I've got used to not knowing what to expect from United this season, even to the fact that there is no such thing as an easy game this season, but I still couldn't see us getting beat at Stoke. It's not as if Stoke have been pulling up any trees this season, as they try to change their style of play away from the neanderthal tactics of Pulis, to something more pleasing on the eye under Mark Hughes.
I suppose that the team selected would have looked fair enough on paper, with the return of Carrick, and the inclusion of Rooney, Van Persie and Mata. But everybody seems to have forgotten that the pairing of Rooney and Van Persie during that first couple of months of the season never really worked. Sure they both scored goals, but the team set up seemed all wrong and the body language from the pair of them looked dodgy, but was especially terrible from Van Persie.
Add to that, that the signing of Mata looks even more of a panic buy, for the moment anyway, I'm not saying we shouldn't have bought him, just that he doesn't solve any of the problem areas that needed sorting out during the transfer window. When the Spaniard was bought everybody seemed to assume that Mata would fit into this mythical 4-2-3-1 that we are supposed to be playing this season. It's been a straightforward 4-4-2 for most of the season, to these eyes, occasionally 4-4-1-1. City, Chelsea and Arsenal play 4-2-3-1, for anybody wondering. I'm sorry but I just don't see any resemblance between the style of football we are playing or even trying to play, to the fluid interchangeable tactics of those three teams.
So when you saw the line up on Saturday, it was fairly obvious that Mata would probably be on the right with Young on the left. I may be wrong, but has Juan Mata ever played as an orthodox wide man in a 4-4-2 for Chelsea, Valencia or Spain. Have we really bought him to play on the wing, it's fucking Kagawa all over again, square pegs for round holes.
The football was just about standard for us for the first half hour, as in shocking, as in pass it to the wings and cross to no one in particular. Rooney had the one really good chance, but he hit narrowly wide. It's only fair to say that despite losing Evans and then Jones, our centre halves really do seem to be made of fucking balsa wood nowadays, we didn't really look in that much danger at the back, for once. And then right on the stroke of half time we concede a really wicked deflected free kick, that made you wonder whether it was going to be another one of those days.
Hope springs eternal, so when Van Persie finished off, after being fed by Mata, hovering inside in his best position, you wondered whether we might now kick on against what were really nothing as an opposition. But just five minutes later Adam got his second with a screamer to plunge us into despair again. It was mostly United from that moment on, but even when we laid siege to their penalty area for the last quarter of an hour or so, we never really looked like getting an equaliser. We had a couple of half chances, Welbeck and Cleverley in particular, but we never really opened them up.
Moyes has come under fire for moving Rooney into midfield, but to me that call was fair enough, we were behind, and he wanted as many goalscorers as possible on the pitch. I couldn't believe it though, when he brought Hernandez on as his last change instead of Januzaj, just when we needed a bit of magic.
Once again it's not just the result, but the manner of the performance, just an alarming reliance on crosses to the exclusion of everything else. I'm not going to start shouting for Moyes head, he deserves at least a couple of years, but it's got to be said, he is not looking the part, at all, at the moment. I can't and know that I'm not the only red wondering whether Fergie has dropped a real clanger with his choice of successor.
I suppose that the team selected would have looked fair enough on paper, with the return of Carrick, and the inclusion of Rooney, Van Persie and Mata. But everybody seems to have forgotten that the pairing of Rooney and Van Persie during that first couple of months of the season never really worked. Sure they both scored goals, but the team set up seemed all wrong and the body language from the pair of them looked dodgy, but was especially terrible from Van Persie.
Add to that, that the signing of Mata looks even more of a panic buy, for the moment anyway, I'm not saying we shouldn't have bought him, just that he doesn't solve any of the problem areas that needed sorting out during the transfer window. When the Spaniard was bought everybody seemed to assume that Mata would fit into this mythical 4-2-3-1 that we are supposed to be playing this season. It's been a straightforward 4-4-2 for most of the season, to these eyes, occasionally 4-4-1-1. City, Chelsea and Arsenal play 4-2-3-1, for anybody wondering. I'm sorry but I just don't see any resemblance between the style of football we are playing or even trying to play, to the fluid interchangeable tactics of those three teams.
So when you saw the line up on Saturday, it was fairly obvious that Mata would probably be on the right with Young on the left. I may be wrong, but has Juan Mata ever played as an orthodox wide man in a 4-4-2 for Chelsea, Valencia or Spain. Have we really bought him to play on the wing, it's fucking Kagawa all over again, square pegs for round holes.
The football was just about standard for us for the first half hour, as in shocking, as in pass it to the wings and cross to no one in particular. Rooney had the one really good chance, but he hit narrowly wide. It's only fair to say that despite losing Evans and then Jones, our centre halves really do seem to be made of fucking balsa wood nowadays, we didn't really look in that much danger at the back, for once. And then right on the stroke of half time we concede a really wicked deflected free kick, that made you wonder whether it was going to be another one of those days.
Hope springs eternal, so when Van Persie finished off, after being fed by Mata, hovering inside in his best position, you wondered whether we might now kick on against what were really nothing as an opposition. But just five minutes later Adam got his second with a screamer to plunge us into despair again. It was mostly United from that moment on, but even when we laid siege to their penalty area for the last quarter of an hour or so, we never really looked like getting an equaliser. We had a couple of half chances, Welbeck and Cleverley in particular, but we never really opened them up.
Moyes has come under fire for moving Rooney into midfield, but to me that call was fair enough, we were behind, and he wanted as many goalscorers as possible on the pitch. I couldn't believe it though, when he brought Hernandez on as his last change instead of Januzaj, just when we needed a bit of magic.
Once again it's not just the result, but the manner of the performance, just an alarming reliance on crosses to the exclusion of everything else. I'm not going to start shouting for Moyes head, he deserves at least a couple of years, but it's got to be said, he is not looking the part, at all, at the moment. I can't and know that I'm not the only red wondering whether Fergie has dropped a real clanger with his choice of successor.
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