Bilbao 2 - 1 United

De Gea

Rafael Rio(Smalling) Evans Evra

Park Cleverley Carrick(Pogba) Young

Giggs(Welbeck) Rooney

So we're now out of the Europa League and, given our situation in the Premier League, I honestly don't give two flying fucks. No sour grapes. Obviously I would've been delighted if United progressed, but I'm not too arsed about the fact that we got eliminated. We were totally outplayed in both legs and deserved the early exit. 

Nothing our young Spaniard could do

An excellent strike by Rooney was the only consolation we got out of another frustrating European night. I've only seen United get outplayed on very very few occasions. I'll add last night to the list of those games. The pressing by Bilbao's players was exceptional and they made us run out of ideas. I don't know how on earth they aren't occupying a more respectable position in La Liga. Surely the likes of Valencia, Malaga, Levante and Osasuna aren't half as good as this young Bilbao side! I can't believe they've only won 9 times this season. Does that mean that we were shit? We were shit, yes, but I thought Bilbao were excellent as well. I will be surprised if none of the usual vultures from La Liga, the Serie A and the Premier League try to disembody this young Bilbao side as soon as the transfer window opens in June. Well played. 

Our LB postion is becoming a huge problem

I'm not sure what happened this year in our European games. We only won a measly 3 games out of 10 and never really performed. We won two games vs Otelul Galati and a game in the Europa League away to Ajax. We never looked convincing though and that probably shows what a young and inexperienced side we've got. Surely the likes of Jones, Smalling, Cleverley and Welbeck have done quite well in the Premier League but they lack the necessary experience to see off the more technical European sides. I remember in 2005 we had a team comprising of Rooney and Ronaldo and only won ONE game (vs Benfica) in the group stage. We eventually bowed out of the competition humiliated and anchored to the bottom of our group(made up of Benfica, Lille and Villareal). This led to a proliferation of prophets of doom foreseeing our sudden demise. We reached the semis the following year (and were trashed at the San Siro by eventual winners Milan) and won the coveted trophy in 2007/08. So I've got no doubts that Fergie will build a team that will be capable of competing with the likes of Real and Barca in the future. So, we'll be back....let's just hope it's the Champions League though ;)  

The only regret I've got is that City were dumped out of the Europa League as well. Some more games in their schedule would have given us an advantage over them in the League because I'm not sure whether they can handle playing in multiple competitions at this stage of the season. Anyhow, we've now got 10 games to save our season. 10 finals. Wolves away next, could be a tricky one....

Meanwhile the youths have an FA Youth Cup semi final to worry about. Let's hope they repeat last year's feat!