United Progress

Barnsley 0 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Welbeck (6), Owen (59)

Red Card
Manchester United: Neville (63)

Team: Foster, Brown, Neville, Evans, Rafael, Fabio, Anderson, Welbeck (Tosic 53), Obertan, Macheda, Owen (De Laet 65)

What a refreshing change from the weekend game. The youngsters who played today did themselves proud compared to the group at Anfield. Debutant, Obertan, seems like a good enough player. He's quick, neat and tidy. He certainly looks good enough for Le Championnat, and I'm surprised he's not been featured much there. Nevertheless, he still has some ways to go before breaking into the first team with us. Especially since his direct rival on the right flank is Valencia.

The other young ones didn't look too bad either. We all know Macheda's exploits last season, but he really looks like one who will progress the most. He's big, strong, quick and exceptionally skillful. Most importantly, he's an intelligent player. He looks like one of those typical Italian strikers who can hold the ball, take on his man and make the smart pass or layoff to a teammate. Based on his game today, I think he's ready to step up to the first team on a regular basis. Our regulars upfront look stale and it's time to let some of our youngsters have a go.

Our porn brothers, Rafael and Fabio, are getting there too. The only problem is that they seem to play at one pace. Similar to Tosic. There are times during the game where I was literally screaming at them to slow it down, look for a teammate instead of charging towards the opponent half at full throttle. A case of more haste less speed with them.

Welbeck's progress is coming along too. He's a tad bit selfish at times, but he's showing good instincts going forward and picking out teammates. He scored an early goal from a corner to put us in the lead.

Owen scored our second with a sweet run after Anderson stole the ball from a Barnsley throw-in. Then Neville got himself sent off with a dangerous challenge. Although he clearly won the ball, his follow thru was high and extremely dangerous. Had the opponent stuck out his foot, it probably would have snapped just below the knee.

We spent a large portion of the remaining 20 or so minutes watching Barnsley waste chance after chance. Foster had a couple of nervous moments at goal, and some of his decisions were questionable at best. If there was one thing he showed in today's game, it was that he's slowly working his way out of our future plans.

All in all, it was a credible result against a team with a giant-killing reputation. Our youngsters did really well and some of them really look good enough to step up to the first team if only the manager gives them a chance. I'm slightly curious about Gibson. I thought today would have been a good opportunity to have him in the game. With our dire situation in midfield we could have given him an ample chance to prove himself. It's not as if Scholes is going to get any younger or Carrick any better. I can only guess that he's injured.

It's All About Keeping Rafa's Job Alive

Liverpool 2 - Manchester United 0
Scorers
Liverpool: Torres (65), N'Gog (90)

Red Card
Manchester United: Vidic (89)
Liverpool: Mascherano (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Evra, O'Shea, Carrick, Scholes (Nani 74), Giggs, Valencia, Berbatov (Owen 74), Rooney

Let's get this straight, I hate losing to Liverpool. I utterly hate it. Today, the priority is different. It's about keeping the most incompetent manager at his job. It's about keeping the man who most single-handedly keeps Liverpool the 2nd banana, or for most years, the 3rd banana. However hard I may hate losing to the dreaded enemy, keeping that man in employment supercedes it.

Now with that clarification out of the way, we were pretty poor today. Liverpool played like their lives depended on it, and we obliged by giving them a lifeline. They were out of the blocks faster and were hungrier everywhere on the pitch. Had it not been for some fine goalkeeping by Van der Sar, we could very well have been buried at the half.

The second half didn't make matters any easier. A lapse in concentration allowed allowed Torres the time and space to outrun Rio and smash a stunner into Van der Sar's near side. One up to the enemy.

We tried to chase the game but Liverpool hurried and chased us all around the park, making the game extremely difficult to control. Even after replacing the ineffective Scholes and Berbatov did little to improve our chances.

As the game came to a close, both teams were reduced to 10 men in quick succession. First with a crude foul by Vidic on a runaway Kuyt, and subsequently Mascherano on another crude foul on Van der Sar.

We pushed so many men forward that we were caught out by a counter, resulting in N'Gog's break away goal in the dying seconds.

Make no bones about it, even though keeping Benitez employed is a good thing, we were utterly crap. We were out-hustled in every department. We didn't lose this game on skill, but were competely and truely outworked by a team who had everything to lose.

Hope the lads take something from this loss. There are no easy games in the EPL and unless they fight hard for the full 90 minutes, getting outworked like today could be a common occurance. Already we have come close to losing points against teams like Bolton last week and have been outworked by the likes of Burnley and Sunderland.

Valencia's Strike Sees United Thru To Second Round

CSKA Moscow 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Valencia (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio (Brown 57), Vidic, Fabio (Carrick 88), Neville, Scholes (Owen 70), Anderson, O'Shea, Nani, Valencia, Bervatov

Let's see if I can do this before the Real Madrid vs Milan game starts. I really would love to catch that game. Should be an exciting one compared to this almost bore draw.

We were missing 3 of our best players in the form of Giggs, Rooney and Fletcher. There were other absentees, but none more important than the 3 who have carried this team on their collective shoulders the entire season so far. With our big 3 missing, I wasn't really expecting much from the game. A draw would have been a great result, putting us into a really strong position in the group tables to advance.

Instead, we went one better. We got an unlikely away victory when Valencia smashed Berbatov's header into the net as the game was going towards a goalless draw.

We weren't doing too bad in the game. The artificial pitch caused havoc in the beginning half of the game, resulting in a comedy of errors from both sides misjudging the bounce. But fortunately for both teams, none of the bounces proved catastrophic.

The game itself was mostly going our way. The Russians seemed to have settled for a draw right from the start. They allowed us to have it our way as long as we didn't score. On our part, we duely obliged by holding on to alot of the possession and making absolutely nothing of it.

Nani and Fabio in particular saw loads of the ball on the left. Their industry and hard running should have produced much better results but the final ball was severely lacking in quality. Valencia had choice moments in the game, but suffered the same end product.

It reached a stage in the game (somewhere in the middle of the first half), Berbatov simply stopping running. Everytime the other 3 had the ball, he just stood in the box with his hand raised in disgust at the cross. He stopped chasing and ball that was passed 2 yards away from him. Personally it was just horrible to watch.

I think we can all admit that Berbatov is a really skilful player, somewhat temperamental at times, but a good player nonetheless. Today, he was just an asshole. He was mouthing off everytime the ball did not get to him. The problem with his attitude today is that it rubs off on players like Nani, Fabio and Valencia. More so Nani, since he comes across as a player that plays on the confidence of his teammates. As the game wore on, all 3 of their passing just got worse. And Berbatov got moodier. And the whole vicious cycle continued.

And what really irks me today is that we won. Now we can sweep all that under the carpet and pretend nothing's happened. Every thing's honky dory.

I honestly hope today's attitude is a one-off thingy although I think it's going to rare it's ugly head somewhere down the season. In the meantime, we can look forward to Sunday's big game against the team we all hate, Liverpool. Let's beat them, kick them while they're down and settle their pathetic season once and for all. The peace and quiet from all my pool loving friends for the next 10 months would be sweet music to my ears.

United Somehow Reclaims Top Spot

Manchester United 2 - Bolton 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Knight (5 og), Valencia (33)
Bolton: Taylor (75)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Rio, Evra (O'Shea 84), Neville, Anderson (Scholes 86), Carrick, Valencia, Giggs, Berbatov, Owen (Welbeck 84)

With other results in the league going our way, I should be a happy camper, but after watching us dominated for 75 minutes, then go thru a total collapse makes you take things into perspective. Mentally, we're just not there yet. For a good last 15 minutes or so, you might even be forgiven if you think that team was afraid of taking the top spot after Chelsea's loss earlier.

It started really well for us. Owen's wayward header was deflected into the net for an early lead. We could even have gone up by more seconds later but Evans header was pushed onto the post. Bolton were in a mess, and it seems like we were going to give them another hiding at Old Trafford.

We were horribly wasteful and coupled with Jaaskelainen's superb saves, kept the scoreline respectable. Valencia did double our lead at the half hour after a superb counter attacking play involving Gary Neville.

We entered the half with a healthy two goal cushion and feeling really good about ourselves. We were on top of our game and Bolton had rarely threatened. Giggs, Valencia and Berbatov were in outstanding form and really punishing the hapless Trotters.

It was much more of the same in the second half. We had most of the possession and had we been more clinical, we could have raked up a rugby score.

It was all going so well that the lads started to have mental lapses. Mistakes started to creep into our play and in the 75th minute, a collection of such mistakes resulted in Matthew Taylor leaping over Evra to head Bolton back into the game.

The rest of the game was terribly nerve-wrecking to watch. We were in shambles, inviting Bolton to come at us. All the good work put into the previous 75 minutes, threatened to come undone in the last 15.

Not trying to sound arrogant, but lucky for us, Bolton are a limited team. Had it been another team with a more potent attack, we could very well have lost points in this fixture. Like the rest of us, Ferguson must have breathed a sigh of relief when the final whistle blew, and not before a last gasp save made by Van der Sar to maintain the lead.

It's disappointing to have dominated huge parts of the game only to barely win it by the skin of our teeth.

The silverlining here is that despite an almost total collapse, we still got the 3 points and are at the top of the league. And we got there without playing our best. There in lies our problem as well. I have no idea what our best looks like, or if we're even able to reach that standard. And to further that thought, even if we do reach our peak, I'm not sure if we can sustain it for any meaningful period to make it count.

To make matters worse, the next couple of games are no walk in the park. We get an early game in the Champions League in Russia in midweek. And at the weekend, we get a cornered animal in the form of Liverpool, and you can be sure that beach balls will be banned at Anfield.

United Survives Another Crap First Half

Manchester United 2 - Sunderland 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (51), Ferdinand (og 90)
Sunderland: Bent (7), Jones (58)

Red Card
Sunderland: Richardson (85)

Team: Foster, Evans, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher (Carrick 72), Scholes (Anderson 45), Nani, Welbeck (Valencia 72), Berbatov, Rooney

At home against a perceivably poorer opponent. These are the types of games you need to win if you want to win the damn league. Unfortunately we didn't turn up today. Actually we were pretty damn awful.

Sunderland took an early lead thru red-hot Darren Bent, a shot which I felt Foster could have done better. But as we all know by now, he's really a pretty poor keeper and as a result we went one down. If that wasn't bad enough, our first half display was possibly one of the worst....ever. Not only were we terribly disjointed, we didn't even have a single shot on goal throughout the entire first half. Credit to the crowd who kept on egging the lads on, but from where I was seated (in front of my tele), someone should be hurling their prawn sandwich at Scholes. It looked obvious he's skipped lunch. He's passes were under hit. In fact the entire team was guilty of misplaced passes and giving it away cheaply.

Fergie must have kicked up a storm at half time because an entirely different team came out in the second half. Well, we were still crap but at least this time we played with a lot more desire. There was much more pressure applied to the Sunderland goalmouth and alot more urgency shown.

It wasn't long before Berbatov equalized with a delightful bicycle kick. It was an outstanding goal that the Sunderland coudn't save.

Attack attack attack chanted the crowd, but 7 minutes later they were shocked to silence. Some putrid defending allowed Kenwyne Jones the time to leap for the ball. Foster pulled a shocker coming for the ball but got outmuscled and the ball was headed into the net. So according to Ferguson, this is the best keeper England has to offer? No wonder England constantly wins fuck all. And if Ferguson persists on using him, so will we.

For the rest of the game, we threw everything but the kitchen sink at Sunderland, but credit to Steve Bruce's team, they are a resolute bunch and dangerous on the counter. We didn't really look like coming back into the game until old boy Richardson was sent off in the 85th minute. It was a silly silly second yellow card he collected. With the 3 points practically in the bag, he stupidly kicked the ball away.

Sunderland's loss was our gain. They ceased to give us trouble on the counter and we poured forward with everyone. And with 2 of the 4 minutes gone in injury time, Evra's shot was deflected into the net by Rio's younger brother. By some fluke, we came away from this disaster with a draw.

What I found utterly amazing was that Ferguson spent all the time complaining about the referee and the lack of added time instead of focusing on just how crap we were, or even his own stupidity of not having Giggs on the bench. After all the heroics of the past weeks, you would assume Giggs would have a place on the bench to provide a telling cross or make a cruscial pass in case it was needed, which we did today in the worst way possible.

Maybe he's just doing what all good managers do, and that is to protect his players from being crucified by the media by deflecting the attention away. Let's just hope for our sanity it's the latter.

Last but fucking not least....please for the love of football, drop Foster!

Giggs Continues Rolling

Manchester United 2 - Wolfsburg 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Giggs (59), Carrick (78)
Wolfsburg: Dzeko (56)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Anderson, Carrick, Giggs, Valencia (Fletcher 82), Owen (Berbatov 20), Rooney

Huge win. For a brief moment it felt that we were going away with nothing in the game but for the third time in 10 days we had Giggs to thank.

Wolfsburg had taken a shock lead, quite against the run of play from a good header by Dzeko. But Giggs restored parity with a hugely deflected freekick only 3 minutes later.

After some brilliant play from Berbatov, Giggs laid on the ball to Carrick to finish the Germany champions off in the 78th minute with a wonderful curler.

It wasn't our best game, but in the end we produced the goods to take pole position in the group. That said, I'm been a pretty big admirer of Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. I'm kinda disappointed that they didn't show much in this game. Hopefully we'd get a better chance to see their true potential in the reverse fixture....with us emerging as the winners of that one of course.

The game wasn't much of a spectacle in the first half. It was pouring, resulting in mistakes and misplaced passes from both teams. Besides two good chances spurned by Carrick, the only other memorable incident was Owen leaving the pitch with an injury. It's a worrying sign since we're rather short on the stiking department.

His replacement, Berbatov, had a brilliant game. He and Giggs had a hand in everything good we did today. His little flicks and arrogant style of play gave us a swagger we haven't seen since Cantona departed. But let's not get overly excited. It's only one game, and plenty more come. There is still a long way to go before he can measure up to the big man.

Giggs, on the other hand, was simply magnificent. He simply never gives up. His indian summer has been going on for quite sometime and ever since the departure of Ronaldo, he's upped his game to another level. The one thing that worries me here is that from the last few games, it seems that we're becoming too reliant on him. Let's hope Ferguson paces the Welsh wizard. It's a long long season and we've barely scratched the surface.

It was a good performance all around. We probably could have had more had the linesman been less flag-happy.