International break is on, and we’re faced with the worst nightmare that a football fan can expect – a weekend without league football. Nevertheless, this allows us folks here at Football Paradise to reflect on how our teams fared over the past few games.
Talking about Manchester United, we played Newcastle at St. James Park last weekend; and Cluj away in the Champions League the midweek before. While every United supporter will gladly take the 3 points we took from both games, the manner in which we went about our business was a rather different one, yet it showed saddening glimpses of what has been bothering United for the past year or two.
On paper, it was a straight-forward Champions League group fixture – so what if it was a visit to the land of the vampires? However, a disjointed start for United, followed by Evra being caught out of position (again) put the home team ahead within a quarter of an hour. Of course, United being United, regrouped quickly and ensured that we regained the lead right after the second half was underway. Of course, we had to do the customary ‘switch-off’ after taking the lead. Two assists from Rooney, two goals for van Persie. It all looked perfect.
The United line-up was a strange one – we lined up with a diamond in midfield with Rooney operating as the trequartista. Cleverley and Anderson played in the center, with Fletcher sitting in front of the defence. The lack of width was clearly noticeable. The United way has always been the wingers’ way. With the likes of Giggs, Beckham, Ronaldo, Nani, Young and Valencia, we have been spoilt by quality wingers tearing up opposition teams like their full backs didn’t even exist. Ask Arsenal, they know Ryan Giggs a little too well in that respect.
