United Rides On The Red Hot Wings Of Berbatov

Manchester United 3 - Liverpool 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (42, 60, 84)
Liverpool: Gerrard (pen 64, 70)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, O'Shea, Evra, Scholes, Fletchers, Giggs (Macheda 82), Nani (Gibson 88), Berbatov (Anderson 88), Rooney

Definitely the year of Berbatov. After a torrid start to his United career, he's finally become the player we paid an obscene amount for. His sensational strikes today brought home the 3 points against a horrible Liverpool side.

We were the better team throughout the entire game, applying sustained pressure on a piss poor Pool side. They are indeed a team in turmoil and rarely looked to threaten. The first half was exclusively United's and when it looked like the half would end in a nil all draw, Berbatov popped up to put United into a deserved lead.

The second half was more of the same and Berbatov doubled his tally with a sensational bicycle kick that sent the Old Trafford faithful into a frenzy. We were all over Liverpool and a route looked on the cards until Howard Webb decided to stamp his influence on the game. He was Liverpool's single most important player, awarding a dubious penalty against Evans, while ignoring our own claims much earlier in the game. Gerrard scored from the spot to pull on back for the Scousers.

Webb, then went on penalise O'Shea for an innocuous challenge on the edge of the penalty area. Once again Gerrard stepped up and whipped the freekick home, drawing level against the run of play.

The last 20 minutes were horrible to watch. Shades of Fulham and Everton were on the cards, and we very nearly added Liverpool to that growing list. After 70 minutes of really superb football, we suddenly displayed a severe lack of confidence and probably would have been happy to see the game end in a stalemate. But Berbatov had other ideas. Refusing to let his two goals go to waste, he lept highest to meet a O'Shea's cross to seal victory for a manager who has shown tremendous faith in him.

While Berbatov was utterly brilliant, there is a worrying trend going on with our team. There is a sudden fallibility at the back that is hard to swallow and even harder to digest given the stingy diet we've been fed on in past seasons. We have been throwing away leads in recent times and that needs to stop if we're to challenge Chelsea for the top spot. As of right now, we're looking alot like Arsenal, playing good football without that steel to see thru it. Hopefully today's game is a step in the right direction for what is a long long season ahead of us.

Video of Berbatov's Genius

I scouted the net and found this video on Fliggo, posted by a user 'molzit'. It's the highlights of the West Ham game, and I thought I'll post it here for everyone to see the delightful piece of skill by Berbatov in creating the second goal. The video is not totally in English, but I'm too lazy to go looking for one so you'd have to make do with this one.

The second goal occurs around 57 seconds into the video. Watch and admire.

Manchester United vs West Ham 2-0 Highlights

Berbatov Breaks Duck

AaB Aalborg 0 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (22), Berbatov (55, 78)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Evra, Rafael (Brown 66), O'Shea, Scholes (Giggs 16), Nani, Ronaldo, Rooney (Tevez 59), Berbatov

It probably could have been more, but a satisfactory result nonetheless. The only probable complaint is that we lost Scholes, Rooney and Rafael thru injuries.

It was a lively start with the visitors showing intent on scoring. Just as I started to get warmed up, my broadband went dead on me. It took a good frantic while to get it working again, having to restart the computer twice in the process (damn you Microsoft!). And I only just made it on time to catch Rooney score via a delightful thru ball from Giggs.

It did leave me scratching my head since I don't recall seeing Giggs in the starting lineup. It was only sometime later that I realised that Scholes had been scratchered off with knee problems.

Aalborg did give a good account of themselves and might have pulled level if not for some woeful crossing.

On 55 minutes, Aalborg's captain made a mess of a routine clearance, allowing Berbatov to score his first United goal. The screwed up clearance went high and Berbatov needed no invitation to volley the ball into the net.

In quick succession, both Rooney and Rafael indicated that they needed to be substituted. Rafael had by then firmly moved his way up the right-back packing order. I'm pretty sure, along with millions of other United fans, that he's the best right-back at the team. He's still a little inexperienced but that should eventually sort itself out with more games under his belt. If his brother is half as good as him (which all indications suggests he is and more), then we're in for an exciting future.

While I was salivating over the Da Silva twins, Berbatov sealed the game with his second and United's third of the evening. Ronaldo went down the byline and crossed the ball into the area to find Berbatov unmarked. After some contorting, he volleyed it home.

Tevez and Ronaldo had opportunities to punish Aalborg further but 3-0 was a fair result on tonight's display. We were not as efficient as I would have liked against a weak opponent, but anything more would have understated Aalborg's performance.

A few points to note about this game:

Nani is starting to wear my patience down. With all his god given skills, he seems too in love with his dribbling, holding it on for way too long at times. He reminds me of Ronaldo in his second year with us, too eager to please and not intune with the team concept. I'm sure, like Ronaldo, he'd eventually grow into it (just hopefully we don't have to wait 4 years for that to happen).

O'Shea is crap. His position today is to sit in front of the back four and not do anything too stupid. Unfortunately, he tried too hard to do too much today. When we were 2 up, he started to lose the ball in dangerous positions. Had we been up against a team that had a clue, we could have been punished.

I haven't finished gushing over Rafael. Outstanding going forward and pretty solid in defense. Could have had a couple of crackers. The only criticism is that he tends to lunge himself at the ball in defense instead of shadowing the winger. But like I mentioned earlier, he should grow out of it thru experience.

As much as I dislike Rio as a person, he's grown into an outstanding defender. Whether it's due to playing with Vidic along side him or not, it no longer significant. During this trying period, he's been our most consistent player by a long long shot.

United Gets Fleeced

We just spent a fortune getting Dimitar Berbatov. Let's hope he's better than the last recruit we got from Spurs.

The amount we spent, £30.75million, smacks of desperation and utterly cluelessness our board has exhibited once again in the transfer market.

A few weeks ago, we refused to match Spurs valuation of around the same price, hoping to negotiate a better deal. Instead of having the player signed in the summer, join in the training camp, get used to Ferguson's style and gel with the players, the board decided to show just how good they are in the boardroom. So fast forward to today, we meet Spurs' original asking price and the player is a good few weeks behind in the program. Absolutely brilliant. I'm left speechless.

I can only hope Berbatov is the answer to all our woes in front of goal.

The deal also sees Campbell go the opposite direction in a loan deal.