No bias, the better side definitely won. But then the better side almost always does imo! Personally, whilst Fellaini played fantastically, I thought the biggest difference was in the defence. Both teams attacked pretty well, although both lacked fluency at times which is probably to be expected in the first game. But the Everton defence was disciplined and well organised and dealt very well with almost everything we threw at you. Whereas our defence was at sixes and sevens for a fair bit of the match, which was probably to be expected given who was playing.
I'm quite impressed by the level-headedness of the replies on here. Sure, certain posters are all doom and gloom as expected, they're like that after every draw or loss, but like many I've seen plenty of positives. First of all, Everton played well and even if we had a fully fit defence they had a good chance of beating us with a performance like that. I don't believe having Rio or Evans in thhe team would've stopped Fellaini scoring, and they could've scored plenty more if it wasn't for De Gea. Positives for me: De Gea was really good, it's so nice for him to get off to a good start, as opposed to last season. Kagawa was great, he's going to be a really important player for us. Loved the way he was always available in space and threading balls through into dangerous areas. If the front three (Rooney, Nani, Welbeck) were in better form it would've made a big difference. Scholes and Cleverley performed pretty well for me, some will disagree but they were energetic and kept a decent tempo going, always looking for the ball. No injuries. I was concerned that Cleverley and especially Vidic might not last the distance, but they looked fine, although Vidic seemed pretty tired at the end but that's expected. I feel it was only in the final third that we were a bit clueless. Rooney, Nani and Welbeck did not look that sharp, or made poor decisions. But this will improve, and these are established players, they'll be fine. That's why I'm positive that the other areas of the team performed well, the new players, the returning from injury players and the ones who had a tough season last year.
I don't think it was that bad to be honest. Everton are more than capable of being a top six side, they're a tidy set up wth a top manager and the players all work their bollocks off. Losing one nil to them is nothing to be ashamed of. Had we had Carrick on the pitch instead of Scholes and a centre half alongside Vidic it would have probably been a different story, we should have at least got a draw. As it goes, that team we played can't carry on for another game. I actually think, and I said this on another thread, that we need to buy a centre half now while we can. Ferdinand can't be relied on anymore so we need one, simple as that. When they're all fit we can get Jones ready to play at CM. We could do worse than Jagielka, he is a hell of a player. Forget Baines (and with Buttner I guess we have), get him instead. What was strange was having brought van Persie on not giving him a sniff of the ball. He needs to be focal point of the attack and for now Welbeck drops to the bench. Or Nani, as he was **** last night and deserves a kick up the arse to be perfectly frank.
I don't remember United having an easy game against Everton since the Moyes era began. They always seem to play out of their skins - and then capitulate to a so-called weaker team another time. I predicted 1-1 for this but knew it would be tough. Fellaini played out of his skin and you could see when he was subbed that he didn't have an ounce left to give. Great performance, you have to say, and deserved to score. United were never really in the match and Everton always had an answer. It was too much to expect RVP to saunter on with more than half of his first game over and score. Maybe in a month or two, when he's settled, yes. In any case, United will still be up there, fighting for the title come May.
This result is the least surprising for a longtime. The last thing you want to have when you visit Everton is Carrick playing centre back. Fellani had a field day not surprisingly. When I saw the team sheet I posted that I'll be v.happy if we could scrape a win here. What was surprising was how ineffective Rooney, Nani welbeck were. Valencia was wasted at RB. De Gea and Kagawa played well. First match. Still a lot to do to justify many pundits choice of favourites.
