Manchester United 4-0 Norwich City

A weird bit of a mish mash of a team, stronger than it might have been, given a better start to the season completed what in other seasons would have been a routine victory. Of course given our less than stellar season so far, it was a very welcome victory.
Vidic and Ferdinand were re-united at the heart of the defence, with Rafael at right back and Buttner at left back. I felt sorry for Fabio, I thought he deserved a start in either of the full back positions. Buttner didn't have a bad game, it was a lovely cross for the second goal, but Fabio is a far better player. It looks as if Moyes thinks a left back should be left footed, I can't think of any other reason Buttner would seem to be second choice to Evra in front of the other Da Silva twin. I suppose that's a fair enough opinion to hold, though Denis Irwin wasn't that bad a left back was he.
I hadn't expected both Rio and Vidic to start, I thought one might start tonight and one on Saturday. Neither really looks anything like the player of old, Ferdinand in particular looks like the end is nigh for his United career. Still on the night it didn't really matter as the visitors made as many changes as United, no doubt prioritizing premier league survival ahead of possible Wembley glory. Given those circumstances, I thought they brought a pretty healthy following with them. Thankfully from our perspective, it wasn't to be much of a night for them.
I was glad to see Januzaj given a free role behind Hernandez, that will be his position eventually, so it makes sense to give him opportunities there when the chance arises. He didn't let us down, giving another masterclass, he really is the business. It was a piece of magic from the number 44 that led to tthe first goal. He mesmerized his defender in the penalty box, who brought him down, rather clumsily. It may have been on the soft side, but it was definite penalty from my seat. Hernandez made no mistake from the spot and any nerves there may have been were immediately eased.
United dominated the rest of the half but couldn't get a second goal, I thought Januzaj was going to get the second when he shimmied past two as if they weren't there, but his shot was well blocked in the area. Zaha was getting a go on the right hand side and he did alright on his first outing,he has talent, that's clear. What is obvious though, is that he has a lot of work to do on the defensive side of things, and to learn when to try tricks and when not. I'm not sure why he was took off near the end for Rooney, despite what Round said after the game, he wasn't tiring.
Ashley Young returned to the starting line up on the other flank and whilst doing nothing to really suggest he has a long term future at the club, fared far better than before his form induced spell on the sidelines.
Jones partnered Cleverley in the middle of the park and once more did a fair job, though again the poor opposition has to be taken into account. The two late goals put the gloss on a efficient performance as we now look to the next round and to see if we get another home draw, which no doubt Moyes and the sqquad would love, the fans, probably less so.

Manchester United 3-2 Stoke City

Well with twenty minutes to go, I feared the worst, we were playing as badly as we had all season. But fair play to Moyes, he went for it with those substitutions, and we got the rewards, so we left the ground feeling as good as we have so far this season.
Yet what went before those last fifteen to twenty minutes can't really be forgotten, it was dire. The defending which had showed signs of improving was poor to calamatous. The centre of the park was like a giant hole. Carrick's best game of the season so far was for England. He wasn't poor, but he certainly isn't living up to the standards he has set himself. Alongside him, Cleverley gave another of those performances, where you just think, no, he's not really United class. He just doesn't seem to impose himself enough in any facet of the game. The way that their Austrian international, who was excellent by the way, went past him down our right hand side for their first goal summed his ineffectiveness up.
Of course I don't entirely blame our midfield two, with our rigid tactics of 4-4-2, with neither Rooney or Van Persie dropping into the hole regularly, they're usually outnumbered. The first twenty minutes of the second half saw us playing in such rigid straight lines, it was unbelievable. It was only with the introduction of Januzaj that things changed. His ability to make things happen unsettled the Stoke rearguard consistently for the first time in the match. As much as I think the sun shines out of Januzaj's arse, I would have given him the man of the match, he affected the game more than the rest of our big guns put together, we shouldn't have to rely on him against the like of Stoke and Sunderland. 
Nani started well, only to make a couple of mistakes, which saw him get some stick of the crowd, hitting his confidence to the point where he couldn't put a foot right for most of the second half. The booing he received when he was hooked for Januzaj, was a fucking disgrace, but not totally surprising, our present match going fan base is no better, in fact it's probably worse now than most of the wankers we used to take the piss out of.
Kagawa had a quiet game after our excitement at his improved showing in midweek, but again, it wasn't much of a surprise, he's never going to excel playing on the left in such a stifling role. We certainly aren't getting the best out of any of our players at the moment for me.
I know Rooney has shown improved of late, though nowhere near the level some are claiming, but I still feel the clubs determination to indulge him is a long term mistake. One he is never going to be the player he was, never mind the player we thought he would become when we bought him. Two the club will look desperate and foolish if, as I suspect, he doesn't sign a new contract and pushes for an exit again next summer.
And, oh the irony, when Moyes made his match changing substitutions, it involved shifting Rooney back in the centre of the park, the centre of the park he's complained about. That and Van Persie moving behind Hernandez, along side bringing Januzaj on, saw us look like a really potent attacking force for the first time in the match.
So yes it was a reminder of what United are all about, never say die comebacks, but I'm not sure it will be the turning point some are hoping that it may turn out to be. Turning to tomorrow's night league cup tie, of course a win would be much needed, but i would like to see a couple of our youngsters get a look in, even if it's only coming on the bench. I'm not particularly hopeful it'll happen I'm afraid

Manchester United 1-0 Real Sociedad

A win, three points, a decent performance, but I don't think I'll be getting too carried away with things. Of course the result should mean that that if we don't completely fall apart during those last three games of the group, we'll be in the pot for the last sixteen. Given our league position and form, I think Moyes really needs that sorting out as quickly as possible.
I expected far more from our Spanish opponents, they really were pretty poor, their position in the table doesn't lie. Right from the off, they looked dodgy at the back and didn't show anything special going forward.
Rooney started the game as though he was determined to prove the Fergie book comments wrong. He actually went past two men during the setting up of the first goal. One of Fergie's and my criticism's of his form over the last couple of seasons has been his inability to take players on and beat them. He did it last night, against poor opposition though, if he can do that against the better teams I'll eat my words, I don't expect to have to. He had a good game last night, but was he really all that. He still got dispossessed too easily at times and disappeared from the game during the latter stages of the game, until Hernandez went off and he miraculously sprang to life again. Ian Ladyman of the Mail spoke of him as one of our few world class players this morning who all the top teams in Europe would like to have. Why weren't they beating the doors down to get him this summer then?
The big plus of the night was the display of Kagawa, we all know he is good enough for United, it's just giving him the chance to prove it. He had a reasonable game on the left, but he really came alive when he moved into the number ten slot behind Rooney when Hernandez came off. He epitomised everything I want to see from that position, plenty of movement, an ability to beat a man, vision and the ability to get into goalscoring opportunities. Of course, he should have done better with the chance the chance that fell in his lap. But that last ten minutes were a hopeful sign, we started to play at a decent pace, instead of the ponderous stuff we have had to get used since Ronaldo left.
It wasn't all positives, Hernandez never got into the game. We've seen it before of course, if he doesn't get any service in the box, the rest of his outfield game just isn't good enough to compensate. Of course it can be argued that he needs a run of games, but that wouldn't really change anything, he's been hear long enough for us to know his game. I suspect a few will leave next summer and wouldn't be at all surprised if he was one of them.
There have been a couple of rumoured reports of Valencia being on the exit plane out of OT next summer. I don't know what to make of them, to be honest. He didn't have a bad game last night, but the Valencia of his first two years at the club seems to firmly in the past. It will be midfield and out wide that form the crux of that exit, so may be there will turn out to be something to those transfer rumours.
I was surprised and pleased that Evans and Jones continued their partnership at centre half and thought they did reasonably well again. The wobbly moments, usually came when the central midfield disappeared in front of them. With all the furore in France over Evra's interview, i thought he may have been rested last night. Given his performance, it might have been a good idea, it wasn't one of his better nights.
So to Saturday and Stoke at home, where we really do need to kick start our league campaign. No idea what team we'll see, but expect to see Januzaj start and would love to see Kagawa start alongside him. 

Manchester United 1-1 Southampton

This season seems to be one step forward and then another one back. The morning started with the news at lot of us wanted to hear that Januzaj had signed a new long term contract. So most reds walked to the stadium with a spring in their step, hoping we could string two wins together for the first time this season.
Having said all that, given our form, and even though we had won up at Sunderland, the actual performance hadn't really been anything to write home about other than Januzaj's superb staring debut, I don't think there would have been too many reds who were over confident ahead of the game. Add to that Southampton's fine start to the season and excellent defensive record, the three points they took at Anfield and we all knew United would to have to be near their best.
Well United were never really at their best, Southampton put in a performance the equal of the last time they visited Old trafford when their pressing game caused us all sorts of problems and yet we had enough chances to have took the three points.
It was a strange games in some respects, because even though United's performance faltered the longer the second half went on, until the last ten minutes the opposition hardly threatened De Gea's goal. What was very apparent though, was how they grew stronger towards that last ten minutes, whilst United seemed to wilt. Whilst some of that was down to tactics and questionable substitutions, tha amount of times that teams have seemed stronger, fitter and faster than United over the last couple of seasons is starting to become too regular an occurence. This was an issue before Moyes took over, so whatever the merits, or not, as the case maybe, of Moyes more strenuous training regime, it's a problem that needs a solution.
Once more Januzaj was a sining light in the gloom of our poor early season form. He provided three passes during that first half that showed there will be life after Paul Scholes after all. I thought Nani had a reasonable game on the other flank, he created a couple of great chances during the first half, Rooney should have scored from one of his pull backs.
The central area of the park, once again was a problem. I don't really see how we can go on playing two out and out centre forwards, which is what we seem to be doing. There wasn't much evidence of Rooney dropping into the hole, especially during the first half. What was worse, when he did drop back, he was as much of a problem for our defence as for them. He almost set them up for two goals for Southampton with lax passing and the longer the game went the worse his game went. Broken record time, but he's nowhere near the player he was, whatever propoganda United and the media try to give out.
Up front, Van Persie got his goal and hit the woodwork with a fine header, but his body language looked shit. Moyes is on record as saying he's trying to forge a partnership between Van Persie and Rooney. Well it aint working at the moment, in any shape or form. It's obvious they both want to be the main man, the number nine, well on form there isn't much to choose between them, but we know, I think, Van Persie will be here next season, can we say that about Rooney. Given all that, Moyes, it seems to me, is going to have a big decsion to make, a possible headache, that he and United's board gave themselves when they insisted Rooney stay at the club in the summer.
Tactically, Moyes substitutions were very iffy, bringing Giggs on was fair enough, but for Nani, surely it should have been for either Fellaini or Rooney. Personally I would have preferred to have seen Kagawa come on for Rooney, playing deeper to try and improve our possession. As for Fellaini, he just looks absolutely lost, he doesn't seem to have anything in his locker at all. I'm on record as saying I didn't fancy him, never particularly rating him when he was at Everton, but i never imagined he was as poor as we have seen so far at United. I don't know whether it's his injury that's impeding him, he's overawed playing with better players or whether that is his actual level. Whichever it is Moyes needs him to come good, if the gimps are ever going to trust him with those scarce transfer funds.
The substitution that still has me scratching my head was Smalling for Rooney. The central defensive partnership between Jones and Evans at centre half was the best we have seen so far this season. The longer the game went, the stronger Jones, in particular, became. So for Moyes, so late in the game, to break them up and push Jones into central midfield, lost me I'm afraid. Of course that meant the marking for that fateful corner would have been all altered, which can't have helped during the muddle that led to their equaliser.
I suppose some will think it's just not good enough to be failing to be Southampton's and West Brom's of this world at Old trafford. But they have both given the lie to the theory that the premier league isn't as strong as the media hype would have you believe. I would have gone along with that over the last few seasons, but both West Brom and Southampton had players of a pretty high standard and both outfits played as teams. Saying that, of course you can't only be taking only home one point against them if you have any aspirations to reataining the title. It's too early to say that's impossible yet, despite our league position and the amount of points we are behind Arsenal. But given our form and tactics I fear it won't be long before we can say it's impossible

Januzaj for St. George?

So the world cup qualification phase is over and England are through, I'm afraid I belong to the camp of reds that doesn't much care for the international team or international tournaments. That said, those last two matches, actually saw England produce two very watchable football, get two results and suggest that they may actually be evolving a recognisable style of football, that's exciting to watch to boot.
I have to admit I was a little dubious about the merits of Hodgson as a manager, no blame could be attached to him for the usual lethargic and uninspired football that was shown during the last Euro's in Poland and Ukraine, that was the squad he inherited. But for the majority of the world cup group stage, England had played some pretty uninspiring stuff and the team selection had, at times been fairly conservative.
But credit where it's due, for those last two games, he really went for it, selection wise and tactically. It was far from perfect and if Lewandowski had taken that first counter attacking chance, who knows how the game would have panned out. But the balance up front was very good, with the wide men giving both opposition teams a host of problems.I'll leave my thoughts on Rooney, i've been told, i'm not objective on the subject, i hate him too much, one thing i can't resist though, if he lights up the world cup in Brazil i will eat humble pie
Midfield and the back four are a different matter though, i can never understand how Carrick isn't one of the first names on the teamsheet, and he showed why that's excatly what he should be with his performance against Poland. Why he was took off with twenty minutes to go, was utterly baffling, even more so given Lampard's contribution once on the pitch.
Baines was excellent going forward, though not as solid as Cole at the back, i'd stick with Baines though. Despite Roy Keane apparently really rating Jagielka, i'm not so sure, i'm definitely no big fan of Cahill. Jones would be my centre back, but if he's not playing there fairly regularly for us, he won't get a sniff, i fear. The annoying thing for Jones will be that he should be playing there reasonably regularly.
The problem i see for England and for that matter most of the European teams, is how they will be able to produce an aggressive pace based game amidst the heat of Brazil. Even Spain will struggle, yes they keep possession, but to do that they press hard, will they be able to press that hard for 90 minutes, every three or four days for a month. I was pretty doubtful that Brazil would do much during the summer, even with home advantage, they're nowhere near the best eleven that country have ever produced, but having seen that mini tournament last season, they will be there or there abouts.

Anyway, thank fuck that's over, United on Saturday and who knows, januzaj's full home first team debut. With him being stuck back at the ranch, whilst others have been galivanting the continents, i wouldn't be at all surprised to see him start on Saturday.
Oh well back to international thoughts, some reds guffawed, when the chance of Januzaj playing for England was mentioned. All i'll say on the matter is, as long as Kosovo are denied international status, given his obvious lack of patriotic feeling for Belguim, nothing would surprise me less than him turning out in the white of England. Think of the commercial deals he would be able to command, turning out for United and England, let's face it he's going to be one of the best players in the world, they'll be throwing sponsorship deals at him. Depressing, but realistic i feel.



Music

Fick Buttons - Slow focus: Three albums in and they're still producing excellent driving techno that fans of noisy rock would probably be right at home with.

Martin Simpson - Vagrant Stanzas: This is his first album i have heard, i prseumed i would like his music, but was surprised by just how much i like it. It really is excellent stuff for anybody that likes the singer/songwriter stuff that leans towards folk.

Matias Aguayo - The vistor: It's surprising how many German based techno artists there are around, but one thing they seem to have in common is producing non generic progressive electronic music. This is pretty good, though there are a couple of iffy tracks to my mind.

The last skeptik - Thanks for trying: This is very good, experimental electronica, instrumental hip hop, very trippy, almost chilled out at others.

Ty Segall - Sleeper: The Californian based garage, psych, freak out guitarist turns it down, but it's not totally unplugged, he's not gone Americana, there's still an edge to the music. A qualified success, it doesn't hit the heights of his plugged in material.

Various artists - A rough guide to African disco: It's not really disco in the late 70's, 80's mode, but it's definitely foot tapping, funky booty shaking music, no filler at all and a couple of real killer tunes.


Vondelpark - Seabed: It took me a few listens to appreciate this, it's a bit of a slow burner, but the more you listen to the electro pop for want of a better description of their music, the better it gets.

Sunderland 1-2 Manchester United

Saturday could turn out to have been a day we'll look back on and say that was an important day for any number of reasons. Coming into the game, it was obvious to everybody we really needed the three points to get our season back on track as well as shut the press up for a couple of weeks at least.
Moyes made a couple of big calls, bringing in Januzaj, though for some of us, that wasn't really that big a call at all. The young Belgian, if that's still what we can call him, has looked ready for the move up since the pre-season tour. He has impressed with his two first team appearances as a substitute and on Monday playing for the reserves looked on a different planet to everybody else on the pitch, scoring a screamer to boot.
The bigger calls, given our indifferent defensive form was leaving Vidic at centre half after his midweek excertions in the Ukraine and giving Jones his first start in his favourite possition this season. I think it's fair to say that those calls were only a qualified success.
We started woefully, with Evra being turned far too easily after four minutes and Jones only managing to clear the cross to the feet of Vidic. In fairness to the big Serb, the ball came to him quickly, but he should still have done better than turn it straight into the path of Gardener who made no mistake with the gift presented to him. So in a must win game against the bottom placed team we were a goal down within five minutes, not the start we were looking for. That seemed to panic the team as our midfield and defence were harried into some poor defensive play and in attack we seemed to have no shape at all. It's hard to see Vidic doing back to back Wednesday to Saturday games after this.
As we ended our last game during the defeat to West Brom, the flank was where our threat seemed to come from.  I suppose after ages of absolutely nothing coming from the flanks, this is an encouraging sign. Our game seemed to rely on Nani and Januzaj to deliver brilliance off the cuff, with Van Persie and Rooney barely getting themselves into the game. Carrick and Cleverley struggling to control the middle of the park didn't produce much as an attacking force. Our best chances during a desperately disappointing first half display, came from the flanks. Januzaj went tantalizingly close with a right foot effort from the edge of the box and Nani had one long range effort and a volley in the box that he maybe should have done better with.
At the other end, we were as wobbly as we have been during any game this season, in fact it was painful to watch Vidic at times he was having such a hard time. Jones seemed to sink to his level at times and disastrously lost the ball just inside his own half, and though he made a superb saving tackle, against a better team, we'd probably have conceeded a second, possibly killer goal. Not long before half time De Gea, who was blameless for what went on in front of him, made an absolutely outstanding save, to keep us in the game.
Now time to wax lyrical about a possible season defining debut. Though he made mistakes and lost the ball at times when he tried too much, on his debut and at all of eighteen years of age, Januzaj was by far and away our best player on the pitch, and that was without the two goals. It's hard to see how he hasn't just ensured that he now becomes a very valued member of our first team squad. I don't expect him to play every game, but I'd be disappointed if wasn't at least on the bench for most games for now on. He is simply too good and too important for any other option.
What was embarrassing, for me anyway, was that during the second half, the teenager was head and shoulders above any other United player on the pitch. I wasn't particularly impressed by Carrick or Cleverley again, and further forward, Rooney was in and out of the game, being easily outshined by Januzaj, who i'm sure if he'd have moved into the middle would really have shown us just how mediocre Rooney's present form really is. More worrying, was Van Persie's form, he started the season on fire at Swansea, but since then, due to a combination off United's general lack of form and niggling injuries he seems to have lost his game a little. Still he managed to fashion two great chances, that should have seem him leave the north east with at least one goal.
It's an annoying time for an international break, when is it anything else, just as things potentially start to look up, we've got a fortnight before the next game. At least when we come back from the break, we can hopefully start to look at our future optimistically again. Since Ronaldo left we haven't really had a player who you know is going to get you out of your seat with excitement, Januzaj does that, and then some. I have had a feeling for a while that the next two to three seasons we will see more and more of our exciting youngsters replace some of the dead wood in our squad. I've a feeling that Saturday was the beginning of the end for Ashley Young and Anderson's career's at United to name just two.

Arctic Monkeys AM & other assorted doodles

Music

Arctic Monkey - AM: It's been heralded as a return to form, or even by a few critics as their best album yet. I'm not sure it's better than either of the first two albums, but it's definitely on a par. Not that I've not had time for the last couple of albums, they were both good, but didn't tend to linger in the memory.

Attic Lights - Super de luxe: Scottish indie bands second album is a bright and breezy guitar pop affair. They've been compared to Teenage Fanclub, I don't really see that much similarity myself. It's a decent listen, but not anywhere near the level of the Fannies.

Jah9 - New name: Excellent new West Indian singer/songwriter's 1st album blends reggae and soul to very good effect, consistently good and two or three real stand out tracks.

Son Volt - Honky tonk: I don't listen to very much country music, but i do like it from time to time. This is a pretty good alt country/Americana album, full of fiddles, acoustic guitar as well as more up tempo electric fare.

The National - Trouble will find me: These are extremely well regarded by some, the only album of their's I have tried was Boxer, which i thought was a six to seven out of ten type of album, but was not really as good as I expected. This album leads me to see why some really rate them, it's a really strong album with some really memorable tunes on it.

Thundercat - Apocalypse: Bass for hire Stephen Bruner returns to solo status, I really loved this funky effort taking from 70's funk and the smoother Prince type 80's funk, it really hits the spot.

Valerie June -  Pushin' against a stone: Another really strong album from across the pond, she's to blend a bit of everything into this album. Folk, blues, soul, this is real Americana and there are some great tracks on it, it goes electric near the end on You can't be told to dazzling effect.

Willy Moon - Here's Willy Moon: I'm not sure how cool it is to like this, it's been out a fair while now, I think, but I have to say i do. It's commercial as hell, but the songs are just so catchy.

Shaktar Donetsk 1-1 Manchester United

Well I won't pretend that last night's display was sexy football, but it was a decent Euro away performance and a decent point to boot. They have an excellent home record, so to restrict them to so few chances, and even to impotency in attack, during that first half was pretty creditable. Given our defensive performance so far this season, it was a pleasant surprise. It would have been nice if we'd had more bite up front, and then kept possession better in the second half, but in the context of our season so far and the context of the group, it was a good night.
Vidic was back in the heart of our defence, and not the Vidic that we saw during the eastlands battering. Accompanied by Smalling and with both first choice full backs in place, the back four was more like a Manchester United back four. The change of formation defintely helped give the team a more solid look. During the first half we had plenty of possession, without ever really looking like opening them up too much. But whilst United had the ball, their dangerous attack never really got a look in.
Cleverley looked a better player in the 4-3-3 floating around making himself available, giving and getting. As with others though, he couldn't keep it going and faded out of things during the second half, a perrenial problem for him, though his defensive work was fine. Carrick gave a reasonable performance, though I don't think he's really carried last season's form through yet.
Fellaini carried on his indifferent form, though he was nowhere near the finished article in the first half, he stil managed to create them problems. But his game went from bad to worse during the second half. There's an argument Moyes left it too late in taking him off, maybe we could have regained the intitiative before they equalied if Giggs had come on earlier. You can only hope Fellaini's finding his feet at the club, because at the moment he's showing signs off being the player I always thought of him being at Everton. When he gets the ball in the final third, he looks like a duck out of water when it comes to our passsing game.
Van Perise was left isolated a little too much, especially in the second half, I'd presumed Cleverley would try and get forward to help him, but that wasn't the case. Welbeck and Valencia both had solid games, I'd have Welbeck in my teams every time for the biggest games, that's without the goal. Apparently he still get's tons of stick, absolutely loses me that, he does a job and a half for the team and when he's given more responsibility later in his career he will shove the criticism back down their throats, positive of that. Anway fuck the thicker elements of our support, Moyes obviously fancies him in  the big games, as did Fergie.
So on to Sunderland on Saturday, I suppose with all eyes on us after our disappointing start, it's pretty imperative we get the three points. Even after yesterday's improved display, I'll wait until I see the team sheet before I dare to hope we've turned the corner.