EL L Europa League Final

Villarreal 1:1 Manchester United

Post-match discussion


Wed, 26 May 2021

snk123

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Can we also talk about that Rashy miss? Anyone find a freeze frame if it was offside or not?
 

Born2Lose

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When you keep playing underperformers like Rashford, Pogba and DDG then eventually it's going to kick you in the butt.
 

RORY65

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Apart from the first 10 minutes and a brief spell after we equalised I thought we were terrible tonight and in the end got what we deserved. It's difficult to think of too many players who played well, Greenwood was good in the first half and McTominay in the second while both full backs were alright but too many players were off it today and the manager had a stinker.

The game started to drift away towards the end of normal time and there was no idea from the sideline or on the pitch of how to get any sort of control back while the long-standing failings (a lack of plan until forced in to a corner, the inability to defend set pieces and poor use of the bench) were again exposed.
 

Sultan

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Lost to Spanish Burnley due to players having nothing left in the tank in extra time. Clearly, either Ole doesn't think the subs are good enough or he's scared to take risks.
 

VivaRonaldo85

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Root and branch issue at the club when the managers first substitution in a European final is in the 99th minute and it’s a DM for one of your brightest forwards. That there sums up the whole debacle tonight. If I was DVB, I would be ringing my agent on the way home and looking for the first flight out of Manchester. Horrible horrible night on our recent stormy history.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Unfortunately the teams major weaknesses of inability to keep the ball, players just not showing up, inability to defend set pieces and the obviously problem of too many gang average footballers getting game time just cost us against a team we were clearly superior to.

To lose the Europa League these last 2 years when we really should have been winning it also shows major mentality issues with this team.
We didn’t lose it last year. We were fuxked in the semi. Just about got through in the quarter.
 

hobbers

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That was our best team out there no question. Lack of squad depth and quality in about 3/4 areas is what stops us winning matches like this. Not the coach. The game plan was fine the quality isn’t
There was no game plan. Other than "throw all the good players out and hope we win by a piece of brilliance".

Doesn't even matter. They made 5 subs in the 90 minutes. We made none. We made subs for penalties and gave up any hope of winning in ET before ET even kicked off. And we didn't make the single most important change if winning a penalty shootout was the aim - taking off De Gea.

Ole is clueless about how to affect a game of football.
 

dave1956

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Knew the game had gone when the camera panned across to Ole and coaching staff at different times later in the game. They all had that blank look, that the game was passing them by and they had no idea how to change things.
Not only do we need a influx of talent in playing staff but also the coaching staff who even at this European level are out of their class.
 

Nick7

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Lost to Spanish Burnley due to players having nothing left in the tank in extra time. Clearly, either Ole doesn't think the subs are good enough or he's scared to take risks.
He did the same thing in the semi final last year.
 

2 man midfield

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I've got to the point now where I feel AWB is SO bad at attacking that I'm willing to give up his defensive abilities and replace him with someone who can get a half decent cross in. He's absolutely hopeless going forward. Has no idea what to do.
Exactly. He’s a total passenger. Get the ball, pass it back. Literally anyone could do that.
 

Okey

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Weak as our bench may be, it's better than Villareal's. But we ceded control in the last half hour. I'll have to lay this at Ole's feet. I always thought he'd prove me wrong. But looks like the age old maxim holds...you can't give what you don't have. Ole has been great for our reset, but we will need a better manager to get to the next level. I'm crushed beyond words tonight.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Root and branch issue at the club when the managers first substitution in a European final is in the 99th minute and it’s a DM for one of your brightest forwards. That there sums up the whole debacle tonight. If I was DVB, I would be ringing my agent on the way home and looking for the first flight out of Manchester. Horrible horrible night on our recent stormy history.
Our brightest forward was running on fumes. He was blowing half way through the second half
 

Lyng

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This hurts because this team really needed a win. But this would always be a difficult match. We struggle against anti-football and Villarreal tonight was the definition of this. The Drillo style. Sit back, do small dirty fouls and try to ruin the game and hope for a random goal from a set piece or penalties.

It's easy to blame players or the manager or even the ref, and while I do believe it is totally fair to criticize certain aspects of the performance, I think this match puts a big fat emphasis on our biggest issue: we lack creativity when faced with a team that just parks the bus.
We need someone who can create magic in tight spaces.

All that having been said I do think players like Mata or Amad who are not reliant on their speed to create should have been given a chance.
 
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NinjaZombie

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That's nothing, there's an entire forum with a blind spot for 10 other players.
Imagine that, hundreds of different people having different opinions. Never mind the fact that these people have zero effect on the club.
 

UnitedSofa

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Anyone with a brain and functioning eyes who's not on the Glazers' payroll or in the Ole cult can see the problem today.

You are delusional.
We dominated them for huge portions of the game. Problem. What problem?
 

Anekdote

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Only Ole knows why he was holding back with the substitutes until extra time. Keeping Rashford while he's having a nightmare performace was criminal.

Of course I'm disappointed, everyone is. Still it was a crazy shootout, but I expected more from De Gea and at least just one save. His penalty was also lazy and somehow acted that he was not interested.
 

Houdini

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Root and branch issue at the club when the managers first substitution in a European final is in the 99th minute and it’s a DM for one of your brightest forwards. That there sums up the whole debacle tonight. If I was DVB, I would be ringing my agent on the way home and looking for the first flight out of Manchester. Horrible horrible night on our recent stormy history.
To be fair, Greenwood was tired as hell that moment, but I agree that subs came late and were meh.
 

Redfrog

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Let's be honest, Villareal absolutely shithoused it. Defended for 115 minutes. We weren't great but we deserved to win in the 90 mins. Ole should have had a plan b in place though as we looked dead in extra time, also should have Tim Krul'd it.
What did you expect ? It was David against Goliath for them. They played to win it and wanted it more.

We can only blame ourselves because we let the pressure take the better of us and bottled it.
 

drunkmonkmeth

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Final game of the season.. and every issues weve had in 20/21 was blaring. We need to improve set pieces. We need to move on degea because hes spineless. We need more quality.. and we need more tactical set ups against parked busses
 

hobbers

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We played our first choice XI, due to injuries. The Cafe is currently whinging that the manager got his subs (players and timing) wrong. So, if the starting XI needs 5 subs to beat Villareal, how are they good enough?
What sort of stupid logic is that? You think 11 men should beat 16 over 120 minutes?

We gave up before ET kicked off. We kept Rashford on the entire game and played essentially 10vs12 as a result. Shit management.
 

Eternitiy

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Which is it, mate?
Your question doesn't make sense. The players were good enough, but several of them were tired and needed to be substituted. Emery had 5 fresh players on, and we struggled as the game progress into extra time. Ole saving his substitutes for penalties is frankly embarrassing for a club of this stature. He needs to be proactive and go for a win.
 

Becks-7-

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Before the game, de Gea had the same tension as during penalties.
 

devilish

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Ole is a superb man manager but his tactically weak. He cannot keep expecting individual players to constantly bail him out
 

Bastian

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Hargreaves and Scholes doing their best to shield Ole from any criticism. He just needs a full team of world class players and then he'll be alright.
 

killerboi2

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Disagree with the people blaming it all on Ole. Big players such as Fernandes and Rashford let him down. Clearly we need some defenders and probably another striker in the summer. Midfield is fine.

Ole has made serious progress since Mourinho and stabilised the club.
 

mancan92

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He's not bulletproof.

But I don't fecking call for his job every time we lose.

Get over it. We lost. But this is not on Ole.

We lost on Pens.

If we'd won.

NO ONE WOULD GIVE A SINGLE FECK.

Give fecking over it will you, Ole is our manager and he is here to stay. We're moving in the right direction.
He got out managed by emery its that simple. When Emery saw his team struggling he changed their formation instantly and that changed the game Ole did nothing until 105 minutes. Its clear this is on Ole.
 

Inigo Montoya

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There was no game plan. Other than "throw all the good players out and hope we win by a piece of brilliance".

Doesn't even matter. They made 5 subs in the 90 minutes. We made none. We made subs for penalties and gave up any hope of winning in ET before ET even kicked off. And we didn't make the single most important change if winning a penalty shootout was the aim - taking off De Gea.

Ole is clueless about how to affect a game of football.
Were you saying that in the run up to the final? Because I thought we handled each team pretty well. If that was a two legged final.. we win it but that’s football
 

The Hilton

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Yiu

You sound like Klopp
And you sound like a WUM. They won the shootout lottery, which was the only way they were gonna win this match after parking the bus for most of it. No way did they deserve the win.
 

mu4c_20le

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Haha yeah I saw his post above. It really was though. Ole can’t control players playing shit but he can make an effort to fix it. I really take issue with our subs and how our plan became increasingly negative.
It's a lazy criticism to be fair. What would you have done differently?
 
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Lost to the Spanish Burnley due to players having nothing left in the tank in extra time. Clearly, either Ole doesn't think the subs are not good enough or he's scared to take risks.
I honestly think it's the former. Our bench tonight was very average. The squad needs more depth.
 

Player Ratings

5.2 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 304 ratings.

Score Predictions

197,25,12
  • Man Utd win
  • Villarreal win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 27% Villarreal 1:2 Man Utd
  • 21% Villarreal 1:3 Man Utd
  • 19% Villarreal 0:2 Man Utd
  • 5% Villarreal 2:1 Man Utd
  • 4% Villarreal 0:3 Man Utd
  • 3% Villarreal 2:3 Man Utd
  • 3% Villarreal 0:1 Man Utd
  • 3% Villarreal 1:1 Man Utd
  • 2% Villarreal 0:5 Man Utd
  • 2% Villarreal 1:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 0:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 2:2 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 1:4 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 0:4 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 2:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 3:1 Man Utd
  • 1% Villarreal 4:0 Man Utd
  • 0% Villarreal 4:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Villarreal 2:4 Man Utd
  • 0% Villarreal 2:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Villarreal 3:0 Man Utd
Compiled from 234 predictions.
Show more results Score Predictions League Table

Match Stats

  1. Villarreal
  2. Man Utd
Possession
40% 60%
Shots
12 14
Shots on Target
1 2
Corners
7 3
Fouls
10 15

Referee

Clement Turpin