[Devil may care]

Bar the goal and the synchronised sliding from Bailly and Telles it was a poor performance, we just don't look like we can pick a well drilled defensive team apart.

 

[SuperiorXI]

We'll find it hard to get through. Look at AC Milan, defensively sound, compact. We hate playing teams like this and it shown today.

 

[Offside]

Our issue is ball retention. We’ve been way worse at a lot of things over recent years than we are now but I can’t recall a United team so poor in possession. Giving it away just constantly again and again. So many times completely unforced errors.

Makes things a lot harder when you lack such basics in control and accuracy.

 

[Ferguson’s Hairdryer]

I liked Amad. Besides the classy header... he tracks back, he linked up well with Greenwood for the chance that James flopped.

 

[Shane88]

Ugh, decent chance we'll be the only English side in the CL/EL who don't progress.

 

[Foxbatt]

Yes he should save it but why was the clear header allowed in the first place?

 

[MrBest]

Not sure how i feel about the obsession about what keeper is best. That performance today again proved how far away we are from playing well with the ball. Milan zipped it around us with ease, we would barely get past the half way line. When you have Scott, Matic or Fred in the middle, we will never be able to play football because there ability to pass, dictate the play or keep it simple is missing. The striker had no service, and when the ball was there, they were useless with it. This has been a consistent issue for the whole time Ole has been here, our coaching is mediocre, the players are not. We are not a well drilled team, we have no plan b and very rarely can we read how the game is going and adapt to it. I expect more of this as long as Ole remains here or/and we have the same coaches. We are playing amature football, somehow find ourselves in 2nd, any other season we may have been much lower with less points. On a plus, happy for Amad, great goal.

 

[norm87cro]

Psg?

 

[justsomebloke]

Are you not getting fed up with the football at show? It's actually painful for me watching us under Ole...the football is pure crap in all honestly.

We've played our best football by far since SAF under Ole, in my view. So no.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Sort of my point?

Not how I saw it.

 

[The Brown Bull]

I feel I did after the Everton game. Completely fecked off because it was definitely an avoidable result that we brought on ourselves. Why do they insist on playing it out from the back when the opponent are pressing really high and forcing mistakes? Just hoof the fecker upfield and bypass half their team. But no, keeper passes it to a defender who has someone bearing down on him who then does the same to another player and in the end either lose possession or concede a corner or a throw in. They got away with against Citeh but not tonight. They only have themselves to blame.

Yup.

 

[sewey89]

Psg?

Porto in 2009 the other one I think

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Nothing ventured nothing gained. We risked little and had next to zero quality on the ball. A draw is more than we deserved.

 

[red woppit]

The contrast between tonight and Sunday was immeasurable. On the front foot, even when defending, breaking forward with pace, and with four or five players sometimes attacking on Sunday, tonight we had all our forwards coming deep, getting the ball to their feet, and then playing it back to our defenders. Even when we get an overload on one side, we don't go past the player with the ball, we tend to stay behind them, receive the ball and then play it back to a CB. Why???
Our opponents have plenty of time to set up their defence, so there is no space for us to attack.
Tonight we dropped deeper in defence to cover the many long balls over the top, which gave them more space in midfield to exploit, as they had three against two most of the time.

 

[Infra-red]

Strange game. Our performance was awful and we were thoroughly outplayed by a much more organised side. At the same time, we really should have scored at least three goals.

Delighted for Diallo, but I fancy them to beat us in the second leg.

 

[snk123]

The worst thing about this is Milan also had a correct disallowed goal due to a handball that didn't exist.

We have the commentator of the game here on the caf guys.

 

[Counterfactual]

Yes he should save it but why was the clear header allowed in the first place?

This is a bloody good point. What was McTominay doing crouching and not jumping with the bloke who headed the goal? What kind of defensive action was that?

 

[Bristol_Red_87]

Was keeping tabs on the game whilst working.

Pleased to come out of the game with the tie still in the balance, set's it up nicely for the second leg.

I'm getting tiresome of Ole's oh so predicatable tactics of bringing on all our full backs and completely changing our shape and/or playing players out of position when it's tight.

However, him hauling Bruno off at 1-0 should be a clear statement of where our priorities lie...

 

[Che Guevara]

Henderson is getting all the stick but imo he is actually a better keeper overall than De Gea who has conceded some horrendous howlers. Tonight's bad result was because of awful finishing, very easy chances wasted. Maguire missing from one foot!

 

[Mr Anderson]

We missed some good chances, but in the end could be grateful to come away not losing.

we were awful on the ball again. Passing was far below par. James and McTom might as well been playing alongside Dalot first half as they distributed more ball to Milan players than our own.

yet again ineptness late on cost us. Gifting the ball away which led to the late corner. Same old mistakes that are never tackled by the management.

 

[Jezpeza]

The contrast between tonight and Sunday was immeasurable. On the front foot, even when defending, breaking forward with pace, and with four or five players sometimes attacking on Sunday, tonight we had all our forwards coming deep, getting the ball to their feet, and then playing it back to our defenders. Even when we get an overload on one side, we don't go past the player with the ball, we tend to stay behind them, receive the ball and then play it back to a CB. Why???
Our opponents have plenty of time to set up their defence, so there is no space for us to attack.
Tonight we dropped deeper in defence to cover the many long balls over the top, which gave them more space in midfield to exploit, as they had three against two most of the time.

It was a strange performance today. We insisted on playing out from the back. The problem was that at times you could have thrown a bedsheet over 5 of our players, they kept bunching up so we were easy to contain. Milan were trying to press us into constantly giving the ball away in the middle and had much more energy, and had us under the Kosh most of the game. Kessie was motm for me. Any time we broke out they would just sit deep. I thought at many times we needed our lads to spread out and just play keep ball to stop that Milan momentum.

stupid substitutions at the end, we had both shaw and telles going upfield and trying to make something happen at a time we should have just been aimlessly rotating the ball round the back and running the clock down.

I am actually glad we never got Telles a few summers back, would have cost £50m and just Isnt worth it, plus would have stopped shaw becoming the player he is.

worried for the second leg to be honest. If we could have stolen that 1-0 would have forced milan to attack and we could counter. They will park the bus now and try to pick us off on the break, changes the dynamic of the whole match.

 

[Foxbatt]

Was keeping tabs on the game whilst working.

Pleased to come out of the game with the tie still in the balance, set's it up nicely for the second leg.

I'm getting tiresome of Ole's oh so predicatable tactics of bringing on all our full backs and completely changing our shape and/or playing players out of position when it's tight.

However, him hauling Bruno off at 1-0 should be a clear statement of where our priorities lie...

The tie is not still in the balance. We need a score draw at least. A 0-0 draw and we are out even if we do not lose.

 

[Mr Anderson]

This is a bloody good point. What was McTominay doing crouching and not jumping with the bloke who headed the goal? What kind of defensive action was that?

i think Matic also let him run free in the end.

it’s just the usual shoddy shape at the back. We never have a clue when it comes to set pieces. A joke at this stage, that’s schoolboy coaching

 

[ti vu]

Yes he should save it but why was the clear header allowed in the first place?

This is a bloody good point. What was McTominay doing crouching and not jumping with the bloke who headed the goal? What kind of defensive action was that?

It's the angle and the slowed down replay that makes McTominay look silly. In truth, and by other angle, nothing McTominay could do here. Kjaer was far apart from McTominay for him to challenge. The flight of the ball is much higher than McTominay could jump if he tried.

The ducking motion is the usual reaction where you saw GKs did when getting well beaten.

The issue with our defense is marking. Too much space in McTominay zone for him to defense, and Matic lost his man, while Fred ball watching and backing pedaling from that the area not fancying compete for that corner. Fred should get to that area if it's only mean to pressure Kjaer

 

[united_99]

Well we have to score in Milan which might work in our favour. We are almost never good if the aim is to play for a 0-0 / clean sheet.
2-2 and we are through.
Penalty will hopefully return from injury.
Plus Dalot own goal.
We have actually only ever won once in Milan (in 2010) iirc.

 

[Counterfactual]

It's the angle and the slowed down replay that makes McTominay look silly. In truth, and by other angle, nothing McTominay could do here. Kjaer was far apart from McTominay for him to challenge. The flight of the ball is much higher than McTominay could jump if he tried.

The ducking motion is the usual reaction where you saw GKs did when getting well beaten.

The issue with our defense is marking. Too much space in McTominay zone for him to defense, and Matic lost his man.

I can kinda see what you're saying. It's a peach of a corner kick. I think Telles goes out to it, jumps and misses it. However, McTominay is 6'3. I'd like him to do the same as Telles... run out and jump for it. If he did that, he'd either get the ball, or be jumped into by the guy who scored and get a free kick. He'd at least prevent a free header.

Yes, Matic lost his man early and is no-where near the guy, but I'd like McTominay to at least attempt to run and jump.

 

[Red & White]

More late misery for us from a set piece. I think Henderson has been doing fantastic so far but he has to save that. DDG saves that, but then that’s his strength and Henderson has other strengths DDG doesn’t, I suppose. The marking for their goal was awful but then we’re at the point now when you almost expect it. I certainly did when they won the late corner as I’m sure others did, too.

I won’t be gutted if we don’t win this, but if we go out in the last 16 with all the other English teams going though, it doesn’t look good for the confidence of the team going forward. Need two top performances in our next two games but you get the feeling we’ll get more of this.

 

[ti vu]

I can kinda see what you're saying. It's a peach of a corner kick. I think Telles goes out to it, jumps and misses it. However, McTominay is 6'3. I'd like him to do the same as Telles... run out and jump for it. If he did that, he'd either get the ball, or be jumped into by the guy who scored and get a free kick. He'd at least prevent a free header.

Yes, Matic lost his man early and is no-where near the guy, but I'd like McTominay to at least attempt to run and jump.

It's the tactic. McTominay is being tasked with zonal defending, while Telles doing the man marking. So different task leads to different action. The corner kick was very good, away from our line of zonal defending area, it's the job of man marking to follow their men. It happens very fast in real time. On first watch, I couldn't see what happened. There is no time for reaction in this kind of situation, especially Kjaer coming from McTominay blind sight. It relies on everyone fulfilling their duty to have a chance to prevent the goal. Matic didn't with his man marking.

 

[Vaibhav Raj]

On somedays, this team gives an impression that they cannot pass around a football if their lives depended on it. We allow sloppy oppositions to grow in confidence by being even more sloppy somehow. Getting a goal out of nowhere is only going to take us so far and no wonder this team gets bundled over in semi finals and crunch matches. Where's the control? Where's the footballing IQ? Where's players who look comfortable on the ball. The more you watch champions league football the more you realize the gap there is in footballing quality of a top team and that offered by Manchester Unuted. We can sit around praising some of these players for brilliant one off performances but most are not capable of keeping the standards up for more than two games. The reality is, we had a squad of poor players before Ole and now we have a squad of mostly half decent players. We still need two to three real quality reinforcement to be anywhere near the top. Or maybe the team needs better coaching.

I don't care for a win or a draw or a defeat for as long this team is looking like it can play football and is looking like it is headed in a positive direction. But, our last 12-15 performance, even some victories, have not filled me personally with any confidence that this squad will achieve any great things. Yeah we maybe are the second highest scorers, second best defence, yada yada, we are also knocked out of champions league in group stages and sit second in PL ten points behind first.

It is not like I'm all doom and gloom after this one draw. This one probably won't even matter because AC Milan looked like a squad we can beat in an away game. But it is what I have been feeling for the entirety of this season irrespective of what the results have been.

 

[arthurka]

Lots will be blind to it because of the city game but we are in absolutely shite form since mid January.

1 good performance for every 3 shit ones.

We can't get knocked out of this. We are the bloody best team in the tournament player for player.

And the most expensive by a distance.

 

[Hammondo]

We just saw at the weekend how we performed better as a defensive unit when we push up further. This is a goal we've conceded against Everton, Sheff United etc. Its a tactic which invites pressure.

We were pushed back and defended against City.

 

[Bristol_Red_87]

The tie is not still in the balance. We need a score draw at least. A 0-0 draw and we are out even if we do not lose.

Jesus. I mean, am I meant to apologise here or..?

 

[SirMattlives]

Still think we can win the tie, game was not great (what I saw of it, Milan did not look too hot either) but I cannot fathom how we continue to concede from set pieces, often at the death, and don't seem to learn from this, or at least we don't seem to learn enough to prevent it happening again. It's always a sickener when this happens but the tie is still alive. Movin' on.

 

[Jimmyheals]

Lucky to grab a draw tonight, and lucky not to have McT sent off. Aside from the 15 minutes around Amad’s goal Milan were the better side. Kessie was the best player on the pitch.

Ole’s decision to attempt to defend a 1-0 lead was poor. We had been bad but going with this tactic, in this game was only going to see Milan score.

Amazing to see Amad score, and Bailly was good, aside from that, it was an altogether forgettable performance. Well, except Kessie’s disallowed goal, that was stunning, and honestly I hate that the rules are such that it was disallowed.

 

[croadyman]

Don't like agreeing with Savage but he was bang on about us lacking someone on the ball who could provide that quality from deep, definitely feel like we need to get a couple of first XI players back next week despite our top away record.

 

[groovyalbert]

How many goals have we now conceded from corners like that this season?

Speaks very poorly of our coaching/players that this is still happening time after time. If we're level/up by a goal and the opposition get a corner in the last minute, I've mentally accepted we're conceding.

 

[Adcuth]

For fecks sake Harry

 

[MADReaLJL]

No wonder DDG is still first choice in Ole's eyes.

Henderson has to improve. I hope he'll do well here.

 

[acnumber9]

The tie is not still in the balance. We need a score draw at least. A 0-0 draw and we are out even if we do not lose.

We aren’t so far behind or ahead that the second leg is a formality. That’s what being in the balance means.

 

[Foxbatt]

We aren’t so far behind or ahead that the second leg is a formality. That’s what being in the balance means.

Oh Ok got your point. I do think that they will have some of their players back from injury and we do have to score while they do not. It may look like we are playing against a low block team and we will have to open them up and they would counter attack us.