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.
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.
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