we did try to go at them. It’s just that we did not have the personnel to make the best of it.
Posts like this make me wonder if we were playing at Old Trafford. Honestly sick of wankers in here settling for mediocrity. European football in Manchester use to be something to be intimidated by, not taken for granted.
 
Some questions for which I am looking for answers.

1 Why did Dalot play on the left the whole night .Why not play him on the right with Rashford on the left?

2 Why Lingard did not replace Pogba?

3 Why we didn't make a sub around 60th minute with Martial on for Dalot? Why Pereira comes on in 85th?

4 Why Bousqets wasn't sent off?

5 Why were we so gullible against a flopping side



Chill on Rashford. He was full of emotions to perform well,and didn't realize the opposition was pretty good

Young is an ineffective

Lingard and Smalling were outstanding in addition to McT and Fred.

Pogba was just too chill in some of his effort but did have few class balls.

We suffered from the typical possesing the ball trying to go left or right and forcing it through the middle with no creativity. This is happening every game pretty much!
 
Posts like this make me wonder if we were playing at Old Trafford. Honestly sick of wankers in here settling for mediocrity. European football in Manchester use to be something to be intimidated by, not taken for granted.
Don't think Barcelona would be intimated by a United team struggling to finish 4th every year. However I do think your concern is correct. A team making real progress would play some proper team football on the night. For example result aside I'd expect Liverpool of last season or even Spurs this season to take on Barca at home and threaten them. We on the other hand get excited and satisfied if we get the ball in the final third and someone whips an aimless cross in, or sheer work rate. I mean, come on now. Let's stop being impressed by such pointless things, and aim for true excellence.

With regards to Ole let's see what he does in the summer and next season once he brings 5 players in. I sincerely hope he starts moving towards progressive football because it isn't that right now
 
Some questions for which I am looking for answers.

1 Why did Dalot play on the left the whole night .Why not play him on the right with Rashford on the left?

2 Why Lingard did not replace Pogba?

3 Why we didn't make a sub around 60th minute with Martial on for Dalot? Why Pereira comes on in 85th?

4 Why Bousqets wasn't sent off?

5 Why were we so gullible against a flopping side



Chill on Rashford. He was full of emotions to perform well,and didn't realize the opposition was pretty good

Young is an ineffective

Lingard and Smalling were outstanding in addition to McT and Fred.

Pogba was just too chill in some of his effort but did have few class balls.

We suffered from the typical possesing the ball trying to go left or right and forcing it through the middle with no creativity. This is happening every game pretty much!

What exactly was he outstanding at? He doesn’t even deserve to mentioned in the same breath as McT and Fred never mind an after thought.
 
Gotta say, we did a really good job neutralizing Messi. That’s one huge positive takeaway from this match.
We did. But I think we neutralised ourselves as a result too which sadly Barcelona and Messi were content with.
 
The way some people have lowered expectations and started to accept mediocrity is alarming. Yes, the performance wasn't that bad in the most part, but Barcelona were all over us for 15 minutes, got their goal and didn't really have to do anything for the rest of the game. We huffed and puffed but really we flattered to deceive, we created maybe 1 real chance all game, we didn't have a shot on target all game, so you can't hide behind claiming this was a good performance.

We've got fans talking like we kept Messi quiet yet it was still Messi that pretty much decided the game on the night.

I didn't like the team selection, there was a lack of pace and any real ability of anyone to run at them in the starting XI, and we were playing a formation that was relying on our width and a lot of creativity to come from Young and Dalot on the wings. We also waited a long time to make changes when despite being well in the game we were creating pretty much zero with the ball.

This summer could end up being make or break for Utd for a long time. A lot of our better players seem to be considering moves away, and we already have clear deficiencies in the squad. If we don't make the right signings this summer we'll be set for another 5 years mostly like the last 5 years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Penna
Funny thing is that the first leg feels quite similar to the one we played against PSG and Juve this season . Having watched Barca play I do believe we can handle them at Nou Camp too and fluke ourselves to another victory provided we get some luck . The tie is far from over and if Ole can be brave at Nou Camp then maybe just maybe we can still win it .
 
Credit to Fred and McTominay, I thought the pair of them were excellent. Shaw did well too and tried to drive us up field when he got the chance to do so.

Lacked quality in the final third. We took a chance playing Rashford and it didn't work.

We're not finished just yet. We beat PSG away not so long ago and were way further off the pace. We neer some luck and a decision or two but it's still all to play for.
 
We're shite. We're a fallen giant that now gets patted on the head and given a gold star for turning up and trying. This isn't Manchester United. This is a sad empty husk of the great club we once were.

Fecking THIS. soooooo much THIS.
we are now talked about like when Leicester spent a season in the CL. Except they were more deserving of the plaudits.
I don't think some fans realize how much money we need to spend to compete at the top table. We still need half a team,its sickening.
 
How? we created no chances, and they had at least 2 clear chances to score.

We were comfortably in control of the later part of the match and Dalot really should have scored. We also had quite a lot of shots which were unfortunately off target.
 
Tactical set up was fine. Problem stems from them have Lionel Messi, Suarez, Coutinho as their front 3 compared to Rashford, Lukaku and Dalot. Or Rakitic, Arthur, Busquets vs McTominay, Fred and Pogba (the one and only outfielder who would get in their side). Or even the back four of Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Jordi Alba vs Young, Smalling, Lindelof, shaw... you get the point
3 at the back was OTT.
 
Solkjaer has done such a good job thus far that people are dissapointed we lost to a superior team, player for player. Think back to when the draw for the last 16 was made and most never gave us a chance.

Solkjaer was tactically spot on, even if many criticised the inclusion of Fred and McTominay before hand. We can't just go toe to toe with a such a technically excellent side like Barca, or else we would've been dead and buried pretty much in the first leg. We pressed them high and forced errors at times and played well for a team that has technical limitations in a game of such magnitude.

I was dissapointed we lost, but really happy with the performance and the way we were tactically set up. It's a shame we don't have the players in at least 3 or 4 key positions or I believe we would've won by a few goals. The only thing missing was the execution sadly, and i'm quite intrigued with how Ole is gonna reshape the team, because tactically he's impressed me.
 
Neither did we. Zero shot on target made for a poor showing
It's not the tactical set ups fault that Dalot decided not to go for goal, that Martial's touch failed him and that Rashford couldn't hit anything approaching the goal. We nullified by in large one of the best attacks in the world that boasts one of the all time great footballers. We had 10 shots while they had 6 and everyone thought we were in for a spanking. Nothing wrong with the tactical set up but everything wrong with the players uaed, something Ole can't do anything about cause he didn't put this squad together.
 
That was a bit deflating to be honest. Great effort from a few players but result never really looked in doubt against a unspectacular Barcelona team.
 
It's not the tactical set ups fault that Dalot decided not to go for goal, that Martial's touch failed him and that Rashford couldn't hit anything approaching the goal. We nullified by in large one of the best attacks in the world that boasts one of the all time great footballers. We had 10 shots while they had 6 and everyone thought we were in for a spanking. Nothing wrong with the tactical set up but everything wrong with the players uaed, something Ole can't do anything about cause he didn't put this squad together.
The whole sitting back with three at the back until they scored didn't really help us.
As soon as I saw the lineup, this is the type of football I expected. It requires incredible efficiency from our strikers as not many chances are created this way
 
The whole sitting back with three at the back until they scored didn't really help us.
As soon as I saw the lineup, this is the type of football I expected. It requires incredible efficiency from our strikers as not many chances are created this way
Pretty sure sitting back wasn't the plan. So you'd have preferred us to go toe to toe with no defensive adjustment and get destroyed?
 
I thought we did quite well. Not gutted even we lost, at least we played football.

Some of you need to chill, we are a work in progress and been winning trophies as well.
 
Pretty sure sitting back wasn't the plan. So you'd have preferred us to go toe to toe with no defensive adjustment and get destroyed?
Obviously there is a middle ground between which we seemed to hit during a nice period in the 2nd half when we decided to play a little more.
You seem not to understand they are better than us.
Yeah right, all of this is lost on me for sure
 
We were better than them for over 1/2 of the match.

Further, you must not have been watching too hard because their distribution from the back was woeful and when we actually pressed them, they made constant mistakes.

If my post seemed overly negative, that was not the intention. I can break it down a bit.

What I saw was that Messi decided the match with a fantastic run, first touch and pass to Suarez, that i don't think our attackers are capable of. And while our CBs were very good last night, I think Pique was immense, and the best player on the pitch. He seemed to have Smalling's athleticism as well as Lindelöf's calmness and ability on the ball combined.

While we pressed them very well, we didn't create much from it, mostly down to Young, who missed a lot of crosses, had poor passing, and generally lost the ball a lot.

So what I saw was us pressing them very well, playing a very even match in midfield. I saw our defenders dealing with them very well, but conceding due to a fantastic induvidual performance. But I also saw us struggling to create chances, both due to a very weak attacking performance from Young, but also because we don't have a well worked attacking system. And so Pique, espescially, dealt with most of our attacks.
 
To those who watch La Liga regularly: was Barca yesterday the actual Barca of late or were they in their second gear and did not feel the need to switch to their best?
 
This Barcelona side aren't very good. They'll make it to the semifinals, but they'll get dismantled by Liverpool.
 
That was poor, from our players as much as from Ole. We still do not have an attacking plan
 
Wow, reading a lot of these reviews of last nights game and I think I had rose ti ted glasses on. Personally, the only bad thing I could see was the lack of movement off the ball. I would say we were more re-active than pro-active but we held them down a fair bit and when we did press, made them make mistakes and hurried them into bad passes. We need strikers who are gonna be mobile for the whole 90 minutes and Young out.
 
We will play better offensively when we have better quality to throw at our opposition. We do not have a single quality forward in our team currently.

Subs were terrible though. How Young survived the whole game is beyond me. I’m hoping we go with Dalot on the right at Camp Nou, manage to get to half time without conceding and anything could happen. We have maybe a 5% chance to go through but we did better than that in Paris and I think this Barca team isn’t even that much better than Paris team we played.
 
I blame Ole for bad tactics and too much respect at the start of the game.
Substitutes were awful too.
Bad read and judgment. Could have done lot better.
Think the subs took any momentum we had. Would have taken Rashford off not Lukaku and Young not Dalot.
 
Some questions for which I am looking for answers.

1 Why did Dalot play on the left the whole night .Why not play him on the right with Rashford on the left?

2 Why Lingard did not replace Pogba?

3 Why we didn't make a sub around 60th minute with Martial on for Dalot? Why Pereira comes on in 85th?

4 Why Bousqets wasn't sent off?

5 Why were we so gullible against a flopping side



Chill on Rashford. He was full of emotions to perform well,and didn't realize the opposition was pretty good

Young is an ineffective

Lingard and Smalling were outstanding in addition to McT and Fred.

Pogba was just too chill in some of his effort but did have few class balls.

We suffered from the typical possesing the ball trying to go left or right and forcing it through the middle with no creativity. This is happening every game pretty much!
Lingard was outstanding at doing absolutely nothing. He was an invisible substitution.
 
To those who watch La Liga regularly: was Barca yesterday the actual Barca of late or were they in their second gear and did not feel the need to switch to their best?
I watched majority of their games, they will win La Liga but are hardly impressive. They were better in the last games though. But it was a tie that Man United could win.

If they play Liverpool unless Messi is in his best version they are going to be harassed worse than what happened against Roma last season.
 
I watched majority of their games, they will win La Liga but are hardly impressive. They were better in the last games though. But it was a tie that Man United could win.

If they play Liverpool unless Messi is in his best version they are going to be harassed worse than what happened against Roma last season.
The rely massively on Messi to run things. You just know more often than not there is a moment of genius in him. Agree that on last nights game Liverpool would beat them.
 
Scott Mctominay and Fred were good last night and worked harder with good forward passes. However for me the problem is still Young. I still won't forgive the counter attack from the barca corner where he just smashed it out for a goal kick. The Barca RB Semedo was very impressive in the way he moves with the ball, I thought his ball to Suarez was good and this is something we lack in a RB. The RB game isn't just cross it in anymore and if all Young can do is cross or pass it back then you always need a man available to get the ball back rather than make the run forward.
 

Man of the Match

Scott McTominay image Scott McTominay 66% of 620 votes

Runners-up

Player Ratings

5.4 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 469 ratings.

Score Predictions

211,278,85
  • Man Utd win
  • Barcelona win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 12% Man Utd 2:1 Barcelona
  • 12% Man Utd 1:3 Barcelona
  • 11% Man Utd 0:2 Barcelona
  • 8% Man Utd 0:3 Barcelona
  • 8% Man Utd 1:1 Barcelona
  • 7% Man Utd 1:0 Barcelona
  • 7% Man Utd 1:2 Barcelona
  • 6% Man Utd 2:0 Barcelona
  • 5% Man Utd 5:0 Barcelona
  • 4% Man Utd 2:2 Barcelona
  • 4% Man Utd 0:4 Barcelona
  • 3% Man Utd 3:1 Barcelona
  • 3% Man Utd 0:5 Barcelona
  • 3% Man Utd 0:0 Barcelona
  • 2% Man Utd 3:0 Barcelona
  • 2% Man Utd 1:4 Barcelona
  • 1% Man Utd 0:1 Barcelona
  • 1% Man Utd 4:0 Barcelona
  • 1% Man Utd 3:2 Barcelona
  • 0% Man Utd 3:3 Barcelona
  • 0% Man Utd 2:3 Barcelona
  • 0% Man Utd 1:5 Barcelona
Compiled from 574 predictions.
Show more results Score Predictions League Table

Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. Barcelona
Possession
34% 66%
Shots
10 6
Shots on Target
0 3
Corners
2 4
Fouls
16 11

Referee

Gianluca Rocchi