Shocking United

Manchester United slumped to a shock defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir yesterday in the Champions League although those that have followed us in the Premier League wouldn’t be entirely shocked. The Turkish team gained their first-ever win in the Champions League by beating us. In terms of the context of this result, it isn’t too bad as qualification is still within our hands and we are still top of the group. However, in terms of form, this is another alarming result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEX2ObFYEG4

Shocking Defending

The defending by us in this match was absolutely shocking. After getting slaughtered by Tottenham Hotspur, we have shown great concentration, focus and determination in our defending. But consistency is our bane. Inexplicably, we had a couple of blackout moments in our defending and Istanbul capitalised gleefully to score twice. I am not sure if there was an inquest in our dressing room at half-time on the goals we conceded but we are left scratching our head wondering how we made such elementary mistakes to gift Istanbul their goals.

Wrong Tactics Again

Once again, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer chose the wrong tactics. He stuck with the same one that worked against RB Leipzig but not against Arsenal and again not today. The play was too congested in the middle as we tried to piece through moves through the eye of a needle and repeatedly failed to do so.

Lack of Intensity & Fire

In the second half, we had most of the possession and pinned Istanbul in their half but truthfully, we could have played until the cows came home and still not scored. In the first half, we scored with our only shot on target, the only well-worked move that we pieced together ironically coming off a cross from the wing. As we chased an equaliser and a potential winner, we only had one shot on target and that was from a Bruno Fernandes free-kick. We kept a lot of meaningless possession, passing it sideways and backwards. There was no intensity in our play, there was a lack of movement by the players off the ball and there was no fire from the players. In contrast, Istanbul played with a lot of intensity, pressing us, chasing after every ball, attacking with pace and defending with resilience.

Dead Man Walking

The pattern so far this season has been that after a defeat like the one we had against Arsenal, we bounce back immediately in our next match. On that account, we should have beaten Istanbul. Instead, we produced a performance far worse than the last one against Arsenal. Since his appointment, I have supported Ole Gunnar Solksjaer. I felt we were heading in the right direction from late January 2020 onwards and had ended the season strongly. There was room for further improvement this season and it looked promising. Instead, the start of this season has been nothing short of a nightmare. So many things have gone wrong before a ball was kicked. The preparation for the season has been disjointed. We have struggled to cope with the demands of playing every three days. I get a feeling that if results don’t change fast, he will get sacked. Looking on from outside, he looks clueless on how to change the fortune of the team. The form of the team and his decisions have been patchy and inconsistent. Opinions change quickly in football and as long as he has the job, he has still got the time to change his fortune. The pressure has just intensified to another level, good luck Solksjaer!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time For Italy To Prove Themselves

Image
We are on the eve of Euro 2020 and Italy will kick off the tournament for the first time in my time as a fan. In the days leading up to the tournament, there has been a lot of positive attention on the team. Some are tipping them to be the dark horses of the tournament, some are tipping them to go all the way to the final and even winning it. If you have followed the Italian national team as long as I have, you will know that this spells trouble. Whenever Italy has entered a tournament as one of the favourites, they have disappointed for example 1996, 2002 and 2004. The only exception would be 1994 where they went all the way to the final after a slow start. When no one has given them a chance, they have done well as we have seen in 2000, 2006, 2012 and to an extent, 2016. If I apply this logic, it doesn’t bode well for Italy in this tournament. I have not watched Italy play since that unfateful World Cup qualifier playoff elimination by Sweden in 2017 because I have not had any ac
Read more

Supercoppa Champions (Again!) Cover The Cracks

Image
Inter swept past Milan 3-0 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to retain the Supercoppa Italiana. I couldn't watch the match as it wasn't shown "live" in Singapore. It is always great to win a derby in this fashion but the feeling is lost when you don't actually watch the match. We have continued the trend of winning trophies in consecutive seasons which is an excellent habit to cultivate and this victory has proved that there is no doubt that Inter can beat anyone in a one-off match.  However, this victory just papers over growing cracks at Inter. When I see the club President, Steven Zhang get involved in the trophy celebrations, I feel he is not embarrassed. To be honest, his involvement looks a bit awkward as well. The squad is increasingly heading towards degeneration as the best players are slowly getting picked apart and replaced by ageing players. We know the reason why this is the case - the club is broke and they have to sell to invest in the team. The 30-something-
Read more

Routine Inter Win

Image
It’s not often that Inter records a routine win. After all, we are not known as “Pazza Inter” for nothing. This win against Fiorentina away at Stadio Artemio Franchi is impressive for a couple of reasons. One, it came after only 2 days of rest after our midweek Coppa Italia semi-final, first-leg against Juventus. Second, we have not beaten La Viola in Florence since 2014. Strong & Sharp Start To The Game We got off to a great start in this match, we were sharp and incisive in our attacks. Nicolo Barella made the wrong decision with his cut-back and then his shot was saved impressively by Bartlomiej Dragowski. It looked odds on that he would score. In another attack, Alexis Sanchez’s drag-back missed everyone in a white shirt in the box. It looked like we were going to struggle to break them down until Barella scored a goal of great individual quality, curling a shot from outside the box into the bottom corner of the net. Poor Response To Taking The Lead Our response to taking t
Read more