EL L Europa League Final

Villarreal 1:1 Manchester United

Post-match discussion


Wed, 26 May 2021

KikiDaKats

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Haha this is nonsense, they literally parked the bus for the entire first 90.
Was that not their game plan? Their plan won them the final, whilst ours gave us zilch. So tell me what the nonsensical point is?
 

MrBest

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Things that stood out for me today;
1. Ole was disrespectful by selecting such an unbalanced team/formation. On paper all of those players are good enough to start but some of our most inconsistent periods have been when we tried shoehorning them.
2 Ole has no guts to drop players. Whether it’s to avoid enraging the stars or paper backlash. He just haven’t got it.
3 United do not play as a team and the Bruno influence will not get us to the top. We need to start moving away from it.
4 Our most underrated players deserve a lot more credit. Lack of fanfare doesn’t mean incapable. McT led that team today.
5. How do you leave yourself without a striker on the bench.
6 Lack of the eye test in judging and over reliant on stats is starting to cause us problems. People are ignoring how awful a player Rashford is developing into or how Bruno is incapable of playing in tight spaces but hey their goal and assists numbers are high.
7 Our CB really lack awareness of what happens around them. Good one v one defenders but take no notice of anything else.
8 Eric Bailly is not changing my mind. He is a poor defender and opposition use his rashness as an outlet.
9 AWB basically needs a replacement. Embarrassingly limited going forward, if he was just adequate today we would have had a lot of chances down the right.
10 If Cavani has to both score the goals and defend for our midfielders. What’s the use of them being on the pitch.
Cannot really disagree with much of what you said. Rather than arguing, i'd like to add an 11th point, Ole does not know how to make a sub or manage a squad of players. Surely Mata, DVB, Telles, Matic are better than most of the starting 11 of Villareal. Another insult to the cards, starting Rashford and Greenwood was criminal and left us with no striker on the bench. Donny and Mctominay in the middle, Pogba on the left and Greenwood on the right would have given more balance and more service to Cavani.
 

justsomebloke

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So disappointed with that loss. We should have won that but this shows exactly why our squad needs reinforcement.

After the first XI, there was literally no one we could have thought of to come in and make an impact from the bench.

This is exactly why it's hard to win trophies with a thin squad. An off night for Marcus and Bruno made us look average, and we didn't have anything of note to bring on.

Summer needs to be a big one if we have to show intent to close the gap. We need a striker, and defensive midfielder and center back and a right winger.

Get those 4 signings in and we can really be a good outfit.

We lost on penalties in a shootout where everyone of our our outfield players took brilliant under pressure penalities. Shows the mentality of the squad is there

De Gea always showed weakness in his mentality and his lack of pen saving and his poor pen just summed up his decline with us.

We lost the game to a set piece in all honesty. Villarreal had almost nothing all game till our players tired towards the end.
You have to think, when it becomes evident they haven't got the legs to keep the pressure up in extra time, there's got to be substitutions. With half the opposing team having fresh legs. But once you get into who to put on, it starts looking less good. Fred for Pogba, that's clear, and was done. You could do James for Rashford, though it wasn't exactly a James type of situation, with the way Villareal was playing. Maybe Diallo instead, or Mata. Or additionally one of those for Greenwood. Would that have been enough to re-energise the team? Maybe it would, but it sure would have helped to have someone with a more obvious game-changing potential.

The worst bit for me was seeing them let the second half of extra time peter out, with seemingly no ambition to settle the game before it went to penalties.

Aw, feck.
 

HerbT

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I don’t think they were bottlers.
They ran their socks off, didn’t lack endeavour, didn’t shy out of tackles.
They were playing a system and they were playing it exactly as their manager wanted them to.
If they weren’t playing the managers system then the manager would have been jumping up and down in the technical area, going absolutely ballistic and subbing off any players who weren’t sticking to the script.
I thought it was a fascinating game, ok, so not many shots on target but that was because both sides defended with every ounce of effort.
Lots of action in the middle of each half of the pitch nobody bottling it as such IMO.
The tactics employed by both managers produced a game like that and it was interesting from a tactical perspective because of that.

If you played that game 10 times then you’d win it 9 times and you were unlucky to lose today.
 

Judas

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In fairness, how absolutely lucky was our goal too. It's not as if their keeper was over worked and had to put in the performance of his life. We created so little once again.
 

KikiDaKats

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As it often does when your game plan is to play ultra defensive, waste time and hope for penalties, which you've obviously been practicing for for weeks.
Maybe we should have tried starting slowly as well or more conservative by sitting out a striker for later.
 

Dan_F

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Yeah in extra time they were a little better, despite creating nothing.

My posting was basically disagreeing with a troll post that suggested the "better team win", which was quite clearly nonsense. Not saying we did enough to win either, but at least we were actually trying to win.
Eh. Morale victors or something. I’m sure City fans said the same about us when we beat them a few times recently, after playing massively defensively and countering them.
 

Ludens the Red

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What the feck was that extra time period all about from both sides. The ball must have been in play for about five minutes. The other 25 mins just dicking about and people being injured.
Somehow that idiot ref only added on three minutes too.
Honestly it’s a European final and that was the standard of play for the extra time period. I know it’s been a long season but it was so painful to watch.
 

hubbuh

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I'm confused....when exactly has Henderson showed his prowess at saving penalties??
A pine cone would be more useful than De Gea at penalities. How many has he saved since that one vs van Persie?
 

abailey123

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We need to sign players allowing us to be flexible in a system. It’s clear as day you cut Bruno’s space at the minute you kill us. It’s all about the club now - we need to set our stall out and get our business done early. No leaving everything to deadline day.
 

Water Melon

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I hated Mou after his horrible presser against Sevilla and was so happy to see him gone. Ole on the other hand seems like a likeable chap, but he is not a winner. He is a bottler. I know what Mou's peak was, and unfortunately it seems that I know what Ole's ceiling is. Time for a change, the loss is 200% on Ole. Would have been sacked right on the spot had he been managing a top European team. Horrible managerial performance.
 

Shiva87

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You have to think, when it becomes evident they haven't got the legs to keep the pressure up in extra time, there's got to be substitutions. With half the opposing team having fresh legs. But once you get into who to put on, it starts looking less good. Fred for Pogba, that's clear, and was done. You could do James for Rashford, though it wasn't exactly a James type of situation, with the way Villareal was playing. Maybe Diallo instead, or Mata. Or additionally one of those for Greenwood. Would that have been enough to re-energise the team? Maybe it would, but it sure would have helped to have someone with a more obvious game-changing potential.

The worst bit for me was seeing them let the second half of extra time peter out, with seemingly no ambition to settle the game before it went to penalties.

Aw, feck.
Agree. They just didn't seem to have the legs anymore and the entire extra time was just a write off.

You really are crutching at straws if the game changers for us in a Europa League final are Amad and James.

The only case I can make was subbing Bruno for DVB. But that would have taken away the penalty taker that Bruno is.

Emery has got the number of Ole for sure.
 

UnitedSofa

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He seems to think playing with a severe injury is something we should be happy about.
CAF: Where's all of our players who play for the team? Who play through the pain and are willing to give sweat, blood and tears? It seems as though no one wants to play for the shirt!

Rash: Some of the players in there 5,6,7 including me have been playing through the pain for this club, we want to win and we want to show the fans how much we want to win, putting our bodies on the line (Paraphrase)

CAF: Is that supposed to be something we're happy about?! Is that something we're supposed to be impressed by?!

:wenger:
 

Nick7

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I just realised I watched that exact Villarreal team play against Real Madrid at the weekend while our players were rested, and they still managed to do better than us in extra time. Fecking hell.
 

SirMattlives

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Like everyone else, a bit down after that one. The omens were bad anyway for me when all I read in the press was how a win would be a launching pad and that Ole had done alright really. The attitude seemed to be we would walk this. Rarely works out like that in a final.

We were not really at the races today save for a few mins after the equalizer when we almost overran them. I am not sure I buy the squad depth argument about lack of subs. Yes, we're a bit thin but I would have tried Mata earlier as he has the eye and ability for a different kind of pass, and sub'd Rashford who seemed to struggle so much that it felt as if we were playing with 10 men some of the time, so almost any fresh legs would have helped. All too slow and predictable really from us. We can blame Ole but he has a coaching team there too, wonder what the hell they were saying as the game drifted on. Extra time was truly poor from us. I did not bother watching the pens, crap way to win any cup, but you can be sure I knew we'd lost from the texts people enjoyed sending. Sure, we have to go again, I'd give Ole the support he needs for this, at least for another year. But man, I am p'd off after that match.
 

Ceteris

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Ole has been bottling certain decisions all season and it came to bite him today, Rashford should have been yanked for just been absolutely dross, that's been the case many times this season.
Is he a winger or what, because at the moment he looks like theo Walcot. Can't beat a man, always switching to areas he feels the team are having some joy and just does nothing

We stopped playing at the beginning of extra time like he had planned for penalties.

To sum up how bad it was we almost messed up getting mata and Telles on.
 

vivaronaldo

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ole absolutely bottled that....put all his eggs in 1 basket starting greenwood and left him no attacking options against a tired defence .....today he proved he just will not take us to another level
 

glazed

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I do not care about this trophy. Losing on penalties and winning on penalties amounts to the same thing anyway in terms of lessons to be learned.

My takeaway from this season is that we are slightly better than last season but only slightly. We finished second rather than third, mainly because Liverpool imploded. But there were some undeniable improvements in consistency.

The big take away is that we are no more likely to get into the last 16 of the Champion's League than we were last season. And we are not good enough to mount a title challenge except with a Leicester amount of good fortune in our rivals. So nothing much has changed. Glazers are still the problem. Ole is still their front man. We are still not winners.
 

Renegade

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CAF: Where's all of our players who play for the team? Who play through the pain and are willing to give sweat, blood and tears? It seems as though no one wants to play for the shirt!

Rash: Some of the players in there 5,6,7 including me have been playing through the pain for this club, we want to win and we want to show the fans how much we want to win, putting our bodies on the line (Paraphrase)

CAF: Is that supposed to be something we're happy about?! Is that something we're supposed to be impressed by?!

:wenger:
Keep that energy when he goes Euro’s and comes back even worse.
 

OrcaFat

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I’m over this already. We weren’t that bad considering how they set up. Wheels came off a bit but no surprise.

The problem is a few players are in a dip of form, which happens, and it reveals how thin the squad really is. I don’t blame Ole for not making subs because we had shit-all on the bench.

We need players challenging the first 11 in every position. That’s why getting at least two first teamers this summer is essential.
 

UnitedSofa

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Keep that energy when he goes Euro’s and comes back even worse.
Thought we all wanted passionate players, no?

In all honesty I don't think he'd go and if he does, he isn't playing all the games.
 
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These lot were the worst team we’ve played all season imo. Granada and Sociedad gave us more to worry about. Can’t believe we lost.
 

adamwest

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The team that started should have been enough to beat Villarreal though.

They parked the bus, and we've been notoriously shit at breaking teams down all season. It wasn't a suprise that's what Emery went with.

I dunno... It just feels like we don't really have a style, just hope that one of our big guns can do the business. Pogba, Rashford and Bruno all a let down. Ole didn't know what to change to try and get a tune from them...

I love Ole, and always will, and he's done a good job at restoring team spirit after Mourinho. I just don't think he has that winning mentality as a manager. Fergie, Pep, Klopp, even bloody Conte! Their own force of will seems to drive their teams on half the time.

We'll always be stunted by the Glazers leaching from the club, but this team should still do better.

Feel very dejected tonight. A resounding win might have made me reconsider my opinion and feel more optimistic, but I can't really say I'm surprised with how it played out. It just felt like the kind of thing this team does.
I’m with you mate
 

A-man

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One of those nights. Bold team selection, nothing went for us for a long time, our big men, Bruno, Rashford, Pogba were all just off it, refereeing decisions mostly went against us. We were great in the second half, just couldn't nick the winner. Granted, the subs were not the ones I would have made and we got extra time wrong but bar DDG, everyone else in the shootout was amazing.

Recriminations are easy in hindsight. I don't see the point in tearing into everyone because a marginal match went against us. Every team we play are shite in the matchday/post match threads.Leipzig were, PSG were, Villareal were one up on Madrid with 10 minutes to go at the weekend but then Madrid are probably shite as well.

It's been a horrendous slog of a season and we've finished second and dominated a European final. Take it, move on, hope for more progress next year.
I’m super disappointed, but you made some good points.
 

stevoc

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Maybe we should have tried starting slowly as well or more conservative by sitting out a striker for later.
Nah we had the better team by a distance, we should have just moved the ball faster and took more risks with our passing. For the majority of the game we played into their tactics by playing it slowly around the midfield and defence. What we needed to do was get it in and around the box and have people driving into the box.
 

Denis79

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Real Madrid were lucky to beat Villareal last week with 1 goal, so there's that.
So were we to beat Burnley or whatever,, just saying we're the better team on paper. To blame one player for this loss is bullshit.
 

Redfrog

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This all on Ole. Rashford played poor but not subbed. We need a goal so take a goalscorer off to give your old mate Fred a go. Could go on and on 2 shots on target and one was a 30 yard hit and hope from Rashford. Pogba and Fernandes were off form as well. You either got to back Ole with a big warchest which probably wont happen, bring in another manager probably wont happen, 3rd option give Ole a nice rise and a new contract and play for a top 4 place again.
3rd option is the owners ambition to be honest, even my dog know that and that what they’ll do until we don’t qualify for champions league.
 

The Brown Bull

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I hated Mou after his horrible presser against Sevilla and was so happy to see him gone. Ole on the other hand seems like a likeable chap, but he is not a winner. He is a bottler. I know what Mou's peak was, and unfortunately it seems that I know what Ole's ceiling is. Time for a change, the loss is 200% on Ole. Would have been sacked right on the spot had he been managing a top European team. Horrible managerial performance.
Totally agree. Terrible management tonight cost us. Why did we persist with trying to play out from goal kicks? Daft.
Their subs changed the game. Ours came on to take pens.
I liked Olé as a player but he's no manager.
 

Suedesi

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Watched the game in Spanish feed via Unimas (couldn't figure out the CBS app situation in time), and they had Hristo Stoichkov and Javier Zanetti providing analysis and co-commentary throughout the match. Slight pro-Villareal bias, but overall they called the game well. It's always amazing to hear distinguished ex-pros call the game out live.

Both Zanetti and Stoichkov singled out McTomminay and Cavani out as United's best performers on the night. Surprisingly, Zanetti was highly complimentary of AWB and both were complimentary of Shaw. They thought United's entire maneuver revolved around the fullbacks and they were praised for their offensive and defensive contributions. I have been highly critical of AWB in the past, but it's humbling to hear one of the all time greats say over and over that AWB had a really solid game. (Maybe we shouldn't expect so much from AWB when the rest of midfield and AM do zilch all game). Commenting on Villareal's goal both blamed United's defense for allowing Gerard to steer free, and not really De Gea. So Lindelof essentially.

Both were highly complimentary of Villareal's defensive organization, thought that if they could maintain "tranquilidad" they could emerge victorious.

Anyways, I think sometimes it's interesting to hear commentary in a different language, with a different bias - it makes you more open to see the match in a different way.

Wonder how the English commentary called it.
 

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.
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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