Well back to winning ways, albeit not in the manner of that glorious run that now seems almost as if it was another team playing in the red shirt. This was back to those muddling incoherent performances that we had grown used to for most of the rest of the season. Still, given Liverpool could only draw at Chelsea, the main objective of the season would seem to have been achieved, a return to the top four and champions league football next season.
The difference between this team when Carrick starts and when he doesn't is far too wide for a club with the aspirations United have. God knows I like Carrick as a player, but it's almost as if this United team has become as reliant on him as the mid 80's team were on Bryan Robson and that's a ridiculous state of affairs. And for all the money spent last Summer that just isn't good enough. Philosophy or not, the biggest requirement this summer is somebody in the engine room of midfield who can play alongside and eventually replace the geordie.
During that great run of results, one constant throughout all those games was generally the fast starts we made. It's seems to have gone back to the slow, hesitant, confidence shot, laboured starts that we witnessed prior to the Tottenham game. We started well at Chelsea, but how much of that was due to Maureen's game plan of sitting back. But the last three games just haven't really happened. Yes we have generally controlled the possession, but to little or no effect.
The penalty that led to the first goal came out of nowhere really, as Young put a decent cross in only for Dann to panic and get his arm in front of the ball leading to the ref to correctly give a spot kick. Mata did the honours and hit an excellent penalty to give us the lead. We went on to create a couple more chances but we never really bossed things.
The second half saw the home team change a couple of things and decide that weren't just going to let things go all United's way. And soon as we were put under pressure we looked wobbly. Blind didn't cover himself in glory for the equaliser, once again when put in as Carrick's replacement he looks well short of what's needed. The replacement of Shaw and Rooney hadn't helped our cause. But the replacement's hadn't either. Whose idea was it to move Jones to left back and put Evans into centre back when Evans has actually played left back in the past and done reasonably well there. As it was neither man excelled during that second period. The less said about Falcao replacing Rooney when we had Wilson on the bench, the better, though in fairness to the Colombian, he little to no service.
The winning goal was as fortunate as the first, as Young put in a decent cross, no more than that, but the Palace goalie and his back four got into an almighty tangly to allow Fellaini an almost free header to gift us a three points it's arguable we couldn't have got otherwise or even deserved. I suppose Van Gaal could also point to it as justification for starting the big Belgian. It wasn't. Once again, as team's know what we are going to do, they make arrangements for him and completely nullified him and once again we were almost playing with ten men.
Fuck knows what to expect next week, I suppose it may depend on Arsenal's tactics. If they come and have a go, we may get a Tottenham, City at home type performance. On the other hand if they do as i suspect, sit back and play us on the counter, it could be another afternoon to forget!
The difference between this team when Carrick starts and when he doesn't is far too wide for a club with the aspirations United have. God knows I like Carrick as a player, but it's almost as if this United team has become as reliant on him as the mid 80's team were on Bryan Robson and that's a ridiculous state of affairs. And for all the money spent last Summer that just isn't good enough. Philosophy or not, the biggest requirement this summer is somebody in the engine room of midfield who can play alongside and eventually replace the geordie.
During that great run of results, one constant throughout all those games was generally the fast starts we made. It's seems to have gone back to the slow, hesitant, confidence shot, laboured starts that we witnessed prior to the Tottenham game. We started well at Chelsea, but how much of that was due to Maureen's game plan of sitting back. But the last three games just haven't really happened. Yes we have generally controlled the possession, but to little or no effect.
The penalty that led to the first goal came out of nowhere really, as Young put a decent cross in only for Dann to panic and get his arm in front of the ball leading to the ref to correctly give a spot kick. Mata did the honours and hit an excellent penalty to give us the lead. We went on to create a couple more chances but we never really bossed things.
The second half saw the home team change a couple of things and decide that weren't just going to let things go all United's way. And soon as we were put under pressure we looked wobbly. Blind didn't cover himself in glory for the equaliser, once again when put in as Carrick's replacement he looks well short of what's needed. The replacement of Shaw and Rooney hadn't helped our cause. But the replacement's hadn't either. Whose idea was it to move Jones to left back and put Evans into centre back when Evans has actually played left back in the past and done reasonably well there. As it was neither man excelled during that second period. The less said about Falcao replacing Rooney when we had Wilson on the bench, the better, though in fairness to the Colombian, he little to no service.
The winning goal was as fortunate as the first, as Young put in a decent cross, no more than that, but the Palace goalie and his back four got into an almighty tangly to allow Fellaini an almost free header to gift us a three points it's arguable we couldn't have got otherwise or even deserved. I suppose Van Gaal could also point to it as justification for starting the big Belgian. It wasn't. Once again, as team's know what we are going to do, they make arrangements for him and completely nullified him and once again we were almost playing with ten men.
Fuck knows what to expect next week, I suppose it may depend on Arsenal's tactics. If they come and have a go, we may get a Tottenham, City at home type performance. On the other hand if they do as i suspect, sit back and play us on the counter, it could be another afternoon to forget!
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