PSG vs Man Utd | Build-up Thread | Return leg Wednesday 06.03

Neymar may be out for the rest of the season, it is the same injury as the one that kept him out from February till the world cup.

We are going to sign a defensive midfielder before the end of the window, it may be Parades from zenith or Gueye from Everton, Allan is lined up but highly unlikely, Napoli asking price close to 100 million £ for him.

However despite the Neymar injury we are still too much to handle for your average defense, Manchester United conceded close to 40 goals so far ( 39 ? ), and Mbappe & Cavani vs Phil Jones looks tasty.

The turnaround in form under Ole is amazing, it reminds me when Kenny Dalglish took over in mid season at Liverpool and did extremely well with a poor squad.

From your last bit of games, you were more than decent against average oppositions and apart from 15 minutes against Tottenham I thought you were horrendous with De Gea bailing you out once again, we might be not as nice as Tottenham when it comes to finishing our chances, feeling confident for this one.
United have a poor squad? Ok then.
 
I'm just not buying that we have a hope in hell in this one, not with Young and Co at the back.

Hopefully we don't embarress ourselves,
 
I'm just not buying that we have a hope in hell in this one, not with Young and Co at the back.

Hopefully we don't embarress ourselves,

Neymar won't be fit and they have no MF. I think we can win tbh.

Veratti injured, No DM, Rabiot frozen out, Neymar out, depending on the CL flop Cavani. I fancy our chances.
 
It's not Neymar I'm worried about.. it's Mbappe. We shouldn't underestimate them.
 
Regardless if Neymar is out there's still a nightmare looming in the shape of Mbappe and Cavani against Jones and Lindelof

I fancy Lindelof at the minute against either of them. I suspect that Bailly might play instead of Jones although he's got a brainfart in him anyway, as does Smalling if he's fit so that is a worry.

I'm not worried about Cavani though, even if he's through on goal he'll miss because that's what he does in big matches in the CL. (Cue him scoring a hat trick home and away...:()

Mbappe will be interesting because we know how good he can be but he was useless against Liverpool and Napoli in games I saw. Van Dijk and Koulibaly had his number and he didn't adapt his style to counter it.
 
Only Dani Alves is a weird one in midfield and someone i dont know on what level he is, how is he doing since coming back from injury?
He's been doing fine in midfield, in fact I very much prefer him there because I don't trust his old legs anymore at RB.
On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you feeling?
Don't know about a scale but I'm reasonably confident. Should be good games.
 
PSG has gone from favourite to 50/50 in first legs and potentially could be dropping down if we went on a crazy run winning.
 
I fancy Lindelof at the minute against either of them. I suspect that Bailly might play instead of Jones although he's got a brainfart in him anyway, as does Smalling if he's fit so that is a worry.

I'm not worried about Cavani though, even if he's through on goal he'll miss because that's what he does in big matches in the CL. (Cue him scoring a hat trick home and away...:()

Mbappe will be interesting because we know how good he can be but he was useless against Liverpool and Napoli in games I saw. Van Dijk and Koulibaly had his number and he didn't adapt his style to counter it.
I have a sneaky suspicion Rashford will show him up in these two games.
 
If Neymar is not available we really have to go toe to toe with them. We beat arsenal and Tottenham but in the latter I wasn’t to impressed with how we set up. We were dominated in that second half and it’s like we’ve swept that fact under the rug.

Everyone has been talking about how bad our defense is but I don’t think that’s our biggest problem in these big games. If you’ve all noticed there is a Huge gap in midfield between pogba and Herrera/matic. This is my biggest fear in Ole tactics. Tottenham, Arsenal and Huddersfield (some moments during that game) find it very easy to receive the ball in the center. Matic and Herrera have to start pushing up more during defensive transitions because it’s currently to easy for top teams to create an attack which then puts pressure on our defense.

Most of these teams don’t ply with attacking midfielders so I don’t know why Herrera and matic sit so deep when defending. Pogba is usually exhausted due to constantly attacking and defending so I’m not going to criticize him too much for the gap in the middle. Other than that we should actually be favorites for this tie if Neymar is actually out.
 
Quite simple now, we have to go for it in the first leg and get at least a 2 goal lead.
 
I'm really optimistic now. PSG can be quite fragile behind and they almost didn't play any challenging match since the groups. Meanwhile we are mentally recovered, ready to compete as we could see with Arsenal or Spurs and we have a new tactics approach that may work quite well against PSG. And now, without Neymar, I'm 50/50 already.
 
Quite simple now, we have to go for it in the first leg and get at least a 2 goal lead.
Even a one goal lead and a clean sheet would suffice as I can definitely see us scoring in Paris. Unfortunately I can also definitely see PSG scoring at OT.
 
Utd is favorite.

PSG has the weakest midfield since 2010.
 
Utd is favorite.

PSG has the weakest midfield since 2010.
Nah, don't think we can be classed as favourites still with a defence as fragile as ours and a front three as good as yours, particularly if Neymar is back for the second leg. At best, it's 50/50.
 
This PSG team is nothing special without Neymar. Mbappe/Cavani is a quality offense but the rest of the team is just decent, not special. I really fancy United's chances tbh.
 
With Neymar out, ucking Choupo-Moting is going to score against us again, isn't he.
 
I'm actually happy Shaw will be marking Mbappe, he will nullify him and everyone will applaud how good he is defensively even though he's always been quality at defending. Modern football seems to rate fullbacks on the attacking ability though.

We're gonna win over two legs.
 
I could see United getting through, but I have a harder time believing it. I don't think PSG will lose out, even without Neymar who is a big loss but not the be-all and end-all to the club as Messi is for Barcelona. Draxler will get a great opportunity, if Paredes comes in it's going to relieve a lot of pressure on the midfield battle, and United have no answer for Mbappe and, to a lesser degree, Cavani. Di Maria is going to be extra motivated as well to show up there. I think the optimism from the United base is cute, but it will be a wake up call for them. :smirk:
 
No reason we can't get past them all honestly. Even injuries aside they have been shown to not be very tough mentally. If we played well we can get through.
 
I could see United getting through, but I have a harder time believing it. I don't think PSG will lose out, even without Neymar who is a big loss but not the be-all and end-all to the club as Messi is for Barcelona. Draxler will get a great opportunity, if Paredes comes in it's going to relieve a lot of pressure on the midfield battle, and United have no answer for Mbappe and, to a lesser degree, Cavani. Di Maria is going to be extra motivated as well to show up there. I think the optimism from the United base is cute, but it will be a wake up call for them. :smirk:

We got De Gea.
And while it's fair to say that their attack might be too much on our defence, same could be said on the other side of the pitch with Pogba and Rashford on top form, and you can always expect Martial, Lingard, Sanchez and Lukaku to be troublesome on a good day.
 
I could see United getting through, but I have a harder time believing it. I don't think PSG will lose out, even without Neymar who is a big loss but not the be-all and end-all to the club as Messi is for Barcelona. Draxler will get a great opportunity, if Paredes comes in it's going to relieve a lot of pressure on the midfield battle, and United have no answer for Mbappe and, to a lesser degree, Cavani. Di Maria is going to be extra motivated as well to show up there. I think the optimism from the United base is cute, but it will be a wake up call for them. :smirk:
Mbappe has been poor in the CL this year though.
He's not this unstoppable force just yet.
I'll say it now, I think our attack is better than theirs without Neymar. Considerably so as well.