Considering the way this season has been for United, an upset was never out of the question but this was not even Milan or Zenit, this was Olympiakos and the last time Olympiakos beat MUFC was in 2014 BC. Exactly. Never.
So we are here to analyze what went wrong.
1. Team Selection: We played our best football of 2014 against Palace (I know that's not an achievement but nonetheless) and should have ideally stuck to the same squad. Instead, Moyes chose to bench Fellaini, not even pick Januzaj and played Young, Valencia and Cleverley, who, you will agree, are not fit for the United jersey, if you have seen them play this season.
2. Defensive lapses: Rio Ferdinand played worse than our U-19 defenders would have played in this situation and Chris Smalling kept slipping on the field. On top of that Patrice Evra was so busy going forward that at one point of time Rooney had to track all the way back to make a tackle. Due to them, an average looking Olympiakos attack (without striker Javier Saviola) was made to look menacing around the penalty area.
3. Wayne Rooney: He just failed to combine with RVP (who himself had a game to forget after missing that sitter), mustered just one shot in the game, had to drop alongside Carrick to pull the strings after Kagawa replaced Cleverley but all this to no avail. It just was not his night and it did not help that his teammates decided not to turn up for the match.
4. Why not make a 3rd substitution?: As in earlier games we lost this season, Moyes decided not to use all his substitutions and the two he did make were not entirely correct. He replaced Cleverley with Kagawa and Valencia with Welbeck which definitely added pace to the right wing as Welbeck made some great runs but it also meant that Rooney had to play DM which just did not work out. Here is what he could have done - he could have made 3 instead of 2 substitutions and replaced Cleverley with Fellaini, who had an excellent game against Palace, and Rooney with Kagawa, considering Rooney was way off his game.
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So we are here to analyze what went wrong.
1. Team Selection: We played our best football of 2014 against Palace (I know that's not an achievement but nonetheless) and should have ideally stuck to the same squad. Instead, Moyes chose to bench Fellaini, not even pick Januzaj and played Young, Valencia and Cleverley, who, you will agree, are not fit for the United jersey, if you have seen them play this season.
2. Defensive lapses: Rio Ferdinand played worse than our U-19 defenders would have played in this situation and Chris Smalling kept slipping on the field. On top of that Patrice Evra was so busy going forward that at one point of time Rooney had to track all the way back to make a tackle. Due to them, an average looking Olympiakos attack (without striker Javier Saviola) was made to look menacing around the penalty area.
3. Wayne Rooney: He just failed to combine with RVP (who himself had a game to forget after missing that sitter), mustered just one shot in the game, had to drop alongside Carrick to pull the strings after Kagawa replaced Cleverley but all this to no avail. It just was not his night and it did not help that his teammates decided not to turn up for the match.
4. Why not make a 3rd substitution?: As in earlier games we lost this season, Moyes decided not to use all his substitutions and the two he did make were not entirely correct. He replaced Cleverley with Kagawa and Valencia with Welbeck which definitely added pace to the right wing as Welbeck made some great runs but it also meant that Rooney had to play DM which just did not work out. Here is what he could have done - he could have made 3 instead of 2 substitutions and replaced Cleverley with Fellaini, who had an excellent game against Palace, and Rooney with Kagawa, considering Rooney was way off his game.
All in all, a forgettable performance and I have only this to tell Moyes: get some courage and start taking some risk. You don't park the bus at Olympiakos as if they are Munich or Barca and definitely not leave out the most promising player this season (Januzaj). We don't sack managers after just one season, so you will survive the summer to build your own team but from whatever we have seen, we are disappointed with your tactics.
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