Krishnan Sreekumar
Manchester United players slaughtered by L’Equipe after Atletico Madrid draw
According to the Express, French publication L’Equipe have slated Manchester United players for their performance last night against Atletico Madrid. This despite the Red Devils coming away from the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium with a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Champions League.
The Old Trafford side were poor in the first half, conceding a goal within the opening 10 minutes of the game as a flying Joao Felix headed in a goal to send Man United into the break a goal down. However, the Manchester club got their own back in the second half as Anthony Elanga finished coolly into the Atletico goal to earn his side a draw.
L’Equipe pulled no punches in their review of the game, giving Ralf Ragnick’s side an overall 3.9 out of 10 for their display on the night. Despite the result, it could be argued that the rating is deserved after being overrun by Atletico players in their own half for the majority of the game.
It took all five substitutions available to the side for Rangnick’s men to take control of the game late in the second half, as all areas of the team – attack, defence, and midfield – saw changes being made to counter Atletico’s energy. Elanga too was a second-half substitute, who managed to score within five minutes of being brought on.
Brutal ratings
Marcus Rashford faced the brunt of the harsh ratings from the French outlet, as he was only handed a 2/10 for his display in Madrid. The rest of the attack did not fare much better, as Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo were given a 3/10 and 4/10 rating for their performances respectively.
L’Equipe are quite renowned for historically slating players and giving terrible ratings for performances. Given this fact, club captain Harry Maguire, Fred, David de Gea, and Bruno Fernandes should be happy with their relatively high scores of 5/10.
Ronaldo may be fuming at his 4/10 review, but he can take pride in the fact that he bested Lionel Messi from last week, as the Argentine was only given a 3/10 despite Paris Saint-Germain winning against Real Madrid in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie.
United players know better than to reflect on what media publications and print houses have to say, so it is best that they ignore these ratings for their own good. The stars know exactly what they need to do to improve, and will get back to the training ground along with Ragnick to work on it.
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L’Equipe are known to also give an explanation behind their ratings, and in the case of United, their 3.9 was based on the fact that the team looked “sunken, disoriented, bordering on embarrassment“. It certainly is harsh criticism for a side that massively improved in the second half and came away with a draw.
A second leg of the tie is still left to be played at Old Trafford in under three weeks, and it may be in Man United’s advantage as they play in front of a home crowd of nearly 75,000. The players will want to give it their best and put this result behind them to progress to the quarterfinals.
