A trip to De Kuip was never going to be easy but Manchester United certainly made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be on Thursday night.
After the disappointment of a derby day defeat, Thursday night football served only to remind Manchester United just how far they’ve fallen behind their city rivals.
A tepid performance, 1-0 defeat, and a stinging chorus of ‘You’ll never walk alone’ from the home support, is hardly what Jose Mourinho needed in the most testing week of his burgeoning Old Trafford career.
But what lessons can he take from United’s poorest performance of the season thus far?
A Pressing Concern
With a midfield trio comprising of more than £140 million of tough-tackling, dynamic running and chance creating talent, perhaps the biggest indication of how poor United’s display was is that former Aston Villa flop Karim El Ahmadi dominated the midfield zone.
Constantly available to receive and recycle possession, the Moroccan provided composure and reliability in and out of possession that Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba simply couldn’t match.
If Feyenoord triumphed in the midfield battle, however, United’s needless surrender certainly helped. Sitting remarkably deep out of possession, the hosts were allowed to pass the ball around with ease, registering almost 60 per cent possession in the opening quarter. If this was a conscious decision by Mourinho, then it needs some explaining.
Feyenoord lacked any sort of pace in behind, with centre-forward Nicolai Jorgensen preferring to receive the ball with his back to goal. United, then, could easily have pushed up and pressed high. When they did, they looked dangerous. So why not more often?
Left back in the changing room
Marcos Rojo is hardly a terrace favourite at Old Trafford, and his performance at De Kuip will not have helped his cause. Frequently bamboozled by the intelligent movement of former Watford winger Steven Berghuis, the Argentine manages to look like a square peg in almost any hole.
The 26-year-old was frequently caught out of position on counter attacks and found himself dragged acres up the pitch as Jorgensen drifted in behind him to supply Tonny Vilhena’s late winner (below).
Forget about the price tag?
Paul Pogba doesn’t exactly seem like the type of player to be weighed down by crushing expectation. The self-assured ‘dab’ and lightning bolt haircut give an impression of self-confidence, after all.
Yet, akin to his display in France’s Euro 2016 opener against Romania, Pogba’s performance appeared forced, as if desperate to impress. An anonymous first half gave way to an over-ambitious second, characterised by wild long-range drives and flamboyant yet unnecessary flicks.
A word of warning Paul: when you’re the world’s most expensive footballer you can’t afford too many displays like this.
Fringe players fail to impress
There were so many sub-par performances that it’s impossible to highlight one in particular. Juan Mata and Anthony Martial drifted anonymously, failing to provide any discernible support to a completely isolated Marcus Rashford.
Meanwhile, Herrera and Schneiderlin, despite possessing complementing skill-sets, bizarrely appeared to impede each other, performing almost identical roles. Memphis, too, struggled off the bench, lashing wild efforts into the stands in a display of fitful desperation.
Mourinho would have learned a lot about his squad on Thursday evening, and very little of it good.
You Dar-mian
Despite switching off defensively on a number of occasions, Mourinho will have been seething as he witnessed Feyenoord left-back Terence Kongolo provide two testing deliveries in the first-half, Darmian at least offered the attacking penetration United so badly lacked.
His well-timed runs into the right-hand channel were the source of the visitors’ two best chances in the first half, the Italian teeing up Martial to swipe wide before his lofted cross almost found its way to Mata via Rashford’s knockdown.
The resurgence of Antonio Valence means the former Torino full-back may struggle for game time this term, but at least he has given his manager food for thought. And that’s certainly more than most of his team-mates managed.
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