Well that was a let down, Chelsea came to stifle and tactically they succeeded. But they were aided and abetted by a poor United showing and a pretty cautious approach from Moyes on his Old trafford debut. He seemed as happy with the point as Morinho, the substitutions were pretty conservative and he never looked to change our shape. For the neutral it must have been a real let down.
I was disappointed with the team selected, or should i say, disappointed that he picked Rooney, which was surely political as much as for footballing reasons. The fans response to him was unbelievable really, i'm not one for booing your own players, but to cheer somebody who has tried to leave the club twice now, i don't understand.
This mornings press have him down as one of the better players on the night, which tells you all you need to know about the quality of the match. He had a decent game and he put a shift in defensively, but was it special, was it the kind of performance to get excited about. In naming him, Welbeck was relegated to the left hand side and Rooney behind Van Persie, unlike last week Welbeck basically stayed on the left, all but for a brief spell in the second half when he missed the best chance of the match. To me for all Rooney's football intelligence, we missed Welbeck's pace and movement. Chelsea's back four weren't tested to the extent they should have been.
Of course with Chelsea's tactics of packing the midfield, United needed the wide men to produce, and with Welbeck on the left, that put the onus on Valencia. Sad to say he has become a shell of the player that terrorized Ashley Cole a couple of seasons back. Changing numbers hasn't done anything for his confidence. I don't know how long we can keep playing him in a bid to refind his mojo, he has the air of a man who has seen better days. It said everything when Ashley Young came on and looked far more dangerous, that's Young, the man who never goes past his man on the outside.
In fact the right hand side altogether was a big let down last night, for the second game in a row, Phil Jones had a bit of a stinker. Well, going forward at least, he was fairly solid at the back, but his crossing in the first half was woeful. I wondered whether Fabio would get the call last night, if Jones plays on Sunday and is as poor then the Da Silva twin must surely get the call. On the other side Evra had his second successive excellent game. All this talk of Baines has really shook him up, he is almost back to his very best form. I don't really think there's any point in spending the kind of money being spoken about for Baines, when we've got Evra in that kind of form and Fabio to back him up, especially given Baines age.
Looking at the team last night, and looking at our squad, I stll think it would be nuts to let Januzaj go out on loan. There wasn't enough creativity in that side last night as their hasn't been for a while now, and yet we have a kid there, with it in bagfuls.
A frustrating night all in all, to my mind Chelsea were there for the taking last night, for all that tactically they succeeded, they didn't produce much in the way of good football. But they will be happy with the point, happier than we should be about it, though i fear we were just as happy as them.
I was disappointed with the team selected, or should i say, disappointed that he picked Rooney, which was surely political as much as for footballing reasons. The fans response to him was unbelievable really, i'm not one for booing your own players, but to cheer somebody who has tried to leave the club twice now, i don't understand.
This mornings press have him down as one of the better players on the night, which tells you all you need to know about the quality of the match. He had a decent game and he put a shift in defensively, but was it special, was it the kind of performance to get excited about. In naming him, Welbeck was relegated to the left hand side and Rooney behind Van Persie, unlike last week Welbeck basically stayed on the left, all but for a brief spell in the second half when he missed the best chance of the match. To me for all Rooney's football intelligence, we missed Welbeck's pace and movement. Chelsea's back four weren't tested to the extent they should have been.
Of course with Chelsea's tactics of packing the midfield, United needed the wide men to produce, and with Welbeck on the left, that put the onus on Valencia. Sad to say he has become a shell of the player that terrorized Ashley Cole a couple of seasons back. Changing numbers hasn't done anything for his confidence. I don't know how long we can keep playing him in a bid to refind his mojo, he has the air of a man who has seen better days. It said everything when Ashley Young came on and looked far more dangerous, that's Young, the man who never goes past his man on the outside.
In fact the right hand side altogether was a big let down last night, for the second game in a row, Phil Jones had a bit of a stinker. Well, going forward at least, he was fairly solid at the back, but his crossing in the first half was woeful. I wondered whether Fabio would get the call last night, if Jones plays on Sunday and is as poor then the Da Silva twin must surely get the call. On the other side Evra had his second successive excellent game. All this talk of Baines has really shook him up, he is almost back to his very best form. I don't really think there's any point in spending the kind of money being spoken about for Baines, when we've got Evra in that kind of form and Fabio to back him up, especially given Baines age.
Looking at the team last night, and looking at our squad, I stll think it would be nuts to let Januzaj go out on loan. There wasn't enough creativity in that side last night as their hasn't been for a while now, and yet we have a kid there, with it in bagfuls.
A frustrating night all in all, to my mind Chelsea were there for the taking last night, for all that tactically they succeeded, they didn't produce much in the way of good football. But they will be happy with the point, happier than we should be about it, though i fear we were just as happy as them.
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