I can't say anything other than i was gutted by yesterday, i was pretty confident, helped by their defeat on Saturday at Southampton, if not our lacklustre display at Sunderland. But once the game passed the half hour mark, that confidence slowly evaporated. It's amazing, alarming even, how our form has completely slumped since the champions league elimation. Regardless of yesterday being the second game in three days, we've lacked any kind of cutting edge or ability to up a gear in all our games since Real Madrid did for us. I can only look at it and wonder what would have happened if we had got through, playing Barca in our current form, doesn't bare thinking about.
As usual most will point the finger at our midfield, but whilst it's true far too much reliance is being put on Carrick at the moment, to me the problems are out wide. We seem to have wandered back to that early part of the season where we have absolutely no threat coming down either left or right. I didn't understand Fergie's decision to play Cleverley on the left, when Giggs was on the bench and hadn't played for a couple of weeks and would seemingly have been fresh. The only explanation for his omission van be, Fergie has him in his plans for next Monday. If that's so, that is disappointing, because we missed him badly yesterday, neither Cleverley or Nani contributed much yesterady. For me the chance to avenge that semi final defeat of a couple of years ago was the last big challenge of the season, with the league virtually done and dusted.
I suppose Cleverley has more of an excuse than Nani, for his ineffective display, playing out of position on the left, though his game has deteriorated the longer the season has gone on. Maybe he is feeling his first full season at the top level, one thing seems to be sure, he needs to work on his endurance levels and a summer on the weights, maybe an idea. As to Nani, where do you start, right from his first few touches of the match, you could guess it was going to be one of those days from him. He can be top class, as against Real, and yet he can be so bad, as he was yesterday, that it's almost like playing with ten men. It's looked like he was on his way in the summer, anyway, but after that, i can't see United having second thoughts and trying to hang onto him.
I actually don't think central midfield was too bad yesterday, we controlled the game for most of the first half. It was only when Carrick's energy levels understandably dropped in the second half, along with the returning Jones legs fading going that Chelsea got into the game. The lack of input into the game from the flanks put all the onus on our central players. Even then Chelsea didn't control the game at any stage.
But they got the all important goal, and once that went in you were just hoping for a response from United, and sadly, that never really came. Saying that, we still managed to create three great chances, Hernandez's header that produced a fantastic save from Cech, and Van Persie's chances when he came on. I'm still not sure how he missed that side footer. When that went over the bar, i knew that it wasn't going to be our day. The header he missed and header he put over the bar just compounded the feeling.
I don't really think Fergie got his substitutions right at all either, the first substitution had to be bring Giggs on, for whoever, we needed that bit of class further up the field from Carrick. Van Perise was a no brainer, even if he didn't come off on the day, but after that i would have brought on Kagawa before Young. For his ability to keep the ball, when we needed to build up some pressure during those last ten minutes and his ability to score a goal. Young didn't really affect the game at all, of course maybe it wasn't to be anyway, but i don't think our changes helped.
It wasn't total doom, i thought Welbeck was superb in the first half, trouble was he was almost playing Chelsea on his own up front. He faded out to an extent, in the second half, but once they got the goal, they defended in numbers. Jones gave another excellent performance in the middle of the park, it really would be like buying a new player if we could get an injury free season from him next season, fingers crossed. Carrick was the pick of either midfield for the first 45 minutes, but the fact he had to play the ninety minutes at Sunderland told as the game went on. The defence didn't really do much wrong, it took a great goal to breach our defence and break the deadlock. We opened up their backline, but didn't put the ball in the net.
So that's that, no treble, no double, just a twentieth league title, how spolied we are, i would gladly have took that as the season got under way at Goodison in August. But the season had once promised so much more, the feeling must be, that whilst our squad is strong, it's not quite strong enough. The comings and goings this summer will be vital if we are to turn that one title into a more next season, or more so to me, whether we can get back to a champions league final. I'll leave those changes to another day.
As usual most will point the finger at our midfield, but whilst it's true far too much reliance is being put on Carrick at the moment, to me the problems are out wide. We seem to have wandered back to that early part of the season where we have absolutely no threat coming down either left or right. I didn't understand Fergie's decision to play Cleverley on the left, when Giggs was on the bench and hadn't played for a couple of weeks and would seemingly have been fresh. The only explanation for his omission van be, Fergie has him in his plans for next Monday. If that's so, that is disappointing, because we missed him badly yesterday, neither Cleverley or Nani contributed much yesterady. For me the chance to avenge that semi final defeat of a couple of years ago was the last big challenge of the season, with the league virtually done and dusted.
I suppose Cleverley has more of an excuse than Nani, for his ineffective display, playing out of position on the left, though his game has deteriorated the longer the season has gone on. Maybe he is feeling his first full season at the top level, one thing seems to be sure, he needs to work on his endurance levels and a summer on the weights, maybe an idea. As to Nani, where do you start, right from his first few touches of the match, you could guess it was going to be one of those days from him. He can be top class, as against Real, and yet he can be so bad, as he was yesterday, that it's almost like playing with ten men. It's looked like he was on his way in the summer, anyway, but after that, i can't see United having second thoughts and trying to hang onto him.
I actually don't think central midfield was too bad yesterday, we controlled the game for most of the first half. It was only when Carrick's energy levels understandably dropped in the second half, along with the returning Jones legs fading going that Chelsea got into the game. The lack of input into the game from the flanks put all the onus on our central players. Even then Chelsea didn't control the game at any stage.
But they got the all important goal, and once that went in you were just hoping for a response from United, and sadly, that never really came. Saying that, we still managed to create three great chances, Hernandez's header that produced a fantastic save from Cech, and Van Persie's chances when he came on. I'm still not sure how he missed that side footer. When that went over the bar, i knew that it wasn't going to be our day. The header he missed and header he put over the bar just compounded the feeling.
I don't really think Fergie got his substitutions right at all either, the first substitution had to be bring Giggs on, for whoever, we needed that bit of class further up the field from Carrick. Van Perise was a no brainer, even if he didn't come off on the day, but after that i would have brought on Kagawa before Young. For his ability to keep the ball, when we needed to build up some pressure during those last ten minutes and his ability to score a goal. Young didn't really affect the game at all, of course maybe it wasn't to be anyway, but i don't think our changes helped.
It wasn't total doom, i thought Welbeck was superb in the first half, trouble was he was almost playing Chelsea on his own up front. He faded out to an extent, in the second half, but once they got the goal, they defended in numbers. Jones gave another excellent performance in the middle of the park, it really would be like buying a new player if we could get an injury free season from him next season, fingers crossed. Carrick was the pick of either midfield for the first 45 minutes, but the fact he had to play the ninety minutes at Sunderland told as the game went on. The defence didn't really do much wrong, it took a great goal to breach our defence and break the deadlock. We opened up their backline, but didn't put the ball in the net.
So that's that, no treble, no double, just a twentieth league title, how spolied we are, i would gladly have took that as the season got under way at Goodison in August. But the season had once promised so much more, the feeling must be, that whilst our squad is strong, it's not quite strong enough. The comings and goings this summer will be vital if we are to turn that one title into a more next season, or more so to me, whether we can get back to a champions league final. I'll leave those changes to another day.
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