With our rivals all dropping points this weekend, the stage was set for United to take advantage as we faced West Brom at the Hawthornes.
With two of the club’s burgeoning talents, Welbeck and Cleverley, in the starting line up along with Young and De Gea who were making their league debuts it looked like United would do so but it would be via an old boy.
It took less than 15 minutes for United to take the lead after Rooney’s left footed shot found the back of the net following some nice play with Young down the left.
United were looking good and Nani in particular was guilty of wasting chances, as he saw a volleyed effort rise over the bar.
But then there was a moment of alarm when Shane Long, also making his league debut for West Brom, fired in a low shot from the left and it found it’s way past De Gea. Immediately there were calls of ‘2 weeks in a row’ and rather prematurely comparisons to previous United flop Massimo Taibi.
He too showed frustration at not getting down quick enough but in just his second game in this league and at such a young age I think some of the fears expressed over these errors and his ability are ridiculous.
West Brom were organised and did threaten at times but ultimately it would be United that would take the points as a new boy left his mark.
Breaking into the box down the left hand side after a brilliant feint, Ashley Young’s cross was deflected past Ben Foster to give United the lead and the 3 points.
There was some negatives as both Rio and Vidic went off with hamstring and groin injuries respectively and we await news on how serious these are.
give the lad at least til christmas to see if he can hack it. I would normally say a year or even 2 but unfortunately, goalkeeper is not a position where too much time can be afforded. Overall not a bad performance, just might take a little while for so many relatively new faces to gel
It was a tough game today and I think West Brom will give a lot of teams a hard game this season. It wasn’t going to be an easy start today, but credit to the players as they kept going. Ashley Young has shown today that we have another potential match winner. He played very well and ultimately won us the game.
I don’t think the game would have been as much of a struggle for us had Dea Gea not made his error. We where playing very well, and although West Brom threatened, I thought we had control and would have got the second goal. Dea Gea is a young lad and needs to improve fast. Physically he has a lot of work to do because he isn’t strong enough yet. Its important that we continue to support him because he is obviously nervous and lacking a bit of confidence.
The positive is that we had to dig in and get the result. We had a poor away record last season, and to be honest, last season we probably wouldn’t have won that game. Also we did it with young players. The experience of Vidic and Ferdinand had to be replaced by Evans and Jones, and along with Anderson, Nani, Cleverley, Smalling and Welbeck, these guys had to step up. All these young players would have learnt a lot today, including De Gea.
My main concern today was incredibly not the lack of attacking power in the centre of midfield, but the ease in which passes went through us. Its not a surprise with Cleverley and Anderson in the middle. They both did well but lack the defensive discipline needed in away games like these. At home I feel the two of them would do very well because we usually get more of the ball against teams sitting back. Away from home we will need the experience of a Carrick or Fletcher, who can read the game and intercept the ball more.
Make no mistake, this isn’t a call for Sneijder to be signed. Cleverley did well today and it was it league debut for Manchester United. He will improve and get better. He is an intelligent player and you can see that. Needs to work a little at his defensive game, but he showed last week against Yaya Toure that he can do it.
yeah true thought we were gonna blow them away like we did city but first game in the preformance wasn,t that bad de gea,s mistake spoiled things really, he didn,t command his box to well which will lead to problems english football calls for strenght in the box as opposed to spain so theres a worry there maybe we should take the heat off him for the next few game and give lindegaard his chance
If DeGea dosen’t look settled after the next game then Lindegaard deserves his chance judging by pre-season
Ashley Young is an immense signing (I had my doubts)
Nani needs to get his shit together
Can’t wait for Hernandez to return
We still need a central midfielder
Great start to the season