After all the talk from Old Trafford of nothing less than 5 wins in the our final run of games, you wouldn’t have been wrong in thinking that we would have put up a better fight than we did at Ewood Park yesterday.
We’re Man United I would only count us out of the title race when it is mathematically impossible for us to lift the trophy but with 4 games left is our title challenge really dead?
Before the game began I heard groans from ABUs about Big Sam fielding a weakened team in order to solidify his chances of taking over at Old Trafford when Sir Alex leaves. Leave it out please, these conspiracies are getting boring. I doubt Allardyce will be considered for the job ‘favours’ or not.
The fallout from Wednesday was clear for all to see, Patrice Evra who has been looking leggy after the tremendous shift he has put in this season was rested and Michael Carrick, at fault for both of Bayern Munich’s goals, was left out of the squad entirely. As much as the papers have been saying Fergie has been looking for excuses for our exit from the Champions League, Fergie is still one of the wisest men in the game and he sees things whether they credit him for seeing them or not.
Kiko Macheda is looking a decent player and is slowly growing into the player we know he will be, he showed his obvious talent today but typical of a young player it was in flashes, when he nails down the consistency part of his game I’m pretty sure we will have a quality player on our hands.
The obvious cries will be that we are a one man team and that we missed Rooney but in all honesty we looked poor across the field not just up front. Rooney has the ability to raise the level of players around him but we can only speculate if his presence on field today would have seen us pick up 3 points.
That being said in a mediocre performance from the team certain players stood out more, namely Dimitar Berbatov. It’s easy to pick on Berbatov and I have resisted doing so for his whole time at the club but it gets to a point where we must be real. He is a tremendous player but not a United player. The fact he hasn’t cut it at Old Trafford doesn’t mean he is poor by any means he just doesn’t suit our style of play. Today was a particularly frustrating performance and his body language shows his confidence has been well and truly knocked. I remember him saying ‘my best is yet to come at Old Trafford’ back in December but how much longer will we have to wait to see it?
It appears our title challenge has been derailed in a nightmare two weeks, decisions have gone against us and a whole host of other things have contributed to it. We have won 3 League titles in a row and been to two Champions League finals ,winning one, in the past 2 seasons. I am well and truly grateful for this and would be quite selfish if I sat here screaming and crying as if we have some right to win these competitions but I do have a problem with the way we have bowed out this season with somewhat of a whimper.
Like I said I won’t give up on the league and you shouldn’t either as long as it is mathematically possibly but truth be told it is very unlikely.
In a game when you looking to push on and add pressure to a title race we just didnt look that interested.
Firstly the team sheet for opitimised our season, no fan would have picked that midfeid yesterday. In a game when Rooney was missing we needed energey in the middle of the park.I would never be dissapointed to see the ginger prince or Sir Ryan on the team sheet but not as a centre mid partnership. If we played 4-5-1 then i would say yes, add Flect to that and I would be happy but yesetrdays selection was very odd?
Secondly the fall out from exiting the champions league is a weird one as we won on Wed in a great performance from the lads only to go out by a world class strike with ten men!
Yesterday we needed energy and we just didnt get it? Agree with Carrick being left out, agree with evra having a rest but I feel we should have played Raf, Fletch, and Park. We had no energy on the field.
Thinking back, it just didn’t seem like I was watching United. There was no energy about the game at all this would only come about through the introduction of Park.
Fletcher and Rafael would have provided this boost but Gary Neville to his credit saved us at the end with that last ditch block and almost scored at the end.
The fact we beat Bayern and played well gets lost in the fact we went out but as they say no one remembers second place, I just hoped the team would have built off that performance.
To make matters worse Rio is injured and is a doubt for the City game. Giggs picked up an injury too. This has been a horrible fortnight I just hope City don’t add to this.
We miss another match winner without Rooney. Who was going to get us that goal? Park, Nani, and they are in doubt! Fergie has to realise if we want to take control of the Prem and Europe he needs to buy!! I perso alyy thought Berbatov was United’s best player in the first half, he dropped into the space betweent the defence and midfield got the ball and brought other players into it. Valencia should have scored. Give him another season and lets see how he does, he can only get better!