No, it wasn’t a penalty; everyone by now would testify. I’m not sure if Ronaldo dived, as lot of pundits would claim — though, I think he could have stood his ground. But it was the sort of break you needed in the game to come away with a win.
As usual I’ve taken longer than required to come up with a match report so it will be brief.
The tactics:
Didn’t have much to argue about apart from Neville’s continued presence in the starting XI. However, I mustn’t be too harsh because I see Fergie giving him a fair run to see if he improves. I don’t see it happen at this point, although he has been marginally better every game he’s played so far. However, I think it’s unlikely he’s ever going to scale the heights of his career. Hopefully SAF plays Brown against Aalborg to make the lad stop wondering if the boss has actually forgotten him.
Berbatov:
He’s been dividing opinion among fans everywhere. I thought he was actually good yesterday although his involvement has been subtle. Rooney’s introduction made his contribution more apparent. I think it’s unfair to judge Berbatov until we know for sure if he’s understood our system completely.
Substitutions:
I wasn’t sure of Scholes’ longevity, or should I say ability to influence a game for the full 90 minutes, but yesterday’s substitutions — the bringing on of Scholes and Rooney — showed how much of a difference he could make. Rooney, more so, showed his hunger channeled into the position he was supposed to revel in. He wanted to prove himself in the attacking end, and in partnership with a familiar friend, Ronaldo, scored a peach. As I said in the past, I reserve judgement on Rooney untill I see a fair bit of him this season. Perhaps Christmas would be a good time for me to judge the boy as his understanding with Berbatov grows. I also saw Scholesy make a couple of forward runs for the first time in years.
The penalty:
Perhaps the most dubious of penalties you would see. It’s unfortunate the game will be known for that rather than our general bossing of midfield and possession in the second half. The press are quick to call Ronaldo out for diving — which I’m not sure of, and I think is borne more out of the need to sensationalize things.
The Performance:
We are getting there. It’s a win. The next one’s at Blackburn, I believe, and it has been tricky in the past. But I think we have a better chance against Paul Ince’s boys than Sparky’s Blackburn. I haven’t been too impressed with them this season. Arsenal’s loss to Hull was a positive to take out of the weekend and Chelsea are still grinding out less than impressive wins; there is a good chance they’ll drop points. Liverpool, however, are winning but I wouldn’t put them on a pedestal yet. And City lost, ha! So it’s a rather decent weekend overall, I must say.
How was your weekend, then?
212 Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment Login