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.
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.
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