JOSE GOT IT ALL WRONG AS UNITED CRASH OUT OF UCL
When the team sheets were rolled out yesterday before Manchester United’s champions league game, I was stuck in the kitchen trying to get some bolognese with spaghetti ready for the game.
As I trod back infront of the TV just after kick off, it was the long hairs of Marouane Fellaini that first caught my eyes. Who
Was he starting for? why was he in team? Who was out of the team? And before I could answer the question, I saw Matic, Lingaard, Sanchez and then Rashford.
I knew straight away that Mata, Mctominay, Pogba and Martial were not on the pitch
Let’s be honest, when Pogba cane on he just justified his manager’s decision to exclude him, he was poor. Martial was lethargic and in all, the team looked pedestrian.
What had Jose Mourinho done? I asked myself. I had thought Jose would go for it, since he just had to win to qualify. A draw would not have been enough and a loss would put them out. But with a 4-2-3-1 formation that had Fellaini on the pitch, Manchester United were outfoxed, outclassed and outplayed by a team that had spent just a little over half of the £360m that Jose had spent on his team.
Nzonzi didn’t break a sweat against Fellaini and co, but he was still the best player on the pitch, dictating play and controlling the middle. If this was a quality European side, United could have lost both legs with an aggregate of four or five goals in deficit, and as soon as a good striker came off the bench for Sevilla, with superior movements off the ball, it took two chances (where they had been wasteful all along) for him and Sevilla to dump Jose Mourinho’s Team out of the competition.
Let’s be honest, United were extremely poor in Seville and were very average and poor yesterday night as well.
Why go for a defensive formation in that sort of game? I understand if it’s a 3 point game in the league against top opposition, and I get it if United needed a draw to go through, but where a draw was not going to be good enough and a loss was not an option, Jose Mourinho got it all wrong with his team Selection.
Truth is, if Liverpool had beaten United on Saturday, or if Chelsea had claimed the points against United, this inquest would have been held much earlier, as United have been very fortunate to win those games.
There were no leaders on the pitch (Bailly with his display did and Smalling kept shouting at the boys) and the team looked like they lacked direction, not something you associate with a Jose Mourinho team.
There was no cohesion in team play, the changes (Fellaini and Lingaard) were ineffective and United never looked like troubling Sevilla at all.
Lingaard is never a number 10 that can dictate play, he is more of a midfield runner, coming off the bench to score goals. Fellaini? This was not his game, especially after a lengthy lay off.
In both games, United looked like an average team from a struggling league.
If United ever had a chance to reach a Champions league quarter final, it was going to be yesterday night, but they did not take it and sadly, another English club is found wanting and dumped out of Europe.
THE FARCE AT WEST HAM
Let me first say that the invasion of the pitch by fans during the game against Burnley was absolutely unacceptable.
In the modern era, or in any era, such is not justified and just served to put pressure on the players, who already have relegation demons to contend with.
But when I refer to the farce, I don’t necessarily mean the pitch invasions, nor the protests aimed towards the directors box at the weekend.
It’s the comical issues that have been happening around the club for the past seasons. There is nothing wrong with having ambitions, but it must be with wisdom and good understanding of all surrounding and supporting circumstances.
First it was Sam Allardyce, keeping the team in respectable positions in the league and playing a brand of football that kept them in the premiership.
Just like the WBA fans, WestHam fans demanded the WestHam way. What way?
The way that saw them relegated a few times several years ago? The way that saw them sell their best players for years to the other big premier league teams?
What way?
I’m hoping a WestHam fan could enlighten me as the pressure back then, caused the parting of ways with Sam Allardyce and then the rest is history…
Bilic, Payet, and now David Moyes and I still don’t understand the WestHame way..
The board? What was the point moving the Club from the traditional ground to an athletic stadium? Which direction are they taking this club that has a lot of roots in East London? What is their transfer policy? Who buys players? What type of players do they look for?
Why did they stop the protest march organised by the fans?
I have looked through the squad and I can’t find a consistent theme amongst the players. No wonder Payet forced himself out (even though I don’t condone the manner he did it)
I think there must be a surgical operation at West Ham from top to bottom, to save the club from a decline. There’s no hiding now, the veils have been unveiled and it’s time for fans to stand behind the players and stand up for the club, otherwise the pressure might just be enough to send the Club to the championship.
SOUTHAMPTON END PELLEGRINO’S REIGN
Again I don’t understand why Claude Puel was sacked by Southampton last year. Do these clubs just enjoy change for the fun of it? This was a manager who took the club to the final of the League Cup, dominating Manchester United all the way, even had a goal unjustly disallowed, eventually just succumbing to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s magic.
So why sack Claude Puel in the first place? Again the team want to play attractive football, just like WBA and exactly like West Ham, the fans demanded a change and change they got.
Several months and a season after it looks like those changes at those clubs have come back to haunt them.
Who will come in at Southampton with eight games to go?
I just hope they get it right, or else it would be a shame for a team that has produced so many exciting young English players for many years to head to the championship.