That's where we got it wrong didn't we? Our management was to start at home on the back foot, with a mentality to not concede first and hit on the break.
CL L Champions League Quarter-Final 1st Leg
Manchester United 0:1 Barcelona
Post-match discussion
Wed, 10 April 2019
Fred, Smalling and McTominay were our best players against Barca. I can hardly believe I'm typing this.
No. This is how you defend against Barcelona. We have to be realistic with the quality of players we have. The players also have to take some responsibility in terms of their bravery on the ball.
Having a proper defensive shape is not being on the back foot. Barca also fall into a shape.
If I was a United fan, I would have been very dissapointed with the approach from the manager.
1. Barca's main issue last few seasons in CL has been away form. Should have taken advantage of that uncertainity.
2. Barca just played their 4th game within 11 days. That too an away fixture in in CL after Espanyol, Atletico within this period. They would have been phsycally/mentally tired. It would have much different result if United attacked instead of being so passive.
3. Velverde would have been content with a draw, he didn't even use Dembele/Malcom. His subs were defensive. Understandable looking at past fixtures.
4. Barca are very tough to beat at home, don't remember any home loss since 2013. Maybe like 30+ games now without a defeat at home in CL.
5. With the league wrapped up now, they can easily rest players against Huesca.
Yesterday was a golden chance for United, the manager blew it.
1. Barca's main issue last few seasons in CL has been away form. Should have taken advantage of that uncertainity.
2. Barca just played their 4th game within 11 days. That too an away fixture in in CL after Espanyol, Atletico within this period. They would have been phsycally/mentally tired. It would have much different result if United attacked instead of being so passive.
3. Velverde would have been content with a draw, he didn't even use Dembele/Malcom. His subs were defensive. Understandable looking at past fixtures.
4. Barca are very tough to beat at home, don't remember any home loss since 2013. Maybe like 30+ games now without a defeat at home in CL.
5. With the league wrapped up now, they can easily rest players against Huesca.
Yesterday was a golden chance for United, the manager blew it.
exactly, it was too conservative early on. We showed in that Spurs game, we have a forward line that has pace that can cause issues to any defence. I felt the inclusion of Lukaku was a safe choice, I think Ole could have been bolder. Barca didn't really have to worry too much as all we had was Rash's pace on the break. Maybe a front 3 of Martial , Rash and Lingard would have given us a better outlet and certainly would have given their wing backs cause for concern had they been caught too far forward. They would also have been much more aggressive in the high press.Even without player changes we showed we could cause issues when we started competing. Too timid and showed too much respect early on to a team that was there for the taking
After the subs it was as though we were happy keeping it at 0-1. Usually United pile on at the end of games. It was really strange. For all our control we seemed happy to just take pot shots from the edge of the box, apart from the Dalot chance. Nobody seems to have the guile to get the ball into the box, apart from absolutely futile crosses, cannot actually describe them as crosses. The movement up front was not good enough either, Barca defended in numbers and controlled the type of chances we did get and dealt with them easily. Barca did not put us under that much pressure and we, despite pressing them did not put them under the incessant pressure that we should have done.
You couldn't be more wrong, barcelona at home are a different beastl, as Lyon found out in the previous round, even when they played Villareal recently.
Our problem is we have too many inconsistent players, Martial, Pogba,Linguard and Rashford.Ole will not be able to rest many over the weekend as we have West Ham coming up, who will be looking for some points, following their recent poor run of results.
Martial and Linguard need at least 60 minutes, to improve their match fitness, Herrera and Matic, will need some minutes before the return leg, otherwise they will be a little rusty next week, Fred and Mc T are yet to play three games consectively in a week, if this does happen, fatigue could set in in the later stages of the game next week.
we have to realistic about our defence as well. As much as we'd like to sit back and soak up and hit on the break, we don't have the players in our defence to do that against quality attackers. We are conceding goals against teams like Wolves with our defence. Our strength is in our pace up front. Liverpool don't have ball players in their mid, so they play to their strengths ie their fluid front 3.
So were Juve and PSG before we went there. Juve had only lost 2 home games in 9 years in Europe or something like that. So history really counts for nothing in the end. If you saw them against 10 men Atletico you would have seen they were hardly imperious. Given our record of comebacks this season, the longer we stay in the game the more nervous the crowd and the players will get. So its far from a done deal and we don't exactly need a miracle to pull it off, so it would be nice if people would stop painting this as Mission Impossible, improbable maybe, but certainly doable.
We had 9 shots, ultimately the players blew it not the manager.
Thought we would be trounced, far from it, last 3rd lacked quality, Young hit every cross poor, give it away cheaply , think it's time for him to go.
Mctominay, for a player so young, didn't give them any respect loved it, this boy keeps it simple, gets it gives it, Put himself about excellent plus point for future, Fred same but He's got no quality, Anderson kind of player.
As For Barca thought they would show more? If we go out which is a big possibility, this game showed with some quality signings where ole wants to go. Not to disappointed. West Ham Sat is the one don't get 3pts there then I will be pissed.
Mctominay, for a player so young, didn't give them any respect loved it, this boy keeps it simple, gets it gives it, Put himself about excellent plus point for future, Fred same but He's got no quality, Anderson kind of player.
As For Barca thought they would show more? If we go out which is a big possibility, this game showed with some quality signings where ole wants to go. Not to disappointed. West Ham Sat is the one don't get 3pts there then I will be pissed.
I thought the refereeing was atrocious.
McTominay deserved to win a penalty.
The tackle in the first few minutes by Busquets was at least a yellow.
It’s interesting that Fred can look so good in this match, against a world class side, yet be completely inept against the Wolves or what ever mid table team we playing. Confidence? His touch is so bad at times, you wonder if he has the skill needed to compete at this level. Really confounding.
McTominay was outstanding. He has really stepped up his confidence, and, Ole has allowed him, unlike Jose, to go forward. He has a lot more in his boot locker than we originally thought. He looked like he could physically dominate at times.
McTominay deserved to win a penalty.
The tackle in the first few minutes by Busquets was at least a yellow.
It’s interesting that Fred can look so good in this match, against a world class side, yet be completely inept against the Wolves or what ever mid table team we playing. Confidence? His touch is so bad at times, you wonder if he has the skill needed to compete at this level. Really confounding.
McTominay was outstanding. He has really stepped up his confidence, and, Ole has allowed him, unlike Jose, to go forward. He has a lot more in his boot locker than we originally thought. He looked like he could physically dominate at times.
Meant Lindelof
If Smalling fell at the very end, that was a penalty from Vidal. It was NOT a penalty on McTominay.
Hmm you don’t think the staff and players did what they could to get a better result? They all tried their best, our squad is simply not better than this.
No, Liverpool have quality fullbacks to make up for it. It’s not about soaking up pressure it’s about forcing Barca into areas they are less comfortable and stopping them making the passes they want.
I was just thinking that had we equalised and the game ended 1-1, we still would have needed a goal and approach the away leg the same as we will do anyway.
Always makes me laugh when people blame managers for things as though they have an exact say on how everything is going to pan out.
Its completely obvious that our game-plan was to press the defence so you couldn't play out from the back. I noticed at least a half-dozen instances of our forward players directing their team-mates or berating them when they didn't follow plan. The problem with the first 15 minutes is that Barca set the tempo and were extremely good on the ball. It was only after the goal unfortunately that we started to get a grip on that and be able to implement our strategy. Then I feel that we at least matched Barca for the next hour, before fading at the end.
Its this that gives me some small hope that we are still in this tie. IMO we should play exactly the same strategy at the Nou, and hope that our front players are more productive. You have a better team than us right now. What our manager accomplished last night was a tactical set-up that actually give us a chance of getting a result against a better team, which is all we could have expected of him.
You still have a drastically better team than us and he set out a game plan that controlled a lot of the game and gave us more opportunities to score than our more talented opposition.
Ole can not be blamed for Dalot not testing the keeper with that header or Martial getting stopped with a brilliant challenge from Pique.
If you know how unstable our defence is and still expect him to go any more attacking than that against a team containing Messi, Saurez and Coutinho then you're crazy.
I didn't actually think we were that bad, I was surprised how shaky Barca were, unfortunately however I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity as I doubt they will be like that again , we needed to make more of our chances however I was still surprised when they said we hadn't had a shot on target.
One thing that shouldn't please me as it should be expected from a big club like Manchester United but in recent times it's been a problem was that we didn't "fall apart" and act like headless chickens being forced into mistakes after Barca scored, it was very much occurring in the most recent Wolves game so I'd like to think it was picked up on and the coaches are working on it as it shouldn't be happening.
Pogba was at times a lot more effective than hes been of late but I'd have liked to see more leadership from him especially as he's previously been a captain for us. Very impressed by Mctominay he's been thrown into a couple of huge games lately and really stepped up, hopefully he can continue like this. Also felt De Gea was better he's been a little shaky by his usual high standards.
I personally quite liked how Ole used Young to cover Dalot rather than how he's been using them the other way round lately unfortunately we lost Dalot's crosses which Young was poor at but it shored up the back a bit.
What do you think we will do with Shaw suspended next game?
I was also starting to wonder whether Rashford was fully fit. Obviously the coaching and medical staff know far more than me but didn't Ole say before the game he would have to see how long "Rashy" could last? Didn't fill me with confidence.
Also a "would you rather" question:
Obviously ideally we get to the final and win the whole thing but:
Would you rather go out to Barca in this round or progress to the latter stages but go out to Liverpool who are all but through?
One thing that shouldn't please me as it should be expected from a big club like Manchester United but in recent times it's been a problem was that we didn't "fall apart" and act like headless chickens being forced into mistakes after Barca scored, it was very much occurring in the most recent Wolves game so I'd like to think it was picked up on and the coaches are working on it as it shouldn't be happening.
Pogba was at times a lot more effective than hes been of late but I'd have liked to see more leadership from him especially as he's previously been a captain for us. Very impressed by Mctominay he's been thrown into a couple of huge games lately and really stepped up, hopefully he can continue like this. Also felt De Gea was better he's been a little shaky by his usual high standards.
I personally quite liked how Ole used Young to cover Dalot rather than how he's been using them the other way round lately unfortunately we lost Dalot's crosses which Young was poor at but it shored up the back a bit.
What do you think we will do with Shaw suspended next game?
I was also starting to wonder whether Rashford was fully fit. Obviously the coaching and medical staff know far more than me but didn't Ole say before the game he would have to see how long "Rashy" could last? Didn't fill me with confidence.
Also a "would you rather" question:
Obviously ideally we get to the final and win the whole thing but:
Would you rather go out to Barca in this round or progress to the latter stages but go out to Liverpool who are all but through?
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If we go one behind we'll have to balance between scoring two and defending their counter attack. It won't happen. I really think it's possible to win if we scored first. Camp Nou is a really big pitch and we can use it to our advantage and create more chances if we took the early lead.
That is a very fair point. Our squad is simply not good enough to be able to turn over teams like Barcelona.
When we come up against top teams, our limitations are exposed.
We also have too many players who are not consistent enough and we don't hurt teams often enough.
Comparing the list of names on the back of the programme was a really sobering read.
Barcelona having a 97m man out as well.
We had to set up like a bit of a cup minnow, and hope we can hit a fast long ball to get Rashford or Lukaku in, while Barcelona are just a ball controlling animal, albeit not in their Iniesta/Xavi days.
We contained them well, but "didn't lay a glove on them", is probably the best cliché.
I think it speaks volumes how many people are saying we played well, when we've come away from a home game, without a shot on target!
It's more a "that wasn't that bad", rather than actually playing that well.
Barcelona having a 97m man out as well.
We had to set up like a bit of a cup minnow, and hope we can hit a fast long ball to get Rashford or Lukaku in, while Barcelona are just a ball controlling animal, albeit not in their Iniesta/Xavi days.
We contained them well, but "didn't lay a glove on them", is probably the best cliché.
I think it speaks volumes how many people are saying we played well, when we've come away from a home game, without a shot on target!
It's more a "that wasn't that bad", rather than actually playing that well.
They did it when Jose was here and they do the same for Ole.
All far too easy to blame the manager when players don't perform.
I’d definitely sooner go out to Barcelona than Liverpool, though we’ve not been favourites before against Liverpool in the cup and we have won. Just hope if it is Barcelona v Liverpool in the semi than Liverpool are out.
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none of this negativity now lads.
2-1 win for us over there.
2-1 win for us over there.
That's it.
The slightly uncomfortable thing, is that we'd be an easy game to Liverpool, and imagine if we let them get to the final.
Barcelona are still quality. They've played in first gear v us, and still eased to a comfy win in reality.
must disagree.
We can absolutely beat the scousers.
We almost did too after all those injuries.
We were the better side too.
It'd be very interesting to see the reaction here if we were to beat them in the 2nd leg. Judging by most of the comments, we can only win by a massive fluke, though.
This squad has beaten City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juventus and PSG. Yet for whatever reason, the cut off is Barcelona. We simply cannot compete against them. Moreover, two of teams named above are better than them and Tottenham played them off the park at the Nou Camp.
Obviously we dont want to lose to either but I'd rather go out to a side like Barca than face all the amusement it would generate from Liverpool fans that they dump us out en route to a potential double 
hopefully Porto turn it around so theres no chance of it happening 
I thought we could have beaten them 2nd half at OT even with the injuries obviously if we do get past Barca we need to do that really nasty move we did of getting 3 injuries in the first half as Klopp was so keen to point out how much it disrupted them
hopefully Porto turn it around so theres no chance of it happening I thought we could have beaten them 2nd half at OT even with the injuries obviously if we do get past Barca we need to do that really nasty move we did of getting 3 injuries in the first half as Klopp was so keen to point out how much it disrupted them
That makes a lot more sense
I could be wrong but, apart from set pieces I can't recall McTominay, Fred or Pogba ever being in Barcelona's penalty box
I cannot belive the negativity in the media (and fans here and talksport)
Most fans would agree that we need 4-6 players to bring the squad anywhere near competetive for the PL title race but yet when we put in a pretty decent performance against Barca who were favourites/second favourites for the competition there is a hue and cry about how poor we were.... I do not think anybody would have thought it unjust had we got a draw or even sneaked a win, but people are all the Ole honeymoon is over etc...
I remember 2 finals against Barca when SAF was in charge when we had a much better team and we got properly schooled both times, embarrassingly so
So we didn't have a shot on target..... shots on target are neither here nor there they are not goals, scoring opportunities are far more relevant and we 3 decent or even better than decent opportunities to score and free kicks in decent positions, we had far more shots than Barca, and we were not exactly shooting from 40 yards throughout
People also going on about Barca being poor, teams performances are dependnant on the other teams performances, yet all that is coming out is that Barca were poor and we did not capitalise, rather than Utd disrupted Barca, stopped them playing, and were unlucky not get something from the match
I do think that taking Lukaku off was a mistake (if purely tactical) as once he was off nobody held the ball up which limited our attacking possession
Most fans would agree that we need 4-6 players to bring the squad anywhere near competetive for the PL title race but yet when we put in a pretty decent performance against Barca who were favourites/second favourites for the competition there is a hue and cry about how poor we were.... I do not think anybody would have thought it unjust had we got a draw or even sneaked a win, but people are all the Ole honeymoon is over etc...
I remember 2 finals against Barca when SAF was in charge when we had a much better team and we got properly schooled both times, embarrassingly so
So we didn't have a shot on target..... shots on target are neither here nor there they are not goals, scoring opportunities are far more relevant and we 3 decent or even better than decent opportunities to score and free kicks in decent positions, we had far more shots than Barca, and we were not exactly shooting from 40 yards throughout
People also going on about Barca being poor, teams performances are dependnant on the other teams performances, yet all that is coming out is that Barca were poor and we did not capitalise, rather than Utd disrupted Barca, stopped them playing, and were unlucky not get something from the match
I do think that taking Lukaku off was a mistake (if purely tactical) as once he was off nobody held the ball up which limited our attacking possession
Barca had nothing to play for and played
Cillessen
Vermaelen
Miranda
Alena
Haddadi
Thats half of the team with back ups and kids.
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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26%
Fred
-
2%
Chris Smalling
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1%
David de Gea
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1%
Ashley Young
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1%
Paul Pogba
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1%
Diogo Dalot
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1%
Victor Lindelof
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1%
Luke Shaw
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 469 ratings.
Score Predictions
211,278,85
- Man Utd win
- Barcelona win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 12% Man Utd 2:1 Barcelona
- 12% Man Utd 1:3 Barcelona
- 11% Man Utd 0:2 Barcelona
- 8% Man Utd 0:3 Barcelona
- 8% Man Utd 1:1 Barcelona
- 7% Man Utd 1:0 Barcelona
- 7% Man Utd 1:2 Barcelona
- 6% Man Utd 2:0 Barcelona
- 5% Man Utd 5:0 Barcelona
- 4% Man Utd 2:2 Barcelona
- 4% Man Utd 0:4 Barcelona
- 3% Man Utd 3:1 Barcelona
- 3% Man Utd 0:5 Barcelona
- 3% Man Utd 0:0 Barcelona
- 2% Man Utd 3:0 Barcelona
- 2% Man Utd 1:4 Barcelona
- 1% Man Utd 0:1 Barcelona
- 1% Man Utd 4:0 Barcelona
- 1% Man Utd 3:2 Barcelona
- 0% Man Utd 3:3 Barcelona
- 0% Man Utd 2:3 Barcelona
- 0% Man Utd 1:5 Barcelona
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Barcelona
- Possession
- 34% 66%
- Shots
- 10 6
- Shots on Target
- 0 3
- Corners
- 2 4
- Fouls
- 16 11
Referee
Gianluca Rocchi
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Jesse Lingard
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replaced by Anthony Martial
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replaced by Andreas Pereira
