Athletic Bilbao vs Manchester United

if we dont give a feck then why not attack and play free flowing football ? tactics can go to feck because we dont care about conceding goals or anything.

fact is we want to win this game but were being outplayed. there midfield is superior to ours. whats worse is that we wont still buy a cm in the summer.

Why not attack? Because we want out of the tournament.

Seems obvious.
 
Bring Scholes on to play off Hernandez, push Rooney out to the left wing, and play Giggs-Cleverley in the centre as now.
 
The performances in Europe have been hilariously poor. I think its different reasons for the CL performances and those in the Europa league.
Dont care.
Just play better in the second half..
 
Mind boggling that we don't even have a shot on goal when we started needing at least 2 goals.

I hate following chat based commentary on days like this, at least when I get to watch the games I can vent at the tele.
 
Not sure why so many are suprised that we lack creativity and general technical ability. It's been staring us in the face for the last 2 seasons!

This team are 7th in La Liga. Wow! The PL is piss poor.

That said we get an early goal, they are young team and their heads might drop.
 
The only positive we can take from this game is no side in England have half the technical ability this lot do.
 
The Caf: OMG we can't keep the ball, they're so much better than us blah blah

ESPN and BBC Live Text: Possession=50-50.

We were cack at OT at keeping the ball but we haven't be bad at all today, blunt admittedly but nowhere near as bad as some have suggested.
 
Can we please take off Rooney, Carrick and Rio now?

Do you want us to get utterly humiliated? Ok, so its only the mickey mouse European cup but it's still a competitive match.

The way we are approaching games these days is breaking my heart.
 
This is not a particularly young or inexperienced team.


We need better players in order to compete with the top Spanish teams. We are miles off them.

We've a substantial squad of good players but few truly top players, if any tbh.
 
Unfortunately our team tonight don't have the speed or movement to get through there defence.

Evans and Ferdinand need to take more emphasis with the ball, they lead out then pass sideways, making out midfield drop way too deep.

If you watch them there CB's bring the ball out and distribute rather than waiting for the midfield to drop off.

Either way they are just better at 433, and we haven't got our best team to compete
 
It because we don't have enough players that can play swift one touch football. Which is exactly why I have been saying that we need two of these fecking Spanish CM's for the past 18 months and why players like Hernandez are no good for the elite level of football any more.

Very true...and this has been exposed by Barca. We do well when we dominate teams mentally and physically, but when we run across a team that's technically better and can challenge us physically (in terms of running just as hard). We lose.

They dominate meaningful possession and they outfox us with their movement and kill us with their finishing.

We try to beat them on the wings but they know this is how we attack and basically shut us down everytime. Barca killed our wide play and made Hernandez play offside all game. Bilboa are copying the blueprint and this is why they will beat us today.
 
I hope SAF won't risk anything in the second half that could affect our chances in the premier league..
 
I have never seen a game where he gets enough touches on the ball. He is generally neat and tidy on the ball but too passive.

I'm not asking that he takes many touches just that when our players (Rio,Carrick and Evans) look for passing options, he can come near at times and launch the linking up.There is a big distance between him and Carrick
 
Can we focus on this game please, and not keep banging on about the Wolves game every 10 seconds?
 
English club in technically superior Spanish humiliation shocker.

English clubs can spend all the money they like, at foundation level they are technically inferior both on the ball and off the ball to Spanish teams. United were never in this tie, without the big star in the team we are utterly hopeless against a team like this.
 
Do you want us to get utterly humiliated? Ok, so its only the mickey mouse European cup but it's still a competitive match.

The way we are approaching games these days is breaking my heart.

I'd honestly rather take a hammering today than lose any of those three to injury tonight. Wolves on Sunday is a massive game and we need to win and put pressure on City.
 
Do you want us to get utterly humiliated? Ok, so its only the mickey mouse European cup but it's still a competitive match.

The way we are approaching games these days is breaking my heart.

lol...competitive?

we haven't looked their equal in the last three halfs of football. What makes you say we can do anything except draw this game?
 
We're fecking hopeless when teams put high pressure on us, even with a strong team. Why is park playing in the middle instead of cleverly? And young keeps passing the ball back to our own centrebacks.

So Park is playing centrally over Cleverley? Goodness that doesn't make sense.
 
I know Park gets another stick on here, and i have a soft spot for him.

But christ, that was one of the most inept 45 minutes by a Man Utd footballer in Europe for quite a while.
 
Expect more of the same. We are going out and excuses that we don't want to win goes against what this club stands for. Simple fact is we are limited against hard pressing sides. We crumble. Its happened so often yet saf hasn't got a solution.
 
This is like playing Barca-lite, they move the ball with short passing and great technical ability, and when they don't have it they hunt it like rabid dogs, this type of game is not one we do well against.
 
Watching the analysis we've been so poor tactically. There's far too much room infront of our defense for them to pass around. We've supposedly gone for 5 in the middle but most of them are not marking anyone when they attack. And when we attack they're not giving our players room to breath.
 
Not sure why so many are suprised that we lack creativity and general technical ability. It's been staring us in the face for the last 2 seasons!

This team are 7th in La Liga. Wow! The PL is piss poor.

That said we get an early goal, they are young team and their heads might drop.

You may be right but this is a cup tie and a huge game for Bilbao. Look at it from their point of view. They're at home against one of Europe's biggest names, Manchester United, and you can be sure they'll pull out all the stops to beat us. On paper, they were expected to lose.
 
Girl on the BT ad :D so much better than the last 45 mins!

Anyway...back to business, get Danny or Chicha on!
 
English club in technically superior Spanish humiliation shocker.

English clubs can spend all the money they like, at foundation level they are technically inferior both on the ball and off the ball to Spanish teams. United were never in this tie, without the big star in the team we are utterly hopeless against a team like this.

That's a very peculiar admission considering you've praised the Spanish style which doesn't really rely on a bond-fide star as we've witnessed with this Bilbao team.
 
It is ahead and when you think of their top 2, La Liga is well ahead of the PL right now.



I dont think that was ever possible in fairness.

Definitely not. But we haven't even tried. We are way weaker than then with Ronaldo, Tevez gone. The defence also weaker.