Five Talking Points from the Europa League Final
One chance is all United had to salvage something from what has been an incredibly average season.
But they blew it against the seventh-best team in Spain with a lower budget than Southampton and Crystal Palace in a second-rate European competition.
When the going got tough, United bottled it. Five semi-final losses and a defeat in a final. This is Man United. Weak, spineless, inept bottle jobs. The perfect example of a big-time Charlie. A big club on paper, but one of the worst run clubs in Europe. If you closed your eyes, you would have thought that United were Tottenham given the way they continually lose when it really matters.
Here are the five major talking points following United’s humiliating defeat on Wednesday night:
1. The Defence
This is something that I lamented for nearly three years now.
Man United have spent £141 million on Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelöf, and Eric Bailly. However, we are still asking questions about their centre-backs. Their defence is an accident waiting to happen.
The goal they conceded sums them up. Their was little to no pressure on United’s backline but Lindelöf yet again failed to deal with a free-kick into the box and Gerard Moreno converted the ball into the back of the net to put Villarreal 1–0 up.
Lindelöf made a similar error against Huddersfield, twice, in United’s 2–1 defeat against them in October 2017.
Over three and a half years later and he is still making the same mistakes. He has not evolved at all, he is not good enough, and he must be shown the door.
Some argued that United would not have conceded that goal had Maguire been on the field, but let’s rewind back to November last year. His calamitous defending is the reason why United lost 2–1 to Istanbul Başakşehir. This game ultimately cost them a place in the Champions League round of 16.
Furthermore, his defending, or rather the lack of it, is the reason why Leicester sent the Red Devils crashing out of the FA Cup quarter final.
Maguire was also at fault in Chelsea’s 3–1 win over United in the FA Cup semi-final last season. So, this talk about him saving United from conceding a soft goal is absolute rubbish.
Until major surgery is performed on their defence, they will not move forward.
2. The Emery League
United thought they were going to simply turn up and that the Villarreal players would tremble at their sight, down tools, and suffer a humiliating defeat in their first ever European final. But United overlooked one small detail, that Emery is their manager.
He was the man who led Sevilla to a threepeat of Europa League titles from 2013/14 to 2015/16. The Spaniard also had a reasonably good record at Arsenal against United, losing once in four matches against them.
With him in charge of the ‘Yellow Submarine’ a victory was more than possible, and that is exactly what happened.
This was Unai Emery’s fifth Europa League final and his fourth time he has won it. This trophy belongs to him and may as well have his name written all over it. No manager in football history has led a club to winning the same European competition four times.
By dumping Arsenal out of the tournament and putting United to the sword on Wednesday, Emery recovered from the wound that was inflicted on him at The Emirates.
Emery had the last laugh over the arrogant English naysayers, who mercilessly derided him for 18 months with the infamous “good ebening” line.
3. The Manager’s Job Must Be Untenable
In Man United’s home game in the Champions League in October, Fred was booked in the first half. Even though he kept flirting with a red, he remained on the field for reasons unbeknown to man.
The game was tied at 1–1 but Marquinhos put the Parisians in front in the 69th minute. A minute later, Fred was dismissed following a foul on Ander Herrera.
Ole Gunnar Solksjær’s decision hurt United, lost them the game, and cost them a place in the round of 16 of the Champions League.
Three days ago, Unai Emery made all five subs after the 90 minutes. Shortly afterwards, a rejuvenated Villarreal took control over the game. United were second-best to nearly everything. Ole, on the other hand, made his first sub in the 100th minute despite seeing his team drop a few levels.
It was crystal clear that a change was desperately needed, yet Ole did nothing. He allowed this to continue despite it being so painfully obvious that the United’s players were mentally and physically crippled.
Even when he did make subs, they were wrong. With the game heading to penalties, he replaced Paul Pogba, one of the best penalty takers, for Dan James.
He replaced Mason Greenwood for Fred. He allowed a below-par Rashford to continue instead of replacing him for Amad Diallo.
It was almost as if he made these changes to appease the irate United fans at home screaming to the top of their lungs for him to make a substitution.
This was their only chance to win silverware for the first time in four years. Ole’s arrogance as well as his pathetically hopeless decision making once again played a huge role in United losing a monumental game.
What he did was unforgivable, inexcusable, and sackable. He has proven umpteen times with his decision making, tactics, and comments that he is out of his depth.
He played with fire in a cup final and in the end, he got burned. With the resources that United have, a top-class manager such as Erik ten Hag, Marcelo Bielsa, Laurent Blanc, or Mauricio Pochettino would accomplish ten times more than what Ole has accomplished.
Solskjær is carried by individual brilliance on a weekly basis. But when teams are compact, solid, well-structured, and organised off the ball, United are exposed as a one-dimensional team with no direction. It goes back to the manager and his inability to formulate a plan B.
The sad reality is that United is too big for him and he does not have what it takes to decrease the sizeable deficit between them and City. If the Glazers really cared about the club, they would sack him.
4. Donny Van de Beek Must Leave
The talented Dutch midfielder starred in the 2018/19 season where helped Ajax reach the Champions League semi-final and win both the Eredivisie and KNBV Cup.
The 24-year-old attracted lots of big clubs, most notably Real Madrid and Barcelona. Nonetheless, Man United beat them to the punch and signed him for £35 million last summer. But since then, it has all gone downhill for van de Beek. His time at ‘The Theatre of Dreams’ has been nothing short of a nightmare.
He has been ignored, rejected, and neglected by Solskjær. The Norwegian favours Fred and Scott McTominay over him even though he is much better than both of them combined.
Numerous times when the cameras have zoomed in on him in the stands he looks desponded, dejected, defeated, and downtrodden. His confidence has been shattered to smithereens due to Ole’s inane favouritism. When he is brought on, in some cases it is with minutes or even seconds to spare. What has he done to deserve this sort of treatment? This makes no sense at all.
After he was benched by Ole and not brought on against Villarreal, he should have immediately handed in a transfer request.
He is a young, talented, hardworking midfielder who deserves to play under a top manager in a well-structured, well run club that can compete at the top level. Van de Beek should do this for the betterment of his career, otherwise he will end up like Juan Sebastián Verón, Shinji Kagawa, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alexis Sánchez, Memphis Depay, and many others who had their careers destroyed at Old Trafford.
5. David de Gea’s Time at United is Over
If it was not already obvious, the curtain has been drawn on de Gea’s United career.
At one point, he was an imperious, indomitable figure that could win games all on his own. Now, he is a weak, fragile liability. De Gea has gone from competing with Manuel Neuer to falling behind Dean Henderson as United’s first-choice goalkeeper. That drastic decline speaks volumes about his fall from grace.
As the game has evolved, de Gea has regressed. He is poor in possession, unable to command the box, unreliable in aerial duels, and his concentration is questionable.
Then there his horrific penalty record. The last time he saved a penalty was in the FA Cup semi-final against Everton; however, that was in April 2016. Since then, he has failed to save any of his last 40 penalties for both club and country!
The fact is that he is on the decline and he is a shadow of his former self. Since signing a new deal in the summer of 2018, his form has deteriorated. Three bad seasons is unacceptable, it is now time to move on.
Maybe he should have rejected the contract and moved on? He could have left a hero, but now he has stayed long enough to see himself become a villain.
The Champions League final will be kicking off today between Man City and Chelsea. United fans across the globe will be hoping and praying that the noisy neighbours do not win their first ever European Cup, it will be a massive kick in the teeth and will add to what has already been a horrible week for them.
What happens in that game is yet to be seen.
