Round of 16 - Manchester United vs PSG

Tuchel masterclass!

I should’ve never doubted, senpai

PSG's defending was very impressive last night. Marquinhos did an effective marking job on Pogba while Alves and Kehrer ensured that Martial was a non-entity in the first half. I liked how their shape shifted to a 442 in the defensive phase to prevent their wing-backs dropping deep and making a back five.

As for United, their performance was eerily similar to the one against Sevilla last season. They didn't press, but they weren't compact enough and allowed PSG too much time on the ball. Solksjaer wants his forwards high up the pitch for counter-attacks and that's worked very well in the Premier League, but without a press all it accomplished was leaving the midfield wide open. Lingard played very centrally, almost as a false nine, with Rashford pulling out to the right hand side, but their usage of the ball when they did get it was poor. Pogba was prevented from turning by Marquinhos for most of the game, so United really struggled to counter on a regular basis.

Their defensive problems were really exposed on Mbappe's goal. Kimpembe's pass cuts out three United players, including Matic and Herrera, who are in PSG's half. Bernat has all the time in the world in midfield and Di Maria has a 1v1 run against Young, who has no protection from his midfield. On the other side, PSG knew United's threat would come from their wide players in transition and were wise enough to rarely let Kehrer or Bernat exposed to 1v1 situations.

United were bereft of ideas without the counter. They were relying on crosses, which Silva cleared easily every time, and long shots from Herrera.

I won't condemn Solskjaer for this because he understandably stuck with what was working, but it turned out to be a naive choice on the night.

There is hope for GL

Yep, he was incredible last night. When did Marquinhos become this good in midfield??

Arsene Wenger pretty much called a lot of what happened last night btw:

Kaladin wrote:Yep, he was incredible last night. When did Marquinhos become this good in midfield??

Other than Tuchel, nobody really saw it coming. He didn't look too comfortable when he first played there back in September. He looked like the typical lost CB that couldn't adjust to the new passing range and positional requirements of playing in midfield, just like Ramos in 2015.

Fast forward a few months later and he's starting to look like a real midfielder. and not even DM, a proper freaking CM at that.

You know Mourinho is no longer part of Utd or is this left over "banter"?

He tried. but couldn't....and you need certain players to do what you ask for. and after all that if the opponent plays better, you are done.

It's easy to watch a game as a neutral, analyse it and then show off tactical knowledge. It's much, much harder to train a group of humans to act according to all of that.

Basically, managers make great pundits because they know stuff, but pundits make bad managers because knowing stuff isn't enough. Which is why I stick to writing and forums posts instead of trying to be an actual coach.

Jay29 wrote:It's easy to watch a game as a neutral, analyse it and then show off tactical knowledge. It's much, much harder to train a group of humans to act according to all of that.

Basically, managers make great pundits because they know stuff, but pundits make bad managers because knowing stuff isn't enough. Which is why I stick to writing and forums posts instead of trying to be an actual coach.

Like seeing what's wrong from an outside perspective in someone else's relationship but not your own.

Looking back now, Lingard and Martial are extremely vital to Oleball. Them going off by halftime had a detrimental effect. People can dismiss by saying both were ineffective in the 1st half. But PSG was specifically doing a job on both of them and Pogba and Rashford (fair play to them for that).
It is revisionism, but had they stayed on, and considering the approach PSG took in the 2nd half of being more brave and committing more men forward, our attackers would have gotten chances on the break as well.

Mata and Sanchez are like the worst possible replacements you can have for 2 pacey forwards. Both are slow, both never stretches play and in Sanchez's case the moron gets in the way of Pogba all the time. Pogba was already double marked.

Anyway, not overtly sad. We have a team to finish in top 4 this season, but not one to win against big boys in CL, really. If not for anything, it is a great experience for our relatively youngish core moving forward. Hope we give at least a good account of ourselves in Paris. Without Pogba we have 0 chance though to do an impossible.

Denders: Bailly, Dalot, Lindelof, Rojo, Shaw, Smalling, Williams, Young.

Midfielders: Fred, Garner, Gomes, McTominay, Pereira.

Forwards: Chong, Greenwood, Lukaku, Rashford.

unreal squad for the return trip

Is this real? wtf happened to the team?

We have about 11 injuries to key players and Pogba's suspended

Nothing short of a miracle to progress and you could see the team get hammered 4-0 or something

I'd play like this:

-----------------De Gea--------------------

Dalot - Bailly - Smalling - Lindelof - Shaw

------- Fred -- McTominay -- Pereira ------

------- Lukaku ----------- Rashford --------

And yeah, most likely we'll get hammered by PSG.

Vlad the Impaler wrote:I'd play like this:

-----------------De Gea--------------------

Dalot - Bailly - Smalling - Lindelof - Shaw

------- Fred -- McTominay -- Pereira ------

------- Lukaku ----------- Rashford --------

And yeah, most likely we'll get hammered by PSG.

You haven't got hammered under Ole

Bailly's time to prove he isn't a fraud by locking up Mbappe

@Firenze

Vlad the Impaler wrote:I'd play like this:

-----------------De Gea--------------------

Dalot - Bailly - Smalling - Lindelof - Shaw

------- Fred -- McTominay -- Pereira ------

------- Lukaku ----------- Rashford --------

Yep and more specifically, put lindelof on Mbappe (initial hunch was Bailly, but we never know with Bailly lol, he may have a worldy, or may have a mare and gift them 2 penalties, so yea assign our best defender for the task and keep Bailly and Smalling back to provide cover) . When we have possession, Lindelof should slot in alongside McTominay as a DM with Fred and Pereira going forward.  And when we don’t have possession, put everyone behind and pray. hehe.

Bailly-Smalling
McT-Lindelof
Dalot-Fred-Pereira- Shaw
Rashford-Luk

Anyway, no chance. They will be scoring minimum 2 goals, considering everything and even if we play incredibly well, just cant see us putting 4 past Buffon.

Firenze wrote:Denders: Bailly, Dalot, Lindelof, Rojo, Shaw, Smalling, Williams, Young.

Midfielders: Fred, Garner, Gomes, McTominay, Pereira.

Forwards: Chong, Greenwood, Lukaku, Rashford.

unreal squad for the return trip

that bunch of scrubs cost over 400mil ffs no excuses.

Yawn

Will be skipping this ass-handing