Attack part 1

I'll include our wide men in this part of my look back, though perhaps they could have had their own section, but that would have been so negative i couldn't be bothered doing it like that. The other reason I've included them as part of the attack is for those games, Europe and generally the games against City and Chelsea where we have played some kind of 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1.
Obviously it was all change with the arrival of RobinVan Perise from Arsenal, and from what we saw of Rooney in pre-season and then that horrific first game at Goodison, thank fuck for that. I'll own up to not really getting our move for the Dutchman, attack wasn't really a problem for United last season. Most of our problems had been injuries to defenders and a lack of a partner to Carrick until Scholes came out or retirment.
But as usual Fergie proved us wrong, i know Mancini thought the difference between United and City was Van Perise's signature for us, it wasn't just that, but it was a hell of a big part of it. The irony of course being that Rooney had supposedly wanted to leave because the owners weren't showing the ambition with signings that he wanted, when we did, it was Rooney whose place in the team was affected the most.
As to the wide men, that was probably the least influential we have been on the wings since the 2004-2006 drop in quality we suffered with the likes of Bellion, Kleberson and a young Ronaldo learning consistency. We didn't really have one of our wide man give us a half decent season. Although it's definitely not Welbeck's best or favoured position, he was usually as effective out there as any of Valencia, Nani or Young. It will be interesting to see how Moyes approaches this, as far as i can see, he did tend to go with two wide men at Everton, though not necessarily two out and out wingers.

Van Persie - A revelation, at first it was mainly the goals he brought to the team, by around Christmas it was also all round team play. He had a blip, unfortunately at a pretty important part of the season, he wasn't at his best, in either of the games against Real, but he eventually came back Strong. A candidate for player of the season, all in all we couldn't have asked for more from his first season at the club. In fact as the season went on he looked more and more like a leader on the pitch and you can't have enough of them for me.

Wayne Rooney - His omission from the team for the return leg against Real Madrd shocked me, as it did for almost everybody else. But looking back, i can't really see why we should have been shocked. In Madrd he had hardly figured as an attacking force, where as Danny Welbeck certainly had, and Welbeck had done the defensive part of the job excellently as well. On the basis of Rooney's form up to that point of the season, was there any reason to expect Rooney to give the kind of performance we got from Welbeck that night.
Never mind that first game at Goodison, you could see how out of shape he was in the pre-season fixtures. There is just no excuse for a professional to be that out of shape, and the best paid player of the club to boot. I'm not one for thinking players shouldn't let their hair down, but come on, fucking hell, that was taking the piss.
The injury came at a good time, allowing him to achieve a proper level of fitness before his re-appearance. He played reasonably well at times from there on in, though could still have games like Swansea away, where he was comically bad. And there's an important point, for a supposedly top player, when he is bad, he can be fucking awful. Whoever saw Zidane, Scholes, Messi when they couldn't do a thing right. By the end of the season he was being dropped into central midfield, and to be honest when Fergie suggested Rooney had told him wanted to leave the club, it wasn't a total surprise.
Fergie has been reported as telling the board that this would be the optimum time to sell the ex Everton man, we'd get as much as we will ever get for him if we release him now. And i suspect Fergie thinks he is a player who has already peaked and will not get any better.
It's telling that Rooney's camp are now trying to spin something different almost every day as the offers don't flood in him for him. I'm with Fergie on this and for the reasons listed above, add to that, the fact that his departure could liberate Kagawa and Welbeck into a more central role and I'll admit I'll be disappointed if he is still here come May. Though i suspect, given the lack of offers, he'll probably end up staying.

Danny Welback - A strange season really, his goal scoring record has been held against him as an example that he is no natural goal scorer. I'm sorry i don't really buy that, was anybody saying that last season.
He has suffered for playing out wide, more often that not doing a job for the team, and due to the lack of chances out there, started to snatch at them when they did come. I still see a top class central striker in him, but he needs to play there more often. His fast feet and pace against Real Madrid home and away, had Real worried to death, the way he always turns up for the big games, think of his performance against Liverpool at home,means i still see him as the future. The departure of Rooney would help to bring him on no end in my opinion.

Javier Hernandez - He probably didn't play as much as he would have liked, but he still chipped in with his ratio of goals. Three seasons into his United career, it seems to me that he'll never be as good as a United forward should really be outside the box, but as an out and out goalscorer he is good as there is at the club.
There was talk of him leaving, that's since died down, I'd love him to stay, but wish he could improve his game outside the box, what a player we would then have on our hands.

Shinji Kagawa - He has gone on record this week, stating that he was disappointed with his first season at the club. It's true he didn't set the premier league alight as some of us had hoped and i stupidly predicted.
The early injury didn't help, but he had shown signs that could adapt to the rigours of English football occasionally. As the season went on, he did improve and in getting a hatrick and delivering a superb performance at West Ham, gave the kind of signs that his second season could well start to deliver the kind of performances he gave at Dortmund. He would be another player who would benefit from Rooney's departure to my mind. His recent performance for Japan against Italy was the kind of display we'd love to see at Old Trafford.

Midfield

This column will take a look at every reds favourite bugbear, the midfield.

First off, i don't accept that out central midfield is that much worse than our main rivals. With almost no exception our rivals all play some kind of variation of 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, in other words none of them play regularly, if at all, with wingers, and most flood the middle of the park. So we when we play the big games we are never going to dominate the centre of the park.
Plenty have remarked on our poor record against the top sides over the last couple of months of the season. But that was after getting knocked out of the champions league. And whilst i don't think that should have deflated the squad as much as did, there's no getting away from it, it did. But what about our record in the big games, before that, wins at Chelsea, City, Liverpool and a respectable draw away to Tottenham. The defeats at home to City and Chelsea, were strange empty games, they shouldn't have been, but they were
I suppose it boils down whether you want to try and dominate games, even if that can mean midfield stalemate's, or your content with less possession but see more excitement when we have the ball attacking with width.
During the treble season, especially in Europe, there were loads of times, even at Old trafford, when our opposition would have loads of possession, but we would be miles more dangerous than them,going forward when we had the ball. Of course the period 2006-09 was played with three in the middle, but that was as much to accommodate Ronaldo, leaving him free to do his own thing. Football can be exciting with three in central midfield, but it's not really the United way.
The Chelsea league game at Stamford bridge was a perfect example of that. We started the game on fire and destroyed them on the flanks to go two up, before they forced their way back into the game.
It has happened every time we play City, they see most of the ball, but if we are on our game, we look dangerous every time we go forward. We win some, we lose some, but nobody has really got the measure of us as i see it.
The puzzle to me this season, is how the hell we won the title by so many points when we didn't have one wide man who had, even a half decent season. A naturally left footed wide man would be up there with central midfield recruitment for me this summer. But other than Gareth Bale where are they.
What i would readily concede, is a lack of depth in the midfield department of the squad. Were Carrick to spend a couple of months on the sidelines we would be struggling. I would be looking to bring in one deep lying, defensively minded partner or alternative to Carrick. With Nick Powell and Adnan Januzaj fighting to force their way into the first team squad and Kagawa hopefully better integrated into United's style of play and the rigours of English football, i don't think we are that desperate for a Fabregas.

Carrick - I've always been a fan, so the only surprise is why has it took this long for his true worth to appreciated amongst United fans, never mind the nations press. To me it's criminal that he hasn't been one of the first names on an England manager's team sheet, these past few seasons.
Admittedly he had a big slump in form a couple of seasons ago, but he's back to the kind of form that we saw from him in his first couple of seasons at the club, when he was quietly excellent at the side of Paul Scholes. If we had a player of comparable quality consistently at his side at the heart of the midfield, we would be some team.

Tom Cleverley - But of course Scholes has finally retired, Giggs is forty next season and can't play week in week out. Which leaves Tom Cleverley. It has to be said, that after the disappointment of his first injury ravaged season at the club, I was expecting big things from the number 23. And disappointingly he didn't really impress, in fact once Real Madrid knocked us out of the champions league Fergie rarely used him. He failed to influence games enough and we find yet another central midfield who doesn't seem to be last the ninety minutes out.
That surprised me, because when i had seen him play for Watford, he seemed to be a box to box, run all day kind of player, remember his second half charity shield display against City. I don't know whether i saw what i wanted to see, or whether last seasons injuries have affected him. It's a big season for every United player next year with a new manager, but i feel it's a really big one for Cleverley.

Darren Fletcher -  I was sceptical as to what we could expect from the Scotsman after his illness problems and wasn't to surprised to see his season cut short. Nobody liked to say it, but when he did play during the earlier part of the season, he was nowhere near the player that we so sadly missed against Barca at Rome.
I 'd love to see that Darren Fletcher re-appear at some stage next season, but i really can't see it happening.

Anderson - What's the point of analysing his season, injured often, still unable to last ninety minutes and still not showing any signs of being anywhere near what it takes to be a Manchester United player. This summer must surely be the end of his time at the club, however popular he is in the dressing room.

Nick Powell - He didn't play that often during the first part of the season, but when he did, he showed the potential that saw Fergie rate him so highly. I'm not sure he's really an out and out central midfield player though. I was particularly happy with his display in Istanbul, it may not have meant anything to United, but it did to the Turks and the home crowd and he gave a very good performance, before fading during the second half.

Ryan Giggs - I'll class him as central midfield, even though he played his share of games out wide and it's fair to say when he did, he was as good as our younger regular wide men. The Real Madrid home tie summed him up, how the hell did a thirty nine year old put in a performance as good as that.
I still wonder some times what kind of career he would have had if he had played his whole career more centrally as others earlier in his career thought he was destined to do. It may have been even better.
We shouldn't forget during the first half of the season, when he didn't seem to play as regularly, a few, me included, wondered whether father time was at last catching up on that body of his. So his renaissance was glorious to behold. It was a warning that nest season may indeed the last of the gang to die.

Paul Scholes - Apart from a glorious second half during the failed come back at home to Tottenham where he completely dictated the game as he did at his peak, it wasn't really the season he would have wanted to bow out in. There were rumours he had retired around the new year as his reappearance from injury seemed to be forever on the horizon. But he came back to give us a couple of cameo's that didn't really to do anything other than suggest he had got his timing spot on.


Music

Autechre - Exai: A pretty good, if overly long set of songs from Rochdale's finest, not easy listening obviously, but rewarding eventually.

Gareth Williams & Mary Currie - Flaming Tunes: I saw this reviewed on Quietus, i'd never really heard of Gareth Williams or his previous band This Heat, but i really got into this, hard to categorise as other than experimental, it's still the kind of album you could put on repeat.

Matthew E. White - Big Inner: Another cracking album, Americana, country soul, it's got a pretty southern feel, religion and all. The religion leaves me cold, but the music totally hits the spot.

Palma Violets - 180: More workday fare from one of the latest UK indie wanna be's, it has it's moments, definitely worth a listen.

Robyn Hitchcock - Love from London: More of a rock feel to this new album from the singer songwriter than i have heard on the couple of his earlier albums that i've listened to. Whatever vibe he can write a tune, and there's more than the odd cracker on this.

Seasick Steve - Hubcap music: Possibly his best album, still not sure. The blues tracks are good, though not stand out, but the country ish tinged tracks really stand out. I love the southern soul tinged Coast is clear.

Wayne Shorter quartet - Without a net: Previously i've mostly listened to his mid 60's phase which i absolutely love. I appreciate this, it gets almost classical/avant garde, but it doesn't hit the spot as that earlier phase does. I suppose i should have advanved into his fusion phase first. The 23 minute Pegasus is easily the stand out, at times reminding me of Aaron Copland style mid 20th century American classical music.