Silly United

 I will start this article by quoting my pre-game tweet “Today’s game will be a test of our maturity. I feel because of our recent wins n the last 2 results against PSG, the team (manager and players) will take it easy and forget that PSG has many top quality players. N we will lose. Such is our maturity n consistency #MUFC”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0-fzB-qek8

Change Of Tide In The First Half

At the start of the game, my prophecy was coming true for the reason stated above. We were sloppy in possession and control of the ball. We were left chasing shadows and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) took the lead. I saw this coming but it was still uncomfortable viewing. I was squirming in my seat, urging on Solksjaer to make a tactical change and revert to a back three. I was very concerned at the odds of us holding off the waves of PSG attack.

We weathered the storm and slowly increased our possession share in the game. We were patiently probing without giving the PSG backline much cause for concern. Keylor Navas in the PSG goal was largely untroubled. Our patience was rewarded when Marcus Rashford’s shot took a fortunate deflection off Danilo Pereira for our equaliser.

Profligate Finishing

We were in the ascendancy in the first half and dominated for at least 25 minutes of the second half. We got into good positions in the final third but were either caught in two minds on what to do with the ball or made the wrong decision. From the highlights, you would have noticed a glaring miss by Anthony Martial at the end of flowing interplay between Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford. If we had won the game, we could have laughed it off. But because we lost the game, it became a sinful miss. In games at this level against top-quality opponents like PSG, you CANNOT afford to miss chances such as this. We can count ourselves unlucky too when Cavani’s sumptuous chip crashed off the bar.  From the rebound, Martial was teed up by Bruno Fernandes but his shot was charged down by Marquinhos.

Controversy

Fred was caught in an off-the-ball incident with Leandro Paredes. Fred brushed his forehead against Paredes and the Argentine dropped to the floor like he was shot. It was a play from the Latin football book of gamesmanship. I feared the worst when the Italian referee, Daniele Orsato went over to view the incident on the pitchside monitor. I was as surprised as anyone that he resorted to yellow card Fred instead of sending him off. Everyone is curious to know what his reasoning was. I felt maybe some leniency was shown because Paredes put his head towards Fred and Paredes made the most of it. These two players were caught up in a challenge again. On viewing again, I felt we were lucky that the referee didn’t catch Fred making contact with Paredes. Paredes was yellow-carded instead. Finally, Fred’s luck ran out when he caught ex-Red Devil Ander Herrera on the follow-through. Ironically, he was punished for the fairest of his three indiscretions. The referee probably had it in the back of his mind that he made a mistake with his first-half decision and was making a wrong, right.

Solksjaer’s Mistakes

After Fred’s first-half close shaves, everyone tipped him to be substituted at half-time so we were all surprised to see him return for the second half. He was managing well but there was no need to risk him. A substitution should have been made sooner to protect him and the team. It wasn’t like we were short on midfielders. We had top-quality midfielders on the bench. When we were on the ascendancy, we didn’t make substitutions at the right time to press home the dominance. The ruthlessness to finish off the game was missing from our players but that was the case from the manager too. It is in moments and decisions such as this that doubts are raised on Solksjaer’s ability to manage at a high-level for United and bring us back to glory. Like the players on the pitch, he is also inconsistent in terms of formations, line-up and substitutions. By that, I don’t mind the rotation of players, I mean getting the right formation, line-up and substitutions for most matches.

Final Chance For Progression

After a strong start to the Champions League, we face the possibility of being relegated to the Europa League if we don’t get a point away to RB Leipzig next week. They are not easy opponents to face and added to that the occasion of a final between the two teams for progression to the knockout stages. It is going to be tensed and nervy. If we fail to qualify, this defeat to PSG and especially the one away to Istanbul Basaksehir will be the games we look back to as wasted opportunities.