“Football, bloody hell!” a now famous line from Sir Alex Ferguson after our victory in the 1999 Champions League final. Last night I’m guessing his words were a bit more expletive laden (at least off camera, I’ll get onto what he said on camera later!) I make no excuses for our exit from the Champions League but it was avoidable. I am as pissed off as anyone but 2 Champions League finals in a row winning 1 is a good run and I won’t sit here and cry as many teams would kill to say they did that.
First to come under my scrutiny, the young Rafael Da Silva. Unlike many I do not blame him for our departure, at 19 he played fantastically well keeping Franck Ribery under wraps and despite many blaming his red card on naivety and lack of experience the fact remains he should have been given a free kick for his first yellow. In the short term he ‘cost’ us our place in the semi finals in the long term we have a potentially world class right back gaining experience at against the best in the world at the age of 19.
I’m not in the habit of slagging off our players especially not in public (a tactic I learnt from my dad who would defend me in public but give a good telling off behind closed doors!) but today I shall make an exception. Michael Carrick take a bow sir! If you can blame Rafael Da Silva for getting sent off and our team not reacting well to going down to 1o men, then you can surely find some anger to direct at Carrick. A friend of mine said to me ‘beyond his two mistakes he had a good game’, here’s the thing buddy if the TWO mistakes you make cause your team to go out of the Champions League you DID NOT have a good game. For me he hasn’t been at his best for a while. He has been up and down in terms of his performance but for me hasn’t been at his best (06/07 or 07/08 form) for quite a while. Will the real Michael Carrick please stand up?
Sir Alex is a master of mind games and after Wayne Rooney‘s lay off set up Darron Gibson for United’s first it looked like his decision to include him in the team, despite talk of him being injured would pay off. But after he took a knock to the injured ankle he was completely ineffective. He struggled and could not do the things that make Wayne Rooney, Wayne Rooney. I saw someone say that it wasn’t Rafael’s red card that caused us to lose rather it was taking Wayne off either way we would have been playing with 10 men!
If we are going to talk about Rooney, then we must talk about Bayern Munich and their tactics. It is despicable if a team feels the need to play the way they did, targeting Rooney’s ankle and basically going down under the slightest stress. Ribery is a quality player no doubt but yesterday he lead Bayern Munich in macabre dance of flopping and diving about the place.
But for the bad then I must mention the good. How great was Arjen Robben‘s goal? Excellent delivery from Franck Ribery and to borrow a line from Soccer Am unbelievable teckers from Robben. No wonder in German the duo are called Robbery, I felt well and truly mugged after that goal.
Finally Sir Alex Ferguson‘s post match interview,
‘But they [Bayern] got him sent off, everyone sprinting towards the referee, typical Germans.’
What do you say about a comment like that? First it was his Italians and pasta comment now this. I take it we wont be buy any German players any time soon!
I do blame Rafael! Yes, he’s a young kid gaining experience but this isn’t the first time he’s been sent off for the same thing and, if I remember right, has given a couple of pens away too! He should have learned from those mistakes but every time someone goes past him he grabs hold of them. I also blame the coaching staff who’ve allowed him to carry on doing it.
Do agree on Carrick though
I don’t blame Rafael at all for the loss. I blame Ribery’s manipulation of the ref for Rafael’s send off. I don’t think Rafael should have been carded at all yesterday. Two very creative manipulations of the match officials by Bayern happened to seal our fate.
Carrick was shit, I think it’s time to ship him off to Swindon Town or some such other team.
Rafa’s first ‘foul’ wasn’t. It should have been a United free kick. The second was soft, if you watch again Ribery actually shoves Rafael. However the intent was there so already on a booking you can see why the ref gave it. If a Bayern player was on a yellow and did the same I would surround the ref as well..anyone would!! so you cant blame Bayern for that. I agree with Carrick, he gives ball away (so does Scholes lately) cant run..we miss a creative presence in the centre of the park, e.g a fabregas, xavi, iniesta, etc.
Also, Olic’s goal before half time was the killer goal, without this Bayern wouldn’t be facing Lyon. It came at a bad time and was a poor goal to concede-defensively.