Anyone else think he looked very very good defensively today. Its something that we used to take for granted but the last 2 years hes been a bit unreliable for us. Today though he was great, well up for the game and did his defensive duties very well. i think for the most part the whole defence did well considering how leaky we have been and honestly think that without that dive from Adam then Liverpool were not scoring today. Lets hope Evra can perform like this every game. Be a huge boost as he is a quality defender.
I think it's a combination of things that have made Pat, somewhat not like him over the last 12 months or so. He played a huge amount of games between 2007-2010, probably on a par with Vidic or Rooney but he hasn't had many major injuries that I can recall so I think that could have taken its toll. And there was Evra himself coming out and saying that it needed SAF to convince him to stay a couple of seasons ago. So it could have been a motivation factor, especially after the France WC2010 debacle. Perhaps its because he's had the captain role for most of the season so far, the added responsibility could have given him a bit of a kick up the arse and he does seem to have had a pickup in form. But I think the whole defence played on the whole much better than it has done in the last few games. Rio especially, forget about the "free-kick" looked much more on the ball, sharp and strong. Evans has looked very good as he has done for the most part this season, back to the quality that made him break into the best defensive partnership in the world at the time and Smalling did well against an inform duo on the Liverpool left of Downing and Enrique.
Evra has played quite well over the years he has been at Utd, but the last couple of years there seemed to be a lack of urgency in getting back and defending when he has pushed further up field, (he may just have a lot of confidence in the others in the back line) but when you have got your centre forward sprinting 3/4s the length of the pitch to chase somebody down in the left back position, its chuffing annoying. That said, he did play well today, didnt get caught out of position, made some good blocks and tackles. He also did well going forward. He seemed really up for the game today.
Evra did play well to me, what really caught my eye was in the last 5 minutes he made an overlapping run and Giggs went to play him through for a cross but overhit his pass and went out for a goal kick, and Evra was in a dead sprint to get back into position. Most players would have just jogged back into position, but Pat ran full speed to get back for his team.
