Other than the Gestapo like stewards and 8 minute collapse, I think we can take many positives from today's game. Firstly for 60 minutes we were actually the superior team. We controlled the midfield, made several promising breaks and defensively actually looked competent for the first time this season. Taarabt had a poor game by his usual standards yet made more attacking runs and saw more of the ball than any united forward which is an indicator of how on top we were. In nelson and hill as I said after the spurs game, we have a natural ball winning centre back partnership. If these two remain at cb we will have no problems for the rest of the season. Mbia, motm for me today was pretty much outstanding and was by far the most best RB performance I have seen since Kyle walker in the championship. With him there, we actually have both a threat going forward and a decent defensive player in complete contrast to Onuoha and bosingwa. Also I don't no whether this was shown on tv but after the whistle, he came and walked through ad boards, up and into the qpr fans where he gave away his shirt and shin pads. Every over player had left by this point and the united fans were surprised by a player actually interacting with the fans. Mackie, what more needs to be said Bowen and nickynacky, whilst obviously not good managers as shown by the horrific Hughes-esque substitution, actually looked like decent coaches today. They encouraged and congratulated the players as they came off, the half team talk obviously worked and it is important to note that under redknapp they will not have any input into subs so we won't see such a crap sub again. The team actually cared. After the final whistle, you could easily see who cared, Derry, dyer, mackie etc. the only players who left without actually the fans were swp and green. They can piss off as far as I'm concerned as they have no place at the club. Dyer, capable and commanding. His 2 performances this season have actually been good. If only we could get them a bit more often. And so now it's up to you Harry. The basics are there and with a bit of motivation and a lesson on how to defend in addition to a striker and a lb cover, we might just pull ourselves out of the 'Hughes mess' (did anyone less see the banner?)
Aha, this banner. Cerny - get this! I said it would feature! http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/180789-What-a-Hughes-mess
The records will show we lost 3-1 to Southampton and Man U, yet the performances were chalk and cheese. Massively encouraged today despite the result...
Agreed, though I have to be honest their goals always looked like coming from corners. Two other things- one , if Cisse spent as much effort chasing the ball as he does berating his colleagues then we might threaten more. And finally, our corner kicks were very poor,, all bar the last couple not even clearing the first defender. That said, an overall positive experience. Over to you Harry.....
Positives ? Mbia when not throwing himself to the ground was excellent and the feet of fire routine was top Tekkers Tarbs was great but fustrated at not getting the killer through ball Mackie. Again excellent only criticism is that he lacks the vision for the final killer through ball Nelson Derry & hill - old skool football hard & solid Elsewhere the Chablis was very nice and a selection of 6 yes 6 cheeses après match with figs was unexpected and just runny enough. Can't abide over chilled cheese
Good post hoopsa. I wanted a performance and got one. Whatever we think of this current Utd team they are still probably one of the top 5 teams in the world. We gave a good account of ourselves today. Our season starts tomorrow. Slow but steady progress will see us just escape.
Good post. Now I wish we made the change before the run of three 'easy' games. Would've picked up a win with this team for sure.
Excellent post and analysis. Just to complete for those who missed it. The support was brilliant. Taarabt did not have any luck but still looked by far to be the most creative player on the pitch including all of United's stars. Cisse's attitude was far better but he clearly does not have the vision to do anything else than to be on the end of good ball. The biggest negative was the fact that we threw away three points because Hughesie's boys could not quite forget everything that great man told them. Traore had been more than coping and certainly did not look unfit when he was taken off to be replaced by Anton Ferdinand. Everything that Hill and Nelsen had done superbly up to that point was laid to rest by that disastrous substitution. Whereas previously defenders and even Taarabt had jumped to win balls in the air suddenly we had someone at rb/cb who was always not in the right position and never even jumped even to make it difficult for the attacker for the first two goals. The third also came form a surging run down the right defensive flank that he was supposed to be preventing. Until the equaliser, we had looked good for 3 points. We were looking increasingly dangerous as we broke down United's laboured attacks and counter-attacked with pace and purpose against a defence which had larger and larger gaps in it. Next season when United's fans wake up after another season without a trophy with their tedious chant oof "Going down" we can respond with "Winning nowt". As it was they clearly did not like or understand the lusty renditions of "2-1 and we ****ed it up" although they finally got the point of the jibe when it changed to "We lost the Championship for you". That was one of the few moments when 5 or 6 of them actually remembered what they were there for and responded. The stewards did their bit to try to ruin the atmosphere. Singing obviously aint allowed in the away end because it doesn't fit in with the silence reverberating around the rest of the Theatre.