Manchester United always have a way of messing up my weekend especially when I have great plans for the weekend. United failed to secure three points for the third time in four home
league games this season, allowing a spirited Southampton side to grab
an 89th minute equalizer. While Southampton will feel their tenacity
and hard work was justly rewarded, the Reds will rue the chances missed
to put the game out of reach long before the crucial goal was conceded. Well, these are my reactions,
Disappointing but not dismal. Manchester
United controlled large parts of the game yesterday and going forward,
there was plenty to be positive about. On another day, the game would
have been put to bed – we hit the bar twice and had a host of chances
ruled out for offside when Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie are usually
so good at holding their runs.
Southampton kept on coming at United and
fair play to them for getting the draw but our defence, De Gea in
particular, will have felt aggrieved at not keeping a clean sheet given
how well they had played.
In the attack, a front four of Nani,
Januzaj, Rooney and van Persie was dynamic and it was refreshing to see
us creating chances all over the pitch. especially given how one
dimensional we have looked at times this season.
It may have been more points dropped but there were definitely some positives to take into the Real Sociedad game.
Adnan Januzaj. He was the talking
point before the game and his performance is one of the main talking
points after it. The 18-year-old has taken his phenomenally quick rise
to the United first team completely in his stride as showed that once
again with a very measured and composed performance.
It was his defence splitting pass that
created the opportunity van Persie finished and his creativity was
behind a lot of United’s good forward play. For someone with so little
experience of Premier League football, he doesn’t look phased by the
responsibility at all.
At 18, Januzaj is a boy but he is
quickly becoming a really important player for United and if his
performances continue to impress, he’ll make himself indispensable to
the team.
The other side of Rooney. It
was disappointing to see Rooney put in a poor performance against
Southampton in comparison to how well he has played so far this season.
He continued his fine form during the
international break with England but cut quite a frustrated figure
yesterday. His touch had left him, his passing was wayward and his
decision making was off. Too many times his runs were off and shoulders
were stooped.
Rooney has looked in his best shape this
year but Moyes has called for Rooney to be rested by Roy Hodgson if he
wants to have him fully fit for the World Cup in Brazil. Maybe he
suffered from burnout after a very busy start to the campaign.
Substitutions by Moyes. Yesterday’s
substitutions were questionable from Moyes. Nani was one of our better
performers on the day but he was taken off for Ryan Giggs. If Moyes
wanted to take Nani off, he should have replaced him with somebody like
Shinji Kagawa. Giggs brought nothing to the game and United then invited
the pressure by not having Nani as an outlet.
But it was Moyes’ decision to take
Rooney off for Smalling that left many scratching their heads even if
Rooney was having a bad performance. It was a move that saw United sit
deeper and deeper until eventually, Southampton scored the equaliser.
We have played quite defensive on a lot of occasions this season but it isn’t playing to the strengths of our side.
Attack, attack, attack.
Nothing is lost yet. United
have only taken five points from four games at Old Trafford this season
and be eight points behind Arsenal at the top of the table but it isn’t
even November yet. The season has barely got started.
Liverpool were eight points ahead of
United in January 2009. By the time they came to Old Trafford in March,
United were seven points clear of them. In the end, we won the title by a
four point margin.
United certainly have to improve but we are by no means out of the title race yet.
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