‘The Truth Hurts’ 5 Things I Noticed – United v Crawley Town

4. What To Do With Gibson…

Gibson had a good game today but despite being chuffed for him, what struck me was the level of opposition and Trappotoni’s comments with regards to Gibson leaving in search of regular top level football. He’s a great midfielder to have for games like these, where he is a genuine goal threat and also has enough quality about him to not look out of place defensively against Championship/League 1 games. But is it fair to him for us to utilise him in such a manner? There is a distinct possibility his game could be elevated to a higher level by playing for lesser opposition than ourselves but getting more regular action not to mention that can we free up a space in midfield for youngsters who can perform just as well against sides of Crawley’s calibre but may also demonstrate the potential to be influential against top opposition. Its a question I have a feeling that will be resolved if not this summer, than the year beyond that minimum.

5. Opposition One2Watch:

Tubbs To be honest Tubbs wasn’t the player who impressed me most, it was in fact one of the Crawley midfielders but its getting rather late and I’m not sure if it was Sergio Torres or one of his more fleet-footed partners. Anyway as I can remember Tubbs quite vividly and we all can agree he was rather unlucky not to come away with a goal at the Theater of Dreams, he’ll be the subject of my One2Watch. Having scored the goal which lead to this tie, there were high expectations of Tubbs as the player out of any that Crawley possessed who was going to write the headlines and leading the giant-killing. As a pair O’Shea and Brown were pretty resilient and kept his chances to a minimum yet he was a constant live wire, always looking to provide the midfield with an option and looking to exploit the spaces in the back line. His first touch was pretty decent and whilst he didn’t get off any regular efforts on goal, he nearly got the one that mattered… a bicycle kick near the end which was deflected behind by the omnipresent Wes Brown.

Conclusion:

At times a rather worrying display on an individual note for some players, but overall a crucial win and the backline especially deserve some credit for keeping a clean sheet and I expect them to feature quite a bit in our upcoming fixtures from hell. Well done to Crawley, I wish them well in all their endeavours and a draw would’ve been a fair result.

Barclays Premier League – Match Facts Score: 1-0 Venue: Old Trafford Date: Saturday 20th February 

Kick-off: 1715 GMT

Man Utd (4-3-3): Lindegaard, Rafael, Brown, O’Shea, Fabio, Carrick, Anderson, Gibson, Bebe, Obertan, Hernandez. Subs: Rooney (46th min), Smalling (54th), Fletcher (69th min).

Crawley Town: Kuipers, Mills, Howell, MacFadzean, Hunt, Smith, Torres, Bulman, Gibson, Tubbs, McAllister Subs: Brodie (63rd min), Cook (69th min), Rusk (81st).

Referee: Probert

Another top piece from Rae and you can find his musings on games (not always United) here every week he is also on Twitter and can be followed at @RedRae7