I can't pretend I was a particularly happy bunny when I saw the team selected last night, but whilst the performance was nothing special, it was better than I'd been expecting after seeing said line up. Seeing no Januzaj, no Wilson was grim, even no Herrera. If the Basque isn't going to get a start against a team from the lowest tier in English football, he really ought to be thinking about his options for next year.
There's caution and there's caution. Moyes was accused by some reds of being the new Sexton last year, but this season feels even more Sextonesque to my eyes.
At least he didn't revert to a back four, when I saw the line up, I wasn't quite sure. But the night was lit up by an excellent performance from Di Maria. It wasn't just his runs, but he seemed last night to be going deeper, demanding the ball and playing those cross field balls that can open up spaces. In fact it looked as if he had been told that it was his job to open up the play as we hardly saw a cross field ball from Rooney all night. Given his success rate over recent games, no bad thing.
As majestic as Di Maria was at times, the same could not be said for his midfield partner Rooney. I'm not sure what the future holds for him, if Van Gaal really has decided that he doesn't fancy him as a striker any more. Because his recent form in the deeper role is just going to show what we already really knew, he can do a job there, at a push, but he's never going to be the answer there.
I expect Van Persie and Falcao to leave in the summer, so unless we are going to buy a couple of strikers, you would think he still has a future. Wilson showed last night, when he came on, why he has to start to get more first team action. Van Persie, for once, couldn't complain about the service he was provided with, I reckon he missed about four pretty good chances. Wilson scored a cracker from what you would hardly class as a chance, the type of goal he regularly scored coming up the ranks.
I was going to say the back four were hardly tested, then remembered we were almost a goal down in the first few minutes. But in the main, United were pretty much untested, which of course is how it should have been.
I'm not getting carried away though, it was a reasonable performance, which is the least we should have expected. As to the tactics, not for the first time this season, Van Gaal opted for a strategy that got Moyes all kinds of grief, crosses to the back post looking for Fellaini, to be fair, it worked. But fuck me, that against Cambridge, like I said, very Sexton.
There's caution and there's caution. Moyes was accused by some reds of being the new Sexton last year, but this season feels even more Sextonesque to my eyes.
At least he didn't revert to a back four, when I saw the line up, I wasn't quite sure. But the night was lit up by an excellent performance from Di Maria. It wasn't just his runs, but he seemed last night to be going deeper, demanding the ball and playing those cross field balls that can open up spaces. In fact it looked as if he had been told that it was his job to open up the play as we hardly saw a cross field ball from Rooney all night. Given his success rate over recent games, no bad thing.
As majestic as Di Maria was at times, the same could not be said for his midfield partner Rooney. I'm not sure what the future holds for him, if Van Gaal really has decided that he doesn't fancy him as a striker any more. Because his recent form in the deeper role is just going to show what we already really knew, he can do a job there, at a push, but he's never going to be the answer there.
I expect Van Persie and Falcao to leave in the summer, so unless we are going to buy a couple of strikers, you would think he still has a future. Wilson showed last night, when he came on, why he has to start to get more first team action. Van Persie, for once, couldn't complain about the service he was provided with, I reckon he missed about four pretty good chances. Wilson scored a cracker from what you would hardly class as a chance, the type of goal he regularly scored coming up the ranks.
I was going to say the back four were hardly tested, then remembered we were almost a goal down in the first few minutes. But in the main, United were pretty much untested, which of course is how it should have been.
I'm not getting carried away though, it was a reasonable performance, which is the least we should have expected. As to the tactics, not for the first time this season, Van Gaal opted for a strategy that got Moyes all kinds of grief, crosses to the back post looking for Fellaini, to be fair, it worked. But fuck me, that against Cambridge, like I said, very Sexton.
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