So……. At the half time stage of Manchester United’s 2010/11 season, I think its safe to say that we have been lucky. Not just with last minute equalizers, but with the form of our competition (does anybody remember Chelsea?)
We have been equally unlucky however, (Everton match) and are still shockingly bad away from Old Trafford, not just in terms of results, but form in general. There seems to be an air of “are we allowed to win this match?” about us, and with City and Arsenal snapping at our heels, we need to pull our finger out and start to take what is ours (the 3 points). I’m going to pick on a few people here:
Michael Carrick:
What has happened to him??? Last season I was his biggest fan, he never misplaced a pass, had the vision to play some killer balls into the box and every so often he’d hit the back of the net, usually with a quality placed finish. He seems to have lost all of that and is just a sort of squad player, who when picked just makes up the numbers.
Dimitar Berbatov:
Premier League leading scorer, quality passing, vision, and an eye for a finish, what’s lacking here in consistency, before Berba’s 5 goal haul a few weeks back he had gone 10 matches without a goal, he seems to have hot games and cold games, I’m not going to slate him yet though because he has been playing really well and if he can find that level of consistency he will be a stud.
When I looked through our squad these were the only guys I could think of specific things to say about, there is something missing though and to bring home the title and what’s more important, STOP CITY FROM WINNING IT!!!
We have a nice little cushion going into the new year and a couple of games in hand so if we can keep our unbeaten streak going and improve away, we’ve got it in the bag. You can’t knock the job done so far, except for the drumming at Upton Park we haven’t lost yet, but I can’t help but feel that if Chelsea would have performed to even half their potential over the past 8 matches, we would be in second place.
The ridiculous spectacle brought on by Wayne Rooney is a topic I’m going to steer clear of in this article because I feel it’s better left as is and forgotten about. As soon as he hits the net a few times, he’ll be fine.
Some good things I have noticed so far:
Ji-Sung Park
The lad has an engine on him that never gives up, he has chipped in a few quality goals and doesn’t shirk his defensive duties. I’m happy whenever I see him on the team sheet, always making runs into the box, getting a shot away or setting something up for somebody else, class act whenever he touches the ball.
Anderson
When I used to watch him playing for Porto I used to think, he was Roy Keane-esque, box to box midfielder, strong in the tackle and could hit a ball, In the past few weeks, I have seen the same stuff from him for United, if he continues like he is playing he will be a legend, I cant say enough about him, if he can learn to strike the ball better he will score A LOT!. Of course this change hasn’t come about by some miracle, Sir Alex has stopped trying to play him as a defensive midfielder and is playing in behind the strikers, a master- stroke as always.
Chicharito
I’m sure that when United signed this kid you all (as I did) thought Who? But the lad had a stunning world cup, and he seems to have settled in at United and he’s got us some important goals. Legend in the making.
Wayne Rooney
I know he hasn’t scored many this season, but a s rule I like to give strikers 5 matches to get their form back after missing an extended period of football, and with the weather and cancelled games he hasn’t had 5 decent weeks of football yet. He had a quality game against West Brom, it was like Rooney of old, he scored and had an assist. I’m confident he will start banging them in when he gets over his most recent knock. Wont harm him to have Valencia back next month either.
The back four – Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, I don’t see any need to say any more than that, CLASS.
Can you guys smell a title coming?
Written by Dan Ray
