United 1 - 2 Zenit St. Petersburg
This was a tale of two defences really. Dick Advocaat knows a thing or two about organising a backline and Zenit were brick like in defence all night. Gary Neville’s latest return was rather a nervy one and he needlessly conceded the corner that led to their first goal. Alas poor Rio, immense all game but criminally at fault for no. 2. It must be a pretty thankless task being a defender, he will be getting grief about his fabled ‘concentration lapses’ for months now and he was brilliant for every other minute of the match.
Criticisms of United not producing a final product at the moment are founded. Every time Rooney had the ball he was playing from the half-way line at the left hand side of the field, I just cannot make any sense of that. With Nani, and latterly Park, on the pitch we should have the wingers to provide service for a front man - yet it is now glaringly obvious that after 4 games no Manchester United striker has scored this season.
This was a pretty tough game and the Reds really didn’t seem up for it. Zenit kept frustrating us and Scholes (Rio-esque, great game, 1 bad mistake) certainly didn’t cover himself in glory. Perhaps it was the strange nature of the occasion or perhaps it was simply that we got beat, but could there be a growing feeling of discontent going through the squad right now? I hope not, but Friday was an all round glum experience, I hope it proves to be an isolated incident.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
When was the last time you could say that bringing on O’Pie made us a greater threat?? Our stand-out best player was Tevez, what a harrier he is! But the front two are not playing like a front two and were not getting the service until Park came on. Nani and Anderson were disappointing, I thought.
Meanwhile, thanks to today’s results, we will be joint top if we win our game in hand. And Ronnie may be back for the Bolton game, I hear.
But we still need a top class striker. That deadline is awfully close as I write this…..