Firing Blanks

Tottenham 0 - Manchester United 0

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Rafael, Carrick, Fletcher (Scholes 70), Park, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Tevez (Giggs 70)

I've got to make this a quick one. I'm due at the airport in a couple of hours, so after factoring in the travel time, I've precious little to spare.

There was a time when seeing a zero on our side of the scoreboard would be an anomaly, but this is fast becoming an increasingly distressing statistic as we are churning them out at an alarming rate. The problem here is that we're not creating enough chances. And from the very few that we've created, they've been spurned by our goal-shy forwards.

After Arsenal and Liverpool drew earlier in the day, this was the perfect opportunity to make up lost ground, facing Spurs and a dodgy keeper between the posts. Like every week where we could make up ground, we threw the chance away. The normally edgy Gomes produced a stunning performance to thwart our best chances, especially late in the game.

Tactically we were woeful. Fegie opted to field Tevez upfront on his own, while Berbatov plyed his trade deep in midfield. Often balls that were crossed into the area were headed out as Tevez jumped and stretched but could do little to head the balls beyond his reach. Berbatov would have been a more ideal target man for this course of action.

The midfield was utterly crap today. Carrick is crap as usual, but it was a surprise that the consistant Fletcher joined him in the tomfoolery, giving away possession cheaply.

Perhaps sensing that the plan wasn't going well, we sent on Giggs for Tevez and Scholes for Fletcher. We did increase the pressure but found Gomez in unbelievable form, saving from a fantastic Giggs' freekick.

In all, it wasn't a terrible game, just a terrible result. We simply need to score goals and we're serverely lacking in that department. Maybe it's time to stop with the Berbatov experiment and start playing the kind of swashbuckling football that we've been pampered on. Maybe it's time for Manucho and Welbeck to stop rotting on the bench and present them a chance to make a name for themselves. The current incumbents are simply not doing the job.