United Loses Midfield Battle But Wins The War

Manchester United 1 - Galatasaray 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Carrick (7)

Team: De Gea, Vidic, Evans, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Scholes (Fletcher 79), Valencia, Nani, Kagawa (Welbeck 84), Van Persie (Hernandez 81)

The more I watch United this season, the more underwhelmed I get. We keep getting lost in midfield and had it not been for some stout defending and brilliant goalkeeping, we would have dropped points tonight.

To be fair, we started off pretty well and really looked like taking the game to the Turkish. Carrick scored early playing pretty one-twos with both Kagawa and RVP. He rounded the keeper, kept his balance and put the ball in the net. We had numerous opportunities to double the score but were found wanting. As with every game, the momentum slowly swung the way of Galatasaray and we were kept at bay for the longest periods in the game.

They struck the woodwork thrice and had a couple of penalties denied. On our end, we had one called and Nani fluffed his lines while trying to fool the keeper. I don't understand why or what he was trying to do, taking a number of stutter steps which only ended up fooling himself. At least after making a complete and utter fool of himself, he actually played some really good football.

We created a good number of chances in the game, but were unable to find the target, while Galatasaray were good value for a draw. They were the better team and probably on the night deserved something. Yet we won the game. I hate repeating myself, but we continue to live the lie.

I really have a bad bad feeling for this Sunday. You know that Liverpool is a wounded beast, and as poorly as they have been playing, we're no better. Our careless play in midfield is going to come back to bite us in the back one day. I just hope it's not this Sunday.