Manchester United are coming off a shocking 2-1 loss to Young Boys in the UEFA Champions League group stage last night. Up next is a Premier League clash at West Ham United, a side they have absolutely owned recently.
That’s good news, as the Red Devils are definitely licking their wounds right now. The bad news is that United were certainly exposed last night. Re-signing Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t solve all their problems, and Tuesday night was a stark reminder of that. And a lot is going on in the United news cycle today, so let’s run it all down!
Team Captain Harry Maguire has expressed support for attacking midfielder Jesse Lingard, after he made a catastrophic gaffe last night, which set up the match winning goal for the Swiss side.
Lingard made an errant back pass which was so awful, it looked like he was setting up a through ball for the opposition! Maguire expressed his support for Lingard (a guy who was really looking for a chance to earn extra playing time) and backs him to bounce back.
“Discipline is a huge part of tournament football,” Maguire said after the loss.
“If this was a knockout game and we go out of the competition because we go down to 10 men, everyone would be kicking ourselves.
“We’re fortunate it is the first game of the group and we have loads of time to bounce back from it.
“Discipline is a huge part of football. With Jesse, no footballer likes making mistakes but it’s obviously part and parcel of the game. We’re humans, every footballer makes mistakes, we’ll learn from it, he’ll learn from it.
“He’ll pick himself up and be ready to go on Sunday, that’s part and parcel of football. But of course, discipline is a big part.”
While Lingard makes a convenient scapegoat, the same can be said for right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, whose red card forced United to have to play a man down for 55 minutes. Another popular scapegoat today is manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who is under fire his tactics and substitutions.
The Norwegian defended his decision to switch to a back five after having to play with just ten men.
“The signs were there last in five minutes of the first half that they were going to get get crosses in the box,” said Solskjaer.
“Raphael [Varane], Victor [Lindelof] and Harry coped with it well. It was the best way of controlling them, but we should have done more with the ball.”
As the “Ole Out” pitchforks are once again resurfacing en masse, OGS ran damage control in his post match media opps, pointing out how there is a lot of UCL group stage football left to be played.
“That happens in a game,” Solskjaer said, via manutd.com. “That’s football. Up and downs. You’ve got big moments, you’ve got moments that go for you and against you. He’ll handle that one, and we’ll handle it.”
“We need 12 points to go through,” Solskjaer said. “You need to win your home games, win one away from home and go through. A missed opportunity tonight, of course, but then again last year we won our first two games against PSG and Red Bull [Leipzig] and everyone thought we were through. So we have five games to get the 10 or 12 points.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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