Match Reviews aka United vs the Russians

By: Ryan | November 15th, 2009

As Taylor mentioned, I will be one of the day-to-day writers for my beloved Red Devils. So let’s get this party started by doing a massive recap of our past “big” games:

CSKA Moscow vs MUFC (CL Group)

The Good : Well we qualified, and that’s what really counts doesn’t it ?

The Bad : As much as I love him, I’m going to have to call out Mikey Owen. Two golden chances early and he misses them (yeah yeah I know, he netted United’s first and was a key aspect in moving the ball up the field…), but while I didn’t read through the entire brochure, I’m pretty sure the word “finisher” was listed often. Owen needs to find his old, pre-persistent-bad-knee-syndrome form, and prove to all of the united faithful that he was, in fact, the steal of the transfer market.

and The Ugly : Our Defense. Apparently Rio wasn’t the only one who the to-be-named aliens messed with. I don’t want to sit here and take anything away from the CSKA Moscow attackers, but god damn were they able to run free. The third goal came off of a header that was un contested following a free kick. I haven’t seen defending that poor since I watched myself (a born and raised striker) attempt to play center-back.

And of course it’s this hasn’t been an isolated incident. Look at the other weekend’s 2-0 loss to L’pool. Did they outplay us? Sure. Did they deserve to win? Well that’s debatable seeing as how I despise everything about them, but at the end of the day they took advantage of our lapses in defense.

…but I am not here to simply draw on the negatives, as what kind of “un-biased” writer would I be. In the second half (ignoring the pre-Rooney time) United kicked it into another gear. Granted we all know CSKA was trying to hold the lead, but if you are going to give United that kind of possession, we are going to score. And score we did, Scholes with a beauty of a header to level, and then Valencia knocking one in off a defender (which I still am convinced he meant to do from the start). My biggest worry as that as much as I hate the idea that United “need” Rooney on the field to be productive offensively…it’s starting to look more and more like that. Taylor alluded to it earlier, that we need someone the team can gather around, not as a Slave-esque “one man show”, but rather a leader. And I truly believe Wazza is that guy. He works harder than any other attacker on the squad *AHEM TAKE NOTES BERBATOV COUGH* and creates opportunities often.

Of course I digress there, moving on…

The Clash of the Titans (MUFC vs Chelsea)

After Moscow, United had another challenge in facing Roman Abrahimovich’s ~~money~~ Chelsea. If any of you ask any of my friends here in the states, they would all say my biggest worry coming into this fixture was our defense, combined with Didier Drogba’s disgustingly good form. But god damn, was I am impressed with our resolve. We featured a classic SAF “away-big-four formation”

VDS

O’Shea Brown Evans Evra

Fletcher Carrick Anderson Valencia

Giggs Rooney

in a sudo-4-5-1 formation, with Rooney playing mostly a possession position up front. Now, I’m going to be very vocal here about United personnel. I have very little faith in Anderson. I have not seen enough product from him to warrant a first-team position. Don’t get me wrong, he has a lot of talent, but once Hargreaves gets his new knees in working condition, I want to see him started over him. In addition, Valencia. Antonio, Antonio, Antonio. I could spend all day how I am not sold on him, but I won’t. I will say I want to see a lot of growth before I am convinced he is our new winger. ANYWAY…

…I’m sure you all know how the match finished, a 1-0 loss due to a heading finish by Chelsea captain John “The Brave One” Terry. Now it looks like Terry somehow managed to lose a defender. Watching the replay, you can see he lost his defender (Wes Brown) because Drogba pulled him to the ground. Convenient. At any rate the goal was awarded and United were not able to recover.

Man of the Match award, easily goes to Wes Brown. Despite the goal, he was charged with the task of marking Drogba. Need I mention again a “form-of-his-life” Drogba. And not only did Brown mark him, he shut him down. The only memorable thing from Drogba the entire game was this:

(btw, Johnny Evans is officially one of my new favorite players of all time for this).

In summary, these past two games were rough. While one was a shining example of United’s resolve, the other showed that we have a lot of ground to make up if we want to make it four in a row. Chelsea are five points clear, but luckily for us, it is early in the season. And, to try and ease the pain, let’s all remember one thing. United are arguably the best end-of-season team in the world. We have historically come into form right around December. With that in mind, I leave you with images of our winning 2008 EPL Champions: