Siorac
Full Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2010
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- 23,969
I hope and pray you're right.I think they wont. They're hyped too much.
I hope and pray you're right.I think they wont. They're hyped too much.
I'm writing without reading any previous comments but I'm sure it'll be a prevailing opinion. Impressive performance against the famous mighty Barcelona, with light years between the squads. Only lost due to a lack of quality in the final third. And in whatever position Ashley Young plays. If Fred and McT are our squad options in midfield, we'll be just fine. Highly impressed with them both. Proud of our team. Gutted to lose but we're going to the Nou Camp still alive. However it ends, I have a feeling I'll be proud of them after that as well. Can't wait...
Arthur and Busquets weren't much better either.Did Rakitic play today? McTominay and Fred ate him up. Shame we were shite at both ends.
Arthur and Busquets weren't much better either.
Indeed. Top 4 is the priority now. Winnable gamesFeels strange to be content with a 0-1 defeat at home without even managing a shot on target, but here we are.
I think Ole’s tactics were right. We really limited Barca and the fact we created little ourselves was more down to the personnel we selected in key areas. Young had so much opportunity to deliver from the right and was real poor. I’ve defended him for the longest time, but he has regressed this season. We had clearly worked on something with Dalot at left wing back and Shaw at centre back, but it wasn’t optimal. We weren’t tonight that Dalot has no left foot or at least one he trusts. There’s no point playing two centre forwards if you can’t deliver quality from wide. Time and time again we had the opportunity but didn’t.
I’m somewhat disappointed the manager didn’t address this as the match wore on. The first sub was like for like, the second was a mistake and Lingard’s introduction meant a change of system which lost us control for ten minutes, until Pereira came on as an extra midfielder.
McTominay and Fred were our top performers. The Sauce is making the many of us who wrote him off look damn fools. The kid gets it and is becoming a man on the pitch with each passing game. You don’t want to make a habit of being MotM in defeat, but he was again tonight. I love to see him directing other more senior players out, calling for the ball, and looking to play every time. Fred is looking like finally settling in too.
We’re right in this tie. It’s only half-time and whilst scoring first would be nice, we are probably going to have score twice anyway so conceding first doesn’t matter too much. I’m optimistic and looking forward to next week. We’ve beaten no one at home this season, but we’ve already beaten Juve, PSG, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal away this season, and were the better side against Chelsea and Arsenal in the league too. It’s going to be tough, but the players know they can do it.
First up is West Ham this weekend and the team will likely be mixed up for that. It’s important we get a good win this weekend and can send the lads off with confidence.
Well yes he's.
Barca played in second gear and hardly needed to break a sweat or put much effort to get an away win in a CL tie. We hardly threatened them, had no shots on target and barely did anything to force Barca out of their second gear.
That's is you want to go with the narrative that United's play had no impact on how Barca played. Which is naive.
That's the reality and what happened really, but as I said in my earlier post, we can be happy with the moral victory while Barca took exactly what they wanted without the need to put much effort into this.
No one is happy with a moral victory. I'm not sure what you're talking about. Barca were poor, so were United (especially in the final third). It was a rubbish game really but United weren't battening down the hatches and looked pretty comfortable for large spells.
The fact an own goal is the difference between the teams at the half way point says it all. Cagey affair.
Three points I'll take from that game:
1. Their best players are a level above our best, espescially Messi up front and Pique in defense.
2. They don't have the obvious weak spots that we have, i.e. Ashley Young
3. Most of their players have done the same attacking routine for a decade, most of ours have played under managers without any attacking routine for the last 3-6 years.
I think we can remedy this within 2-3 seasons if we get the right personel in, and start developing our attacking play. Hope Solskjær is the man to do it.
Gianluca Rocchi