[GM K]

Smalling and Jones. Lucky devils. They are back.

Well, that's if they don't find a miraculous way of cracking their elbows next week while on their way to the physio to do follow up checks on their toes.

 

[Prodigy24]

They were through to the final if Guidetti had scored right at the end.

feck me that was really close then, didnt realise how lucky we are until now. Suck on that guidetti you twat!

 

[Fingeredmouse]

First season with new manager.
Club in rebuild.
One trophy already.
In European final.
Clear progress across season, but poor football from an exhausted threadbare team late in the season.

You lot would have had a fecking heart attack in the 80s and would certainly have been calling for Fergie to be sacked.

We're on the way back. Patience.

 

[Ekkie Thump]

He's right too.

Yup.

 

[royboy16]

Just came home from the bar, and the beers and away goal rule has really fecked me up today. Would celta go to the final had guidetti made it 1-2, or would we play extra time instead?

Celta would have got to the final as they scored 2 away goals.

 

[Hugh Jass]

We made that Sisto fellow look like Iniesta.

 

[The red panther]

If you had told me five years ago that in 2017 Marouane Fellaini would score the decisive goal for us in an uncomfortably close Europa league semi-final against a decent Spanish team, for a result that could make or break the fortunes of the club starved of Champions League football, I'd have laughed.

We don't play Champions League caliber football.

If you had told me 5 years ago that United would need to win EL to get into the CL because they can't do better than 6th in the PL whilst being coached by Mourinho and having players like Pogba and Zlatan playing for us and having spend about 400m on the team in the last years, I would have laughed myself to death.

 

[SamVimes]

Glad you agree (then again maybe I shouldn't!) but as to your last sentence I think the answer has to be that Jose has absolutely no faith in the current side whatsoever. If true then it is deeply troubling as just what the hell are we going to do in the summer? Replace half the team? Simply not feasible.

This is it. He is a coach, he has to train and impress his tactics and approach to players. We have the most expensive squad in the world. Just think about that. We are sixth in the league and just scrapped through. Really he has to think about his approach.

 

[stepic]

People are far too simplistic -- they're mid table, we should be dominating, etc.

It's a semi final of a knock out, cup competition. It's a tense, cagey affair. They are the ones needing to make something happen more than us. You can't just say 'we spend x thus we should dominate'. Football doesn't work like that.

 

[Prodigy24]

Go to bed mate

Celta would have gone to the final, no extra time for us

2-2 would have made them the winners because they scored 2 away goals whilst we scored 1 away goal and 1 home goal. That means they would have gone through to the final.

It really was nearly over us, luckily Guiditti can't finish

Celta would have got to the final as they scored 2 away goals.

Still have no idea how i completely missed that. Cheers lads!

 

[Aspascorner]

It was pretty much the same team as they had out tonight

I mean Celta was the one playing with second team.

 

[GM K]

When i started watching the game today, i had 10 fingers and all of them with nails. Now i have 9 and half and none with nails.

 

[legball]

I guess it's because Mourinho has absolutely no faith in the team's ability to score multiple goals.

It's almost like there should be no middle ground, because we've not been clinical, the alternative is to set up so ultra defensively against clearly inferior opposition. Sorry, I'm not having it and tonight wasn't even about scoring, but I don't want to go into all that again, done it in first post.

 

[Oldyella]

Smalling and Jones. Lucky devils. They are back.

Well, that's if they don't find a miraculous way of cracking their elbows next week while on their way to the physio to do follow up checks on their toes.

Surely he will go Blind/Smalling, even if Blind was shakey tonight. Smalling and Jones never work well as a pair.

 

[Nate Dogg]

How can you say that in what amounts to a one game match up?

Because he's played the same way all season....and I'm 90% sure he will make it a scrap again #nodoubt

 

[Ramshock]

People have become far too complacent

Displays like today deserve criticsm off the manager, for me this is just as bad as that clueless fullham game Moyes had with his 90 crosses or something. It just shows the manager is not very good.

The fact we see this kind of shit on a week to week basis, are no better than 6th in the league and have to put all our hopes to save our season in 1 match at the end of the season, kind of shows we have progressed almost nothing at all under Mourinho

Jesus fecking Christ

 

[royboy16]

Still have no idea how i completely missed that. Cheers lads!

More wine

 

[The red panther]

Jesus fecking Christ

If you enjoy this kind of footballing display and aren't in the least bit worried about the fecked up state the team is currently in, than you are complacent

 

[Zlatattack]

Job done. Now let's play terrible football and beat Ajax 1-0.

 

[engulfing]

We could go to a back 3. Assuming both of the useless duo are fit, which probably there is only 50% chance of.

Bailly's red seems harsh given he hardly did anything, just seems to shove the player. Suspect the ref didnt really see it. We should appeal.

 

[redhoop]

If you had told me 5 years ago that United would need to win EL to get into the CL because they can't do better than 6th in the PL whilst being coached by Mourinho and having players like Pogba and Zlatan playing for us and having spend about 400m on the team in the last years, I would have laughed myself to death.

Oh...that looks bad written down. You would think this would mean Utd fans are no longer classed as Glory Hunters, but I still get tarred with this brush despite the beigeness (light greyness?) of all the draws. But, hey - Stockholm is on! Onwards and upwards.

 

[RedChip]

Because he's played the same way all season....and I'm 90% sure he will make it a scrap again #nodoubt

Even if you were right, it is a little bit foolhardy to apply general patterns to a one off event.

 

[minoo-utd]

Football was awful, we were shit, their striker should have scored twice easily we were lucky, we will miss Bailly alot God knows how Smalling can do to us he is shit but boy Eric was so stupid you cant punch a player like this. Good to see the job was done after a negative tense game, if we want to win this cup we need to improve in the final we need to be more like a football team.

 

[Still ill]

On the plus side, there has been a massive surge tonight in my favourite caf trend, that of mass embarrassment. Everyone's embarrassed tonight. We're embarrassed at our team, our manager, each other. We're embarrassed at the fact that we're in the final, that we're not happier to be in the final, that we are happy to be in the final. We're embarrassed at that pair of tossers for crying, for Eric, for Jesse, for the ref. Long live this sacred and ancient tradition that we have. I am, and will always be, embarrassed for all of us. God bless, good night. I look forward to further embarrassment in Stockholm.

 

[Catt]

We outclassed the champions? We got two lucky breaks but they absolutely dominated us.

This is just plain wrong.

 

[GM K]

Too many passengers. Full backs dont add anything much going forward. On the wings mkhi gets pushed around too easily. Lingard has some good moments but no real end product. Overall our wide play needs to improve tremendously.

Couldn't agree with you more. This is the reality we need to face. Too many average players.

 

[FlawlessThaw]

We outclassed the champions? We got two lucky breaks but they absolutely dominated us.

Wow. That's completely wrong. You can make excuses for Chelsea given they had some illness issues but they got outplayed that day. They barely created a chance.

 

[Gopher Brown]

If you enjoy this kind of footballing display and aren't in the least bit worried about the fecked up state the team is currently in, than you are complacent

We're on the up, we're just not there yet.

 

[Mihai]

Smalling and Jones. Lucky devils. They are back.

Well, that's if they don't find a miraculous way of cracking their elbows next week while on their way to the physio to do follow up checks on their toes.

It's toes, not elbows

 

[montpelier]

Terrible. Very lucky.

I thought half of us thought this team was going to pick up 4-6 points at Arsenal & Spurs to get into the Top 4. Dreamers.

Are we supposed to have a MF, cos unless we pack it with 5 we get walked all over normally. No wonder we aren't scoring or making proper quality clearcut chances.

Squad is a fecking shambles. 24 games unbeaten almost miraculous.

(little bit meltdowny I suppose, but fecking hell)

 

[Mockney]

Being in the final is all that matters. I don't think Ajax will be quite as awful 'cos they're a much younger team and we won't be going in with a lead to defend...

That said, that was atrocious. Like, properly atrocious, for a crucial European home game at OT at least. Martial and Mata were the obvious subs to make. One to keep control of the ball, and the other to provide a fresh, pacey counter attacking outlet. Obvious, but never likely to happen. Jose plumping for the most defensive changes imaginable was as infuriating as it was predictable.

Starting with such a defensive/hard working lineup conceded the early initiative, and once we failed to get a second, Jose was never going to bring on attacking players to change it up. It's the other way around, or not at all. The trouble being that it's never worked. Either way. We've lost points by taking off good technical players for strong physical ones (Arsenal H, Everton A, Anderlecht, half of our drawn games) and we've lost points starting with a physical side and failing to change the dynamic by brining on attackers (Arsenal A, Everton H, the other half of our drawn games!) and yet we never seem to learn...

Point in fact, the one time we were positive late on (courtesy of Fellaini of all people) we scored, albeit illegally. But rather than keep doing that, and suring up the tie, we played promising 25 yard FKs into the corner!

It's weird because Jose got us playing some really good stuff mid-season, which if we end up winning this, will be a great springboard. But this last month has been soul destroying. Almost as if Jose is terrifyed of the situation we've found ourselves in, and has defaulted to the worst posssible stereotype of himself, when what he was doing at the turn of the year was so promising.

Bring Martial and Mata on at half time and we win that comfortably. The fact it ended up as a nail biter is our fault alone.

Odds on that same team starts the final. And it'll be the same story. We'll score early, miss chances, sit back then ride out the last 20 with our hands over our faces...Sigh.

 

[TrueRed79]

Thank feck the final isn't at OT. We are abysmal at home this year. Glad we got to the final.

 

[djdhrubs]

Odds on that same team starts the final.

I'm hopeful that one of Martial or Mata will play themselves into contention at the expense of Lingard. Probably Mata, who can give us that control you spoke about. Otherwise, yeah, same team other than a centre back change.

 

[JohnnyKills]

Yeah, it's him. Two cup finals in his first season in charge. What a cnut.

The first was the carling cup, a tournament we didn't take seriously under ferguson and is a joke for other big clubs.

We're by far the biggest club in the other, with by far the most expensive squad.

Let's not delude ourselves eh.

 

[Arruda]

It's weird because Jose got us playing some really good stuff mid-season, which if we end up winning this, will be a great springboard. But this last month has been soul destroying. Almost as if Jose is terrifyed of the situation we've found ourselves in, and has defaulted to the worst posssible stereotype of himself, when what he was doing at the turn of the year was so promising.

Yep, I alluded to that in an earlier post. This seemed like fearful "negative", unlike his pragmatic "negatives" from the past.

I think winning this is far too important to him (as it should be). And it's understandable if you look at his career, know who he is, and see where he sees himself now. If he pulls it off I'm sure you'll see an improvement next season.

 

[Kristjan]

United are in the final of a cup they have never won, all that matters now.

 

[Attila]

@GifLord

Do you have a gif of Mourinho at the end kissing his watch and looking all nervous

I don't think I've ever seen him like that

 

[Mihai]

Being in the final is all that matters. I don't think Ajax will be quite as awful 'cos they're a much younger team and we won't be going in with a lead to defend...

That said, that was atrocious. Like, properly atrocious, for a crucial European home game at OT at least. Martial and Mata were the obvious subs to make. One to keep control of the ball, and the other to provide a fresh, pacey counter attacking outlet. Obvious, but never likely to happen. Jose plumping for the most defensive changes imaginable was as infuriating as it was predictable.

Starting with such a defensive/hard working lineup conceded the early initiative, and once we failed to get a second, Jose was never going to bring on attacking players to change it up. It's the other way around, or not at all. The trouble being that it's never worked. Either way. We've lost points by taking off good technical players for strong physical ones (Arsenal H, Everton A, Anderlecht, half of our drawn games) and we've lost points starting with a physical side and failing to change the dynamic by brining on attackers (Arsenal A, Everton H, the other half of our drawn games!) and yet we never seem to learn...

Point in fact, the one time we were positive late on (courtesy of Fellaini of all people) we scored, albeit illegally. But rather than keep doing that, and suring up the tie, we played promising 25 yard FKs into the corner!

It's weird because Jose got us playing some really good stuff mid-season, which if we end up winning this, will be a great springboard. But this last month has been soul destroying. Almost as if Jose is terrifyed of the situation we've found ourselves in, and has defaulted to the worst posssible stereotype of himself, when what he was doing at the turn of the year was so promising.

Bring Martial and Mata on at half time and we win that comfortably. The fact it ended up as a nail biter is our fault alone.

Odds on that same team starts the final. And it'll be the same story. We'll score early, miss chances, sit back then ride out the last 20 with our hands over our faces...Sigh.

Tl;dr

 

[GM K]

It's toes, not elbows

I actually meant elbows.

Or maybe even their collar bones. Who knows?

 

[manunited1919]

Mourinho almost cost us the game. Fecking had enough of this clown. Sitting back and allowing Celta fecking Vigo dominate the game at Old Trafford, unreal.

It's not like we have many options up front.