Not one to lodge in the memory banks, but we were spared the ignominy of a third consecutive home defeat and the press bloodbath that would have awaited Moyes if we'd lost. The only real difference between last night and preceding two games was we managed to keep a clean sheet and this time took one of the few chances we created.
I had expected a pretty tough game and wouldn't have been surprised in the least if we had got beaten. They were easily the best team we had played in the group when we visited the Ukraine, so for them to be as listless as they were and to have gone down so tamely, was a bit of a surprise. I know they created a few good chances in the first half, but looking at our back line last night, any half decent team should have created a few decent chances. Buttner had one of those games where you wondered how he ended up in a Manchester United shirt, he was poor. Ferdinand has looked like he should be hanging up his boots, come the end of the season, last night didn't offer any evidence to the contrary, that was as bad as he's been.
Despite Giggs coming back to partner Jones in central midfield and the inclusion of Januzaj, there wasn't much creativity or sparkle in our play. It wasn't one of Giggs better displays, Jones made a few decent forward runs and deserved his goal for being one of our better performers this season. Though I still really want to see him getting an extended run at centre back. With Rooney and Kagawa partnered through the middle, i had expected more from us, but our poor form and lack of confidence, just seems to have killed us at the moment.
Still it was three points, we've topped the table and hopefully we'll end up with an easier tie in the first round of the knockout stages than we ended up with last season. Mind you if we don't hit some kind of form by late February, early March, it won't really matter.
I had expected a pretty tough game and wouldn't have been surprised in the least if we had got beaten. They were easily the best team we had played in the group when we visited the Ukraine, so for them to be as listless as they were and to have gone down so tamely, was a bit of a surprise. I know they created a few good chances in the first half, but looking at our back line last night, any half decent team should have created a few decent chances. Buttner had one of those games where you wondered how he ended up in a Manchester United shirt, he was poor. Ferdinand has looked like he should be hanging up his boots, come the end of the season, last night didn't offer any evidence to the contrary, that was as bad as he's been.
Despite Giggs coming back to partner Jones in central midfield and the inclusion of Januzaj, there wasn't much creativity or sparkle in our play. It wasn't one of Giggs better displays, Jones made a few decent forward runs and deserved his goal for being one of our better performers this season. Though I still really want to see him getting an extended run at centre back. With Rooney and Kagawa partnered through the middle, i had expected more from us, but our poor form and lack of confidence, just seems to have killed us at the moment.
Still it was three points, we've topped the table and hopefully we'll end up with an easier tie in the first round of the knockout stages than we ended up with last season. Mind you if we don't hit some kind of form by late February, early March, it won't really matter.
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