Manchester United 2-3 Blackburn Rovers

We have complained of the mundane nature of the last couple of seasons, that's one thing we can't really complain about this season. Given the transitional nature of the squad and our mounting injury list i can't see this being the last unforseen defeat we will suffer this season. I don't know how many times i heard disgrace mentioned and we should be beating them at the stadium, walking back to the Tollgate and in the Tollgate. It's not a disgrace to lose a football match and obviously though you would expect United to be beating the bottom side at home, it doesn't always follow that we will, which is what makes sport so enjoyable surely. Look at all the other results over the weekend for evidence of that
Fergie's team selection and tactics also inevitably came in for much criticism, obviously it wasn't the kind of line up you would have wanted to see. I had always expected Rooney to be rested but had presumed he would be on the bench in case of emergencies. Well we at least now have a pretty good idea why he wasn't even on the bench. Whether you think he was right or wrong we certainly payed for his absence. He would have been the perfect player to bring on into that central midfield area, not just giving the creativity that Park and Fabio unsuprisingly didn't bring to the table, but also helping us to keep possession better.
The othe main bone of contention was playing Valencia at right back especially in light of his brilliant second half performance. I am on record as saying that i'm no fan of him being played at right back, but i don't really think that would have altered the game that dramatically. At the end of the day we are paying for the incredible injury list we have built up over the season. I mean just look at that back four again. We have all moaned about our lack of quality in central midfield and yet over the last few weeks as our form has returned and the goals have flowed we seemed to have found at least a short term answer in the form of Carrick and Jones together. And yet where were they both playing on Saturday, central defence, that sums up our problems at the moment.
We need bodies back and fast, i had written that if we had been playing our christmas fixtures away with the defensive line ups we have had to put up i would have been worried. Well it only needed the bottom team to find a bit of self belief to use their size to out muscle us. Red News editor Barney tweeted yesterday that the two defeats in the league so far this season have basically seen us bullied. I would go along with that though i think it's not going to be a long term worry, just that in the here and now the injuries and lack of depth in quality in central midfield are hurting us badly.
Which brings us to my real gripe with team selection, the return of De Gea in goal. I still like De Gea as a goalie but against a side the size of Blackburn, and they were giants compared to the United team, it made sense to stick with Lindegaard for now. We were basically in trouble every time they put a cross in. With no Vidic and no Ferdinand and a central midfielder at centre half in front of him i feel a bit sorry for him.
As in almost every game we have lost this season, we were turned over because we conceeded soft goals. I though the first was a penalty, though the jostling for position before the ball was delivered could just as easily have seen Samba penalised. With that referee on Saturday that was never going to happen, he seemed to be gloating in the fact that he wasn't giving United anything. Most reds wondered how he hadn't booked the goalie, but were all screaming for it in the second half. Unfortunately, though it was pretty blatant time wasting, it was all perfectly legal, but in the first half, there were two or three occasions he could and should have been booked. The second goal was down to poor defensive work from Carrick, let's hope the new found confidence he had been showing isn't knocked for six as it has been in the past.
United's fight back was basically driven by Valencia having ain inspired ten minutes skinning his man time after time and learning from the first half. In the first half United had delivered cross after cross only to see the giant Blackburn defence easily snuf out the danger. Both United goals came from low crosses, even if there was a hint of fortune to the first. It wasn't really pretty football, but it was effective. What we did see on Saturday was how limited our tactics have become at times with no creativity in the middle of the park. Our tactics seemed very limited , it was basically get the ball to the winger and hope they can beat two men and get the ball in. As we saw against City at home, if the opposition are good enough to stop our wingers or our wingers are having an off day, we are in trouble. Watching Nasri get hoisted off again for City during the most enjoyable part of the weekend for a red makes me wonder how much he must rue his decision to follow the money.
Unbelievably United now completely lost their rythym and the chances stopped flowing. I always thought that if we didn't get a third our defensive game was so weak we could still end up losing the three points. At this point though i would gladly have took a point, but when we need to be able to shut up shop this season, it just doesn't happen. The third goal was the worst, De Gea made a complete horlicks of it, but Fergie was right to blame the rest of the defence for not doing more after that mistake.
The rest of the players heads went down after that, not really what you want to see, but understandable enough i suppose, after having fought their way back into the game only to go behind again. United huffed and puffed and did have chances but no luck especially with one chance right near the line that was cleared off the line from our own man on the line the prostrate substitute Will Keane.
At least he was the one bright note of the day for me, he may not have created any chances or even had any chances, but he showed signs that the promise he has shown in the youth and reserves has a fair chance of being fulfilled. I always look at whether a young player carries on playing his natural game when he gets a chance in the first team and whether he makes the right decisions. His first touch was good, his movement was good, and when he had the chance he invariably saw the right pass and executed the right pass. Not as easy as it sounds when the last five minutes are seeing United chasing the game against a packed defence. We can all remember Macheda coming on this season and mis controlling the ball. Pretty good news considering Hernandez had another annonymous game, even if it was only for 45 minutes.

As far as the Rooney mystery goes, taking what's been reported and the rumours going around, i would have to back Fergie's stance even if it turned out that it cost us big time. If Rooney turned up to training the worse for wear, Fergie had to do something and with the Morrison situation rumbling on in the background an example had to be made.

It sounds like Giggs is going to give us another years service, how badly he was missed on Saturday. I will say this about the changes made against Blackburn, i hope Fergie didn't take Blackburn lightly because that was always going to be the harder game. But as far as Giggs goes that's obviously good news because he can still do a job. It was muttered aloud after the game what a pity it was Scholes wouldn't give us another season, that was the kind of game he would still have looked the dogs bollocks. Still as Keano rightly pointed out after the Basel defeat United should not be relying on 38 year olds.

Ahead of the weekend fixture Paul Hayward talked of Ferguson and retirement and how Fergie has become retirement-phobic, Glazer's apart i think United are in reasonable shape as far as the long term goes, but only as long as Fergie is in charge of the ship. I still think that the gimps will have to bail out, the only question is will they make the profit from the sale of the club that they hope to. Under present economic and market conditions, the answer must surely be in the negative.

Again written ahead of the weekend's fixtures, Andy Cole wrote that he thought that the end of the season would see United retain the title. I thought he was right to pick up on some of Mancini'c recent moans, even if Mancini was spot on the money in saying ths xmas fixture list hadn't been kind to City.
I think we have a chance but not with if we continue to suffer injury after injury, the big losers of the weekend for me were Spurs, they had a great chance to really force their way into the title race. Their game against City in a couple of weeks will be a game to watch and will be a pointer to how the title race will go. If Spurs could come away with the three points from there they would be right in there with a chance.

It sounds like the Vidic injury whilst still bad, wasn't as bad as it could have been. He has undergone the operation and no complications were found with it, though it will still be the following season before he will be able to resume training. Hopefully that means that he may be fit to return nearer the beginning of the season than originally hoped.

John Campbell looks at the legacy of Thatcher as the new film starring Meryl Streep brings her back into the spotlight. It's fair up to a point, the Union's did need to be made to brought to their senses, but not destroyed. But he comes perilously close to saying that Howe's economic policies were right, even thoug they drove a lot of sound manufacturing businesses to the wall. Those very same industries that everybody, left or right, accepts our economy needs more of.

Jon Snow looks ahead to 2012 and borrows from Clinton's presidential campaign the phrase " it's the economy stupid ". And warns us to watch the Iraq/ Saudi Arabia cold war.
Noam Chomsky with an interesting piece about the decline of America and lays the blame at the hands of the financial elite. John Kampfner tells us to look at Brazils' success as a clue as to where the future lies. He also goes on to lament the lack of realism as regards this countries declining influence.
William Keegan warns George Osborne austerity will be bad for your ratings, having a go at him basing your startegy on pleasing the discredited credit ratings agencies. A piece from Liberal conspiracy looks at the Labour parties city problem.
Peter Oborne's latest Telegraph article argues that it's modrnisation, not morality, that is the dirty word of politics, which of course was the theme of his book the triumph of the political class.

Polly Toynbee urges the Labour party to back the BBC against the tories and Sky, i can't see this happening new labour were almost as anti Beeb as the tories. No arguing with her messgae though.

The Irish times looks Richard Herring goes after the big fish of comedy as he takes his new tour around the economy. One of the shows is at the Lowry, if it doesn't intefere with United i may go.