How many Manchester United would fit in PSG

Former Manchester United defender Phil Neville has said that only Paul Pogba and David de Gea can make it into the PSG team. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men were beaten 2-0 at home by PSG in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday night. Goals from Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe handed the French outfit a crucial victory, before Paul Pogba saw red late on for the hosts. And Neville thinks only two United stars would get into Thomas Tuchel’s side.

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“Well there shouldn’t be an overreaction, this game was never gonna define whether Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was gonna get the job or not,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast. “I think there has to be some realism in terms of where this group of players are at. I think he’s came in and he’s improved them, they’ve stepped up, they’ve started to produce their level of performance. But we’re talking about playing against Juventus, Paris St-Germain. This group of players, at this moment in time, aren’t at that level of the top, top European teams.

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“And if you look at the United team, how many of the United team would actually get in this Paris St-Germain side? Maybe the goalkeeper De Gea, Pogba. You’re talking two maximum really would get into the Paris St-Germain team, so that tells you how far United still have to go to be really challenging for a Champions League finals place.”

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United face an uphill battle to reach the last eight when they travel to Paris for the return leg on March 6. Journalist Julien Laurens thinks PSG did well to cut out Pogba’s link with the United front three, insisting it stifled the home side’s creativity.

“I think De Gea would [get in PSG’s team] for sure, I think Pogba would as well,” he said. “I mean tonight, it was not his night and as we said Marquinhos did a really good job on him. PSG knew that if you could cut the relationship within Pogba and the front three then United would struggle to create anything, and that’s exactly what happened.

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“But I still think Pogba will play in there in midfield with [Marco] Verratti and Marquinhos, for example let’s say on tonight’s game and then upfront I think if Neymar and [Edinson] Cavani are fit with Mbappe, I’m not sure [Anthony] Martial, [Marcus] Rashford or [Jesse] Lingard could get in there.

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“But, you know, in terms of personnel I think this PSG team, even without Neymar and Cavani, was always full of very good players. It was a case of United would have needed to be at their best tonight and PSG not so much for United to be able to win the game. That’s why I thought a draw would have been a fair result before kickoff, but from what we’ve seen in 90 minutes I think PSG were just too strong for United.”

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