United Continues To Suffer From Poor Starts

CFR Cluj 1 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
CFR Cluj: Kapetanos (14)
Manchester United: Van Persie (29, 49)

Team: De Gea, Rio, Evans (Wootton 79), Rafael, Evra, Fletchers, Anderson, Cleverley, Rooney, Van Persie, Hernandez (Welbeck 83)

It took a last gasp save from De Gea for United to come away with a victory in Romania. Like most of the games this season, we got off to another slow start and nearly paid the price.

Cluj were defensively tight and were advertised to be the experts at the counter-attack. Well, it was supposed to be common knowledge, except that Evra obviously missed out on the scouting report. Sougou, the two goal hero at Braga, found himself with so much property that if he were in Singapore, he would be the richest land owner. He eluded Evra on the left and found Kapetanos with a sweet cross and all he had to do was to put it past De Gea.

In the words of Ferguson at a half time interview....'it was shocking!'.

The only saving grace is that Cluj is a pretty terrible team and we practically dominated the entire game. With Carrick, Giggs and Scholes all left at home, we started with a midfield consisting of Fletcher, Cleverley, Anderson and Rooney supporting the two frontmen.

The midfield battle was comfortably won as we imposed our will on the game. It wasn't a surprise that Van Persie equalized. Rooney's freekick from the left was looped over the keeper with a lucky bounce on Van Persie's shoulder.

Van Persie got the winner early in the second half with Rooney providing once again. Rooney seems to be thriving in the supporting midfield role with most of everything good United did coming from him. On this occasion, his long raking ball released Van Persie who took a delightful touch to direct it past the on rushing keeper.

With the lead and the momentum on our side, you would think we would have gone on to really plaster the Romanian goal, yet the opposite happened. We shifted a couple of gears down and just stopped playing football. There was a whole lot of nonchalant passing the ball all around midfield. The good thing is that Cluj is built around the counter-attacking game and it kinda put them off their game plan.

That said, without a two goal cushion, there was always an element of luck, and that nearly came for Cluj in the dying seconds in injury time. De Gea made a superb save right at the death to preserve the lead and the points.

Once again, we were our worst enemy. I suppose at least the midfield looks much better today than it has in a long long while, but I suspect a huge portion of that is down to the quality of the opponents. Sadly I think we're going to see Carrick and Scholes back on Sunday at St James. Ben Arfa is going to have a field day with that pairing.

Spurs Break Old Trafford Jinx

Manchester United 2 - Tottenham 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Nani (51), Kagawa (53)
Tottenham: Vertonghen (2), Bale (32), Dempsey (52)

Team: Lindagaard, Rio (Hernandez 90), Evans, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs (Rooney 46), Nani, Kagawa (Welbeck 79), Van Persie

Anyone even surprised at this result? I know I'm not. We were terrible. Absolutely putrid in the first half and deserved this loss even though we did give a good account of ourselves in the second half. Sadly the game is not played in 45 minute halves.

I'm sure the newspapers tomorrow would all be screaming at our porous and sometimes non-existent defense, but the problem for me lies squarely in the midfield area. We are so bad in the centre of the park that we just didn't give our much maligned defenders a chance. The cover just wasn't there and there were times our midfielders didn't seem like they cared.

Just look at the first goal by Vertonghen. Neither Nani nor Carrick were interested in tracking him when he got the ball. If either had tracked back, he wouldn't have the chance to slice right thru our defense to score. Similarly, Bale was given arces of space to run at Rio while Evans was busy covering Defoe. Even for Dempsey's tap in, no one shadowed him, allowing him all the space and time in the world to tap in Lindegaard's shotblock.

To make matters worse, our midfield is terribly static. Kagawa had no one to play with. Once Rooney came on in the second half, the entire complexion of the game changed. Suddenly all the off the ball running by Kagawa mattered. Suddenly he had someone to play the ball off, and as a result, we played so much better, pinning Spurs back into their own half. They could barely cope with the movement. Even Van Persie and Nani came to life, after stinking it up in the first half.

We brought the game to Spurs in the second half, but were unable to claw back a huge first half deficit. Until Ferguson starts playing the youngsters (Ando and Cleverley together) or we get a covering midfielder in the mold of a Yaya Toure or Tiote, we're going to see a whole lot of play like the first half. Sometimes we pull out of it, like against Fulham, Soton and Liverpool, but against good enough opponents, we're just going to fail like against Everton and today against Spurs.

Anderson And Cleverley Stunners Sees United Thru

Manchester United 2 - Newcastle 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Anderson (44), Cleverley (58)
Newcastle: Cisse (61)

Team: De Gea, M. Keane, Wootton, Vermiji (Turnnicliffe 76), Buttner (Brady 86), Fletcher, Anderson, Cleverley, Welbeck, Rooney (Powell 76), Hernandez

I'm usually not a fan of our midfield, but today I am. With Fletcher leading the pack with his first start after a long absence, our midfield was almost fantastic. Ando and Cleverley has always been my preferred pairing and today both got on the scoresheet with absolute belters.

For once without the static Carrick holding play back, there was movement and urgency in the centre of the park. With the help of Rooney and Welbeck playing deep, we were creating chances and looked significantly more dangerous going forward.

We did look vulnerable at the back especially during Newcastle set-pieces, but both Michael Keane and Wootton held their own well. With Vidic, Smalling and Jones out for an extended amount of time, Ferguson seems to have viable options. Whether he uses them or not is another question altogether. For what it's worth, they both got valuable play time today.

The stand out youngster today however was the young Belgian, Vermiji. His delivery into the box from the right wing back position was delicious. It was unfortunate that most of the time he whipped in those delightful balls, no one was at the end of it.

I'd be surprised in the weeks to come, Ferguson keeps faith in Carrick. Fletcher, Ando and Cleverley are all knocking on the door and should really be given the opportunity to play over Carrick, Giggs and Scholes. The Ando-Cleverley pairing would be a godsend. When together, both are hungry and mobile. Mpre importantly, neither will have an elder statesman along side them which they would feel obligated to defer to.

Can't wait for the weekend to come. If Spurs play anywhere near what they are capable of, they are going to knock our socks off. Maybe then, Ferguson will start changing the midfield.

Trivia: Ryan Turnnicliffe was substituted into the game at 76th minute. His father placed a 100 pound bet on his son making the first team of Manchester United 10 years ago at a 100-1. Today, the elder Turnnicliffe walks away 10,000 pounds richer.