Didn't see a similar thread (Mark usually does one but couldn't find any), if there is one, then move this.
To paraphrase Richard Keys; that was a "MASSIVE" win. Have you ever seen a team who perform better under adversity than us? Sans Gerrard, that was a mighty mighty victory. I was reading the Match Thread there and the howls of anguish prior to the game about how our starting 11 were vastly inferior to theirs on paper were quite true. Looking at it from an outside perspective, they shouldn't have lost to us. A team that finishes with Insua, Lucas, N'gog, Aurelio et al in it, won't win many League Titles, but occassionaly it's not the players that you put out but the formation and tactics you give them.
Benitez has for the third time in succession, completely tactically outwitted Ferguson. He must relish it. It's almost as though having to do it without Gerrard and a few others to select from makes it more of a challenge for him. That said, I was stunned by Ferguson's lack of changes during the game. It's almost as if he was immune to United's ineptitude. Easy to say, but there's no way Rafa would have kept the formation and approach Ferguson did were the situations reversed. Their 4-4-2 setup was admirable, but put a lot of pressure on the ageing Scholes, and the out of form Carrick. Mascherano and Lucas won the midfield battle, but why were they allowed to? Why didn't he bring Giggs in and pull Rooney wide left? Carrick didn't get close enough to Lucas, and Mascherano dominated in our half.
If you're gonna tell Valencia to stay wide and not either cut inside, or provide support to the midfield two, then you've got to expect him to be seriously fucking damaging from the flank. He wasn't. Considering he was up against the timid Insua, his output was extremely mediocre. To be fair, only on fleeting occassions did they get the ball to him quickly enough, which gave him the rare opportunity to go at an unprotected Insua. For the rest of the game he had to confront Insua, and one of Macherano and the extremely discilpined Aurelio.
They definitely should have made more use of Giggs. Johnson was obviously under instructions not to go forward that often, so they could have stuck Giggs elsewhere and changed the approach. Instead Ferguson did nothing. Fucking zero. They lost a game that they had time to change.
And it was lost in midfield really. We pressed them wonderfully well right from the first minute, meaning any pass Carrick or Scholes made was either a sideways or backwards one. Rooney never got a sniff, and our defensive 4, marshalled by Carragher were tight and resolute (By the way, how much easier is it to keep a clean sheet when your fullbacks don't cross the halfway line?). People are extolling Mascherano's contribution, and rightly so. His harrying, harassing, and break-up play in our half was excellent. Really really vital. He spoiled it with that sending off though - he's an experienced player these days, and shit challenges like that in the 94th minute aren't required.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I thought Lucas was outstanding too. Three times in the first 4 minutes he won the ball off Scholes and started attacks. Some people obviously prefer Masher's eye-bulging, all-sliding approach - fine. But to ignore Lucas' clever reading of the play, and break-up of United passing is bollocks. He never goes to ground, yet he still wins the ball. It helps a lot. And yesterday's wasn't the first game that he's been doing that either.
He mightn't have done the demonstrative work Masher gave, but what he did do was play in both halfs. Mascherano's role was limited to playing in our half alone, which he did splendidly. Lucas had to provide something in both sides of the pitch though, and was tellingly - the one who launched several attacks. But for better final balls from him, and a few others, the opening goal would have arrived earlier. Keeping the ball is another of the Brazilian's strengths, a rare commodity in such humdrum games. He's not shite, he's getting better slowly but surely. The least we cana sk is that he improves, and the Lucas of today is a far better player than the one of 12 months ago. Playing without the experience of Riera, Gerrard and of course - Alonso - alongside you is difficult for anyone. You can't say "the squad is shit" and then watch that same squad defeeat the Champions for the third time in a row. Rafa's right - "We're better than people think."
I watched the game for the second time this morning, and have changed my MOTM award to Carra though. Lucas was good, ditto Masher, Torres, Agger (whom I thought played very well indeed) but Carra gave one of those performances that let you think he could have played on his own in that defence and they still wouldn't have scored. He made one block on the edge of the area from Carrick (I think) that was typical him; hurling himself at it immune to fatigue and possible pain. Arguind the toss between him, Lucas, Mascherano and the others is like fighting over the merits of an oliy titwank and a blowjob, everyone's a winner really.
For moment of the match, I doubt I'll get tired of watching that fucking heartthrob gliding past Plug Ferdinand for the opener. He's got this brilliant ability to knock it just far enough in front of him to be able to use his speed, and still keep it within his own control. Remember how Owen (and Cisse) used to knock it so far in front of them the keeper could come and block?He's seriously mautring is our Fernando, he also didn't expend any energy on chasing and harassing their defence, saving what limited energy levels he had for when we were on the ball. Whether that was a Benitez-instruction, or off his own back, who knows. But it worked. He's now got Vidic shit scared, no doubt this'll mean Ryan Giggs being Player of the Year again, but it's worth it seeing that block-headed Serb being made the fool of.
That pure emotion when you see the net bulge is hard to beat, and a very very welcome end to what's been a rather shite few weeks. We've got Fulham and Birmingham in our next two League games. In that time, United play Chelsea where points will be dropped somewhere. Those 4 and 6 point gaps can be eroded pretty quickly. Game on.
To paraphrase Richard Keys; that was a "MASSIVE" win. Have you ever seen a team who perform better under adversity than us? Sans Gerrard, that was a mighty mighty victory. I was reading the Match Thread there and the howls of anguish prior to the game about how our starting 11 were vastly inferior to theirs on paper were quite true. Looking at it from an outside perspective, they shouldn't have lost to us. A team that finishes with Insua, Lucas, N'gog, Aurelio et al in it, won't win many League Titles, but occassionaly it's not the players that you put out but the formation and tactics you give them.
Benitez has for the third time in succession, completely tactically outwitted Ferguson. He must relish it. It's almost as though having to do it without Gerrard and a few others to select from makes it more of a challenge for him. That said, I was stunned by Ferguson's lack of changes during the game. It's almost as if he was immune to United's ineptitude. Easy to say, but there's no way Rafa would have kept the formation and approach Ferguson did were the situations reversed. Their 4-4-2 setup was admirable, but put a lot of pressure on the ageing Scholes, and the out of form Carrick. Mascherano and Lucas won the midfield battle, but why were they allowed to? Why didn't he bring Giggs in and pull Rooney wide left? Carrick didn't get close enough to Lucas, and Mascherano dominated in our half.
If you're gonna tell Valencia to stay wide and not either cut inside, or provide support to the midfield two, then you've got to expect him to be seriously fucking damaging from the flank. He wasn't. Considering he was up against the timid Insua, his output was extremely mediocre. To be fair, only on fleeting occassions did they get the ball to him quickly enough, which gave him the rare opportunity to go at an unprotected Insua. For the rest of the game he had to confront Insua, and one of Macherano and the extremely discilpined Aurelio.
They definitely should have made more use of Giggs. Johnson was obviously under instructions not to go forward that often, so they could have stuck Giggs elsewhere and changed the approach. Instead Ferguson did nothing. Fucking zero. They lost a game that they had time to change.
And it was lost in midfield really. We pressed them wonderfully well right from the first minute, meaning any pass Carrick or Scholes made was either a sideways or backwards one. Rooney never got a sniff, and our defensive 4, marshalled by Carragher were tight and resolute (By the way, how much easier is it to keep a clean sheet when your fullbacks don't cross the halfway line?). People are extolling Mascherano's contribution, and rightly so. His harrying, harassing, and break-up play in our half was excellent. Really really vital. He spoiled it with that sending off though - he's an experienced player these days, and shit challenges like that in the 94th minute aren't required.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I thought Lucas was outstanding too. Three times in the first 4 minutes he won the ball off Scholes and started attacks. Some people obviously prefer Masher's eye-bulging, all-sliding approach - fine. But to ignore Lucas' clever reading of the play, and break-up of United passing is bollocks. He never goes to ground, yet he still wins the ball. It helps a lot. And yesterday's wasn't the first game that he's been doing that either.
He mightn't have done the demonstrative work Masher gave, but what he did do was play in both halfs. Mascherano's role was limited to playing in our half alone, which he did splendidly. Lucas had to provide something in both sides of the pitch though, and was tellingly - the one who launched several attacks. But for better final balls from him, and a few others, the opening goal would have arrived earlier. Keeping the ball is another of the Brazilian's strengths, a rare commodity in such humdrum games. He's not shite, he's getting better slowly but surely. The least we cana sk is that he improves, and the Lucas of today is a far better player than the one of 12 months ago. Playing without the experience of Riera, Gerrard and of course - Alonso - alongside you is difficult for anyone. You can't say "the squad is shit" and then watch that same squad defeeat the Champions for the third time in a row. Rafa's right - "We're better than people think."
I watched the game for the second time this morning, and have changed my MOTM award to Carra though. Lucas was good, ditto Masher, Torres, Agger (whom I thought played very well indeed) but Carra gave one of those performances that let you think he could have played on his own in that defence and they still wouldn't have scored. He made one block on the edge of the area from Carrick (I think) that was typical him; hurling himself at it immune to fatigue and possible pain. Arguind the toss between him, Lucas, Mascherano and the others is like fighting over the merits of an oliy titwank and a blowjob, everyone's a winner really.
For moment of the match, I doubt I'll get tired of watching that fucking heartthrob gliding past Plug Ferdinand for the opener. He's got this brilliant ability to knock it just far enough in front of him to be able to use his speed, and still keep it within his own control. Remember how Owen (and Cisse) used to knock it so far in front of them the keeper could come and block?He's seriously mautring is our Fernando, he also didn't expend any energy on chasing and harassing their defence, saving what limited energy levels he had for when we were on the ball. Whether that was a Benitez-instruction, or off his own back, who knows. But it worked. He's now got Vidic shit scared, no doubt this'll mean Ryan Giggs being Player of the Year again, but it's worth it seeing that block-headed Serb being made the fool of.
That pure emotion when you see the net bulge is hard to beat, and a very very welcome end to what's been a rather shite few weeks. We've got Fulham and Birmingham in our next two League games. In that time, United play Chelsea where points will be dropped somewhere. Those 4 and 6 point gaps can be eroded pretty quickly. Game on.
