I went to Old trafford on Thursday night to see the under 21's live for the first time in a fair while. It was a strange, yet familiar game in some ways. As usual United played with only the one real forward in James Wilson, and the away team, in this case Norwich packed the defence and asked United to break them down.
Unfortunately United struggled and never really looked as if they were going to be able to open the visitors back line up during a drab first half. The one time United did open them up, via a good run and an excellent cut back from Janko, the otherwise impressive Rothwell fluffed his lines badly with a poor mishit effort.
With United's best player Wilson going limping off, not long into the second half, it seemed odds on the game would either end up goaless or would be decided by the odd goal. You would never have put your money on the game ending in an exciting 2-2 draw. Unfortunately with United having taken a two goal lead, it was the kind of excitement our lads could have done without. United took the lead through a scruffy goalmouth scramble with Weir tapping home. The subsitute then added a very cooly finished second after good work on the right from our South American right back Varela.
Norwich had done nothing in the game to suggest they were capable of pulling the two goals back. But once they had converted a clumsily given away penalty with ten minutes to go, it became end to end and right at the death, a poor pass across the back line from Mcnair, I think, saw Norwich break and get an equaliser from nowhere.
With so many players on loan, it's hard to expect too much from the players left at the club, but they had got themselves into a position where they still have a shout of silverware at the end of the season. So it was a disappointing night for the young reds.
As to the performances, obviously we all know Wilson is the stand out player, the one that is a cert to get a crack at the first team eventually, injuries not withstanding. I'd liked what i have seen of Rothwell over the last couple of months, so he was the player I had decided to try and keep a close eye on. He looked the part in the first half, his passing was reasonably incisive and he seems to have good match awareness. Unfortunately he seemed to lose his way in the second half, which was a surprise because when I've seen him before, he has tended to get stronger as the game goes on. Going off what I have seen of him this season, he has a chance, but needs to keep on improving. It will be interesting to see what United do with him next season, a loan to a championship side would seem a good bet, but it will have to be somwhere where he is going to get a decent amount of games.
To be honest, I can't see any others getting anywhere near the first team. There are some good players there, just not future United players. Reece James is a cert to have a career in the game, he has a nice left foot and a great attitude to the game. Ben Pearson has got some rave reviews over the last couple of years from regular United youngster followers, but I've never really seen it. He can be nice and tidy and goes in for a crunching tackle, but he doesn't seem to have that ability to give himself time on the ball, that a real top player must have. Pereira is probably the biggest disappointment, he came with as big a reputation as Januzaj. To be fair to him, I don't think he really gets to play in position he really wants to play in, he's yet another number ten. But even so, he doesn't appear to have that turn of speed to enable him to burst past defenders. I noticed he was almost always second around fifty fifty balls, it wasn't because he ducked out of them, it was just his acceleration just wasn't quite quick enough to see him go past players.
United need to beat Reading next week to have a chance of making the last four. Needless to say, I hope they do it, but I wouldn't be expecting too much from them if they did make it.
Music
Bruce Springsteen - High hopes: An album of covers, his own and others, not usually my kind of thing, but i quite liked it. The electric version of the ghost of Tom Joad is excellent.
Busta Rhymes & Q- Tips - The abstract and the dragon: I'm no expert of hip hop, but i did like A tibe called quest and Q-Tip. So this mixtape sounded interesting, it's not consistently excellent, but there are some excellent moments.
Dum Dum Girls - Too true: I thought their debut album was pretty promising, but whilst this is a decent effort, it doesn't really build on that promise.
Goat - Live ballroom ritual: Their first album, World music was a blinding album, this is basically a live take of that album, so a bit more rough and ready, can't wait for the Swede's follow up to the debut.
Neko Case - The worse things get: I've hear a couple of her solo albums which were reasonably good and some her work with the New Pornographers, who I really like. This is another solid effort from the indie country/rock artist.
The Flaiming Lips - Terror: They don't seem to stand still for long, this barely recongisable from the group that brought us The soft bulletin. For me it was a bit of a slow burner, but once I got it, I couldn't get enough it. Psychedelia meets an almost driving kraut rock a t times, yet still manages to find a hook to hang onto.
Tinariwen - Emmaar: Desert rock from the Sahara from the Tuaregs finest, once again they deliver up some fine African driving blues, despite the islamic insureection that took place in Mali whilst they were putting it together, lets hope that never happens to one of Africa's great musical nations again.
Unfortunately United struggled and never really looked as if they were going to be able to open the visitors back line up during a drab first half. The one time United did open them up, via a good run and an excellent cut back from Janko, the otherwise impressive Rothwell fluffed his lines badly with a poor mishit effort.
With United's best player Wilson going limping off, not long into the second half, it seemed odds on the game would either end up goaless or would be decided by the odd goal. You would never have put your money on the game ending in an exciting 2-2 draw. Unfortunately with United having taken a two goal lead, it was the kind of excitement our lads could have done without. United took the lead through a scruffy goalmouth scramble with Weir tapping home. The subsitute then added a very cooly finished second after good work on the right from our South American right back Varela.
Norwich had done nothing in the game to suggest they were capable of pulling the two goals back. But once they had converted a clumsily given away penalty with ten minutes to go, it became end to end and right at the death, a poor pass across the back line from Mcnair, I think, saw Norwich break and get an equaliser from nowhere.
With so many players on loan, it's hard to expect too much from the players left at the club, but they had got themselves into a position where they still have a shout of silverware at the end of the season. So it was a disappointing night for the young reds.
As to the performances, obviously we all know Wilson is the stand out player, the one that is a cert to get a crack at the first team eventually, injuries not withstanding. I'd liked what i have seen of Rothwell over the last couple of months, so he was the player I had decided to try and keep a close eye on. He looked the part in the first half, his passing was reasonably incisive and he seems to have good match awareness. Unfortunately he seemed to lose his way in the second half, which was a surprise because when I've seen him before, he has tended to get stronger as the game goes on. Going off what I have seen of him this season, he has a chance, but needs to keep on improving. It will be interesting to see what United do with him next season, a loan to a championship side would seem a good bet, but it will have to be somwhere where he is going to get a decent amount of games.
To be honest, I can't see any others getting anywhere near the first team. There are some good players there, just not future United players. Reece James is a cert to have a career in the game, he has a nice left foot and a great attitude to the game. Ben Pearson has got some rave reviews over the last couple of years from regular United youngster followers, but I've never really seen it. He can be nice and tidy and goes in for a crunching tackle, but he doesn't seem to have that ability to give himself time on the ball, that a real top player must have. Pereira is probably the biggest disappointment, he came with as big a reputation as Januzaj. To be fair to him, I don't think he really gets to play in position he really wants to play in, he's yet another number ten. But even so, he doesn't appear to have that turn of speed to enable him to burst past defenders. I noticed he was almost always second around fifty fifty balls, it wasn't because he ducked out of them, it was just his acceleration just wasn't quite quick enough to see him go past players.
United need to beat Reading next week to have a chance of making the last four. Needless to say, I hope they do it, but I wouldn't be expecting too much from them if they did make it.
Music
Bruce Springsteen - High hopes: An album of covers, his own and others, not usually my kind of thing, but i quite liked it. The electric version of the ghost of Tom Joad is excellent.
Busta Rhymes & Q- Tips - The abstract and the dragon: I'm no expert of hip hop, but i did like A tibe called quest and Q-Tip. So this mixtape sounded interesting, it's not consistently excellent, but there are some excellent moments.
Dum Dum Girls - Too true: I thought their debut album was pretty promising, but whilst this is a decent effort, it doesn't really build on that promise.
Goat - Live ballroom ritual: Their first album, World music was a blinding album, this is basically a live take of that album, so a bit more rough and ready, can't wait for the Swede's follow up to the debut.
Neko Case - The worse things get: I've hear a couple of her solo albums which were reasonably good and some her work with the New Pornographers, who I really like. This is another solid effort from the indie country/rock artist.
The Flaiming Lips - Terror: They don't seem to stand still for long, this barely recongisable from the group that brought us The soft bulletin. For me it was a bit of a slow burner, but once I got it, I couldn't get enough it. Psychedelia meets an almost driving kraut rock a t times, yet still manages to find a hook to hang onto.
Tinariwen - Emmaar: Desert rock from the Sahara from the Tuaregs finest, once again they deliver up some fine African driving blues, despite the islamic insureection that took place in Mali whilst they were putting it together, lets hope that never happens to one of Africa's great musical nations again.
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