United are no longer a Euro powerhouse!
LAST month Ed Woodward told a United fans’ forum the club were ‘at the centre’ of discussions around a revamped Champions League in 2024, but on the evidence of another disastrous European campaign it’s the Reds’ commercial lustre rather than their modern footballing pedigree that is keeping them involved in those talks.
The idea of an enlarged group stage in 2024 is no secret, but United will hope that isn’t what it takes to finally bring them some success in this competition once again.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s finest night as United manager came in the Champions League, masterminding the 3-1 win in Paris in March 2019 on a night when it felt like this club were sending out a message to the rest of the continent: “We’re back.”
Fat chance. Just over 18 months later United are licking their wounds from another European humiliation and their record in the last sevenand-a-half seasons in Europe’s premier club competition suggests their seat at the top table is no longer secure. Maybe a bigger Champions League is what United need.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, they’ve won just over half of their group games, successful 17 times out of 30, but twice in five attempts they’ve failed to get out of the groups. When they do they’re hardly a prospect to be feared. United have won just two of their 10 knockout ties in that time: that PSG miracle and the comeback against Olympiacos under David Moyes.
That is an embarrassing record and, let’s be honest here, it doesn’t exactly suggest the Champions League will miss them in the New Year when the fun really begins.
At that point United will be watching on TV, thinking about trips to some of the Z-list destinations on the European football calendar.
On the eve of this make-or-break trip to Leipzig, a buoyant Solskjaer had suggested it was a United ‘tradition’ to take qualification to the final game of the group.
That was before Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola’s latest hand grenade detonated and United continued to pursue their new tradition of looking like European lightweights rather than three-time champions.
The defeat to RB Leipzig came five years to the day since Louis van Gaal’s United lost 2-0 at Wolfsburg in a similarly decisive do-or-die encounter. That was remembered for Van Gaal’s desperate roll of the dice in sending Nick Powell on in attack with a quarter of the game still to go. In Germany on Tuesday, Solskjaer bought on Timothy FosuMensah and Axel Tuanzebe for his final two substitutes with 12 minutes to go, then watched his side score twice in three minutes to hint at another mind-bending comeback. How he would have liked to be able to bring on Juan Mata, Daniel James or Odion Ighalo at that point. But that unfortunately timed
United are in danger of becoming European football’s forgotten force Tyrone Marshall
substitution is a footnote in United’s European journey this season. As the inquest begins, all roads lead back to Istanbul.
Solskjaer’s side had seized control of Group H by winning in Paris against PSG and then thrashing RB Leipzig 5-0 at Old Trafford in their first two group games. Then came a wretched performance at Istanbul Basaksehir and a defeat to a side who are making up the numbers in this group.
That was the night that momentum was ceded and hope grew for Paris Saint-Germain and for Leipzig.
It was a night characterised by the kind of woeful defending that was also on show in the Red Bull Arena.
With those two performances, in particular, United have only themselves to blame for booking a swift return to the Europa League, just four-and-a-half months after the celebrations at the King Power Stadium on the final day of the Premier League season, when United had made sure of Champions League football this season.
Sadly, it turned out to be just a brief fling with a competition that seems to gain in excitement and entertainment by the season.
Unfortunately, United only get to see that when watching on the TV, just as they will be when the competition really heats up in February.
As their record over the last sevenand-a-half seasons proves, they are in danger of becoming European football’s forgotten force.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah after United’s defeat