United Bore Liverpool To 4th Round

Manchester United 1 - Liverpool 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Giggs (pen 2)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Evans (Smalling 84), Rafael, Evra, Fletcher (Anderson 62), Carrick, Giggs, Nani, Berbatov, Hernandez (Owen 75)

What a putrid game to sit thru. It was so boring that I immediately fell asleep right after the final whistle. Once again, we failed to find any sort of flair and probably played our worst game of the season.

We were lucky on two accounts. First, we got to face a Liverpool side that is on a huge decline. Even the appointment of Kenny Dalglish failed to movtivate this bunch. Although it was a somewhat spirited performance by the scousers, they were truely pathetic.

Then there was that penalty decision that everyone was talking about. Berbatov dived in the first minute and Howard Webb bought it line, hook and sinker. Unlike Walcott, the day before, Berbatov still insists it was a genuine penalty.

Shameful.

But not as shameful as the way we approached the game after Giggs put away the spot kick. It was as uninspired as it could get. With the exception of probably Rafael and Hernandez, no one in a red shirt gave a shit out there. No one was interested in fighting for the ball and no one was moving and making space for the passes.

Gerrard then foolishly got himself sent off for a leg-breaking tackle on Carrick. Carrick was lucky to be unhurt by the challenge and Gerrard was rightly given his marching orders. Things got worse playing against ten men.

The only reason that kept me watching the game instead of switching to the Spurs game was the prospect and hope that we would finally wake up and pound the living daylights of our once hated rivals.

Sadly, that never materialized. Barring a 20 second spell where Reina make a quintuple of fine saves, the game fettered out into a borefest.

I have absolutely no doubts that if we bring this Night of the Living Dead performance into most of the games remaining this season, there is absolutely no way we're going to win anything. There is going to be a huge injection of pride and motivation if we're going to take anything from Spurs at White Hart Lane next week.

Nani Sinks Stoke

Manchester United 2 - Stoke City 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Hernandez (27), Nani (62)
Stoke City: Whitehead (50)

Team: Kuszczak, Vidic, Smalling, Rafael, Evra, Fletcher, Gibson (Carrick 78), Giggs, Nani, Berbatov, Hernandez (Owen 78)

Once again we failed to overwhelm our opponents despite dominating the bulk of the game. The good news however is that we still managed to gather all 3 points after a lacklustre display.

Hernandez opened the scoring when he nipped in front of Shawcross to poke home Nani's low cross to send the Old Trafford crowd wild. We should have had killed the game but no one had their scoring boots on. All our shots went wayward.

Inside the first 5 minutes of the second half, Stoke equalized via a header from Whitehead. Our defenders were caught in Neverland and Whitehead capitalized to pull the game level. We looked shaky until Nani's wonderstrike just after the hour mark.

From then on, we completely kept Stoke out of the game without threatening to pull further away. Our passing in the last third was severely lacking and the game petered out to a close 2-1 victory.

What was encouraging was the play of both Smalling and Rafael. Both handled their defensive duties well. The only blemish was allowing Whitehead's header, but that responsibility fell mostly to Vidic and Evra.

On the attacking side, Nani was a welcome sight. He's goal brought us the points, and while he did show his usual scintillating runs down the flanks, he did a wonderful job providing the spark and link up play.

If there was one downside was the play of Gibson. I'm beginning to feel very underwhelmed by him. Besides a wicked shot (which has been missing), he's just a very mediocre player. There is nothing outstanding about his play. At the same time, there's nothing he does poorly either. Perhaps that's exactly his problem, he's a very average player when his shot is not there. Probably someone good enough for a second rung club like Birmingham or Wolves, but I don't really see a future for him at United. Afterall, as Kentona once mentioned, we already have Carrick for that.

All in all, it's a good result today. We've come away with 10 points from a hectic festive fixture and that's a really good haul.

Next we get to play Liverpool in the FA Cup this weekend, followed by another imposing game against Spurs, who'd love to avenge the defeat at Old Trafford.

United Survives Hawthorns

WBA 1 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
WBA: Morrison (14)
Manchester United: Rooney (2), Hernandez (75)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Vidic, Neville (Fabio 71), Evra, Carrick, Anderson, Fletcher, Obertan (Gibson 61), Rooney, Berbatov (Hernandez 61)

Hmmm....where shall we start? First off, we were terrible...really terrible. Secondly, WBA should have won with plenty of leg space to put most first class seats in most airlines to shame.

Granted we started off early with a Rooney goal from open play to usher in the New Year, we were second best for most parts of the game. Neville, in particular, was just abysmal. I know he's been a loyal servant and a key part in alot of our past success, but the current version lacks the timing and positional sense to play the game at this level anymore. He was caught out of position time and time again and to make matters worse, he's been caught for pace and left for dead. He should have been sent off early in the game with a crude tackle in the box, but was let off when the referee waved the game on despite it being an ironclad penalty.

It's embarassing to watch a legend fall so badly. Ferguson should stop trying to shame the poor fellow and let him slowly fade into the sunset. There are options at rightback if Ferguson is willing to put away his biasness.

Obertan is the other player in red that was utterly disappointing as well. There is no doubts that he has oodles of skills, but for some reason, he just doesnt't know how to deal with it. He's decision making is some of the worst I've seen in football. Nani and Ronaldo have been guilty of making some poor choices on the pitch, but Obertan takes the cake. Some of the stuff he does )or doesn't do), just baffles the mind. Nevertheless, I'm not willing to write him off yet. If we exercised the amount of patience on both Nani and Ronaldo, then it's only fair we give Obertan the same amount of time to establish himself and learn the game properly. Yet for some reason, I feel he just might not make the grade.

As for everyone else, I suppose they did enough. We were lucky that WBA missed a penalty while they were completely dominating the game. That penalty miss deflated them and Hernandez went on the sub salt in their wounds with a game winner.

We've chalked up our second away win and have temporarily broken away from the chasing pack, albeit for a few hours.