It kind of reminds me of '99 - for all the wrong reasons. United
were equally bad against Bayern (until stoppage time), although
they showed more fight and had more luck then.
Too many terrible individual performances, pathetic team
effort, questionable team selection and a total lack of
luck (not that it would have made much of a difference on the back
of that performance) just about sum up the night.
Clearly, there's no place for loyalty in football (certainly not
a European cup final) and it's hard to imagine Giggs and O'Shea
featuring when they made little contribution. So much for not going
for the Quintuple (wonderful choice of resting players against
Everton on a "bad" Wembley pitch) and resting the entire first team
for 11 days.
Considering the '99 side actually played three "cup finals" in
the final 11 days (yes, the title wasn't won until the final day at
home to Spurs) to win the Treble, it's worth wondering if pampering
this load of primma donnas (despite having a far larger and more
capable squad) actually helped matters.
It makes you wonder if having things all your own way too often
actually helps matters (after all, did United not struggle in
Europe for much of 99/00 and 00/01 when they strolled to the
league ever so effortlessly)...
