Burnley 1-0 Manchester United

Back down to earth with a bump, i wasn't that amazed to be honest. The performance against Birmingham lacked cohesion and when i saw the staring eleven for this game it didn't fill me with confidence. Of course our defensive problems aren't helping, losing Rio is a big blow and we always miss him bringing the ball out of defence when he doesn't play. It was a surprise that Jonny Evans played, i can't help feeling he was playing through an injury. I wasn't surprised that Wes Brown started, and it wasn't really ideal having him start at the side of Evans when he himself missed almost all of last season through injury and has missed a fair chunk of pre-season like wise. But that is where the injury crisis has led us.
It was when you looked at the midfield that the balance of the team didn't look right. Giggs, Park, Anderson and Carrick doesn't read that great to me. Where was the man to provide the width and give them headaches on the wing. We know that Park isn't really an attacking wide man. He was used by Fergie to make sure that Ronaldo's defensive shortcomings didn't hurt us too much, but with no Ronaldo where was the man to cause their defence problems. Giggs is definitely at his best in the middle nowadays and that was where he kept drifting. It is only two seasons ago when Anderson had his first good run in the centre of midfield but i'm afraid it seems like ages ago to me. He gave his usual performance last night giving the ball away far too frequently for a United cenral midfield player. Carrick didn't have a bad game but neither did he force himself into the game as we would have hoped. I had expected him to play Owen and i wasn't wrong, it has to be said though the quicker he gets that first goal the better for all concerned. We don't need the press dissecting every performance if he struggles to get the goal. I don't expect him to play brilliantly as i have never thought he was that great a player. But for Fergies gamble to come off he has to get us 15 to 20 goals this season.
The way we started last night it looked like his first goal might be on the cards as United started well and a fine cross from the once again magnificent Evra should have seen Owen at least get a touch on the ball. Instead he bafflingly missed it and the chance was gone. United were playing reasonable football but with not quite enough cutting edge, but worryingly, though maybe not surprisingly, we were looking shaky at the back. For all those decrying this as a terrible result i would have to remind them that whilst we could and should have got a result last night Burnley are certainly not the worst promoted team of recent years. They try and play football and you have to applaud that.
When the goal came it wasn' that much of a surprise. Evra may have been better heading it out for a corner but who could have forseen Blake hitting such a thunderbolt volley, that hit the back of the net almost before Foster had moved. Owen had the best chance that United created in open play during the rest of the half but his clever run was followed by a poor header. But it seemed we were going to be granted the reprieve that we probably didn't deserve when a superb run into the box from Evra was brought to halt by a clumsy challenge by goalscorer Blake. Surprisingly Carrick strode forward to take it and then probably regretted his decision as he hit a pretty poor shot almost straight at keeper Jensen who parried it away. I suppose we should have seen the writing on the wall then.
The second half was the really disappointing part of the night as even though we did create chances we never really managed to control the game or attack with enough conviction. Nothing came form the flanks, and even when Valencia came on for the ineffectual Anderson that didn't change. In fact Valencia himself was worryingly out of sorts and didn't seem to want to take his man on. Rooney had one of those nights, he didn't play badly but too many times he seemed to get frustrated at the fact we were getting nowhere and shooting from the edge of the box into a packed defence. Berbatov was our most effective player when he came on for Owen but he wasn't able to carve out or score the all important equaliser. Giggs had probably our best chance of the second half but in keeping with the rest of our performance he wanted too long on the ball.
The result from Anfield capped a pretty miserable night. It is beginning to look as if the rebuilding or transitional process is going to take some time and we may have a few nasty results in store. I want to see as strong and experienced team as we are able to muster against Arsenal and Spurs away.

Criticism of the Glazer transfer policy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/20/manchester-united-alex-ferguson-transfers

Match report from the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/6056109/Burnley-Manchester-United-match-report.html

Simon Jenkins on the farce of our Afghan policy on election day
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/19/afghan-election-taliban-rumsfeld-intervention

Larry Elliot on David Cameron's economic policies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/20/black-swan-theory-david-cameron

Martin Kettle on the lack of coverage of the forthcoming German election
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/20/germany-angela-merkel-gordon-brown