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Manchester United players took to the pitch full time in Germany on Tuesday in recognition of what their last pedestrian display had cost them in the first half.
The 3-2 defeat at RB Leipzig means that United will not be one of 16 teams in the draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
And this is not the only price for failure.
The damage will be felt in the accounts, in the dealings they have with current and future players and in the faith that fans have placed in coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
With Paul Pogba’s agent looking for a move for his client and former United defender Phil Neville speaking of a “witch hunt” against his former teammate Solskjaer, BBC Sport looks at the ramifications and reaction to a major defeat by the United.
A decade of failure in the Champions League
Solskjaer took over Tuesday’s loss, meaning he is now the first manager for a British club to lose six of his first 10 Champions League games.
“We didn’t perform well enough as a team. We never got going,” he said. “That is the manager’s responsibility.”
However, the Norwegian’s record is just a continuation of United’s poor form in Europe since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club.
Since finishing runner-up in 2010-11 with the Scotsman, who had previously won the tournament twice during his reign at Old Trafford, the Red Devils have not made it past the quarter-finals, last reaching that stage in 2018- 19.
His Champions League winning percentage over the seven seasons since Ferguson left is 45.71%. In the previous seven years it was 61.33%.
| P | W | re | L | F | A | Win % | Best | |
| Lower Ferguson | 194 | 105 | fifty | 39 | 339 | 188 | 54.12 | Winners |
| From Ferguson | 35 | sixteen | 7 | 12 | 49 | 36 | 45.71 | QF |
The fact of not being able to leave the group stage this time is perhaps easier to defend than in 2014-15, when they finished third behind Wolfsburg and PSV Eindhoven and in 2011-12, when Benfica and Basel beat them in the classification.
But it is still a disappointment for a team that would have expected to finish above one of RB Leipzig or Paris St-Germain, especially after beating both in their first two Group H matches.
However, while the Europa League is little consolation at the moment, it offers United a new chance to succeed in Europe, in a competition they won four seasons ago.
United lose pounds and possibly Pogba?
Simon Stone from BBC Sport:
Surprisingly, since reaching the final in 2011, United have won just two singles matches of the Champions League knockout round, in 2014 when David Moyes’ team came back from a 2-0 deficit in the first leg to win. to Olympiakos and in 2019, on that incredible night against PSG, when Marcus Rashford’s penalty in stoppage time nullified a two-goal defeat in the first leg at Old Trafford.
But aside from the football side, and the more unavoidable questions about Solskjaer and his ridiculously inconsistent team, there are also financial consequences to think about.
Had United reached the Champions League quarter-finals, they would have earned an additional 21 million euros (£ 19.04 million) in prize money alone. Reaching the same stage of the Europa League will give them 3.1 million euros (2.81 million pounds). These sums will actually be higher due to the central market distribution, but that only serves to widen the gap.
Despite the size of their stadium, United are suffering more than most from the continued absence of fans, currently exceeding £ 100 million since the pandemic began, so losing this lucrative source of income hurts.
It will sharpen minds before next month’s transfer window, as Mino Raiola agitates for Pogba’s cut-price sale, Sergio Romero and Marcos Rojo are making huge salaries without getting close to the first team and Solskjaer looks for reinforcements to strengthen his squad.
‘A witch hunt to get Ole out of his job’
Six wins in 10 league games put United sixth in the Premier League table, five points behind leader Tottenham with one game down. Hardly the record for a failed side.
However, they have gotten used to falling behind in matches before coming back to win, including the last two league games, at Southampton and West Ham.
They did the same on Tuesday, trailing 2-0 in 13 minutes on goals from Angelino and Amadou Haidara, before Justin Kluivert scored a third.
This time they could not recover, despite the best efforts of Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba.
It will further fuel dissenting voices about Solskjaer’s position as a coach, though former United defender Phil Neville was quick to defend his former United teammate.
“I think there is a terrible narrative: the moment United loses a game, it looks like a disaster. It is not a disaster, it is a disappointment,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“There are United teams in the past with better coaches than Ole who have come out at this stage and there are coaches in the league who are below United who don’t get the same suit as Ole.
“The narrative inside the club is very different from outside, where there seems to be a total witch hunt to get this guy out of his job.”
‘We don’t act’
The United coach and captain gave no excuses for the defeat.
“We talked about what they would do early in the game,” Solskjaer said. “We needed to manage it and we didn’t do it well enough.
“We did everything we would normally do in preparation. We know that everyone wants to be ready for a game like this. Sometimes it takes 15-20 minutes for players to get going, but maybe we’re not smart enough on the fairway. .
“Today it didn’t work out for us. Of course we were prepared for it. I can’t fault the character and the effort.”
United captain Maguire echoed these sentiments.
“We started the game too slow,” he told BT Sport. “It wasn’t good enough, the first 20 minutes we didn’t. They put two balls in the box and we couldn’t deal with them.
“We have to look at ourselves, we gave ourselves too much to do. You’ve seen how close we came to the end, but we started too slow and we can’t keep falling behind.
“We said Saturday at halftime, 2-0 down, the next goal is crucial and we said it again tonight. They made it 3-0 and the task becomes even bigger. The third goal turned out to be the crucial, but even three down we are nearing the end.
“I don’t want to look for excuses. We have to go out there and be aggressive, win balls. That’s the basics. If you can’t defend crosses you’re going to lose games. I don’t want to look at form – it’s not an excuse.
“It’s a tough group, but we feel like we should pass. Those are the standards of this club. I am devastated by everyone, we worked very hard to get to this competition. No matter what group we have, it would be difficult. We have to do it.” do more.”
