Saturday was shaping up to be a thoroughly enjoyable day. Whilst the sun was pouring in Manchester, the sun was shining in Merseyside, and seemed to be shining down on our lads in particular.
After a first half where we had largely been second best, we managed to go in level at half-time. We’d enjoyed the better chances, forcing Tim Howard in to a couple of brilliant saves, in contrast to Edwin Van der Sar who had relatively little to do, but in terms of possession and ability to get a move going, Everton were far better. They dominated the midfield, despite us putting five men in it, and kept hold of the ball. We’d put a tackle in and the ball was back with them in seconds. It was highly frustrating and not in keeping with the football we’ve seen from the reds so far this season.
However, Darren Fletcher, who just doesn’t seem to be cooking on gas like he was last season, managed to level the score thanks to perfect ball from the ever-improving Nani just before half time.
At that point, I was confident we would get a win. Everton hadn’t made the most of our domination and must be pretty knackered from the effort they’d put in, so we would steam roll them second half.
It went as well as I hoped, with Nemanja Vidic putting us ahead, again, thanks to great ball from Nani, minutes after the restart.
We seemed a lot more confident and assured on the ball and were in the hunt for another goal.
That goal game, courtesy of Dimitar Berbatov, who now has four goals in his last five games (including the Charity Shield against Chelsea) and who is looking every bit the part of a £30m striker. He was our only striker on the pitch but lead the line well. He was happy to go out wide to create chances and was seen sprinting away down the wings on a couple of occasions.
For me, a man on a mission to keep our fans on Berb’s side, I was obviously made up. No Rooney, yet we’d scored three goals away from home, Berb got one of them, and he was our man of the match. Too good to be true, one might say… and it was.
Whilst you’re always going to get nervy when the opposition scores a goal against you in injury time, the better part of you tells you that they can’t possibly score twice. Surely not? Well they did.
It’s hard to describe how that felt, although, I don’t really need to, because you will have felt the same way. Whilst I can get pissed off with the team like anyone else, it really has been a long time since I felt that sheer disgust. Fancy conceding not one, but two goals in injury time? That is pathetic.
I don’t really want to get in to title talk already, but with last year’s champions decided by one point, it’s hard to ignore any point stupidly thrown away. It’s only through experience, of course. After Michael Carrick missed that penalty at the start of last season, there’s that irritable thing in your head telling you that could cost you the league. I tried to suppress those same feelings at Craven Cottage a few weeks ago and am working hard at putting Goodison Park behind me, but this is going to nag at me until we overtake Chelsea. 4 points thrown away after 4 games is pretty shocking for title challengers.
It’s interesting that so much of the post-match conversation has revolved around Wayne Rooney though, a man who was nowhere near the ground when Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta reeled away in celebration.
To score three goals away from home is great going, particularly at a ground we so often struggle to get going at, so what difference would Rooney have made? Well, you can’t look at a game and imagine that game with a player slotted in or left out. I remember watching games when Ruud wasn’t playing and seeing a ball fly past the six yard box and no one getting on the end of it and thinking “Ruud would have put that away.” But you can’t think like that, because the inclusion or exclusion of certain players changes a game. The same things wouldn’t happen with them playing that happened without them.
Would we have been 3-1 up at the start of injury time with Rooney playing? Nobody knows. We could have been 4-0 up or we could have been 2-0 down and playing with ten men. It wasn’t Rooney who let those two injury time goals in, it was our midfield who let them break away and our defence that didn’t clear. But I am honestly getting sick of hearing the defence given for Rooney. Whether you can morally get over what he did or not isn’t really an issue of mine, but the fact that he has missed half our games this season, both of which we dropped points in, because of his private life, is unacceptable. We shouldn’t be put in a position where we’re wondering what difference he would have made, because he should be playing, because he shouldn’t have behaved in such a way off the field that was going to effect our club on the pitch.
Other players we missed were Antonio Valencia/Park Ji-Sung. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it would have been great to have pace on both wings. Ryan Giggs is still a very valuable player who contributes an awful lot, but with a midfield-heavy line-up, we could have done with more speed to get behind their defence. Javier Hernandez would have been handy in this respect.
John O’Shea has started every game this season and I’m sure I’m not alone in being concerned by this. I like the guy, you almost have to, but he is not a player I regard as being at the standard to play 90 minutes every week for United. I know he always takes a few games to get going and I am a firm believer in having players like him in our squad, but I’d much rather see him as a pair of fresh legs with 15 minutes to go than a starting option for us in defence or midfield week after week.
To throw Gary Neville back in for a game like this seemed a puzzling decision too, particularly when Rafael was available. I know the Da Silvas are only young, but if they are to be our future full backs, then get them playing now. Rafael and Nani bombing up that right flank would have been a real force to be reckoned with.
Still, trying to look on the bright side, we’ve picked up points at two grounds we lost last season. That is positive to a certain degree. However, we are likely to drop points against teams we beat last season, so it’s not exactly a full proof equation.
We’ve put the pressure on ourselves to win now, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Backs up against the wall and all that. Liverpool next weekend and we need a win, simple as that. Will Rooney be the one to save the day? He best bloody had be.
Fantastic three: Nani has played 90 minutes on two occasions and has started 3 of our 4 games, yet still has 4 assists and a goal to his name. Paul Scholes has started all 4 games this season, was subbed off in one of them, yet has 3 assists and a goal to his name. Berbatov has started all 4 games, was subbed off in one, yet has 3 goals and 1 assist to his name. Well done lads.
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Very happy for Berbatov, that is all I can say about this game and season so far:)
I guess we picked up two points we didnt have last season, still
would have preferred to have 6 points that we didnt have last season
It was highly frustrating to see that happen and good that this happened so early in season which gives us time to work on such mistakes.with regard to wazza he had never been welcomed there with a red carpet. Is it like he will never play away at everton again jus because they abuse him??????
You are right. Those 3 have been fantastic this season.
4 dropped points isn’t a total disaster. Looking back at previous title wins, you’ll find at least 3-4 seasons where we dropped 4+ points after 4 games. The season is very long and there will come a point when Chelsea struggle. The real concern for me is righting the wrongs of our own team, especially the defence.
@WHITE PELE
I think this time it would have been worse than ever. In my opinion it was a good move. For no other reason, the Goodison Park crowd wasn’t as hostile as it would have been had Rooney played.
If we had played Rooney, the crowd would have gotten into it a lot more and this would create more pressure on our entire team. SAF did the right thing in my opinion. The crowd was pretty calm compared to last season. Just a tactic that SAF did to neutralize the crowd, and it nearly worked had we kept our attention for 93 minutes.
@costas, ha! we think alike on this subject:)
I’m not overly worried atm, we still making loads of chances and someone soon will take a beating from us. Rooney not starting wasn’t an issue for me, but i can understand some saying that he might have taken one of the chances we spurned at 3 1. We do however have to get to grips with the defending, Rio being back is a bonus. Jonnys going through a rough patch, so maybe it’s perfect timing Rio being available again. Back to back wins against Rangers and the dippers will be the tonic we need to get back on track.
The Berbatov supporters are finally being vindicated, thenk you. The realy problem (along with O’Shea) is Jonny Evans. Target him and sooner or later he’ll make a mistake and let you in. By far the weakest kink. Very worrying. Rio will be back — but for how long? My guess is about 2 or 3 games before he’s crocked again.
Good read Scott. Think we can and should be positive. Especially pleased with the attack. Nothing to say about the Everton game exept Everton did what we always look to ourselves to do. Got something out of nothing. Hats off to them. Anyone predicting the Rooney on the park would have made it 4-3? Maybe, but probably not. The loss was more to running out of steam, and a few defensive failures. Get over it lads. It was a close one. Look to the positives and hope we get Rio, Carrick and Brown back to full fitness.
Excellent article, I agree with every word. I was gutted at the end of the match, of course. Interesting to know whether SAF would have stuck with 451, had Rooney been an automatic choice as he usually is. And will be interesting to see whether he plays both Bernatov and Rooney against Rangers, or goes 451 — and if it’s 451, which one will he hold out? Berbatov’s making himself very hard to leave out, isn’t he? Perhaps he will play Rooney tomorrow, and hold Berba for the weekend. Tough call, though.
As usual a good article (if you’re wondering why I’m reading this then thank Newsnow which collates all articles about any given club).
It was, strangely, a fair(ish) result. Everton dominated the first half, United the second. At 3-1 I thought we were gonners, but credit to the Blues for fighting back and not giving in.
I’ve seen plenty of criticism of Man U this season but I think you will be ok. Certainly there or therabouts as always. You’re scoring goals but I’d get Jonny Evans out of the firing line for a bit, he was well done by Fellani and Cahill, neither of whom are gifted strikers.
Rooney back, Ferdinand & Brown back and it will fall into place.
Do us a favour and do the other lot next week? :0)
@united.george
Ha, just noticed that! Great minds as they say…
@willierednut
True. We have played some great stuff going forward so far. There hasn’t been a seasonw here we’ve scored 14 in our first 5 in quite a while. That being said, we don’t want to get into a situation of scoring more than we concede. It’s hazardous to our health.
By the way, speaking of United letting 2 goal leads slip, we both forgot about the Everton game 6 years ago, when we led 3-0 and Everton made it 3-3. It wasn’t costly on the day though. Thank Ruud…
im obviously gutted the way the last 3 mins went but im not overly concerned.
if anything we dopped the points because we gave the ball more or less straight back to them from our kick-off, they had fuckall to lose and piled men into the box. it was obviously under-pants time for us. i think it was Nev who just hoofed it up th pitch when the sensible thing to do was keep the ball & try & see the game out.
as for the defence Nev was the wrong choice at RB, his rustiness showed big-time. i think now Rio’s back the time has come to take Evans out of the firing line. quality player but iv noticed the last few games he’s lost some of his assurance, getting bullied by bigger players he seems to have lost abit of confidence, a rest will do him good, & afew hours a day in th gym.
Pat had a poor game by his high standards, dont know if the france thing has affected him but i dont think he’l play that poorly again.
anyway im not too worried long term, my only worry is will Fergie drop Berbatov for the big games like last season to compensate for our weakish midfield, the guys top class & is now proving the BerbaBashers wrong.
what id like to see is 4-2-3-1 for them big games with berbatov the lone striker and rooney playing off him, when defending wazza drops deeper & looks after the opposing Def Midfielder. never understood why we have never tried that out when Fergie prefers to pack th midfield. Rooney gets on the ball more & it wont be that alien to him. plus we have an outlet in berbatov’s height, he won loads of headers on saturday and they were inteligent headers that most of the time found a United shirt.
Costas – I watched that game in a pub, suffice to say, i went crazy when Rudd scored.
Don’t understand how O’shea comes in for criticism he played well.
IMO berba is our most in form player (just edging scholes) and cant be dropped or rested.
He can play 3 games in a week because he’s not a work horse and he didn’t even play in the internationals because he retired. He can easily have an impact against rangers midweek before being subbed off with 30 mins to go and saved for the dippers. I can’t see anything other than a 442 against rangers at OT with valencia and rooney starting. Nani may be given a rest and park might come in for giggs but we’ll be attacking them from the go. Hopefully anderson gets a run out too.. looking forward to a backlash!!!
you have got to prepared to take the rough with the smooth in football.We have experienced countless euphoric last minute victories over the years now its our turn to be on the receiving end. The positives are though we are playing some great attacking football the defence will sort its self out over the coming weeks. 11 goals in the opening 4 games with only 1 penalty scored by Rooney shows this season we will not be as reliant on him
Has any one thought of calling Scotland Yard about the last 3 minutes of this game? Maybe there’s something going on. I smell a rat……..
I’ve been meaning to come on here and give my views. i watched the press conference with SAF and G’Nev. Asked about the captaincy, he replied that G’Nev and Rio, along with Giggs are basically not regulars and that Nemanja is, which is why he’s the teamcaptain. G’Nev is still club captain though. this makes perfect sense to me.
Now with our lapses in concentration, firstly Fulham and now Everton. You can even cite the quarter final game aga inst Bayern Munich where we were 3-0 up. the point is that it seems very clear that it’s a combination of three things.
complacency
physical tiredness
tactical indicipline
we’re good at going “gun-ho” playing a high tempo game. but there comes a point that you need to play a
slow more measured game – i.e. keep possession to ensure the oppostion are starved of the ball.
as much as i like G’Nev he needs to play a lot less and Rafael needs to step up and play more. It is
now his time to shine. Glad Rio is back, because Evans is learning that being a top class CB is tough. but this is a learning process and he will bulk up and become more harder as he plays more games.
the one good thing is that we have 34 games to show we have learnt from these two away games and finish teams off when we are ahead. shutting the door shut and keeping our foot on their neck until the ref blows the final whistle.
The Berbatov goal was the highlight for me. A perfect past from Scholes, a perfect touch from Berbatov and then that superb finish. It might not have looked like much, I mean it didn’t burst the net or anything, but the way he hit that shot was absolutely world class.
My concern for the team at the moment is that the midfield isn’t winning or keeping the ball as much as it should be. If I was to point a finger I would say that Fletcher isn’t quite up to his best yet, despite a well taken goal at the weekend. We didn’t control the midfield for large spells of the Fulham and Everton games and it put the defenders under a lot of pressure.
Nani, Berbatov and Scholes being our stars of the season… who would’ve predicted that a year ago?
roo was droped at the cottage and goodison because he wasnt fit to play due to drink smok & family problem but he not the reason why we drew those games, i know he could have buried that pen and one of those missed chances which would have made a hell of a diff but he is not blame for the points we lost, i honestly think that should go to the management which is responsible to pick the right team or players and to the coaches who are responsible to train the players especially defence and midfield to keep that ball. Wen you are two goals up you dont shank it upfield to the opposition and invite pressure on yourself.
Absolute disgrace. If you are a team that aspires to win the league that is just not acceptable. Cant deal with fucking long balls A victory against rangers and Liverpool is not going to make me feel any better. its the games away from home that are a concern for us. We still have to play Villa, City and the big 4 plus physical teams like Blackburn who will keep hoofing the balls in the box for the whole game. We just decide to implode at times.Liverpool next weekend will be a different opposition from what we have seen so far especially that pesky Spaniard who has been misfiring so far. Worrying times.
Alter ego strikes again.
feel the same way, Scott. Yet again. Think we miss the leader, both in midfield and defence. We need a strong personality to command. And we missed Rio in those defying minutes at Goodison. Roo would also helped then. Hope SAF will get it right when next window comes around.
Off topic: Ajax CDM Evander Sno had an heart attack during a game. Hope he is fine
Before the game I would have settled for a draw…at 90 minutes I would have sold my soul for a draw..but then it happened and yet I still feel strangely cheated. Mancs United were as good (Probably better) as ever and oozed class when they got the upper hand over us. I am not a closet Man U. supporter but I know a good team when I see one. As for us…… well that is the thing that worries me. I think we showed you up in the first half and (I know..I know.. Tim Howard saved us on more than one occasion) even when we were under the cosh a bit in the 2nd half I still felt that the 1 – 3 scoreline was nowhere near a true reflection of the game. I just wish we had levelled it with 10 minutes to go…I reckon that the comments on here would have been unprintable …even with our wafer thin squad Everton will be a shadow on the shoulders of Man Utd and the like. I can hear you laughing up the the other side of the East Lancs Road…but trust me…we are not far away.
Be content with a point. ……..P.S. GOOD LUCK THIS WEEKEND LADS !!! ‘ROONEY..ROONEY..’. !!!
Agree about O’Shea comment – I also think that we do rely too much on Wayne and if we had come away with 3 points from goodison it would have proved that we can win football matches without him. The fact that we drew in the manner we did would always have people point the finger at him because Wayne Rooney and his shenanigans on and off the pitch sell millions of newspapers to the C.I.A (Chavs in Action) and the C.I.D. (Chavs in Denial) muppets that buy them.
If we look at it glass half full then we are 2 points better off from same set of fixtures last year but thats only relevant if we and chelski and everyone else matches those same results. Teams who play us will feel that they can nick a point or 3 if they are behind by a goal or level whereas some teams would have faltered. Last year our away performances in the league weren’t very good we only won at 2 difficult grounds. I like to be optimistic but unless we win at Anfield or Stanford Bridge this is most certainly 2 points dropped end of story.
What irks me the most is how at times our 5 man midfield looked weak. It needs addressing and I thought O Shea could do a job but based on Saturday it doesn’t look like it, maybe a couple of months into the season he can because as Scott said it takes him a while to get going. Hopefully we stuff Rangers and got my scouse tickets through today sat right above the away fans hopefully we can smash them too thats the only way in the short term I’m going to get over this result.
For a club like United to throw away 4 points in 2 away games is unacceptable, especially in the manner in which we lost them – for so long we were the masters of the late goal, but this season, we have suffered that misfortune at the hands of two sides which we should be taking care of. Very disappointing. Hopefully we will put things right as of tomorrow.
moyesboyz – Nice one.
well the reason that rooney wasn’t in the team was because of the moral spasm around an issue of no business to anyone but his family – and i am sorry to say that you also contributed to that.
stick to the football, eh?
I would agree that we missed Rio, but you never know, he might’ve tried to flick it over Fellaini’s head in his own half and we’d have lost 4-3!
On a serious note, the game was gutting. I have rarely had to experience that pure capitulation as a United fan. But… upwards and onwards, there were a lot of positives to take from the game in terms of our defensive performance for 90 minutes and some good individual performances.
scott, stop it with the pop up ads please. the new scripts are crashing browsers and pop ups have always annoyed the hell out of everyone. we’ll click on sidebar ads if you need the income but pop ups are a sure fire way to annoy your readership. seriously.
The reason why Hernandez didn’t play was because he had just arrived at Carrington two days before the game. Damn long distance international games….
With the way Berb has been playing, I’d be gutted if he doesn’t start tomorrow..it would be totally unfair.
Now 2 days past after Everton game, I can truly see some positives from that game now. We’re scoring 3 goals away without Wazza after 1-0 down. Last year we did rely on too much on Wayne and after his injury absent cause a draw and lost the title. Now Berba and Nani are in good form. Nani is better thread on right side.But I wonder who can do the damage on left regular basic?
From England game, Wayne got brilliant game staying deep and create moves. That’s give me a tick, while we are seeking AM player, Wayne can fill that gap and on left Chicharito, middle Berba and right Nani will be full attacking side will flare and pace. Like 4-2-1-3 line up ! I love see that for once! Wayne extra hard work and energy act like extra player on central field and can totally reliable on both attacking and defense.
For back line, surely Evra will be a lot better from the french dark cloud. Rio is back on with Vida, hoping that will stay for long time to come. if Da silva brothers fit enough I believe they can compete with anyone!
It’s only 4 games and 4 points. Still in our hand to turn things around! Surely, one game could change the whole image but surely we should have that soon! Chelski having easy ride so far.. so!
Worrying times? Worrying times is NOT dropping 2 points away from home at a tough ground. Worrying times is going 2 and a half decades without a title. Some perspective wouldn’t go amiss.
John o shea had a good game in the centre of the park. It annoys me that youre still behind the man that cost 30 million because he scores the odd goal. He did fuck all else on saturday apart from lose the ball or play the pass too hard. lay off john o shea, he did nothing wrong and i have no idea why he was taken out of right back not that i disapprove of gnev .
@KVN
“but there comes a point that you need to play a slow more measured game – i.e. keep possession to ensure the oppostion are starved of the ball.”
We could definitely have used Carrick out there. Even if he’d only come on as a sub instead of Park for O’Shea, our back 4 would have been better protected in the final minutes and as you say might have retained possession better… then again as Scott says in the article who knows what might have happened if the sides had been different.
@Irish Red
I agree O’Shea played well in front of the back 4. I think if Carrick had been fit he’d have played, with O’Shea at RB, but the injury to Carrick and lack of fitness for Anderson (and Hargo) dictated the change. Definitely comes out of the match with credit IMO.
Duh. Spot the mistake in my comment above. Park obviously came on for Evra, but caused O’Shea to be switched to LB. (With the same effect of removing him from protecting the back 4.)
Yeah Berba has been crap. Only 4 odd goals in 5 matches.
Berbatov could score 11 goals in 5 matches and you still get idiots moaning. Everton’s finished now onto Rangers lets smash them both on and off the pitch! Will never ever forgive those cunts for ruining our end of season party by stopping us from having a parade.
Nani first assist against Everton was nice. The pass was so difficult to execute. Beckham would have to be there to do it.. Most assist at the moment. Well done.
More space for our youngsters pls…………………… O’Shea and Neville definitely have to be left out………….. Giggs and Scholes only used as substitutes
@irish Red
i can’t believe fans like you are stirring up the shit about Berba again after the performance he put in since the season started. granted, he’ll always have his doubters, and i don’t expect you to be won over just like that, but can’t you at least save the criticism because he hasn’t done anything to deserve your disdain.