Having a pint before last night's match, i offered the thought that i'd take a shit game and a 1-0 win as long as we actually turn up at Anfield this season on Sunday. So if we do the business at Liverpool, last night will be long forgotten. But it was a poor performance, even if we did manage to get up and running with a welcome champions league home win.
It's hard to know why we were so poor, Fergie said he'd learned lessons from last season's failure to get past the group stage, and he did pick a reasonably strong team. We started well, and got the early goal that you always hope will come from such a fast start. But we never kicked on, and were probably slightly fortunate to go into the half time interval a goal to the good.
I'm not really sure how Fergie and his staff have learned from last season's poor performance after watching last night, we played a 4-4-2 with Kagawa more of a man in the hole than an advanced midfielder. So just as last season, teams will be able to have a go at us, and with the defence being nowhere near the solid unit of that 2006-2009 period, we look vulnerable at the back. Some will say that Scholes can't hack at this level in Europe any more , but he was one of our few players who performed to his usual standard last night and i was flabbergasted when Fergie took him off for Flecther near the end. Having seen Flecther in his reserve come backs this season, he's looked miles away from a return to a first team appearance. After his brief cameo last night, i.m thinking a league cup should be the height of his ambitions at the moment.
I expected us to play more a 4-3-3 formation, to make it harder to get at our defence, after our problems conceding goals home and away in Europe last season. But we stuck with the shape that saw us exposed by the might of Basel last season and once again didn't look entirely convincing.
I suppose Fergie had to use this game to give Evans a full ninety minutes, but it did mean the back four was different yet again. Whoever plays their at the moment, we don't look as solid as you'd like us to look or as solid as you have to be to have any chance of winning this trophy.
We were poor going forward last night as well, we had chances, though not as many as you'd hope for. The main problem seemed to be both wide men having an off night, not that suprising from Nani, i suppose, but if anything Valencia was even more off colour last night. How often is his crossing as wayward as it was last night. Kagawa faded completely out of the game after a bright opening and Van Persie hasn't really knitted into our pattern of play yet, even after his hatrick as Southampton. The service was poor admittedly, no one seems sure when to pass to him or read his runs, hopefully it will come, Sunday would be nice.
I'm not sure how Hernandez managed to not cap his brief appearance as a substitute without a goal or how we managed to miss a third consecutive penalty. We've been very fortunate that none of those misses have cost us, it would be nice to get it sorted before that happens. Anyway, as i said, win on Sunday and last night will be long forgotten.
I'd forgotten this track, not bad
It's hard to know why we were so poor, Fergie said he'd learned lessons from last season's failure to get past the group stage, and he did pick a reasonably strong team. We started well, and got the early goal that you always hope will come from such a fast start. But we never kicked on, and were probably slightly fortunate to go into the half time interval a goal to the good.
I'm not really sure how Fergie and his staff have learned from last season's poor performance after watching last night, we played a 4-4-2 with Kagawa more of a man in the hole than an advanced midfielder. So just as last season, teams will be able to have a go at us, and with the defence being nowhere near the solid unit of that 2006-2009 period, we look vulnerable at the back. Some will say that Scholes can't hack at this level in Europe any more , but he was one of our few players who performed to his usual standard last night and i was flabbergasted when Fergie took him off for Flecther near the end. Having seen Flecther in his reserve come backs this season, he's looked miles away from a return to a first team appearance. After his brief cameo last night, i.m thinking a league cup should be the height of his ambitions at the moment.
I expected us to play more a 4-3-3 formation, to make it harder to get at our defence, after our problems conceding goals home and away in Europe last season. But we stuck with the shape that saw us exposed by the might of Basel last season and once again didn't look entirely convincing.
I suppose Fergie had to use this game to give Evans a full ninety minutes, but it did mean the back four was different yet again. Whoever plays their at the moment, we don't look as solid as you'd like us to look or as solid as you have to be to have any chance of winning this trophy.
We were poor going forward last night as well, we had chances, though not as many as you'd hope for. The main problem seemed to be both wide men having an off night, not that suprising from Nani, i suppose, but if anything Valencia was even more off colour last night. How often is his crossing as wayward as it was last night. Kagawa faded completely out of the game after a bright opening and Van Persie hasn't really knitted into our pattern of play yet, even after his hatrick as Southampton. The service was poor admittedly, no one seems sure when to pass to him or read his runs, hopefully it will come, Sunday would be nice.
I'm not sure how Hernandez managed to not cap his brief appearance as a substitute without a goal or how we managed to miss a third consecutive penalty. We've been very fortunate that none of those misses have cost us, it would be nice to get it sorted before that happens. Anyway, as i said, win on Sunday and last night will be long forgotten.
I'd forgotten this track, not bad
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