Manchester United 1 (Fletcher 24) Newcastle United 1 (Martins 22)
It’s traditional that United have injury problems, but should we really be running out of fit players so early in the season ? The names on the bench for this match were those not even some of the more fanatic bloggers had heard about. When Fletcher is started and it isn’t part of the rotation system you know that things are not all good. When Carrick was lost on 25 minutes and replaced by O’Shea, I started to wonder if it was 2005 again.
By that time, the score was 1-1. Newcastle had gone ahead when sloppy defending from Van Der Saar led to a corner and Martins was able to head home unchallenged. Actually Martins was challenged but by his own teammate Steven Taylor. Whilst Taylor was still off receiving treatment from that clash, United equalised with Fletcher popping up into the space where Taylor should have been to get an good goal after a good cross from Giggs.
I might wonder about how average United are when Fletcher is in the side, but Fletcher is to United what Lampard is to Chelsea. A good, solid performer. Of course, we don’t pay the Scotsman £150k a week and have better players to place in his place normally.
With a better striker than the young Campbell, we might and should have won this game, but Campbell doesn’t quite look like United standard, and maybe if another striker does come into our team, he’ll be back playing for Hull. I do like his style and commitment however and can see a good future for the player, but perhaps not quite at the top level.
When Giggs came up lame in the second half I knew we weren’t going to win. His replacement Possebon looks like he’ll need a lot of time to settle in. Looks stylish on the ball, but played too casual a pass and got caught in possession too quickly. The game in England is probably a lot faster than he is used to. Mind you, Anderson looked similar in his first few games.
Final new entrant was one of the Brazillian twins, Rafael Da Silva. He looked lively and nearly won us a penalty at the end, but was caught just outside the area. Without Ronaldo or Hargreaves it was unlikely we would convert the freekick and the game ended 1-1.
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