manurejournal (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} manurejournal) wrote,@ 2005-11-06 19:51:00 |
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34 - United 1 Chelsea 0
Tonight's entry ate far too many roast potatoes. Again.
It was suggested by some, me included, that United would need the SAS to stop Chelsea's midfield in particular. As it turned out, that SAS was Scholes and Smith as they respectively turned in their best performances of the season as everybody associated with the first team remembered they were Manchester United and beat Chelsea.
So, let's have a look. Passion? Check. 4-4-2? Check. Ferdinand and Silvestre waking up? Check. Players taking responsibility and working hard? Check. That's what we all asked for, we got them, and we won as well. It's not a coincidence. And whilst the pervading feeling here is that this victory is merely papering over cracks that need filling with something altogether stronger, and that there are too many errors being made by Alex Ferguson compared to previous years, this victory is very much cause for optimism.
Smith's performance in particular was splendid. His tackling was robust without being reckless, married to good distribution and positional play. Like I've said before, he could develop into a very good central midfield player, but I still feel that this would have been better achieved with occasional appearances in midfield rather than him being thrust in there game after game. Also, Chelsea are not the most flexible team in the world with tricky central players such as Gaizka Mendieta. They have straight up and down players who are given a job and stick to it. I still think he could be susceptible against inferior opposition with these types of players, but it was very promising indeed.
Cristiano Ronaldo once again showed that he is at his very best against the best opposition with a compact display that provided United with a pacy outlet. Not enough good crosses again, but he kept two Chelsea players constantly busy throughout. Paul Scholes was superb with his passing and worked hard, whilst Ruud van Nistelrooy was strong as a target man and stayed on his damn feet at last. Mikael Silvestre defied his status of being rubbish with a determined display and trademark 60 yard crossfield passes, whilst Rio Ferdinand dropped the strop and hardly gave Didier Drogba a kick all match.
Wayne Rooney was absolutely splendid and is becoming every bit the absolutely divine footballer that was predicted of him with power, pace, intelligence and a fantastic work-rate. He is bordering on football genius already. John O'Shea kept Joe Cole completely in check with some bone-shattering challenges, and Wes Brown did the same with Damien Duff, whilst Edwin van der Sar produced a match-saving save and was flawless.
Which leaves us with Darren Fletcher. Much maligned and only worth 1p on Ebay apparently, he at least ensured he'd be worth the postage and packing as well now with a sublime winning goal, and although again he was left chasing shadows and his passing was largely inefficient, he put his foot in and worked hard and it was good to see him hit the headlines. I still doubt his long-term credentials in United's midfield, but I'm chuffed for the lad.
As for the post match interview conducted by Jeff Shreeves with Ferguson, I think many plaudits must go to Shreeves for having the nerve to tell Fergie not to swear any more as there might be kids watching. This coming after Fergie dismissed calls for him to step down as "Bollocks". They're not, Fergie, but today you helped yourself by helping your players play the way they CAN play.
The game itself wasn't a classic footballing encounter by any means, but it was a great old-fashioned full-blooded English encounter conducted largely by foreigners who seemed to enter into the spirit of things splendidly. I think you can tell the majority of the time the way a game is generally going to go in the first five minutes of a game. The first five minutes here saw United maintain some good possession coupled with some extremely close attention paid to any Chelsea players that recieved the ball, that suggested to me that United may well nick this one.
Paul Scholes cracked a fantastic half-volley just wide after a brilliant dinked pass by Wayne Rooney whilst Didier Drogba clearly had the teflon boots on at the other squandering some good positions on the rare occasions the United back four dozed off. Joe Cole spent much of the time bleating at the referee as John O'Shea continuously whipped the ball off his feet. Although Cole has improved over the last year or so, I still feel any chance he has of fully living up to almost unparalleled talent is at a club that will allow him consistent first team football in a position more central than he was playing in today. He was largely anonymous in this match.
United's superbly worked goal was everything their work-rate deserved, but they still could have gone in level as Asier Del Horno passed up a good opportunity before half-time. Frank Lampard inexplicably passed up two opportunities to hit free kicks at goal, but was far more threatening in the second half when forcing van der Sar into a superb point-blank range save after persistent work from Drogba. Drogba himself saw a deflected effort bobble past the post after a scramble in the United box, but at the other end van Nistelrooy missed a golden opportunity to double the lead as he smacked a Darren Fletcher lay-off over the bar.
Chelsea brought on Eidur Gudjohnsen and he ended up being Chelsea's best player on the day as he was involved in the move that saw Del Horno waste another great chance. United substitute Park Ji-Sung came on and caused Chelsea's tiring defenders immediate problems with his pace and directness, carving out a great chance for Rooney that was blocked. But United clung on until the final whistle, leaving Chelsea with only one win in their last five games, and leaving Wigan even hotter on their tail.
That is all, but you can witness a non-That Was The Week That Was article on United Rant from me here although it is just an old article I wrote on here. In a great turn of events though, the site got this link from The Guardian and has even made appearances on the BBC World Service this weekend. Good, eh?
I'm off to buy a bigger boat.
Tonight's entry ate far too many roast potatoes. Again.
It was suggested by some, me included, that United would need the SAS to stop Chelsea's midfield in particular. As it turned out, that SAS was Scholes and Smith as they respectively turned in their best performances of the season as everybody associated with the first team remembered they were Manchester United and beat Chelsea.
So, let's have a look. Passion? Check. 4-4-2? Check. Ferdinand and Silvestre waking up? Check. Players taking responsibility and working hard? Check. That's what we all asked for, we got them, and we won as well. It's not a coincidence. And whilst the pervading feeling here is that this victory is merely papering over cracks that need filling with something altogether stronger, and that there are too many errors being made by Alex Ferguson compared to previous years, this victory is very much cause for optimism.
Smith's performance in particular was splendid. His tackling was robust without being reckless, married to good distribution and positional play. Like I've said before, he could develop into a very good central midfield player, but I still feel that this would have been better achieved with occasional appearances in midfield rather than him being thrust in there game after game. Also, Chelsea are not the most flexible team in the world with tricky central players such as Gaizka Mendieta. They have straight up and down players who are given a job and stick to it. I still think he could be susceptible against inferior opposition with these types of players, but it was very promising indeed.
Cristiano Ronaldo once again showed that he is at his very best against the best opposition with a compact display that provided United with a pacy outlet. Not enough good crosses again, but he kept two Chelsea players constantly busy throughout. Paul Scholes was superb with his passing and worked hard, whilst Ruud van Nistelrooy was strong as a target man and stayed on his damn feet at last. Mikael Silvestre defied his status of being rubbish with a determined display and trademark 60 yard crossfield passes, whilst Rio Ferdinand dropped the strop and hardly gave Didier Drogba a kick all match.
Wayne Rooney was absolutely splendid and is becoming every bit the absolutely divine footballer that was predicted of him with power, pace, intelligence and a fantastic work-rate. He is bordering on football genius already. John O'Shea kept Joe Cole completely in check with some bone-shattering challenges, and Wes Brown did the same with Damien Duff, whilst Edwin van der Sar produced a match-saving save and was flawless.
Which leaves us with Darren Fletcher. Much maligned and only worth 1p on Ebay apparently, he at least ensured he'd be worth the postage and packing as well now with a sublime winning goal, and although again he was left chasing shadows and his passing was largely inefficient, he put his foot in and worked hard and it was good to see him hit the headlines. I still doubt his long-term credentials in United's midfield, but I'm chuffed for the lad.
As for the post match interview conducted by Jeff Shreeves with Ferguson, I think many plaudits must go to Shreeves for having the nerve to tell Fergie not to swear any more as there might be kids watching. This coming after Fergie dismissed calls for him to step down as "Bollocks". They're not, Fergie, but today you helped yourself by helping your players play the way they CAN play.
The game itself wasn't a classic footballing encounter by any means, but it was a great old-fashioned full-blooded English encounter conducted largely by foreigners who seemed to enter into the spirit of things splendidly. I think you can tell the majority of the time the way a game is generally going to go in the first five minutes of a game. The first five minutes here saw United maintain some good possession coupled with some extremely close attention paid to any Chelsea players that recieved the ball, that suggested to me that United may well nick this one.
Paul Scholes cracked a fantastic half-volley just wide after a brilliant dinked pass by Wayne Rooney whilst Didier Drogba clearly had the teflon boots on at the other squandering some good positions on the rare occasions the United back four dozed off. Joe Cole spent much of the time bleating at the referee as John O'Shea continuously whipped the ball off his feet. Although Cole has improved over the last year or so, I still feel any chance he has of fully living up to almost unparalleled talent is at a club that will allow him consistent first team football in a position more central than he was playing in today. He was largely anonymous in this match.
United's superbly worked goal was everything their work-rate deserved, but they still could have gone in level as Asier Del Horno passed up a good opportunity before half-time. Frank Lampard inexplicably passed up two opportunities to hit free kicks at goal, but was far more threatening in the second half when forcing van der Sar into a superb point-blank range save after persistent work from Drogba. Drogba himself saw a deflected effort bobble past the post after a scramble in the United box, but at the other end van Nistelrooy missed a golden opportunity to double the lead as he smacked a Darren Fletcher lay-off over the bar.
Chelsea brought on Eidur Gudjohnsen and he ended up being Chelsea's best player on the day as he was involved in the move that saw Del Horno waste another great chance. United substitute Park Ji-Sung came on and caused Chelsea's tiring defenders immediate problems with his pace and directness, carving out a great chance for Rooney that was blocked. But United clung on until the final whistle, leaving Chelsea with only one win in their last five games, and leaving Wigan even hotter on their tail.
That is all, but you can witness a non-That Was The Week That Was article on United Rant from me here although it is just an old article I wrote on here. In a great turn of events though, the site got this link from The Guardian and has even made appearances on the BBC World Service this weekend. Good, eh?
I'm off to buy a bigger boat.
