Another stinker and another performance to forget in a fixture that i had been worried about for a while. I honestly thought before last night that Arsenal away would be an easier game for us, right at this minute. The one thing you knew about last night was that it would be a hundred miles an hour, they would be in our faces and our ever changing back four would be tested. At least at the Emirates it will be more of a game of football and that we hopefully won't get bullied there, though at the moment you never know.
The battle came to pass and as i feared the present United weren't good or up for it enough. The team didn't look too bad on paper, with Ferdinand back in the team allowing Carrick to go back into midfield and Lindegaard back between the sticks. I have to say though, at this stage in his career, Jones is a last resort as a centre half. He just doesn't win enough balls in the air, i can't believe i'm saying this but Evans wins more and will walk back into the team when he regains fitness. Jones best position has to be full back or midfield and for me, even though he has had a couple of stinkers he still has to be picked to get those forward bursts back into the team.
Next to him it seemed obvious to me that Ferdinand had been rushed back and isn't really fit. The penalty that he should have conceeded in the first half was an example of him not really being right. You can tell when he is not really right as he lacks mobility and can seem statuesque at times. With Evra at left back seemingly in permanent decline and a right winger at full back, when you looked at our back four objectively it didn't fill you full of confidence.
The midfield two looked good on paper, but didn't have the best of nights, Park contributed little and Nani have one of those nights where nothing came off, of which i'm afraid he has too many. My other worry when i saw the team was the pairing of Rooney and Berbatov up front. They seem to work well enough as a pair at Old trafford but as we saw numerous times last season, away from home they just don't seem to click. Berbatov just never got into the game, the difference in movement between United's attack when Welbeck has started away from home to when either Berbatov or Hernandez has partnered Rooney has been all too obvious. To be fair to the Bulgarian though, he was no worse than Rooney who was sadly off his game. Worryingly Rooney's body language looked a bit suspect, one poor away game is too soon to say something isn't right, but i'll be keeping my eyes on him. That was the kind of performance from him and from United that we saw during our troubled start to last season.
For all that it still took two brilliant goals to put us to the sword. Jones should have done better with the challenge to the headed knock on that Ba volleyed in to give Lindegaard no chance with. I'm not saying that he should always be winning those, but he should at least trouble the forward enough to stop them getting the perfect knock down in. I'm not sure if the inquest to the second goal actually mentioned that the free kick given away from which the French man scored such a brilliant goal from was totally unnecessary. I still don't know what Jones was thinking off, he just seemed to panic, i suppose we have to put it down to the learning process.
Once the second went in i couldn't see any way back for us, and that was before the substitutions and the tactics which lacked any imagination. Bringing Welbeck on first was right, but it was too late to change the game and at the moment throwing Hernandez on is just hoping for the best. The Mexican is so anonymous when on the pitch at the moment it's embarrassing. As i mentioned after Saturday if the opposition can stop our attack from the flanks we become completely devoid of ideas. Our best chance of the second half came straight after Welbeck was brought on and his centre to Rooney who probably should have done better with the chance. That apart though we rarely looked threatening and the third goal jus about summed the night up.
This aint the best shape to be going into Sunday in obviously, but it's the cup and it's a derby, so who knows, fingers crossed anyway. I hope Smalling's back so we can put him alongside Ferdinand and allow Jones to fill central midfield. Of course that's presuming the forgotten man Cleverley isn't sprung upon an unsuspecting world. We need bodies back that's for sure and then just as importantly a run of games with injuries kept down to a minimum. I still think the FA cup is our best chance os silverware this season so i hope Fergie is taking this game as seriously as the fans are.
As we prepare to face City Mark Ogden warns Owen Hargreaves that time is running out if he is to prove to Fergie that he was right to let him go. Of course he was right, did any body have the slightest doubt that he would hardly ever leave the physio's room.
Michael White reminds the Euro sceptics that after ten years of the Euro, they have got things wrong too and still have no convincing answer to what the alternative to belonging to the Eurozone actually is. I have just finished Hugo Youngs brilliant account with Britains relationship with Europe since the war This blessed plot and that is a superb account of this countries failure to come to terms with it's declining role in the world. I'm pro-Europe and i probably would have voted to join the Euro though i had big worries about the Euro being run as a Europe wide Bundesbank. But even as those worries have turned out to be justified, and it's obviously the case the sceptics were right that the Eurozone was poorly thought through, the Euro won't go away as the sceptics hope as Robert Skidlesky predicts the Eurozone will shrink instead.
Bryan Appleyard takes a look at the options for this country asn wonders if as part of a retreat from Europe, this country should accept it's fate as a declining power. In Time to shrink Britain he wonders can accept our loss of influence and adopt a policy of rational isolationism.
At least that is intellectualy honest, i would answer that even if we wanted to adopt that policy the real world would get in the way as it always does eventually. At the end of the day we are a European country, we always have been and always will. Read your history and name one century where this country wasn't in the thick of historical events concerning Europe. Of course a sizeable number, though not all Eurosceptics really yearn to be the 51st state. Which is about as intellectually dishonest as you can get, they whine about losing powers to Brussels but would hand them over to Washinton in a heart beat.
As if the economic prospects for Europe weren't challenging enough, Hungary as many commentators have warned over the last couple of weeks is set to give the EU a deomocratic crisis.
Paul Mason's latest blog views the role of central banks during the current crisis, their historical evolution and their role in the future as they have become part of the debate during the Republican primaries in the US.
Martin Wolf inpsects the economics propspects for the high income countries, what was known as the westernised first world i suppose and concludes by wishing us good luck because we are going to need it.
Nic Jones with a track off the classic lost album Penguin eggs
The battle came to pass and as i feared the present United weren't good or up for it enough. The team didn't look too bad on paper, with Ferdinand back in the team allowing Carrick to go back into midfield and Lindegaard back between the sticks. I have to say though, at this stage in his career, Jones is a last resort as a centre half. He just doesn't win enough balls in the air, i can't believe i'm saying this but Evans wins more and will walk back into the team when he regains fitness. Jones best position has to be full back or midfield and for me, even though he has had a couple of stinkers he still has to be picked to get those forward bursts back into the team.
Next to him it seemed obvious to me that Ferdinand had been rushed back and isn't really fit. The penalty that he should have conceeded in the first half was an example of him not really being right. You can tell when he is not really right as he lacks mobility and can seem statuesque at times. With Evra at left back seemingly in permanent decline and a right winger at full back, when you looked at our back four objectively it didn't fill you full of confidence.
The midfield two looked good on paper, but didn't have the best of nights, Park contributed little and Nani have one of those nights where nothing came off, of which i'm afraid he has too many. My other worry when i saw the team was the pairing of Rooney and Berbatov up front. They seem to work well enough as a pair at Old trafford but as we saw numerous times last season, away from home they just don't seem to click. Berbatov just never got into the game, the difference in movement between United's attack when Welbeck has started away from home to when either Berbatov or Hernandez has partnered Rooney has been all too obvious. To be fair to the Bulgarian though, he was no worse than Rooney who was sadly off his game. Worryingly Rooney's body language looked a bit suspect, one poor away game is too soon to say something isn't right, but i'll be keeping my eyes on him. That was the kind of performance from him and from United that we saw during our troubled start to last season.
For all that it still took two brilliant goals to put us to the sword. Jones should have done better with the challenge to the headed knock on that Ba volleyed in to give Lindegaard no chance with. I'm not saying that he should always be winning those, but he should at least trouble the forward enough to stop them getting the perfect knock down in. I'm not sure if the inquest to the second goal actually mentioned that the free kick given away from which the French man scored such a brilliant goal from was totally unnecessary. I still don't know what Jones was thinking off, he just seemed to panic, i suppose we have to put it down to the learning process.
Once the second went in i couldn't see any way back for us, and that was before the substitutions and the tactics which lacked any imagination. Bringing Welbeck on first was right, but it was too late to change the game and at the moment throwing Hernandez on is just hoping for the best. The Mexican is so anonymous when on the pitch at the moment it's embarrassing. As i mentioned after Saturday if the opposition can stop our attack from the flanks we become completely devoid of ideas. Our best chance of the second half came straight after Welbeck was brought on and his centre to Rooney who probably should have done better with the chance. That apart though we rarely looked threatening and the third goal jus about summed the night up.
This aint the best shape to be going into Sunday in obviously, but it's the cup and it's a derby, so who knows, fingers crossed anyway. I hope Smalling's back so we can put him alongside Ferdinand and allow Jones to fill central midfield. Of course that's presuming the forgotten man Cleverley isn't sprung upon an unsuspecting world. We need bodies back that's for sure and then just as importantly a run of games with injuries kept down to a minimum. I still think the FA cup is our best chance os silverware this season so i hope Fergie is taking this game as seriously as the fans are.
As we prepare to face City Mark Ogden warns Owen Hargreaves that time is running out if he is to prove to Fergie that he was right to let him go. Of course he was right, did any body have the slightest doubt that he would hardly ever leave the physio's room.
Michael White reminds the Euro sceptics that after ten years of the Euro, they have got things wrong too and still have no convincing answer to what the alternative to belonging to the Eurozone actually is. I have just finished Hugo Youngs brilliant account with Britains relationship with Europe since the war This blessed plot and that is a superb account of this countries failure to come to terms with it's declining role in the world. I'm pro-Europe and i probably would have voted to join the Euro though i had big worries about the Euro being run as a Europe wide Bundesbank. But even as those worries have turned out to be justified, and it's obviously the case the sceptics were right that the Eurozone was poorly thought through, the Euro won't go away as the sceptics hope as Robert Skidlesky predicts the Eurozone will shrink instead.
Bryan Appleyard takes a look at the options for this country asn wonders if as part of a retreat from Europe, this country should accept it's fate as a declining power. In Time to shrink Britain he wonders can accept our loss of influence and adopt a policy of rational isolationism.
At least that is intellectualy honest, i would answer that even if we wanted to adopt that policy the real world would get in the way as it always does eventually. At the end of the day we are a European country, we always have been and always will. Read your history and name one century where this country wasn't in the thick of historical events concerning Europe. Of course a sizeable number, though not all Eurosceptics really yearn to be the 51st state. Which is about as intellectually dishonest as you can get, they whine about losing powers to Brussels but would hand them over to Washinton in a heart beat.
As if the economic prospects for Europe weren't challenging enough, Hungary as many commentators have warned over the last couple of weeks is set to give the EU a deomocratic crisis.
Paul Mason's latest blog views the role of central banks during the current crisis, their historical evolution and their role in the future as they have become part of the debate during the Republican primaries in the US.
Martin Wolf inpsects the economics propspects for the high income countries, what was known as the westernised first world i suppose and concludes by wishing us good luck because we are going to need it.
Nic Jones with a track off the classic lost album Penguin eggs
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