My take on the Final:
- despite the fact that Rashford's form has been abysmal for the past few months, he was selected to start; this in itself created an immediate problem - because no matter how Rashford played in the Final, Ole would not be able to substitute him because he is one of the club's penalty-taker's (i.e. he would be needed if the match went to a shootout).
- during 90 minutes it was blatantly obvious that Pogba kept on slowing our play down in midfield, when we were trying to transition from defence to attack; this continually meant that Villareal were able to organise and set themselves, and nullify any of our attempted attacking play.
- Bruno and Rashford were abysmal; and again because they are penalty-takers they could not be hooked.
- McTominay and Cavani were excellent, in that they gave the minimum you would expect from players in a Final... 100% effort. Well done to them.
- once the 90 minutes were up, it was clear we were gassed. Villareal had made 5 x substitutions up to the 90 minutes, whereas we had made none.
- once extra time arrived, we waited a further 10 minutes before making our first substitution - Fred for Greenwood, because Fred is trusted more at penalties than Greenwood.
- during extra time I don't recall us having a single attempt at goal, which I attribute to the players running on empty.
- once penalties arrived, De Gea was given notes from our coaching staff that stated the direction that Villareal's penalties were likely to be kicked. The notes for the first 6 penalties would prove to be 50% accurate, with crucially penalty no.6 (the 1st sudden death penalty) being correctly hit straight down the middle without an ounce of hesitation from the Villareal player (no stuttering run up, no waiting for De Gea to make his move, just eyes on the ball).
Inexplicably De Gea chose to ignore the notes, and fell to the side, instead of staying stood upright and saving the penalty, that would have been hit straight at him.
I blame Ole for the starting lineup:
- Rashford should have been benched due to his abysmal form
I blame Ole for his in-game management:
- not making a substitution until the 100th minute, when Villareal had made 5 x substitutions before 90 minutes, is absolutely unfair on the players who were completely gassed going into extra time.
I blame Bruno for not turning up, and his decision making:
- to win the coin toss and allow Villareal to go first in the shootout is pathetic; in that it statistically gave an advantage to Villareal (60% chance of winning by going first, compared to a 40% chance of winning by going second).
Also, from penalty no.5 onwards, Utd were taking penalties under added pressure - miss and the game would end there and then.
Contrast that to Villareal, who had less pressure, by knowing that if they missed, the game wouldn't have ended there and then because Utd would still have had to score their penalty.
I blame De Gea for not following the notes of our coaching team for the penalties:
- had De Gea followed the notes then Manchester United would have won.
Let me tell you now, I was absolutely proud of every one of our outfield players when they stepped up, and slotted away their penalties even with the added pressure that Bruno had put us under (by choosing to go second).