Manager, owners, and players must all share blame in disappointment.
Just not good enough, that’s the team and the performances.
Two wins out of six in a relatively weak group and Manchester United are left facing the arduous Europa League.
Nobody will argue they deserved to go through.
Their 3-3 draw at home to Basel was both cavalier and naïve, and set the tone for the rest of the campaign.
The Swiss side finished the job last night and have left United a mountainous rebuilding effort ahead to save their season.
Who messed up?
It is hard to single anyone out when the whole squad have been slapdash and ineffective.
David de Gea, Chris Smalling, Rio Ferdinand, and Phil Jones have all contributed individual mistakes through the campaign.
Out of that group, Rio, now a veteran by comparison is most likely to find his head on the chopping block alongside the too-often wayward Patrice Evra.
But in attack Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney and Nani have all failed to deliver throughout the six games and must accept the blame.
Dimitar Berbatov missed a sitter against Benfica and could have won the match against Basel at Old Trafford if he squared to Nani for a tap-in, instead shooting at the side-netting.
His United career is surely over as Ferguson reflects on the four points the Bulgarian threw away.
And midfield, that is another long story about two gaping Paul Scholes and Roy Keane shapes that have never been replaced. Keane’s presence on the pitch last night as an ITV pundit only served to ram home that failure.
Park Ji-Sung was particularly ineffective last night, as he was against Crystal Palace, and his United future may also no longer exist come the end of the season.
In the long-term United fans could look back and say this was a turning point.
Sir Alex Ferguson has infuriated United fans with his transfer policy, in this case refusing to address the midfield chasm, will now will surely have to be addressed. This won’t make it any less painful for United fans now though.
The buck must also stop with the Glazer family, who by taking millions out of the club have influenced Ferguson’s at times frugal ways.
But let’s not forget United spent millions in the summer on De Gea, Young, and Jones.
They have now dropped from the Champions League final to the Europa League in six months, no mean feat.
That is what happens when you don’t know your best goalkeeper or your best defence, play four wingers in midfield (Young, Nani, Park, Giggs) alongside a defender (Jones) and drop your best striker (Rooney) in there too at times for good measure.
After 70 minutes last night there was absolutely no movement, nobody making runs, everybody standing still expecting a moment of magic. This summed up the lacklustre attitude on and off the pitch as the required goals never came.
The players and management were far too complacent this campaign from start to finish, and they will now pay a heavy price, joining the Thursday night Europa League along with giants such as Stoke City.
– Who is to blame for United’s Euro exit?
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