Ralf Rangnick made Manchester United transfer overhaul plea but it nearly backfired vs Atletico

Pep Guardiola is prone to overthinking in Champions League games. Football fans will remember when he went into last season's final against Chelsea with a successful default formation but opted to play with no defensive midfielders.

No one understood why he made the tactical switch and, of course, City would go on to lose the game 1-0, with the lack of midfield pressure playing a serious role in the defeat.

Manchester United fans had a similar 'what the?' moment when the lineup was announced ahead of the trip to Atletico Madrid for the Champions League round of 16 first leg.

The first thing that caught many United fans' eyes was to the decision to start with Victor Lindelof at right back. Some thought it may have been a back three with an auxiliary wing-back choice of Jadon Sancho or Marcus Rashford which would have been equally as puzzling as the selection of three central defenders.

When Rangnick was asked about whether it was a three at the back or Lindelof at right-back in his pre-match questions from the media he replied: "Yes, we decided to choose a lineup and a formation in which we could always react to what Atletico do.

"We can play with different formations and change during the game and still have enough physicality and also the physical size for set pieces, whether they are for us or them."

But once the game started, it seemed that, at least defensively, Lindelof was at right-back and while he largely dealt with Joao Felix in one-vs-one duels, he did not contribute to the build-up and in the moments where he did find himself up the pitch, he looked lost when tasked with making decisions with the ball.

And luckily the crossbar denied the Swedish defender from scoring an infamous own-goal at the Wanda