I thought we played well overall.
I was pleased with the amount of effort and passion shown by our players, although Fer was the least satisfactory in this respect. The lengthy Sunday Times piece today was also quite flattering about our performance. However, I have to agree that we kept giving the ball away cheaply and Vargas was probably the most guilty of this. Ball retention showed the gulf in class between the two sides and allowed United to maintain the pressure on us.
Unlike some on here, I thought that Hill had a good game defensively but, not surprisingly, offered little going forward. Isla gave us a good attacking threat, worked incredibly hard and was solid defensively. Henry was a star and did so much defensively but his creativity is almost non-existent. Nevertheless, was probably MOTM. Barton played well and did more than Henry going forward but I am not sure we afford the two of them in the same team.
I thought Onuoha had one of his best games of recent times. He looked quick, tackled well and won many of his aerial duals. I liked Caulker, too: one of our successful acquisitions of the Summer. He will get even better.
Vargas covered lots of ground, looked dangerous at times but his poor decision making let us down when we had probably our only counter attack where we outnumbered them.
I cannot recall Bobby Zamora ever working so hard. He was a real handful for them. He will never score many goals but he won loads of headers and laid the ball off well.
Some on here have given Austin low marks but he had two cracking shots at goal which, with a lesser keeper, would have found the net. These weren't clear cut opportunities in my opinion, he made them into clear opportunities. Many would settle for that contribution but Charlie was like an auxiliary midfielder when we lost the ball. We are so lucky to have him and how anyone can rate him as a 6 after that, I don't know.
It was great to see Taarabt control and hold on to the ball, and make some incisive passes. He looked a class act but I doubt we could have any two of him, Kranjcar and Fer on the pitch at the same time.
We matched United in the first half and put them under a lot of pressure for the last 20 minutes. With a bit of luck, we could have had a draw. This performance bodes well for the rest of the season.