Where do I start? Firstly, bad result at Anfield, some bad luck possibly changed the game with the first couple of goals. United didn't have as much hunger as Liverpool did in creating opportunities. I still think we can win the Premier League but a few things stood out yesterday, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, two of the greatest players we have ever had but am I the only one who thinks their performances have been steadily decreasing as the season has gone on? Also, even if we win the Premier League, we need to make a lot of adjustments to the team. A lot of potential transfer targets are being mentioned but finances may be a problem. However, we certainly need to offload Obertan and Gibson? Valencia will be back soon, Cleverley and Welbeck will also be back from loans. VDS will be retiring this season and we'll need to buy a good Keeper (maybe Reina because of his Premier League experience). A decent defensive midfielder and a creative midfielder are pretty much needed. Our backack line is still strong at the moment, when we have either Vidic or Rio to step in alongside the younger guys. But, maybe we should think of offloading Evra too? Don't think his performances are getting any better and if Madrid are willing to offer a bucket of cash maybe we should take it to aid the rest of the team building, by selling Rooney and Evra and adding a few wuid from the Glazers, I am sure we could have up to ã100 million available to spend. Thoughts?
We did seem to be a little less hungry than Liverpool. Not sure why, as there was more at stake for us than them. I thought Scholes did ok, though he did give the ball away too much. Giggs really frustrated me at times, his ball retention and distribution was awful. Good assist for the Hernandez goal, but it was too late by then. I'm not sure if we need to offload Gibson and Obertan to be honest, we wouldn't get too much money for them, and they could be decent players yet. We will obviously need a new 'keeper with van der Sar retiring, and hopefully we'll replace him quicker than we did Schmeichel! I don't know if we really need a creative midfielder as we score plenty of goals. I reckon we need a box-to-box player to replace Hargreaves. I hoped that Fletcher would be the man, but he's really regressed this season. This whole Football Manager/FIFA/Pro Evo fashion of talking about "DMs" and "AMs" doesn't necessarily apply to United though. We've never really used these specialised players.
The whole DM, CM, AM debate is largely irrelevant to most top teams now, as they rarely play a rigid formation any more, and the midfielders need to operate in different parts of the pitch dependening on how the game develops. We don't necessarily need a really creative midfielder, but what we do need is a player who can operate effectively both in the centre and in and around the 'hole' behind the opposition midfield. The player doesn't even have to be a top goal scorer or a creative playmaker, just the fact that you have a good player in that role forces the opponents to watch him and adjust their midfield to close him down. Far too often this season our most advanced midfielder has been behind the halfway line, getting closed down by the entire opposition midfield and with no good options through the centre. So the choices become either pass it to the wings, pass it backwards or lump it forwards and hope. Scholesy used to excel in the forward midfield areas, as did Ronaldo and Rooney, but Scholes has dropped back with age, and Rooney is badly off form at the moment and has moved much further forward since Ronaldo left. Anderson has the potential to develop in that area, but it'll take him time - players like Lampard and Gerrard didn't really hit the heights until they turned 24/25. I think the main reason SAF is holding onto Gibson is that he also sees him developing into a competent, if not top class, player in that area as well. Fletcher and Carrick just aren't suited for anything more than occassional forays forwards, and even then they need other players working to create space for them else they just get overwhelmed.
Park can be pretty useful here, he's quite good at finding space between the opposition defence and midfield. But is he really good enough for United to rely on? Possibly not...
