Chicharito Opens European Account

Valencia 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Hernandez (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael (O'Shea 90), Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson (Hernandez 77), Park, Nani, Berbatov (Macheda 85)

Utterly horrible game to watch. Let's be honest, both sides were terrible and really neither side should have had any points, not even for a draw. UEFA should refund the tickets the supporters paid. This game brought about more negatives than positives.

In fact other than a nice goal coming late in the game, there's nothing to write about so I'll go along with some observations, starting with the negatives.

Negatives
- Outside of Scholes, we have no central midfielders. Not going to win anything unless Scholes goes the distance.

- Carrick is utterly rubbish. Everyone who reads this blog knows I already not a very big fan of Carrick and his standing with me is somewhat rock bottom. Yet somehow he went alot lower after today. Granted it's his first game back, it's still hard to cut him some slack with the abysmal first touch he showed today. Not only that, he was guilty of giving the ball away with every other touch. I'd very much rather have Invisible Man back, at least that guy wouldn't/couldn't do much damage.

- We can't defend crosses. Valencia was utterly horrible at the end of crosses, and we benefited from their wastefulness.

- Knew it wouldn't last. Berbatov is back. Sulky, lazy Berbatov is back. At least with him, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and just put it down to him playing up front alone without support. Yet somehow I feel it's not the end of this version of Berbatov I'm going to see this season.

- Alright own up, who took Evra's soul?

- Owen must feel so fucked. After scoring 3 goals last week, he ends up behind Hernandez and Macheda. And because Macheda created the goal that Hernandez scored, no one is really going to notice this. Can't help but feel sorry for Owen.

- Had I known they were going to play this badly, I would have gone to sleep or watched some porn. The only consolation was that we somehow won, just was Valencia was gaining some foothold in the game. To be honest, both teams were just terrible.

Positives
+ Chicharito has a beautiful first touch. Hit a post and scored a goal in a short short period of time he played.

+ Macheda didn't do too badly either. Did well to pass to Hernandez. Showed more life than most of the zombies on the pitch.

+ Nani was immense. Top notch work-rate today. Was everywhere on the pitch and made some crucial blocks, covering Rafael. Was tremendous going forward, but never got the support he deserved. Easily the best player on the pitch by a long long margin.