I’m sure you have heard, and probably even thought this a lot over the past couple of months. I have too, but a little perspective goes a long way.
A last minute winner against Wolves and a no-show against Villa, (the last 10 minutes apart) were the prelude to what looked like an easy home game against our non-bogey team, Wigan.
The midfield, as usual this season, looked too easy to bypass and Wigan looked a threat at times in the first half but, as is our way, a last minute goal. This time in the first half from Evra, another who ‘hasn’t been playing well’.
The game was over when Wigan were reduced to 10 and then 9 within three minutes, both fully deserved I might add. Another good Hernandez goal and 2-0. Job done!
Rooney was back to what was definitely a mixed reaction but I think it was fair. I would never agree with booing someone in the red shirt, BUT we all know what he did, and sadly, why. Also I’m still waiting for an apology from him that the gaffer promised. Like most of the fans, I would rather have him, than not have him and he’s too good a player not to find form soon, so it’s not all bad.
What I’m trying to get at is… We are joint top of the league. We are joint top scorers (with Chelsea and Arsenal) and most importantly we are unbeaten in all competitions. Also United generally peak in the second half of the season.
So yeah, maybe we aren’t playing well at the moment, but aren’t you looking forward to when we do?
You assume, as is everyone, that we have another gear to reach. In the days when Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney were together perhaps this was true, but last season we didnt go on that run everyone thought we would go on, and this season, what makes anyone think we will reach that gear? Perhaps this gear we are on is our highest gear? People seem to forget that other teams have added significant reinforcements to their squads while we are more or less the same, meaning other teams play better get better so the games get harder and we drop points more. That other gear, in my opinion, was once true but is simply be a fallacy at this point. It’s funny 2-3 yrs ago I’d look at our upcoming fixtures and easily point out 20 games that were easy points, these days I look at the same fixtures and can hardly pick out 6 games guaranteed to get us points. I say a fallacy, but I hope I’m proved wrong.
My response to that would be we are missing one of our best players last term in Valencia and a fully fit and firing Rooney is back and that should provide a boost and even if we don’t go into over drive, it will raise our level of performance and hopefully change some of those draws into wins
I think we saw our other gears today. Blackburn were poor but so have some other teams we’ve played this season.