Valencia 2-1 Manchester United - 3 reasons why United lost the match
Manchester United have been in dire straits this season, lying sixth in the Premier League – eight points behind a Champions League spot – and this is a far cry from what was expected at the start of the season.
One shining light this term had however been in the Champions League, as The Red Devils have booked their spot in the next round, despite not playing the most aesthetic of football.
With Juventus travelling to Switzerland to face bottom-placed Young Boys and holding a two-point advantage over United, the record English champions knew that they had to register a victory in Spain to capitalize on any potential but highly unlikely slipup by Juventus.
As it happened, the Italians fell to a 2-1 defeat by Young Boys which was unforeseen, but United failed to capitalize. They fell to Valencia by the same scoreline after putting up another lifeless performance which condemned them to second place in Group H.
This would make life much harder for The Red Devils, as they could potentially face one of the biggest teams in Europe when the draws are made next Monday (which would be a nightmare considering the form they are in), and could have been avoided had they secured a victory against Valencia.
Manchester United kept to the pattern of shambolic displays which have become commonplace under Mourinho, and in this piece, we take a look at 3 reasons why United lost the match.
#3 The starting line-up
Perhaps with one eye on the weekend's marquee clash with Liverpool and safe on the knowledge that his team had qualified, Jose Mourinho made wholescale tweaks to his side.
The Portuguese tactician made eight changes to his team, introducing players who did not have 'many miles' on their legs (José Mourinho's very colourful way of describing his second team - if you can call them that, given his propensity of constant chopping and changing).
United's starting 11 at Mestalla included faces like Eric Bailly, Sergio Romer, Phil Jones and Paul Pogba (who has been benched for each of the Mancunian's last two matches).
A lot of these players are match rusty, and their lack of game time was evident from the blast of the whistle, as they struggled for fluidity and failed to create any sort of tempo (even by their usual low standards).
The result of this was that Valencia dominated proceeding from the get-go and deservedly went into the break in the lead, as they had been asking all the questions in the first half.
United only began to assert themselves somewhat after the break when Mourinho made some introductions off the bench, with Rashford, in particular, is a threat, but by then it was a little too late.
Most of the players who started against Valencia find themselves on the periphery of Mourinho's thinking when it comes to selecting his first team, and they all did nothing of note on the night to change the status quo.