Footy Speak

Manchester United were made to look ordinary yesterday evening, as a by-product of their shoddy passing and Sunderland’s bravery.

Steve Bruce sent his team out with a two-pronged attack, two natural wide-men, and two combative central-midfielders who covered nearly every blade of grass on the Old Trafford pitch. And if the Stretford End hadn’t have sucked Patrice Evra’s low drive, via the leg of Anton Ferdinand, into the back of the Black Cats’ net in the 92nd minute, the United faithful would have trudged home contemplating a deserved home defeat.

United may be looking down on everyone else from the Premier League summit, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s side haven’t convinced many. Ben Foster is the same age as Pepe Reina but is infantile in comparison, lacking presence and decision-making ability which cost his side dearly yesterday. Nani has talent in abundance and contrary to the incredibly sightless verdict of ESPN’s Chris Waddle, the Portuguese winger has had a promising start to the season. But he is a player who relies heavily on confidence and unlike his £80m predecessor, Nani lacks the courage and belief to keep going at his man if he’s getting no early joy.

But the most glaring indictment of United’s mixed early-season displays is their lack of movement and fluidity in the final third. In recent years, we’ve seen Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs, Berbatov, Nani et al popping up all over the place, finding pockets of space in and around the opposition’s rigid set-up – but the champions have reverted back to a fairly obdurate 4-4-2 with players like Valencia and Nani only operating in straight lines down the flanks, rarely coming inside and thus, becoming fairly predictable.

Does Sir Alex have faith in 4-4-2? Considering he’s played a five-man midfield in two of his toughest games of the season – Arsenal at home and Besiktas away in intimidating Istanbul – I suggest not.

Overall, for the English clubs this week, the results went their way in the Champions League. However, there were major concerns for Liverpool, after playing their way into a 2-0 defeat at Fiorentina.

I watched the match. I must say, I’ve never seen Liverpool play so badly. It really was men against boys. Fiorentina were first to every ball. I can’t even recall a good attacking move by Liverpool in the first half. Both goals should have been stopped however. The first was ridiculous – every Liverpool defender tried to play the offside – they all just looked around when Stevan Jovetic was through on goal – expecting the flag and the whistle. It didn’t come and Jovetic calmly slotted past Reina.

We are all use to seeing Liverpool tighten up when they need to. However, Tuesday night was different. When they are a goal down, playing badly, Fiorentina are on fire – DON’T GIVE THE BALL AWAY – keep it at 1-0 at the break. Instead Liverpool gave the ball away way to easily and Jovetic poked in his second from a cross/shot. Bam, I felt right there, there go Liverpool’s chances in this game!

But..in the end. We need to take this game into context. Its an early group stage game in the Champions league. It doesn’t matter that they lost – I have no doubt they will still qualify – they still have Fiorentina at home, Debrecon (whom Lyon smashed 4-0 the other day). This game will act as a warning bolt of lightning in the Liverpool camp.

Gerrard said: “We will be fine if we win our home games.”

I’ll put my life out on the line here and say that I expect them to take the game to Chelsea, I expect a goal feast and I expect another phenominal performence from El Nino!

Chelsea also played rubbish this week, however their opponents were too weak to get anything from the game and Chelsea ran out 1-0 winners, courtesy of an 18th minute Anelka strike. I feel this puts so much pressure on both Chelsea and Liverpool on the weekend, to perform and get a result. I’m already starting to get excited!

Manchester United, it could be argued were the only English side who showed some spirit over the past couple of nights. United needed goals from Ryan Giggs (he’s getting mentioned a lot recently!) and Michael Carrick to come from behind to beat Wolfsburg – the German champions.  United had two balls in the back of the net – both disallowed (Rooney and Giggs) but that didn’t deter them! One thing to take from this game – Vidic is immune to getting sent off, unitl the weekend at least!

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates! I’ve just come past a very funny blog post on another blog. Feel free to read it below, or visit http://www.theda.co.uk for more of the same. That site now lies in my bookmarks folder!

The FA hailed their new ‘Golden Manchester United goal’ policy this morning after Michael Owen scored four hours into injury time allowing everyone to get back to work on Monday and spare the Old Trafford club an embarrassing home draw.

Man City manager Mark Hughes thought the new system was flawed and ‘extremely f***** annoying’ but United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insisted the laws were beneficial for everyone associated with his club. ‘No one wants to see a draw, and while everyone would probably rather see us lose that just doesn’t sit well with me I’m afraid, and let’s face it, you don’t have Sir in front of your name do you?’

‘This new golden goal things works terrifically well. It saves me having to give a constant ear full to the forth official because I know the game won’t finish until we score. It’s incredibly refreshing.’ Fans have been advised to take at least a week of holiday leave for the Man Utd Chelsea clash with officials saying ‘bring a bed pan, and plenty of tinned food.’