CL L Champions League Group B

PSV Eindhoven 2:1 Manchester United

Post-match discussion


Tue, 15 September 2015

At least we had moments and created half chances to waste. We've had performances this season where we were begging to see some of the sort of play we had tonight.
 
Thought that was one of our better performances. (closes door)

There were some hints of brilliance. We certainly created chances. The starting lineup brought a big smile with our first choice defense and Martial up top, Herrera & Mata together. Too bad the joy didn't last long.

We are still struggling to bring it all together in a single match - I guess more time is needed.
 
Bad result indeed. We have too many of those. I'm done, not going to accept losing from effing PSV.
Not about being negative either, always psoitvie about our chances. The result is simply not good enough, we pay this guy 12 mln a year ffs.
 
We'll still win the group (qualifying is not in doubt in my mind, at all). I'd expect us to beat Wolfsburg in 2 weeks and PSV to lose in Moscow, which would put all 4 teams with 3 points.

I was quite annoyed with the defeat, but now that about two hours have passed, I'm just sad about Luke. You never want to see such horrific injuries, but when it happens to one of your team's players, it's simply heartbreaking. The comment of Van Gaal about Luke crying in the locker room with an oxygen mask makes it even more devastating.

It's not really an excuse, but I think the injury was on the player's minds and that contributed for the defeat. Things just went to shit. The cnut Moreno broke Luke's leg, the ref didn't even see it as a foul and gave a fecking corner kick for a double leg break. It was a horrendous, dangerous tackle that should have been punished. Getting the ball first is not all that matters, there's fecking dangerous play for a reason. Then Moreno scored just to make things even worse and we conceded a shit goal in the second half. Blind should have been tracking Narsingh's run.

Rojo was poor. It was expected as it was his first game of the season and we really missed Blind's presence in the middle after the injury. We need him for the build-up play as it's quite clear that Smalling doesn't know what to do with the ball when he has to start building an attack from the back. He just walks with the ball for a minute or two and then makes the simplest sideways or backwards pass possible.

Darmian was poor as well, for the first time. I don't really blame him for the first goal, as he had to mark Moreno, but he made a decisive mistake for their second. He should work on his crossing as well as it's a glaring weakness of his game, but I'm sure he'll get there. He's too intelligent not to improve this part of his game.

I thought Mata and Herrera were poor, especially Mata in the second half. He insisted on his sideways passes and fecked up some opportunities in the final third, especially that pass from Bastian. He just had to pass it to Memphis, who was waiting all alone in front of the open net. It was a fecking infuriating feck up and it pissed me off big time.

Young's end product wasn't any better. He had some bright moments where he beat his man, but his final ball was garbage. Memphis was good in the first half (brilliant goal), but in the second not so much.

The final half an hour was shit from everyone. No urgency in our play, it was painful to watch and after Fellaini's substitution, I think everyone knew we weren't getting anything out of the game.

I would have been content with the draw all things considered, but these smash and grab type of victories are quite common against teams that insist on possession football. We just aren't anywhere near as good as Guardiola's Barcelona in our attacking play, so I guess this type of defeats will be more common for us.

We also have a very young team as a whole. This is bound to affect some of our results as well. Our two brightest attacking talents are very young players and inconsistency can be expected from them.
 
Not a good result but I don't care about the result as much as the shaw injury today. last time I felt the same way was when vidic got injured in the middle of the 11/12 season.

I just hope we can get through the group stages, and now we lost against psv we obviously need a better result vs wolfsburg. it won't be easy because they're a tougher team than psv, even without de bruyne. I believe they are undefeated this season as well.
 
I put it down as a learning experience for a pretty sizable bulk of the team who either had no experience at all in the ECL, or very minimal experience. The performance itself was not bad at all, and if the finishing had been better, we'd have been out of sight by the 40th minute. What totally messed us over was Shaw's injury and the resultant loss of composure for most of our team and the surprising naivety of Darmian for both of the goals, though how much of that was down to the hangover from Shaw's incident, we will never know. Not going to blame him if it wasn't either, as I think this was his first ECL match, and I'm sure he will be chomping at the bit to put things right.

The positive was Depay and Martial's performances. I think those two, along with Wilson and Januzaj, will be the cornerstone of our long-term attack. Martial displayed some good strength to hold the ball up and also the pace to be able to play in behind. He literally has all the tools to play as a modern-day CF, especially in a possession system. You can tell he's a proper Lyon product, with his ball skills. Depay's cutting edge was there for all to see, and he provided a glimpse again of his ability to cut teams to shreds. His goal was a piece of wonderful skill and composure. It's only a matter of time before he replicates it in the league.

Mata was the one big disappointment. This was the first time I had ever seen him shirk responsibility to the extent that he wouldn't take a shot on goal when presented with an opportunity, or delayed a moderately difficult pass in favour of a simple two yard pass to the side. I honestly hope it was just a one-off bad performance because he has turned it on for most of the season... It's just a shame he managed to have his bad performance in his audition for the 10 role. I don't think LVG will give him another chance there unfortunately.
But, like it was with Darmian, I'm not sure how much of his performance can't be put down to what happened with Shaw, especially since he got worse after HT, and after what LVG said with Shaw being in distress in the dressing room during the break...

All in all, I am looking forward to us setting the record straight when we play Southampton on Sunday. I think we'll be wanting to put on a performance to show that it was a blip.
 
I think we had enough chances to win the game by a landslide. My only beef is when Rojo came on, he should have gone to LB and the partnership between Mike and Blind should have remain.
 
The Shaw injury is not an excuse, but it was a factor. High paid footballers or not, seeing that happen to your team-mate has to be in your mind. It's been with me all night just as a fan. Probably OTT, but it's reminding me of Keane's cruciate in 1997. Setting aside the very real concerns for Shaw for a moment, we simply don't have good enough defensive cover.
 
I think what this game has shown us we have feck all in attacking options off the bench. If we didn't loan Pereira out to get experience, why not put him in the substitutes, so that at least we have one attack minded player? If he made the trip, he should have been in the subs over Tony V, especially since McNair can deputize at CB or RB. Why say you're putting faith in youth when on our bench you don't even put the one youngster we have left who can help us right now?
Pereira is injured is he not?
 
FFS. Came home planning to watch the match having had no news except the starting lineup. Site I'm going to watch it on as a highlights package as well as the full match and I see a warning that graphic content is involved. Found out Luke Shaw's leg got snapped. Can't watch it now. Just horrible. Awful game regardless of the result and how we played that. Don't care how bad or good we played. Just have to wipe that match away.
 
I think it's unfair to judge the team over this loss.

They had to deal with an immense amount of mental trauma after losing a friend and fellow teammate of theirs to quite a horrific injury. I'm not surprised if they weren't able to fully focus after that.

To play the way they did after Shaw's injury, I think they deserve commendation. Let's just give Shaw our best wishes and hope he makes a speedy recovery, and spare a thought for his team mates and what sort of mental anguish they must be facing.
 
This might have already been said - I'm not reading through twelve pages to find out but don't underestimate the power of psychology...

The injury that Shaw suffered tonight was absolutely horrific. From what I can see it was a compound fracture - his bone was sticking out of his sock. He's a young lad and a friend/colleague to every person who was out there on that football pitch in a black and orange shirt. They might be professional athletes; they might get payed a lot of money to do what they do, but I'm quite certain that every United player out there was suffering with him as he no doubt lay in a hospital bed wondering if he'd kicked his last ball for Manchester United.

Don't get me wrong - we have excellent medical facilities and in ~6 months time maybe he'll be back kicking a ball again and maybe he'll still have a career at the top level of the game; but to continue playing that match and put what happened to one side is nigh on impossible. I'm absolutely certain that the injury had an influence on what followed.

Yes we could have still gone on to win the match. Yes I'm disappointed and I'm sure many other people are too. But we're all guilty of pretending that football happens in a vacuum... It doesn't - and tonight is the kind of night where we'd do well to remember that. Here's hoping we can bounce back at the weekend.

Edit: I've just seen the post above mine! Glad I'm not the only one!!!
 
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I actually thought we played really well. I was much happier with today's performance then the wins against Spurs and Villa for example.

We basically lost because we missed the 3 chances we made after the first goal, and PSV scored the two they had.
 
I'd say if not for the injury we win that game.

I noticed the defensive organisation really went to shit when Blind was moved from that centre half role. The amount he contributes by stepping into midfield making that extra man is another factor we lost out on.

I find it hard to be harsh on anyone really tonight as you cannot rule out the impact seeing their team mate in so much distress caused. Stopped caring about the result after that.
 
Just got back from work so will watch tomorrow. From what I read on the minute by minute commentary looked like we played well, but got punished from 2 mistakes. So will make my own opinion once watched. Guess many comments on here are more to do with getting a bad result than us actually playing bad.
 
Just got back from work so will watch tomorrow. From what I read on the minute by minute commentary looked like we played well, but got punished from 2 mistakes. So will make my own opinion once watched. Guess many comments on here are more to do with getting a bad result than us actually playing bad.
I'm more worried about the injury to shaw than the result tbh.
 
Great night for us. We lose our LB, blow a lead, and come out of Windmill Land with feck all.

Brilliant goal by Memphis to start us off. We had some good turns of foot and actually looked dangerous for a change. Unfortunately we didn't produce enough solid chances from it.

After we went behind, things spiraled out of control as usual. We were looking for Fellaini too much and our play was wayward, no clear direction in any of it. Valencia should be put down already and the more I see Mata the more I wish he was somewhere else. Blind and Darmian were atrocious tonight.

Hey look at it this way, now we can get pissed off twice a week instead of just once...
 
I'm glad I did not wake up in the middle of the night to watch this.
Was actually a good game and there were plenty of encouraging signs from us, it's just the injury was the worst part and then us throwing away the game more then anything putting a damper on the day. It was just frustrating after going a goal down, but before then, we actually looked like we knew how to attack and stretch teams which was a nice change. Plenty of pace in the side. Just one of those days where everything went wrong though.
 
Van gaal's team is built around a unit. Not only did we have an injury to one; we had to replace him with another and also switch positions of them both.

There were times where rojo almost seemed to bump in to smalling & wether you believe blind to be a fantastic CB or not; rojo hasn't had much match fitness either.

I agree about psychology too; it can't be a coincidence that our worse player on the pitch was the one on the exact opposite to shaw's. Infact PSV did well to target that side throughout the game.
 
Watching the second goal back again, I dont know If I can blame Rojo/Blind for it. The ball in was as perfect a cross as you will see.
 
Yet another night where we were supposed to be leading by a win and 3-4 goals. Come back with a loss.
Silly mistakes cost us again. The frequency at which such crap happens is not nice.
Hope we can put the loss behind and surge with the same enthusiasm in rest of the group matches

Get well soon Shaw!!!
 
Didn't see the game but as soon as I looked up the result and saw Shaw has broken his leg I don't think I could feel much more gutted. Has started turning into the world class talent we all hoped we'd see but I think we will lose about from him now he's has such an awful injury so young and it saddens me
 
Absolutely gutted for Shaw. :( Real shame about his injury and that he was in such great form and was one of our best players so far this season was just a double kick to the nuts. Hope he makes a complete and speedy recovery and doesn't balloon up to 200 lbs in the interim.

As for the game itself, thought we played pretty well. I was excited when I saw how attacking our lineup was. There were times where I was thinking "okay now I see what LVG is trying to do". Surprised to see PSV actually try to play with us and not sit back. Couple mistakes, but overall was pleased with our effort. Game was over when Fellaini was brought on. Really wished that LVG would have resisted to the urge to make any changes as we looked threatening to score an equalizer. Sometimes instead of a Plan B, you need to give Plan A some more time. All in all, disappointing result which is completely overshadowed by Shaw's horrific injury.
 
Why is the referee getting away innocent. Players get red carded along with a penalty for pulling shirts. A double leg fracture it seems is neither deserving of a yellow card or penalty. Referee decisions in football are cancer. The most influential player on the modern day football pitch is the referee.
 
Thought we were very good till we decided to go half arsed with Fellaini. If you're brining him on, put him upfront. Not this half arsed shite where he's playing deep.

Anyways, we should have won this easily. Incredible how we didn't score more. Poor lapses in defence for both the goals.
 
If Wilson is fit and also still with us, I dont understand why he didnt make the bench. Was LvG expecting Martial to do some wonders after he himself said we should give him lots of time.
Martial was clearly not comfortable playing 90 mins and could have been subbed if another option was available on the bench.
 
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I'd agree if we were in anyway outplayed by PSV, but we've been beaten by a smash n grab performance which didn't merit 1 point, let alone 3.

If Wolsburg and CSKA are a similar test to PSV, and I think both teams will attack us more and leave space at the back to exploit, then we'll pick up the points we need.

It doesn't matter if we were outplayed or not, we lost the game and are now behind PSV and Wolfsburg. If we have a similar decent performance in some of the remaining games but lose, no one will care that we deserved more than nothing from them. I'm worried now because losing the first game of the group stage already makes it tough to qualify, if we lose to Wolfsburg now we will find it extremely difficult and even if we beat Wolfsburg it will still be tough. We have this tendency to lose/draw games in which we play decent football and it's even more worrying. If we could lose yesterday we could basically lose to anyone in CL.
 
That is a pretty bad result. But good on PSV, another game I have to watch after the fact that we have lost. I am pretty sure it is the Luke Shaw injury but I just don't really care that we lost, I am completely and utterly gutted for him with his injury. At a time where he was really starting to bloom as well. Onwards to the next game I guess.
 
I actually thought we played really well. I was much happier with today's performance then the wins against Spurs and Villa for example.

We basically lost because we missed the 3 chances we made after the first goal, and PSV scored the two they had.

Agreed, although I think that these days, Dutch teams in the CL can make their opponents look a bit better on the ball than they really are.
.
 
One of the bigger champions league shocks this season.

Let's face it, PSV aren't a good team, they are an OK team.

We simply do not have a plan B and for over a year it's not been addressed by LVG.

Gonna throw it out there, Marital looks like a pub player
:lol: that is all.
 
The match became colored by the Shaw injury. I felt in general that the play was good, we had some great chances (Like the pass from BFS to Mata) and should've scored more. I felt the defence was a lot weaker once Shaw got injured and Blind took the LB with Rojo as LCB. I actually believe (and it feels strange to say it) that it would've been better the other way around.

I liked the connection between Memphis and Martial. Much better than we've been with Rooney up top this season.
 
Another game where we didn't create enough given our possession and prevented the opposition from creating much either but today they took their opportunities and we didn't. We will lose plenty more games like that just as we will win plenty without playing any better.

Was further proof we have left ourselves short in the final third, martial and depay will be hit and miss, fellaini and young are good on top form but anything less and they simply aren't good enough. Our two star players Rooney and mata haven't been top players for years now so we just don't have enough match winners.
 
Shocking leg break for Luke Shaw, which really put a dampener on things. Feel so sorry for the lad; he's only 19 and things were starting to come together in a big way for him. We can only hope he comes back as good as new from this.

As for the team in general, it's all very underwhelming. It's one step forward, one step backwards. We can never seem to put all the elements together. One game we defend well but look toothless in attack, in other games we function efficiently in attack, but look less secure defensively and very occasionally we look quite promising in the forward areas, but our finishing and defending totally lets us down.
 
Playing in the champions league is no easy task. We already know about the mental fragility of this squad, a European night is a pretty big occasion and sometimes it can get the best of our players. We still have a relatively young team so they have to get used to playing these games. We had great runs under the Fergie era, but many of those players have gone now and the one's we have still need to get used to the standard of European Football.

I didn't expect us to come out flying in the group, it would take time to get used to things again. I remember the year we didn't make it out of the group and it was little errors that costed us. The Champions League is no easy task, we should do better next game, need to finish our chances.

If we get 12-14 points that would be a good group stage tally
 

Player Ratings

5.7 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 706 ratings.

Score Predictions

891,25,105
  • Man Utd win
  • PSV win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 33% PSV 0:2 Man Utd
  • 19% PSV 1:2 Man Utd
  • 11% PSV 0:3 Man Utd
  • 11% PSV 0:1 Man Utd
  • 9% PSV 1:3 Man Utd
  • 8% PSV 1:1 Man Utd
  • 2% PSV 0:4 Man Utd
  • 2% PSV 0:0 Man Utd
  • 1% PSV 1:0 Man Utd
  • 1% PSV 1:4 Man Utd
  • 1% PSV 0:5 Man Utd
  • 1% PSV 2:2 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 2:0 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 3:0 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 2:1 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 2:4 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 5:0 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 5:4 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 5:5 Man Utd
  • 0% PSV 2:3 Man Utd
Compiled from 1021 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. PSV
  2. Man Utd
Possession
33% 67%
Shots
6 17
Shots on Target
4 5
Corners
3 9
Fouls
8 10

Referee

Nicola Rizzoli