Manchester United midfielder Youri Tielemans has admitted that he and his teammates simply could not compete with Como during Wednesday’s 4-1 Champions League hammering.
Humiliated
United’s woes went from bad to worse as they were put to the sword by Como at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium.
Nico Paz gave the hosts the lead inside two minutes when he cut through the defence to curl the ball home. Como doubled their advantage shortly after the break through Anastasios Douvikas.
Paz all but put the game to bed for Como, snatching the ball from Carlos Baleba and charging up the pitch to tuck it beyond Senne Lammens. Defender Jacobo Ramon made it four before Joshua Zirkzee scored a consolation goal for the Red Devils in injury time.
The finger-pointing began after the final whistle: Michael Carrick criticised his players for a lack of effort, while Bruno Fernandes took aim at the manager’s tactics.
Carrick later hit back at Fernandes in his post-match press conference.
Tielemans spoke to MUTV and conceded that United were lacking in every single department, as he called on everyone to do better.
Tielemans’ remarks
The Belgian told club media, “We played very poor and conceded after two minutes and then it puts you on the back foot straight away. We want to be positive and go forward but this wasn’t the way.”
“There was more said at half-time about us trying to get back into the game, but they score just after half-time, so it wasn’t a great atmosphere in the changing rooms.”
“We need to move on as we have games coming. Everything was missing tonight. We were disjointed as a team, we didn’t play well together, our press was off and when we were on the ball, we could not make the right decisions, so you get frustrated with the game.”
“They [Como] played around us too easily, it was a poor night.”
Tielemans issued an apology to the United faithful.
“They travel all the way and don’t want to see this; the only thing we can do now is apologise. We can apologise as much as we want but we need to put the performances out on the pitch and, at the moment, we aren’t doing that. It’s tough times for them supporting the club and we have to fight as players.”
United are next in action on Sunday when they host Bournemouth.
Featured image by Molly Darlington/Getty Images
1 comment
Say whatever you want – 2 facts stand out.
1. Glazers and INEOS must go but there is nothing we can do about that.
2. In every game this season Carrick shows that he was a wrong choice.
Now the big question is who would be bold enough to work as manager/coach in a club where everthing is rotting from the top.