Reports of Manchester United’s demise have been exaggerated. The Los Angeles Earthquake was a disaster. The eruption of Mount St. Helen’s was a disaster. Every single one of Glenn Hoddle’s haircuts in the eighties was a disaster. Drawing 2-2 with Porto is an understandable result and a retrievable situation. On the other hand, Hoddle’s barbour will never work again.
Firstly, Porto were magnificent. They attacked the game from the start, moved the ball around slickly and chased our players into the dust. Fernando and Gonzalez linked up superbly and would have given Brazil circa 1970 a hard time on last night’s form. Not to mention that in Hulk they boast the best named player since Congolese striker Bongo Christ. Yep, United were up against it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/apr/11/theknowledge.sport
By my calculations the last time United put in a truly worthy performance, one that makes the blood boil with excitement and your voice hoarse, was against Chelsea several months ago. We are still top of the league, remain in every competition and have even won a trpohy since then. So does this mean that we have been the luckiest side in history and are currently being found out? The simple answer is no. The players we have are quality and have shown their worth, I should imagine that it is not easy to give an Oscar winning performance every match. Especially not when you are playing so much. No other team even has the pressure of entertaining so impatiently placed upon them, only United.
Ferguson, as was widely reported after the Fulham loss, took a gamble on the Villa fixture. It could have been moved but he kept it on Sunday to give our players an extra day to recover, therefore jeopardising premium fitness against Porto. We were, admittedly, 9 parts outrageously lucky and 1 part inspired against Martin O’Neill’s men, but we got the result.
As soon as I settled into my seat for the European game I knew the players would tire towards the end. Two high pressure matches inside 52 hours is a helluva lot to ask of anybody. To concede a late goal was not entirely unexpected considering these circumstances. It just seems such a shame now because we were so close.
On th-glass-is-half-full side of things, we have played those two matches now and a vital victory in the league was obtained along with a workable result against a team who have played their best game in Europe this season. We lost neither.
Granted, at times last night we seemed to be 11 individuals, rather than a team, and there were points when I wondered if Porto’s midfield were the only ones to get off the bus. We have largely been carried this season by the unspeakably good form of the defence. That bubble has now popped (step forward Johnny Evans) and it is time for the attackers to stand up and be counted. Rooney is scoring goals, Tevez proved once again his remarkable penchant for scoring at important times and this lad Macheda should have Berbatov thinking very hard about his work rate too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioBtJpAAxac&feature=related
Next up we have a four day rest (crikey me!) followed by a freefalling Sunderland side. Then, a four day rest (Dear Lord!) followed by a winner takes all tussle in Porto. There are no guarantees in this life but I am hoping (I always do) that there is life the Red Devils yet. Let’s get behind the team.
Last truly worthy performance? Well my short term memory says what about the last 10 minutes against Villa? The cup game against Fulham was also pretty impressive but if you mean last truly worthy performance against a top team, then yes of course the 3-0 against Chelsea was a delight.
They looked knackered last night and it’s hardly surprising. The Porto equalizer saw us outnumbered in our own penalty area in the 90 th minute of a tight game – now that is inexcusable. But Tevez and Rooney cobined well for what should have been our winner – wonderful stuff.
I see that Rafa has been twisting the knife our wounds, not of course designed to help… let us hope both their CL games are attritional and they do extra time on a heavy pitch followed by pens.
I almost want Chelsea to beat them. Tough call, that!
To conclude, I now feel we can still win the league but frankly the other trophies look beyond us on current form.
PS – youTube remove all recent live footage pretty damn quick nowadays. The Glazers and the TV companies make sure of it!
Agree with Jono on the desire for Chelsea-Pool to go the whole way, that may be the thing that saves our season. The squad look weary and a long season is taking its toll. We need a few people to step up – Nani/O’shea/Berbatov I’m looking at you. Otherwise a season which promised much will end up as a bit of a let down, having said that if we batter Sunderland 4-0 on Saturday everything will be rosy again!
I’ve always admired and read in passion of all the happenings in this web. Thank you and here goes my view….
Let’s start with Liverfools. They’ve won against Real, us & then Villa handsomely, but let just go back to the games. Let’s all come to sense that Real is no more the formidable team they used to be and with Rafa’s know-how with Spanish teams plus Torres-Gerrad axis they were able to tear them apart.
Against us, we’ll I would always say we have draining event with Inter and 2 days to prepare. On top of Gerrard-Torres addt rest since against Real they were already assured win.
In Villa Park, Brad was red carded so they were able to cruise through.
Take a look at the games they played with Fulham and Chelsea. That’s more like what they really are.
We on the other hand, we’ll thrive the challenge in front of us. That’s what this club is built on. We always leave it late and when it really matters we do crop-up and show the world we’re different. I hope we really do at Sunderland and later in Porto. I do have gut feeling that we’ll go through. Sir Alex will have his sleevs rolled-up and the players know that it’s now or never.
As for Chelsea, they’ve been going great under Hiddink. though they’re gathering momentum but I guess they’re little too late. I feel Devils will meet them again in FA cup and (at some distant) Champion League in Rome.
Long live ManUtd!
Glory Glory United!