Yes they were “deadwood” and we rightly got rid of them because they varied from bang average to shite. I’ll be happy for them though when they collect their runners up medals.
Darmian, Lukaku and Mkhitaryan in the Champions League final.... Now Jose and Moyes make European finals as well
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
There is no easy run in the CL especially if you make it to the final. If it were so easy Man City would be winning it every year. Plenty of oppurtunities for Inter to bottle it but they didn’t. Fair play to the players who have made it to the final.
There clearly is.
Perhaps it's just further proof of how badly managed this club has been and how dusfunctionak our team is that so many players we've signed have been deemed flops. Yet many of them do alright elsewhere
Probably because most of the time we’ve been in the CL we’ve also been in a dog fight in the league. The classic “‘not great team getting to a CL final” is one that doesn’t have much to play for in the league.
And he is only a starter because Skriniar is missing (Maybe something to do with him going to Paris on a free?). I think the starting 11 they field last year against Pool in the R.16 was stronger than yesterday's side ()... Which says it all about Cup competitions (you don't necessarily go far when you are best, but rather when you get luck on your side). I think they were lucky to get Milan, Napoli would have kicked them out...
These specific players would be bad examples though, seeing as two out of three of them also flopped at other PL clubs. Didn’t Mhkitaryan also not impress at Roma?
Just goes to show the real trend here: Since Madrid-Juventus at Cardiff in 2017, at least one, if not both finalists did not belong there. Pool thrice, Spurs and Chelsea once, also Paris, and argueably Bayern. Trend just continues.
But, happy for all three of them. Their time at OT taught them much, I'm sure they'll all agree
But, happy for all three of them. Their time at OT taught them much, I'm sure they'll all agree
All are good players if used in the right way.
Mikhy could've been so much more for us.
Mikhy could've been so much more for us.
Seems to be a club thing. We only managed to do well in the CL if we were also dominating the league. Same applies to Barca (before, during and after Pep), Bayern and to a lesser extent City.
Between 2004 and 2006 when we were not good enough in the league we were also not good at all in Europe.
Whereas RM, Milan, Chelsea and Liverpool even when they have had average league seasons can turn it up occasionally for CL campaigns.
Excellent reference
Wrong way, down a one way strAeet
Weird stuff alright, I wouldn't bet on them reaching EL final, let alone CL final (based on their squad).
Just shows that if the stars align, any decent team can go up to the final.
Just shows that if the stars align, any decent team can go up to the final.
Yep, that's some egg on our faces. These are three of the greatest players of their generation and we discarded them like old tomatoes approaching their best before date. Particularly Darmian.
Best thing about Inter these days is the magnificent royal blue on their current kit.
Right. A.C. were so bad we beat them twice comfortably and look how shit Chelsea are. They’re run isn’t half as difficult as the one we had to win it last.
well there have been a few years (after SAF, mid 2000's) where we've been in the CL and pretty/very far off it in the league - just never get the luck of the draw/we were far too crap to actually make it anywhere.
I wonder if they would be interested in Sancho.
I think it is pretty rich of us, behind Sociedad in Europa group, and later eliminated by Sevilla to laugh at Inter's run. They qualified from a tough group and had to knock out Benfica (the team that won its group unbeaten, ahead of PSG and Juventus)...
Inter managed 7 clean sheets in this CL... I wouldn't trust our bunch to get a clean sheet at Plzen...
Inter managed 7 clean sheets in this CL... I wouldn't trust our bunch to get a clean sheet at Plzen...
They didn't make the final. Villarreal, last year, looked better than them in their semifinal. And to be fair to Milan, I don't think you'd have hammered them if they had their top players available (Specially Maignan, it is a very different game with/without his sweeper abilites). This tie proved again they become very weak, even with one single important starter missing (Leao first leg/ Bennacer the second).
Are Darmain and Mkhitaryan first team regulars?
My initial thought as well. He would be worth 80m in Italy and we can buy him back in few years.
A slower paced game would suit him and Inter pay decent transfer fees.
It’s time to support Lukaku again on his first ever CL final.
Come on, let’s show our class there! City must loss at cost!
Come on, let’s show our class there! City must loss at cost!
Not sure... They rotate a lot. Darmian has been playing in Skriniar's position (Something weird is happening with Skriniar, maybe his PSG move)... Mkhitaryan became a starter after Brozovic's repeated injuries... Now the latter hasn't started any of the bigger games recently.
This is what their best 11 (with Brozo injured) looked like earlier in this UCL. The back 3 has changed, only Bastoni still starting these big games..
Mkhi is more or less a starter, but he's that "old legs so usually subbed off first" player.
I suppose it helps to reach CL final if you actually play in CL (+ get some luck in draws). They have been very average in Serie A and none of those players you can say were a huge part of Inter's run to the final.
But have done alright?
Mkhi has been a flop at Arsenal and was underwhelming at Roma
Lukaku a huge flop in chelsea and struggling at Inter
Schneiderlin, god knows where he is
Depay- goid at Lyon, crap at Barca
Sanchez- crap at Inter and now don't know what he is upto
Pogba- Still injured
Blind- Ok career at Ajax and now a bench player at Bayern
Rojo- making mistakes somewhere in south america
Smalling- At roma, still making same mistakes
James- failed at Leeds
Who else did I miss? None of the players we sold ever became world beaters. Players like Darmian could have been kept as a squad player, that's all.
Of course there is. Happens frequently.
Not that i disagree with what you are saying, but, for some perspective since everyone on this thread apparently shits on them, do you think this United side (or the one under Solskjaer) would beat them over two legs? I doubt it. I think it would be a very even contest. They are a more than decent transition side. They have also scored numerous goals in situations when one wingback provides the assist for the other to score which, positionally, takes time and effort to implement. Certainly more meticulous than "give it to Bruno to hit it in behind for Rashford". Plus, easy run or not, at least they didn't spend a half a billion euros to get there.
Even with a supposed easier run in Utd would never reach the final. We show year in year out we can’t even win the Europa League.
There is no need to minimize the fantastic achievement by Inter. They have been champions recently and now they’re in a major final, their supposedly worse set of players are doing the shirt proud…
There is no need to minimize the fantastic achievement by Inter. They have been champions recently and now they’re in a major final, their supposedly worse set of players are doing the shirt proud…
It's a disservice to say either player has been/was any less than good for them.
Lukaku obviously had one very outstanding season for Inter and made the mistake of returning to Chelsea, has been unfit for a while but since mid-Feb you'd have a hard time saying he's been anything less than good for Inter.
Blind was excellent for Ajax
Pogba is physically decimated, but in isolation was not the problem at United.
The likes of James, Rojo, Depay and Schneiderlin of course were absolutely not United standard.
I'd say Seville have had a tougher run in the Europa League knockouts compared to them as well. I think this is the weakest tournament I can remember since the years when Porto won it with Jose and Benitez won it with Liverpool.
That post flew right over your head then mate. They are playing City in the semi, if they get past them Inter sure as shit aren't stopping them. That was the point.
Blind's second run with Ajax was a solid one but nothing suggesting an excellent one.It's a disservice to say either player has been/was any less than good for them.
Lukaku obviously had one very outstanding season for Inter and made the mistake of returning to Chelsea, has been unfit for a while but since mid-Feb you'd have a hard time saying he's been anything less than good for Inter.
Blind was excellent for Ajax
Pogba is physically decimated, but in isolation was not the problem at United.
The likes of James, Rojo, Depay and Schneiderlin of course were absolutely not United standard.
Never said Pogba was a problem but I was replying to the original posters argument that players seem to do alright elsewhere when that's a rarity. Doing alright at Roma means the player was rightly sold from United.
The point is none of the players we have sold turned out to be world beaters. I don't think we ever made a mistake selling any of them. Infact one may argue we should have sold more of these average players quickly. The likes of Martial still with our club tells us that.
Definitely. I also think “give it to Bruno to hit it behind for Rashford” is a quite insulting way to describe the tactics of a team managed by someone as competent as ETH.
The Olé side that lost to Istanbul in the group stage would “definitely” beat this Inter side over 2 legs?
With our current side I’d say it’s 50-50… We are both good Cup tournament sides.
But they’ve certainly done much better than us it in the harder competition….
Beating Barça (GS), Benfica, Porto and Milan >> Drawig with Sociedad (GS), Beating Betis, Barça and losing to Sevilla.
19-20: 16 games, 14 goals/assists.
20-21: 30 games, 23 goals/assists.
21-22: 29 games, 11 goals/assists.
This isnt underwhelming no matter how you look at it. The drop off in his last season was because he was deployed further back when Mourinho arrived.
My favourite thing about this post is - we both know you definitely haven't spent a second looking into this .... and yet we all know it's definitely true
Fair enough. I beg to differ. I believe it would as clear a 50/50 contest as you could expect. My post wasn't meant as an insult to ETH, who, by the way, was my preferred choice a year ago and in whom i have strong faith regarding the future of this club. But, until we get there, it is what it is. At our best, we are a competent transition side - like Inter - that really struggles to create decent openings when the early ball in-behind isn't available. Anyway, the main point was about the former United players. They didn't cut it at United and Inter found a way to give them roles and this resulted in the Milan side having a full squad for their standards. People are free to believe that they are worthless or that the mighty PL isn't the stage for them. Personally, if you told me to swap Mkhitaryan, Lukaku and Darmian for, let’s say, Fred/McT, Martial and Lindelof, i would say no. But that's just me. I would also keep the version of Young they got over AWB/Dalot.
Mkhitaryan and Lukaku have proven themselves to be mental midgets. I wouldn’t want them back. But yes, they are probably better than the worst players in their position in our current squad. Although that’s faint praise.
I don’t know enough about Darmian to have a strong opinion about him. He always seemed decent enough to me. I certainly don’t feel like we’ve let a star slip through our fingers though.
Good luck to them, great achievement in getting to the CL final, when I seen their line up for the 1st leg, seeing players like the 3 ex United players and even Dzeko at his age in their squad, I kind of rolled my eyes, then I thought to myself, since Jan we've been playing up front, either Martial, who can't complete 90 mins or Weghorst.