Young: Earlier Games To Blame

Ashley Young feels Manchester United’s exit from the UEFA Champions League was the culmination of a below-par campaign in the group stage overall, and not just the consequence of Tuesday’s helter-skelter defeat to Wolfsburg.

The versatile Reds winger was speaking to MUTV after the 3-2 loss at the Volkswagen Arena and while he was only an unused substitute in the game, he was still able to summarise on the squad’s behalf as elimination was blamed on previous underachievements.

“I think what has cost us is not winning the games when we should have done, like PSV Eindhoven at home,” lamented Young. “We had the chance to win that and we would have gone through on the night if we had. So it could have been a totally different story going into the Wolfsburg match.”

United took the game to the German hosts, scoring first and producing more shots (13) than in any of the Reds’ previous four fixtures in Group B. But Wolfsburg’s number of efforts on goal was also into double figures with Ashley admitting he was surprised by the openness of the contest.

“We thought that Wolfsburg were going to play on the counter-attack but they were pretty open and we created many chances," he added. "We just wanted a second one to go in; then we had that sucker punch at the end with them scoring and PSV winning their game.

“We were fully aware [of the PSV score]; someone kept us up to date, so we knew what we had to do. We had the chance to go out and get the win, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“Everyone who travelled to Germany is disappointed - the players, the staff and the fans. It was one of those nights when you wanted to get the job done and go through. It just wasn’t good enough.”

The 30-year-old believes the clash could have panned out differently if the Reds had been awarded a goal just before half-time. Instead, Jesse Lingard’s long-range effort was controversially disallowed after Juan Mata was adjudged to have interfered with play whilst in an offside position.

“I think if you score just before half-time then you do have the ascendancy,” said Young. “It makes sure that you are on the front foot when you go out in the second half. It could have been a totally different game but it wasn’t meant to be. I’ve not seen it back [on video] so I can’t really talk about it [whether it should have been allowed].”

As a result of finishing third in Group B, the Reds will now enter the UEFA Europa League with fixtures falling on Thursdays and domestic games likely to move to Sundays, but for now Young and his team-mates will concentrate on avoiding a knock-on effect to United’s league aspirations.

“We’ve got great character and a great team spirit, so I don’t think that will happen [a drop in form],” he insisted. “We are fully aware of what will happen [to our fixture list] and we are disappointed but we have to dust ourselves down and go again on Saturday.”