[NFM]

Goals make the difference. For instance, most of the criticism of United defenders ( one of them in his first senior year) would have been a muted if one or two of those 2nd half chances had been taken. Two falling to Martial and one to Greenwood ( another in his first senior year).
City have had some great players over the last decade, Silva and De Bryne are names that many mention. But the one who really made the difference, the one who won them titles, was Aguero. A player who consistently hits the back of the net when getting half chances is worth their weight in gold. They are rare.
Sancho is a talented lad, I would like to see him in a United team. But if United have just enough money to buy one super star, it must be an 'Aguero'. Ole has to get into Martial's head that he can be a world star driving into the penalty area at speed from the left. United need him and Greenwood , but they need to complement it with a real six yard goal machine.
Fortunately I do not know who that can be. 'Fortunately' because if I knew he would be either already playing for United's rivals or be unaffordable. Somewhere there will be one, surely that is what these expensive scouts etc are paid to find?

 

[ICHM]

What this and other matches showed is that Lindelof is just not good enough, AWB for some reason recently switches off, maybe he is suffering from the extended season, normally he's pretty sharp. Jury out on Fred for me. We also need a keeper who can come out and dominate and that is not De Gea.

What lost us the match was the hat full of missed chances.

 

[Maticmaker]

Disappointment all round, we were not clinical enough when it mattered, they weathered the storm, found a break and took it.

What I want to know is if Matic was injured, as reported, why was he on the bench? If he wasn't injured why didn't he play?

Fred's a good lad, he tries hard but he's next to useless as a DM against this type of opponent. Matic playing in a full DM role allows Pogba and Bruno to link up a good ten, or twenty yards further up the pitch, instead we had both Fred and Pogba sharing some sort of DM role, which later when they were all tired, left us exposed.

However with the number of chances we had we should have finished them off long before they scored.

 

[Member 113277]

Our players are quite young/inexperienced, the only ones were able to keep their heads cool were Bruno, Pogba and Maguire I think. So it's understandable imo.

That kind of calmness/confidence would only come with age I think.

I agree - in fact, I thought Pogba had a very good match - not extravagent or flashy, but put in a disciplined shift and looked solid.

 

[bsCallout]

Our players are quite young/inexperienced, the only ones were able to keep their heads cool were Bruno, Pogba and Maguire I think. So it's understandable imo.

That kind of calmness/confidence would only come with age I think.

I think people are missing this key part.

We are a young team. At the start of our journey almost.

We've got third and three semi finals with this young team. A bit more depth and talent and this team will naturally progress.

I love DDG but it is my biggest gripe with keeping him - You'd want a player with his experience and age to be much more commanding and demonstrate more leadership to the young players around.

He should have been screaming at AWB and Williams yesterday.

 

[Dargonk]

Only watched the highlights, but looked like we have only ourselves to blame. We created plenty of chances but couldn't convert, and then gave them a couple of easy goals. Shame, but at least promising signs overall for next season

 

[Lee565]

Why is it that Sevilla had a better attacking option of the bench than us, that is pretty pathetic for a club of our size and wealth.

 

[Heinzesight]

Keep peddling your narrative pal, but you either have a bad memory or are just blinkered because you don’t want to see or admit that he played well.

He continually found an out ball for the team, drove through the midfield with some very good dribbling and clever passing and as the stats show, he created opportunities.

He literally created the chance at the end of the first half that Rashford screwed up.

He’s had a quiet few games at the tail end of the season but last night he was on song.

I always find it funny when a debate progresses and the wannabe big man brings out the ‘pal’ bomb. Classic. Pal.

Anyway, no narrative here. I said he did alright second half but you have to look at his whole performance and the fact you think it was ‘fantastic’ is worrying. ‘On song’...jeezus! Is that that our supposed best midfielder playing out of his skin? Mid-table Prem’ midfielders put in similar performances week in week out. I think you need to understand Pogba isn’t going to be the player for us you want him to be.

Like I said way back, he has ‘it’, the World Class talent is there, but he doesn’t use it and when he does it’s here and there. Not what we need. I’d rather a guy giving consistent 8/10 performances over a season than Pogba with the odd 9/10 performance...we looked more balanced without him.

 

[red woppit]

Disappointment all round, we were not clinical enough when it mattered, they weathered the storm, found a break and took it.

What I want to know is if Matic was injured, as reported, why was he on the bench? If he wasn't injured why didn't he play?

Fred's a good lad, he tries hard but he's next to useless as a DM against this type of opponent. Matic playing in a full DM role allows Pogba and Bruno to link up a good ten, or twenty yards further up the pitch, instead we had both Fred and Pogba sharing some sort of DM role, which later when they were all tired, left us exposed.

However with the number of chances we had we should have finished them off long before they scored.

Fred played very well, 'next to useless' is a very poor description of him. How many chances did Seville have, not many. They are one of the better teams in Spain, and we outplayed them for long spells in the game.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Fred played very well, 'next to useless' is a very poor description of him. How many chances did Seville have, not many. They are one of the better teams in Spain, and we outplayed them for long spells in the game.

Yeah Fred made so many tackles and was generally an all around nuisance the entire game.

 

[mitchmouse]

I suppose the one "good" thing about this is we don't have to play again on Friday. Everyone needs a rest - it's probably already time for "pre-season" training

Seriously, we were one of the sides which got the most out of the weird season: some of our performances after lockdown were astonoshing compared with some of the dross before Xmas. That takes nothing away from what I posted earlier about us being way behind City, Liverpool and number of clubs in Europe - we need to improve the squad drastically but then some of us have been saying that for years while Nero (aka Woodward) fiddles...

 

[Zoo]

I suppose the one "good" thing about this is we don't have to play again on Friday. Everyone needs a rest - it's probably already time for "pre-season" training

Well yeah Liverpool started preseason training today..

 

[youngrell]

I always find it funny when a debate progresses and the wannabe big man brings out the ‘pal’ bomb. Classic. Pal.

Anyway, no narrative here. I said he did alright second half but you have to look at his whole performance and the fact you think it was ‘fantastic’ is worrying. ‘On song’...jeezus! Is that that our supposed best midfielder playing out of his skin? Mid-table Prem’ midfielders put in similar performances week in week out. I think you need to understand Pogba isn’t going to be the player for us you want him to be.

Like I said way back, he has ‘it’, the World Class talent is there, but he doesn’t use it and when he does it’s here and there. Not what we need. I’d rather a guy giving consistent 8/10 performances over a season than Pogba with the odd 9/10 performance...we looked more balanced without him.

It sounds like you're taking a general overview of every Pogba performance since he arrived here and applying it to his performance last night. I've been as frustrated as anyone with some of his performances over the years but not last night.

You think he was just alright while claiming Fred was excellent. What was it that Fred did that was so good in comparison? I suppose the answer is run about a lot. And before you go thinking I'm bashing Fred, I'm not, I also think he had a good game last night.

Oh and I'd love to see the list of mid-table midfielders that do this week in week out.

 

[Bastian]

So you agree with me basically. If this were a Sevilla forum i'd say the same of their players.

Yeah, if by agreeing is thinking they did it 25 times or so, to our 2-3. Sure.

 

[#07]

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Every time I watch this it makes me angrier and angrier. Every single one of our defenders makes an error on the build up to Sevilla's winner. Every one. If even one of them had done what they needed to do we wouldn't have let that goal in.

 

[theklr]

Only positive thing with this match is that highlights our squad depth problems even more. Will hope Ed takes notice and gets us Sancho and Grealish.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Fred played very well, 'next to useless' is a very poor description of him. How many chances did Seville have, not many. They are one of the better teams in Spain, and we outplayed them for long spells in the game.

Right on.

 

[HackeyC]

Only positive thing with this match is that highlights our squad depth problems even more. Will hope Ed takes notice and gets us Sancho and Grealish.

To me it highlighted that Rashford has been off the ball post lockdown and should have come off at half time for Igalo. Martial could have finished better but the Sevilla keeper did amazingly well.

 

[lex talionis]

Unless he was suffering a fitness problem, Matic was a noticeable and inexplicable absence yesterday. Fred did a job yesterday but DM just isn't a job he can pull off against a top club.

But we can't blame Fred either for the poor finishing and the mental breakdown by Lindelof for what turned out to be the match winner. Still, a shame we put out less than our optimal starting XI available to us.

 

[Maticmaker]

Fred played very well, 'next to useless' is a very poor description of him. How many chances did Seville have, not many. They are one of the better teams in Spain, and we outplayed them for long spells in the game.

Sorry but for me Fred is next to useless as an out and out DM, in other mid-field roles he is capable and tries hard, but timing his tackles is not his strong point, neither is his reading of the opponents 'break out's'.

The point I was making was that only when Bruno and Pogba started to play higher up the field (when we had that torrid spell after half-time)leaving Fred to take on the DM role completely were we 'at risk'... and so it proved. When you are 'front loading' as we were at that time with three front players and two midfielders regularly getting into or around the opponents box, the main thing your DM needs to be able to do is to 'read the potential 'break out' points from the opponents, this is a risk with Fred.

Yes we outplayed Seville, we had three or four times the chances they did, we had more possession... but they won and are in the Europa final.

 

[Scholesgoals]

What this and other matches showed is that Lindelof is just not good enough, AWB for some reason recently switches off, maybe he is suffering from the extended season, normally he's pretty sharp. Jury out on Fred for me. We also need a keeper who can come out and dominate and that is not De Gea.

What lost us the match was the hat full of missed chances.

I've noticed that AWB has an issue with balls coming across him (no innuendo intended) balls coming out the sky over the top and above he seems to misjudge. He did it earlier in the game, and i recall one or two other times this season where it was a problem (maybe the first game?!) Anyone else have this impression?

I think even though i like his ability on the ball lindelof is found out at top level.

 

[Scholesgoals]

Fred played very well, 'next to useless' is a very poor description of him. How many chances did Seville have, not many. They are one of the better teams in Spain, and we outplayed them for long spells in the game.

He had a great game in his role, he wasted one or two chances going forward, but more than made up for it in his buzzing about the pitch and pinching the ball. I wonder if people watch the same game, or just muppet the feck out of an agenda they heard from somewhere

 

[sport2793]

Decided to wait until today to post my thoughts on this match, wanting to avoid the flurry of negativity post match. United controlled the match for large spells especially in the second half, ironically even before and after Sevilla's second goal that was against the run of play. Ultimately United had many chances and couldn't convert on the day, this can happen to any team.

With that said, there are two players responsible for the defeat today: Williams and Lindelof. Sevilla didn't have many chances on goal. The two goals they scored were because of these two defending horrendously. In both situations, a defender (Lindelof for the 1st, Williams for the 2nd) let the wide player cross without any attempt to block while the other defender lost track of the man they should have been accounting for in the box. AWB also didn't have a great performance although I would argue this was more down to his poor play in possession rather than a defensive mistake. One could say AWB could have made a better play for the cross in the second goal but for me, it was clearly on Lindelof to cover De Jong (and AWB to be positioned to cover any wide player arriving late into the box).

I just don't think Williams and Lindelof are good enough to play for this team in big matches. In the case of Williams, one could argue he has time on his side to improve but with Laird coming through I actually think Williams will find himself on the way out in a couple of seasons, especially if another full back is signed. He doesn't offer any particularly fantastic attribute to the side as he's not very effective going forward and poor defensively. Lindelof absolutely needs to be replaced. I actually think Bailly could have prevented the second goal as he is more athletic and could have maybe cleared the ball? Anyways I can't stand Lindelof's defensive mistakes. Remember he was also too passive for Chelsea's first goal in the FA cup semi where he allowed Giroud to easily beat him to the near post. Just really really poor stuff, no wonder why Bruno berated him after the second goal.

 

[Suedesi]

If you can't score multiple times, you'll get scored on. It's one of those unwritten football rules.

Good luck Sevilla, please don't let the Belgian donkey bully you.

 

[VeevaVee]

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Every time I watch this it makes me angrier and angrier. Every single one of our defenders makes an error on the build up to Sevilla's winner. Every one. If even one of them had done what they needed to do we wouldn't have let that goal in.

Annoying to AWB totally stop when he sees the ball reaching De Jong. What if DDG got a hand to it and it came back out? These are top flight footballers. Just amazing how poor they are at times.

 

[Harry190]

This one's gonna hurt for a while, because we were the better team, comfortably.

Not quite FA cup 2005 against Arsenal, but damn it, it stings.

 

[Sea-Cow]

Some shocking diving and play acting from some United players tonight too, Williams in particular.

Yeah that was terrible.

And he was already on a card! What the hell was he thinking

 

[Sea-Cow]

The thing I'm most disappointed with is our reaction to conceding the second. We had 8 minutes left plus injury time but the team just got frustrated instead of being confident they could get back into it.

Especially with the amount of chances we'd made in the game, it was a bit odd but I think a step necessary to reach the mentality we want.

Yeah this was so disappointing. We had plenty of time left but the life went out of us with the goal and we were shot.

Then Sevilla saw it out perfectly with well timed fouls, dives, and keeping possession.

 

[starman]

Not sure why I did it to myself but just watched the highlights, even though the game was just yesterday the condensed nature makes it even worse....

Should have won the game by 2 clear goals, at least, and thats being generous to Sevilla.
We had 4 one on ones (3 for Martial and 1 for Greenwood) then Fred's weak right foot shot, Martials shot over the bar, Bruno's shot 6 yard out shot blocked and Rashford's dopey run with one player to beat and somehow tackles himself

Sevilla only had 3 genuine chances and scored 2 of them...

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

We played well. Literally the best performance since the first 2 games of the restart.

The back line played really well but made 2 mistakes. When the ball wont go in sometimes you need to be bailed out by your defense and have them be flawless. Our back line is never flawless. It is a lot to ask but we've seen Rio and vidic play perfect games many many times.

The game showed me we need Sancho, Graelish, and a defender.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Fred played very well, 'next to useless' is a very poor description of him. How many chances did Seville have, not many. They are one of the better teams in Spain, and we outplayed them for long spells in the game.

Maybe he thinks Pogba is useless and Fred was unfortunately beside him...

 

[Strelok]

I suppose the one "good" thing about this is we don't have to play again on Friday. Everyone needs a rest - it's probably already time for "pre-season" training

Seriously, we were one of the sides which got the most out of the weird season: some of our performances after lockdown were astonoshing compared with some of the dross before Xmas. That takes nothing away from what I posted earlier about us being way behind City, Liverpool and number of clubs in Europe - we need to improve the squad drastically but then some of us have been saying that for years while Nero (aka Woodward) fiddles...

It's called inconsistency mate. We have a good first XI which attacking wise is very capable. No doubt about that. Defensively it's okay bar the brainfarts imo.

Now it's time to make it to the next level. Fix that forever and ever RW issue and a couple good signings for better squad depth and we're gonna see some consistency next season I think. We can't have consistency attacking only through the left and middle. And we can't have any either running our first XI into the ground.

And Greenwood, imo next season his position should be our backup #9 instead of our starting RW. So in days like yesterday, we can throw him fresh in looking for a goal. And don't look dead af on the right like currently.

 

[Verbalkint]

Lindelof absolutely needs to be replaced. I actually think Bailly could have prevented the second goal as he is more athletic and could have maybe cleared the ball? Anyways I can't stand Lindelof's defensive mistakes.

Totally agree with your comments on Lindelof. Thing is for me, Bailly lacks the discipline needed at this level. I always get the feeling something's going to happen with him on the pitch and not in a good way. Bit of a red card waiting to happen.

 

[Morpheus 7]

Like many I'm disappointed but time to look forward. We played well and created a lot of chances and were the better team. We never had that clinical edge and made two costly mistakes. The experience got them over the line with the shithousery, just one of them evenings.

We need investment at the back, I'm glad people are seeing it. It's a young side that will improve but we need depth and better options. People can't really blame the manager for tonight, another night we win this 3.0. The pressure needs to be put on the Ed, Judge and the board. Can't expect to challenge with the current squad. Some will be injured, loss form and others need competition. I question the value of having Ighalo, not really an option Ole uses. These joke goals at the back need to stop, a team can conceed but the opposition need to earn it not be gifted it. We need a CB, LB, RW, CM and good CF option. Think we will get two of these. The progress of building and replacing needs to be sped up. We should be binning so many in the squad Rojo, Jones, Dalot, Mata, Periera, Lingard. Too many taking the piss for long enough. Hard to shift because of wages, some just need loaned too like James ect. Need real options when the 11 after at it. You can say Ole this or Old that, no other manager is getting more from that group. Upgrades now and real backing needs to be made.

 

[jbwilliamz]

Thought we were comfortable throughout the majority of the match, which is surprising considering Sevilla finished with the same points as Athletico Madrid in La Liga. Genuinely thought we'd be chasing shadows all night. Fred was excellent. Game was there for the taking, but unfortunately, it's one of "those" games. Still positive for the future.

 

[always_hoping]

Sevilla 20 games unbeaten now. Looking back over their previous 19 games the average amount of shots per game the opposition got against them was 11 and on target 3. So United was above average with shots (20) and on target (7) and 14 of the 20 shots was inside the box, just one of those games..

 

[Coleyoscar]

This one's gonna hurt for a while, because we were the better team, comfortably.

Not quite FA cup 2005 against Arsenal, but damn it, it stings.

True, but as Jonathan Liew wrote in the Guardian: "United were the better team, but the softer team too".

 

[Snuffkin]

Exactly.
I want to see these young players come good and that means that we have to put up with a bit of inconsistency until they mature.

Fair dos

 

[MZX7]

Goals make the difference. For instance, most of the criticism of United defenders ( one of them in his first senior year) would have been a muted if one or two of those 2nd half chances had been taken. Two falling to Martial and one to Greenwood ( another in his first senior year).
City have had some great players over the last decade, Silva and De Bryne are names that many mention. But the one who really made the difference, the one who won them titles, was Aguero. A player who consistently hits the back of the net when getting half chances is worth their weight in gold. They are rare.
Sancho is a talented lad, I would like to see him in a United team. But if United have just enough money to buy one super star, it must be an 'Aguero'. Ole has to get into Martial's head that he can be a world star driving into the penalty area at speed from the left. United need him and Greenwood , but they need to complement it with a real six yard goal machine.
Fortunately I do not know who that can be. 'Fortunately' because if I knew he would be either already playing for United's rivals or be unaffordable. Somewhere there will be one, surely that is what these expensive scouts etc are paid to find?

Agree with this. It has been a really long time since we had a player like Aguero who can just keep the goals coming at a blistering rate from half chances.

 

[manunited1919]

his lunges are great

He does seem good at lunging. But he wouldn’t have to lunge constantly if he were in a good position.