Monday, April 6, 2015

Manchester United 3-1 Aston Villa

Van Gaal stuck to the same team, minus the ill Smalling who was replaced by Rojo and stuck to the same tactical approach. It worked reasonably well for the first 15 minutes or so as United made another good start. But it all seemed to fizzle out pretty much after that. So much that when we did finally open the scoring just before the break, my first thought was that the goal would be a bit of a killer for Villa after almost getting to the break on equal terms.
But the second half never really happened, I know we had some good situations, but we rarely looked as as if we were going to score. When the second did come it came almost out of nothing as Rooney controlled a difficult ball and lashed it into the back of the net. The goal seems to have conveniently erased the rest of Rooney's afternoon which was pretty ordinary to be honest. The same could be said for the other goalscorer Herrera. Yes he scored two decent goals and was involved in some decent combination play with Mata and Valencia, but he didn't give a performance worthy of some the plaudits that came his way after the game from the majority of reds.
I was less impressed with all those combinations and triangles on the right than the most other reds as well. Yes it was a vast improvement on last season, but it was all so mechanical, dull even. I'm afraid I like to see players being taken on, and that isn't really going to be on the agenda with Van Gaal from what I can see. Why did Fellaini have to start against Villa at home, he didn't contribute anything at all. I'm still at a loss how we ended up fighting to save the three points over the last ten minutes or so, it was a pretty soft goal we gave away.
Still for all my whinging, at this stage of the season, it's points that count, not performance's and it was an all important three points ahead of what could turn out to be a much more even derby than we would have expected a few weeks ago.

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