Bernie Tapie and Marseilles. The allegations of bribery, corruption, doping etc still swirl when that season is mentioned.
French journalist Julien Laurens: United did not play football against PSG
- Thread starter Giggsyking
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He will do well to remember the injury crisis we've got
He's virtually all wrong.
First of all, Tuchel couldn't have done anything else? How about creating something in the second half? Apart from Mbappe's slip, how many sitters did they have? He'd do well to remember that PSG had literally the same amount of shots on target as we did.
Secondly, come on, it's obviously a pen. Don't know how can you argue otherwise.
We were lucky as we scored everything we had, that much is true, it felt like God wanted to get us through but that doesn't take away from the fact he's talking garbage.
Then, somebody should remind him that Liverpool were lucky to have got away with a draw as we at least created something. They did zilch. Hate the phrase 'anti-football' but they were more guilty of that than we were. Pathetic display and visibly happy with a draw. I nticed that suddenly quite a lot of people totally forgot that game and just use our Mourinho's reputation against us. Like '0-0? Surely United parked the bus?'.
Lastly, does he even takes into account we played both those games (esp PSG) totally destroyed by injuries?
Strikes me as one of those clever wannabe teenagers who claim not to be hurt by the results yet sounds incredibly sour grapes.
I'm not too familiar with his body of work in football journalism, but damn the bitterness was intense when I watched him on ESPN.
There are so many metrics by which one can judge who the better team was, some more objective than others, but sometimes I find it really weird how a team sticking to an obvious game plan can work against them in this context just because it may not be as aesthetically pleasing. We had 10 players out injured or suspended including all our first choice midfielders, the 3 substitutes who came on were two 19 year olds and a kid of 17, playing away with a 2 away goals deficit - what were we supposed to do, go all heart and no brains to get battered? Is that what would have constituted for beauty and bravery? Solskjaer set the team up the way he believed [actually fecking believed] would get the result, and a huge part of that was our never-say-die attitude. No one gave us a hope in hell to get a result against the faux European giant, but what ultimately prevailed? The tradition of an academy-littered squad, fighting team spirit, and of course the mantra - we're fecking Man United! We showed them what it means to be a European giant.
All that talk of it being more PSG losing the game than United winning it is incredibly disrespectful. Sure luck plays a role in any and everything, but those errors [or luck] didn't just randomly occur - they were forced by our pressing, shooting, and probing. It's worth noting there were a few different phases of that game from a psychological point of view [because PSG playing shit is also our luck?] and it started with them coming in to the game with the mentality of already having gone through - that was their first mistake. After they equalised they thought they can overrun us but what materealised? Solskjaer amended the right flank and we pretty much shepherded their possession to non-threatening areas for large parts of the game. Even almost gave them a couple gifts of our own with bad passes and an unlucky interception. With the game approaching the latter stages and doubts inevitably creeping in to PSG minds, they probably thought they'd be able to see out the game holding possession because for all their huffing and puffing they gave De Gea hardly anything to do. This coincided with United going all in for a goal and due to our sheer persistence - were rightly awarded a penalty due to a hand ball in the box.
tl;dr - ahahahaha feck off
Well explained for someone who can't learn how to spell Bailly.
Forum De culture psg or something. Chrome auto translated for me.
Did we really have only two shots in the second half 
I love the bitternessThe game could have gone another couple of days and we wouldn't have created a decent chance because we couldn't get the ball. There was nothing idiotic about the set up and they didn't leave any space behind their defence either. We barely attacked the whole game, didn't get beyond their defensive line even once - except from the mistakes - and created next to nothing in 100 minutes. If anything, they should have attacked more aggressively and tried to create more goalscoring chances to kill the tie. They got complacent and were just passing the ball around which would have been okay if they were not going to make schoolboy errors.
The only thing he was spot on about was the freezing out of PSG legends at the club. Think of all the players who wore their shirt and they couldn't even bother to invite a few. People like Raí, Lama, Sušić, luis Fernandez, Pauleta, Okocha, even bloody Weah!
I genuinely don't understand this type of criticism. Wenger, Arsenal and Barcelona used to be notorious for it.
"Ah, but they didn't play proper football! They were physical, defensive and made the game sticky! Not real football!
Of course, real football is lining up 4-3-3 vs Barcelona and playing open expansive football because hey, if you lose 5-0 atleast you played 'Real football.'
Honestly, its a ridiculous thing to moan about. What do you expect Man Utd's 2nd choice XI to play open expansive end to end football vs PSG, in Paris, in the CL knockout stage?
"Ah, but they didn't play proper football! They were physical, defensive and made the game sticky! Not real football!
Of course, real football is lining up 4-3-3 vs Barcelona and playing open expansive football because hey, if you lose 5-0 atleast you played 'Real football.'
Honestly, its a ridiculous thing to moan about. What do you expect Man Utd's 2nd choice XI to play open expansive end to end football vs PSG, in Paris, in the CL knockout stage?
Reading the title I also had the "he's not wrong" impression but he really is.
If the team thought they were already in the quarter final then Tuchel did a lot wrong. This is a case of a journalist thinking all a coach does is tactics and style of play.
Tuchel obviously failed to get that humble winning mentality in his squad. Installing the United winning mentality and togetherness is Solskjaer's greatest accomplishment and it's why United won. It's certainly not playing a back 5 . . . because he didn't play a back 5.
He isnt wrong about us, it reminded me of the 99 final where we had big players missing, could barely string two passes together yet mentally never gave up and came good at the end. He is also most right when he says they lost the game and that is the biggest thing, they dominated both ties for most of the game, first leg got it perfect, smothered our danger men, kept possession then pushed higher up the pitch int he second half and without being kamikaze they went for the jugular. Second leg they just played with an arrogance of look at us and our great possesion football, we will probe and you cant hurt us with the ball, Di Maria was the only player who really went at us, the threat of Mbappe was nullified as they were far too slow as he had far less space to run into, they made horrific individual mistakes too. If they played the second leg as they had the first half of the first leg they probably would have in all honesty went through comfortably
Must be one of the most uneducated football journo ever. How the hell was a depleated Utd side going to play perfect football against a star studded line up. Ole the staff & the team had a plan which I say was perfectly executed on the night by the players & it was a great achievement.
By the way the goals we scored were on the attack, so to say we didn’t play offensive football is just idiocy from him. They got done over simple as that.
Absolute numpty.
By the way the goals we scored were on the attack, so to say we didn’t play offensive football is just idiocy from him. They got done over simple as that.
Absolute numpty.
Both with almost zero experience at this level against pressumably one of the best teams in Europe.
There's no one way to play football. Get out.
I hate watching us play that way, but we hadnt the quality of players to play them offensively. We scored off 2 mistakes and a fortunate penalty, but had a load of guts, spirit whatever you want to call it. To a man we battled. They cant say that.
Huge names in football that lot
The old "that's not football" defence is always so funny. The aim of the game is to score more goals than the opponent. That is football. How you go about it within the rules of the game is entirely up to you. If you are going to complain that you didn't win because we defended, then maybe the problem is that you were not good enough to beat that defence. On top of that, your players made shit mistakes that were punished. Ours either didn't, or they weren't.
With the missing players we had, we basically only had the way of playing that we went for, and it worked. It could easily have gone the other way if we concede first.
With the missing players we had, we basically only had the way of playing that we went for, and it worked. It could easily have gone the other way if we concede first.
Steady... they are. When you find yourself in the depths of ignorance it's best to shut up.Huge names in football that lot
Edit: Pauleta does sound like scraping at the barrel, mind.
Give me a break Anto, I started struggling to think of their players
Although it's not about best players on the world stage but rather players who were dear to PSG fans.What a time to upload this video huh Barca?
Barcelona hates them as well.
That little shit. Hope he gets a nasty fungal infection of the dick!
That commentator makes me want to rip my ears off
What a time to upload this video huh Barca?
Barcelona hates them as well.
I really like him as a Journo, at the end of the day he’s a huge PSG fan and extremely bitter about the loss. It’s a shame he can’t be more unbiased about it. We didn’t play football apparently, yet we scored THREE goals.
Bless him.
Bless him.
It was a good effort. Missed Ginola though, that was a harder one to scoff at if PL-centred. Pretty sure Makelele as well... and Ronaldinho albeit a rather young one. Question is whether they have the sense of belonging to actually go.Give me a break Anto, I started struggling to think of their players
To quote Tony and put it in French: "Le Caractere!"
They lacked that.
They lacked that.
I am continually bemused by the way some people here just look for excuses to do United down; if we won the PL, CL, FA Cup, World Cup, Boat race, egg and spoon race, F1, Le Mans, Daytona 500, World Ice Hockey Cup in one season theyd still say "we were lucky!"
What the feck were PSG doing with almost their full strength team, if we weren't playing football but managed the same amount of shots at goal as them.
Apparently not playing football, either.
Well, had PSG continued with their 70% possession and pass the ball to death, we wouldn't be able to attack, like what Barca did to us at the Final. They simply fade after 60th min, try to park the bus with 2 defenders sub in but still couldn't defend. Tuchel wished he had Xavi in the team.
Obviously we were lucky guys ...
We were lucky there defender forgot we were playing 2 up front on the first minute and played a stray back pass to Lukaku.who was so fortunate to be able to round the keeper and score from close angle
We were lucky that we have a player that can constantly strike a ball from 25 yards with such dip and bobble that keepers seem to never be able to hold the shot. We were also lucky that Lukaku and rashford discussed this before hand that Lukaku would follow up any shot rashford took.
We were lucky that kimpembe didn't receive the red card he should have in the first tie so he could jump and turn his back to a shit hands flailing and give us the penalty that would get us to the quarter finals
fecking lucky cnuts we are
We were lucky there defender forgot we were playing 2 up front on the first minute and played a stray back pass to Lukaku.who was so fortunate to be able to round the keeper and score from close angle
We were lucky that we have a player that can constantly strike a ball from 25 yards with such dip and bobble that keepers seem to never be able to hold the shot. We were also lucky that Lukaku and rashford discussed this before hand that Lukaku would follow up any shot rashford took.
We were lucky that kimpembe didn't receive the red card he should have in the first tie so he could jump and turn his back to a shit hands flailing and give us the penalty that would get us to the quarter finals
fecking lucky cnuts we are
I’ll give you George Weah from that list but he became world renowned after he moved from PSG. ‘Depth of ignorance’ whilst quoting Okocha as one of the all time greats for a club. As bad as Man City quoting Shaun Goater.
Okocha was a lovely player, easily top 3 Nigeria has produced. Probably the closest to Pauleta of that lot, granted, given how long he stuck around at Bolton. Susic, Fernandez and Rai are national/club level all-time greats.I’ll give you George Weah from that list but he became world renowned after he moved from PSG. ‘Depth of ignorance’ whilst quoting Okocha as one of the all time greats for a club. As bad as Man City quoting Shaun Goater.
I’ll give you George Weah from that list but he became world renowned after he moved from PSG. ‘Depth of ignorance’ whilst quoting Okocha as one of the all time greats for a club. As bad as Man City quoting Shaun Goater.
Okocha is in the Club's hall of fame, as are all the other players I mentioned. In terms of judging PSG's favourite players that must account for something.
Okocha was brilliant.
Really fun entertaining player, even at fecking Bolton he managed to shine.
Holy lord the French are sooo salty it’s amazing. Hey baguette, it’s called tactics. Does he expect Ole to play scintillating footy with 56 first team players injured? That was one of the best games I’ve ever watched from a tactical stand point. Na na na na
PSG were so effing arrogant, and this journalist seems to be cut from the same cloth.
Whether we deserved to win, played the better football, got the big decisions .... yada yada yada ... is completely irrelevant. One team turned up to give it their best shot despite the problems they faced, and the other approached the game with an air of entitlement. It's not really much of a surprise which of them emerged victorious.
I would have been proud to be a United fan even if we hadn't got the late penalty, and ashamed to be a PSG fan regardless.
Eff off Les Plastiques!
Whether we deserved to win, played the better football, got the big decisions .... yada yada yada ... is completely irrelevant. One team turned up to give it their best shot despite the problems they faced, and the other approached the game with an air of entitlement. It's not really much of a surprise which of them emerged victorious.
I would have been proud to be a United fan even if we hadn't got the late penalty, and ashamed to be a PSG fan regardless.
Eff off Les Plastiques!
I would have liked to see what football PSG would have played if in addition to Neymar and Cavani, you had Dani Alves, Marquinhos, Paredes and Di Maria injured, as well as Verratti suspended. Also, for all your 'domination' in the first leg, you scored from two United mistakes. Perhaps that should be remembered as a game United lost rather than one you won?
The 'they didn't play football' is a very bitter argument, don't you think?
Saying we didn't play football shows he shouldn't be considered an expert on the sport.
Defending is a major part of football, we did it well against a team loaded with oil money players.
It's just a shame they can't buy a winning mentality.
Defending is a major part of football, we did it well against a team loaded with oil money players.
It's just a shame they can't buy a winning mentality.