[artanisknarf]

That was rubbish. But we can win the second leg and progress.

Tough place to go. The amazing and beautiful Liverpool drew there 3-3 didn't they?

Liverpool were up 0-3 away to Sevilla in the first half and that result flattered Sevilla. Could have been 6 or more. Only reason they drew is because Moreno gifted a goal and a penalty few minutes apart to Sevilla and they scored an equalizer in injury time. The game though was cracking and exciting. So very exciting. And a 3-3 away is much better than 0-0.

Can you not see a 1-1 at OT?

 

[Lennon7]

I wonder what the common denominator is.

Past few years meaning ever since Fergie retired. So it’s not Mourinho.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Our record in Spain (before tonight’s game)

Celta Vigo (0-1, Rashford) last season was most recent away win against a Spanish team. Other two were in 2010 against Valencia (0-1, Hernandez) and 2002 against Deportivo (0-2, Beckham and Ruud). And that’s it. Drawn or lost the other 20 games. Five of the last seven ended nil all. 6 out of 8 after tonight’s game.

 

[crossy1686]

Sounds like you've been broken by the City project mate.

*Slow Clap. I spend half my time in threads about City and half my time in United threads talking about how United should play like City.

 

[Jonno]

Well said.
Liniker and co on BT said it was a job well done, How ??
We only got the draw due to DDG , we had one tame shot on goal, maybe I am being to critical but I hated the game thought we were dreadful.

I don't think the game plan got executed the way Mourinho wanted. He wanted to play with more of a counter attacking threat and not to let them get to the byline, so he will be disappointed with that. But fact is, they should have scored goals and they didn't, they'll be extremely disappointed that we now have the advantage.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Past few years meaning ever since Fergie retired. So it’s not Mourinho.

We were ok in big games with Van Gaal if anything.

 

[He'lmurderyah15]

Well said.
Liniker and co on BT said it was a job well done, How ??
We only got the draw due to DDG , we had one tame shot on goal, maybe I am being to critical but I hated the game thought we were dreadful.

Fact, BT saying it was controlled and a good away performance is way off I think.. We were lucky, they controlled the game. And they are a poor, poor side.

Didi Haman, Damien Duff and Liam Brady called it as it was on RTE, they hammered into United and Jose. Said we're as far away from winning big trophies as we've ever been. Said Sir Bobby and Fergie won't sleep tonight thinking about how bad a performance that was!!

 

[Z1L3]

I'm almost at a loss with what to say .I'm sure Jose will be patting himself on the back with a " job well done " and exactly the result he was looking for .Presumably he planned on Degea pulling off an unbelievable save to keep us in it and planned to let them have 20 shots at goal ( and for us to only have 1 ) in the hope that none would go in. Once again we have ridden our luck and set up to keep a clean sheet.While the likes of Liverpool and city go hell for leather and bludgeon there opponents into submission and now have the luxury of resting players for the second leg while we remain on a knife edge only one away goal away from disaster ( can any of you see us putting more than 2 past them in the next leg ?).
Tottenham also got a fabulous away result at Juve with 2 away goals,while Chelsea played very well against Barca and were very unlucky not to win.So we put in the worst performance of all the English participants and don't even try to win the game.
Watching the Barca game I dread the thought of a back 4 of Valencia, young ,Jones , Smalling coming up against the likes of Barca,Madrid,Bayern,City I fear they could humiliate us.
Bailly will be a welcome return but he is but one man and the rest of our back 4 options are workmanlike at best and woeful at worst.
Another disappointing performance but hardly a surprise.
Ps
Lukaku ! An embarrassment at this level.

Pps real danger that we are turning Sanchez into a problem rather than a solution

Watching Chelsea parking the bus with 541 deep into their half for 90 minutes, I was thinking how much criticism Jose would get for setting up like that. And sure enough, someone comes out and applauds the magnificent Chelsea

Lukaku was very decent today. He had several very good hold-up plays and flick-ons. What I don't understand is how can the other attackers be so poor in reading where he will flick the ball on. I remember a specific occasion where Martial didn't anticipate and was a second too late to get into a wide open chance. Maybe Jose, for better or worse, is not the kind of manager who works with players on details like that because he assumes that a professional of that level should know how to... play.

Overall, a very poor performance, but as I've been saying - it's a bunch of big names, not necessarily big players quite yet.

 

[poleglass red]

Showed way too much respect to at best a decent team.football has moved on, you have to be more positive in away legs. God forbid they nick a goal at old trafford

 

[baskinginthesun]

• Five of Manchester United's last seven Champions League away matches in Spain have ended goalless.
• This was Manchester United's ninth clean sheet in their last 11 matches in all competitions and their 23rd in all competitions this season - three more than any other Premier League side.
• Sevilla failed to score in a home Champions League game for the very first time - this was their 19th home match in the competition.
• Scott McTominay became the fourth youngest Englishman to start a Champions League knockout match United - only Wayne Rooney, Phil Neville and Phil Jones were younger.

We had a plan that was blown out due to Ander’s unfortunate injury. Pogba came on and didn’t offer the pressing and energy Herrera does and that put us on the back foot for most of the match. We introduced Martial and Rashford too late but we did have a couple of chances that we could done better with.
Overall an okay result given we play Chelsea next and we do also play Liverpool before the return leg against Sevilla, which we will completely go for it.

Superb performance by De Gea, great one by McTominay, really happy to see him play tonight

Bit of perspective. Well said.

 

[Offside]

Matic was atrocious. Did you actually watch the game? He wasn’t the one in green using his hands.

He wasn’t. You obviously didn’t watch the game.

 

[Phil]

Pragmatism, I get it, I won't really give a feck if we go through. It's just hard to stomach that shit every big game, we should be at a far better place than we are right now.

 

[crossy1686]

You are deflecting now. I have read your initial response and I see no other reason for you to mention Atletico, unless to use them as a comparison due to the perceived similarity that Simeone and Mourinho share as defensive-minded managers. Simeone has shown that Atletico can play football on a world-class level when they were seriously challenging in Spain and Europe, even if their style wasn't to keep a lot of the ball and have possession. They still showed a few times more quality than we are right now when having the ball and played much faster in their transitions. Atletico Madrid also can't hold a candle in terms of financial power when compared to any other top team, so they were hugely praised for their achievements but could never sustain them with consistently defensive football. They have now obviously regressed and are nowhere near as dangerous as before.

I have also never said I want us to play like any of the teams you mentioned - you are just trying to put words in my mouth. My wish is for us to play as Manchester United, form our own current style, whilst respecting the history and the grounds on which the club has been built since its' beginning.

This is turning into an internet forum version of waterboarding now.

The point I was making by raising Atletico's name was that they don't apologise for who they are, they don't try to be Barcelona, they and their fans accept that they play a certain brand of football and they embrace it. Not complain that they should play football like Barcelona or Athletic Bilbao. I'm not comparing managers, players, net spend or trophies at all. That is literally the last thing I'm going to say on the matter.

 

[noodlehair]

What an awful game.

All of these stats and perspective mean little when our player can't play simple passes to each other despite the fact everyone on the pitch is standing still.

 

[The Irish Connection]

I tell you what we need to do, stop lashing long balls at lukaku, he's actually very poor at winning headers. Better when played into his feet. Also, we need to stop fecking up in the final 3rd and play the ball out from the back after winning it back with a bit more composure.
Not confident at all for the next 2 big league games

 

[RedB4ndiT]

they'll be extremely disappointed that we now have the advantage.

Mate, two words -- away goal.

One goal from them and we're in trouble.

 

[Stacks]

It really wasn’t that bad. Nothing you haven’t plenty of times in European aways over those 40 years.

I mentioned in the other thread that it felt like a standard United away European performance. Not awful but not pulling up any trees. you would've thought we'd got spanked 5-0. remember Deportivo anyone?

 

[Rood]

• Scott McTominay became the fourth youngest Englishman to start a Champions League knockout match United - only Wayne Rooney, Phil Neville and Phil Jones were younger.

is he English? Likely to play for Scotland I think

 

[Paxi]

Typical away European performance. We had dozens like that under Fergie.

Dozens? I can remember Lille was one and Marseille. I can remember dozens excellent away performances with SAF. Certainly not like this.

 

[el3mel]

Our record in Spain (before tonight’s game)

Celta Vigo (0-1, Rashford) last season was most recent away win against a Spanish team. Other two were in 2010 against Valencia (0-1, Hernandez) and 2002 against Deportivo (0-2, Beckham and Ruud). And that’s it. Drawn or lost the other 20 games. Five of the last seven ended nil all. 6 out of 8 after tonight’s game.

Urgh, what a terrible record.

 

[diplomat]

This is turning into an internet forum version of waterboarding now.

The point I was making by raising Atletico's name was that they don't apologise for who they are, they don't try to be Barcelona, they and their fans accept that they play a certain brand of football and they embrace it. Not complain that they should play football like Barcelona or Athletic Bilbao. I'm not comparing managers, players, net spend or trophies at all. That is literally the last thing I'm going to say on the matter.

So what? I don't care about Atletico or their fans. You either have some weird love-in with this team or you are just comparing us with them to save face and defend your stance. Of course you won't say anything else to answer my questions or counter my arguments, because you know I'm right and my claims are backed by facts.

 

[youngrell]

They were rubbish in attack, we didn't even try to attack. Sleep inducing.

 

[noodlehair]

I tell you what we need to do, stop lashing long balls at lukaku, he's actually very poor at winning headers. Better when played into his feet. Also, we need to stop fecking up in the final 3rd and play the ball out from the back after winning it back with a bit more composure.
Not confident at all for the next 2 big league games

Not sure what Lukaku is meant to do with them anyway when the nearest United player to him is 40 yards away, and the ball isn't booted anywhere near him anyway.

Also we're the only team ever to play with everyone in defence yet still constantly end up outnumbered whenever the ball is played to either wing.

It's embarassing how we play in these games. We aren't even any good at playing this way. We look like a mess every time. Was the same in the Europa league last year. We could have been playing a pub side and we'd still have made it look like a massive struggle

 

[Rood]

our Euro away record has always been pretty crap so Im happy with a draw, but we were lucky to keep a clean sheet

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I mentioned in the other thread that it felt like a standard United away European performance. Not awful but not pulling up any trees. you would've thought we'd got spanked 5-0. remember Deportivo anyone?

People are presumably losing their fecking minds because of the context. Dreadful first half against Huddersfield, the Newcastle debacle etc. but yeah, in isolation, this was fairly standard indeed.

 

[KristianMackle]

I feel like everyone is expecting to see a United side that doesn't exist anymore and hence expectations are a bit skewed.

The SAF era is long gone, we are not the force we once were. I look at this game and see we have far more work to do than previously thought.

But Mourinho's commitment to winning and winning trophies cannot be questioned; he's a serial winner. I believe we'll get to where we want to be but it will be an ugly road and we need to strap ourselves in tightly for that ride.

Rival fans, know-it-all pundits, ex-players will slate and come after us hard because we are Manchester United and we are delicious bait. We have all the resources to rise up again and better.

We'll get there.

 

[KristianMackle]

Edit

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Urgh, what a terrible record.

It is terrible. Our record in Germany is much better. Most European teams are pretty crap when they travel though. Even very good ones. Which is why it’s funny to see so many people terrified about away goals. We’re pretty much a shoe-in for the next round.

 

[ghagua]

Anyone know the fecking direction this team is heading?

 

[DWelbz19]

Pragmatism, I get it, I won't really give a feck if we go through. It's just hard to stomach that shit every big game, we should be at a far better place than we are right now.

A superior side will rip us to pieces. People can self-congratulate us for ‘not losing in Spain’ to a very average Sevilla side (who we let have 26 shots) all they want.

 

[Adam-Utd]

He wasn’t. You obviously didn’t watch the game.

He got "slightly" better in the last 30 minutes but before that was absolutely woeful. He kept passing to the other team and was not making any proper passes or driving the ball forward, his tracking back was awful too.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

Our record in Spain (before tonight’s game)

Celta Vigo (0-1, Rashford) last season was most recent away win against a Spanish team. Other two were in 2010 against Valencia (0-1, Hernandez) and 2002 against Deportivo (0-2, Beckham and Ruud). And that’s it. Drawn or lost the other 20 games. Five of the last seven ended nil all. 6 out of 8 after tonight’s game.

Well none of that would've happened on Fergie's watch grrrr.

Oh wait.

 

[bond19821982]

feck - this was against 5th best team in La liga whose defence is as leaky as a water pipe.
Nightmare to think what we will do at Camp Nou - if it happens-

 

[klayton88]

Anyone know the fecking direction this team is heading?

Sideways..... then backwards.

 

[Stacks]

Dozens? I can remember Lille was one and Marseille. I can remember dozens excellent away performances with SAF. Certainly not like this.

Villareal 0-0 (2006) Lille 0-1 (2006), Benfica 1-2 (2006) Roma 1-2 (2007), Lyon 1-1 (87th minute Tevez equaliser - 2008) Barcelona 0-0 (2008), Marseille 0-0 (2011) Basel 1-2 (2012) Benfica 1-1 (2012, they missed chances late on)

some away games under Fergie

 

[crossy1686]

So what? I don't care about Atletico or their fans. You either have some weird love-in with this team or you are just comparing us with them to save face and defend your stance. Of course you won't say anything else to answer my questions or counter my arguments, because you know I'm right and my claims are backed by facts.

You're the one who has brought them up in the last 5 posts for no reason at all, I told you I wasn't comparing. You've literally compared your own facts against your own facts about Atletico while I've stayed out of your one way conversation with yourself. You've absolutely lost it I'm afraid.

 

[Tincanalley]

RTE 2 was gas. Ronnie Whelan - in between squeaks - was totally ABU in his contributions to the commentary. In the studio you had as guests, Didi Hamman, a German Scouser; greatest accent ever. Actually Didi is a decent contributor and not too biased. You had the bould Damian Duff. Hates United. But not as much as Liam Brady. Brady, a great servant to Ireland, and a lovely player in his day, but feck is he a bitter ABU. What I would have given for a late dodgy goal to shut the feckers up.

 

[bond19821982]

People are presumably losing their fecking minds because of the context. Dreadful first half against Huddersfield, the Newcastle debacle etc. but yeah, in isolation, this was fairly standard indeed.

To be honest, it works both ways. We were just a worldie save away from conceding a goal and we were not in mood at all to score one.

Things could be very tense if we don't score an early goal or they get one.

 

[Tincanalley]

Sideways..... then backwards.

In tug o war going backwards is regarded as progress. So there.

 

[crossy1686]

feck - this was against 5th best team in La liga whose defence is as leaky as a water pipe.
Nightmare to think what we will do at Camp Nou - if it happens-

Changed your tune much?

Starting to get worried. Feel like we are underestimating sevilla. They press pretty aggressive and crowd will be up for it. Scott is still a kid and he might not survive more than 45 mins .Genuinely bemused at going with 4 at the back . Should've gone for 352.