Injuries, no call ups and

A glimmer of good news on the defensive front with the revelation that Smalling is back in training, it's not exactly news though is it, Fergie told the press last week, he was back doing a bit of running. It will be good to see him back, Rio's back may now get a rest every now and then. I suppose you can never say never but i'll be amazed if he is on the bench on Sunday.
Ferdinand doesn't seem to be able to put England behind him does he. I can't really understand him to be honest, sure Hodgson has handled it appallingly, but in reality Ferdinand is lucky to be playing every week for United with his reduced mobility, so how he thinks playing for England is going to help him prolong his career is beyond me.
I can't say i'm suprised that Fergie is happy about Ferdinand's omission, i would be amazed if he hadn't given Hodgson a bit of a steer on his non inclusion, Gary Neville seems to he read the script pretty well, even if he won't be getting any more christmas cards from the Ferdinand household.

Needless to say, Sunday is a big game, and a tough one, i'd be lying if i didn't admit i'd take a point. That's not to say if we play anywhere near our best we shouldn't win, it's just it's hard to see at the moment. We have always played our best attacking football when we have confidence in the back four, so it's not just that we look susceptible at the back all the time, i think it impedes the attack. That's without taking int consideration that we just don't seem to have clicked at all this season.
The defeat up there last year was up there with our worst displays of the season, no repeat of that please. I've no idead what team or formation he will go with, or even what i'd pick, i do know i'd be keeping De Gea in and i'd be starting Cleverley. I'm pretty sure Lindergaard will be in goal and won't be suprised if it's Carrick and Scholes in a two man midfield. Valencia regaining fitness should be good news, though his last two performances were shockers to be fair. I'd like to see Welbeck start, but i can't see beyond Van Persie and Rooney as our forwards unless he plays a similar formation to Wednesday.

Music

Animal collective - Centipede HZ: Pretty good, but a step down from their previous effort, to be fair though, Merriweather post pavillion set the bar very high.

Black dice - Mr impossible: I'm sure that this would be too experimental for most tastes but i enjoyed the experimental electronica from the New York outfit. Industrial noise that gets you tapping your feet.

Damon Albarn - Dr Dee: I wasn't sure about this, the switch between modern and medieval music seemed a bit too extreme over the first couple of listens, but when i got to used to it, it's really grown on me.

Florence and the machine -Ceremonials: Decent, and a couple of real stand out tracks, but it's very similar to the first album, almost formulaic

Jorge Ben - Africa Brasil: Samba funk, Brazillian afrobeat, whatever this is classed as, it's a brilliant album.

Lightships - Electric Cable's:I'd forgotten what it was that made me get this, so when i listened to it at first, the influence i was getting was the Byrds, but a modern version and then i thought who does that sound like, Teenage fanclub. And then i remembered it was a Gerald Love solo album and it is very good, good enough to Teenage fanclub, high praise.

Bee Gees - Odessa: I'd never been much of a fan of the brothers Gibb, but then i'd never heard this double album offering from 1969, that is truly of its time, and truly excellent, full of great tunes.

CFR Cluj 1-2 Manchester United

I suppose we can call this a job done at the end of the day, but it wasn't as comfortable as it should have been and our flaws at the back were there for all to see yet again. Before the group began this tie seemed like the easiest of our group stages abroad, but after the first two sets of games, it's hard to know whether that was the correct call. It certainly became a tougher test than we'd hoped for after yet another poor start and yet again going behind in the first half.
For the umpteenth time over the last couple of seasons, eyes will turn to Evra and wonder why on Earth Fergie has retained faith in him again this season. There were strong rumours of a bid for Baines in the summer and whilst, he isn't as good as Evra was at his best, he is far superior to the over the top figure the Frenchman has become. His positioning and then decision making for the opening goal were almost comical, granted Evans didn't exactly cover himself in glory either, but then Evra was exposed as if he hadn't existed.
I wouldn't say we had started well, but we had started the game as we meant to go on, controlling possession. Of course were helped by the fact they were quite happy to play away tactics at home, sitting very deep and trying to catch us on the break. Fergie opted for the 4-3-1-2 that he started with against Newcastle in the league cup with last week. I'm not sure about the system yet, i suppose it helps to enable us to keep the ball, important at the moment with a dodgy back four. On the other hand there is absolutely no natural width and that is where United have always created most of our chances. I suppose the acid test for me would be to see us play this way with Carrick and Scholes in midfield against a half decent side. It's going to be a tough game on Sunday up in geordieland and the defence will need protection, will he continue with it, big gamble if he does.
The equaliser was fortunate, Van persie putting it in with his shoulder, not the intended head, but it was very timely, it allowed us to settle down again and play with patience. It was a nice ball from Rooney who again showed signs of getting back somewhere near his best. He drops very deep at times in this formation, almost swapping places with Cleverley at times. I thought Cleverley did well last night and i definitely would like to see him start on Sunday. As for our other two engine room players, Fletcher did alright, but made a couple of sloppy errors that in his new role that better teams would have punished. So his rehabilitation continues, but i wouldn't want to see him play against a top half of the table team just yet. As for Anderson, it seems reds fall into two camps on him, some see unfulfilled potential who should be given a consistent tun in the team, whilst others see someone not fit to wear the shirt. You can put me in the latter, obviously, he wasn't poor last night, but as usual you didn't see anything that would scare the cream of Europe either.
The highlight of the game was the second and decisive goal, a glrious through ball found Van Persie who found the back of the net with a sublime finish. For the most part of the second half United dominated possession, but we still had our moments at the back and i would have liked us to have tried a little harder to get that third and killer goal. It's to be hoped that the Evans substitution was precautionary with Newcastle in mind and not something worse. It's worrying that it seemed to be the same thigh he hurt in the dying moments of the Spurs defeat.
At least we have started with two wins and given ourselves our great chance of getting qualification done and dusted early season after the ignominity of failing to advance out of the group stages last time around. And then hopefully some of the younger lads might get a chance for the last couple of games, i would like to see Powell getting a game at this level at some stage.

Daniel Taylor explains why Gary Neville is out on his own when it comes to TV punditry, he is of course, but some of us wouldn't mind him banging some heads together in our back four on our training ground instead of Sky. The criticism of our full backs is of course justified, but i actually think, Rafael has shown promising signs, over the last few games. Yes he may have been out of position for Tottenham's last, but the Ferdinand of a couple of years ago would have covered the danger. That's the problem at the back at the moment, one bad mistake usually gets compounded by another. Rafael isn't anywhere near the finished article by any means, but he is actually improving at the moment, which is at least promising.

Manchester United 2-3 Tottenham hotspur

I've a mass of contradictory feelings about Saturday's second defeat of the season. Firstly it was no real surprise, we have been getting out of jail continually since the Everton defeat, if there's a surprise, it's that this didn't happen last week. Secondly with our defensive problems and the time it seems to be taking our new lads to gel, i'll be happy if we can get through the next for or five games without another defeat. And lastly, despite us coming out of the game with no points, i fucking loved loved that game, the first half was of course appalling, but that second half was what United should be all about. We deserved the draw, the chances created by us compared to them show you that, though you could argue the ineptitude of the first half at the back meant we were lucky to only lose by one goal.
All post match comment focused on our midfield that supposedly got blown away. I'll admit that they went straight through the middle of us for the second goal, but when he was in his twenties people would go past Scholes like that. And it was the same central midfield personnel that went on to absolutely boss the second half with the little master giving an absolute mastclass. Once we changed shape and brought Rooney on for Giggs, the game completely changed.
The main problem for me, again, is the defence, the way Bale just waltzed by Ferdinand for the second goal just epiomised why we should probably looking for a new centre half next summer. Gary Neville wrote a column a bit ago where he told us that Fergie trusts his centre halves to cope one on one. That really can't happen any more, Ferdinand has really been finished as a world class centre half for a couple of seasons and after last weeks news, you have to fear the worst for Vidic's ability to return to the form that made Real Madrid want to take him there. I have said it before the injuries to Smalling and Jones could not have come at a worse time, this is when they should have been gaining the experience to take over from our mainstay central defensive partnership of the past six years.
The other gripe from Saturday has to be our formation, we haven't really looked cohesive or like we were happy in it all season. Kagawa doesn't seem to be fitting into our shape or style of play when in the hole and he seems to have formed absolutely no understanding with Van Persie, despite the second goal. It was the right decision to take Giggs off in the second half, and to put Kagawa on the left. Time seem to have caught up with Giggs this season, he just didn't have the legs to go past anybody or to even get in the game. Rooney made a difference as soon as he came on and i'm sure i'm not alone in being baffled as to why he started on the bench after his encouraging return to the fold in midweek.
Nani had a bit of a return to form in the second half and rafael behind him had his second good game in a week, he kept his concentration at the back as well as keeping going forward to good effect right to the end. In fact we had a spell in the second half where our attacking play was as good as anything we have seen over the last few years. I have read reports praising Spurs and their ability to keep us out after we we got back to 3-2, but in reality we opened them up time after time, and should have had a at least one penalty. Saying that, the luck we've had against Tottenham over the years, they were probably due a bit of luck against us.
Looking back at the first half you can see complacency in both the players selected and in the selection itself. I'm not exactly looking forward to Newcastle away next week, we'll have to find a better way to protect our wobbly defence whilst not stifling the kind of attacking performance we saw in the second half. As to Cluj, i really haven't a clue as to the team, tactics or what kind of oppostion we'll be facing in Romania. Three points would be very welcome though.

There was talk about Rio returning to the England fold after Terry's international retirement, that led to Fergie declaring that he thought it would be unlikely. As Hansen said in the telegraph this morning after Saturday's debacle, there's surely no way that Hodgson would go back to him however average the competition. It's a bit like watching the Lauren Blanc that we saw at end of his career at United, he just hasn't got the legs anymore.
I'm not sure Fergie really believes this is the case at the moment, whilst it seems a bit weird to admit Vidic didn't look fully fit. Andrew Cole thinks the FA were right to ban John Terry, why only four games would seem to be the only thing worth saying there.