Well, who saw that coming, i certainly didn't. Admittedly Villa were piss poor, but United have to take some credit for taking advantage for that. Whenever you win big, there has to be an element of the opposition being crap.
The line up was about as strong as it could have been given the injury problems. Bar Carrick, there's an argument to be made, that this was as strong a side as we can put out. I'm still no big fan of Rooney and Van Persie up front, but I am a big fan of Danny Welbeck playing in the middle. He gives us pace, work rate and a different set of skills than either Rooney or Van Persie. When he is playing regularly and is full of confidence, he is a handful for any defence in the world. He is on a different planet as a footballer to Hernandez, he can be the complete centre forward, where as Hernandez will only ever be a goal poacher.
It was interesting to see Rooney drop a lot deeper at times yesterday, now that is something we have been screaming out for. I have never sure whether Moyes asked Rooney to play further up or Rooney hasn't wanted to play deeper. If he played as deep as he did at times yesterday, his partnership with Van Persie might might be more conducive to the teams balance.
Some reds think that Valencia having one of his better days was the key to victory. It helped, no question about that, Valencia and Rafael worked brilliantly down the right together. But the pace and movement, and even his ability to be first to the ball in the box unexpectedly, scared the home back four to death. It looked pretty obvious, that they weren't really anticipating the speed of United's play. You can't blame them really, when you think of some of the turgid performances we have put in this season, they'll probably consider themselves unfortunate to have caught us in the kind of form we produced yesterday.
I was glad and a little surprised to see Januzaj, start on the left again, I thought he may have been rested for the league cup tie at Stoke in midweek. Moyes made the right call for me, getting our confidence back in the league should come first. He didn't let us down as he was excellent in the first half, and could have been the opening scorer, unluckily heading against the post before Welbeck steamed in for the rebound. He faded in the second half, and was yet again on the end of some rough stuff, but he'd done his job. I would have liked Zaha to have replaced him but Moyes went for the more conservative option in Zaha.
The other big call made by Moyes was the deployment of Jones at centre back alongside Evans. They didn't really have much to do, but I'd like to see more of that combination and more of Jones at centre half. If we could actually manage to bring in a class central midfield recruit during the transfer window next month, maybe we'll actually see it.
Cleverley took his the third goal well, and did indeed have a much improved game, he needs to, as he must know he is now fighting to save his United career. If he could get back to the form he showed when he first arrived in the first team, then he would have what it takes. It will take even better performances and producing them far more consistently for that to happen, hopefully yesterday was the start of them.
I have to be honest, I was very sceptical that we would see any meaningful return to the first team from Darren Fletcher after his second prolonged absence from the squad due to his stomach complaint. But Moyes seems to have shown a statement of intent with his inclusion on the bench and in pushing him on the final half hour. If we could get Darren Fletcher anywhere near back to his best, that would be an almighty boost to our season. His half hour yesterday makes we wonder whether we might see him start on Wednesday night, intriguing.
It was a pity we didn't score more goals, we certainly had the chances, but after the goal famine we have been on at Old trafford of late, it was just nice to get amongst the goals again.
The line up was about as strong as it could have been given the injury problems. Bar Carrick, there's an argument to be made, that this was as strong a side as we can put out. I'm still no big fan of Rooney and Van Persie up front, but I am a big fan of Danny Welbeck playing in the middle. He gives us pace, work rate and a different set of skills than either Rooney or Van Persie. When he is playing regularly and is full of confidence, he is a handful for any defence in the world. He is on a different planet as a footballer to Hernandez, he can be the complete centre forward, where as Hernandez will only ever be a goal poacher.
It was interesting to see Rooney drop a lot deeper at times yesterday, now that is something we have been screaming out for. I have never sure whether Moyes asked Rooney to play further up or Rooney hasn't wanted to play deeper. If he played as deep as he did at times yesterday, his partnership with Van Persie might might be more conducive to the teams balance.
Some reds think that Valencia having one of his better days was the key to victory. It helped, no question about that, Valencia and Rafael worked brilliantly down the right together. But the pace and movement, and even his ability to be first to the ball in the box unexpectedly, scared the home back four to death. It looked pretty obvious, that they weren't really anticipating the speed of United's play. You can't blame them really, when you think of some of the turgid performances we have put in this season, they'll probably consider themselves unfortunate to have caught us in the kind of form we produced yesterday.
I was glad and a little surprised to see Januzaj, start on the left again, I thought he may have been rested for the league cup tie at Stoke in midweek. Moyes made the right call for me, getting our confidence back in the league should come first. He didn't let us down as he was excellent in the first half, and could have been the opening scorer, unluckily heading against the post before Welbeck steamed in for the rebound. He faded in the second half, and was yet again on the end of some rough stuff, but he'd done his job. I would have liked Zaha to have replaced him but Moyes went for the more conservative option in Zaha.
The other big call made by Moyes was the deployment of Jones at centre back alongside Evans. They didn't really have much to do, but I'd like to see more of that combination and more of Jones at centre half. If we could actually manage to bring in a class central midfield recruit during the transfer window next month, maybe we'll actually see it.
Cleverley took his the third goal well, and did indeed have a much improved game, he needs to, as he must know he is now fighting to save his United career. If he could get back to the form he showed when he first arrived in the first team, then he would have what it takes. It will take even better performances and producing them far more consistently for that to happen, hopefully yesterday was the start of them.
I have to be honest, I was very sceptical that we would see any meaningful return to the first team from Darren Fletcher after his second prolonged absence from the squad due to his stomach complaint. But Moyes seems to have shown a statement of intent with his inclusion on the bench and in pushing him on the final half hour. If we could get Darren Fletcher anywhere near back to his best, that would be an almighty boost to our season. His half hour yesterday makes we wonder whether we might see him start on Wednesday night, intriguing.
It was a pity we didn't score more goals, we certainly had the chances, but after the goal famine we have been on at Old trafford of late, it was just nice to get amongst the goals again.
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