Young Saves United Blushes

Manchester United 3 - Basel 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Welbeck (16,17), Young (90)
Basel: F. Frei (58), A. Frei (60, pen 76)


Team: De Gea, Rio, Jones, Fabio (Nani 70), Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Berbatov 82), Giggs (Park 61), Valencia, Young, Welbeck

What a game. As a football fan, this was an absolute beauty to watch, however, I'm a United fan as well, and it's seriously been a bloody rollercoaster ride. I can't even decide right now if I should be happy with the result, whether we dodged a bullet or missed the heart.

All credit to Basel for making this a fantastic game. They played without fear, creeping into the lion's den and walking tall from it with a prized tooth.

We, on the other hand, have been just pathetic behind. Ever since the Chelsea game, our injury hit backline has been allowing opponents too many chances and it's come back to bite us in the last couple of games.

The game started off exactly that way. Basel came close on a couple of occasions but it seemed that they had left their scoring boots back in Switzerland. We took full advantage of their misses and fired two good goals from Danny Welbeck. Despite going two down, Basel continued to create chances after chances but were not able to trouble De Gea in any shape, way or form. It looked pretty going into the half. All we needed to do was to keep the backline strong and the points would have been in the bag.

Again I'm just going to say, all credit to Basel. They just came at us in the second half and were duely rewarded with two quick-fire goals of their own. We were the architects of our own demise. We kept giving the ball away cheaply and our back four looked terribly hesitant. The support from midfield went the way of the dinosaurs.

Then in the 76th minute, we once more fell victim to some terrible defending and gave away a penalty. Alexander Frei added his second and Basel's third, and we were staring at a shock humiliation...at Old Trafford!

We poured forward in numbers and in typical United-style, scored in the 90th minute to level the scores. Despite a generous amount of injury time, we were unable to conjure a winner, but then again, that would have been terribly cruel to Basel's valiant effort. Even then, Berbatov could have produced something but he saw glory and hit his shot into the side-netting when Nani was in a better position for a tap-in.

This was a superb game to watch, non-stop attacking from both sides. We need to really tighten our defence in the worst way possible. It's shambolic and we're putting alot of pressure from our front men to keep up. As brilliant as Rooney, Hernandez and Welbeck have been, they are only human.

Lucky To Come Away With A Draw

Stoke City 1 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Stoke City: Crouch (52)
Manchester United: Nani (27)


Team: De Gea, Rio, Jones, Valencia, Evra, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Young (Giggs 70), Berbatov (Welbeck 70), Hernandez (Owen 10)

As mentioned in the last post, this is the hump that we needed to get over. On paper it looked like a disappointing result, especially after we got into the lead via a magical moment from Nani. However in reality, it really wasn't close. We were hammered and battered and if not for the heroics of De Gea, we really should have lost this one.

Right from the kickoff, Stoke signalled their intent to play a physical game and lenient refereeing allowed to get away with absolute murder in the opening 10 minutes. There were a number of cringe-worthy tackles by the Stoke players on ours which resulted in Hernandez being replaced by Owen in the opening 10 minutes. It was downright dirty and disgusting.

Having rubbed it in our face with their physical presence, they went on to dominate midfield and created a good number of chances. Without Rooney on the pitch, our build ups were laboured. Berbatov took too much time on the ball and most of our attacks resulted in having to punt a hopeful ball amongst the trees for Owen to gather.

Good thing we still had Nani to rely on. He's come along way from the awkward player he was 4 years back. Now he's full of confidence in his own ability and it was that self-belief that brought us the lead quite against the run of play. He sliced and diced past the entire Stoke defence and unleashed a screamer.

Stoke almost replied immediately but De Gea's reflexes saved us, pushing Wilkinson's shot to the post. He then went on the foil Walters shot.

It seemed like we would keep a clean sheet, but right after the break, slack marking allowed Crouch to head home the equalizer. The game then went thru a period where neither side wanted to defend, but neither side were able to make the breakthru either.

In the dying minutes, Stoke were happy to share the spoils as we went forward to make an attempt to grab it all. Our efforts were not enough on the night and gave up our 100% record.

Overall it was still a good result considering how poorly we played for most of the game. There was a lack of simple, quick and incisive passing that allowed us to win the past 5 games. While I don't really want to put it on Berbatov's or Fletcher's shoulders, they were indeed very slow to release the ball. They just held on to it for a tad too long, and all the attacking impetus was lost. It became very apparent once Berbatov left the pitch, the last 20 minutes saw us passing and ball faster and making inroads into the last third. Too bad after playing 70 minutes of slow, laboured football, there just wasn't enough time to rev up the engine.

A win here would have done our confidence a world of good, considering the next 3 premiership fixtures of Norwich away and Liverpool and Shitty at home. We could just steamroll them, but with a draw here, a lingering doubt might creep into the minds of our young players.

Well, I suppose the silver lining here is that we're still top of the table, albeit by a narrow goal difference.

United Shrugs Off Leeds

Leeds 0 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Owen (15, 31), Giggs (45)


Team: Amos, Carrick, Fryers, Fabio, Valencia, Park, Giggs (Progba 46), Diouf (Welbeck 70), Macheda (Cole 77), Berbatov, Owen

No really much to say here. This used to be a huge fixture; the battle of the roses, Yorkshire vs Lancashire, but not anymore. There was a time when Alex Ferguson used to field his best and his toughest at Ellen Road, but those days are gone. It may return someday, but unlikely in the near future. The gulf in standards is as wide as the scoreline suggests and on top of that, we fielded an experimental team with the reserves. Just to emphasize the difference, we ended the game with a centreback pairing of Carrick and Berbatov!

A number of players were fielded in positions that were unfamilar to them, but all had acquitted themselves well. Macheda and Diouf were employed at the left and right flanks respectively. While they didn't make significant contributions upfront, they were both hardworking and came back often to help the their respective fullbacks.

Valencia continues from his weekend advantures at right back and seems to be growing into the role. For his sake, I hope Ferguson doesn't get any funny ideas of playing him there full time. As it stands, we already have Rafael and to a smaller extend, both Smalling and Jones as standbys there.

Our injuries in the centre of defence and the need to rest players playing here resulted in Carrick playing along side the youngster Ezekiel Fryers. I've never seen of heard of Fryers, but they both did a masterful job. When Fryers get injured in the 77th minute, Berbatov tracked back for a cameo at that spot, and must say for the rest of the game did look the part. If the injuries continue to pile up in this department, we could see this very makeshift central pairing however unlikely.

Park and Giggs were terrific dictating play from the centre of the park. Giggs really seems to age well. His goal at the end of the half was a marvel. It probably got a deflection at the end, but the run up to it was all Giggs turning back to clock and mesmerising us with his skills. He's replacement in the second half, Progba, is still not ready for the big time or the bright lights.Too many wild passes and rash challenges. The potential is there and he needs to get first team action, be it training with the first team or out of loan to other clubs to gain alot more experience before he's the finished product.

And of course up front, Owen was Owen. Two goals to the good. Berbatov did nothing upfront and probably enjoyed his little stint behind.

Long story short, Leeds were crap and we took advantage and snuffed their light out early. The weekend's a different monster altogether. It's going to be a bruising contest against Stoke, a game I'm not relishing. I hope they can play possum like they did against Sunderland over the weekend, but it's more likely they'd be more like the tigers against Liverpool. So far I've been enjoying this season, but I somehow just have a bad feeling about this weekend....