Welbeck is not better than Berba (not just yet), he went missing after the first 20 mins when we were all over them. Cleverly passes sideways and back just like Carrick! i know what a shocker he must be cack.. Young is boding in quite well Motm deserving performance. Anderson is another one who had a great game, hopefully he keeps on improving. Smalling at right back is not were he should be playing, especially when west brom were knocking in the crosses late on smalling would of headed them away easily. The Jones and Smalling partnership is one i would like to see. Nani is still inconsistent, missed two peaches However it seemed that we were intent on passing the ball to young who was having a good time on the left thus the reasoning for Nani being less prodominent. Lets see how he gets on next week. Im happy with how it went though, West brom are a good side under Hodgson and that was a hard earnt 3 points. I do beleive though that we need a defensive midfielder, maybe we could hijack totenhams on-going negotions for lassana diarra? Discuss Also forgot about De Gea, i reckon today will have been a real experience for him west brom roughed him up quite abit. First goal was a silly one but i still think he is quality, he just needs to be made at home and learn the language. There was an incident were Jones was asking De Gea to pass to Evans however De Gea didnt understand and kicked the ball upfield, what shocked me was the reaction of Jones as he flung his arms up in the air showing his frustration to De Gea. This wont help him and i hope Feguson lectures the lad.
The incident with Jones is one fergie will sort out quickly, a new young keeper needs support not people like ferdinand moaning at him and jones disrespecting him.
I agree, after De Gea let in the goal, Rio and Vidic kind of hung their heads in shame. As Captain and Vice-Caption (I'm assuming Rio is vice captain since he take the armband from Vidic after Vidic went off) need to put their arm around De Gea, and tell him to keep his head up. One of the worst things to have as a Goalkeeper is a defense that doesn't support and trust you.
I said this before about Cleverley, we will see how ready he is after he plays a game when we don't have all the possesion and the last 10 minutes of the first half showed that he is no central midfielder yet. But he was positionally a bit more sound in the 2nd half and we didn't let them have a lot of space too often. A lot of that may have been down to WBA sitting a bit deeper (ergo it was harder for us to break them down). And I've said this before, a centre back at full back is not a long term solution but it looks like it will have to do for now considering that Rafael, Rio and Vidic are out for a considerable length of time (especially the former two). Smalling and Jones probably will be our central defence with Fabio and Evra the full backs. That leaves just one first team defender- Evans- on the bench. I suppose we may see a few reserve team or youth team defenders appear in a few squads. One thing I noticed was that de Gea was celebrating after the winner so I think it shows he knows he can do better. I didn't see the things that are described above but I'm sure SAF will have a word with the players to make sure that they are all pulling in the right direction (as if they weren't anyway).
Not sure Young was MoTM, especially as most of his crosses were cut out as soon as the ball left his foot. It wasnt till the last 30 mins that he decided to go down the outside on his left that he looked a real threat to the full back. Shame Nani didnt see more of the ball and have a go at Shorey, but yes his missed a sitter and could/should have done better with the volley.
That you guys are the team to beat Proved once again you can grind out a result when all the other top teams weren't able to.
For once I'm not overly worried about a defensive injury crisis. Our 1st choice back 4 are all out for a few weeks, but Smalling, Jones, Evans, and Fabio will do just fine. De Gea just needs to assert himself a bit and I'm sure he'll be fine as well.
Technically you guys didn't grind your win out. I wouldn't call Wolves a top club. Hows it feel to be in first place?
Quite good actually. We are now a 'top' club I would laugh if we won against City next week and stayed here
Do Man Utd need this lad while all your players are injured by any chance please log in to view this image He scores goals away from home when you're playing ****
I said at when we signed De Gea that it was a gamble, a 20 year old keeper to replace VDS, he may improve but so far he doesn't fill me with confidence. He's lost a sift goal in his last 2 matches, sooner or later it's going to start costing us points. I agree that the team need to show the young lad support, but I've alway been of the opinion that a keeper should be one of the most experienced players in the squad, and I'm not sure this young lad will be good enough over a full season, realy hope he proves me wrong though. Bar the keeper, I'm very pleased with how things went today, as we found out last season 3 points away from home are hard to come by, and West Brom are a solid side these days under Hodgson, bring on Spurs and Arsenal at OT now, I fancy we can get 6 points from those games, judging by our outstanding home record from last season
What I learned was what I already knew. We still don't have the quality in midfield to go away from Old Trafford and control a game. West Brom saw a lot of the ball and United, when we had it, didn't use it well. We had one shot on target but still scored 2 goals. Will we be so fortunate in future away games? Probably not, but this shouldn't be a surprise, given how poor away from home we were last year and the fact that we have inexplicably not strengthened in an area of glaring weakness.
As for De Gea, there's no doubt that his form is a worry. The problem with a keeper is if you drop him, you run the risk of shattering his confidence. He's a long term investment and as such shouldn't be branded a waste of money or a flop after 2 games! I'm confident that he'll come good but Fergie definitely has a decision to make there. Can we wait for him to come good, with so many tough games coming up?
