Manchester United were defeated by Ajax last night but still managed to progress the Europa League quarter-finals thank to the 2-0 lead they brought to the game from Amsterdam.
Despite taking the lead, United conceded two goals and had to endure a nervous final few minutes after Ajax dominated the second half.
United played with what most would see as our future back five, although Sir Alex Ferguson believes he took too much of a risk in leaving out our more experienced players.
“I must say, I’ve got to accept I’m responsible for picking the team and tonight I picked too many young players in the back four positions – that was a big problem in terms of experience,” said Ferguson. “It was a big risk I took. Ajax are fantastic in terms of keeping the ball. Their first goal I thought was a handball (in the build-up) but although they had a lot of possession they didn’t look like scoring. But that goal gave them confidence and we only had one shot in the second half. I thought we were very poor in the second half.”
Man Utd News 24/7
We are through. Move on..
all too true
We had a lucky escape there. The centre mid as per usual was inept against a lively Ajax midfield. On the plus side we have rested our key players and given those lacking in match practice the run they needed and lets not forget we are through to the next round.
Yes Sir.. Everyone knows you often make mistake when picked team this season..
Never mind boss, we’re through…. No I am sure you will pick the right team for Sunday…
Come ON UNITED
*Now I am sure*
You do that all the time. That is why we are out of the major competitions, City will win the Premiership, and United will be out of the Europa when they meet one of the stronger teams than Ajax now in the competition.
Apart from Rio and Evra, who else could have been the “more experienced defender:”? Evra was due a brek, so was Rio. It was a decent backline, it was Park in midfield that looked like a bad decision.
parth132.. Jonny boy evans. for me he’ s been our best defender this season since vidic got injured.
Agree with park though that was strange, the only thing i can think of is he neeeded minutes on the pitch like a lot of them, i think that dictated the team and why pogba didnt make it. with all are players coming back pogba will be back in the reserves which is a shame
Chris Nicholls
He does that all the time? Guess we fluked 12 titles under him then along with a dozen other trophies
Pls fergie pick right next team next time ok? It almost cost us……
@Chris Nicholls
‘You do that all the time’….yeah, hes always been terrible at picking teams over the years…god only knows how he’s managed to win some many trophies…….. Come on, I know its Friday, but get a grip mate
*so many trophies*
At least Fergie can admit when he is wrong not like the whining Wenger and knowhead AVB. As for King Kenny……..cunt!
I thought the back were ok our midfield was non existant. Nani and cleverley young were awful but coming back from inury is an excuse but park has no excuse I know he is loved for his energy and running but a manchester united midfielder has to be technically gifted and he was shown up by ajax kids last night.
We are through, it doesnt make much of a difference that we lost on thursday. Only damage is that Old Trafford is starting to lose its fear factor.
Hope we get City in the finals, so we can lift the trophy in front of their faces.
Its a squad that defines a club , we had a right to expect more from them young or not .
It’s an ethos that defines a club. The squad are only pieces of the puzzle. The boss admits he messed up. We’re through though, so lets put it behind us and move on. 19
Again to the tune of Old MacDonald had a farm
With a wum wum here
A wum wum there
Here wum there wum
Everywhere wum wum
Oh United we love you Ee i ee i oh!
@keano99: actually, I’d say that Park has an excellent excuse, seeing that he was played totally out of position. Park is not a 4-4-2 central midfielder.
By the way, is it just me, or was the home support comprehensively outsung by 4000 odd ajax fans? Prawns not good for the vocal chords?
Jeet
Would have to disagree on the noise pal…… Our own James outsung the Ajax crowd almost single handedly. I could have sworn that I heard him all the way from here!
Disagree Cedars? Evans was at fault for Ajax’s second goal. How could he not mark 3 players? Shocking Jonny!
Willie
You caught me off guard here, hitting me with a reply from another thread. Sneaky tactics….
Guess you’re right though, it was shocking by Evans, should have even been marking their goal keeper
The back five were ok. I have no qualms with that. It was the midfield that looked unbalanced to me. With park and clevs in central positions, what did we expect? I must say, Jonny Evans was massive when he came on and Jones in central defence doesn’t cut it at the moment. Why Fergie subbed off Berba for Welbeck is a mystery as its obvious Welbeck cant play with Chicha.
Anyways, we are through, enough said.
And for goodness sake, were there any united fans at old trafford? I thought I could only here the Ajax fans almost all through the entire match, pathetic.
Nice deflection. Fergie has become a master at that. But the all the problems were caused buy a different foursome.
Costas
Foursome? Personally Iam more of a threesome guy …..Each to their own I guess
@Cedars
Foursome with 3 chicks, all the way.
Costas
Had a great reply but thought other wise…… People have become way too sensitive
I thought for a young side Ajax were absolutely brilliant. It’s a crying shame that the team will be sold off piece by piece because they were really up for the game and would have made it through had it not been for De Gea’s miracle save off a header and some decent defending from the lads. We could have maybe had a couple more goals but take nothing away from Ajax, they were quality.
I thought United were decent to be honest, but needed more control of the game. My one complaint was seeing one of the Da Silva twins take a dive trying to get a penalty. Don’t like to see that, whether it works or not it’s not what we should be about.
This cup is a joke if we win it ok,the Carling Cup of Europe
Something i don’t get a team like Stoke who have fuck all to play for,won’t go down,won’t make Europe so what’s the piont of them resting 5 or 6 regulars.Just shows how shit this thing is when Stoke don’t even give a fuck
What did Sir Alex call the Europa league,punishment i believe the word was.
To people blaming Park for poor midfield performance, if you had watched the game closely, he had a job of man-marking Erikssen and could not contribute much to the offence. He did steal the ball that led to the first goal though. The entire team played poorly.
At least the Gaffer showed class by admitting it that he got it wrong unlike other managers. Though I didn’t see the match, I read that Ajax were very good so it wouldn’t kill some of our fans to give them some credit. When the opposition are good then just admit it rather than say that we should have beaten them because they are a shite team.
And I think it was King Eric who said this on some previous thread that people expected SAF to address the Barca challenge this season itself and hence the high expectations. This side is a work in progress fellas. It will take some time before we reach the heights of the 07/08 team. There are still some minor flaws in the team but they will be ironed out as the season progresses.
Guess Pogba is off then..
Wasn’t wrong team, Ajax was just simply better in the second half.
I don’t think the team was wrong! The attitude stunk! We made them look much better than they really were. We are lacking massive on the final third of the pitch. We had several good positions last night and with little bit more composure could have achieved more. I do not care how many we concede as long as we score one more than them.
Pogba – who does he think he is holding the club to ransom! If he is not grateful for the opportunity he’s got, he should fuck off on the first plane out of Manchester!
Really one thing i like about united,is the way sir Alex admit his error without pushing blame on the team.But pls Alex ,no gamble next time.
I thought Park played well in the first half. Then, for the umpteenth time this season, he fell apart in the second half and started gifting possession.
He wasn’t the only one though – Cleverley, Berba and Hernandez also had bright first halves, poor second halves. Fitness and game time possibly an issue for some of those. Fabio & Young also 2 guys who haven’t played much and were poor. Jones looked good when he got moved to centre mid IMO.
Most important thing is that we’re through, and in the process we managed to rest 6/7 guys for Sunday. Rio, Evans, Evra, Carrick, Rooney, Welbeck – should all be fresh and raring to go.
Don’t worry Boss, I do it every game.
Big picture time. Young players were given VERY valuable playing time in a REAL game which mattered. We progressed. Win Win. Next.
Putting aside the handball and off-side, Ajax did well. We did not. Just a thought, but how long is the Da Silva experiment going to last? They don’t have a tackle between them and are more likely to get booked or sent off than any other player at OT.
Ajax were allowed to get back into this tie, very disappointing. A second half to forget.
It could be worse though, I could be a gooner and celebrating 4th as though it was the league.
As for Pogba, he’ll go, and for that I’m gutted to be honest.
I thought we played well in the first half and then we were totally overrun in the second.
Fergue said the defence was too immature, but they all did well, Nani, on the other hand, was shocking. He was supposed to be marking the second Ajax goal scorer but stood totally still when that ball was played in. Also, he gave the ball away repeatedly in both attacking and defensive positions.
It’s odd that players have problems doing the most basic things when they are out of form. When Rooney has a bad patch he can’t control the ball and all his passes are underhit. Nani was like this the other day.
he has been picking the wrong team for a while ….trying to juggle the team and rest certain players for the premiership run in….he does it every fucking year …..does all our heads in….but we still love the man….
and a final note….thank fuck we never bought that over-hyped cunt Wee WEsley….fuck me he was shite against Marseille
We need the Europa League to give players a run out. As for the DaSilvas they need to watc Maggio at Napoli – that’s what attacking fullbacks should be playing like, Park is tactically astute and keeps to the game plan until his boots get grass on them – headless chicken and could have cost us our place. With Evans in the mix at the back and Carrick on for 90 minutes the result would have been far better and confidence rolling.
keano99 i have to agree with you. I for one cant understand why oh why we play Park in the middle of midfield?? I think its a crazy choice and im not jumping on the bandwagon but he cannot play there and on top of that what does that say to Pogba whom all week was getting ready to start????
Sorry SAF great for admitting his errors but does need to cut these sort of bad choices out (for this season) or we will be out of everything comp bar PL but still IN ALEX I TRUST!!! UNITED