[kafta]

Fred and Scott were really fantastic.

Young... please sign a fecking right back, this is embarrassing.

Rashford should've gone off earlier.

 

[mattunited1978]

Ashley Young absolutely woeful, Ole even worse for his total blind spot to how bad Young consistently is. What is Ole watching? Not only that, Youngs our set-Piece specialist and captain, embarrassing. Taking Dalot off and leaving young on was nothing short of stupid, wake up Ole FFS.

Other than that thought we played well, enjoyed the game and Fred and Mctominay were very good. Rashford was nearly as bad as young.

 

[RedAlways78]

Ok let’s focus on Saturdays game. Should we rest some players if we want fresh legs for next Tuesday?

 

[Kapardin]

Ok let’s focus on Saturdays game. Should we rest some players if we want fresh legs for next Tuesday?

I don't think so. Fred and McTominay haven't really played a lot of games this season, so they should be fresh enough to handle 2 more games in quick succession. Ditto for Martial and Lingard who need to get match fit. Lindelof too had time off for his personal issues.

The only ones who may need rest are Smalling, Pogba and Rashford (who has been shite actually). However, we need Pogba to play every game unfortunately.

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Only watched the second half but there we looked better than expected.
Partially this is of course due to Barca playing in relaxing mode. There was no need for them to shift up a gear.

Defense and midfield seem pretty solid with especially Fred and McTominay looking promising but our attacking play is aweful.

Overall not a bad job from Ole but we need a plan regarding our attack for next season. This is not acceptable.

 

[roonster09]

Only watched the second half but there we looked better than expected.
Partially this is of course due to Barca playing in relaxing mode. There was no need for them to shift up a gear.

Defense and midfield seem pretty solid with especially Fred and McTominay looking promising but our attacking play is aweful.

Overall not a bad job from Ole but we need a plan regarding our attack for next season. This is not acceptable.

I don't think Barca played in relaxing mode. They tried to play the ball from defense, we pressed really high and didn't give them space, especially when they had goal kicks. There were so many periods in the game where we didn't let them to cross the half way line.

It was sort of promising performance, I mean how the team played without ball. We had intensity and pressed well. With more time and better fitness, we can do this regularly.

 

[walkinhop]

Love it when fans are split about a performance. Means we are on the right track

 

[Kapardin]

Camp Nou will be a different beast. Lyon were able to contain Barca at home as well, but caved into a spell of goals away. And our forwards don't seem capable of taking chances.

 

[crossy1686]

Camp Nou will be a different beast. Lyon were able to contain Barca at home as well, but caved into a spell of goals away. And our forwards don't seem capable of taking chances.

The game will be more open and Barcelona will have more of the ball in our half instead of on their own 18 yard line. We just have to hope one of Rahsford's pot shots or a counter attack comes off in the first 20 minutes because then the nerves will set in.

 

[Dr Fink]

Toothless up top. Rom and Rash were awful, but the delivery to them was as bad. I thought it was a decent performance, but I came away from OT frustrated we didn't (or couldn't) go for them. Barca looked a bit lacklustre and I couldn't help but feel we lost an opportunity to get one over them. Having said that, we do appear to be a counter-attacking side, so not seeing much of the ball in the Nou Camp might play in to our hands. We have to be clinical though, which after last like looks unlikely. Another game crying out for Pogba to take by the scruff of the neck - he had the space and time to do it. He dropped far too deep second half.

The back 3 reverting to a 5 worked OK. I love Young for his commitment and effort (if only others gave the same), but his quality was awful last night. He's not a right back. Excellent from Shaw and McTominay. I loved Smalling's desire too - bonus he clattered Messi, winning the ball fairly.

Not a single shot on target. Says it all. They look do-able at the back, very shaky but not threatened last night. It's not over.

 

[Jeffthered]

We were v organised, and that pleased me from a coaching perspective... Ole etc impressed me there, and he is getting the best from a limited squad.

Barca were average... On the whole, it looked like many games at this time of a long season. I don't think any player was outstanding. McTominay and Fred were v good, but let's see that form more consistently. That's what they both need to aim for.

Fred is still a little too relaxed for Premier League and you hope he can get up to speed next season. If he can, he would be super player alongside Pogba. But he needs to stay switched on all the time.

 

[londonredmaniac]

We’ve seriously miles away from being a top team.

So many average players, we couldn’t have asked for a worse performance from Barcelona and we didn’t have a shot on target.

Piss poor and exiting the champions league with 1 home goal all tournament. We need a massive clear out

Absolutely. Anyone who thinks we are a couple of players away is kidding themselves IMO.

All through this side, they is a severe lack of quality.

 

[londonredmaniac]

Gave it everything we had to be fair, mctominay and Fred were brilliant.

Not enough quality in front of goal.

Not a chance of going through though.

Of course there is a chance, we are hardly out of the tie. Last round taught us that.

We are a very average side though. Painfully average.

 

[friendlytramp]

Was pleased to see the 3-5-2 work well, we completely ckntrolled the game until the subs. Need the strikers/Pogba to find form though and start scoring again.

Was impressed generally and would class this as a positive for Ole, a step forward in terms of team direction even though we didn’t get the result.

McT and Fred highlights along with the 3 at the back system giving us options going forward.

 

[AlexUTD]

I am proud of the team, they worked hard and we were unlucky.

 

[dmode]

Nothing to be said at this level, it's a first tie, both teams played cautiously without showing much.

I think that it's a more than fair result for us to go for 2nd leg, 2-0 or 3-0 could have been a psgesque effort, we stick to our tactics and we give our all, and more importantly we believe!

We are United!

 

[Eleven-Eighteen]

My biggest takeaway from this game was the reiteration of the age-old idea that football games are won and lost in midfield. Our biggest strength last night was in the midfield with Fred and McTominay bossing it in the middle. And our worst performances, e.g. Wolves have come when our midfield has disappeared (coughPogbacough). Our prior top performances in Jan and Feb were also when Pogba was bossing the centre of the pitch, with support from Herrera and Matic.

I don't know what it will take to have consistency in the middle of the pitch, but that's something we've got to focus on. It's also been the hallmark of United's best teams in the past

 

[Sereques]

Only watched the second half but there we looked better than expected.
Partially this is of course due to Barca playing in relaxing mode. There was no need for them to shift up a gear.

Defense and midfield seem pretty solid with especially Fred and McTominay looking promising but our attacking play is aweful.

Overall not a bad job from Ole but we need a plan regarding our attack for next season. This is not acceptable.

They weren’t in any relax mode. They gave ball away easily and panicked when we got into their faces. Piqué was matured and calm so no harm done to them.

 

[minoo-utd]

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 fecking what??

 

[Treble]

It was a decent perfromance with some very good periods. Mission impossible in Barcelona. But not as impossible as scoring 2 goals in the final 3 minutes in a CL final...

 

[Ish]

2 trains of thought seem to be dominating this morning:

- we did well, much better than expected and put in a performance against Barcelona;
- standards have dropped if we're celebrating a home loss etc.

I've been in the former group since the match ended, heaping praise on especially McTominay, Fred, Smalling & Shaw. I think we need to be realistic - we're not, at this point, part of Europes elite - i.t.o. of squad/performance/recent trophies etc.

So it is not to say we're celebrating a home loss or that standards have dropped. In my mind, it's being realistic wrt our expectations. I think we outperformed our expectation, albeit, this Barca side has also been grossly overrated in the build up, IMO.

We all realise that we still have a long way to go to get back to going "toe to toe" against Europe's elite.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

We have seemed to have lost that link up play from midfield to attack that highlighted Ole's early games and although we looked pretty solid in midfield last night, we didn't have the quality going forward. Considering the injuries we have i thought overall the boys did ok but we have to start addressing the problems going forward.
I can see Scott becoming a very good Defensive mid in the future, he justs lacks that little bit of magic to open up defences when going forward.

 

[crossy1686]

Lingard was fecking what??

Strange one that? My cousin said the same thing but I secretly think he thinks Lingard is his mate because he's active on social media...

 

[crossy1686]

2 trains of thought seem to be dominating this morning:

- we did well, much better than expected and put in a performance against Barcelona;
- standards have dropped if we're celebrating a home loss etc.

I've been in the former group since the match ended, heaping praise on especially McTominay, Fred, Smalling & Shaw. I think we need to be realistic - we're not, at this point, part of Europes elite - i.t.o. of squad/performance/recent trophies etc.

So it is not to say we're celebrating a home loss or that standards have dropped. In my mind, it's being realistic wrt our expectations. I think we outperformed our expectation, albeit, this Barca side has also been grossly overrated in the build up, IMO.

We all realise that we still have a long way to go to get back to going "toe to toe" against Europe's elite.

Agreed. The insecure bunch seem to think we're all happy with losing at home to one of Europes top 3 sides and we're losing our identity. Fact of the matter is, we're currently a step below these lot and it's nice to see that we're not that far away from actually beating one of Europe's top 3 sides. We had some great performances from players people have called 'dead wood' on top of that. We're not actually that bad, despite what this forum thinks, and that is worth enjoying for 10 minutes.

 

[King7Eric]

Agreed. The insecure bunch seem to think we're all happy with losing at home to one of Europes top 3 sides and we're losing our identity. Fact of the matter is, we're currently a step below these lot and it's nice to see that we're not that far away from actually beating one of Europe's top 3 sides. We had some great performances from players people have called 'dead wood' on top of that. We're not actually that bad, despite what this forum thinks, and that is worth enjoying for 10 minutes.

The thing is many people on here seem to think that in earlier times we used to blast teams away at OT in the CL and while it happened a few times in the late SAF era, its never been something we do consistently. To expect that we will go toe to toe with Barca is foolish in the extreme seeing as how they have generational talents in Suarez, Busquets and Rakitic and perhaps the GOAT in Messi. We on the other hand don't boast such talent so all we can do at the moment is try to hang in there as long as possible. No matter how great a team you are, if you are defending a 1 goal lead in the last 10-15 mins, you are gonna get nervous and this is how we have set up, not to win the tie in first 45 mins, but to take it into the last 15 mins of the 2nd leg. So with that in mind last night was a decent performance. The longer we keep it 0-0 at Camp Nou, the more nervous the crowd will get and that nervousness will feed onto the players on the pitch. As great as Barca are even they are not immune to this and we have seen this happen to so many great teams over the years. So we are still in this tie, make no mistake. As long as we don't come out with a naive all guns blazing approach and try to score in the first 10 mins only to concede a couple on the counter, we will make a game out of it. We may not go through but its not gonna be a comfortable night for Barca at Camp Nou.

 

[mitchmouse]

Well if that performance had happened under Jose, this place would be up in arms. Yet again, not one shot on target at home. Yes, we battled, yes we showed energy and yes we denied them the right to make fun of us but we simply do not have enough creative players. Once again Pogba was anonymous (certainly in the second half) and once again rashford was well off the pace. as for young... how does Ole even think this guy can play football? Not one cross found its mark and our freekicks were a joke. Martial and Lingard did exactly nothing when they came onI said it last year: we need a major overhaul.

There were some positives, the CBs kept their front three relatively quiet which not everyone can do and Fred did some good defensive work but we seemed to have three holding midfielders. That said Scotty McT was definitely MoM.

Even so, I expected to be battered and we were not. But if Barca play like that against City or Liverpool, they will be in trouble. Can we win in the No Camp: simply answer":NO

 

[Grande]

2 trains of thought seem to be dominating this morning:

- we did well, much better than expected and put in a performance against Barcelona;
- standards have dropped if we're celebrating a home loss etc.

I've been in the former group since the match ended, heaping praise on especially McTominay, Fred, Smalling & Shaw. I think we need to be realistic - we're not, at this point, part of Europes elite - i.t.o. of squad/performance/recent trophies etc.

So it is not to say we're celebrating a home loss or that standards have dropped. In my mind, it's being realistic wrt our expectations. I think we outperformed our expectation, albeit, this Barca side has also been grossly overrated in the build up, IMO.

We all realise that we still have a long way to go to get back to going "toe to toe" against Europe's elite.

I like your analysis. I have two theories as to why many are afraid of ‘dropped standards’ on a fan forum. 1) Some don’t realize the difference between being a fan and being a manager. They think it’s our expectations at redcafe that are instilled in the players in the dressing room and training ground. 2) Some just identify so much with the players that they feel they are in the team, and just speak directly from their feelings of frustrations on the pitch, without really filtering it through the rest of the brain. (Some of these still identify with Roy Keane, and just want to kick anyone misplacing a pass).

I love that it’s space for emotions in football. Their game analysis often suffers, though.

 

[Rob]

Apart from the first 25 minutes and final 10, I thought you did pretty well. You obviously ran out of steam in the end, but for parts of the game you were able to put Barca under a lot of pressure which is impressive considering how good they are.

Notable that both McTominay and and Fred had really good games, although Fred seems to go for the difficult pass more often than not.

 

[Ish]

I like your analysis. I have two theories as to why many are afraid of ‘dropped standards’ on a fan forum. 1) Some don’t realize the difference between being a fan and being a manager. They think it’s our expectations at redcafe that are instilled in the players in the dressing room and training ground. 2) Some just identify so much with the players that they feel they are in the team, and just speak directly from their feelings of frustrations on the pitch, without really filtering it through the rest of the brain. (Some of these still identify with Roy Keane, and just want to kick anyone misplacing a pass).

I love that it’s space for emotions in football. Their game analysis often suffers, though.

100%. I have a lot of time for either perspective, though sometimes the knee jerk gets a bit much, too soon. The fascinating part of all this though, is how so many of us can watch the same team/performance/player and have such vastly different interpretations of their quality etc.

Agreed. The insecure bunch seem to think we're all happy with losing at home to one of Europes top 3 sides and we're losing our identity. Fact of the matter is, we're currently a step below these lot and it's nice to see that we're not that far away from actually beating one of Europe's top 3 sides. We had some great performances from players people have called 'dead wood' on top of that. We're not actually that bad, despite what this forum thinks, and that is worth enjoying for 10 minutes.

I do tend to agree with you. Knee jerking happens to us all, IMO. The first 10-15 minutes and after they scored, I thought the gulf in class was totally evident and we're so far off the elite. But we grew in confidence and actually tried to play a bit and take the game too them. Which shows we have a bit of quality. You don't need 11 world class players to make a world class team. I hate using this as an example, but look at what Klopp's doing at Pool.

Also, the other poster summed it up - even when SAF seemed invincible in Europe, we often approached matches very cautiously and often our individual quality (Ronaldo, Rooney, Scholes, Giggs etc.) won us matches. We lack that individual quality atm - throughout our team tbh. And had we a bit more composure, we were well worth a draw.

 

[Marshal]

Just lack of quality.... United was better during more than half of the match but didn't test Ter Stegen... while Barcelona could score 2 or 3 more goals even when they were totally dominated. It will be very expensive but this summer needs to bring some top quality players to win this kind of matches.

 

[RedEM10]

With the players we have that was as good as it gets against a Barca team running away with the league. However it has to be looked at as a missed opportunity

 

[Green_Red]

Fred had the best game I've seen from him in a United shirt.

McTominay was quality too. He's a mix of Fletcher and Carrick.

Pogba was ball watching a lot.

We should have started Martial over Lakaku and then brought Lakaku on later in the game.

Young was diabolical.

Great save from big Dave kept us in the game. Very lucky it didn't fall straight to Messi.

Lindelof was quality.

Overall I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves. We were dogged and fought which we could be accused of nothing being in some big games.

Half time... we can go through here.

Messi? Who are ye!

 

[Zoo]

Thought it was really poor from United not properly going for it last 15. Barcelona were playing as poor as they ever will and they showed zero willingness to counter (Messi looked tired and Suarez was knackered). The risk of it going 2-0 wasn't that big with how the game was going. Think it would have been worthwhile throwing more at them at the end and really pushing for the 1-1. There's a huge difference between needing to score and needing to win away.

Thought Dalot was very good today.

Barca still had the quality to score the second with Messi and Suarez in a flash. I though both teams were caught between 2 stools to an extent, for United if we’d conceded a second away goal it would have meant the tie was almost certainly over.

 

[Jeffthered]

The next game will be interesting though. I suspect both sides will actually perform much better.

I know (yes, I know...) it may sound crazy, but I just have a really good feeling about this tie. Do I expect us to go through? No.

But... but.. have I 'feeling' that something a little memorable may, just may be able to happen that we can once again celebrate? Very possibly. Let's see eh.

(Don't say it too loud, but if we get through this tie, we win this trophy...)

 

[Raees]

I thought the way we started the game was what let us down but other than that we showed a lot of character and tactically gave Barca a tough match.. we showed much more 'press' than we had done under Fergie whenever playing a Barca side (albeit they were a different gravy to the current set up) and if we were under Jose we'd have just sat off all game.

So Ole deserves some credit for the way we went toe to toe for the most part and IMO we weren't outclassed from a tactical perspective and we made them feel uncomfortable.

There are some who will say .. big deal, you made them feel uncomfortable - but considering where this United side is in the grand scheme of things, and the quality of the squad, the fact that we could tactically play at a more elevated level than in previous years is a step in the right direction. Furthermore I would say even the second loss against Wolves, we showed progress in terms of our style of play (after a run of some very poor performances) and the big factor behind this recent resurgence is the greater dynamism in the midfield, and the inclusion of Fred and McTominay. They are ball-winners, capable of proactively winning the ball higher up the pitch and they can carry the ball with more aggression and they like to pass the ball forward - not backwards and sideways. There is a naiveté to their play but it is refreshing to see them go for the jugular.. recently I'm seeing them go for the switch ball quickly when its on and they're executing it relatively well.. so if we sort out our wings going forwards, this might be a nice new feature of our possession play next season.

Another thing I liked about the midfield was Fred in that pivot role, just spraying passes and with his two-footedness, really hard to tell which way or flank he was going to ping it out too. He's press resistant too.. - just needs to get more confident and sort out the first touch.

Lukaku I thought played well.. I really like him in this two striker set up, he is at his best roaming from a wider position - my only concern is that long term, what formation are we going with as it limits us big time in terms of transfer strategy and Lukaku as a lone forward for me - isn't as dangerous at the very highest level.

Other positives included Dalot.. he loves taking the game to the opponent and he's a proper modern day defender who likes to attack like a winger. Question is whether his defensive side can come along quickly enough for him to be relied upon as a starter in a back four or whether we need to get in a full back and let him get games as a back up or when we go 3-5-2.

DDG had his best game for a while - probably motivated with the CL being his shopping window but was nice to see him pass out with risk and doing it well.. another feature which will be interesting to see next season with or without him. We played through Barca's press well.

Overall some major positives about the performance and we aren't out of this tie yet. An early goal at Nou Camp and who knows what can happen.. this isn't a scary Barca side IMO, they're beatable. We need to pick a high energy team again - drop Young and find a way to keep Martial fit and able to play close to 90.. find a way to get Greenwood involved and we will have enough technical talent in that side to maybe spring an upset.

 

[PaulRich]

Watching that last night I have to say Barca don't exactly strike the fear of God into me.

If we can manage to put a worldy of a performance in, employ and stick to the right tactics, I can see us getting something in Barcelona.

 

[Castia]

We looked good at times during the match, just a shame we conceded such a shit goal.

Liverpool must be loving it either way, if Barce would play like that at Anfield then Liverpool would beat them comfortably.

 

[UpWithRivers]

It was better than recent performances. Our problem is Pogba. He's not playing that badly but we he his our only creative midfielder. We basically need the unstoppable Pogba ripping teams apart every game. If his form dropps a bit like it has we have nothing.

 

[fergieisold]

Feel pretty happy after last night, we played well against a top top team! Certainly makes me confident ole and the coaching staff are no mugs!

 

[Havak]

I honestly thought Barcelona were poor and almost there for the taking. We lacked cutting edge but I also think the coaching team were a little too scared of conceding the second goal to really go for it. I was so disappointed to see Lukaku taken off for Martial, but even more-so when Lingard came on for Dalot and Rashford was moved to basically a Left Wing Back role. Why? Just go 433 and try to catch them out. Semedo didn't need to get forward in the last 15 minutes because Barca had the away goal and I don't think they'd have been disappointed to come away from Old Trafford at 1-1 given their performance (or lack thereof in all honesty).

Still, Young, Rashford, and Lukaku in particular were below par, and borderline fecking awful in Young's case. He gave the ball away about 30 times. 30 times! How can you give the ball away once every three minutes as a professional footballer? Especially one so experienced. His crossing was woeful as well, if Shaw wasn't going to be the one taken off (Yellow Card), then surely it should have been Young before Dalot? I think this was a mistake and we might have actually created a good enough chance to test Ter Stegen if we did that and showed a little more grit.

The tie is at least not over, but with no Shaw in the away leg I can see us struggling a bit and it means Young will start again.

It was an odd game in the sense that I thought a good amount of our players had maybe a 7/10 game, but the more talented players likely to score were all not quite at it on the night. When that happens, you're unlikely to score.