Manchester United 2-0 Cardiff City

I was really looking forward to last night's game, for the first time this season i was genuinely excited ahead of the game. And yet, I don't really know why, I'd read all the bloggers and journo's discussing how Moyes would use his new signing Mata. All the talk was of Moyes changing formations to a 4-2-3-1 or a forward line of Rooney, Van Persie, Mata and Januzaj. Which was pretty much all nonsense to my mind. All the evidence suggests Moyes is going to religiously stick to 4-4-2, and if that's so, he won't be pairing that four together too often. And with Rooney and Van Persie both miraculously back from injury just in time for Mata's debut, there was little likelihood of both of them starting. The only surprise to me was that it was Van Persie starting not Rooney.
The reason why I should have known better was that I've been saying all season, that one signing isn't going to make that much of a difference. And when I saw the line up, reality kicked in, and the giddiness evaporated.
United started well, but as I'd suspected it was a rigid 4-4-2, Young and Mr. undroppable Valencia on the flanks with Mata behind Van Persie. That's not really that much of an upgrade is it, but when the midfield two behind it is Giggs and Jones, you realise that Mata's signing is surely more about the future, than it is about the here and now. United's early pressure counted when at the third attempt Van Persie headed home, after Valencia should have opened the scoring himself.
United never really kicked on from there, sure they had moments where we threatened a second, but we never really bossed the game or laid siege to their goal. Mata had a reasonable debut, but with so much mediocrity around him, it would have been hard for anybody to truly shine.
Once again we couldn't dominate a bottom of the table side, and this is something that becomes more embarrassing by the week. The blame for that will be shoved at central midfield's door, and whilst that is a big part of the problem, it's not the total answer. It starts from the back, we are finding out just how indispensable Ferdinand was to our style of play, comfortable on the ball and bringing it out from the back.
We just seem to have too many players who are not as comfortable on the ball as a Manchester United player should be. I've never been sure whether Evans was really top draw or not, he seems to be a real confidence player, when he had Ferdinand astride him he looked a real United player, alas with Smalling at the side of him, he just, doesn't. And as for Smalling, he's a reasonable defender, but he really isn't good enough on the ball, which as I have said before is odd, because when he was first bought, that seemed to be one of his strengths.
Add an Evra that's sadly seen better days, a Rafael that seems to blow hot or cold and you see that the base or spine of the team is something that even bottom of the table sides shouldn't be and aren't scared off.
As with many others, I suspect, I felt relief as much joy when the second goal went in, mainly on the assumption that this was one game we weren't going to fuck up. It was a nice goal from Young, but whilst he didn't have a particularly bad game, he is one of the many players who I would describe as just not good enough to be a Manchester United player. On the other side Valencia was equally unconvincing, though he was unlucky not to get on the score sheet when he hit the upright in the second half.
As for Cardiff, under the returning hero Ole Gunnar Solsjaer, it's hard to see much grounds for optimism in their relegation battle. Yes they kept the ball well, when they had it, which was more than it should have been from our point of view. But they never really threatened to get on the score sheet, last night was one of the few games we've had this season, where you felt as confident as we are presently able to feel, that we would keep a clean sheet.
So three points and it's onwards and upwards, well, we can only dream.

Manchester United 2-1 Sunderland (1-2 on pens AET)

Fuck me, it's a barrel of laughs watching United at the moment, there literally isn't an easy game for us it would seem. I wasn't confident ahead of the match, and the way the game went, that lack of confidence wasn't misplaced. The most damning indictment of last night's performance wasn't the fact that we got knocked out, but that it was even a contest at all, against a team at the foot of the table, and at Old trafford at that.
For long spells it was Sunderland bossing the game, seeming to spend more time in our half than we did in theirs. I'm not going to knock Fletcher, he tried hard, and didn't have a particularly bad game, but if we are to get back to where we want to be, he doesn't really look like the answer, does he. Carrick was still getting back to fitness, before that injury, and christ, was that the last thing we really needed right now. Some seem to think that we sat back, trying to catch them on the break, but that's not really how i saw it. I just thought our confidence is so shot, we couldn't get our game going at all, especially in the second half.
I went to the bog at the end of the 90 minutes, only to hear some loudmouth giving Moyes stick for taking our best player off, Kagawa? Fuck me, there are some clowns watching United nowadays, I've been a defender of the ex Dortmund man, but you can't defend performances like that, he was completely anonymous, again. I told the guy he must have been watching another game, to the one I'd been watching.
Yet again the boo boys were after Welbeck's blood, despite the fact that Hernandez couldn't have trapped a bag of cement all night, that seemed to completely pass them by. The goal at the end hid what had been another completely inept performance by the Mexican internatonal. Sure it wasn't Danny's best night, but even when he's not at his best, he keeps the ball. And once again he was sacrificed, sent over to the left, in a bid to try and get the best out of Kagawa, I really didn't get that. Sadly even Januzaj sank to the level of those around him, but we can't keep on expecting him to pull his seniors out of the shit, not every week anyway.
It said everything about where we are at, at the moment, that we were a couple of minutes from going through, after such an inept performance, when the one player who has been Mr reliable this season,  De Gea, chose the moment to drop his first clanger of the season. I'm not going to get on his back for it, all keepers make mistakes, and he showed that it hadn't got to him making a couple of great saves in the disastrous penalty shoot out that cost us that trip to Wembley.
There were two trains of thought about facing City at Wembley ahead of and indeed after the game. Fist if we did get knocked out, at least it would stop us facing the ignominy of getting embarrassed by City for all the world to see. The second was that if we did get through, a Wembley final was a one off game, and anything can happen, in a one off game, Wigan in last year's FA cup final say. I veered to the latter ahead of the game, but after watching that, ahave to admit changing my mind. I can't say I'm as gutted as i would normally be, because they would have fucking annihalted us at Wembley, whether Rooney and Van Persie were both back or not. If we can't control midfield, and we'd have no chance, then that back four would be a disaster waiting to happen at Wembley.
Confidence has completely gone again, we are back to where we were after the Swansea FA cup defeat, only a win, scoring a few goals, and who knows, maybe keep a clean sheet or two is going to turn this around.
As for the signature of Mata, as i said yesterday, he isn't going to turn things around on his own, it's defensively, as a unit, as well as a back four where we don't cut the mustard. If he is the first of a fair few in and of a lot more out, then fair enough, he's a good start. At least we all know he's a quality player, and fuck knows, we haven't got enough of them. If we can get a couple of wins under our belt, then this is definitely the time to start blooding the likes of Lingard, I mean if not now, then when.

Does it Mata?

All the twitter chat and messageboard conversation has turned to United's supposed forthcoming bid for Chelsea's Juan Mata after last night's reports that we are set to make an offer for the Spaniard. I really don't know what to make of it, and for a whole host of reasons.
Firstly why the fuck would they sell him to us, fair enough we no rival to them for the rest of this season, but next year, who knows. If they want rid of a player who's desperate for a move, there must be clubs back in Spain or elsewhere on the continent they can offload him.
And then there's our motive's for any attempted purchase. He's a very good player, there's no two ways about that. But just as City have a plethora of attacking midfielders, so do the rent boys, because it plays to their systems strengths. But we play 4-4-2 generally, and whatever system we play, under David Moyes now, just as under Fergie in the past, we play with two wide men, or one hugging the touch lines and one cutting in.
For the life of me, I don't know where Mata would fit into our system, unless you played him as a number ten, but just how many number tens do you need! He would only work if we changed our system and went the Chelsea-City route. And so far under Moyes, that hasn't seemed likely. If Moyes wouldn't change his philosophy at Stamford bridge and pack the midfield, it's hard to see him doing it for the rest of the season.
If this does turn out for real, and he ends up here, i can't end up getting Veron, Kagawa out of my mind, good players that we bought that ended up and in Kagawa's case looks like ending up being, square pegs in round hole.
Another thought that enters my mind is, again, if there is something in this, does Moyes really want him, or are the Glazer's panicking. The whole thing seems not right to me, we have already spent £28 million on Fellaini who has been the answer to absolutely nothing so far.
At the moment, if we are really desperate to get back into that top four, I'd suggest a left back or an experienced centre half has to be the priority, if we are to splash the cash. Becasue if we keep shipping in the kind of soft goals we have done this season, Mata's signing will change precisely nothing

Music

Christian McBride trio - Out here: Very enjoyable modern jazz from one of the world's top bassist's trio. I'll be honest I knew nothing about him until I saw a review of this album, I've been missing out, big time.

Jonwayne - Rap album one: Excellent album of slightly left field hip hop beats and rap, having absolutely no knowledge of what gets into the charts these days, a couple of these sound pretty radio friendly, in a good way that is.

Laurel Halo - Chance of rain: The follow up to her excellent debut album last year, and it doesn't disappoint, following the same left field electronica formula of Quarantine.

Polly Scattergood - Arrows: I enjoyed her debut album, but hadn't really heard anything of her since, I don't really know how well that album was received. This is another pretty slab piece of indie electro/pop. I suppose it's a pretty crowded market to try and tand out in at the moment.

Robert Glasper experiment - Black radio 2: One of the reviews for this reckoned it was a rare case of an excellent debut being outdone by it's successor. I'm not sure about that, Black radio was an excellent mix of soul/jazz, it doesn't want in comparison, that's for sure.

White Denim -  Corsica Lemonade: I love this Texan indie quartet, great songs, great playing and plenty of energy. Not quite as leftfield indie as their first couple of albums, they still do the business.

William Onyeabor - World Psychedelic classics 5: Electro afro-funk, new one on me, but just like afro beat, what a groove. Reading up on his biography, don't suppose we'll be hearing too much more of his stuff, this compilation is one hell of a taster.

Chelsea 3-1 Manchester United

Ahead of this game i hovered between optimism, hopelesly misplaced obviously and trepidation. The optimisim came because there have been signs, here and there, that we may be slowly turning things around. And I haven't been that impressed with Chelsea when I have managed to see them this season, there nowhere near City's level for me. The trepidation came because as inadequate as our midfield has been this season, our defence has been even worse. When it's been really put to the test, it's generally been found wanting. Who can forget that drubbing at the boo camp, where with almost our most experienced back four we were found sadly wanting.
I should have known better really, we won't do anything until we get that back four sorted out. I'm slowly coming around to the view that we are going to have buy a centre half, the world and his dog knows we need a new left back, the way Rafael performed yesterday, we might have to add right back to that. I've read the pundits going on about how much we are missing Rooney and Van Persie, but the top two of Januzaj, our best player again, and Welbeck did alright. I fail to see how Rooney and Van Persie would have altered things when we conceeded three goals as softly as that.
It had all started so brightly, as Chelsea hardly saw the ball for the first ten minutes. Young had a great chance not long into the game but couldn't beat Cech. Januzaj was causing the home defence all kinds of problems and Carrick and Jones were more than holding their own in the middle of the park. And then they got that first goal and we got our usual slice of misfortune at Stamford bridge as Etoo's strike took a slight touch that sent it past the diving De Gea.
I wouldn't say United's response was emphatic, but we were more than still in the game. Then we conceeded a terrible goal on the strokeof half time that brought memories of the shocking defending we saw at the Etihad. You can't get away with defensive shoddiness like that against the big boys, you can't get away with defending like that full stop. It's just a killer for the rest of the team, when they have to work so hard to oen the opposition up and then we just gift the home team goals.
It got worse as not long after the break more comical work at the back saw Etoo claim a hatrick. If there was ever a fight back on, doubtful, there surely wasn't now. United's head didn't go totally down, they kept going, but how much of that was down to Chelsea settling for a result, that they hadn't really had to work hard for, who knows. Moyes brought the ineffectual Young off for Hernandez, moving our most dangerous player to the left. I suppose it worked, the Mexican got the late consolation goal. But I would have sooner seen Januzaj stay in the middle.
So where do we go from here, fuck knows.The cry will go out for reinforcements, but who, what position, short term stop gap, or long term planning. We all know we need a top class central midfield recruit, but is that going to make that much difference to the rest of the season when we defend as we have at City and Chelsea, not to mention the numerous cluster fucks we have seen at the back all season long.
Broken record time, throw a few of the kids in, write the season off, fourth is a big ask now, the title defence went at home to Tottenham. and see whether they sink or swim ahead of whatever business we do in the summer. If he can stay fit, lets see Jones given a run at centre half, bring Michael Keane back from Derby and give him a go at right back and maybe a few starts at centre back. I'd love to see Powell come back, but playing regularly for Wigan is probably better for his development. There can be no harm in keeping Jesse Lingard at the club and giving him some starts on the left, he'd have more to offer than Young. Giving youth a go would be a shot in the arm, and hopefully the crowd would accept that we'll lose a few, whilst we might actually see some exciting energetic football along the way.
It won't happen, I know that, but you can but dream.

United and loans

It was interesting to see Jesse Lingard on the bench last night and even more interesting to see him start for the under 21's last night. Is he going to go back to Birmingham or is he going to stay at the club. Amongst the more interesting articles last week, a couple of journo's made the asserion that Moyes may be about to start putting his faith at the feet of our youth structure as some of the older guard fade away. I'd love that to be right, but Januzaj apart, we haven't really seen any evidence for the theory.
But last night, Lingard started for the under 21's, supposedly scored a screamer and almost got another. There's no pretending he is another Januzaj, the Kosovan/Belgian's a bit special, but I have no doubt he has the potential to be a first team Manchester United player, one blessed with the knack of finding the back of the net. I'll be honest I would love him to stay at the club for the rest of the season, but only if he is going to get a reasonable amount of time on the pitch for the first team, starting and maybe from the bench.
I was surprised to read Will Keane started last night too, I had read that he had come back to United because he was injured. That's not such great news, I think, he really needs to be playing regularly to try and catch up for that lost season. It looks as if Coyle's sacking measn Keane's no longer figures in the new manager Rosler's plans. It's a shame, because before that injury, he looked to me as if he would be the first of the next batch of youngsters to make the step up to the first team squad, he was definitely first team material. Until he's playing regularly, it's hard to know his career is going to go   

It looks like anything to do with Manchester United is fair game if that Chris Smalling story has got anything to do with anything. What a crock of shit that was, seriously who the fuck gets offended by shit like that, it's like Monty Python never happened.
I suppose we're now seeing why Fergie treated the press with such contempt. Don't get me wrong I still think his approach was counter productive, but you can seee his point when you see some of the nonesense stories circulating, even in the so called quality press this week. Stories about Moyes losing the dressing roon, with no serious source, just a bunch of put together assumptions. Now I'm not suggesting that Moyes hasn't lost some of the dressing room, it's just so obviously a time to print anything you like, that might be plausibly true as United's season disintegrates before our eyes. Of course some reds will not be able to distinguish between obvious bullshit and stories that have some plausibility about them. It's at times like this, it doesn't pay to take the sporting press too seriously.

Music

Arcade Fire - Reflektor: Since their excellent debut, I've not really understood why the music press have treated them as if they were a great band as their follow up efforts were decent, but not earth shattering. So I when I saw a couple of average reviews I wouldn't whether I should bother with it. I'm glad I did, because it's the best thing they have done since, the influence of LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is pretty obvious, but it's a fine bunch of songs.

Chvrches - The bones of what you believe: I don't really remember the jocks being big on electro pop, maybe this is where they start to put that right. It's a strong album, radio friendly but enough for those who like their music a bit more challenging.

Darkside - Buenos Aires dream: Not the supergroup duo of the same name, this is an Argentine based producer who mixes the beats, with jazz and a latin tinged flavour, easy listening perhaps, but catchy as.

Haggard - Various stages of ice: Not Earth shattering, but a reasonably enjoyable slab of hard rock from this US outfit.

Lanterns on the lake - Until the colours run: A pretty fair follow up to their debut album, I'm not sure I found it quite as good as some of the critics did, but it certainly has its moments.

Omar Souleyman - Wenu Wenu: Whilst I've heard a little bit of north African music and reasonably enjoy it, I've never listened to anything from the middle east, Israeli jazz apart. So this blew me away to be honest, it's insanely catchy, and never gets boring.

Prefab Sprout - Crimson red: I didn't listen to everything they, or should I say Paddy Mcaloon did in the 80's, but what i heard, I generally liked. I read that this was really just a set of demo's that he's decided release. All I can say to that it is, wow, more demo's please. Perfect pop music, in a good way.

Manchester United 2-0 Swansea City

Back to winning ways,though for all the talk of meltdown recently, it's still five out of six victories in the premier league. I didn't mind the look of the team when I saw it, and had a sneak that Januzaj would start in the middle, with Kagawa on the left. After his display at Sunderland, and in fact for the better balance of the team, I thought that was the right move. I don't think it was all down to Januzaj, that in fact it didn't really happen and that we saw the best of the team, when the youngster moved out to the left and Kagawa moved inside at the beginning of the second half.
The central midfield pairing of Fletcher and Carrick looked an improvement on paper, it transpired it was better in the real world. Fletcher was excellent, considering everything, we can't pretend he's back to where he was before the illness, but promisingly, he seems to be getting there. Carrick started slowly but seemed to grow into the game, it wasn't perfect by any means, but that was far better than we have seen from the engine room for most of this season. It would be nice if we can keep these two fit and healthy as I would love to see Jones able to get a run of games at centre half at some stage of the second half of the season.
For all the talk of senior players not buying into the Moyes era, and the obvious decline of those said senior players, I wouldn't lump Vidic into the former group. Yes he's not the player he was, and I couldn't argue if United are happy to let him go in the summer. But when he has played, he has still been a leader on the pitch, I thought he was one of the few who could hold his head up after the defeat up at Sunderland. And again on Saturday, he was excellent, almost like the old days.
On the other hand I have my doubts about the future prospects of Chris Smalling, he has pace, reads the game reasonably, but does not look the part of a Manchester United player with the ball at his feet. Which is pretty odd really, because when he first arrived, that seemed to be a real strong point of his game. He still has time, I'm not writing him off, but there is an awful lot of improvement needed if he's ever going to really crack it at United.
As to the game, the first half was another none event. As I said, I thought the partnering of Januzaj behind Welbeck was the right thing to do. But with Kagawa giving another ineffectual performance on the left, and Valencia struggling to create much on the right, we struggled to hurt Swansea at the back on enough occasions. Obviously Swansea are a decent team, and you aren't going to control possession to the extent you do against lesser teams, but we gave them a bit too much respect in that first half as Flecther admitted after the game.
We did manage two serious efforts on goal though, Januzaj's free kick that hit the bar was a wicked effort, the pace and dip was almost Hughesesque. At the beginning of last season and indeed when he moved up to the reserves, his shooting was a bit of a weak link. He placement was spot on, as you'd expect, but he only rarely got the power you need to be testing the goalkeeper from outside the box. By the end of last season, that had really improved, but ever since that pre-season tour it's come on in leaps and bounds. The second chance fell to Welbeck who fluffed his lines.screwing it wide after easily the best move of the first half that involved Valencia and Rafael. It does kill me though, whenever he misses, we get the mantra that he's not a ntural finisher as if Rooney and Van Persie never missed the odd sitter. The next couple of season as he improves to become one of the best forwards in Europe are really going to kill the Danny haters.
The early opening goal really changed the game for me, yes Kagawa improved no end in the middle, Januzaj tormented the left back and Welbeck led the line superbly, Carrick and Fletcher got hold of the middle. But the goal killed the nerves to an extent and the confidence came flooding back. It was nice to see Danny get on the scoresheet, but it would have been even nicer to see Kagawa take the chance presented to him, I'm still not sure how he didn't finish it off. Still he gave a much improved display, I'm not as sure as I was that he'll make at United as I was though. Yes I still think he's a good player, I just worry that he'll turn out to be another Veron or Berbatov who just weren't suited to our style of play. 
Anyway why finish on a downer, Januzaj got all all the plaudits, though I actually thought he was more impressive at Sunderland when he really stood up to the plate in a struggling side. Welbeck was our best player on Saturday, for my money, he was at the cntre of almost every attack until subbed right at the end, but there wasn't much in it. I love the way those two link up, they are real Manchester United players. I was a little disappointed Jesse Lingard didn't get a little cameo at the end, but it was nice to see him on the bench. But that's the way I always wanted this season to go, the youngsters getting a chance and hopefully taking it.   

Sunderland 2-1 Manchester United

I nearly couldn't be bothered writing about Tuesday night, even though to my mind, it was nowhere near as bad as the loss to Swansea. But there were one or two things of note to mention, apart from the fact our season is in danger of falling apart. If Moyes can come through this and guide us to top four spot and or a league cup triumph, maybe he will turn out to be the man that Fergie thought he was going to be, taking his torch forward.
First, the team selected wasn't as bad as it might have been, or it would have been, if Januzaj, not Giggs had started behind Welbeck, as had been speculated ahead of the match. On the evidence this season, unless we have got someweher near our strongest side out, Giggs hasn't got the pace to play in the hole anymore.
It was only when he and Januzaj swapped places after about twenty minutes that United started to play and look anything like a Manchester United team should. In fact almost with his first touch of the ball, after he had moved inside, the youngster got hold of the ball, and promptly beat three men before Bardsley had to bring him down as he approached the box. Thereafter, Januzaj was the man who looked most likely as after a shoddy opening, United took control of the match.
My problem then, is why did Giggs start inside, it's not as if we can take any opposition for granted at the moment. Basically we completely wasted the first twenty minutes, instead of trying to blow them away, we allowed Sunderland to gain in confidence, unfortunately they never looked back.
Saying that, the last thing you could see coming as we approached the interval was a goal for the hosts. And yet that's exactly what happened. It looked like a foul from Evans to me, others didn't think so, but the defending of the free kick was, calamitous. As poor as the midfield is, the defence is even worse at the moment. I hate to say it, but the way we are going at the moment, we're going to start looking at a 0-0 as no goals conceded instead of no goals scored.
United showed some spirit to get a levelling goal early in the second half, but it didn't really arrive from any improved attacking play on United's behalf. I don't think it was a penalty and i thought whilst Rafael's tackle may have been a foul, the jump into the air from the recipient, was about as blatant an attempt to get an opponent red carded as you're likely to see.
Once behind United did at least show some urgency, even if it wasn't parctularly inspired, once more almost all out best moments came from the feet of our 18 year old future superstar. Whatever else this season has thrown at us, we can at least see that we have got one of the best, if not, the best, young player in Europe today.
So on to Saturday and the return of our FA cup conquerors, I can't exactly say I'm looking forward to it, more fingers crossed and hoping for the best. For all the talk in the press of our last three game losing run, the three games it's reminding me of, is from the 90's, the 5-0 away to Newcastle, 6-3 at Southampton, 1-0 at home to Chelsea before we out battled Arsenal through a Nigel Wintreburn own goal to stop the rot with a 1-0 victory. Byt the time of that Arsenal game, which was more a physical battle than a football match, our confidence had similarly been shot to pieces. And that was a far better side than we possess at the moment, so I live in hope, if not expectation.

Manchester United 1-2 Swansea City

I can't pretend that yesterday was a total shock, squad rotation of sparse resources, iffy form, especially at home and a half decent opposition meant that the odds I saw of 13/2 for a Swansea victory, would have been snapped up if I could ever back against United. It's got to be said, it doesn't really matter what the quality of the opposition is right now at Old trafford, we will struggle.
There can be no getting away from the fact, that as badly as the players are letting him down, Moyes looks to be floundering badly at the moment. His press interviews are getting worse, not better, you're not sure what he's trying to say sometimes. I'm not sure why he had to confirm what he did about our pursuit of De Rossi in the summer, a simple, no comment, would have done. I never expected us to open the purse strings this transfer window, and to an extent, think it's the right thing to do. Whether the club can hold their nerve, after a fourth home defeat in six games, remains to be seen.
I've always felt that for all the talk of the gimps, being proper United owners who will give the new manager the time to build his own team, the evidence from Florida suggests otherwise. It may be that they have decided that they won't be letting Moyes spend anymore of their money until they see where we are at the end of the season. I'm fucking certain they must be wondering whether they should have got rid of the club at the same time as Fergie stepped down. They really don't know what they've let themselves in for, a new sponsorship deal won't be making any sports pages, any time soon.
The tactics were questionable again, an almost total reliance on wingers and overlapping full backs to get crosses in, to who exactly, it's never quite obvious, it's not as if we have a latter day Scholes or Robbo arriving late to augment Hernandez and Welbeck in the box. It's not as if we have even got the full backs to make it work anyway. The worrying thought strikes me, that the reason he was so desperate to bring Baines to the club, was because that's the limit of his attacking tactical nous, Christ I hope that's wrong. I had to rub my eyes when I saw Moyes asking Welbeck to move left during the second half to allow the ineffectual Kagawa to go central. Welbeck had been just about the only bright light of the performance, the one man the visitors couldn't take the ball off. It just seemed desperate, because it was.
As for the game, I was even more iffy about our chances when I saw the team, Rio Ferdinand at centre half is almost a guarantee of a below par, whatever that is anymore, defensive display. He would have been better off  moving on during the Summer, or even retiring. It's painful watching him one of the clubs best ever centre backs nowadays, it's becoming reminiscent of Gary Neville's last season. Buttner actually had one of his better games, especially in the first half, but he'll never be United standard as long as he lives.
Fletcher started alongside Clevcerley in the middle of the park and managed to put in a decent performance during the first half, but sadly he faded phsycially right out of it straight from  the start of the second half as Swansea twice walked through our rearguard, showing yet another away team that had seen us as there for the taking. Still during his solid first half Fletcher had looked twice the player Cleverley was, make of that what you will.
I'm not mad on Hernandez leading the line, but to be fair to him, he had a decent game yesterday and took the goal well to boot. Welbeck apart, I thought everybody else just really weren't the standard required if we are going to be competing for the game's top honours, i.e the title and champions league.
Fabio's red card summed everything up really, he is the one player that Moyes has never really given a fair crack of the whip to. I mean why couldn't he have started yesterday. When he was given the chance to come on, it was obvious that he still hadn't given up on the club, despite all the evidence to the contrary and he set about trying to shake things up, and then he does that. I'm not defending the tackle, even if he didn't catch him as badly as he might have done, and the Swansea lad milked it, a lot of refs would have given him a red card.
After that, I would have gladly took a draw, the way the season's going, domestic cup competition's are as good as it's going to get for us. Yet around me, they were all urging United forward as if we were still watching the class of 92, when it was obviously a time to try and keep the ball. United's players did the crowds bidding, leading to us seeing less and less of the ball, and leading to the visitors seeing their chance for glory and attacking Flecther at makeshift right back to snatch a last minute winner.
Those two games against Sunderland now seem gigantic, in terms of the season, the league cup must now be our only realistic chance of a trophy this season, and in the tems of Moyes tenure of the club. I've said it before, I would have took coming eighth this season, if it meant bringing through the youngsters and then bringing in a couple of top quality recruits in the summer who could see the way the club was heading. It's not quite clear where the club is heading at the moment though is it. So for all that talk of the Glazer's being perpared to spend big, how are they going to persuade the world's best players to choose Old trafford over City, Chelsea, PSG and that's before you even get to Barca and Real Madrid, as the Sex Pistols sang, Problems, problems.

Manchester United 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur

One step forward, two steps back, or is it two steps forward, one step back, I haven't a clue. I can't say I was that confident ahead of the game, we may have been on a wining run, but the form has been a bit hit and miss. Some reds told me after the game, that we didn't deserve to lose, which you could say about all our home defeats, my response, as it was after the other three home defeats, was that we didn't deserve to win either. And that's the point, if you can't dominate the opposition, you can lose by the odd goal as well as win by the odd goal.
For all the talk of a hole in the middle of the park, and it is there, it's the defence that has looked all at sea over the last couple of games. I wasn't very impressed with Spurs, yes they were a hard unit to break down, they defended well as a team, but they didn't threaten us that much at the back. And yet we managed to concede two goals. I'm not sure what Smalling was doing for the first goal, I would have thought the whole point of playing him at right back is to make sure we don't get done with back post headers. And the second was pretty soft as well.
We started the game as well as we have at any time this season, but for all the energy and movement, there was only really the Smalling shot that could go down as a real chance. Valencia didn't have a bad game, but he's not really producing killer balls into the box, and Smalling isn't a right back. On the other flank, I though Januzaj got better as the game went on, but Evra's legs weren't there, though for once, Lennon didn't give him as hard a time as he usually does. He did get behind him once, in the first half, but De Gea saved Evra's blushes with an excellent save.
I've got to say, I'm starting to have a problem with Moyes tactical approach, like all United fans I love wingers and width, but you can't base our whole attacking approach down the flanks. It's happened a few times this season, if we don't get any joy out wide, we seem to run out of ideas. And that's what happened yesterday. When was the last time we scored a goal from someone shooting from the edge of the box, alright it was Young, but that was like a bolt from the blue, it was so unexpected. Think back to Beckham, Scholes, Denis Irwin even. I've said it before we have too many players who don't score enough goals
Once they saw out that first twenty minutes they became reasonably confident. I feared the worst when they got that first goal, even though it came out of nowhere really. Our response was pretty limp, it took their second goal for us to really up our game. Of course then, we were all over them, but the luck wasn't with us on the day, a penalty not given, balls not bouncing right for us in the box.
I suppose the substitutions were attacking enough, but I've never liked Valencia at right back, and I definitely don't want to see him there against the better teams. Hernandez is never the best outside of the box, but at the moment his whole game has gone right off the boil. I would have Januzaj inside behind Welbeck and put Young on the right, with Rooney in midfield. Januzaj was our most creative player, play him where he can hurt the opposition most. I thought the youngster and maybe Welbeck were our best two players, but we couldn't get Welbeck on the ball enough. It was a great goal, a beautiful ball and a great finish from the man who's supposedly not a natural goalscorer.
Rooney had a very in and out game, he started well enough, but seemed to go right off the ball for a spell after the yellow card. He may have been carrying an injury, I don't know, the balls to Januzaj on the right when we were chasing the game we as good as it gets. I always feel he struggles against strong fit teams and Spurs are definitely that.
I'm afraid the truth of that matter, is we just aren't good enough at the moment, we can probably give anybody a game, but you wouldn't put money on us to actually win any of them. We missed Jones badly yesterday, either in central midfield or at the back he would have improved things. When i look at Smalling at right back, I wonder why we let Michael Keane go out on loan, because for me, he would do us a decent job there.
I suppose there will be hysterics that we should buy someone, anyone, I don't go along with that, if we can find a world class central midfielder out there, then fair enough. But I'd still sooner see youngsters, like the Keane's, Powell's and Lingard's given a go. We're going to really find out whether we have "great owners who don't intefere with the manager"as a famous man once said, over the coming months.