Europa League Final: Manchester United vs. Ajax Amsterdam, 5/24/2017

Deficient Mode

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Mar 25, 2011
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Davinson Sanchez made 5 or 6 really poor inaccurate or intercepted passes in his own half in the first 30 minutes when United were still pressing, makes constant questionable decisions positioning himself with and without the ball, AND the Pogba goal deflected off him to boot, yet he's being praised because he made a few chase down recovery tackles. What a time.
 

Live in the Now

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Davinson Sanchez made 5 or 6 really poor inaccurate or intercepted passes in his own half in the first 30 minutes when United were still pressing, makes constant questionable decisions positioning himself with and without the ball, AND the Pogba goal deflected off him to boot, yet he's being praised because he made a few chase down recovery tackles. What a time.

Was going to say that but didn't want to get attacked for it. He's talented but definitely needs to learn a LOT.
 

hatterson

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Davinson Sanchez made 5 or 6 really poor inaccurate or intercepted passes in his own half in the first 30 minutes when United were still pressing, makes constant questionable decisions positioning himself with and without the ball, AND the Pogba goal deflected off him to boot, yet he's being praised because he made a few chase down recovery tackles. What a time.

Even his recovery tackle on Lingard was just Lingard being weak. He shoved him over, but the ref didn't give it (rightly so) because Lingard displayed zero strength.
 

HajdukSplit

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United in the Champions League, England will have five clubs involved

They won't get an extra EL spot however, so only Arsenal and Everton will be involved (Everton will have to qualify)
 

Live in the Now

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Embarrassing display from Ajax. It wasn't even a close

Their plan was clearly to do something I mentioned a few weeks ago. Control the game and play for 0-0 for some time, then bring on players and try to pip the victory.

If the goal hadn't been deflected it may have worked, but the way Schone and Klassen played, probably not.
 

Deficient Mode

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Was going to say that but didn't want to get attacked for it. He's talented but definitely needs to learn a LOT.

Yes, he seems to make good passes sometimes, and he's obviously extremely athletic, but him going to United would be a total disaster right now. Especially since he won't be making these chase down tackles on a team that parks the bus so often.

Even his recovery tackle on Lingard was just Lingard being weak. He shoved him over, but the ref didn't give it (rightly so) because Lingard displayed zero strength.

Yeah. He half shoved Lingard down. Maybe that's not a foul in the EPL though.
 

Cloned

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Never seen so many wasted possessions. Ajax just refused to actually do something with the ball in the final third. Pass, dribble, pass, dribble, giveaway.
 

hatterson

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United in the Champions League, England will have five clubs involved

They won't get an extra EL spot however, so only Arsenal and Everton will be involved (Everton will have to qualify)

Chelsea, Spurs, City, and United in the group stage.
Liverpool in the playoff round (win and into group stage, lose and into Europa group stage)

Arsenal in group stage of Europa.
Everton in Third qualifying round (2 wins to get to group stage, loss sends you home)
 

hatterson

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Never seen so many wasted possessions. Ajax just refused to actually do something with the ball in the final third. Pass, dribble, pass, dribble, giveaway.

I mean, what were they supposed to do. Say what you will about how terrible it looks, but if there's one thing a Mourinho team is good at, it's maintaining shape and not being broken down. Given that Ajax was being dominated in the air, the option of playing it wide and crossing in wasn't great either.
 

Cloned

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I mean, what were they supposed to do. Say what you will about how terrible it looks, but if there's one thing a Mourinho team is good at, it's maintaining shape and not being broken down. Given that Ajax was being dominated in the air, the option of playing it wide and crossing in wasn't great either.

They were being idiots with the ball. There were several opportunities where Ajax players had space and time and they made the worst possible decision with the ball.
 

Live in the Now

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Chelsea, Spurs, City, and United in the group stage.
Liverpool in the playoff round (win and into group stage, lose and into Europa group stage)

Arsenal in group stage of Europa.
Everton in Third qualifying round (2 wins to get to group stage, loss sends you home)

This table got messed up. Pot 1 teams on left and pot 2 on the right.

Pot 1 coef. Pot 2 coef.
------------------------ --- ---------------- ------------------------ --- ----------------
Real Madrid Esp>174.942 FC Barcelona Esp>151.942
Bayern München Ger 154.899 Atlético Madrid Esp>142.942
Chelsea Eng>106.135 Paris Saint-Germain Fra 126.333
Juventus Ita>140.666 Borussia Dortmund Ger 124.899
Benfica Por 111.866 Sevilla *4 Esp>112.942
AS Monaco Fra 62.333 Manchester City Eng>100.135
Spartak Moscow Rus 18.606 FC Porto Por 98.866
Shakhtar Donetsk Ukr 87.526 Manchester United


Of course that is if Sevilla pass through. Add United to pot 2 and you have some crazy potential draws there. If expected teams pass through, Napoli, Liverpool, Roma, and Tottenham all in pot 3.
 

les Habs

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Disappointing Final. Neither team, especially Ajax, didn't create much by way of chances. I thought a few United players played well. Pogba, Herrera, Fellaini, Valencia and to a slightly lesser extent Mata. For Ajax Sanchez stood out as did de Ligt to a lesser extent, but not much else from them. Schone and Klaasen didn't offer much in midfield and up front neither did Dolberg or Younes. As much as Traore was dangerous at times, there's no end product and he's somewhat like a chicken with it's head cut off.

United were favorites and it's no surprise they won. Now it'll be interesting to see how much they spend with the CL on the calendar for next season.

Looks like that's it for Europe. United with the EL and Madrid the CL.

Davinson Sanchez made 5 or 6 really poor inaccurate or intercepted passes in his own half in the first 30 minutes when United were still pressing, makes constant questionable decisions positioning himself with and without the ball, AND the Pogba goal deflected off him to boot, yet he's being praised because he made a few chase down recovery tackles. What a time.

The majority of the play in Ajax's build up came from him and so he's going to give the ball away at times. It's not he had great outlets all the time either. As for the defending, you clearly missed his presence in the air which considering his time was important. He also won every tackle he went for. You're making a lot out of some mistakes. Can't believe the deflection is being brought up either.

Yes, he seems to make good passes sometimes, and he's obviously extremely athletic, but him going to United would be a total disaster right now. Especially since he won't be making these chase down tackles on a team that parks the bus so often.

It'd be the opposite. He'd be a welcome addition to United despite the change in tactics.
 

Live in the Now

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In hindsight Ajax's manager was also completely inexperienced and naive about how the game would turn out. But that seems to happen often in finals like these when the experience gap between managers is so large.
 

Deficient Mode

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The majority of the play in Ajax's build up came from him and so he's going to give the ball away at times. It's not he had great outlets all the time either. As for the defending, you clearly missed his presence in the air which considering his time was important. He also won every tackle he went for. You're making a lot out of some mistakes. Can't believe the deflection is being brought up either.



It'd be the opposite. He'd be a welcome addition to United despite the change in tactics.

The majority of the play did come from him but it probably shouldn't have. Veltman and de Ligt are far superior in possession. Sanchez attempted 9 long balls but only 2 were accurate; de Ligt attempted 4 but 3 were accurate. His positioning was crap too. Aerial presence and recovery tackles are overrated.
 

les Habs

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The majority of the play did come from him but it probably shouldn't have. Veltman and de Ligt are far superior in possession. Sanchez attempted 9 long balls but only 2 were accurate; de Ligt attempted 4 but 3 were accurate. His positioning was crap too. Aerial presence and recovery tackles are overrated.

De Ligt is better in possession but there's a reason it was Sanchez. Veltman? You don't build from the back with Veltman out on the right... Sanchez still had an 85% pass completion rate and that's making notably the most passes in the match. His positioning wasn't crap. Not all of his tackles were recovery tackles either.
 

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