)
The Red Devils were two goals down, before Marcus Rashford, Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo scored to turn the tie around.
The result was good, but the performance highlighted the deficiency in the team’s play, which has been threatening to rise to the surface all season.
The big problems stemmed from poor mentality from players and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's questionable team selection and tactics, which has continued to cost the team.
Manchester United have one of the best squads in Europe at the moment, but the problem is, they aren't making most of it and struggles against some team.
)
)
)
With the qualities in that squad, they should be beating teams easily, but that's not happening at the moment and there are reasons.
The reason they aren't performing well, could be because of the followings :
1. Poor mentality from the players.
2. Tactical set up from the coach.
- Poor mentality :
The players go into every game (especially against weaker opponents) thinking, they can blow them away in a second, but it never happened, and they have refused to learn from it.
They already lost to Young Boys, Aston Villa and Leicester City. Everton outplayed them, and they also made Villarreal, West Ham United and Atalanta look like prime Barcelona and Real Madrid.
On paper, these are matches Manchester United should win easily, but the reality is, they are struggling, and occasionally they need a moment of brilliance from somewhere to beat opponents.
Manchester United players have to understand that having better players, does not translate to winning. They should increase their work rate, commitment and mentality instead.
2.Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's tactics :
United have attacking players with brilliant qualities, but at the moment, they are too easier to play against, and it could cost them in the long run.
There is no single plan to stop opposition from playing when they have possession. This is what City, Chelsea and Liverpool has better than Manchester United at the moment. They press opponents when they don't have possession and try to win it back quickly.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s preferred midfield combination is Scott McTominay, Fred, Fernandez and Pogba. But it is obviously not the best.
These players do not possess the sufficient energy required for pressing or the defensive nous to truly shut teams out.
Pogba and Fernandez doesn't participate in defending duties, while Fred and Mctominay are not natural central midfielder who can protect the back four effectively.
Matic has been underused this season, but he has shown good promises whenever Solskjaer decide to play him. He is the best central midfielder in United's and has to play more.
Manchester United will go into the weekend game against Liverpool with no idea of their best midfielder combination and the implication is, they are likely to struggle again, unless Solskjaer come up with something extraordinary.
---
Seyi Alao is a football writer and pundit. He has worked with brands like brila.net, Footballlive.ng, it'sagoal.com, Opera News and Ogun State Television. Follow him on Twitter @Seyialao
----
Pulse Contributors is an initiative to highlight diverse journalistic voices. Pulse Contributors do not represent the company Pulse and contribute on their own behalf.