Yep exactly what the doctor ordered on our return to CL

Positives
Young great at RB
Fellaini excellent when he came on
Lukaku & Rashford score on CL debuts

Negatives
Lindelof looks a long way from being ready a bag of nerves when defending.
Another game where Mata looked a little off the pace.
Lack of atmosphere from the crowd.
Pogba injury best case that feels like 2 weeks out and he's a vital player for us.
 
Lindelof got his positioning wrong a couple of times and that dodgy clearance in the first half but I thought he looked very composed on the ball. His passing was impressive and you can see that Jose is bang right in how his handling him. The mistakes he did do tonight would be punished in the prem, but there was stuff he did do well tonight.

Stick Young at Left back and we've answered a lot of problems. He defended well. He crossed well and kept some brilliant width for us.

Fellaini looks like a different player since Jose has come here. Credit where credit is due.

Hope Pogba has just tweaked and not a pulled his muscle because we will lose such drive from our midfield without him. Gutted for him because his face leading us out showed how much being captain and playing back in the CL meant to him.
 
Lindelof looks amazing on the ball. Defensively I'm not sure. Positioning is all over the place. And he doesn't look like one to make a last ditch challenge.

His pace will help him.
 
Good result last night, Rom played very well, linked the play well, made a few good runs and could have had a couple of assists had finishing been better, plus such a threat.

Blind and Young last night showing Darmian and Valencia that crossing as a full back is important, the difference between the balls in last night and the crossing at Stoke was chalk and cheese, for me Young starts until Shaw is back fit.

Yeah Lindelof worries me, just seems to be all over the place when defending and looks very panicky, every time the ball went near him and he had to defend he seemed on edge, always looks capable of giving away a pen.

Martial, Miki, Matic, Fellani, Rashford when introduced, Young, Blind, Smalling, Big Rom, and whoever else I have missed all played really well, agree with above Mata is just not doing enough for me on the right, problem area still.
 
Stick Young at Left back and we've answered a lot of problems. He defended well. He crossed well and kept some brilliant width for us.

Can't stand Young at left back it's the same problem that Darmian has in that he always has to come inside onto his right foot to put a cross in the modern full backs have to have a strong foot on the side they play or be 2 footed when Young plays left back we become very narrow going forward what worked really well last night was him and Blind stretching he pitch out when we moved the ball from side to side. Hopefully Shaw will be fit soon and he'll be able to give that option on the left.
 
Martial, Miki, Matic, Fellani, Rashford when introduced, Young, Blind, Smalling, Big Rom, and whoever else I have missed all played really well, agree with above Mata is just not doing enough for me on the right, problem area still.

I don't know if it's because the rest of the team is now looking quicker but Mata's lack of speed is starting to be highlighted a little bit more and he's a bit out of form so the class he gives you on the ball isn't really coming either, I'm sure he'll have a spell where he's more on his game and he'll bag a few goals but right now he's lucky to be keeping his spot. The thing playing to his advantage is neither Rashford/Martial look particularly comfortable playing on the right.
 
I watched the first hour or so until just after the Lukaku goal.

Didn't think we played very well overall but we did what was needed and the result never looked in doubt.

I'm pleased for Rom that he scored on his CL debut and also Rashford! And did anyone see the crazy stat about Rashford? He's now scored on his debut in every competition. That boy is a legit future superstar who could genuinely be in the top 5 players in the world.

Bad news about Pog though. That's a big blow in a busy month.
 
I think another positive was we didn't panic and try to force it there were times where we just passed it side to side for what seemed like ages but when we spotted the gap we went for it and that created the early chances which frustratingly Mhiki missed and we didn't try to go route one to Fellaini or Lukaku we tried to beat them playing football. Basel basically defended with everyone behind the ball so you have to keep the ball moving and even with Fellaini in midfield we managed to do that the full backs stayed wide and made the pitch big so when we did find a gap where someone had switched off we could hit it quicky.

The message seems to be clear to teams who try and park the bus at old trafford this season that it won't work 3 home games so far against 3 fairly average sides 9 goals scored 0 conceeded and the opposition in those games have been limited to maybe 1 or 2 decent chances whereas Utd have created plenty and unlike last season we take them.

It's hard to say where Rashford will go but he looks to have improved again this season which is exactly what you want from a young player if he keeps working on his finishing his goal tally will continue to rise. I don't think he's quite in the Mbappe/Dembele class of youngster those 2 look really special but he's as exciting as pretty much anything else out there right now and he seems to have a fantastic attitude he's a very confident kid but there's no arrogance to him.
 
I don't know if it's because the rest of the team is now looking quicker but Mata's lack of speed is starting to be highlighted a little bit more and he's a bit out of form so the class he gives you on the ball isn't really coming either, I'm sure he'll have a spell where he's more on his game and he'll bag a few goals but right now he's lucky to be keeping his spot. The thing playing to his advantage is neither Rashford/Martial look particularly comfortable playing on the right.

Yeah thats his saving grace is that Miki is doing so well in the middle that its a toss up between Lingard and Mata, which lets be honest there is only one winner, as good as the signings have been this summer, I am seriously kicking myself that we did not sign Perisic, he would have added so so much to our attacking play!!
 
Mata should have had 3 assist last night. He passing and decision making was top quality. If others had put away the easy chances he'd created we'd have been talking about how good his performance was
 
Yeah thats his saving grace is that Miki is doing so well in the middle that its a toss up between Lingard and Mata, which lets be honest there is only one winner, as good as the signings have been this summer, I am seriously kicking myself that we did not sign Perisic, he would have added so so much to our attacking play!!

Thing is that would be another guy for the left maybe we could see Valencia and Young together at times down the right when we want to make the pitch nice and wide but it feels like they'd probably get in each others way although Valencia had a good thing going with Rafael in 2013 when he'd drive inside and leave Rafeal to overlap and he would have space to put in great crosses.

Since then we've never really had that winger/full back relationship in the side as Rafael went back to being injured my hope is that Shaw can get back to being close to what he was as a kid as he looked like he could be the one man left hand side that Evra was in his pomp.
 

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