Date: 30th November 2010 at 11:19pm
Written by:

I had intended in burying my head in the sand for this one but if you can handle victory then you should be able to handle defeat (even if it was as bad as that!)

Tonight’s performance was horrible and a massive return to the earth after Saturday’s 7-1 drubbing of Blackburn and whilst it may seem like no good came of it I have strained something out.

Talk of it being unimportant competition and fielding a weak team are irrelevant to me as it was more the matter of how we lost rather than the fact we lost and I for one would have liked to have gone to Wembley again, I think those are just excuses instead of facing what is before us.

Losing tonight ended our unbeaten record but such a record can be an albatross around the neck. It was getting to the stage where the press were starting to build it up and in that respect it may have become a hindrance hanging over the player’s heads. On our Twitter @Fino76 surmised that it can see teams protecting draws rather than going for wins which is also true. I’d prefer we get this loss here and now in the Carling Cup then in a more important game later on in the season.

Tonight was a poor team performance but some players were worse than others. Fletcher is still struggling for form, Bebe was bright at times but again (how many times will I be saying this in the future) is still very very raw, Jonny Evans is clearly still struggling and tonight highlighted that hugely as he was caught out for more than one of West Ham’s goals. I was asked if this would be the last we see of Evans in a United shirt which is an incredible question. Evans has set an astonishingly high barrier for himself and when he doesn’t perform at his best people will have something to say.

There was a lack of determination tonight but for me the only player that came out of the game with some credit was Anderson. He wasn’t the best defensively but getting forward and energy wise he wasn’t bad at all and it’s good to see him stringing together a few decent performances.

Jonathan Spector probably didn’t expect that he would score two goals against us even at his best so as a former player and in the interest of being gracious I will say congrats, fair play to him, been fairly innocuous against us the majority of times we have played against him so to get two and if not for the late flag of the linesman possibly 3 is some achievement.

This defeat has and will expose a lot more to us than a victory would have, I think as long as we can learn from this than it will be all part of the learning experience for a number of these young players. There is no point dwelling on this, look forward as there are bigger and more important games coming up in the next few weeks, what better way to get over it then to thump Blackpool on Saturday?

 

8 responses to “Well it’s a Micky Mouse cup anyway!”

  1. @JasDunham says:

    I think your point about losing this match as opposed to losing more important matches mirrored my sentiments. I think that Fergie fielded a team similar to other Carling Cup matches and I’m sure that he didn’t expect anything like a 4-0 drubbing. I know we’re only a third of the way through our EPL season, but we have momentum and I’d rather have a Carling Cup loss to WHU and not an EPL loss to Blackpool. Good article.

  2. Ryan says:

    yikes. that was terrible. but perhaps a good wakeup call. lot of poor perfomances. what happened to fletcher this year? Jonny Evans went from looking unbelievable against inter milan in the CL knockout stages 2 years ago to an embarrasment. Every time he’s on the pitch now bad things happen.. and its been happening for a long time now… terrible.. cant watch him anymore. ANNNND- have we made up our minds on Macheda? I have no idea, one week i love him, the next i think he’s average..

  3. imy says:

    Back of Macheda he came on and was playing off scraps as usual. No service into him or hernandez. every time Kiko has played this year, his either played up on his own and without any service. I dont think he has ever played with ronney or berba or with our first 11. Ive been watching reserves and youth team football for the past years and Kiko is special give him half a chance in the box and he will finish it.. However he still needs to build up on his strength as does hernandez..

  4. notthere says:

    well well…a mickey mouse cup…agreed…still you did youre best and most certainly proved it by playing like a mickey mouse club…

    congrats…

  5. N4 says:

    MEN V BOYS.

  6. jonathan says:

    Sure, it’s not the most important tournament, but it still sucks to lose and takes a way a key asset in developing our young players. There is no excuse to lose and in this fashion, especially considering there were more than a couple veterans.
    I’d agree that Anderson is perhaps the one player you could rate higher than a 5. What a waste.

  7. GAZZARO says:

    MICKEY MOUSE CUP??? We’re the cup holder, and losing 4-0 is awful really…

    IT’S HURT…. AND THIS MAY BE A GOOD WAY TO FIND SOME EXCUSE…

    BUT, LETS BE HONEST TO YOURSELF. The fact is, yet again our so called ‘kids’ and reserves prove they aren’t and never will be good enough for our great club like Man. United. How can we paid money to sign players like Obertan, Bebe, etc. How can we justify paying more for Bebe than spurs did for Van Der Vaart?!! Smalling is struggling to adapt to the pressure of playing for us, Evans’s poor and his form has gone backwards comparing to the last season.

    For John O’Shea in particular, words cannot describe how bad he really is. O’Shea may be a versatile player. He can play in many position, but any position he play, it’s a bad quality performance.

    YES!!!.. We are currently top of the league. However, it’s simply because Chelsea throwing away points rather than anything else. I wish SAF realises our young squad isn’t going to be as good as he hoped sooner rather than later. And the BOTTOM LINE IS… signing top class players is A MUST for United now.

    • Chudi Onwuazor says:

      Did you read the actual blog or just the title? Cor blimey!
      It is clearly sarcasm do you think I or anyone could be as blind as to use that excuse in an attempt to mask a thumping?

      Talk of it being unimportant competition and fielding a weak team are irrelevant to me as it was more the matter of how we lost rather than the fact we lost and I for one would have liked to have gone to Wembley again, I think those are just excuses instead of facing what is before us.

      Its not ever that far into the piece so how did you manage to miss it?

      In regards to your criticisms of players I won’t be writing any of them off just yet I completely disagree with you assesment of Smalling he has been top noth so we must be watching different players.
      Real would not have sold us VdV at least not for that price whilst Bebe didn’t cost us as much as the papers quote and the president of Vitoria confirmed this.

      Last night was a poor performance and some players were awful but isn’t this when you get behind your players and support them more than ever? Losing 4-0 will have been a massive lesson for each and ever player on the pitch young and old andit will have had an effect on each and everyone too, all we can hope for is a positive response!