Manchester United: 5 Lessons Learned from United's Champions League Failure

Manchester United’s 2011-2012 Champions League campaign came to a premature ending as Swiss club Basel handed them a humiliation in the last game of their group ties. 

Having been drawn into a relatively easy group, United still failed to progress to the knockout stages, despite things looking rather comfortable on paper.

United drew in the first two games against both Benfica and Basel. Despite winning the next two games, a draw to Benfica at home and a shock defeat to Basel meant that United bowed out rather disappointingly. 

Here are five lessons learned from Manchester United’s Champions League failure this season. 

5. Lack of Intimidation at Old Trafford

Previously, Old Trafford used to be a fortress.

Now, it no longer seems the case. They conceded three goals at home against Basel and a further two goals against Benfica at home.

In the end, United had only themselves to blame, as they should've gotten the desired results quite easily. 

Away fixtures are always tricky; they should have known that. The all-important last game was also an away-fixture, and I am confident that the home crowd of Basel did plenty to boost the morale in their roster. 

4. Lack of Resilience

United used to be a team that could grind out results despite the harshest circumstances.

During this year’s Champions League, they looked nothing like the old team that “always scored.”

At Old Trafford against Basel, they went from 2-0 to go 3-2 down.

Although they eventually fought back to 3-3, they could’ve taken home all three points had Dimitar Berbatov managed to simply tap the ball in rather than shooting it into the side netting.

In the penultimate game, they again slipped up from being 2-1 up to allow Benfica to draw only a minute after they had taken the lead.  

This left United in the dire strait of getting a win against Basel in their final game. As we all know, it proved to be too much. 

3. Goalkeeping Dilemma

What should’ve been a blessing—two world-class defenders amongst their ranks—looked more like a curse to United.

At one end they had—until recently, unheard-of goalkeeping talent—Lindegaard, who was signed for a paltry sum of around £3.5 million. At the other end of the spectrum, they had an £18 million signing in David De Gea.

The situation presented a conundrum: Keep rotating the goalkeepers and neither develops the experience and confidence required to excel in big games.

Too much rotation definitely contributed to a lack of confidence. It showed in the Champions League.

The all-important last game saw David De Gea’s inability to shake off crosses, which led to Alexander Frei scoring and providing Basel the momentum. 

2. Defensive Frailties

United have always had a strong defensive record.

However, they conceded far too many goals, which eventually resulted in their undoing.

They conceded four goals in the opening two games, a further two goals in their penultimate game against Benfica and two more goals in the shock defeat by Basel.

In the second game, we witnessed awful lapses by key players, with Rio Ferdinand's awful defending resulting in Alexander Frei scoring the second goal for Basel and bringing the tie to 2-2.

Furthermore, the result of the last game also owed a lot to laps in defensive concentration. Chris Smalling was the culprit this time, as Xherdan Shaqiri's cross was capitalized on by Frei. 

1. Depth in Squad

For the majority of the Champions League campaign, it showed that United lacked depth.

Antonio Valencia, who has been highly impressive recently, did not contribute heavily during the early stages of the tournament.

Furthermore, the usual defensive solidity was compromised by lapses in concentration, by both seasoned veterans like Rio Ferdinand and amateurs like Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

However, the major problem for United was that they were overly reliant on Wayne Rooney. Throughout the tournament, it looked as if United had no world-class talent besides that of Wayne Rooney. 

The midfield distinctly lacked a certain level of creativity. Rooney had to drop in many times, which also resulted in less goals for United. 

However, on a positive note, the Europa League allows for younger talents to get some experience at the European level and challenges Sir Alex Ferguson's resilience in bringing in someone like Wesley Sneijder. 

What do you think led to United's poor run in the Champions League? Please leave your opinions.