UEFA Champions League/Europa League 6/7/8 March *** Spoilers ***
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Soldato
Blatant offside is harsh is was like 6 inches?
Could you plainly see he was offside? Yes. That's a blatant offside in my book.
Bilbao showed just how low the standard of football is in the Prem.
They were better at everything than united were last night, they were faster all over the park, fitter, stronger, more determined, better on the ball, more creative, the attacked in numbers, they defended in numbers the smothered united all over the pitch.
United had obviously done **** all scouting of them, or ignored what the scouts said, because it just just looked like Fergie picked the team out of a hat last night.
They were better at everything than united were last night, they were faster all over the park, fitter, stronger, more determined, better on the ball, more creative, the attacked in numbers, they defended in numbers the smothered united all over the pitch.
United had obviously done **** all scouting of them, or ignored what the scouts said, because it just just looked like Fergie picked the team out of a hat last night.
Soldato
It was one game. Going by that theory Arsenal's first 45 minutes vs Milan shows how dominant the PL is over Serie A.
Fact is, most teams in Europe have had their ups and downs. Sometimes they look great and sometimes they look like lower division teams. It's a weird season but you can't go around saying that one league is stronger than the other.
Soldato
tbf team selection pretty much tells the story of what our priorities are this season, Bilbao was always going to be a much tougher game than West Brom this weekend and yet no Ferdinand, Carrick or Nani from the start. Welbeck who's rightly or wrongly viewed as first choice now also on the bench, it's plain to see that the PL is the main target and rightly so imo
There's little to no chance of us winning 0-2 or 1-3 over there so good luck to Bilbao and I hope they wipe the floor with City in the final
There's little to no chance of us winning 0-2 or 1-3 over there so good luck to Bilbao and I hope they wipe the floor with City in the final
Could you plainly see he was offside? Yes. That's a blatant offside in my book.
not to mention when Chicharito was flagged for being offside when he was clear in on goal, only for the freezeframe to show he was about 2 foot onside lol
and what abou the reverse fixture?
Its rarely as clear cut as Arsenal made it look in both matches against Milan (one favourably, one not so lol)
tbf team selection pretty much tells the story of what our priorities are this season, Bilbao was always going to be a much tougher game than West Brom this weekend and yet no Ferdinand, Carrick or Nani from the start. Welbeck who's rightly or wrongly viewed as first choice now also on the bench, it's plain to see that the PL is the main target and rightly so imo
There's little to no chance of us winning 0-2 or 1-3 over there so good luck to Bilbao and I hope they wipe the floor with City in the final
+1
I think all Utd fans knew the Europa games were going to be used for getting injured players back, playing kids (until we lost 'em) and playing those generally on the bench at least once in every two fixtures)
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Blatant offside is harsh is was like 6 inches?
I do love the overreaction of people suddenly deciding United are terrible, the Premiership is terrible and Bilbao are basically Barcelona...
It was a fairly obvious offside.
United are terrible sometimes, still win most of those times, against spurs most recently but the Bilbao **** fest is a bit funny.
Soldato
He's never been our worst player but yeah it's awesome how good he's been since he got back in the team. Lindegaard getting crocked could quite possibly be the best thing that's happened to us all season.
Caporegime
The issue isnt that. The issue is how poor Utd can play, but usually get some kind of result.
We didnt look good against spurs did we? yes we won but had adebayoors not been disallowed etc it might have been different.
Ajax outplayed us at home. basel out played us at home. Norwich gave us a hell of a scare. We lost to blackburn. We are simply inconsistent and more often than not in poor form but have one or two quality players who can drag us to the finish line.
Its like when rooney said he wanted assurances that he wouldnt have to haul us alone, well there arent many hands pitchiong in from what i can see.
I dont know if its the manager, the players. One week fergie says that he made too many changes and that could be why we had a bad result. the next week he will make 5 changes again and its becoming like groundhog day.
Then we will try to play a Jones/Giggs central midfield combination, and as neother of them are actually proper center midfielders, neither come to get the ball from defence or distributer it properly leading to the void that was man utds midfield last ngiht.
Caporegime
Blatant offside is harsh is was like 6 inches?
I do love the overreaction of people suddenly deciding United are terrible, the Premiership is terrible and Bilbao are basically Barcelona...
I'm surprised people haven't got aching knee's from all the knee jerking they've done recently.
I have to say I don't think you are far wrong here.
Ultimately results are the most important thing but we can only ride our luck for so long. The team is ridiculously disjointed and the players really seem to be lacking passion for the matches, they don't seem fired up at all.
Do people think we are too good for the Europa League so shouldn't bother with it? I get that impression. I'd say that the players felt the same way if we hadn't been so poor in the Premier League.
Soldato
Like you said results are the key thing and when you see the types of results Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool & Arsenal get when they don't play well then we should thank our lucky stars that the club has got the winning mentality it has. Need I remind anyone of our league form thus far in 2012
Bolton - H - WIN
Arsenal - A - WIN
Stoke - H - WIN
Chelsea - A - DRAW
Liverpool - H - WIN
Norwich - A - WIN
Tottenham A - WIN
If we carry that form on until the end of the season I couldn't give a tiny rats ass if the performances have been crap or not
Oh and I also don't give a tiny rats ass about the Europa League either, it's given us some nice ties and while in all 3 thus far we've been comfortably out played it's severed as good experience for the younger players we've introduced to the squad. Sooner we're out of it though the better imo, I still get that deep sense of embarrassment every time I see those patches on the kit on a Thursday night when I'm tuned into Channel 5
Bolton - H - WIN
Arsenal - A - WIN
Stoke - H - WIN
Chelsea - A - DRAW
Liverpool - H - WIN
Norwich - A - WIN
Tottenham A - WIN
If we carry that form on until the end of the season I couldn't give a tiny rats ass if the performances have been crap or not
Oh and I also don't give a tiny rats ass about the Europa League either, it's given us some nice ties and while in all 3 thus far we've been comfortably out played it's severed as good experience for the younger players we've introduced to the squad. Sooner we're out of it though the better imo, I still get that deep sense of embarrassment every time I see those patches on the kit on a Thursday night when I'm tuned into Channel 5
It was a very disappointing display. SAF and the players all talked the talk about wanting to win this but I'm not sure the performances back that up. The team selections certainly don't. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see us going through next week.
Tom84 there's no reason to be embarrassed about being in the Europa league for the first time in ages. Especially as you started in the CL. I think the teams you've played have both been better than several CL teams I've seen in the competition this season. The standard isn't bad at all in the knockouts. The qualifiers and groups are a bit of a joke though
Caporegime
I think the problem is it's all very well and good saying only the result matters and the performance is irrelevant...except there's one thing playing **** against Norwich and still managing to win, then when we play the same level of **** against Ajax/Bilbao/Spurs (I think even the most diehard United fan will agree that was a freak result from the performance) we're in trouble. If we're going to win anything this season we need to beat Bilbao on their home turf or beat City on their home turf, and currently we don't look close to capable of either.
I never underestimate Ferguson or United, the thing about the Spurs result was in my opinion it wasn't a freak result at all, United play badly and beat teams like Spurs all the time, I've seen enough Arsenal vs Utd games over the years where we've played really well and just lost. Although with the quality City have it'll certainly be difficult to win the league. I just find it remarkable he hasn't strengthened in CM, we all knew that Utd could use a top class CM 3 seasons ago, and since then it's only got worse. It's the cause for almost every bad performance you have, surrendering midfield
Caporegime
We played worse than badly though we had 40% possession in that first half, that is ******* pitiful. Against Arsenal we used to hold and then counter with pace, against Spurs we were on the rocks and simply hoofing it when we got it, there was no skill, no strategy, no tactics on display at all. Thankfully we had a good day defensively (Or Spurs didn't take their chances) and we took the few chances that came to us (or Spurs were sloppy at the back).
Soldato
We've already beaten City on their turf once this season
Anyway the title race will not come down to the derby, I'd bet money that one of the two teams will have created a bit of a gap by then
You do realise 40% possession is just under half don't you? Against Spurs at their ground that isn't actually that bad. I'd of thought it would have been much worse than that tbh
Caporegime
So you don't give a rats about the Europa League but you do about the FA Cup? Even then we almost ****** up a comfortable 3-0 lead.
and 40% is hardly just under half is it? I mean outside of some ridiculous Barca performances you rarely see anything larger than around 65% to the dominant team.
Then you take into account we're playing a team below us who were missing one of their first choice central midfielders and had the other stuck on left wing....yes it is pretty damn shocking.
and 40% is hardly just under half is it? I mean outside of some ridiculous Barca performances you rarely see anything larger than around 65% to the dominant team.
Then you take into account we're playing a team below us who were missing one of their first choice central midfielders and had the other stuck on left wing....yes it is pretty damn shocking.