[DomesticTadpole]

I'm not actually upset. I feel we had the beating of one of the premier teams in the competition and a few miss chances away from a win. Fred was unlucky although he was a bit wreckless and I don't like when a player's 2nd touch is a tackle. He should play beach football to get his touch right. Defence was decent and we looked better than them for periods.

That game in Turkey is now biting us on the backside. We would have been there on 12 points already. That was an abomination.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It's really the Refs job to deal with that side of the game, out of our control how babyish PSG are.

They are in the refs ear constantly, eventually it works. They make every foul look like a leg breaker. Refs should book a few on them for play acting, that might curb it.

 

[SuperiorXI]

That game in Turkey is now biting us on the backside. We would have been there on 12 points already. That was an abomination.

Yeah that was the game everyone deserves to be extremely pissed off at! What a shit show that was.

 

[Stacks]

That game in Turkey is now biting us on the backside. We would have been there on 12 points already. That was an abomination.

It really is. They have only 3 pts and that was vs us!

 

[Bilbo]

Right so I've slept on this. Woke up feeling pretty sombre over the result, but there are a lot of positives here to take with us to the Leipzig game.

The first 20 minutes very kinda skittish. Mbappe in particular was a very big threat with that ridiculous pace, and for a while there I thought this was going to be a very long night. PSG get's a goal folllowing a lucky bounce, but can't really complain about that.

The 1-1 goal was deserves, the rest of the period was very comfortable for the team, we controlled possession and PSG never got close to anything much after their goal. It's ironic that we have some fans calling our goal a lucky deflection when PSG's 2 first goals came as a result from lucky deflections.

Second half up until their goal was such a fun period of Manchester United football. Perhaps the most fun minutes of the season bar the clobbering of Leipzig at home.

A team can only be asked to realisticly produce so many chances to score a goal per game. That reasonable factor diminishes the greater your opponent are. Some fans on here suggesting PSG is a weak team.. well. ok then. You're full of shit and you know it.

We produced more than enough chances to put this game in the bag. The players performed SO well. Missing chances like that at this level is not something you can do and get away with it. Martial owes this team a champions league point.

Going down 2-1 was yet another freak incident goal where the ball eventually landed on a PSG foot by chance. It's the worst I've felt about a game for a long time. Completely against play and probably the least deserved goal of hte CL campaign.

I would have taken Fred off. There's no discussing that. But I *get it*. We were playing too well to take anyone off. Imagine being in the middle of that partyfootball 20 minutes and you take a player off in the middle of it? No. The time to take Fred off was at 45 minutes. Subbing people on at 60 minutes would interrupt the good period of football, and you know this.

Up until the 69th minute, the game execution from the players was a solid 8 or 9 for me. We are SO dangerous when we're coming at pace. You can't do more than deliver a final ball on a foot that should score a goal. Failing that is not down to tactics, gameplan or anything. Its a big, personal mistake. We had several of those.

Even with 10 men the team took the match to PSG and still they remain lucky we do not score that 2-2 goal. The 1-3 goal at the end was a shitty moment that ultimately won't matter with regards to progressing from the group, it was 2-2 or nothing.

Leaving Fred on was a huge risk that, on a normal day from Martial, Bruno or Cavani would have paid off. But hindsight doesn't get you points, so here we are.

It's easy to be wise with facts in hand, and facts in hand say we should have taken Fred off. The game result would have been different. Mind you we could still very well have lost, or won, no one can know that and that is the point of hindsight being so easy to use in an argument.

A frequent comment I see is "I don't mind that we lose on occasion if we play well". Well, we played very well. We played very well against one of the great teams in football and can reasonably say that we should have won this.

And that makes a loss much harder to swallow rather than being outmatched. This team can beat absolutely anyone and I'm very optimistic for the Leipzig game.

It's my opinion that the players can walk away from this game with heads raised high, I'm happy with how they played. The result was bad but the performance was very good. It was just not meant to be on this day.

Pretty much echoes my own feelings. Its pretty clear that some United fans will find a reason to go after Ole whenever we don't win. Its part of the job description. We have a lot of entitled fans who are unable to see things rationally.

The circumstances of the Fred incident are quite unusual. 95 times out of 100 he goes off for that headbutt. It was stupid and he has to learn from that. We got lucky there. If he'd gotten a first yellow for a tactical foul nobody talks about taking him off at HT. Football history is littered with incidents of players on a yellow card who didn't get subbed, and didn't get sent off, and its forgotten because its forgettable.

However, this was always a very high risk gamble because well, frankly, PSG are a bunch of diving pussies and skilled in the ugly side of the game, so anytime Fred went near the ball someone was going over screaming and clutching a body part to keep it from falling off. Taking him off was the right thing to do. Ole screwed up. So what, all managers do sometimes. He had that one in the bank as far as I'm concerned so lets move on.

The most important thing is the performance. We were so, so good. What are you thinking about this morning if you're one of the players? Disappointment of course, but they'll also be thinking about how they took it to a top European side and really had them on the ropes. We'll gain confidence from that. I recall the commentator mentioning how PSG were tactically leaving 3 up top in the second half. Bullsh*t. Those players had thrown the towel in. They didn't want to get involved with us anymore, so they wandered around waiting for someone to pass to them, while we created chances.

I'm desperate for us to get the result next week, and I think we will. RBL will play a very high line and we will definitely have our chances. We are better than they are. United are now a CL knockout stage quality team, and we'll do some damage if we get there. We've been a team that the big boys didn't mind being drawn against for years. I don't think that will be the case now.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It really is. They have only 3 pts and that was vs us!

They will live off that for years as well, but to be honest they could have got something last night and that might have taken some pressure off us, except they didn't and it put it onto us instead.

 

[Foxbatt]

The negativity came because we beat them in Paris and put 5 past Liepzig.
We should have played the same game with being defensive and compact instead of trying to attack them. It was too open for us. They have the better goal scorers and players who could do unexpected things.
We should have played like the underdogs and hit them on the break. Yes Martial should have scored but they had chances too. We should have gone with 4 man midfield and probably played TFM in midfield when Fred got booked.
Yes normally you don't take a player out because he is on a yellow but Fred was not really on a yellow. He should have been sent of and then it was always going to be playing russian roulette with him. That's poor game management.

 

[Siorac]

Going down 2-1 was yet another freak incident goal where the ball eventually landed on a PSG foot by chance. It's the worst I've felt about a game for a long time. Completely against play and probably the least deserved goal of hte CL campaign.

I think this is a bit of a biased take. They hit the bar a couple of minutes before and then De Gea pulled off a great save from a sitter right before their goal. It was coming - we were clearly struggling in defence at that point. Had we weathered that storm the way they did ours it might have been different in the end. But we didn't. We missed two great chances, they missed two great chances and then unfortunately they had the third chance, not us.

 

[MikeeMike]

When will the authorities have the bottle to stop this blatant play acting, players go down like they have been shot by a sniper in the stands and one minute later back up brandishing an imaginary card.

Well said. Ref yesterday booked PsG player while rolling around in agony. He jumped up and carried on. Love to see retrospective bans for diving as they were at it all night. Ok Fred should have got Red but player went down as if a broken nose and I’m not sure there was contact.

 

[Hackman2210]

2nd half we tore them to pieces - cliche but if you don’t take your chances then it’ll come back and haunt you. Martial should have scored his first - terrible miss really. His second needed a bit more composure but he was just trying to out his foot through it. I thought it was a good game - Fred’s sending off killed us but that’s football. This result didn’t doom us - if anything it was the Turkish away leg - if we go out it’s because of that game.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

How does Martial get away with it time after time?

Whenever we need to score, the guy just loses all his bottle. He seems to only score when the games already won.

 

[#07]

The negativity came because we beat them in Paris and put 5 past Liepzig.
We should have played the same game with being defensive and compact instead of trying to attack them. It was too open for us. They have the better goal scorers and players who could do unexpected things.
We should have played like the underdogs and hit them on the break. Yes Martial should have scored but they had chances too. We should have gone with 4 man midfield and probably played TFM in midfield when Fred got booked.
Yes normally you don't take a player out because he is on a yellow but Fred was not really on a yellow. He should have been sent of and then it was always going to be playing russian roulette with him. That's poor game management.

Completely agree. I don't understand why we went out to win a game we only needed to draw.

After getting lucky and getting a goal back we could've played 6-3-1 in the second half. It would've been crap to watch but who cares?

We played like it was a must win match and, worse, we wasted the chances we created by playing open. Our chance conversion rate must be absolutely shocking. Cavani is pretty much the only forward we have that I trust in front of goal right now.

Really sticks in the throat cos we s-t the bed last night.

 

[Member 113277]

Ref more interested in getting Neymar's autograph than booking the clown.

Considering Fred was yellow carded for headbutting, I'd argue the ref was consistent in not booking Neymar :-(

 

[Cultured left ankle]

Pretty much echoes my own feelings. Its pretty clear that some United fans will find a reason to go after Ole whenever we don't win. Its part of the job description. We have a lot of entitled fans who are unable to see things rationally.

The circumstances of the Fred incident are quite unusual. 95 times out of 100 he goes off for that headbutt. It was stupid and he has to learn from that. We got lucky there. If he'd gotten a first yellow for a tactical foul nobody talks about taking him off at HT. Football history is littered with incidents of players on a yellow card who didn't get subbed, and didn't get sent off, and its forgotten because its forgettable.

However, this was always a very high risk gamble because well, frankly, PSG are a bunch of diving pussies and skilled in the ugly side of the game, so anytime Fred went near the ball someone was going over screaming and clutching a body part to keep it from falling off. Taking him off was the right thing to do. Ole screwed up. So what, all managers do sometimes. He had that one in the bank as far as I'm concerned so lets move on.

The most important thing is the performance. We were so, so good. What are you thinking about this morning if you're one of the players? Disappointment of course, but they'll also be thinking about how they took it to a top European side and really had them on the ropes. We'll gain confidence from that. I recall the commentator mentioning how PSG were tactically leaving 3 up top in the second half. Bullsh*t. Those players had thrown the towel in. They didn't want to get involved with us anymore, so they wandered around waiting for someone to pass to them, while we created chances.

I'm desperate for us to get the result next week, and I think we will. RBL will play a very high line and we will definitely have our chances. We are better than they are. United are now a CL knockout stage quality team, and we'll do some damage if we get there. We've been a team that the big boys didn't mind being drawn against for years. I don't think that will be the case now.

Absolutely. We had them exactly where we wanted them for most of the second half. We were so close to a result.

You could see that Neymar in particular didn't fancy it and went into hiding up until the third goal. It was ironic that the commentators were blowing smoke up his (and Mbappes) arses in the first half giving it 'oh they're such big game players' when most of the time when the chips are down they vanish. it happened in Paris. It happened yesterday. And when we play them again it'll happen then too.

 

[Bilbo]

Completely agree. I don't understand why we went out to win a game we only needed to draw.

After getting lucky and getting a goal back we could've played 6-3-1 in the second half. It would've been crap to watch but who cares?

We played like it was a must win match and, worse, we wasted the chances we created by playing open. Our chance conversion rate must be absolutely shocking. Cavani is pretty much the only forward we have that I trust in front of goal right now.

Really sticks in the throat cos we s-t the bed last night.

I dont agree with that. Matches tend to play out how they will. The starting XI picked last night was to all intents selected to contain, to be solid, and for the most part we were. We arent going to forego opportunities to score goals when they present themselves, and we were far from gung ho.

People talk a lot about the 'United way'. What is that exactly? By most accounts its a team that goes out to win football matches playing the right way. Last night we did exactly that, and we deserved to win that game. The only way this team will challenge the best is to find exactly the right balance, and last night was a great example of that. We had great balance. It was a loss that we can take a lot of positives out of.

 

[Bilbo]

Absolutely. We had them exactly where we wanted them for most of the second half. We were so close to a result.

You could see that Neymar in particular didn't fancy it and went into hiding up until the third goal. It was ironic that the commentators were blowing smoke up his (and Mbappes) arses in the first half giving it 'oh they're such big game players' when most of the time when the chips are down they vanish. it happened in Paris. It happened yesterday. And when we play them again it'll happen then too.

Neymar is a box of tricks and special on his day, but he needs everything to be how he wants it to be otherwise he shrinks. I wouldn't want him here.

 

[Doracle]

I must have missed the point where it’s now accepted that a midfielder who has been booked is automatically substituted at half time. Has someone run some stats on this? What proportion of midfielders booked in the first half are then substituted at the break? It must be a very high number for Ole to be naive and “spineless” to not have done so.

It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to say that Fred should have been substituted but ultimately he got sent off for what, in my view, was a fair tackle and there wasn’t any suggestion to me that he had “lost his head” - he played very sensibly up to that point in the 2nd half.

The real point to take from this match is that Ole has got us to a point where we now look competitive against the best sides in Europe. We were probably unlucky to lose last night and we also went toe to toe with PSG away. Do people not remember Sevilla in Jose’s reign and how awful we were then?

 

[#07]

I dont agree with that. Matches tend to play out how they will. The starting XI picked last night was to all intents selected to contain, to be solid, and for the most part we were. We arent going to forego opportunities to score goals when they present themselves, and we were far from gung ho.

People talk a lot about the 'United way'. What is that exactly? By most accounts its a team that goes out to win football matches playing the right way. Last night we did exactly that, and we deserved to win that game. The only way this team will challenge the best is to find exactly the right balance, and last night was a great example of that. We had great balance. It was a loss that we can take a lot of positives out of.

The flow of the game was not with us in the first half. I would not have minded Ole going full Mourinho in response to that, especially after we levelled.

Yes, keeping Cavani, Martial, Rashford and Bruno made us look dangerous early in the second half and we did make chances. However, we f'd them all up. Then failed to make any adjustments when Tuchel switched to 3-5-2 and outnumbered us in midfield.

If we'd have gone full on defence we wouldn't have dropped points.

 

[Sean_RedDevil]

We should have never lost this match.....

- To leave Fred on the pitch until his sent-off was of course a sackable offence.
- You can't beat a team like Paris if you miss so many good chances like Martial.
- All four substitutions were the wrong players and to the wrong time too.

 

[Bilbo]

The flow of the game was not with us in the first half. I would not have minded Ole going full Mourinho in response to that, especially after we levelled.

Yes, keeping Cavani, Martial, Rashford and Bruno made us look dangerous early in the second half and we did make chances. However, we f'd them all up. Then failed to make any adjustments when Tuchel switched to 3-5-2 and outnumbered us in midfield.

If we'd have gone full on defence we wouldn't have dropped points.

You have no way of knowing whether that would have happened. With players like Neymar and Mbappe I'm uncomfortable with them having the ball around our box even when we have 9 players back. That is exactly where they want us to be.

I was however very comfortable seeing them both on the periphery of that game because we were outplaying them. The match looked over really, but goals change games and at this level you have to take your chances when they present themselves. We didn't, they did, otherwise we'd all be purring this morning about how we dismantled one of the best.

 

[Member 113277]

I must have missed the point where it’s now accepted that a midfielder who has been booked is automatically substituted at half time. Has someone run some stats on this? What proportion of midfielders booked in the first half are then substituted at the break? It must be a very high number for Ole to be naive and “spineless” to not have done so.

It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to say that Fred should have been substituted but ultimately he got sent off for what, in my view, was a fair tackle and there wasn’t any suggestion to me that he had “lost his head” - he played very sensibly up to that point in the 2nd half.

Chris Sutton said on the radio commentary, before half time, that Ole should pull Fred, because the nature of his offence for yellow could put pressure on the ref in the second half.

Chris Sutton is an ex-pro and it wasn't hindsight, it was foresight.

Let's face it, Fred should have gone for the headbut, we could have pulled him off and banked our lucky winnings.

 

[Zlatans Knee]

It just feels like it is going be (another) one of those seasons where we take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. We just have to hope that we keep on taking more forward steps than backwards ones. Last night was frustrating on so many levels. That is probably the best we have played against PSG but we contrived to mess it up due a variety of factors that felt very avoidable.
Squeaky bum time ahead next week.

 

[mitchmouse]

I don't disagree with a few of your points but we were the better team overall. Lucky we weren't down by 4 at halftime? Which chances are you talking about? We had the better chances of the game and PSG will be thanking their lucky stars they went away with a win.

I meant the way we played in the first 20 mins - we did pretty much nothing right and someone like Bayern would have put as to the sword. But they did also have breakaways that they weren't good enough to take advantage of. Plus we could easily have been down to 10 men

 

[mitchmouse]

Chris Sutton said on the radio commentary, before half time, that Ole should pull Fred, because the nature of his offence for yellow could put pressure on the ref in the second half.

Chris Sutton is an ex-pro and it wasn't hindsight, it was foresight.

Let's face it, Fred should have gone for the headbut, we could have pulled him off and banked our lucky winnings.

on top of that, you could almost see the steam coming out of Fred's ears! Of course not all players who are booked are pulled off - but some are because their manager is good enough to recognise what is going on

 

[UDontMessWith24]

Ranging and raving on the touchline yes you are right

Yes it’s either staring into space or ranting and raving nothing in between. Are you new to professional football?

 

[Gator Nate]

Did Ole make a mistake not pulling Fred off? Yeah, he did. Did it cost us the game? No. Absolutely not.

We were in control for most of the contest. We had so many chances. The game played out like many expected: PSG went for it and we hit on the counter. But how many times did we counter? It seemed about every other minute we had a drive in and created chances. Their midfield and back line were pretty poor. But we could not finish. It should have been 3-1 to us at the half at least.

Even after Fred got sent off, we were creating chances. Our ten were taking it to their eleven. Repeatedly.

Shoutout to McTominay for 7 tackles and 2 clearances, Maguire for 5 clearances, and Rashford for a goal.

I fully expect us to go in and smash West Ham this weekend.

 

[Tom Cato]

Completely agree. I don't understand why we went out to win a game we only needed to draw.

After getting lucky and getting a goal back we could've played 6-3-1 in the second half. It would've been crap to watch but who cares?

We played like it was a must win match and, worse, we wasted the chances we created by playing open. Our chance conversion rate must be absolutely shocking. Cavani is pretty much the only forward we have that I trust in front of goal right now.

Really sticks in the throat cos we s-t the bed last night.

Isn't that the way we want them to play? To go out with the intent of winning, not parking the bus and hoping to ride out a draw?

 

[croadyman]

I thought this, then a poster pointed out they hit he bar and DeGea pulled off a truly world class save in the second half. I’d say chances were about even until that late pull away.

It was a very good game, between two very good teams, with some fine margins making the difference. Players worked hard. The real issue is the Turkey result!

The turkey result still leaves me raging because it was so avoidable if we had bloody concentrated

 

[gerdm07]

It's never a bad loss when you lose to a team with 2 of the best players in the world.

Positives
- we fought to the very end and it shows a great attitude for the players
- created numerous great chances
- really loved Rashford's close control speed dribbling. He needs to do that more often and that match showed he can be effective on the right

Negatives
- Fred's first touch is suspect and that led to the 2nd yellow. I'm afraid Fred will never match the quality we need in the DM position. For example, when Verrati receives a pass does anyone think he might make a loose first touch and lose the ball? No. On the other hand, I'm never really confident with Fred under pressure and receiving a ball. I could also say the same for McT and Matic (though a few years ago Matic was very good). This position is becoming are most important upgrade.
- I would really like to know if Martial makes those misses often in training. Yes or no, it means he is not top quality. Yes speaks for itself. No simply means he can't handle pressure like a good striker.
- Why didn't Martial pass the ball into the net the second good chance? He had a corner open on his right. Instead he tries to blast it and hope for the best.
- Why didn't DeGea dive with his hands for the 2nd goal? I think that's what all good keepers would have done. He took the safer route and tried to use his legs. I think he would have blocked it with your standard dive at the feet.

It's too bad Pogba screamer of a volley did not find the net. I'm pretty confident we can draw or win the next match and move on but it makes a grueling next few weeks.

Was Rashford injured and is that why he came off?

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It's never a bad loss when you lose to a team with 2 of the best players in the world.

Positives
- we fought to the very end and it shows a great attitude for the players
- created numerous great chances
- really loved Rashford's close control speed dribbling. He needs to do that more often and that match showed he can be effective on the right

Negatives
- Fred's first touch is suspect and that led to the 2nd yellow. I'm afraid Fred will never match the quality we need in the DM position. For example, when Verrati receives a pass does anyone think he might make a loose first touch and lose the ball? No. On the other hand, I'm never really confident with Fred under pressure and receiving a ball. I could also say the same for McT and Matic (though a few years ago Matic was very good). This position is becoming are most important upgrade.
- I would really like to know if Martial makes those misses often in training. Yes or no, it means he is not top quality. Yes speaks for itself. No simply means he can't handle pressure like a good striker.
- Why didn't Martial pass the ball into the net the second good chance? He had a corner open on his right. Instead he tries to blast it and hope for the best.

It's too bad Pogba screamer of a volley did not find the net. I'm pretty confident we can draw or win the next match and move on but it makes a grueling next few weeks.

Was Rashford injured and is that why he came off?

Yes Rashford was injured.

 

[Ronaldo's ego]

They came flying out of the blocks, got an early goal and like a lot of people I thought it could be a long night. We didn’t fold thought, we maintained composure and worked our way back into the game. Fred not being hooked off at the break was a massive blunder because everyone and their Grandma knew PSG would make it their mission to get him sent off.

Second half we looked better and caused them all sorts of problems. Had Cavani had a little luck with the chip and Martial buries one of his sitters we would’ve been 3-1. We fecked it though, they get a scrappy goal and seconds later Fred is off. They’re one of the tournament favourites this season but having played them twice they don’t really look much better than us, if at all. Schoolboy tactical error and disgraceful finishing cost us this game.

 

[Thaila-X]

It's the oldest adage in football but when you miss your chances, it will come back to bite you. It goes without saying that a few of our lads got dragged into PSG's antics but we should have had enough experience out there for calmer heads to prevail. With the benefit of hindsight, Fred should have been subbed but the player himself has to take some responsibility, he knew he was taking a chance going into that tackle whilst on a yellow. In the same way Ole can't finish Martial's chances for him, he can't be responsible for every decision/mistake the lads make. It's never ideal to be going into final group game needing something but fingers crossed we can get over the line and into the hat for the knockout stages!

 

[RedDevil@84]

Did Ole make a mistake not pulling Fred off? Yeah, he did. Did it cost us the game? No. Absolutely not.

We were in control for most of the contest. We had so many chances. The game played out like many expected: PSG went for it and we hit on the counter. But how many times did we counter? It seemed about every other minute we had a drive in and created chances. Their midfield and back line were pretty poor. But we could not finish. It should have been 3-1 to us at the half at least.

How many chances did we make after the red card?

 

[Volumiza]

Is this a rivalry now?

Let’s hope so, you can’t beat a good rivalry ... good for the soul!

 

[Craig Ward]

Completely agree. I don't understand why we went out to win a game we only needed to draw.

After getting lucky and getting a goal back we could've played 6-3-1 in the second half. It would've been crap to watch but who cares?

We played like it was a must win match and, worse, we wasted the chances we created by playing open. Our chance conversion rate must be absolutely shocking. Cavani is pretty much the only forward we have that I trust in front of goal right now.

Really sticks in the throat cos we s-t the bed last night.

I'd take us attacking all day long over trying to sit back and defend.

Have you not watched us lately? We cannot defend for shit. We are literally useless at defending. If we invite pressure - we will crumble.

Lindelof and Maguire have mistakes in them, Telles is basically a winger not a LB. De Gea has a mistake in him. McTominey isn't positionally aware or good enough at DM. Freds the best we got at smashing up play, and he's so energetic if he misses his first press he's way out of position.

If martial scores - we win. Thats an absolutely unforgivable miss and cost us the game ultimately.

Freds getting all the hate and Ole too but if Martial scores that sitter - it's a different game. Goals change games

 

[Gator Nate]

How many chances did we make after the red card?

Two shots, one on target, at the very least. We were attacking and getting in and around the box, even.

 

[Maticmaker]

After the first 15 minutes we were lucky not to be more than one down, after the next 30 minutes we had enough chances to have been 2-1 up and lucky not to be down to 10 men. Twenty minutes into the second half we had further chances to have scored another two goals, 24 minutes into second half we are 2-1 down; 70th minute we are now down to 10 men as Fred's luck finally runs out, but even then we created chances but didn't take them.
90mins + they showed how to score.

Leaving aside Fred's 'kamikaze' act if you don't take your chances you don't win.
Here Endeth Ole's post match feedback to the team.

 

[Raveneye]

The fact that Manchester United can go toe to toe with PSG, take a tactical gamble which gets a player sent off and still feel like the result was harsh shows how far Manchester United have come. Anthony Martial hasn't produced the goods all season and needs worrying about, but aside from that there's no need to get too alarmist about this loss.

 

[Nicoseth]

So I didn't get to see the game until last night Pacific time, and I thought we actually played very well. The first 15 minutes were poor, but after the first goal we grew into the game. We absolutely should have scored 2 more - Martial should have had two, Cavani hit the bar and we looked super dangerous. The Fred red card changed the game, okay they scored before the card, but it made it harder for us to get back into it.

I was pretty surprised to hear the general reaction on social media to the game. The Ole-out brigade are out in full force and people seem pretty upset about the result. Not sure I get it. Yes, Fred should have been subbed, and Ole has admitted that. Apart from that, I think Ole did well on the night. It's not Ole's fault that Martial can't finish right now. Also not his fault that two of the PSG goals came from wicked ricochets or deflections - that's just unlucky. PSG are a quality side. and I think we bossed them for long periods of the game. It could have gone our way on a different night.

Bring on West Ham, hopefully we'll bounce back well in that game!

 

[justsomebloke]

Yeah thinking about it, that seems to be most likely scenario.

When we played a diamond in the last game I thought it was a test run for this game. It would have made sense, either playing a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 diamond and controlling the midfield battle. We didn't need a win, and the onus was on PSG to come up with solutions, so we should have made them work harder and commit more players forward to give our forwards space to exploit. What happened is that from the beginning they controlled the midfield, and you just knew this was going to be a difficult game.

Poor tactics aside, both teams created and missed some easy chances. The result could have gone either way, but it was annoying the way our players missed easy sitters. Their attempts to wind our players up and influence the refs eventually gave them the advantage and cost us.

Normally I'm firmly a 4231 man, but I also expected 352 for this one (but not 442 diamond, which I doubt is a good fit against PSG). It may of course have something to do with available players, given that Shaw and Tuanzebe (and Bailly, at least fully?) were all unavailable. That brings it down to Mengi or Fosu-Mensah as the third man.