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

Would love to be wrong, but I Suspect we would still get tanked in this game if Fergie was manager, Busby was assistant and Clough was the kit man. Our lineup, especially the back 4 just isn't up to the job at the top level

Yeah Lyon are definitely several levels above us.

Let’s pray PSG don’t score 10 at OT.
 
Good to see Solskjaer and Phelan doing some good ol' fashioned spying. I like Phelan's disguise. Most impressive.



Take note Marcelo Bielsa. ;)
 
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Would love to be wrong, but I Suspect we would still get tanked in this game if Fergie was manager, Busby was assistant and Clough was the kit man. Our lineup, especially the back 4 just isn't up to the job at the top level

And yet. We’ve won 9 out of 10 at top level football.

PSG will be a tough challenge, but a game of football is between two teams. They also have their glaring weaknesses.
 
And yet. We’ve won 9 out of 10 at top level football.

PSG will be a tough challenge, but a game of football is between two teams. They also have their glaring weaknesses.

Without neymar the odds have improved in our favour.
 
Phelan too.



So they took the plane after our match immediately just to scout PSG. Great dedication from them.


If you love football, that would be a short vacation to see some exciting stuff. But fair enough, that's dedication from them.
 
I watched the highlights of Lyon's 2-1 win over PSG. Areola is an absolute liability at the back for them. Unluckily for us, we'll be facing Buffon. Both teams created plenty of scoring chances. What I learnt was if we can take our chances(we'll get plenty) and not make silly mistakes at the back and make them earn their goals, we can win this.
 
Without neymar the odds have improved in our favour.

I don't really think that impacts as much.

Neymar is a brilliant player - but PSG have much more than him alone. He's not like Pogba is for us. The rest of their attack is full of quality as well. Mbappe, Cavani, Di Maria is a tough trio!
 
We can beat them but I wouldn't use the Lyon game as a guide. The CL is practically their only motivation at the moment.
 
I don't really think that impacts as much.

Neymar is a brilliant player - but PSG have much more than him alone. He's not like Pogba is for us. The rest of their attack is full of quality as well. Mbappe, Cavani, Di Maria is a tough trio!

In terms of pure quality/impact in the best starting 11, my following rating

Neymar=22%
Verratti=21%
M'Bappé=20%
Cavani=14%
Thiago Silva=8%
the 5 other players=15% = easy to replace = secondary players
 
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We can beat them but I wouldn't use the Lyon game as a guide. The CL is practically their only motivation at the moment.

Not only a matter of motivation. PSG can beat 18 French teams with an odd central midfielder and struggle against any decent side like Lyon.

PSG lost against Lyon because the midfield was weak:
- no pure defensive midfield/destroyer: Thiago Motta retired
- no box-to-box: Rabiot blacklisted but he has generally been disappointing when needed so it's not a big deal
- a central midfielder Verratti injured and another one Paredes who didn't play in the last 8 weeks IIRC

In order to win the battle midfield, we have:
- a former #10 Draxler
- Di Maria: known for being inconsistent throughout a match
- Dani Alves: 35-year-old

Without Verratti, United wins easily the 1st leg. With him, I don't know what could happen because:
- some players are very inconsistent and PSG is not used to play against good teams.
- the tactical system has been fully modified following the injury of Neymar (4-3-3 before versus 4-4-2 now)

In all honesty, impossible for me to guess the outcome.
 
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I don't really think that impacts as much.

Neymar is a brilliant player - but PSG have much more than him alone. He's not like Pogba is for us. The rest of their attack is full of quality as well. Mbappe, Cavani, Di Maria is a tough trio!
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. PSG with Neymar is a far better team than without him despite the recent circlejerk on the Internet about downplaying Neymar abilities and impact on that team.

Heck with Neymar in they would most have likely beaten Lyon. They trashed Lyon 5-0 the last time they played with Neymar in.
 
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. PSG with Neymar is a far better team than without him despite the recent circlejerk on the Internet about downplaying Neymar abilities and impact on that team.

Heck with Neymar in they would most have likely beaten Lyon. They trashed Lyon 5-0 the last time they played with Neymar in.
He didn't say the contrary.
 
Kane was dealt with. Rondon was dealt with. This lack of aerial power, in the United squad, is incredibly overstated.
Cavani is better than them on the air. He has extremely good movement (which is actually his biggest strength) and always finds himself in great positions to score.
 
He didn't say the contrary.
He downplayed Neymar impact for that team which was my point. Saying that he doesn't think that it doesn't change or impact much PSG against us is exactly what grossly downplaying Neymar abilities and impact on that team is.

It's a recent circlejerk that's been going on the Internet where people just flat out start refusing to acknowledge Neymar obvious amazing abilities and go on tengants downplaying him. He's the bad guy who dives, a cheater etc so comes along this need for people to downplay him.

Despite all the noise people like to make, Neymar is still PSG best and most impactful player. People claiming that Veratti or Mbappe are equally impactful as Neymar have got that one wrong. Neymar is the better player and the more impactful.

Maybe PSG getting sent packing in the CL would serve as a wake up call to some.
 
I think only prime Diego Costa comes close to him over the last decade in terms of movement and ground covered as a CF.
Falcao is the striker with the best mobility I have ever seen. When Falcao was at his best, people were calling Cavani a poor men's Falcao. Falcao's peak was short, but he was bloody fantastic during that peak. He was never that fast, but it was so easy for him to get away from defenders. And unlike Cavani who misses many sitters, Falcao was such a good finisher.

We also at times forget how good movement have Messi and Ronaldo. Probably not in the level of Falcao and Cavani, but they have absolutely great movement (with Ronaldo having been rapid quick).
 
He downplayed Neymar impact for that team which was my point. Saying that he doesn't think that it doesn't change or impact much PSG against us is exactly what grossly downplaying Neymar abilities and impact on that team is.

It's a recent circlejerk that's been going on the Internet where people just flat out start refusing to acknowledge Neymar obvious amazing abilities and go on tengants downplaying him. He's the bad guy who dives, a cheater etc so comes along this need for people to downplay him.

Despite all the noise people like to make, Neymar is still PSG best and most impactful player. People claiming that Veratti or Mbappe are equally impactful as Neymar have got that one wrong. Neymar is the better player and the more impactful.

Maybe PSG getting sent packing in the CL would serve as a wake up call to some.

I agree.

Neymar is both the only one playmaker in the team and an exceptional scorer.

I will never forget his first 6 months at PSG :drool:
 
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Of course Neymar is key, PSG scores an average of one more goal per game when he's playing.
 
With the struggle PSG had with Dembele defensively this might be the game for the big man as they looked awful at the back. In part might be because both Lyon and PSG seemed to be playing suicide football and neither really seemed to play with a midfield at times but after seeing this I feel confident that PSG are certainly there to be got at.
 
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You clearly don't know what you're talking about. PSG with Neymar is a far better team than without him despite the recent circlejerk on the Internet about downplaying Neymar abilities and impact on that team.

Heck with Neymar in they would most have likely beaten Lyon. They trashed Lyon 5-0 the last time they played with Neymar in.

While I agree with you that we are better with Neymar in the side and are going to miss him, I dont agree with you about the latter part.

When you speak about the 5-0 thrashing you clearly haven’t watched the game, Lyon outplayed us in the first half and were clearly the better side by a mile, their player being sent off just 1 min before half time affected them much more than our red card did, that was the turning point of the game, the 5 nil was more down to Mbappe being unplayable in the second half scoring 4 goals in a span of 15 min.

If you face the same Mbappe of that night you are in for a tough ride.

By the way that Lyon side is the same that took 4 point out from 6 against a team that is taking the piss out from your league for two years now, they are no mugs and have a formidable team with hot young prospects , Fekir, Ndombele, Aouar, Cornet, Bertand Traore, Ousmane Dembele, Ferland Mendy, Depay ,thats an incredible amount of raw talent, most of them will surely play for the big boys in Europe.
 
I hope so bud. Our midfield needs to be fresh but we're struggling with rotation :nervous:

Must rotate for Fulham, Fred and Perreira should be good enough to see us through Fulham along with Lukaku and Sanchez.
 
Must rotate for Fulham, Fred and Perreira should be good enough to see us through Fulham along with Lukaku and Sanchez.
I'm not so sure. Things can go south with them every moment.They are not reliable at all.
 
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Yeah, we'd have thought Pereira at Burnley would be alright as well tbf :nervous:

But i agree, somehow we need to rotate. Our players look knackered.
They really don't.
Our schedule hasn't even been that gruelling! This forum is to quick to play the fatigue card.
 
They really don't.
Our schedule hasn't even been that gruelling! This forum is to quick to play the fatigue card.
I generally agree with you but don't you think we look a bit jaded or knackered - which could contribute to the drop in tempo in our matches?

I think most of this XI has played over the Christmas period as well, haven't they? And we need to take into account that under our previous manager, we tended to do a very low amount of running, compared to other teams.
 
We need to rotate for sure, obviously that doesn't mean giving Pereira another start because that would be daft, but if we can just get some rest to our key midfield men, we've got a very good chance, which is so strange I never thought I'd be thinking that a few months ago.

They really don't.
Our schedule hasn't even been that gruelling! This forum is to quick to play the fatigue card.

Do you not think they looked leggy yesterday? Or maybe legginess is getting confused with overall crappy performance on the day, because something wasn't right out there and it wasn't the first time. To me they looked jaded for sure.
 
Cavani is better than them on the air. He has extremely good movement (which is actually his biggest strength) and always finds himself in great positions to score.
That's a fair point, I just don't expect Cavani to run rampant, because our lack of aerial prowess is massively overstated.
 
I generally agree with you but don't you think we look a bit jaded or knackered - which could contribute to the drop in tempo in our matches?

I think most of this XI has played over the Christmas period as well, haven't they? And we need to take into account that under our previous manager, we tended to do a very low amount of running, compared to other teams.
Not really. We came roaring back inside the last 5 minutes from 2-0 down just 6 days ago.
Jose had fallen out and dropped our top stars so much that we have little miles on our clock.
We just don't seem to be good as playing a slower, tactical game. Its why we struggled at the start of games under Jose and came alive when we had to plough forward and why we are starting well under Ole and easing off a bit when we try to control the game.
Like Leicester , we are trying to hold our position and kill their counter attack but it becomes sloppy because we become static.
Its not tiredness IMO.
 
Not really. We came roaring back inside the last 5 minutes from 2-0 down just 6 days ago.
Jose had fallen out and dropped our top stars so much that we have little miles on our clock.
We just don't seem to be good as playing a slower, tactical game. Its why we struggled at the start of games under Jose and came alive when we had to plough forward and why we are starting well under Ole and easing off a bit when we try to control the game.
Like Leicester , we are trying to hold our position and kill their counter attack but it becomes sloppy because we become static.
Its not tiredness IMO.
Fair enough mate and I agree about some of our players, barring Matic who was seemingly undroppable, shouldn't be too knackered as Jose did a ton of changes to his teams while here.

Though our drop in intensity is worrying. To me, it does look like they're knackered.

It's going to be interesting but if we struggle to maintain the tempo and focus against the bigger clubs, I have little faith in us :nervous: