Rio and Paul tear into United’s surprising Champions League exit
Manchester United were thrown out of the Champions League in a sensational night of football with a loss against the German outfit Wolfsburg. In a gloomy night for the Red Devils in Germany, their Champions League future seesawed on knife’s edge along the two hours with the result of the concurrent PSV match also having a bearing on United’s future.
In the end, PSV overturned a goal deficit against CSKA and Wolfsburg came back from a goal down to lead, then draw and eventually win against the Mancunian outfit. United ultimately dropped into third place and have a Europa league campaign to navigate through over the second half of the season.
Rio said on BT Sport following the exit, ‘It’s embarrassing. Listen, I was in a squad that went into the Europa League and it’s an embarrassment.’
‘You don’t want to come out of your house or walk around Manchester. You see people looking at you and thinking you’re not good enough, questioning you as an individual and as part of a team.
‘If you strip it back, I think this squad needs a good looking at. There’s no pace in the team, power and any great resilience at times. ‘
‘At the moment it looks like everyone is looking around at each other rather than being the man to stand up and say “I’m going to drag you through the forces”.
‘Normally you’d see in top teams there’s not only one or two but three or four players (who are leaders) but I don’t see that at the moment.’
Louis van Gaal had also admitted to the fact that United were not good enough to win the UCL. This especially drew a strong response from Ferdinand,
‘When you spend £250million, to come out and say that is quite astonishing really,’
‘You look at that and think you should have a plan B, plan C or plan D – but it doesn’t even look like they have a plan B.
‘He sends Fellaini on and puts him behind the striker and they just pump it up to him. For a club like United doing that, it surprises me.And when you’ve got a player like Michael Carrick, he’s my first man I put in that team.’
‘It baffles me to see the way he’s sitting on the bench. To win things you have to take risks, and this current team don’t do it – it’s too safe.’
Along the lines of his long time team mate, Paul Scholes also expressed his dissatisfaction at the humiliation experienced by United,
‘It doesn’t feel like a disaster for me because I’m not surprised,’ Scholes said. ‘It’s a team that has been poor in almost every game in the Champions League, and it’s in a group that’s shocking really.
‘You see these two teams (PSV and Wolfsburg) – will either of these get to the quarter-final? I wouldn’t have thought so. I think whichever teams these two get, they’ll get knocked out in the next round.
‘United look like an average team and with an average team, you get average performances.’
‘You’d have to say they haven’t bought as well as they could have done. I think goals is the biggest problem. When you’re relying on a 20-year-old [Martial] to be scoring your goals, it’s just not right. ‘
‘There should be a proven goalscorer there and as we have seen at the start of the season, proven ones have left the club. That’s where they’ve failed.
‘I’m sure Martial is going to be a brilliant player for United – the only thing he lacks is that killer instinct but there’s a chance that will come in years to come. But they shouldn’t be relying on a 20-year-old kid, especially when you’ve spent £250m.
‘I think he’ll (Van Gaal) look at the injuries he had in this game and he’s not been in a great situation but you have to say the young players who played tonight did well.’