RB Leipzig 3:2 Manchester United

Berbasbullet said:

I was fine with TFM as I thought maybe a fullback who could attack might help, but why on earth change the CB?

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Defenders innit! Think you get a secret bonus point when you change over 50% of your back line.

More seriously, I've not a feckin clue. Also instead of bringing on TFM.. Why not bring on James or Lingard and put them there or put McT there and bring on Mata?

Plant0x84 said:

Forgive me but we have a better goal diff than PSG, what am I missing here?

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It goes on head to head

can't wrap my head around the exclusion of Vdb today, from my point of view a ball secure and a player with high intelligence movement on the pitch surely must be preferable against a high pressing opponent?

sammsky1 said:

Need to watch that first 25 mins again as I still have no idea why it all happened. Was it a tactical cock up by Ole or did our players just royally fcuk it up? I remember seeing many occasions where our 3 cbs were just marking space with only 1 Leipzig defender on our D. With 7 defensive players, how do Leipzig fullbacks get so much space they can directly pass to each other???

small note to Pogba who I thought have a brilliant cameo.

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They realised Ole would play the same 532 formation and adapted. They stopped us getting quick counters, they dominated the midfield, stopped Bruno doing anything.

pablo__p said:

Outplayed by a better coach.

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Outcoached by better players?

morbidsaint said:

I agree completely, but I just think we so easily see our faults, but sometimes forget that it was actually impressive for us to do so well in this group. And it was not today or last game vs PSG we lost this group. We lost it by losing to the awful Turkey team.

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I know man, that Turkey match and the way we conceded just haunts me. I fully expect us to go and beat City now

Annihilate Now! said:

It goes on head to head

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Yeah that Neymar goal proved costly! But then again, that would have been reliant on PSG not spanking Istanbul with everything on the line.

Tapori said:

When I watch Reese James or Fernandes or a Mata or a Fernandinho or Van Dyke - There reading of the play means they play far better and simpler.

The hard thing with professional football is your ability to do this with high pressure and high speed. We get by ok but ok isn't good enough. We need better readers in the back line and organization. We simply don't have it

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I can't disagree. No team is perfect and bad goals are conceded all the time at all levels of the game but how a squad of players who have all at some point in their careers been regarded as sound defensively and on the ball conceive to make glaring mistakes in almost every match is shocking to witness. You have to wonder what on earth is going on on the training pitch that leads to our regular comedy routines while teams with much less resources look better drilled on the whole than we do.

Neo_Mufc said:

Cowardly from Rio & Paul. No criticism of the manager.

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They won't criticise their mate, same as Neville. Even Keane goes out of his way to not say anything bad about Ole, despite his "tells it as it is" bluster.

Wing Attack Plan R said:

So all we need is (based on the comments) a new manager, a new midfield, two fullbacks, two center backs, a right sided winger, an actual striker, and a coaching staff. Oh, and a stadium upgrade. Simples.

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And a keeper.

Jonno said:

Specifically at this club, we’ve actually dropped players when they’ve shown issues like this.

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I mean I dislike Raiola and do think that Pogba is a right fool for not shutting him up. But so what if he performs. We played Ronaldo for a whole year albeit we knew he wanted to leave. He came on and was our best man on the pitch. Should have started him and not gone for this stupid system with 5 at the back that we simply never perform in.

BBC - ‘
It is a measure of Manchester United's fall from grace that in May it will be 10 seasons since they reached the Champions League final in 2011, when they were beaten by Barcelona at Wembley.
In that period United have won two individual Champions League knockout games - at home to Olympiakos in 2014 and away to PSG in 2018.’

highlights the decay

The ref was horrible, absolutely horrible. Different rules for different teams really. If thats not it then he has to be blind or on the payroll. The European Clattenburg. Yellow card for Shaw, Maguire, for stopping counters Yet they kicked anyone on the ball down every time we turned around to counter and ref did nothing. How they didn't have at least two red cards, or was forced to slow down by the ref at any point is beyond me. How can a team expect to play football if the other team constantly waste time without punishment, kick and hold players when they have the ball without being punished. It's ridiculous.

We played bad. Really bad. Only ones who looked the part was Greenwood and Bruno.

You can look at Ole for some poor decisions recently, not taking Fred off against PSG, formation today, not making any subs/ no change in formation until half time , but the problems are bigger that that. And maybe not all his fault.
1) spend £80 odd million in the summer and not have one player that improves the starting line up. (Were any signings his)
2) spending £40m on two Right Wingers, neither who have kicked a ball for us.
3) extending Ighalo’s contract then buying Cavani on dead line day stinks of no plan although I think Cavani will be good for us, however the late integration has not helped.

What is firmly at Ole’s doors is the poor cohesion of the team and the frankly dire ability to pass the ball or retain position (other than passing between the centre backs) .
Having to score 2/3 Goals on a regular basis to get a draw is pathetic.
This is solely down to the managers ability to coach the team and get a regular
Pattern of play.
It was clear from the first match against RB that they go all out in the first half of a game but tire, however Ole picked a team that had no one able to retain possession. DVB had his best game against RB in the home match yet he is on the bench and Matic plays.
Yes we are all disappointed, but having won the first two matches the chance to go through to the next stage was lost away in Turkey, again this was on basic tactics and coaching that is not up the standard.
Not sure I have actually solved anything but feel much better for the post.

Annihilate Now! said:

It goes on head to head

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That’s crap then! Much obliged!

Ferdinand and Scholes captured my thinking exactly in the post match. Tactical mistakes which were too slow to be resolved. Our players are good enough to win sporadically but need identity and system to start doing it week in week out.

Aretak said:

They won't criticise their mate, same as Neville. Even Keane goes out of his way to not say anything bad about Ole, despite his "tells it as it is" bluster.

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Quite sickening at this stage. So glaringly obvious that he is flawed. Reminds me of the allegedly "Club de Amigos" in Barcelona in some ways. Protects each other at all cost.

Bruno dragged us to CL, but I guess he can't outplay an incompetent manager.

Quite simply put, not good enough & most definitely didn't deserve to go through.

A lot of players stinking the club out, be it attitude or ability.

Ole's tactics were off, again. Reactive rather than proactive on the field. Kept three at the back rather than changing up the formation there and then on the pitch.

The defence really is terrible, letting us down yet again. Wan-Bissaka unaware of what was behind him as per usual. Really don't know how Lindelof is a professional footballer. Maguire over-rated and head was on Jupiter for the third goal. Shaw isn't good enough even though people rate him a god-send on here. De Gea couldn't even spell the word brave, pathetic for the third goal.

Seems inevitable what happens from here and it's starting to look like a pattern. Get a manager in, let him start to build a team, don't back him fully next window, bad form, gets sacked, rinse and repeat. In my opinion, I don't think Ole's good enough, love the guy, but he shouldn't be managing us.

Ole’s post match interview on BT Sport.
He looked and sounded a broken man.
I had hoped he would have said he was both annoyed and very disappointed.
Emphasis on the annoyed.
Nothing, just resigned disappointment and dejection.

A loss to City on Saturday (very likely) and a couple of other EPL results going against us this coming weekend and it’s back to mid-table.

Jonno said:

Pogba? VDB? No, just ignore those and go straight to TFM? Ok. Selective to fit your agenda but fine, let’s talk TFM.

Legs at the back along with height should we get a set piece maybe?

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We were losing 3-0. The general rule if we want to score goals is bring on attackers not feckin defenders.

Ranchero said:

Ole should hold his hand up and say it is his fault... but he hasn't. He is blaming the players.

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What he say?

Where was the passing and moving in the final minutes when we were chasing the equalizing goal.

Why does NOBODY run with the ball in this football team? Except for when they are running into a brick wall.

Ultimately the blame falls at Ole's feet for the team selection and tactics.

Though it doesn't help having De Gea 'The Cowardly Lion' in the team, highest paid keeper in World football - yet he is scared of the ball (see their 3rd goal - which would be the decider in the end).

As a side note, Pogba should follow Solskjaer out the door, him and his agent have done more harm than good to Manchester United, and there is no doubt his antics in the press unsettled the team in general.

Oh well, rant over, bring on City at the weekend.

I don't understand why Shaw and Matic started after so much of not playing... The 3-4-1-2 thing has worked before (against Leipzig even, no?) but in this decisive match I can imagine match fitness playing a huge role. Even Pogba would give more defensive reliability than a Matic who barely got minutes in several weeks. Shaw might generally be their best LCB in this system, but now? He's not the dominant type who steps up even when he's been out for a while. Might as well played McTom or Tuanzebe there if you really need to play 3CB against Leipzig today.

Leipzig still has merit in their win though, but these calculations for the starters seem so weird sometimes. Pogba played so much while apparently he noted to the physical staff that he could barely breath on the pitch... I mean you can complain about fitness due to the schedule blablabla but playing someone who isn't done recovering his lungs in practically an endurance sport?

They seem to be recovering form/results in general, but then a mistake like this doesn't help in supporting this managerial staff looking forward... Hope the lessons turn long term sooner rather than later because sometimes it's frustrating to see mistakes that could've been avoided easier than they keep telling us in hindsight.

GenZRed said:

Where was the passing and moving in the final minutes when we were chasing the equalizing goal.

Why does NOBODY run with the ball in this football team? Except for when they are running into a brick wall.

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In the last 5 minutes you’d think after the 5th long ball hadn’t worked we might try and keep it on the deck but no, just kept smashing it long.

It had that feeling to it, and told myself to expect the worst. But having actually gone through the worst, FECK OFF!!!

Tapori said:

The 3rd is squarely on Maguire. CLEAR IT>

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Yes just clear the goddamn ball! Even if you're not communicating with the keeper, whatever. Boot that clear!

MikeKing said:

The ref was horrible, absolutely horrible. Different rules for different teams really. If thats not it then he has to be blind or on the payroll. The European Clattenburg. Yellow card for Shaw, Maguire, for stopping counters Yet they kicked anyone on the ball down every time we turned around to counter and ref did nothing. How they didn't have at least two red cards, or was forced to slow down by the ref at any point is beyond me. How can a team expect to play football if the other team constantly waste time without punishment, kick and hold players when they have the ball without being punished. It's ridiculous.

We played bad. Really bad. Only ones who looked the part was Greenwood and Bruno.

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....he gave us the softest penalty you will see in a long time though.

Heinzesight said:

In the last 5 minutes you’d think after the 5th long ball hadn’t worked we might try and keep it on the deck but no, just kept smashing it long.

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Agreed. There was still plenty os fans calling for us to 'hoof it long' though.

Stig said:

This is not a rhetorical question; what can Ole have been hoping for with those substitutions of Brandon Williams and TFM ? 30 minutes to go. 2 nil down and he brings on defenders. I just don't get it.

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I was thinking resting them for City to be honest

bdspeedy said:

A fish rots from the head. All of these managers have been scapegoats for our shite, incompetent board and owners. Don't get me wrong, it's been obvious for over a year the Ole isn't ready and may never be a top manager, but as long as Eddie is allowed to run anything other than sponsorships and shirt sales, we are proper fecked.

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I really don't know how you blame the owners for this result to be honest.

Plant0x84 said:

Forgive me but we have a better goal diff than PSG, what am I missing here?

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Comes down to head to head

I’ve said it before and got slated for it, be we do not have a ‘warrior spirit’ anymore. The only warrior at the club is Phil Jones.

Banana Republic said:

Ole’s post match interview on BT Sport.
He looked and sounded a broken man.
I had hoped he would have said he was both annoyed and very disappointed.
Emphasis on the annoyed.
Nothing, just resigned disappointment and dejection.

A loss to City on Saturday (very likely) and a couple of other EPL results going against us and it’s back to mid-table.

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Any link to this? Wanted to watch it but couldn’t

Plant0x84 said:

Forgive me but we have a better goal diff than PSG, what am I missing here?

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Their head to head against us is better.

Mike Oxard said:

....he gave us the softest penalty you will see in a long time though.

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It wasn't soft. I know why you think that though, so we'll leave that alone for sure.

This team really love to let their fans down, dont they?

Disappointing. Two steps forward, three steps back.

Mike Oxard said:

I’ve said it before and got slated for it, be we do not have a ‘warrior spirit’ anymore. The only warrior at the club is Phil Jones.

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I've never thought of Phil Jones like that before, but you are right, he puts his body on the line - and heads the ball even when it's millimetres off the ground.
He is a warrior... just a very poor one in footballing terms.

No great leaders in the side, just a team of individuals by the looks of it.

bugmat said:

Outcoached by better players?

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That's the thing, are they better, the Leipzig players? I wouldn't agree. On paper United is far stronger, what made a difference is coaching, tactics and attitude. Three areas that Ole is responsible for.