Monday, January 21, 2013

Tottenham 1-1 Manchester United

I would have took a point before the game, so i can't be too disappointed with the result. Of course conceding in the dying minutes is a killer, but it's what we do regularly, at least it only happens very occasionally to us. The big disappointment was that i thought we'd done enough, though Spurs had created chances, and some good ones at that, they looked to have shot their bolt, before that last minute fuck up.
De Gea has to cop the blame for their goal, it was a poor punch, the rest of his game shouldn't be forgotten though, he made some smart saves. Fergie sounds to me as if he is running out of patience with the Spaniard, if so, why on earth did he buy a young goalie still learning his trade to replace Van Der Sar. I was amazed that Fergie went for such a young keeper and one that didn't speak much English. We went through some goalie's after Schmiechel left before getting the right man in Van Der Sar. If United are not going to keep faith in De Gea, i fear, we may be in for a similar situation.
The surprise selection had to be Jones in midfield, brought in to protect Ferdinand and Vidic, i thought as much as to protect Rafael. To be fair to him, he had a good game, doing the job he was put in for. United's main problem was our inability to find the right final pass in the second half. As much as Tottenham had the better of the second period, there were times that United had opportunities to hurt them on the break, that we passed up. Of course if that penalty had been given, as it should have been, it wouldn't have mattered.
Carrick played well again, ably assisted by Jones and Cleverley, i thought Kagawa started well only to fade out of things again. I'm not sure the removal of Cleverley helped our cause in the latter stages as we seemed to get stuck in our own half, his movement was missed. Once more Welbeck put a big shift in, and one of the more pleasing aspects of recent games has been how our youngsters have played well in different positions, often in the same game. It's great to have that kind of flexibility and a positive that they are happy to put the team first.
We're still in a great position, five points clear at the top is not to be sniffed at. And with only Arsenal left to visit, most of our hard away games are now out of the way. There was always going to be a blip or two along the way, that's if you can call a point away at White hart lane a blip.

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