Date: 11th November 2010 at 11:00am
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Well before I was made aware that we would have those players back I had in my mind settled for a draw so I’m not disappointed with the result. A 0-0 draw at Eastlands isn’t terrible and only the fact that Chelsea won and opened the gap to 4 points put a downer on the result.

Without being accused of being bias it is fair to say that we were the better team. We played the better football, had more and the clearer chances. It would be remiss of me to make out like we totally battered them, they did have chances, Yaya Toure had me worried with some of his slalom runs, Tevez went close with a freekick and if Zabaleta was a forward he may have made us pay late.

Nemanja Vidic was a monster in defence winning tackles and headers all over the place. Made one extremely important challenge on Milner early to force a corner instead of allowing him to get his shot off. I said before that he was growing into his role as captain and today was a captain’s performance.

He has come in for some stick but it looks like Michael Carrick really is pulling up his socks, with a solid game in midfield passing the ball wisely, making interceptions and retaining the ball when needed. Carrick has been steadily improving in recent games and you can add this game to his list of better ones.

After his last performance, Dimitar Berbatov looked A LOT better, went on a little run early where it looked like the ball was stuck to his feet as no City player came anywhere close to getting the ball off him. He had two volleys, one a spectacular effort that although Hart saved comfortably was a well taken chance. Although he didn’t get onto the score sheet definitely happy to see his levels rising!

After his good performance on Saturday, Park didn’t have the best of games. He lost the ball a few times and was hustled off the ball by City players too. I think he himself will be just as disappointed in his performance as we are.

Where I watched the game there were some grumbles, one person said we set out to get a draw and we got one but to be honest I would disagree. We made all the right noises and towards the end we came on extremely strong, I can’t have been the only person that felt we were going to get  a late goal. In terms of subs, the fact that both of our full backs had to go off didn’t help but we used our last sub as positively as we could by bringing on Hernandez.

A final point although officially I should not be condoning this, how great was it to see Rafa have a go at Tevez? NOTHING fazes this guy and he is just growing and growing as a United player, it appears the sending off against Munich has raised his game to another level as the defensive aspect of his game has risen to match the offensive. It’s yet to be confirmed but rumour has it that Rafa told Tevez “Bring it on mate me and my brother will do you!”

We played OK and could have got more but I will settle for playing better and getting a point away against City. Saturday’s game against Villa will be a hard one with the injuries mounting. Evra and Rafael may miss out whilst Scholes is banned so I hope we can get back to winning ways.


 

4 responses to “Some observations from the game against City”

  1. Jay says:

    Despite having all those players back, I don’t think they were definitely fully fit. Also, the fact that we had to spend 2 subs on injuries also didn’t help us.

  2. spoon says:

    No mention of Nani, who I felt was his wasteful self. He continues to frustrate, constantly picking the wrong choice for the wrong situation… running with the ball when a simple pass is needed. Cutting inside and shooting when another pass is on. Playing what only he thinks is a clever thru-ball but targeting nobody… he has the skills, but he still hasn’t found his footballing brain.

    • Chudi Onwuazor says:

      Nani was just returning from an injury so I put his performance down to that. I feel his reputation is going before him as Barry could have done serious damage with what was a very dangerous challenge but got away scot free.

      Nani’s performance wasn’t of the standard we have recently become accustomed to but I put this down as a blip