The Devil In Me

Finally the day has come where I am able to write the words ‘excellent delivery by Ryan Giggs’. In fact I can write it twice and I think I just might ‘excellent delivery by Ryan Giggs’.

It is very very difficult not to be positive about this performance, Rooney has scored again, we are reminded that we do actually have a player who can take penalties and of course there was also those Giggs deliveries.

Were it not for Christiano last season, my player of the year would quite easily have been John O’Shea, yet it pains me to say that he was clearly at fault for their first goal.

Here is what I think is quite an important question.
When, excluding international friendlies, did you last see a fully fit goal keeper substituted during a match?

It must have been really awesome to be an Aston Villa fan after ten minutes of this game.  They were pinging the ball about well and recorded the honour of being the first team to score against United in ten hours.  That footballing sage Mark Lawrenson had predicted an upset and it really looked like it was in the script at that point.

Step forward Mr. Rooney, whose ability to get the better of both his marker and the linesman has been astonishing over the last couple of weeks. Goals number 3 and 4 could well resurface in a Christmas television show about comedy bloopers but that should not detract from the fact that this was a good, good victory. Villa are no mugs and I always have certain amount of respect for the character of O’neill’s teams, where has he not done a good job of being manager?

There were shades of the match against Bolton last year in the team showing that they really are rather good. It should be noted that yesterday in playing at various points O’Shea, Scholes, Giggs, Brown, Pique and Fletcher we fielded six players who have come up through the ranks. I wonder how many other Premiership clubs could say that. I’ll bet it is a rather circular number.

Wigan are the perfect neighbours. They live inoffensively near by and have never complained when we have had a party, even if we are doing so at their expense. They were even polite enough to roll over in a cup final for us a couple of years ago. Splendid, splendid chaps.

The one nil to United result was becoming eerily familiar and yet that run comes to an end with a scoreline we have seen twice before in recent years against the same club. But these are not the numbers games that concern me the most at the moment. At half time we had precisely ten players out injured. That is a hefty tally whoever you are and to carry on and win well deserves some credit.

Now I don’t want to be disparaging here but it almost seems as if the Wigan players are trained to lose four nil to us before they even arrive. Therefore I don’t feel inclined to shower plaudits on Rooney and Ronaldo for their performances, they were just doing their jobs.

On his debut and again against Coventry Anderson played good through balls that nobody go onto which I though would start paying off soon. One did against Wigan and suddenly he is a hero, let’s hope it starts to happen more regularly. What I like is that he seems to have put in his best performance so far a week after Fergie has gone public saying he doesn’t know if he will make it or not. Master man management again? I like to think so.

Far more encouraging for me was the quality of the cross that Simpson put in for the first goal, it reminded me of seeing Lee Sharpe put in that cutback against Norwich some 19 years ago in making me think ‘he’s one to keep an eye on’.

Ferdinand for PM.

There was a great deal to be encouraged about from this performance. Roma were definitely up for it and from where I was sitting there was not a great deal of difference in the quality of play between the two teams.

The difference was an absolutely spectacular goal from Wayne Rooney. I honestly don’t think he could have hit it better and it reminded me of the strike he hit against Milan last season, Fergie said the same thing. What he didn’t say was that Wayne didn’t even look up before he shot and that it was a flawless finish. As I said, encouraging.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that Roma could and should have scored two goals in the last ten minutes and only didn’t because of some asthmatic choking in front of goal. So we were lucky then? Perhaps, but you may remember that we played those last ten minutes without Ronaldo.

So two good wins out of two and a great start to this years Champions League campaign. It was after a similar start last year that we managed to lose to both Celtic and Copenhagen. I wonder if they will make us suffer again this year, it is after all, United.

All of the guff about United’s ‘Harlem Globetrotters’ eleven before the start of the season seems like a distant memory now. I am loathe to complain while the team is winning but in all honesty the best football played yesterday was by Birmingham.

United’s players didn’t seem to have the same level of hunger as theirs did and it told as our players were closed down quickly and effectively every time we ventured into the Birmingham half. They also thoroughly deserved a goal which were it not for a Beckenbauer like performance from Ferdinand would surely have come.

Again I am loathe to criticise an eighteen year old lad who has only been in the country for five minutes but the suspicion is beginning to grow in my mind that Anderson may well be Kleberson in disguise. When will we ever learn.

Points are points and again you can’t complain too much if they are getting results but I wonder if a decent team who are truly up for it might show us up a bit on current form. And I suppose the wounded beast that is Roma will be looking to do just that on tuesday.

Every single finger is crossed that these players start to find a bit of form, and now.

I have never particularly had a problem with Coventry, they were a reliable six points a season when they were in the top flight and fairly inoffensive with it. However, it would appear that I have been mistaken with my toelrance as a quick scan of my memory banks reveals that wherever the city of Coventry is involved in my life an air of doom enters proceedings.

It all started about ten years ago when I attended the barbecue of a work colleague who was from Cov and who at the start of the evening, sternly took me to one side to say two things. Firstly ‘don’t get drunk’ and secondly ’stay away from my sister’. I proceeded to fail on both counts and was roundly unpopular afterwards.

I was also present at the game when David Busst recieved his truly horrific injury and can remember the crack being heard around the ground.

Wednesday adds a new annal to the direct association between Coventry and doom as it was quite simply the worst United performance for about a decade, probably since the game against York when we lost three nil.

All of the talk before kick off was on two subjects. One Rooney being captain for the night, and two the fact that most of us had been strong-armed into buying tickets by the new season ticket holder cup scheme. Rooney didn’t even make the bench and one couldn’t help but feel as though the word con was appropriate.

I await United’s first good performance of the season and hope that we can start showing the kind of ruthlessness on the field that those American chaps in the boardroom are proving to be rather adept at.

John Terry stabbing Mourinho in the back. Ambramovich holding a tactics board and lecturing Michael Essien on which direction passes should be played in. After reading the paper early yesterday morning there was a grave danger that I may have died laughing before the game even kicked off.

Seriously can you imagine Brian Glazer popping down and telling Fergie how training should be run? Unimaginable.

Much as I want to enjoy this there appears to be another rather large problem emerging. Arsenal.

Gosh Roy Keane has turned into such a nice chap recently.  His team is being beaten left right and centre and he doesn’t seem to have a bad word to say about anybody.  Just before kick off the teams lined up to give Ole a guard of honour whilst Clive Tyldesly’s “is this their moment” commentary blared out of the loudspeaker and he ended it with a handshake and a word with Roy.

Either somebody forgot to tell the United players that it was over and a football match had just started or Fergie has decided to patent a new 2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 formation to once again conquer Europe with a tactically audacious manouvre.  Genius.

Honestly they were awful, again, our team of midfield midgets spent the first forty five minutes sitting on each others knees and playing a million inch-perfect 3 inch passes to each other. I for one am of the opinion that we should be having a go at teams at Old Trafford and not treating the matches like Eriksson might have treated an England friendly.  If you are playing a team of midfielders without a striker then you’re giving the visiting team a chance.  It was not that long ago now that the chant 4-4-2 was heard in the Stretford End, I can see its ressurection before Christmas if things don’t begin to change.  

I retain my hopes, Hargreaves looks like he has always played for us and also doesn’t look unlike Robbo did when he was running around in our shirt and Saha, when he came on, was unmanageable, easily as good as a Torres when he is playing.  He looks like our saviour at the moment Louis, but I wonder, how long until he is injured again?

I honestly believe that a little bit too much has been made of the importance of a flawless start in pre-season.  There is just far too much quality in the league, even if you only look ata the managers, for it to be a race to perfection this season.  Points will be dropped everywhere and games will be hard.  I think 75 points will take the title this year.  That said, only getting two from your first two games and then facing a Manchester derby next ain’t great. I never feel confident playing against Redknapp’s teams, I’ve always thought he is a wily old bugger that we should be extra wary of.  His half-time substitutions and the second half turn around did little to alter my opinion.We have played some lovely stuff in both games but I was beginning to worry where our steel was with no Rooney no Neville and no Hargreaves.  Well there is nothing like a full team brawl to allay any fears you have about your team’s fighting spirit.  Now it is no Ronaldo too.On the plus side Nani looks very useful indeed.  Over the next few weeks he will need to be.

I suppose I should really know better but after Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool had all scraped jammy late wins I thought the stage was set for us to stamp a little bit of authority on the opening weekend.

My first sense that things might not go that way came when our much heralded snap, crackle and pop squad produced a first eleven containing two left-backs and a bench warmed by the snarling attacking talents of Darren Fletcher and John O’shea.  True enough there was nobody in the box to meet our first meaningful cross on seven minutes and things did look a tad route one ish with balls flying predominately from the midfield area of the wings into the area.

That said, for most of the match I did think that we would break through for three very good reasons.  Firstly, although Reading do a have a go when they move forwards they tend to hack it around a bit at the back.  Secondly, as usual, Ronaldo was doing things that with the ball that suggest he may well come from an entirely different planet.  And thirdly because I am an optimist, after a couple of decades of following this team I should know better.

We didn’t give up, but a hopeful long shot from Carrick and inch perfect pass from Ronaldo to their goalie suggested that it might be about to become one of those days.  Rooney’s touch was incredible at times and we continued to try some really nice stuff but we just seemed to lack fluency in front of goal.

My half-time finger crossing was to no avail and Rooney did not reappear after the break.  For the first twenty minutes of the second half it was all United but they just couldn’t get through, Reading’s central three at the back formed a window to stop the chances we rained on them and Duberry in particular played extremely well.

Nobody can be blamed for Rooney’s latest hoof break and cope without him we will have to.  Nani certainly looks no mug and I was heartened by the sight of Vidic pushing over one of their full-backs who had the temerity to stand near him whilst a corner was being lined up.  But again, United are going to be doing things the hard way.  At least that will be familiar.