MOTD: VfL Wolfsburg 3-2 Manchester United

By on December 8, 2015

“Listen, I was in a squad that went into the Europe League,” says Rio Ferdinand. “It’s an embarrassment, you don’t want to come out of your house. When you walk around Manchester people are looking at you and thinking you’re not good enough, questioning you as an individual and as part of a team…that should have got through.”

As Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United side crashed out of the Champions League groups stage and into the Europa League tonight with a loss to VfL Wolfsburg, it’s time that the same thorough examination of Van Gaal’s job is undertaken. Van Gaal’s men have nobody to blame but themselves for their third placed finish in Champions League Group B that illuminates the lengths they still have to climb to reenter Europe’s elite. Although their offensive woes disappeared tonight as Anthony Martial’s early go-ahead goal gave them hope of getting out of the group, Van Gaal’s men struggled to control the match and were hapless to Wolfsburg’s lethal counter attack. A calamitous defensive showing saw them give away their early lead within four minutes and then allow another goal. Shortly after dragging themselves back into the game with an equalizer, United let in a third and Naldo’s second of the game for Wolfsburg.

The result posed the realistic question: Is this simply a mediocre Manchester United side, “as average as it could be,” as United legend Peter Schmeichel put it, hitting its mark, or in fact a good team that is undergoing an extended run of poor form? Neither option is particularly appealing to Van Gaal at the moment what with the money he has invested in the transfer market at United. They’ve flashed promising sings at times, but on the few occasions that Van Gaal’s line-up has clicked, the team has been undermined by a shaky performance the following weekend.

Although injuries have played their part, Chris Smalling ended the match as a center-forward today, Gullermo Varela featured at full-back, Nick Powell was all over the place and, well, who knows were late substitute Cameron Borthwick-Jackson was.

Ferdinand speaking after BT Sport’s live coverage of the match. BT Sport is the new home of European football, with all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches exclusively live. Visit btsport.com/Europe.

Memphis Depay had another frustrating night out on the left and although Martial got his first goal in 680 minutes, he felt all too isolated up front.

United knew only a win would guarantee their progression into the Champions League knockout stages and to Van Gaal’s defense, he freed the shackles on the Red Devil’s front line. Ten minutes in, Juan Mata slipped a pass in down the channel for one of Martial’s trademark diagonal runs and the Frenchman coolly tucked the ball into the bottom-right corner.

Yet they always say teams are most vulnerable right after scoring. A cliche is only a cliche because it is true, and so we’ll apply this one here; United lost their focus just moments after taking the lead when Ricardo Rodriguez whipped in a deep-free-kick. Wolfsburg center-back Naldo lost his man and wrapped his foot around a lovely near-post volley to equalize for the hosts, putting United back at square one.

Julian Draxler embarked on a sensation run from the midfield past one, then two United defenders before playing a one-two with Max Kruse into the box and then squaring the ball to Vieirinha, who had the simplest of tap-ins to score Wolfsburg’s second goal — as many goals as United had in their previous nine games in all competitions.

The visitors were reeling at halftime and Van Gaal’s gamble to throw on youngsters yielded a lack of experience. Depay came close with a volley and Fellaini tested Diego Benaglio with a header and David de Gea was forced into multiple key saves down at the other end, tipping Andre Schurrle’s effort over the crossbar and palming wide Maximilian Arnold’s swerving effort.

United thought they were through in two brief spells in the final half hour alone, as CSKA Moscow first took the lead in Eindhoven before United and PSV pulled level within moments of each other. In the eighty-second minute, Marouane Fellaini headed a far-post corner into the ground and up in the middle of the mixer, where Benaglio lunged for the ball. However, Josuha Guilavogui challenged for the same ball and headed it up, over his goalkeeper and looping into the back of the net. Improbably, a draw would have been enough for United.

Yet within a minute the story had flipped again as PSV took the lead and United gave up theirs when Naldo found space for powerful header at the far-post from a late corner. In years past, United might have found more hope yet, but today their final push was little more than a half-hearted effort for show. They have now been banished to the far corners of Europe on cold Thursday nights, whilst Wolfsburg reveled in their first ever progression to the knockout stages of the Champions League. Naldo led the stadium in a sing-a-long after the final whistle as a glum Louis van Gaal made his way straight down the tunnel.

Homepage photo credit: By Paul blank (http://www.postproduktie.nl/voetbal.htm) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.