The United Devils

The excitement of Champions League knockout stages has returned to Old Trafford, but the lack of quality in the final third saw Manchester United fall to FC Barcelona 0-1 in the first leg of the quarter finals. 
The tensions were high for all eight days which United had to prepare in the buildup to this game. Lionel Messi and Barca coming to Old Trafford was going to be the biggest European night that “The Theatre of Dreams” has seen for years, and also a chance for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to see how the current squad fares against Europe’s elite. 
United started the game off shy, gifting the visitors near 90 percent of ball possession in the opening minutes of the game. Despite conceding early in the 12th minute, Solskjaer’s men didn’t roll over and grew into the game as time went on. 
Barca appeared to take their foot off the gas pedal after going ahead, and United looked to take advantage as they turned up the intensity and caused the visitors problems with their high press a…

David De Gea: 7

Manchester United’s stopper did not have much to during the ninety minutes but was alert when needed. He vitally stopped Philippe Coutinho from making it 2-0 in  the first half and Jordi Alba in the second.

Ashley Young: 2

Where to start on Manchester United’s right back captain? He had a dreadful night and did more or less everything wrong that he could do wrong. He has once again made it clear that Manchester United are in huge need of a right-back in the summer.

Victor Lindelof: 6

The Swedish centre-half had a decent day at the office. He played Lionel Messi onside for FC Barcelona’s opener and made a mistake which led to Phillipe Coutinho’s chance, but contained the attacking threats well together with Chris Smalling.

Chris Smalling: 7

Managed the threat of Lionel Messi well and had a overall steady performance together with Victor Lindelof at centre-half. He made no noticeable mistakes.

Luke Shaw: 6

Had an overall solid game and contained the threat on the right hand …

As we all know, the season is coming to an end and the summer transfer window is getting that much closer. As Manchester United fans, this can only mean one thing: transfer rumours. With a club as big as United is, whenever there is a transfer window approaching, everywhere you look you see some player's name linked with a "possible" transfer to United. Whether it be Gareth Bale (for the past two or three seasons) or Hirving Lozano, there is not a shortage of names when it comes to possible Manchester United transfers.

However, there is one thing different this go-around. Instead of a plethora of rumours about players coming to United, there are multiple rumours about a possible six United players departing during the summer transfer window (Sky Sports). The six players who are in question are Ander Herrera, who has been rumoured as already agreeing terms with French giants, PSG, Juan Mata (linked with a move to Barcelona), Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo, ex-captian Antoni…

The Premier League returns for Manchester United after a ten day break as United host West Ham United on Saturday evening. Here's everything you need to know:

Teams: Manchester United vs West Ham United Location: Old Trafford KO: 13th April 17:30 GMT (Live on BT Sport) Managers: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manuel Pellegrini Referee: Graham Scott
How do both teams go into this game? Manchester United may have had some poor performances recently with two defeats to Wolves, a toothless loss at the Emirates and a narrow and undeserved win at home to Watford. But, their 1-0 loss to Barcelona on Wednesday was the most promising of United's last five games, as United were truly the better side on the night. Scott McTominay, Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof and Fred were the star performers against the Catalan giants and while United were relatively poor in the final third, they dominated Barcleona for the majority of the game everywhere else. United may have poor form of late but hopefully th…

The Champions League Quarter Finals second leg games begin tomorrow and none bigger than Barcelona vs Manchester United at the Nou Camp. Manchester United have a monster task to overcome their 1-0 home loss last Wednesday against a team who has not lost at home in the Champions League since 2013 but if anyone can do it, Manchester United can. Here's all you need to know:
Teams: Barcelona vs Manchester United KO: 16th April 20:00 Location: Nou Camp Managers: Ernesto Valverde and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Referee: Felix Brych
How have both teams fared since the first leg? Both teams played on the Saturday and made many changes to the teams that played mid-week. Barcelona made ten changes with only Marc-Andre Ter Stegen left in the lineup. Despite having Ousmane Dembele, Malcom and Arturo Vidal, the Catalan giants drew a blank against bottom-of-the-table side Huesca despite sending on Philippe Coutinho, Arthur and Jordi Alba to make an impact. Manchester United barely fared better as Ole made …

On April 16th, Manchester United will travel to the Nou Camp in Barcelona to try and beat the Spanish giants in their own home to advance to the Champions League semi-finals. Already being down 1-0, it will be a difficult task but as our newly-appointed gaffer, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, said, "Mountains are there to be climbed". United were the better team in the first leg, only giving up a sloppy goal in the beginning stages. Nevertheless, the players showed that they are more than capable of beating this Barcelona side, and I believe they can do it.

Winning this match will have to be a team effort by United, but there are four players who, if they perform Tuesday night, will make the victory that much easier to achieve. 
Paul Pogba 
La Pioche will have to be at the top of his game and nothing less come Tuesday night. The Red Devils need every last bit of Pogba's superstar talent to help propel them to victory -- because as we all know, when Pogba is clicking, it opens so ma…

Manchester United were on the verge of having the worst league season in 27 years had they lost this game. Ever since the PSG away win, Manchester United have not been anywhere near as good as they should be. Today's game was not any different and United were a bit lucky to pick up all three points. We should have lost them if we were playing against a better team. Let's look at how the drama transpired:
First Half. United started on the back foot and we played as though we were panicking. Almost similar incident with the Watford game. As early as the 10th minute, Felipe Anderson scored a poorly defended goal and although it was flagged as offside it probably shouldn't have been. In the 19th minute, Mata was brought down in the box of West Ham and we went 1-0 up as a result of Pogba converting the penalty. After that goal, United were pretty much the underdogs although there were chances we squandered through, Pogba, Lingard among others. First half ended with Manchester …

(GettyImages.com)
Manchester United u23’s had to settle for a hard-fought point on Friday night as they came back to draw 1-1 against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, thanks to Largie Ramazini’s first goal at u23 level.
It was a week that United’s academy staff would have been proud to see after regular options for Ricky Sbragia were not considered because of their involvement in Paris during the week. Brandon Williams, James Garner, Angel Gomes, Tahith Chong, and Mason Greenwood will all have benefited hugely from the experience in one the most memorable nights in the club's history of knockout football in Europe.
This meant Sbragia had to rely on his midfield consisting of a trio from the under 18’s- Ethan Galbraith, Dylan Levitt, and Aliou Traore. Centre back Di’Shon Bernard and Ramazini were also selected. 
(Chroniclelive.com)
Sunderland went into half-time a goal up thanks to Benjamin Kimpioka, but a battling performance from the Red Devils in the second half led to Ramazini …

Image from themirror.co.uk



David De Gea - 6.5 A mixed day for Dave, he will be disappointed to not have saved West Ham’s equaliser, as well as giving the ball away on occasions prior to the goal. However he made some good stops, including a world class save to prevent The Hammers going 2-1 up.
Diogo Dalot - 6.5 Back in his preferred position at right-back. He was getting forward at every opportunity and getting balls into the box. In the second half, he contributed to a nervy defensive effort from the team with some poor distribution and rash clearances.
Phil Jones - 6.0 A typically brave performance from the Englishman but could not gain any control of United’s defence when required.
Chris Smalling- 6.0  Like Jones, Smalling wasn’t able to organise a shaky United defence. However he was on hand to make some important interceptions.
Marcus Rojo - 4.5 In fairness to Marcus, he’s just not a left-back. This was a real rusty performance having missed much of this season. His positional sense was ve…

Manchester United have had a break from Premier League action this weekend, and hopefully have had time to sort themselves out after a disappointing loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers last Tuesday. It was so disappointing after McTominay's strike gave United the lead but two mistakes and an inability to kill the game off saw United sink to sixth after wins from Tottenham and Chelsea the day after. Now United host Barcelona in the Champions League Quarter Finals in their final attempt to earn some silverware for this season. Barcelona have been outstanding this season as they sit eleven points ahead of Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga and remain unbeaten in the league since early November when they lost 3-4 at home to Real Betis. Recently they came from 4-2 down against Villarreal to draw 4-4 and yesterday they scraped a 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid with late goals from Luis Suarez and the ever-present Lionel Messi. While United have some very good players, many would struggle t…