Europa league

I think we will beat Wolfsberg. They seem to want to play football which is when LVG's teams do best. From what I saw at Old Trafford we will create chances.

All through LVG's reign our greatest struggles are against teams that sit in like PSV did tonight.
 
@Sphaero
By and large, I agree which is the reason why before the game tonight kicked off, I predicted a draw for the last group match Wolfsburg - United.

Wolfsburg's defense seems much less stable than last year though, and they create less quality chances as compared to the days of de Bruyne and Perisic.
 
poisson said:
How many of you genuinely think we'll win at Wolfsburg?
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Well I'd say they were the better team in the first game, they just lacked the end product. I'm not confident at all, I'd say we need results to go our way.
 
I'm weirdly confident tbh. This group tends to only ever perform well when something tangible is at stake. I think we will win.
 
pyinrgm.png

So 9 possible outcomes for 2 basically 50/50 games. We go through in 6 of them. Of course it sucks that we blew our chances of qualifying today, but we still should make it, it'll just be tough.
 
With the way LVG's rotating his squad, being in the Europa League would be disastrous to our league season.
 
I think CSKA might get a result and send us through, even though PSV looked impressive enough tonight.

Wolfsburg are good but not great. At home with us needing to win, though, they're in a nice position and they are really organized when sitting deep with 2 banks of 4 and playing on the break. Perfect set up for them to tear us apart on the break. They have some good decision makers out wide who lack the quickness to consistently create against set defences but are clever and fast enough over longer distances like Caliguri, Vierinha and Trasch. Troublingly, Max Arnold is back in the team at CM the last 2 games and anyone who saw his performance against Bayern last year in their 4-1 win knows that he is capable of launching counters from deep with great outlet passes.

I might have nightmares about that game until we play them. De Bruyne is gone but they won't need 4 goals to beat us and can still find 1 or 2 without him. A reminder if anyone is interested: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2015/02...nso-and-switch-play-effectively-on-the-break/
 
kps88 said:
With the way LVG's rotating his squad, being in the Europa League would be disastrous to our league season.
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Should just play the kids if we find ourselves in EL, to be honest.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
I think we will beat Wolfsberg. They seem to want to play football which is when LVG's teams do best. From what I saw at Old Trafford we will create chances.

All through LVG's reign our greatest struggles are against teams that sit in like PSV did tonight.
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They haven't lost at home in ages in Bundesliga, our chances are extremely slim. Our best hope is that CSKA win in Eindhoven, or two draws. I think we will set up for 0-0 in Wolfsburg and even if it's 3-0 to PSV in the other game I won't expect us to fight hard for a goal.
 
Not making it out of the group will derail our season. This is an easy group, Louis' tenure will have to be questioned (as if it isn't already).
 
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SirAF said:
Should just play the kids if we find ourselves in EL, to be honest.
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I don't get this approach. Playing kids minimizes your chances of accumulating points for the UEFA coefficient where you've dropped to 19th at this point in time, of your country coefficient, of the chance to win a title and get directly qualified for next season's CL.

Given how many perceive the EL as the losers' cup, it shouldn't be that hard for United to compete for the Premier League title and to win the EL.
 
If we drop into the Europe League, I'd like to see us field most of our youngsters. It might not be the prettiest thing to watch and we might get dumped out straight away, but the experience will help them in the future. But it's a big if, Wolfsburg haven't been the most consistent team in their league. In 13 games they've conceded 15 and scored 23, 6 of those goals came in one game. The problem is, you never know which United is going to turn up but we've got a fortnight now to gain form before that game.
 
just read that wolfsburg have gone 29 games unbeaten at home.


We really fecked ourselves by not beating psv.
 
Last home game loss of Wolfsburg was Bayern in the German cup and before that Europa League QF against Napoli.
 
Yorkeontop said:
Not making it out of the group will derail our season. This is an easy group, Louis' tenure will have to be questioned (as if it isn't already).
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Been backing him since he came and still do but yesterday was another step backwards.

my minimum expectations were advancing to the knock out stages and top 3. If he fails on either front think he should be replaced at the end of the season.
 
Crossie said:
I don't get this approach. Playing kids minimizes your chances of accumulating points for the UEFA coefficient where you've dropped to 19th at this point in time, of your country coefficient, of the chance to win a title and get directly qualified for next season's CL.

Given how many perceive the EL as the losers' cup, it shouldn't be that hard for United to compete for the Premier League title and to win the EL.
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We got a small squad and don't need the extra matches. Focus on the league and we should finish at least third and qualify either way.
 
SirAF said:
We got a small squad and don't need the extra matches. Focus on the league and we should finish at least third and qualify either way.
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If this would be true, van Gaal would deserve the axe for this alone. How can you spend so much money on transfer fees and especially wages and not have a squad ready to take on a domestic and international challenge at the same time? Would be a truly sad state of affairs for a Club with the stature of United.
 
I hope we go out there to win it. It's still European silverware and it will be good to pick up the missing trophy in our collection. It gives you an automatic CL qualification too which is very good.
 
NoPace said:
I think CSKA might get a result and send us through, even though PSV looked impressive enough tonight.

Wolfsburg are good but not great. At home with us needing to win, though, they're in a nice position and they are really organized when sitting deep with 2 banks of 4 and playing on the break. Perfect set up for them to tear us apart on the break. They have some good decision makers out wide who lack the quickness to consistently create against set defences but are clever and fast enough over longer distances like Caliguri, Vierinha and Trasch. Troublingly, Max Arnold is back in the team at CM the last 2 games and anyone who saw his performance against Bayern last year in their 4-1 win knows that he is capable of launching counters from deep with great outlet passes.

I might have nightmares about that game until we play them. De Bruyne is gone but they won't need 4 goals to beat us and can still find 1 or 2 without him. A reminder if anyone is interested: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2015/02...nso-and-switch-play-effectively-on-the-break/
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How did PSV look impressive yesterday? They were very poor, we just couldn't finish.
 
Sphaero said:
If this would be true, van Gaal would deserve the axe for this alone. How can you spend so much money on transfer fees and especially wages and not have a squad ready to take on a domestic and international challenge at the same time? Would be a truly sad state of affairs for a Club with the stature of United.
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He likes working with a slim squad so that he is forced to look towards youth more. A trait many on here praised him for so it would be hyprocirital to critique for that reason now. He thought his attacking options would be enough but they aren't. That is down to him but there is a reason for it. it's not down to neglect or ego like some claim.
 
kps88 said:
With the way LVG's rotating his squad, being in the Europa League would be disastrous to our league season.
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Agreed with this. The Thursday Cup has a way of beating squads that don't rotate into dust

Sphaero said:
If this would be true, van Gaal would deserve the axe for this alone. How can you spend so much money on transfer fees and especially wages and not have a squad ready to take on a domestic and international challenge at the same time? Would be a truly sad state of affairs for a Club with the stature of United.
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I personally feel that our squad is big enough, but due to whatever reason we are not rotating nearly enough. We seem to be playing certain players into the ground and not giving enough opportunities to others
 
I'll be majorly fecked off if we get knocked out in this (relatively) easy group. I mean, last season all everyone banged on about was us making sure we made it into the top 4... and how LVG will have done a good job if he got us into the top 4 (a statement which I fully agreed with by the way)... and yet, what's the feckin' point if we don't actually make a decent go of it when we're actually in the competition?! We might as well have finished 6th or 7th last season in that case... clearly wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference to this campaign.
 
To give you guys a bit more hope, only a year ago in the EL:

 
SirAF said:
We got a small squad and don't need the extra matches. Focus on the league and we should finish at least third and qualify either way.
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The small squad is entirely LvG's fault and not due to any financical constraints. He prefers to take that risk and praises himself that he picks youth players to fill in the holes, fair enough. If this doesn't work, however, he is to blame and nobody else.

Furthermore, my point still stands that you lose massively in UEFA coefficient points. If you fail to progress both in CL and EL, you will be in pot 3 next year, making it harder to get out of the group stage. The only possibility to avoid this is winning the EPL and you get pot 1.
While many here seem to think after last weekend that this is entirely possible, I'm much more cautious. The season is still very long, and even if you focus on the title alone by dropping out early in the CL or EL, it's not a given you'll win the EPL. Far from it. Obviously everyone has different opinions but personally, I'd prefer my club to be run with not just focus on short-term success but mid-term consequences.
 
Sphaero said:
If this would be true, van Gaal would deserve the axe for this alone. How can you spend so much money on transfer fees and especially wages and not have a squad ready to take on a domestic and international challenge at the same time? Would be a truly sad state of affairs for a Club with the stature of United.
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I've already made a thread on this saying that I think van Gaal got rid of two or three more than we needed if we weren't going to buy replacements. Most people disagreed and said that's what the youth were for, but I don't accept that argument because last season he gave McNair, Wilson, Blackett etc. games with a bigger squad and fewer games.
 
We are not out yet ffs. Will be difficult now of course, but a win in Wolfsburg is not impossible of course. And even if we draw, PSV needs to beat Moscow first too.

Still pissed that we couldn't win yesterday. Don't know why players were that bad in the 2nd half. Way too easy to just blame van Gaal, at least for yesterday. Rooney was good in the first half and then he transform back to his usual shit. Lingard and Martial shit too, especially in the 2nd half. Memphis piss poor overall, Young and Fellaini did feck all either. First half was good and it looked like it was only a matter of time when we will score and even the first minutes in the 2nd half were promising and then we just decided to play like shit :(
 
We have a better chance to win the Europa League, at this point a trophy is a trophy to me, at least it would make buying the DVD worth while.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I'll be majorly fecked off if we get knocked out in this (relatively) easy group. I mean, last season all everyone banged on about was us making sure we made it into the top 4... and how LVG will have done a good job if he got us into the top 4 (a statement which I fully agreed with by the way)... and yet, what's the feckin' point if we don't actually make a decent go of it when we're actually in the competition?! We might as well have finished 6th or 7th last season in that case... clearly wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference to this campaign.
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It made a difference in terms of attracting the likes of Schweinsteiger to the club. Maybe others would have looked at other options if we hadnt had CL for a second season running as well.

I am not ready to admit defeat in this CL group yet. I think we can win away. Certainly we can grind something out. It wont be easy but it is perfectly doable. Plus, PSV could easily slip up as well. I can see both games ending up as draws.

If we do end up in the EL tho I hope we take it seriously and go out to win it. We can use all the European experience we can get.
 
Adebesi said:
It made a difference in terms of attracting the likes of Schweinsteiger to the club. Maybe others would have looked at other options if we hadnt had CL for a second season running as well.

I am not ready to admit defeat in this CL group yet. I think we can win away. Certainly we can grind something out. It wont be easy but it is perfectly doable. Plus, PSV could easily slip up as well. I can see both games ending up as draws.

If we do end up in the EL tho I hope we take it seriously and go out to win it. We can use all the European experience we can get.
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Yeah, transfers is a fair point... though still a bit pointless though isn't it? We get CL football so we can attract players who don't actually do enough to make sure we do well in the CL?!

I would love it if we could take the Europa League seriously, but our squad is way to thin for us to do that... but like you I think we'll just about scrape into the last 16 anyway.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Yeah, transfers is a fair point... though still a bit pointless though isn't it? We get CL football so we can attract players who don't actually do enough to make sure we do well in the CL?!

I would love it if we could take the Europa League seriously, but our squad is way to thin for us to do that... but like you I think we'll just about scrape into the last 16 anyway.
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The players are better than they are showing right now. So yes, bringing them in was worthwhile. Memphis will improve. Martial will improve. Darmian will improve. I think Schneiderlin will as well. Ive repeated myself endlessly but the big hope Im holding onto here is that we brought in too many players at once and that is what is undermining our consistency. That is why I hope and believe we will look better in the second half of the season.

How many additional games do you have to play in the EL than you would have to in the CL?
 
Adebesi said:
How many additional games do you have to play in the EL than you would have to in the CL?
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Two if you go all the way to the final. There's a last 32 round, that's the only difference. The CL last 16 round is stretched out over 4 weeks, in the first 2 weeks the EL teams play both last32 legs, in the last 2 weeks the EL teams play both last16 legs. From the quarterfinal on it's exactly the same.
 
Thanks. Two extra games is not so bad. We should definitely take it seriously if we end up in it.

I used to be a bit more ambivalent about the EL but with our current, reduced status I dont think we can afford to be dismissive of it.
 
Adebesi said:
Thanks. Two extra games is not so bad. We should definitely take it seriously if we end up in it.

I used to be a bit more ambivalent about the EL but with our current, reduced status I dont think we can afford to be dismissive of it.
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I don't think it's the extra games as much as the Thursday/Sunday combo thing, that footballers (though only in England it appears) seem to be unable to get thier head/bodies around.
 
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