Manchester City 1-0 Manchester United

I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this game, I just didn't think we had started the season well, and with them having two wins under their belt, and the confidence of having a pretty good record against us at home since they moved to the council house, it wasn't the best time for us to be playing against them. As it happens I was both wrong and right.
I was wrong because that was about as one sided a match as you will ever see, it was up there with the Arsenal cup final in 2005 and last years match at Celtic. But just like both those games we ended up losing 1-0, despite completely dominating affairs. Where I feel I was right, was my worry about our line up. What is already blindingly obvious, is that Tevez is no number nine. Good player that he is, he is not the man to be leading the attack, he is not fast or strong enough.
Up until the goal I thought that was as good as we have played so far this season. Our passing and movement had been absolutely excellent, City hadn't had a sniff in the match and then all of a sudden we were 1-0 down. Whilst I can't argue that Vidic didn't cover himself in glory, how did Geoveanni find that amount of space to run into. I thought that was one of the reasons you play 4-3-3, so you don' allow the opposition to find space in the middle of the park like that. I am presuming that Hargreaves was supposed to be the player to sit in front of the back four, if he was caught out of position it was the only thing he did wrong in the match, but unfortunately it's cost us the match. I am not blaming him though, for his first game I thought he was absolutely outstanding, if we had had him in our team last season I am totally convinced we would not have been totally taken to the cleaners in Milan in the champions league semi final 2nd leg last season. If the worst comes to the worst and our bad start continues, at least his addition makes me sure that when we get Rooney and Ronaldo back later in the season we will be even better equipped than last season to give the champions league a real good go this season.
Does anybody know when Saha will be fit, you just never hear anything about him, because he is exactly what we are crying out for at the moment. Selling Smith and Rossi, whilst keeping Saha isn't looking like such a great piece of thinking just at present. For all the talk that you can play Rooney , Ronaldo, Tevez an Giggs in any permitation of three, I have always thought that to that must be added a genuine number 9. Whilst you can't get away from saying that Micah Richards had a great game yesterday there were at least two occasions where if Saha had found himself in the position Tevez had found himself in he would have at least managed to get a shot in, obviously as we are talking about Saha I can't say he would have scored. I have to admit whilst I have never thought Tevez was the worldbeater some have tried to portay him as, I hadn't realised how slow he was. He isn't that much quicker than scholes. I am not having a go at Tevez here, just being realistic, he is a good player but his position is obviously more the one Giggs has been playing for us, just off the front man with a license to roam.
The last thing I have got to say about the last week is that we seen to have gone a bit weak defensively. Twice when we have had almost total control of games we have lost concentration, and conceded goals right out of the blue. And from a stage where we have got the opposition not knowing how they are going to get in the game, we have given them the confidence, to hang on in there. We started to concede sloppy goals towards the end of last season, but I put that down to the injuries we were carrying and the pressure of fighting on three fronts at the end of the season. But alarmingly it has carried through to the beginning of this season, and injuries are no excuse at present, with only Gary Neville absent. Personally I would prefer to see Pique play right back in front of Wes Brown, but that is as much for his passing qualities as anything else.

2007 Champions youth cup Played in Kuala Lumpa
Manchester United 1-0 Juvents

Fortunately their was some good news for United fans yesterday, as our youth won the final of the inaugural champions youth cup. Although the final cannot be described as a great game of football, it can't be argued that the best team won. I thought this was a fantastic achievement, although there weren't too many outstanding matches as spectacles to watch, the standard of football was pretty high. You didn't see too many teams giving the ball away cheaply, which of course would have been lethal given the sweltering conditions, and of course is usually the the curse of the English international team. The coaching and the fitness regime must be absolutely top rank at United these days because they were never technically inferior to anyone in the tournament, though they did have moments of good fortune against flamengo in the semi final, and in almost every game were the stronger team at the end. It is always said that English teams are at a disadvantage when playing tournaments in warmer climates, but this United youth team made up of mostly English ( and mostly north west at that ) and Irish youngsters proved that if you are good enough it doesn't matter.
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