Manchester United 3-3 Basel

Another mad game at Old trafford saw what looked like an easy victory turn into a last minute scraped draw. All in all it was a fair result. Whilst United were building themselves a 2-0 half time lead we were so open at the back it wasn't true. I'm not really sure how we ended two goals up because they probably had more chances than us and they were good chances too. This was how the Chelsea game could have gone.
I have always thought that whilst new defenders are bedded in we would ship more goals and i actually think that somewhere along the line we may get spanked for a few. This game showed why that could well be the case. Some will look to Jones, who as much as i love his style of play isn't the finished article. But though he made a mistake or two i would be looking at Ferdinand. He played the last twenty minutes of last night actually holding his back at times. He obviously wouldn't have played last night but for injuries and in retrospect it's obvious Jones shouldn't have been making his forward runs with the crocked Rio as a partner. I thought Fabio had a poor game and once again went off after being involved in a strong challenge. The twins really seem to be made of plastercine, eventually this will be a bar to their progress at the top level.
When i saw the team selected i thought Young had been picked to partner Welbeck up front, but as the teams lined up Giggs had been picked in a deep lying role with Young and Valencia out wide. You can't say it didn't work as United went in at half time two goals up, but i presume the formation was chosen to try and dominate possession and by that measure, you have to say it didn't work.
I wish i could say that their three goals were a suprise, but they weren't really. How quickly the game changed was a suprise, but when the Swiss team got the second it was all they deserved really. The defending wasn't the best for any of the goals, and i mean defending as a team as much as individual errors, though of course there was plenty of the latter. I couldn't tell wether it was a penaly from my view but from the lack of protests i guess there wasn't much argument.
The fortunate thing was they were as bad as we were at the back and an equaliser was always on. Some around me were thinking that the three points were still on. Fat chance, on a night like this, salvaging a point was the limit of my imagination. And thankfully in the last minute, the slightly disappointing Young popped up in the middle to head home. Substitue Berbatov had a great chance in injury time when he shot into the side netting when he should have squared to Nani, but i'm afarid whilst he a player of his stature is getting so little time on the pitch, it's not a suprise they take the wrong option.
Two points from two games wasn't the start we envisaged, but it's a fair reflection of the two games so far. This international though infuriating for us fans that don't have much time for international football has actually come at a pretty good time for us. Maybe that two week break will allow us to get some defenders back fit, Vidic can't get back quick enough.
On the plus side Welbeck looks good again, a proper United player and took his two goals well and was whisker away from a hatrick. De Gea once more made impressive progress making a couple of great stops. I'm not complaing about last night, it's alearning curve and at least it was an excting, entertaing learning curve, not a broing 0-0 draw.

Paul Hayward looks at Phil Jones and fairly says he is not the finished article, though i would argue that the partnership with Rio didn't work was as much down to Rio's crocked back as Jones inability to know when and when not to make his forays up front.

Fergie wasn't happy with the performance, labelling the display as careless, he thinks our defence has been inconsistent and isn't happy with it. He must know the reason why and know that chopping and changing, enforced obviously, is a big part of the problem. It was careless, but if we are to make mistakes in the competition now is the time to make them. I thought our problems stemmed from the way we seemingly took an easy two goal lead whilst they were creating but missing chances for fun in the firts half. It seemed to breed the thought in our players that this was going to be another walk in the park. Truth be told it wasn't that different a game from the Chelski affair except they didn't have a £50 million flop up front. Chelsea created plenty of chances but just didn't take them.

Paul Mason describes the Euro as a loose canon on the deck of the world. Simon Jenkins argues that without a growth plan Euope is facing a financial Waterloo, and Britain with it. EU comission president Barroso backs Tobin plan after earlier in the week Bill Gates seemingly also backed the idea. The EU look set to get tough on auditing, about time, will our banker friendly tory ked government follow suit.
George Eaton thinks Ed Balls pulled it off in his conference speech on the economy. I'm not so sure, he said a lot of the right things but his past is still there, i'm not sure he is a real Keynesian, more an opportunist. As this Torygraph argues he ran deficits throughout the biggest boom in history, which is obviously the antithesis of Keynes teachings.


The extended Fergie interview with BBC north west's Gordon Burn was a pretty decent interview. Interesting that he namechecked Pogba, Tunnicliffe and Will Keane and not Ravel Morrison.

I actually thought City would get something from the encounter in Munich last night, so last night's result was some consolation. Daniel Taylor argues that the club must back the manager over Tevez's refusal to come on in the second half. Of course he is right but let's hope they don't listen.