+1
Shut up HK, you know nothing... Is what I should be saying here and with great pleasure as, once more, football exists to prove the folly of predicting the future.
That said, I don't think anyone could've predicred that Tuchel would find a look-a-like agency which had doubles of his entire team, let alone him deciding to play all of them.
I did have a bit more faith once I saw Pogba wasn't in the starting line up. At least there was a midfield which would just sit there, break up play and pass the ball. Rather than lose posession of it 25 yards from goal while trying to turn.
De Gea looked like the player he was 3 years ago which was great because a couple of times we needed that player. Telles had a good first game. Nothing special, but solid with obvious quality. Tuanzebe showed what he can do and, if he can stay fit and play like that regularly, then the position of pacy central defender we're crying out for can be well and truly filled. Fernandes once again proved he's the talisman of this team and should be used to push Pogba (if long Covid isn't the reason for his recent performances) to either step up to the position in the team he was bought for or as a warning that if he wants to go to Real, then we're more likely to be fielding calls about Bruno than him unless his performances improve dramatically and consistantly.
But even for all that, PSG should've been up for this. Neymar was coming too deep to find the ball (great for us), Mbappe had no joy against the two fastest defenders we have... But for some reason didn't think to try to other side, where we had a new player and a left-back playing centrally. Again, I'm thankful, it just didn't make sense to me. I think Neymar and Di Maria were pissing off the ref with their antics and moaning and their midfield looked really poor.
Were it not for Rashford making a couple of poor decisions at vital moments and Navas being their man of the match, we'd have won by two or three. Ole got it spot on, made the big decisions and should get the credit for it. But is also lucky to have come up against a PSG who had almost nothing to offer.