Football Reloaded

The best thing about being pessimistic in football, or realistic as I would obviously call it, is that if you’re right, then you’re right; but if you’re wrong, then, well, you’re right!

Last night United casually saw off Wigan in a brilliantly convincing manner, knocking 3 past Kirklandin the first-half and 2 past Pollitt in the second, as we performed with the nostalgic excellence of old. From the start, the passing, movement, ambition and finishing was superb; a rare and dangerously fading sight from the majority of United’s performances this season.

I have previously lambasted nearly every United display – regardless of whether we leave the match with 3 points or not, as with the previous match against Hull – as sloppy and generally, for the overall talent and potential still well and truly inert in our team, well below par…so when we DO play with a modicum of perfection, I am all open to ‘I told you so’-style criticism, as above all, I f**king love my team!

Yesterday, before the game, I highlighted 3 areas that needed improving from our last League game against Hull, so I’ll look at back at each one and establish whether Sir Alex read my blog before the game or not…

Midfield pairing.

Well it remained untouched from the Hullgame, however Fletcher and, more importantly, Carrick were far more in the game than they were last Sunday. They linked up well to break down the Wiganpossession – of which they granted the opposition a miserly 32% after 90 minutes – and pass it into the strikers and wide-men in order to create an attack. The pair were utterly composed and, other than a miniscule amount of wayward passes that I noticed from Carrick, regularly attentive to each others movement and distribution.

Berbatov.
To up his game, I suggested he needs to be more involved in the game, including acting as a more available option for the creative players. He did this to great effect yesterday, as he narrowly yet intelligently broke the offside trap to find himself in a goalscoring position on numerous occasions. His brilliant positioning was in-turn granted with a large amount of possession, which was regularly useful and effective; however if I have to be overly critical, his finishing was at times not massively up to scratch.

He probably had about 5/6 decent goalscoring opportunities yet ‘only’ scored the one, however for a player who is still trying to settle back from injury, as well as one who is constantly scrutinised for his dubious £30 million price-tag, his contribution and instinctive finish last night was more than sufficient.

Restriction and over-reliance of the ‘wing system’.
Well, we were neither restricted nor over-reliant on the wide men last night; with Fletcher and Carrick performing superbly in the centre as they acted not only as a first-line of defence (mainly, of course, in Fletcher’s case) however progressed the play excellently.

Undoubtedly the star of the show last night however was Wigan old-boy Valencia, who’s precise pass played Rafael in to set-up the first, played in Carrick and Berb’s for the 2nd and 4th respectively, and deservedly got a goal himself to make it 5. his distribution and general work rate; constantly threatening and bombarding his old team-mates with pace and typically brilliant passing, was immense all night.

Rafael’s contribution on the right was also heavily felt, as he not only provided handy back-up for Valencia – sprinting 70 yards to overlap Antonio as he set-up Rooney’s opener – but drifted effectively into the centre when he picked up Fletcher’s throughball to score the 3rd; arguably the best goal of the night.

Good.
And, at times, beautiful footballing display…a sign of things to come? Did this new look and non-Ronaldo-reliant side simply just need time to settle, combine and correlate?

Well our next 3 games – Leeds in the FA Cup, City in the Carling Cup and away to in-form Birmingham in the League will hopefully answer that question more accurately. 3 points and 5 goals; 2 points behind leaders Chelsea and only 2 goals behind on goal-difference.

The Brazil ‘70/Holland ‘74/Barcalona ’09 style build-up play when, after a number of back-heels finally played in Berbatov, his chip-cross was met by the head of Rooney, who unluckily headed against the cross-bar. World-class from the lads.Rooney’s Ruud vs. Basle work on the left, as he nutmegged Figuereoa en-route to squeeze an acute shot agonisingly wide.

Bad.
It’s rather bloody annoying that, when we play THIS well and Chelsea luckily get a narrow win at home to Fulham, we’re still off the pace and, assuming Arsenal win their game in hand, this effort and quality will see us ironically drop a place.

“Wigan 0-5 Manchester United – good enough?” was originally published at Soccerlens.com – Football News.