3 Takeaways from Manchester United’s epic win in Paris

Manchester United seemed to be in shambles after the start of this campaign, but with their win against PSG, could this be a turning point?

With Manchester United starting off the season in horrific fashion, we were obviously nervous going into the recent match against PSG. Expectations were low regarding the team’s performance, but hopes were high.

Fortunately, we left the Parc des Princes with 3 points. Rashford’s late winner last night was reminiscent of his strike from the 2018/19 Champions League Round of 16, which also came at the Parisian club’s expense. OH, HOW WE LOVE OUR NIGHTS IN PARIS!

We had some notable absentees in the group stage squad last night, as the likes of Cavani, Greenwood, Bailly, Lingard, and Maguire were all ruled out for the match. With the skipper staying back in Manchester, Bruno Fernandes took on the captaincy, which was well-deserved.

We started the match in a formation that could be described as a 3-5-2, as we had a backline of 3 with a wingback on either side. This was a breath of fresh air, as United have been playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation basically since Ole arrived at the club. The starting XI saw Axel Tuanzebe make his much-awaited comeback, as well as Alex Telles making his debut.

United drew first blood, as they opened the scoring in the 23rd minute on a controversial penalty. It should also be noted that the penalty was taken twice, as Keylor Navas saved the first attempt, but he did not have either of his heels on the goal line. At the end of the day, all goals count the same no matter how they are scored, and this concept was put on display once again in the 55th minute.

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Neymar swung a corner kick into the box, where Martial headed the ball past De Gea and into his own net. Neither goal scored at that time in the game were particularly well-deserved, so it was karma that made up for that retaken penalty.

Throughout the game, United wasted 3-4 very good chances, with most of them coming from Marcus Rashford. He had multiple chances to put a shot on goal himself but decided to pass the ball instead. He made up for these mistakes though, as it was the Englishman who scored the winner in the 87th minute with a bullet into the bottom left corner, leaving Navas with no chance to stop it.

Even with United’s number 10 scoring the winner, it was United’s number 1 that claimed the Man-of-the-Match award. De Gea made 5 saves, with 3 of them coming in the box. He undoubtedly kept United in the game, as he saved 3 certain goals. One against Di Maria with a curled shot headed straight toward the top corner. Another was against Kurzawa, who only needed a touch to put a cross into the back of the net, but Big Dave came to the rescue again. Mbappe was also through on goal, but the Spaniard was there once again with the stop.

There are a few takeaways from the PSG match. First, we are capable of playing well. Period. No matter what anyone says, this match is proof that De Gea is still a world class goalkeeper, we can create chances, and we can defend as a unit. Whether the previous performances can be attributed to poor fitness, a lack of motivation, wrong tactics and personnel, or a combination, United looked like a rejuvenated side against the French champions.

Second, we can play without Pogba and Maguire. Yes, Pogba came on and made a difference in the second half, but we were going head-to-head with PSG during the majority of the game without him. Maguire was out due to a hamstring injury, but we were already looking for a new combination of players in the backline after multiple abysmal performances, so his absence allowed us to see what some of those alternates could look like.

Finally, it confirmed that we can still compete with the top tier teams. We could probably still use some reinforcements (crossing our fingers for the January window), but if we have to manage with the current squad, it can certainly be done with proper squad rotation.

OH, HOW WE LOVE OUR NIGHTS IN PARIS!