He is, but he was clearly in there as a defensive winger. Our outlet was Richardson on the left - Tunnicliffe was there to try and shield Riether and contain Evra. He did a pretty decent job to be honest, with United resorting to going outside and putting dozens of aimless crosses into the box.
Mostly, I follow our guys via the BBC text commentary because when I actually watch us on US TV we lose and so I don't, in hopes we might scrape something or at least turn in a good performance. There was a throwaway line about Ray Wilkins taking the space and barking orders at the defence. Good thing? What does this mean?
BBC had the possession down as 50/50. That can't be right, can it? Anyway, I sky plused MOTD last night so don't tell me the result! LOL
I thought Bent, Holtby, Richardson and Sidwell were fantastic last night. Holtby's cross to Sidwell for the first goal was the cross of the year (so far) for me: great vision to spot Sidwell's run and the class to put the ball on his foot from 30 yards.
Yesterday's game sums up our season so far and I will explain. I think it was one of the first times I have seens, not parking the bus 100%, but having a defensive formation. So far we have been going out to play our football. That had cost us a lot as we were not clinical and too slow at evertyhing. Today we took our chances well, we defended from up front, even with Bent. Utd came with force upon us but that's nothing more than we have done with other teams this season and came away with nothing. Well done to the boys and staff for setting up the team so well. The defense looked good and 2 goals against Utd at Old Trafford with RVP, Shrek and Mata all in is a very good count. Onwards and upwards.
I thought there were 5 players who played out of their skin. Stekelenburg was outstanding. Sidwell had his best game for us. Richardson was a revelation Burn was terrific Holtby. Could prove to be our saving grace. Took the hard option and played in the ginger ninja. Great pass. Tank played well I thought, heitinga looked good, in fact they all played well. Feet bank on the ground now but we do seem to play well against the top teams. Need to replcate this against lower teams now.
I actually got a stopwatch out to see how much MOTD2's analysis was 'How well Fulham did' rather than 'How badly United did'. We racked up a staggering 26 seconds of the analysis. Even our goals were used as masterclasses in what United were doing wrong. Still, nice to see us up first without having let in a barrel-load of goals.
David Moyes - The draw against Fulham was a new low! Fulham didn't deserve it. Daily Mail - Fulham were really poor? Telegraph - Henry Winter wrote an excellent piece on the game. Cheers Henners! I don't really understand Moyes comments really. I thought Man U were pretty average in the first half. They put more bodies upfront in the second and we rode our luck a bit, hey you can have 81 crosses in a game and still only draw against the bottom team! Sidwell named MOM! Well done Steve.
To be fair to him, the Bollock interupted the Manchester 'lovefest' at the end and said "Fulham were excellent".
I disagree with those saying that Bent did nothing. He actually run more than usual, defended and was at the right spot when mattered. As people have said, he is a box forward who will be at the end of those chances. How well he will take them defines his performance.
Do we know if Hangeland is not fit or was he just dropped for Heitinga? Worked well given the result although I'm a bit miffed that, if Rene and the team knew it was going to be an aerial bombardment, the big man wasn't in there next to Burn.
Fulham travelled the miles at Old Trafford. Holby ran 8.4 miles in the game. Top man. You could see they put a shift in. Good to see, I'd love to see same stats from other matches. Wonder how many miles Berbatov ran? Hope they are ok for Wednesday, they should be, they're professional footballers and in the words of our very own ginger ninja - living the dream! MINS PLD KM MILES Man United- total 120.6 74.9 Mata 90 13.3 8.2 Carrick 90 12.4 7.7 Rooney 90 12.3 7.6 Fulham - total 125.1 70.1 Holtby 90 13.5 8.4 Sidwell 90 12.8. 8.0 Richardson 90 12.2 7.6
