[DomesticTadpole]

Having had a night to rethink the disappointment.

Situations of note:

• Outplayed in the middle of the park with ease, we made Verrati look like Prime-Iniesta
• Pobga was manmarked out of the game, not disrespect to him because it's a hard situation to be in. However, it clearly shows we're a one-man team when it comes to creativity.
• We relied on long balls against a quick defense which was a rubbish idea.
• We were technically a level below all over the park. One of the players with most the ball for us was Young and he's so terrible at pretty much everything it made it even easier for PSG to defend against us.
• Martial, Rashford and Lingard were all terrible. The day you start rating players on their pressing ability shows how low you expectations are for this so called top club.
• Subs killed the game which unfortunately was due to injuries.
• Olé got exposed in a big way. After his 11 game run using Plan A didn't work, he looked completely lost on the side of the pitch, zapped of energy, motivation and ideas.

The game was fine margins when you take into account the poor defending for the first goal from a player who should've been sent off. Either way though, they deserved it a lot more than us. They looked comfortable throughout. They were the better team, no complaints on the scoreline.

We're just lucky Neymar and Cavaini were missing, it could've been even more embarrassing.

You wonder if all the coverage of Neymar and Cavani being out and it should have been easier for us, some even making us slight favourites. If they had played it might have focused us even more. Who knows.

 

[Adam-Utd]

The biggest difference was a word class forward in mbappe and a corner.

They weren’t battering us all game, but they knew how to keep possession and kill the game. Their game management reminded me of what we used to do in Europe under Fergie towards the end.

We looked tired especially 2nd half. We put a lot of effort into pressing and unfortunately we just couldn’t keep it up. the defence couldn’t push up properly in fear of mbappes pace.

 

[VorZakone]

Liverpool smashed these lot, with Cavani, Neymar and Rabiot in their starting line up .. Makes it even worse

They didn't smash PSG. It was 3-2 with a late Firmino winner.

 

[11101]

We had a game plan that revolved around Martial and Lingard stretching the back line. They went off injured and were replaced by Mata and Sanchez.

Tell me how there was any answer to that?

Honestly don't know what people were expecting last night.

Exactly. People say PSG were under strength but they trained all week to play like that. We trained all week to play a high pressing game with 3 quick forwards, then after 30 minutes of it working well we had to take two of them off and completely change how we play. That is far more disruptive than having players missing beforehand.

It also mean't we had zero options to change things in the second half with one sub remaining.

I said it in the matchday thread but PSG are not that good. Until those injuries we were evenly matched, and I fully expect them to get hammered in the next round.

 

[Smores]

Honestly we'd have probably been better with Jose's tactics last night not that I'd trade approaches.

I don't put too much blame on Ole, yes he was tactically outclassed and his changing a game hasn't been great so far but as most of us have been saying all season this squad isn't good enough to compete yet.

Invest in some players that fit his style and hopefully he'll also develop a solid plan B (since we sold ours) over time

 

[redmanx]

Lets focus on top 4 we dont have the quality to compete in the CL.

Exactly, wasn't Chelsea who after getting knocked out of the CL then went on to concentrate on the PL and win it? We were never going to go much further in the CL so a good game in the return will be a bonus but I cant see us winning the tie. Once its over we can concentrate on finishing as high in the PL as possible, 3rd is still within our reach, then of course theres the FA Cup, on our day in one off matches we can beat anybody. Im sure Ole learned from this defeat and will be a better manager because of it, the run had to end one day, Id rather it happened in the CL than in the PL.

 

[SPOHs]

Hello to everyone!

So after waiting for a few nice long hours to being accepted by your mods, I finally have a say about the game (and other stuff)!

So being a Paris Saint-Germain fan (since 2002 so no-one bashes me) I always look at games from both point of views. I read a lot of comments saying "Kim deserves a red". To that I say, yes of course he does, but so does Man United players like Young. The ref was a bit crazy on both sides today. Pogba's first foul was not a yellow as Kims was not a yellow. Many players got yellows for fouls that should never been given yellows, yet some fouls should have been given yellows, for example Kims foul on I forget who he fouled. The Ref was equally bad for both sides, even though unfortunately Pogba got sent off. His foul towards the end deserved a booking either way. Fortunately the reffing wasn't just a one way street!

Now to players that were injured like Martial. I doubt it would of made any difference either way if they were or not injured. I wasn't even aware Martial was on the pitch 'till he was injured, that's how many times I saw him touch a ball. Paris played a great football today, Marquinhos was the one that surprised everyone on our side today. We needed a 6 badly, I think we found him.

Also must agree with some here, Sanchez and Mata need to be let go as fast as possible. A club like Manchester with such history and class needs players that will die for the club. They obviously don't care.

Fans: All we heard were Paris Ultras and it leads to me asking: Does Manchester have true fans? True fans that chant? It will be a difficult second leg in Paris because that stadium will blow-up with Parisian chants. That's for sure. How did you guys feel about the "OLE" chant near the end? and the "on est chez nous" (this is our house) around the 70th minute.

I hear people say that Paris is a club with no history what's-so-ever, this is untrue as Paris in the 90s was one of the top 10 clubs in Europe beating out Real Madrid and Barcelona at some points and even winning the equivalent of UEFA's Europa league. That was brought up with our Ultras. Paris may be a young club (1970) but has done so much already for such a young club and has extremely loud fans. Every club needs money in order to bring on players. Man Utd's owners fork out hundreds of millions to keep the best players, every one has to. Neymars coming wasn't just solely off money, in brazil Paris is extremely known, obviously before neymars coming. In the 90's we had top Brazilian players like Rai. In the early 2000's Ronaldinho, Reinaldo and others.

Hope you guys have a great one. Hope to see a great football game at the Parc Des Princes (I will be there to back my team) for the second leg!

 

[stu_1992]

Difference in them missing players, they have top players to come in. We had a snail, a nice snail, but still a snail and a money grabbing busted flush.

Definitely, I think it showed that if the first choice players are out, we can't perform anywhere close to the same way. They don't fit in with the current plan, and that's a big concern with the upcoming fixtures we have if injuries start to mount.

 

[Phil Osophy]

I find it easy to admit defeat when the opposition is simply better, maybe not much in terms of individual quality but mainly as a well drilled team. We come from two and half seasons (at least) of being poorly coached, and all the weaknesses we're carrying as a team can't be solved in a pair of months unfortunately. Against weaker teams is not noticeable most of the time, but against the good ones our flaws become obvious.

You just have to see the composure of PSG after getting the ball back, moving it in every zone with precision and intelligence and then compare to us. Those who like to review the game, just pay attention carefully to the way they play it once they get it back, and how they progress line by line with the whole block moving at the same time, and then see the way we do.

This team need a lot of coaching in terms of ball playing, and we need more individual talent and creativity, mainly next to Pogba and in the right wing. Every time we got any near their packed box, nobody was able to imagine one of those killer passes that breaks a wall. Only Pogba is capable, and when he's off everything it's over. I praise Herrera because he's a good team player and the same for Lingard and Mata, but to face challenges like this one we need something more in the starting line-up.

We've got an undefined defence with permanent changes, patching positions like RB, and with centerbacks who lack two important things: Leadership and aerial game. Whoever we pick between Bailly, Lindelöf and Jones, they are weak in the air and lack the leading skills to keep the defensive block organized. This is very evident in random crosses or set pieces, you can smell a bad feeling in the air.

There's also De Gea, even with all his qualities he's a very shy keeper in terms of commanding, attacking aerial balls to the box, and trying to anticipate long passes to the space when we play higher up the field. I don't mean selling him at all, but he needs to improve in those areas and anticipate more with confidence and determination, or we'll always carry these problems.

So in general that's it, we've got a good team, there's a good basis to build something good for the future, but yesterday we saw our limits drawn on the field. We need some key additions (with a leading CB, RB and RW being as needed as water), better quality in our bench options, and so much work and good coaching on the field. I trust Ole to do the job, but if we're debating ourselves between him and Pochettino I can sit and relax, because both of them have the right tools to build something good, in my opinion. If we play CL next season I'm sure we'll be stronger than now.

 

[Bestofthebest]

Poor performance in many ways and we should not forget we were up against a fairly good side with genuine pace. Just goes to show you cannot put right six years of neglect in twelve games. Hope in does not affect our mentality over the next few tough games.

 

[freddie the red]

After a night's kip to reflect let's just remember that Ole's had less than two months with a team that was on the floor and the product of 5 years of drift, poor investment choices and 3 other managers' ideas of play ie regressive.
We've had a fantastic 7 weeks and Ole has worked wonders with the whole United thing but the reality is he has a few decent players, plenty of average/poor ones and he's dealing with the hand he's got.
Our current level is desperately trying to secure 4th place in the PL and maybe having a good run in the FA Cup, not trying to win the CL for heaven's sake.
Ole has changed the whole atmosphere and returned it to how United should be. Now let's stick with him, give him a 3 or 4 year contract and some proper investment in quality, United style players where they're needed, ship out the deadwood and see us improve together over the next few seasons.
Ole's at the wheel......

 

[DRM]

Feeling really glum today. I always knew we had a lot of work to do to become a top side again, but to see it yesterday like that, the way PSG easily disposed of us really hit home. I'm not sure how we go about fixing this, we've tried throwing money at it and that clearly hasnt worked.

 

[Sylar]

The result can happen as weve been here before in CL

The worst part out of it however was losing Lingard and Martial with the string of games we have coming up. Losing one was a blow, but losing both 45 minutes into the game (when it was 0-0) was frustrating. The movement and freedom they provide also plays into Rashfords game (and of course Pogba).

Losing the first goal at a set piece was frustrating. After it went 1 nil we were naive and it went 2, but could have been 3 or 4 with the amount of space we left Di Maria and Mbappe to break.

With a night done to reflect, it does show the gulf in class in terms of where we want to be. I dont think the defence did that bad all things considered. Midfield did ok, but second half was not good especially as we were chasing. PSG were class and you have to hold your hands up and admit it.

 

[EireRed_GS]

Poor performance and DiMaria & Mbappe took advantage of that big time. We were unfortunate with the injuries forcing the subs, and they were fortunate with the first scorer not being sent off a few times.

Cant see us getting anything out of the second leg, esp without pogba.

On a side note.. was there any other east-standers appalled at the away fans behaviour? ripping down the nets and barriers, throwing stuff up to the top tier, and throwing seats over the nets at the home fans. And they were winning!? Animals

 

[SilentWitness]

I've got to say i'm surprised that there is a negative aura surrounding this game but it's definitely reflected against the way OGS started rather than the whole season when taking this game into consideration. Before PSG scored they really weren't threatening that much at all, there were a couple of moments that seemed scary but they were dealt with and they were magnified because you hadn't created much. That's what i'd be negative about, the fact that in the first half PSG were very nervy at times and you could and should have taken advantage of that but Martial seemed off the pace before his injury and Lingard although energetic had poor final balls. If you'd played in the first half like you had in the other games previously then you'd have gone into half-time 1 or 2 up because PSG didn't offer much. It was from the goals that PSG looked like a CL quality side and that's no embarrassment for yourselves who are a complete work in progress again at this level due to not being competitive for a while, but it was a good learning process. You clearly have the quality to be competitive but lack the ability right now to control games or still nick something when you're playing poorly, if you play poorly then you're not going to win - that's what is separating you from the top sides at the moment.

EDIT: Plus the ref was crap and terribly inconsistent. I hate the whole it's a yellow card cause he's not been booked yet but it's not a yellow card if he's on a red type fouls. It's a yellow or it isn't, no loopholes please.

 

[Ibrahimorich]

Kimpembe should've been sent off early which would've changed the game in our favour. Instead we got to see where we measure up against top teams and it wasn't great.

Our press was disorganised and haphazard. We don't offer any easy passing options for Shaw/Young when they're in trouble.

Need to improve a lot for the Liverpool game.

 

[Ainu]

Hello to everyone!

So after waiting for a few nice long hours to being accepted by your mods, I finally have a say about the game (and other stuff)!

So being a Paris Saint-Germain fan (since 2002 so no-one bashes me) I always look at games from both point of views. I read a lot of comments saying "Kim deserves a red". To that I say, yes of course he does, but so does Man United players like Young. The ref was a bit crazy on both sides today. Pogba's first foul was not a yellow as Kims was not a yellow. Many players got yellows for fouls that should never been given yellows, yet some fouls should have been given yellows, for example Kims foul on I forget who he fouled. The Ref was equally bad for both sides, even though unfortunately Pogba got sent off. His foul towards the end deserved a booking either way. Fortunately the reffing wasn't just a one way street!

Now to players that were injured like Martial. I doubt it would of made any difference either way if they were or not injured. I wasn't even aware Martial was on the pitch 'till he was injured, that's how many times I saw him touch a ball. Paris played a great football today, Marquinhos was the one that surprised everyone on our side today. We needed a 6 badly, I think we found him.

Also must agree with some here, Sanchez and Mata need to be let go as fast as possible. A club like Manchester with such history and class needs players that will die for the club. They obviously don't care.

Fans: All we heard were Paris Ultras and it leads to me asking: Does Manchester have true fans? True fans that chant? It will be a difficult second leg in Paris because that stadium will blow-up with Parisian chants. That's for sure. How did you guys feel about the "OLE" chant near the end? and the "on est chez nous" (this is our house) around the 70th minute.

I hear people say that Paris is a club with no history what's-so-ever, this is untrue as Paris in the 90s was one of the top 10 clubs in Europe beating out Real Madrid and Barcelona at some points and even winning the equivalent of UEFA's Europa league. That was brought up with our Ultras. Paris may be a young club (1970) but has done so much already for such a young club and has extremely loud fans. Every club needs money in order to bring on players. Man Utd's owners fork out hundreds of millions to keep the best players, every one has to. Neymars coming wasn't just solely off money, in brazil Paris is extremely known, obviously before neymars coming. In the 90's we had top Brazilian players like Rai. In the early 2000's Ronaldinho, Reinaldo and others.

Hope you guys have a great one. Hope to see a great football game at the Parc Des Princes (I will be there to back my team) for the second leg!

Why the feck would you come onto a forum of opposition you just beat just to gloat? That's just fecking weird.

How does a new poster get to post in main forum immediately anyway? When did that change?

 

[MancFanFromManc]

Frustrating watch last night to put it mildly. This is how it feels (as a 50 something) playing live opponents on FIFA. No matter how hard I try I simply cant put a glove on their players, and that's how it was for United. Shame, but lets hope we get a reaction v Chelsea

 

[mitchmouse]

Not a totally unexpected result but a very disappointing performance. No one stood out which highlights our lack of world-class players compared with the likes of PSG (who are far from the best in Europe in my opinion). Poor Ole looked lost in the headlights and either had no answer to the mess or realised we didn't have anyone capable of changing things - or both these things. Sadly, I have to agree with those saying Sanchez is finished - certainly at OT. For me, Pogba is hugely overrated too. Lost the midfield battle hands down and I predicted his red card 15-20 mins before it happened. Every time he loses the ball (and it happens a lot), he thinks he has been fouled when he hasn't. I said at the beginning of the season, huge amounts of work needs to be done on the team and the squad. I stand by that and it amuses me that had Jose been in charge yesterday, the outcry would have been heard in Paris itself

 

[crossy1686]

I guess we all just expected more of a fight and a better performance with PSG's two main stars missing. Looking at how well Liverpool and Napoli did against a full strength PSG just hurts even more unfortunately.

They've had time to set up that way and have a settled squad with a much better bench. Any way we intended to play was stripped from us the moment Martial and Lingard were injured. After that it was damage limitation.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

The game just showed that we are still a work in progress, no shame in that. Mourinho sucked the live blood out of the club and it's going to take more than 12 games before we can hope to reach an elite level. The injuries didn't help although we weren't really threatening when Martail and Lingard were on tbf. I'm more interested now in seeing the reaction of the players and manager after what was a pretty sobering night. The tie is done, no way do we turn this round even with Pogba.

 

[SPOHs]

Why the feck would you come onto a forum of opposition you just beat just to gloat? That's just fecking weird.

How does a new poster get to post in main forum immediately anyway? When did that change?

Well, on my fan page, a saw someone post something about this forum, so I thought I'd go and be a nice dude. Obviously you're not open to hearing other sides. Sorry if it bothered you, just wanted to share my thoughts on the game as I saw a lot of one sided thoughts here

 

[Thisistheone]

That was a massive reality check.

 

[desirere]

It's alright, I never expected us to win the CL anyway. There is simply too much luck involved each year, we only did win it 2 times with Sir Alex and that over a period of 27 years. I won't hold this loss against the team or Ole. This is a chance to see how we can pick ourselves up and if we can carry on in other competitions, specially the PL. Even thou at 0:2, this tie is far from over, we've seen much much stranger things happen. FFF they went out after winning the first leg 4:0! I know it was Barcelona but still.

I also have to say one thing, lately I've thinking, what if we decide to stay with Ole, but due to his peaceful nature and everything we don't sign all the required additions (manly RB and RW) ? That would hinder us major league, put us off by a a few years again. Since SAF retired, or rather since 2011, our biggest enemy is "TIMING". We are late for everything, we buy late, we sell late, we sell too early, we buy too early, we hire late or we sack too late etc etc etc. What our club needs now is the right timing, say we finish the season strong, stay in the top 4 manage a good cup run (maybe even win the FA), over the summer we need to continue building on that momentum and using our "wealth" to carry the momentum into next season. If we do manage to get ourselves together and produce over the summer then I can see us having a season where a loss like this would actually hurt.

 

[Owen06]

Not a totally unexpected result but a very disappointing performance. No one stood out which highlights our lack of world-class players compared with the likes of PSG (who are far from the best in Europe in my opinion). Poor Ole looked lost in the headlights and either had no answer to the mess or realised we didn't have anyone capable of changing things - or both these things. Sadly, I have to agree with those saying Sanchez is finished - certainly at OT. For me, Pogba is hugely overrated too. Lost the midfield battle hands down and I predicted his red card 15-20 mins before it happened. Every time he loses the ball (and it happens a lot), he thinks he has been fouled when he hasn't. I said at the beginning of the season, huge amounts of work needs to be done on the team and the squad. I stand by that and it amuses me that had Jose been in charge yesterday, the outcry would have been heard in Paris itself

How is pogba hugely overrated? The guy had two to three players on him all the time with no one taking advantage of the spaces left behind, the only thing overrated was our ability as a team, from the wingers to the fullbacks all absolutely terrible.

 

[Ainu]

Well, on my fan page, a saw someone post something about this forum, so I thought I'd go and be a nice dude. Obviously you're not open to hearing other sides. Sorry if it bothered you, just wanted to share my thoughts on the game as I saw a lot of one sided thoughts here

Stop pretending, you're not a nice dude, you're just gloating.

Fans: All we heard were Paris Ultras and it leads to me asking: Does Manchester have true fans? True fans that chant?

You will see that there are plenty of opposition posters on this forum who are well respected for their point of view, but coming out with that shit just after you beat us at Old Trafford? Get real.

 

[Che Guevara]

Rather harsh to blame the ref. He may not have put in a stellar performance, but he didn't decide the match. PSG were very organised and technically brilliant. Ball control, running on and off the ball, aerial superiority, organised defence, anticipating danger, passing accuracy, defending set-pieces, tackling - they were simply fantastic. When you get all the fundamentals and the basics right you usually win.

 

[minoo-utd]

The board and the manager need to learn from this, It could help us if we care and want to change and do something about it, we need a plan and a structure to grow and challenge these top sides, Ole did what he can with the tools he has in hands, his system is pretty much working but need wise and few investments, they the board must back him if he is the man for the job, so very important decisions have to be made and many to be addressed by the manager too.

 

[daveoliver91]

Hello to everyone!

So after waiting for a few nice long hours to being accepted by your mods, I finally have a say about the game (and other stuff)!

So being a Paris Saint-Germain fan (since 2002 so no-one bashes me) I always look at games from both point of views. I read a lot of comments saying "Kim deserves a red". To that I say, yes of course he does, but so does Man United players like Young. The ref was a bit crazy on both sides today. Pogba's first foul was not a yellow as Kims was not a yellow. Many players got yellows for fouls that should never been given yellows, yet some fouls should have been given yellows, for example Kims foul on I forget who he fouled. The Ref was equally bad for both sides, even though unfortunately Pogba got sent off. His foul towards the end deserved a booking either way. Fortunately the reffing wasn't just a one way street!

Now to players that were injured like Martial. I doubt it would of made any difference either way if they were or not injured. I wasn't even aware Martial was on the pitch 'till he was injured, that's how many times I saw him touch a ball. Paris played a great football today, Marquinhos was the one that surprised everyone on our side today. We needed a 6 badly, I think we found him.

Also must agree with some here, Sanchez and Mata need to be let go as fast as possible. A club like Manchester with such history and class needs players that will die for the club. They obviously don't care.

Fans: All we heard were Paris Ultras and it leads to me asking: Does Manchester have true fans? True fans that chant? It will be a difficult second leg in Paris because that stadium will blow-up with Parisian chants. That's for sure. How did you guys feel about the "OLE" chant near the end? and the "on est chez nous" (this is our house) around the 70th minute.

I hear people say that Paris is a club with no history what's-so-ever, this is untrue as Paris in the 90s was one of the top 10 clubs in Europe beating out Real Madrid and Barcelona at some points and even winning the equivalent of UEFA's Europa league. That was brought up with our Ultras. Paris may be a young club (1970) but has done so much already for such a young club and has extremely loud fans. Every club needs money in order to bring on players. Man Utd's owners fork out hundreds of millions to keep the best players, every one has to. Neymars coming wasn't just solely off money, in brazil Paris is extremely known, obviously before neymars coming. In the 90's we had top Brazilian players like Rai. In the early 2000's Ronaldinho, Reinaldo and others.

Hope you guys have a great one. Hope to see a great football game at the Parc Des Princes (I will be there to back my team) for the second leg!

Good morning Sir!

Despite being a United fan, I need to agree with everything you said. The referee was bad for both sides, and your fans are absolutely amazing, I was so so jealous of hearing the fans all 90 minutes cheering, supporting & singing for Paris.
I wish our fans were the same, unfortunately they are not. Good luck for the rest of the UCL, wish you the best mate!

 

[Handré1990]

Painful stuff. I felt they were toying with us after the first 20 mins. Keeping in mind they were missing Neymar and Cavani. Did anyone bar maybe de Gea have an acceptably decent performance?

 

[tony54]

It's alright, I never expected us to win the CL anyway. There is simply too much luck involved each year, we only did win it 2 times with Sir Alex and that over a period of 27 years. I won't hold this loss against the team or Ole. This is a chance to see how we can pick ourselves up and if we can carry on in other competitions, specially the PL. Even thou at 0:2, this tie is far from over, we've seen much much stranger things happen. FFF they went out after winning the first leg 4:0! I know it was Barcelona but still.

I also have to say one thing, lately I've thinking, what if we decide to stay with Ole, but due to his peaceful nature and everything we don't sign all the required additions (manly RB and RW) ? That would hinder us major league, put us off by a a few years again. Since SAF retired, or rather since 2011, our biggest enemy is "TIMING". We are late for everything, we buy late, we sell late, we sell too early, we buy too early, we hire late or we sack too late etc etc etc. What our club needs now is the right timing, say we finish the season strong, stay in the top 4 manage a good cup run (maybe even win the FA), over the summer we need to continue building on that momentum and using our "wealth" to carry the momentum into next season. If we do manage to get ourselves together and produce over the summer then I can see us having a season where a loss like this would actually hurt.

A good summation on things, I must admit, even when we won the CL twice it wasn't in style, but we had some great players who could stay cool under pressure and the likes of giggs, oly, cole, vidic and ferdinand clawed out results, and we had luck. But, getting back to your point about being late or too early in the transfer deals, this is very true and this is where we fail far worse than on the pitch. Oly and the best managers in the world are not going to get MU ticking again if those at the top are inadequate and thats what they are. Simples

 

[robinamicrowave]

From the outside this just looked like a reality check for you. You have a team good enough to finish in the top four and you have a manager who gets them to play open, exciting football. The problem with open, exciting football is that it works well against most of the Premier League but can only go so far against the top, top sides, and you were reminded that there's still a way for you to go to get back to being one of the best teams in Europe.

At your worst last night, I think you looked a little naive - a bit of discipline and nous might come with time under Ole but it wasn't there last night. It was mostly a cagey game but PSG began to get quite a lot of space in behind Matic and Pogba in the first half and it was only a matter of time before they scored on the break. It reminded me of how City used to approach knockout games under Pellegrini, where we matched the other team in general play but lacked the necessary details to take advantage of the fine margins.

Watch this and notice the similarities between our display and yours last night.

 

[RedDevil@84]

They were only better when they went 2-0 up (because of our awful defending - and injuries to key players). They controlled the game thereafter. In the first half, they couldn't string two passes together.

I don't know what game people watched but we were extremely poor yesterday by our standards and that really had nothing to do with PSG. All front 3 played badly which can happen because they are still young. They were bound to improve in the second half when the nerves had settled but Jesse and Martial got injured. That's where we lost the game.

Depends on where you look at the match from.
The way I see the first half is that PSG effectively shut down Pogba and Martial with tactcis and then had the defense to stop whatever minor stuff Lingard or Rashford could conjure.

 

[Suv666]

Wish we had a player like Mbappe. That lad is on another level. Last night showed the lack of quality at Utd compared to top European sides. We all were well aware of it but still its humiliating, getting reminded of the fact how far off we are from Fergie's Utd.

 

[Dr Fink]

Big reality check. We had to lose eventually, so I'm kind of glad it was in that game. Let's right the ship at Chelsea then the big game - Liverpool.

This was our best chance to beat PSG with a few stars out injured. They were however an excellently organised team. The midfield did a job on Pogba - he was in and out of the game and was obviously frustrated. They didn't give Rashford a sniff as his supply line was cut off. Martial never really got the ball to run directly at the full back, they always had an extra covering player back.

As has been said earlier in this thread, it all seemed to go wrong after two of the pacey players went off injured - Lingard and Martial. Sanchez has gone, we need to offload him. He's had too many chances. Mata is creative but out of position. With Mata floating in-field and not hugging the line, it sort of forced Young to push higher and thus he was caught out of position for the second goal. The first goal was a shambles.

The referee was appalling, card-happy and let one major Mbappe chance go when he was over 3 yards offside. Thank goodness for DDG.

A good lesson for Ole. A taste of the "Big Boys' Football" that we need to aspire back to in the next couple of seasons. Yes, we've fallen that far recently. A good, professional job done by PSG.

 

[Cabin Clown]

First time analysis on these boards. I agree with many of your posts. Would like to add a key point:

Pogba being man marked showed how one dimensional we are without him. We got completely overran in the midfield second half and there was a gulf in quality. We're not quick enough with the ball to unlock a good, structured defence. Thought the match went eerily similar to how City played when they bossed us at Old Trafford under Jose. For outstanding as Pogba has been he isn't that intricate player to link up play like a Verratti or David Silva can and it kills us against teams who press us like they do. I'm a fan of Matic and Herrera but I'd happily sacrifice one of them to bring in someone of the Verratti ilk as mentioned. Who is there we can get? Eriksen? Someone abroad?

And Lingard going off bloody killed us. It was a free for all after that. Don't even get me started on the ref, or the Sanchez/Mata show. Think Young is getting a bit of uneccessary stick. We need huge investment in the summer. On the bright side this game has shown how obvious it's needed.

 

[APJRed]

Weren't a huge gulf between the teams in the first half, but our lack of replacement's to our starting 11 and poor officiating cost us massively.
Had Martial and Lingard stayed fit then it's a completely different second half.
It's all it's and buts however it's clear we need more strength in depth, we're closer to complete under Ole than at any stage under Jose though.

Agreed. There's been a lot of drivel written in the media about the gulf in quality between the two teams but we looked capable of winning in the first half. It was outrageous that Kimpembe escaped a second yellow card for that tackle on Rashford. Had he been sent off and a free kick awarded who knows? The loss of Martial and Lingard robbed us of pace and effectively our game plan. OGS was polite when questioned about the substitutions but the reality is that Sanchez and Lukaku were only viable replacements if the game had already been won. I've written off the return leg - even if Lingard and Martial are fit the absence of Pogba will be a massive blow.

Despite the loss I feel positive. The team has been great to watch since OGS took over and we're going in the right direction. I'm confident the lack of pace on the substitute bench will be addressed.

 

[deadrevelz]

Very disappointing. Was like watching us against Barca in the CL finals. We don't have the players to combat a team so comfortable on the ball. Needs to be a big summer for transfers in and out. I hope Ole can prove himself and be our next manager, but we also should be open to another manager, if a perfect one becomes available. That's always been the case. If the club don't back the new manager, either way it's going to be more years of under achievement.

 

[Ecstatic]

I was surprised by both:

- the atmosphere on RedCafe in the last years with a great tendency to be overly pessimistic/gloomy about the future and the ability of the team/club to improve and have better results while United is simply the wealthiest club in the world and one of the top 5 most iconic clubs in the world

- your very recent overconfidence "United will win 3-0" in the sense that PSG had been capable to beat Liverpool at home and lost away there because (1) Verratti was injured and (2) PSG was so overconfident at Anfield that they had forgotten the fundamentals (all the players have to defend and contribute to the pressing). That said, your optimism was very understandable given (1) your recent performances since Ole took over the club and (2) the injuries at PSG (3) the poor quality of the French league (only Lyon and Monaco in a previous life know some stuff about football)

Regarding the game, my understanding is:

- United players were unconsciously overly confident like fans given the context exposed above...while PSG players had to work harder than ever because they couldn't rely on magic Neymar

- United was more tired than PSG, which is explained by (1) a PSG side who is already domestic champions since several months (2) you team under pressure in the last months made an impressive come back recently (3) some PSG players who are mentally and/or physically fresh and didn't play so much this season for diverse reasons like Draxler, Dani Alves (4) in the last games, several starters at PSG were on the bench to rest while your players were at 100%. Conclusion: you started the game very well but rapidly decline in terms of work-rate. Also, England is generally disappointing at the Internationale tournaments for very different reasons, one of these being the lack of a winter break IMO

- Without Neymar and Cavani, that PSG team was more possession-based than ever. Neymar always takes risks and Cavani is a player to finish chances not to contribute to the possession. In this context, Di Maria and Draxler are on the pitch and the team might be viewed as a kind of 3-6-1. Also, PSG is happy to rely on a deep-lying playmaker like Verratti while a player like Xabi Alonso instead of Matic would have been wonderful in another life.

- On the the other hand, you team is more suited to counter-attack. Martial (like M'bappé generally) is a striker deployed on the wing, same for Lingard in a certain sense (say he's a forward). If your players are tired or injured, you need a plan B and some players to calm down.

- You have only one clear leader (Pogba) while the ideal would have been at least to have 2 great leaders. Tactically, the priority of Tuchel was to neutralize and Marquinhos did the job, discovering a new role this season and improving very quickly. Against Liverpool away, Marquinhos suffered. You are overly reliant on Paul.

- PSG is more experienced (1) PSG played against Real Madrid/Barcelona several times in the last seasons (2) For example, Di Maria scored more goals in Champions League than your starting 11 on aggregate (3) Thiago Silva & Verratti joined the club in 2012, Marquinhos 2013, Kimpembe part of the squad since 2014. So, the PSG team has a solid shared experience.

- Di Maria made the game of his life. He doesn't play with the same appetite/hunger every week and even with the national squad. He seemed to be more excited to play against United than France in a World Cup...

All in all, the issue is not your defence but the lack of another leader on the pitch to support Pogba: in other words, Pogba can't do everything alone.

I hope you will:

- Take Rabiot next summer to give Ole more options: a gamble I would take without hesitation
- Take a player with superior passing skills (advanced or deep-lying playmaker). Mata and Herrera have to be upgraded.
- Take a super star if available on the market

You don't need to buy 25 players, keep Ole and just take 2-3 guys next summer and you will be in a position to compete with Barcelona, Real Madrid & co

 

[ZupZup]

Fans: All we heard were Paris Ultras and it leads to me asking: Does Manchester have true fans? True fans that chant? It will be a difficult second leg in Paris because that stadium will blow-up with Parisian chants. That's for sure. How did you guys feel about the "OLE" chant near the end? and the "on est chez nous" (this is our house) around the 70th minute.

I hear people say that Paris is a club with no history what's-so-ever, this is untrue

Your 'Ultras' need Phil Collins with his drum set and megaphones to make noise... neither of which would be allowed in the ground if United had any sense whatsoever.

Your club doesn't have history. Jennifer Aniston is older than your football club. Without your Qatari petro dollars, you're just a footnote of European football.