They say whatever happens in
Vegas stays there, I say whatever happens in Athens stay there! Whatever
Manchester United did there only The Manager, his backroom staff and the
players know. As a fan who was once used to watching Manchester United easily
and mercilessly tear apart their opponents, that was one of the performances I
hope will never find their way into the soccer archives so that nobody, and by
that I mean any sane football fan, would see and have memories of. I also wish
it quickly gets off my mind!
I have no doubt that David Moyes
is the right man for The United job but the moment I saw the match day squad i
knew we were in for a big shock and true to my word they never disappointed!
Pundits keep on reminding us how Manchester United are lacking in quality which
is to some extend true but that should not be used to cover for our mediocre
performance on the said night. Moyes clearly did not pick the best among his
‘average’ players. I don’t know if it was a matter of getting some play time
for all the available English players or what! Cleverly or Fletcher/Fellaini?
Young or Kagawa? Valencia or Januzaj?
Dave’s main undoing during his
first year at Old Trafford has been inconsistency. Just when you thought the
team was picking up moment they stumble again. Three days before the Champions
League match, United had easily beaten a resilient Crystal Palace side at The
Selhurst Park and then here they could not manage even a single shot on target!
Against Palace we had De Gea, Smalling, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Carrick,
Fellaini, Januzaj, Mata, Rooney and Van Persie in a 4-2-3-1 formation with
Fella and Carrick just in front of the defence and Mata and Januzaj wide with
Wayne just behind Persie the target man. Against Olympiakos we have, De Gea,
Smalling, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Carrick, Cleverly, Valencia, Young, Rooney
and Van Persie. You need not to be a rocket scientist to know that Cleverly,
Valencia and Young have both had a poor season and here they were taking part
in a crunch match that had the key to the team’s only realistic chance for
silverware!
It was sad watching Manchester
United comfortable lying deep against a Greek opponent! It was even sad that
nothing changed even after the team went two goals down! I mean this is
MANCHESTER UNITED, three time European champions and here they were defending
against a Greek opponent! I expected the manager to get either Rio or Smalling
off because they were both off colour and introduce Kagawa thus letting
Valencia fill in the defensive void just to give the team more impetus going
forward but what does he do? He gets Valencia off for Welbeck who just returned
from a knee injury and lacking in match fitness!
I just don’t remember the last
time a Man United goalkeeper saw more of the ball than the striker upfront!
Dave start the rebuilding process as early as now in readiness for the next
campaign. Maybe he should start by paying up Ferdinand and terminating his
contract! We all acknowledge him for the great service he has done for this
great club but it’s time to move on!
All in all I hope something
happens between now and 19th March so that United recovers and overturns
the deficit.
GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED
