Thread: UEFA Semis 2017

Originally Posted by cyrille

Smalling has been weird.

Been excellent until this season.

Wtf happened there?

Spending big money has been the norm for Utd., let's face it. The furious five or whatever they were called were the exceptions, not the rule.

Both Smalling and Jones were out for long periods injured. I like Bailly's composure and lack of being intimidated, though needs to watch his temper. Rojo is the same, making up for lack of height with aggression.

Rojo, Smalling and Jones are subpar IMO with bodies made of weetabix

Originally Posted by Dillinger

^* what about the Busby Babes then

Surely the point there is that nobody knows how good they might have been.

Or mediocre, in the less romanticised version.

Have a great trip H.


Wish I was going.

Originally Posted by PAG

Rojo is the same, making up for lack of height with aggression.

So a bit like smeg, then.

Looks like all the kids are getting a run out this weekend. 16 yr old Angel Gomes the starlet.


Well worth it for yet another Man Utd Treble winning season come the 25th.

3 trophies, what a great debut season for Jose.

C'mon Ajax
Tin pot trophies utd.
Imagine if they lost and didn't qualify for the real tournament.

The disappointment

Originally Posted by cyrille

Originally Posted by Dillinger

^* what about the Busby Babes then

Surely the point there is that nobody knows how good they might have been.

Or mediocre, in the less romanticised version.

I spent an afternoon in the company of a former Arsenal inside left, Derek Tapscott, who played several times against the Busby babes, including their last game before they flew.

I asked him what made Duncan Edwards so special that he was still spoken of in revered terms generations later.

He said that Edwards, even at a relatively young age, was an unstoppable monster in the ground or in the air, and that he would easily hold his own against the modern player in a physical battle. He said it was like trying to stop a tank.

Shame we never saw him mature, he almost certainly would have played in '66, although it all worked out in the end.

Great story Harry. Heard similar many times. Imagine that power coupled with ability? That's all we can do though: imagine.

One player for me that never reached his absolute potential was Paul Mcgrath.

Yes, he was very good at Villa, but in the 80s at Utd before injuries and alcohol took hold he was unbelievable. Pace to go with his ability to read the game.

He could have been the very best.

So it's the Italian champions against the Spanish champions in the final then.

Meanwhile Barca are probably already drawing up contracts for Pochettino and Kane.

Man UTD are only famous because of that plane crash.

The "Busby babes" were shit, guess we'll never know for sure.

Be hard to beat Beckham,Butt, Scholes, Giggs and the Neville brothers.

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

Man UTD are only famous because of that plane crash.

The "Busby babes" were shit, guess we'll never know for sure.

Be hard to beat Beckham,Butt, Scholes, Giggs and the Neville brothers.

Really? Take a look at the team that beat Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final. Charlton and Foulkes (and Busby of course) were survivors of the plane crash 10 years previously. A notable omission in United's team was Denis Law, who watched the match on TV in hospital, recovering from a knee injury. An attacking force of Charlton, Law and Best is pretty much as good as it gets. Benfica weren't without their own notables, such as Eusabio



I remember watching the match on TV.

"The first half passed without incident, but eight minutes into the second half, Bobby Charlton opened the scoring for Manchester United with a rare headed goal. However, the lead only lasted for 22 minutes before Jaime Graça scored for Benfica. Benfica almost had a chance to win the match near the end of normal time, but goalkeeper Alex Stepney made a crucial save during a one-on-one with Eusébio. Eusébio applauded the save.

The score remained at 1–1 until the end of normal time, forcing the match into extra time. The temperature was clearly playing a part in the players' fitness, and Benfica's players were clearly flagging when George Best put United in the lead again three minutes into extra time. Picking up the ball 25 yards from goal after the Benfica players failed to deal with Stepney's long kick downfield, Best broke into the penalty area and dribbled round the goalkeeper and rolled the ball into an empty net. Brian Kidd, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, added United's third a minute later, before Charlton rounded off the scoring before 100 minutes had been played.

United were without their high-scoring forward Denis Law, who was sidelined with a knee injury and watched the match on television while in hospital.

United's win meant that they became the first English team to win the European Cup, just a year after Celtic had become the first British team to do so. The win also marked the culmination of Manchester United's 10 years of rebuilding after the 1958 Munich air disaster, in which eight players had been killed and manager Matt Busby had been left fighting for his life. Captain Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes who had both survived the crash played in the game."

...and next to nowt to do with the busby babes, obviously. It was ten years on...an eternity in football.

And the game was won by a hopeful punt from the keeper. That much has remained the same anyway. It's aimed at Fellaini's gormless bonce now, of course.

Originally Posted by cyrille

...and next to nowt to do with the busby babes, obviously. It was ten years on...an eternity in football.

And the game was won by a hopeful punt from the keeper. That much has remained the same anyway. It's aimed at Fellaini's gormless bonce now, of course.

My last post was in response ro CCC's assertion about subsequnt United teams. That there were so few survivors from that team (remember that 1st team squads at the time only had 14 or 15 players) and 8 of them died in the plane crash.

Beating Benfica (at the time a major European force) 4-1 in a final wasn't down to a 'lucky punt'.

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

Man UTD are only famous because of that plane crash.

The "Busby babes" were shit, guess we'll never know for sure.

Be hard to beat Beckham,Butt, Scholes, Giggs and the Neville brothers.

You're a dumb fucker eh?

The Busby Babes were the pride of Manchester after coming up through the ranks from youth team to first team under the guidance of Sir Matt Busby and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy.

They progressed from the club’s youth academy all the way up to the first-team and after becoming the youngest ever side to win in 1955-56 with an average age of 21 they were set to dominate English football for years to come.

“I was never very good at hiding behind words and philosophies. I could be quite pragmatic to say ‘let’s work and try and be back to the Champions League, try and be back to the top four’. I prefer to be more aggressive and say we want to win.” - Jose Mourinho, July 2016

Jose Mourinho “I want to be champion. To say before the season starts that the top four is the target? The top four is not the target. We want to play to be champions. If during the season we realise the points difference doesn’t allow us to fight for the title, we are going to establish a new title, and when you can’t be champion the next target is to finish top four. But day one, I don’t want to hide behind a bad season or no Champions League football to say we want to finish top four” – Jose Mourinho, July 24, 2016.

That quote came three weeks after Mourinho’s first press conference as Manchester United manager, when he resorted to classic Jose by having a pointed dig at Louis van Gaal: “I was never very good at hiding behind words and philosophies. I could be quite pragmatic to say ‘let’s work and try and be back to the Champions League, try and be back to the top four’. I prefer to be more aggressive and say we want to win.”

Manchester United may well win the Europa League, beating Zorya (third in Ukraine), Fenerbahce (fourth in Turkey), Feyenoord (first in Netherlands), St Etienne (eighth in France), Rostov (sixth in Russia), Anderlecht (first in Belgium), Celta Vigo (13th in Spain) and Ajax (second in Netherlands) in the process. They won the EFL Cup, beating Northampton Town, Manchester City, West Ham, Hull City and Southampton. Yet it is possible to separate out United’s Premier League performance with their achievement in two cup competitions. In the league, United have been so far below expectation that defeat to Ajax on Wednesday would make this a disastrous campaign.

Read through that first quote again. This was a manager of the second favourites for the Premier League title talking up his side’s chances, refusing to talk of mere improvement and top-four finishes. Yet Mourinho has missed out on both his primary and secondary league targets. United recorded their second lowest ever points total in the Premier League and their worst home win rate since they were relegated in 1973/74. The last time there was a greater gap between Manchester United and first place was 1989/90.

You could say that Mourinho has an excuse of injuries, fatigue, players missing chances and a squad struggling to release the shackles of their predecessor. But then Mourinho told us in his first press conference that he wasn’t a manager to hide behind words. Those present at his press conferences this season may struggle to stifle their laughter on that point, after ten months in which Mourinho has switched from his usual first season persona to the one he reserves for this third year in charge.

If the accusation of the media is that Mourinho is treated differently to other managers (Pep Guardiola, say), Mourinho’s strength of personality demands that treatment. He is a coach who raises his head above the parapet to demand praise, and thus must also accept censure. He is a man who knows what he is doing, with his media leaks to preferred journalists and accusations of mistreatment at the hands of officials, governing bodies and just about anyone else in his view.

Mourinho is not finished, and Manchester United may well respond next season under his stewardship. Yet this is a coach who prides himself on being the best manager in world football. Given United’s spending last summer, we are right to have expected more than victory in the EFL Cup, Europa League victory in which United were pre-tournament favourites and a miserable Premier League finish. He would have expected more too, whatever the subsequent attempts to manage ambitions.

Mourinho is not a failure, but this season has fallen short of his minimum expectation whatever happens on Wednesday. Anyone believing different needs only to revisit the Mourinho of July 2016 for proof.

Football365

Awful season on the pitch. An absolute masterclass off it by Jose in managing down expectations and pulling the wool over so many people's eyes as to conceal the absolute total dog's dinner that was United's performances and sixth place finish.

He's added no value as an elite manager should. They're less than the sum of their parts and are playing ugly boring football.

A treble's a treble.

Or a double's a double, if they lose.

1-0 to United courtesy of a good Paul Pogba strike.

Perfect start to the second half, with Mkhitaryan flicking in a goal mouth scramble to make it 2-0 to United. Ajax are going to have to press more now, leaving themselves open.

Well done United!

You did our city proud.

A fine treble and CL qualification. Congrats José.

Welcome Griezmann 7.

Nice touch letting Rooney come on in the 89th minute, then lifting the trophy.

It was an emotional night. The repeated chants of "Manchester, Manchester" really did come from the heart.

Still, there was a game to be won and winning the UEFA Cup means we have now won every trophy available to us and with 42 trophies we're now England's most successful club. A fine end to a decent season.







MU-MUF-MUFC OK!