[Siorac]

The Times football correspondent Henry Winter: "That was very bad. The previous times Manchester United went out of the Champions League at the group stage it was against teams like Barcelona in 1994, with players like Romario in their side."

2012? Basel, Benefica and Otelul Galatrisjahrk? And I'm not being paid.

Or 2005. Benfica, Villarreal, Lille.

So yeah. Our group stage performance was pathetic but Winter is spouting rubbish here. There's no need for stupid hyperbole when criticising us, the plain facts are damning enough.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

So we should replace them in those 1-2 years with 4 good players+1-2 forwards, I still think the club's future is looking bright even after today.

Never had any doubt. From what I see we have a reasonable number of academy players, just need some finished products in their prime.

 

[pacifictheme]

Cleverley? You gotta be joking right?

Hernandez wanted out and he wouldn't get in ahead of Martial. And he's no good on the bench being unhappy which in turn affects his form. Can see that for the past couple of seasons with us.

No. I'm not. His strengths are passing, link up play and possession football. He'd do well in our current set up. He got badly scapegoated in the moyes season in my opinion. Not saying hes a world beater (but none of our team are) but i don't think he'd be worse than our current options, plus he would add to our incredibly shallow squad.

 

[Kraftwerker]

No. I'm not. His strengths are passing, link up play and possession football. He'd do well in our current set up. He got badly scapegoated in the moyes season in my opinion. Not saying hes a world beater (but none of our team are) but i don't think he'd be worse than our current options, plus he would add to our incredibly shallow squad.

Utter bullshit.

He was a coward and a nothing player.

There are one or two departed players who you could make a case for not letting go or loaning out (Hernandez, Januzaj mainly), but Cleverley is way down the list.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

Some pathetic comments in this thread.

It's disappointing to lose, but it was a decent game. I don't think we deserved to lose. Poor defending cost us as well as the PSV match in the previous gameweek.

A big lesson for LVG today.

Chuffed to see Varela have a solid game though.

 

[stu_1992]

Well at least you can't say it was boring. Bitterly disappointing to go out of the Champions League so early, though I agree with others that say that the damage was done previously and not necessarily tonight. Tonight's game was always gonna be difficult. Shame, first Champions League game I've been able to watch live since the qualifying rounds because of work.

The biggest killer was obviously how we had faint moments of hope, that were taken away so soon afterwards. Defense looked generally shaky all night, probably because of a combination of us being more open and the injuries that we had to endure. Even when CSKA went ahead, that didn't last long. Though relying solely on other results wouldn't have sat right with me too much either.

Some positives were Martial scored and looked dangerous. Hopefully can build on that goal and get back to some scoring form. I thought Memphis looked dangerous in parts and I thought Mata was our best player and didn't agree with the decision to take him off at all. Varela looked promising too, I thought. He shoudl be given more chances now (though it looks like we will be forced to anyway).

Injuries have fecked us for this game, and now we've a load more. Defence and midfield are looking very thin. I thought it was madness to bring back on Smalling. Just cut your losses and save him for when we need him.

 

[pacifictheme]

Utter bullshit.

He was a coward and a nothing player.

There are one or two departed players who you could make a case for not letting go or loaning out (Hernandez, Januzaj mainly), but Cleverley is way down the list.

Utter bullshit. (That was fun)

You could say the same sbout half our current squad. That nothing player is doing pretty well at Everton. Looked pretty creative on Monday night. I'd probably put Cleverley top of our ex players i'd take back. He is a very good passer and played well all season when we won the league.

If you're talking about cowards i'd have januzaj top, but hes still a united player so talking about him is irrelevant. Hernandez wanted to leave.

 

[Minkaro]

Not that arsed about going out tonight, to be honest. We were never going to win it, and Europa League might be fun. When we brought on Borthwick-Jackson instead of Young at LB, or McNair (and shifting Blind to LB), it had that feel of "ah, bollocks to it." Then Powell was brought back from the dead to further that feeling.

If anything, I was happier about tonight's game than I expected to be, as a standalone performance. With the team we had out there, against a Wolfsburg team that are very good at home, I'm not too bothered. Really, it's the other games where we've let ourselves down - we shouldn't have been in that position to start with.

I'm not sure I'd sack Van Gaal over this. We're still in the FA Cup (mainly because we haven't played in it yet), and we're in a good position in the league (mainly because nobody actually wants to win it). I'd see how we do, and then assess at the end of the season. Unless Ancelotti is at Old Trafford begging to be let in. Or in the summer, if the rumours of Guardiola wanting to take a year off to make sure he can join us are true, just say "er, forget that holiday, we'll boot Van Gaal out now and you can come in."

I don't think we're a million miles from having a decent team, everyone fit. Bring in a good centre forward and a good winger (with pace), and we're alright. The winger absolutely has to have pace though, I'm so sick of this pedestrian football we play. Pass the ball quicker, and have the wingers run at the defender. Mata should never be on the wing (I know he wasn't tonight, but in general). Martial'd be alright out there.

And above all else...feck Rooney right off.

 

[Sid234]

I know what'll cheer eveyone up.. Rooney might be back for our next match!!

See.. Things can get worse!

 

[RedStarUnited]

Not that arsed about going out tonight, to be honest. We were never going to win it, and Europa League might be fun. When we brought on Borthwick-Jackson instead of Young at LB, or McNair (and shifting Blind to LB), it had that feel of "ah, bollocks to it." Then Powell was brought back from the dead to further that feeling.

If anything, I was happier about tonight's game than I expected to be, as a standalone performance. With the team we had out there, against a Wolfsburg team that are very good at home, I'm not too bothered. Really, it's the other games where we've let ourselves down - we shouldn't have been in that position to start with.

I'm not sure I'd sack Van Gaal over this. We're still in the FA Cup (mainly because we haven't played in it yet), and we're in a good position in the league (mainly because nobody actually wants to win it). I'd see how we do, and then assess at the end of the season. Unless Ancelotti is at Old Trafford begging to be let in. Or in the summer, if the rumours of Guardiola wanting to take a year off to make sure he can join us are true, just say "er, forget that holiday, we'll boot Van Gaal out now and you can come in."

I don't think we're a million miles from having a decent team, everyone fit. Bring in a good centre forward and a good winger (with pace), and we're alright. The winger absolutely has to have pace though, I'm so sick of this pedestrian football we play. Pass the ball quicker, and have the wingers run at the defender. Mata should never be on the wing (I know he wasn't tonight, but in general). Martial'd be alright out there.

And above all else...feck Rooney right off.

I dont think just pace is enough. Whoever we buy must be an absolute beast at beating players. We need a Robben/Hazard/Neymar level of dribbler to play on the wing.

Look at Douglas Costa at Bayern, he just loves going at players, and thats what we need.

 

[Kevin]

I know what'll cheer eveyone up.. Rooney might be back for our next match!!

See.. Things can get worse!

Devastated if Rooney is back.

 

[marukomu]

We should have qualified from that group. That's it really.
I suppose I'll get a bit more sleep now at least.

 

[Freak]

I have not watched any of our UCL games this season. Not one. I'd have to wake up in the middle of the night around 3am to do so and it's just not worth doing that to watch this United team, especially with work the next day. The best part: I think it's a good decision.

 

[Ryan7]

At least we tried to attack, but we didn't deserve to go through. That was a relatively easy group to get out of. Our manager is shit and our squad is shit.

 

[sdb4884]

I have not watched any of our UCL games this season. Not one. I'd have to wake up in the middle of the night around 3am to do so and it's just not worth doing that to watch this United team, especially with work the next day. The best part: I think it's a good decision.

Me neither are you in Australia? it's shit that ESPN lost the rights and we have to pay even more to watch BeIn sports which reportedly isnt even in HD.

 

[senorgregster]

Losing against better team like Wolfsburg is no shame, but 1 point over two games vs PSV, who I believe are shit, is criminal.

Agree 100%.

 

[Momochiru]

I liked the way we played.

We were very unlucky with the injuries, especially Smalling will be a big miss in the busy period coming up.

The youngsters did very well, Mata is in a terrible shape. Schweinsteiger was also pretty bad. Very unlucky with Smalling's injury, that forced Carrick to play at CB, he was at fault for the last goal.

I don't mind the EL, tbh. I would be quite happy if we manage to win it.

And last, but not least - the refereeing was really shit.

 

[RedDevil@84]

At least no one is telling that we missed Rooney.... Or are there??

 

[RedDevil@84]

I liked the way we played.

I don't mind the EL, tbh. I would be quite happy if we manage to win it.

Seriously. We dont stand a chance. We are not cut out for Thursdays. LvG was moaning about playing on Wed and Sat.

 

[RDCR07]

This is the first time we lost without Rooney in the side during the Van Gaal era.

 

[montpelier]

I'm surprised more people aren't more disappointed, even if we were expecting it. Although now I say that, a decent number of folk thought we'd get through didn't they?

I would look at the 2 PSV games too, do need more than 1pt from them really.

I was vaguely supportive of LVG now I'm 50/50, there's just not enough movement, tempo or pace in the team and conservative tactics reflect this as well as protecting the defence.

Most of the players that have gone were not good enough - I find myself wondering what we have replaced them with, rubbish & Martial? or is that is being very unkind indeed?

At least Rafael & Welbeck & Nani could run about & run about quite quickly when necessary.

Moyes gave us a bunch of headless chickens, with endless crosses & hoofball. Well, LVG has sorted that out I suppose... but forgotten about sticking the ball in the net. As LVG might say, we make goals / get it in the net & now we can't defend, I say not a major surprise really.

We need 2 Top Gun forwards to make this OK as a quick fix, 1 through the middle, 1 wideman. And I think the Scholes point is that you can easily make a case (still) for the squad needing major surgery in all areas apart from GK, and he wants to leave,

More pissed off than I thought I would be but reading the ''oh that was quite good, at least there were a few goals'' hasn't helped, tbh.

 

[LLMU]

Bollocks, we were utter rubbish the whole campaign and not only this game.

 

[LeftyBlaster]

Been seeing a lot of people praising how "exhilarating" and how well we attacked against Wolfsburg. Standards have truly fallen if that could be termed "exhilarating". We were slightly better than recent outings but nowhere near good enough.

And yes I know we were injury riddled.

 

[Feed Me]

It's hard to escape the feeling that our season collapsed somewhat yesterday. Going out of the CL is disappointing enough, but the injuries sustained makes the situation even worse. Keeping Smalling on the pitch, probably exacerbating his injury, was a poor decision.

It's all a bit depressing at the moment.

 

[Kant-ona]

I am shocked so many people here think it was not a terrible performance.

We mustn't confuse an entertaining match (yes, it was) and still a terrible performance when it comes to control, creativity, switching from defense to offense, etc. I think it was shocking to see how far away we are from a team like Wolfsburg who did what they had to do. But not more.

This was Wolfsburg who are not really in shape. Other teams in Europe would have slaughtered us.

 

[Escobar]

I am shocked so many people here think it was not a terrible performance.

We mustn't confuse an entertaining match (yes, it was) and still a terrible performance when it comes to control, creativity, switching from defense to offense, etc. I think it was shocking to see how far away we are from a team like Wolfsburg who did what they had to do. But not more.

This was Wolfsburg who are not really in shape. Other teams in Europe would have slaughtered us.

I agree with you. Too many things went wrong yesterday and we didnt play well.

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Very entertaining game. Should have been a draw.
I prefer us playing like this and losing compared to see another goalless draw.

Everyone who still sees us as one of the big Forces in world Football should move away from that idea for a while.
This is only true related to the fan base and the Marketing power where we are still on top.

This CL season I have watched us playing on Austrian, German and Swiss TV. You can think about that whatever you want but all experts agreed that the glory days are gone for now and we are missing some real world class Players.
This is a fact.
LvG can be blamed to a certain extent but this is only half of the truth. It started with Fergie concentrating on his personal short term success instead of thinking middle to Long term.

Yesterday the 5th of the German league played at home against the 4th of the EPL. So we got what can be expected in such a case: An open game.

No idea what to do now but it is obvious that we might Need at least another 2 or 3 years until we can think of competing with Barca or Bayern.

 

[Ixion]

It was nice just to see us create more than one chance for a change. In terms of attack and chances it was one of our more productive games for a while. The rest was a shambles.

 

[Question234]

It's hard to escape the feeling that our season collapsed somewhat yesterday. Going out of the CL is disappointing enough, but the injuries sustained makes the situation even worse. Keeping Smalling on the pitch, probably exacerbating his injury, was a poor decision.

It's all a bit depressing at the moment.

We're fecked. Darmain, smalling, jones,valencia and shaw all out.

 

[Minkaro]

I dont think just pace is enough. Whoever we buy must be an absolute beast at beating players. We need a Robben/Hazard/Neymar level of dribbler to play on the wing.

Look at Douglas Costa at Bayern, he just loves going at players, and thats what we need.

Oh yeah, pace and skill, definitely. We don't just want to sign Aaron Lennon.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

We were shit at set pieces today.
Smalling failed to mark his man for the first one, and he was gone for the third, with Carrick failing to do the duty in his stead.

You'd expect better from a well-organised LVG team.

 

[Zoo]

Like Scholes said, Smalling was caught on his heels a bit but there needed to be someone on the near side ready to cut that ball out. Credit needs to go to Naldo too, he is very good on set-pieces and the first goal was a top finish.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

It's hard to escape the feeling that our season collapsed somewhat yesterday. Going out of the CL is disappointing enough, but the injuries sustained makes the situation even worse. Keeping Smalling on the pitch, probably exacerbating his injury, was a poor decision.

It's all a bit depressing at the moment.

Not just a poor decision, it was utterly feckin' stupid.

 

[VorZakone]

Just wanted to point this out. When you look at the highlights at this moment you can see Martial letting Lingard know where to pass it but Lingard waits too long. If Lingard had just passed it to Martial there is no way Wolfsburg could have prevented Martial from passing it to Mata who would be making a free run. It's that simple and it's exactly how the elite teams score goals consistently, let's not make football more complicated than it is.

 

[Todd]

Had to record the match due to my work schedule, I only watched the first half and then I couldn't bear to wait another hour to find out if we made it through so I looked up the result, fearing the worst, and of course we all know how that turned out.

Obviously it's disappointing but given our form lately and the injury problems I didn't have much hope going into this match. Maybe it's better this way, even if we had made it through we would've likely gotten smashed in the next round.

United are miles away from being a top club. Unbelievable when you consider the amount of money that has been invested in the last few seasons.

 

[sunama]

We're fecked. Darmain, smalling, jones,valencia and shaw all out.

Basically, this is similar to last year, when our defence (who are all made of glass), were all injured and we had to play McNair and Blackett who up to that point nobody heard of.
I guess we may introduce even more youth players, which is not necessarily a bad thing, as long they are not calamitous.
It is unfortunate that just as we were beginning to set about attacking (WHU, Wolfsburg), we now have so many injuries, which will force us to become defense focused.

And now that our real captain (C.Smalling) is out, this will definintely hurt us.
And worse still, Rooney may force himself back in our side, which will mean that we will create fewer chances.

 

[dogwithabone]

I haven't heard it mentioned but I wonder if that goal would have been awarded had Mata not wheeled away celebrating as though he had touched it ? I think that may have sowed the seed of doubt in the heads of the Wolfsburg players and the match officials.

 

[Dr. Funkenstein]

This CL season I have watched us playing on Austrian, German and Swiss TV. You can think about that whatever you want but all experts agreed that the glory days are gone for now and we are missing some real world class Players.
This is a fact.
LvG can be blamed to a certain extent but this is only half of the truth. It started with Fergie concentrating on his personal short term success instead of thinking middle to Long term.

In his defence, he couldn't have expected that Rooney and Van Persie would decline this early. But still, he chose to get older players in rather than strenghtening the squad for the future. He even relied on Giggs and Scholes who were nearing 40. The real problem is that they actually strengthened the squad considerably, that tells a lot about the rest of the squad.

Of course there were poor performances and poor spells in games, but the idea that Utd should simply get through a group like this is something from the past. Even with those older and experienced players close to their expiring date SAF couldn't manage to get through a group with Basel, Benfica and Otelul Gelati. It's not like Utd was one of Europe's finest with a balanced squad and a bright future until Moyes took over.

 

[wiz4231]

Just wanted to point this out. When you look at the highlights at this moment you can see Martial letting Lingard know where to pass it but Lingard waits too long. If Lingard had just passed it to Martial there is no way Wolfsburg could have prevented Martial from passing it to Mata who would be making a free run. It's that simple and it's exactly how the elite teams score goals consistently, let's not make football more complicated than it is.

You can't say that about our very own iniesta, lol, imagine Januzaj in that position, Goal.

 

[grahamo]

Although we played better against Wolfsburg than we did in all the other group games, the truth is that was the easiest group and we should have walked it! I'm so disappointed!