By the time the final whistle blew today I was wondering when United were going to get started. That’s the measure of Champions isn’t it, being able to win when still in first gear? Well that’s all fine and well but with Chelsea and Arsenal building up their goal differences each week, we could do with battering the teams we totally outplay. And that’s what happened today. We totally outplayed Blackburn because like their fans, the players just didn’t show up today. We’re just down the road, where were all their fans? I swear we had more in the away end at the bloody Luzhniki in Moscow the other day!
Still, we carved out several good chances today and Gabriel Obertan will be holding his head in his hands when he watches Match of the Day tonight, christ! I was too busy celebrating his goal before realising he hadn’t even got it on target. Dreadful miss but an encouraging start in his home début. He used his pace to beat his opponent down the left wing, something I wish Nani had done more of. I still stand by my defence of Nani but I wish he would make my life easier! I don’t mean that he was dreadful, because he wasn’t, he was fine. But he can be so much better. The ball would come to him in space and our attacking players would be racing forward and Nani would have a little jog. Come on, you’re one of the fastest players in the whole squad, you’ve got brilliant feet, bloody run at that left back!
Michael Carrick had a surprising game today. His passing wasn’t good enough, again, but he was sticking the boot in a lot more usual and winning challenges I wouldn’t have fancied him for. We’ve got to be looking at him to replace the creativity of Scholesy in the centre of the park and since signing him, he’s shown he’s more than capable to fulfil that role. But this season he’s been so below par. He missed a cracking opportunity to play Rooney in during the first half but he bottled it and went for the wide ball instead.
Will the Stretford End please stop telling Anderson to shooooooooot. The one chance he did take today was woeful and even brought about chuckles from the crowd. You have to wonder about him shitting on Fabregas when you see goals like the one Cesc scored today. Will Anderson ever score a goal like that for us? I would settle for him hitting the target to be honest! All in all he had a good game though and his ball to Wayne Rooney for the goal was absolutely perfect.
Rooney had a quiet game and didn’t do too much to impress. His problem is he thinks of things other players don’t even dream about which means he tries stupid balls which don’t always work. But I suppose that’s something that sets him apart from so many other players because when it does work, it’s sublime. He took his goal really well though so I hope that is just warming him up for Chelsea next weekend. When is Colleen going to pop by the way? Would you let him off the baby rocking celebration if it came after putting the ball past Petr Cech?
Dimitar Berbatov, you are a genius. With every magical goal you score I look around to try and find the fans who were grumbling and complaining about you. How many other players in this league would have scored that goal? It was a half-chance at best and he turned it in to an unstoppable effort. Keep it coming please Berb.
Evans and Wes put in a good performance in the centre to give the manager a headache for our next match. Whilst Blackburn didn’t attack our box in a traditional sense, they opted for set pieces from every freekick they won, whether it was outside our box or theirs. How bizarre to see a goalkeeper pumping the ball in to the box from a freekick their team won for offside! Still, none of those balls posed any problem for Van der Sar because our defence dealt with it. Still the only team not to concede from a set piece. Really, it’s unbelievable isn’t it?
I’m saving the best until last though. Antonio Valencia was my man of the match. The two goals he’s got under his belt have really added to his confidence and whilst having the weaker full-back to support his runs, he really posed a threat to the Blackburn defence. He’s still not the finished product and I think we’ve got a lot of improvement still to come, but he is running at defenders and taking on two at a time and it’s great to see.
So, not a great performance but it was good enough to get the three points. Do we have it in us to raise our game a few levels to get a result against Chelsea? Well, we have to and I’m relying on the return of Ryan Giggs and Darren Fletcher to help us with that.
red army
explain to me, what facts did i get wrong………….?
yes he scored the 3rd or whatever he STILL scored in a big game v a top 4 club…
and we’ll let fergie decide that seeing as he knows more than you, shock horror…
also red army as for scoring and creating last season he got 12/13 assists and 14 goals so he brought 27 goals to our team in his first season.
You failed to mention Berbatov’s unique ability to bounce a header over the crossbar from 7 yards out. Really difficult to do, mate.
berbatov put it over the crossbar?? nope that would be paul robinsion who put it over the crossbar..
Deserved the three points, but even with team we had out, was wxpecting better performance. Carrick got some good tackles in but his passing proved poor. Rooney had a weird game I thought wankers behind me were over critical. Away fans, was it worth coming to be that quiet? Overall glad of three points n good debut from obertan.
@Patrick – Robinson cleared it, though berbatov should have buried it in.
When is Hargreaves back people.. its been november now..??
Really don’t understand the negativity going on here. Maybe some ppl are still angry about last week. IMO the boys played well today, carrick was getting stuck in, valencia wa dragging 2 players along with him, the defensive pair were solid when called upon(i’m saving the best for last).
Anderson kept us ticking, he was like a conveyor belt, nani i’m afraid still leaves much to be desired, its simple really, the guy doesnt have a football brain, his 60+ minutes compared to Obertan was simply not good enough. Obertan was nervous no doubt, but he composed himself, his link up play with evra and rooney was good,he positioned himself the way thousands of United fans want Nani to do, he recieves the ball well and he direct style suits us. i think this guy is going to do well, him and rooney will form an understanding MARK MY WORDS. speaking of rooney, i thought he was alrite, his ideas and movement were top class, his first touch atimes not so good, but it was a better game for him than the last. Berbatov also gave us a chance up front.he always did something positive with the ball and his goal was just fantastic.
more than anything i want United playing good football again, when that happens we can start talking about the title. Even chelsea who e’one tips to win the league cant afford to get ahead of themselves
nani was horribly frustrating.
Well we are due to hammer a team any match now – hopefully we’ll score 5 against chelsea and keep a clean sheet to boot and even out that goal difference. Here’s to this ever increasing season of irony continuing!
Nani is a black hole. He is the place where good offense goes to die. It was amazing to see Obertan receive a pass, then pass it to someone else without dribbling first. I forgot that that was possible coming down the left.
well done lads.win is a win.but again we should have scored 4 or5 goals.to be frank we arent playing like champions.
i saw a few moments of chelsea bolton match and i have to say bolton were playing like shit.yeah full credit to chelsea but i feel many teams underperform against chelsea and increase their playing level against us.
anyways coming back to our team people here are saying nani is shit and some crazy and brainless fans are saying berba was shit.i am quite amazed no one has found out our real weak link is o shea .we have to accept it he is not the perfect rb for us.he is too slow and his link up with valencia is awful.evra and nanis link up was much better and more threatening than oshea and valencias.
as far as obertan is concerned the lad only played 20 odd minutes and people are slagging him.
yah agreed we are playing a very average football but guys be positive.
UNITED FOREVER.
Obertan to be the next big thing.i wouldnt be surprised if he becomes something like a henry.what i like about that lad is we will see him scoring goals.he has the hunger to score goals which i cant see in valencia and park ji sung.he should start against cska.give that lad more playing time.this is the perfect season for him.he should be a fully developed player next season.
i feel sorry for nani. i have always defended that boy but now even i am frustrated with him.but hope he gets another 10-15 games to prove himself.
Fergie pls pls play tosic.he should play.
To be honest I wonder why you stick by Nani, I have finally admitted defeat. He seems a nice lad but he has had his time to prove himself.
Despite a stuttering start in his debut, Obertan got into more dangerous striking positions in his short time on the pitch than Nani did in all his time on the pitch.
Come on, admit defeat. Nani can be a star player at a lesser team, but not at United.
And, maybe it is just my TV coverage but did I see the much maligned O’Shea covering Brown’s ass on at least one occasion? He is a utility player and valuable to United so why do fans judge him against other right backs.
Thank heavens Berbatov is putting some goal away I was getting sick of reading the negative reports. But I think for certain games he should be rested….’horses for courses’ as SAF might say.
My only wish about the match was that there was not the opportunity to give DeLatt a run out.
To be really honest guys, if this is how we are going to finish and not convert chances to goals then we will not score any against chelsea. Just looking at the way they are scoring, I am really worried…Our mid-field and defence have also got to improve a lot…Obertan I think should be given some more time with the reserves…all this hype is I am sure making him nervous, but the guy will do good…he has the grace and presence.
Lol just look at how Nani was kicked yesterday. I thought Nani did ok, not bad at all.
People like to jump on Nani’s back because he is consistently being compared to Ronny, plus his 17m pricetag. But i dont see any problem with that, he’s still young he can improve he just needs more playing time. If it’s on me to decide, i’ll stick with him for at least another 2 (two) seasons. But anyway, i trust SAF in WHATEVER he decides.
some fans are too criticall about senior players here. come on guys SAF cant try all the young devils in one game. he has to try one by one every single game thats wot he is doing at the moment. as we all know that we have a great younsters coming through academy and from transfers just b patient. still lajic, patrucci to come. we cant play attacking formation as we r lack of confidence from defence. untill our defence get back on track i would like to see wining games doesnt matter 1-0 or 10-0 matter is 3 points. we cant afford to loose any games from now untill chavs and arsenil loose games, get behind the team hope we win the trophy and make the history once and for all.
Cantona7 after seen what nani did or really didn’t do yesterday and seen what obertan did do yesterday it has noting to do with matching someone to Ronaldo. United second goal came from obertan running the wing ala nani but finding a pass and doing the simple smart ting,erm??, passing it to Rooney , they had a little 1-2. To open up space for Rooney to get into lead to a good cross lead to a second goal. If nani had of run the wing instead of obertan, not that I’m saying he’s ronaldo, nani would of ran maybe a step over if he had of gave the simple short smart pass he would of done a give and go and just kept running lookin for a pass, if the ball got to him he would of 1/ kick the ball of the chest of a defender or 2/ crossed it to high to noone
In defence of Blackburn supporters, fair play for them making a stand against the ticket prices. Quite a few clubs this season have refused to pay the prices in the away section at Old Trafford and have taken reduced allocations and not sold out the section they have been given.
United now have to realise that their ticket prices are to high and its no longer an attraction for away fans to visit Old Trafford and that home supporters are not tempted by certain games.
Its never been easier to get tickets for Old Trafford and the main reason is due to the year on year increases in prices.
United fans have moaned at the prices charged by Fulham, Birmingham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs, yet we charge more for visiting fans at Old Trafford.
“You strive for consistency. If we get to January and we’re still in a similar position then we have a great chance.”
(c) Boss
Amen.
Nani was the one player that yesterday got us free kicks in dangerous areas but, I guess that doesn’t count. He was getting the shit kicked out of him on the left, knee to the back and then a deliberate shove for good measure.
Then again may not matter because we have a far more critical problem for us which people seem to be ignoring, any good threat on freekicks. Where we got them yesterday – I should have been on the edge of my seat waiting for a goal, instead I was thinking is this hitting the wall, or missing by a mile?
As for Obertan, my take is people are so desperate for something to be excited about, they’ve latched on and will quickly slag him soon as he doesn’t do a few things wrong.
We took too long to get started yesterday and that is a trend of this (and last season even with Ronaldo), we think we can just turn it on, sometimes it works but, other times like the game last week, we never get it going. We need to come out a lot stronger and put teams under pressure from the get go.
Overall it was a good performance against a not very good team. I am looking forward to next week when we have got to win IMO. Fletcher playing and him not being rusty will be key. Wouldn’t it be something if SAF pulled a Hargo rabbit out of his hat for the game – not going to happen but, can dream.
Evra was MotM for me…amazing player, and we just take the left back position for granted….
Obertan will be class…his nerves were letting him down.
Can you imagine the amount of sheer pace with Obertan & Valencia on the wings and the twins as fullbacks?Jeez….scary…huh?