Manchester City 1 (Geovanni 31′) Manchester United 0
Once again Manchester United had complete control of a game and failed to score, this time losing 1-0 with the host side scoring a deflected goal, not so much against the run of play but as if against a law of nature. Geovanni’s strike, going in of the heels of Vidic, was one of only three shots City had all game. But, if you felt for a feeling of the game, despite United’s dominance, they never looked like scoring. Even when Tevez stole in at the back post to head a late corner towards the goal, I had the feeling he was going to miss.
You can hardly blame Tevez for this defeat alone. With Rooney, Saha and Ronaldo all missing and Smith and Rossi sold, United did not have the attackers to convert chance after chance into goals. Giggs and Nani whilst being attacking midfielders are hardly proven goalscorers and key target men. With Tevez clearly not match fit and lacking sharpness in front of goal, United were going to require City’s defence to have an off day. It was not to be. Richard and Dunne were great in defence and blocked any attack.
With the excellent Hargreaves controlling the space in front of the defence, Carrick and Scholes were free to move forward. However, it seemed they entered the same area and that area was already packed with City players. Evra did well as an attacking full-back, but Brown didn’t do himself any favours and was replaced by O’Shea.
Fergie replaced the promising Nani with the young Christopher Eagles and Frazier Campbell made his debut replacing Carrick, and whilst Eagles looked really good, putting in some excellent crosses (something that Giggs failed to deliver often enough) Campbell looked out of depth against the City defenders.
At the death came the Tevez chance. Had he scored he would have been instantly hailed and promoted to New United Hero, allowed to be talked about in the same breath as Cantona and given United fans real hope for the season ahead. It was not to be.
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ok we are off to our worst start in, what, 12 years? What do we do? The team isn’t just Ronny and Rooney…or is it? The rest of the squad is playing like without them, we can do nothing…literally. Yes Scholes scored for us, proving that he can do something of value but if we can’t hold onto a lead we don’t deserve the trophy. I really thought we were better than this. How did we win so much silverware before Rooney and Ronny….oh yeah, Beckham, Van Nistelrooy, and Keane. Where are our players like them now?
Some players are irreplaceable because they are so good; Ronaldo is one and Rooney is close to being another (although you might say that a fully fit Tevez could replace him).
It is true that we don’t deserve to win the league on this form and something must change. But I have faith that it will come good. Look back to that worst start 12 years ago and you’ll see won the league that season.
And maybe having our poor form now is better than when we had our poor form last season because it was at the same time as the Champions League semi-final and we then lost that.
Perhaps come April next season our form will be tremendous and we’ll storm back in the league AND win the Champions League.