In my tips for the game, I had Paul Scholes down for first scorer in a 2-1 win. £670 on offer for those of you who fancied it! I wonder what odds the bookies would have given you for a Scholes header though. Perfectly placed by Scholesy from a Wayne Rooney cross, and he amazingly went on to be named Man of the Match at Setanta. Given the frequency at which he gave the ball away, this came as a surprise, but I suppose it was slim pickings!
What the fuck is going on with our team? There just seems to be nothing like the desire or hunger we saw a couple of months ago. The players insist it isn’t tiredness, so what is it?
Part of me wasn’t happy to see Federico Macheda come on. I liked the magic of his Aston Villa substitute appearance and couldn’t believe he would actually do it again. So, I guess that’s what makes football bloody brilliant, because he did do it again, with his first touch of the ball! Purposefully putting away a Michael Carrick shot, Macheda deserves all the attention he is getting at the moment.
The Rooney-Berbatov-Tevez formation was a shambles at Anfield and it wasn’t much better today. Berbatov was a surprise inclusion today and he looked rusty. As the final whistle went, Berbatov was back on the bench with his foot iced, looking desperately disappointed.
Rooney was lively and effective like usual, but all from the left of the park. Why, why, why? Just because Rooney is capable of playing pretty much every position, it doesn’t mean he should be forced to prove it every week. Stick him in the middle and let him go where he likes. We will reap the benefits!
I thought Ronaldo made a bright contribution to the game after he came on. Looks threatening on the attack and he even tracked back! It seems as though the manager has had words and backed that up by dropping him to the bench. Fingers crossed for more of the same from Ronaldo over the next few weeks!
Sunderland put up a good fight and were desperately unlucky at times, particularly when a first half attempt came back off the woodwork. I’m not sure how much of their performance was down to them playing well or us playing dreadfully, but there were periods of the game where they were on top and were more than capable of putting a good ball in to the box.
Their goal came from a mistake by Ben Foster, who misjudged the height of a cross coming in and lunged at it. He was never going to get enough on it to clear the danger and let Kenwyne Jones in to finish off the gift he was presented.
United probably did have the best of the chances though, with Rooney coming close on a number of occasions, Park almost scoring our second just before half-time, and a desperately close effort from Paul Scholes. Add to that the goal-line clearance from a Vidic header in the first half, as well as the great blocking to keep Tevez out, and an opportunity Berbatov should have done much better with it, and United could have been left to rue their inability to put these chances away.
I’m starting to wonder whether we’ll be able to see it to the end of the season like this, crawling over the finish line. Chelsea and Liverpool have a better goal difference than us, meaning we’re really going to have to make the most of our game in hand in a weeks time.
Again, it’s the points not the performance we’ll be looking at, and again it’s Kiko we’re thanking!
Well Drew, my opinion is we must give him as the 60mins to get match fit, because we need him match fit!
I’ve mentioned it before, Berbatov can help us slow down a game, something we need for certain games, especially in Europe. If anything, it was Tevez playing the poorer of the 2 up front, along with Park today, I would give them the lowest rating today.
The game as a whole, there was a slight difference in the way we played today. With Berbatov in the centre getting all the attention, Rooney was left 1-on-1 with Bardsley all night, and even the 5 mins Ronaldo played with Berbatov, Ronaldo had 2 possessions 1-on-1 with their left back. Also, didn’t it occur to some of you Scholes had one of his best attacking games, coming forward, rather than passing it forward? It was Berbatov pushing the backline back that Scholes could come into those positions. Yes Berbatov is not running around chasing everything, but his pressence alone give us something we don’t have with Rooney & Tevez. To add a stat to it, count how many offsides we have today
@Marq – at what cost mate? Yes Berba helps us retain the ball longer, yes he does pull the opposition backline, but the cost we pay for this is a walking pace attack that couldnt outrun my grandma. Berbatov would have been excellent for us if we had a Cesc Fabegas or a Gerrard, who could read the flicks and tricks and drive into the box, along with Rooney and Ronaldo…but fact is we dont have a real AMF, and until we get one, Berba will remain a luxury player, one who will preform only when the entire team is playing well
Marq: “I’ve mentioned it before, Berbatov can help us slow down a game, something we need for certain games, especially in Europe.”
How can slowing down the game in the final third aid us as an attacking force in Europe? I fail to see what Berbatov brings to our side? The guy is 6ft tall and useless in the air, he lacks pace, he’s lacking strength and any kind of fight about him. He just needs to get on with it for fuck sake, how bad can his foot fucking be?
United should count their losses, but they wont, and to be honest who would buy him of us? No big club in Europe showed any interest in him bar us? We would do well to get 12 million for him!
All Berbatov has done is show himself to be a waste of cash
If he wants to stop the ‘waste’ tag, he needs to shut the fans up like Rio did
Problem is, he lacks the fight to do so
He seems to think ‘ambition accomplished’ just because he is at man utd.
Kiko time!