So, pick the bones out of that one. The game has finished, I’ve got home, and I’m now watching the match again to try and see where it all went wrong.
In truth we should have beaten United again (see how arrogant I get after beating them twice – TWICE – in a row!). They are awful in defence and have no confidence but time after time we failed to make any nice passing count. At what point do we turn to our industrious leader and start asking some awkward questions? Was last season a fluke? Has he lost his nerve in terms of pushing us forward? Or have teams worked us out as we lose our shock/underdog statuses?
So what do we say about the game? Well, the first half was pretty pathetic really. Some occasional neat passing mixed in with an inability to move forward. It seemed that we were simply waiting for United to score, and score they did, Di Maria curling it in majestically. By that time we’d had one wayward shot from Lukaku to show for it, but somehow went into the break with a penalty, which saw Baines with the chance tio equalize.
All the talk was how Baines never missed. He missed. Too close to De Gea who did well to guess the right way I suppose. Heads dropped and we trudged off a goal down.
The second half brought more of the same as United bossed matters until a superb free-kick was headed in by Naismith to make it 1-1, and for a short while afterwards even Lukaku looked interested.
Honestly, I said pre-season that if we signed him for £20m I’d be annoyed, so when he arrived for £8m more than that I was mystified. I’m giving him a chance as apparently he’s ‘young’ but this is getting more difficult by the week.
Anywho, the inevitable goal from Falcoa duly arrived to make it 2-1 to United after a mis-hit shot from Di Maria somehow ended on his boot. Why Howard had decided to boot the ball into play from the corner-flag to set up that part of the play is beyond me though. He’s making so many errors that it’s really not funny any more. I hate to say it but could Robles do any worse? I realize that the answer to the question could be ‘absolutely, yes’ by the way.
Martinez then threw his dice everywhere and brought on a defender and a midfielder to chase a goal and… hang on… yes, he really did do that. 2-1 down and he leaves Eto’o on the bench. Brilliant lad. Of course Osman, who came on for the decidedly awful/unfit Pienaar, then nearly snatched an equalizer before being denied by a flying De Gea save but we’ll ignore that detail if that’s okay.
We then decided that following the draw against Liverpool our tactic should be to wait until the 90th minute before attacking madly. Besic turned into Iniesta immediately, turning players and pushing forward and we had two great chances that were saved by the impressive De Gea – one from Barry that was destined for the top corner.
Oh, and the cherry on the icing on the cake saw John Stone turn his ankle and be stretchered off. I have said many times that our best players always get injured, so this was expected I guess. Latest report is that it’s ankle ligaments, which can range between a few weeks and a few months. Any guesses how many months it’ll be folks?
Maybe we really are missing Coleman, McCarthy (ruled out for this one) and Barkley more than we realize. You’d think with the players we had though that we could do a little better than this. Over to you Bobby. You’ve got two weeks to sort it out before the Villa game.
Jesus, that’s going to be a horrible, horrible match…