Stats Breakdown of Manchester United's Champions League nightmare at Olympiakos

David Moyes

It was a disastrous night in Greece for Manchester United. They went down 2-0 to Olympiakos in the first leg of their Champions league last-16 tie, leaving themselves with a mountain to climb in the return leg at Old Trafford.

Alejandro Dominguez opened the scoring for the Greek champions, after purposely deflecting in an Ioannis Maniatis shot. Arsenal loanee Joel Campbell then piled on the misery for United by firing a fantastic curling shot past David De Gea just after half-time. Robin van Persie wasted by far United’s best chance as he hit a shot over the crossbar with the goal gaping. In truth, it was an extremely bland performance from the Red Devils and they didn’t deserve an away goal on the night, never mind a victory.

Key Stats

Man Utd may have enjoyed 56% of the possession but they never looked like creating anything meaningful all game. Their pass map from the match shows just how little they created as they only turned only two of their 573 passes into chances on goal. They were very slow in possession throughout and showed no energy or urgency to get forward and secure that elusive away goal. Their lack of ideas was quite staggering to watch.

United’s Action Areas emphasise this point even further. They spent just 2.45% of the game in the Olympiakos box and had the ball for the majority of the game inside their own half. It was really quite boring to watch, something which never you never used to say when watching them. They looked bereft of ideas and the fact they only managed one solitary shot on target in the whole match is quite embarrassing to say the least.

But credit to Olympiakos, they were lively, energetic and took their chances when they came their way. They looked the more likely to score all night, pressed the ball extremely well and showed much more creativity than the English champions. United fans must be wondering where David Moyes is taking this team after that performance; it was quite worrying how poor they were.

Man of the Match

Alejandro Dominguez put in an absolutely fantastic display to secure himself the Squawka man of the match award. He was a constant menace to United, regularly picking up the ball in behind their midfield and driving at their dodgy-looking backline. He opportunistically opened the scoring but could have had a goal much sooner, only to be denied by brilliant tackle from Nemanja Vidic following a Chris Smalling error. Dominguez was impossible to mark, picking up the ball all over the pitch and dictating play. He completed 87% of his 39 passes, including one key pass and won a mighty six take-ons, showing up United’s fragile spine in the process.

Performance Score

To further add to their embarrassment, United unprecedentedly recorded a negative Performance Score of -8. In contrast, the hosts total ended on 237 as they took a massive step towards the Quarter Finals. It is very difficult to see United coming back from this two goal deficit after their display in this first leg.

Key Observations

Not only was this match a nightmare for United collectively, it was also a night of shoddy individual displays.

35-year-old Rio Ferdinand showed that he definitely can’t perform in two games in the space of four days anymore as he put in a quite awful performance at the heart of the backline. Nemanja Vidic bailed him out on several occasions as he looked lacklustre in possession and made several defensive errors. The former England stalwart failed to win a single tackle or header all night. Ferdinand also made no interceptions or clearances and committed two fouls.

After signing a new lucrative contract last week, Wayne Rooney also had a night to forget. He failed to have any impact on proceedings, either in his usual role behind Robin van Persie, or in the deeper role he was moved into following the introduction of Shinji Kagawa. Rooney completed just 83% of his passes, lost five tackles and completed no key passes. He did work quite hard but in truth, it was a terrible overall performance.

The displays of Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley in the heart of United’s midfield also need to be mentioned. The latter has been criticised all season for his anonymous performances and he did nothing to silence his doubters here. Cleverley slowed down United’s play and he never looked like making anything happen going forward as he merely recycled possession throughout. And although Carrick was more positive on the ball and did a job defensively, making six interceptions, the way he got dribbled past by Campbell for Olympiakos’ second goal was far too easy and is in all honesty, unforgivable.