Self-Destructing In Spectacular Fashion
Fulham 2 - Manchester United 0
Scorers
Fulham: Murphy (pen 18), Gera (87)
Red Cards: Scholes (17), Rooney (88)
Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Evans, O'Shea (Tevez 70), Evra, Scholes, Fletcher, Park, Giggs, Ronaldo, Berbatov (Rooney 46)
So much for rising from the ashes like a phoenix. We crashed and burned in spectacular fashion today. A midweek break did little to improve our play. Even a favourable draw in the Champions League to Porto and the bracket avoiding all the big guns like Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona and Bayern Munich did little to improve the morale of the team after that mauling last weekend.
I've seen zombies play better football than we did in the first half against Fulham. If half the chances in the first half had fallen to Andrew Johnson instead of that pathetic excuse of a striker Zamora, we would have been long dead and buried before Scholes had a chance to handle the ball in the box.
The game, however, didn't play out that way and Scholes instinctively handled the ball preventing it from going into the net. The result was a straight red card (3 match ban), and a penalty that gave Fulham a deserved lead.
The half ended that way, but really Fulham could have rised a rugby score but for some incredibly wasteful finishing. We were completely outplayed in every area of the pitch.
Ferguson didn't help matters when he, yet again, shattered our strikers' confidence by playing musical chairs, this time pairing a completely disinterested Berbatov with a petulant Ronaldo.
The result and the situation demanded a change at the half and Rooney was brought on for the injured Berbatov. Things improved immensely, with Fletcher, Park and Giggs leading an improbably comeback.
Even with ten men, we still had significantly more quality than Fulham and it showed. We begun to string passes together and made penetrating runs into the Fulham box. But try as we may, Schwarzer had a blinder, almost single-handedly stopping everything we threw at them, including the kitchen sink.
As it is with such games, when you chase, pushing men forward, you get stung by the counter. Zoltan Gera struck a dagger into our hearts near the end of the game, ending all hopes of getting something out of the game. Well, Rooney had other ideas and after the Fulham goal, he literally went beserk and got himself sent off.
This was more than a fair result. We should have been utterly crushed by the first half.
This was not the reaction I was expecting from the team. If anything, this race is almost blown wide open now. I suppose this is the United way, we don't do things easy. At least we're still in pole position....for now.
Ferguson needs to identify his best eleven and stop screwing around. When you screw around, someone's gonna get hurt. Along the same lines, he needs to start benching some of the non-performers and the prima donnas in the team. We've stopped playing like a team for a long time.
5 comments:
scholes' ban is 1 game, it wasnt violent conduct, only violent conduct is 3 game suspension!
Brave to write somthing about such a game! :(
We know, they can do better! We keep the red flag flying high! ...
Cheers Antonia!
My mistake. It is a one game ban. Too bad the FA hasn't the balls to invoke a 3 game ban for utterly stupid play to protect players from themselves. ;o)
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@Antonia
Sadly, that's the problem with our team right now. We all expect them to play much better but they simply don't/wouldn't. How many times have we been let down? And how many times are we going to continue to get our hopes trodden over and over again?
There is something mentally wrong with the current construct of the team right now. The talent is there but the heart is missing. We've been strolling thru with too many 1-0 scorelines, riding our luck sometimes, and over relying on our defenders to play out of their skins.
Makes you really wonder just how much we are riding on Ronaldo. In my mind, there is absolutely no doubt that we would have won nothing last season without Ronaldo. Too bad he seems to be a totally different player this season. It's almost he has his mind somewhere else....like Spain.
Like you, I still carry the hope that things will change. We still have everything going in our favour so let's not screw it up.
Yes Spectre,
We doesn't deseve this season anything. There are only a very few matches, the squad did well! It began with this Zenit-game, which has been most painfully for me. Okay Fulham beat it.
Ronaldo is playing shit, but can you really blaime him? We have a few other world class players! Even Evra used to play terrible the last matches! Our most constant player - not for the last games!
It's not easy to say, because my favourite Player is Gary - we need a captain. And we need a new manager as well. I would like to have SAF forever, but we know, this isn't possible, not as a manager. We canbe happy, that we'll have him as person till he'll die as we have our other Sir and this is great. When I've been to the FA-youth-Cup all this famous guys were there and this showes what's behind a big club and makes it confidence!
But nevertheless: I could scream, if I think, that SAF, Gary, Ryan and Paul will leave us, but maybe it's good.
It is a hard time for United, all we'll win this season, we will win because of the old lads (or better the addidional knowledge of them), but if we'll survive on the top, than we have to go to a new age!
What I wonder is, if nowadays it's possible to built up a proper team, with passion and love for the club and a strong believe in the win of the squad and not only a lot of top players, who are more interested in there goals and throphies, but in their mates and the club.
Cheers Antonia
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