Your house is on fire. Someone has stolen your credit card details and run up a six-figure bill. You just found out your wife was born a man. These are reasons to be hysterical; drawing 2-2 with Fulham at the Cottage is not one of them.
It seems the days when you could just shrug your shoulders and say ‘it wasn’t our afternoon’ are long behind us. Now Manchester United are the Biggest Club in The World ™ in the most fabulousest sports league in history, anything less than a solid victory against everybody is seen as something gruesome from the Old Testament.
People have called me a cynic in the past but I am not ready to panic or concede the title after the second weekend of the season. When looked at in the cold light of day you have to see this game as two points dropped but it is nothing the team can’t learn from.
The annoying thing is when lessons are NOT learnt. At this stage last year we lost to Burnley and Carrick missed a penalty. I found it inconceivable at the time that there should be no allocated penalty taker yet the same thing has happened again. Is it too much to ask for everybody to know what they’re doing in commonplace situations on a football pitch? This is not a dig at Nani, rather at the coaching staff.
I should imagine that Rooney would have stepped up had he been playing. Unfortunately, he was sidelined with a last minute stomach bug. I myself had many a stomach bug in my college days. Bizarrely, they often followed nights out and parties, I never figured out if there was a connection.
A penalty not taken by Wayne Rooney |
Looking at matters on the field, I really like the actual football United are playing at the moment. It is good passing stuff and really enjoyable to watch. Not only does Valencia jink around and cause trouble to opposition in the manner that you would like he also seems like a nice, unassuming bloke. That’s a breath of fresh air to me in the era of petulant players and dummy spitting.
Alas, petulance and dare I say, ill-discipline, are often character traits found in born winners. This United side is indeed a pleasure to watch, but without finding a killer instinct they won’t be a side hauling in the silverware. My bet is that Rooney might have something to say about that when he ‘recovers’.
Well said Marcus. But we are not learning those lessons about closing games down and that was a really poor penalty by Nani – who got one in Moscow I recall so let’s not give him too hard a time.
I am not giving the league up yet either but the early omens are hardly promising.
Nicely put. The thing that frustrates me is that Man U can’t seem to score goals when they get a real chance. The shots are always just wide or straight at the keeper. It’s a problem those blue b*stards from London aren’t burdened with.
I know I was disappointed with the fact that they lost two points, but they did better against Fulham at the Cottage then last year, so they are already ahead of last years results where two more points would have won the title. It’s very early days, and I’m with you no need to panic!