The Soccer Blog: A fine win against our bogey team (vs Fulham)

Saturday, 9 April 2011

A fine win against our bogey team (vs Fulham)

By: Shaun | April 9th, 2011
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berba hug Considering our recent history against Fulham, this was a thoroughly encouraging and enjoyable display from the men in red.

Impressions:

1.First goal was a delight to watch although it was tarnished by a hint of offside. Nevertheless, Nani’s trickery and movement followed by Ando’s touchback to him and Berba’s finish summed up what United are capable of at their best.

2.Nani must have been itching to get out there today (after being left on the bench against Chelsea) and had his way down the left. At times, he frustrated Berba with his reluctance to release the pass earlier, but overall, he was in storming form. His touch to get past Schwarzer and composure to not shoot immediately after was commendable. SOCCER-ENGLAND/

3.Valencia creates a buzz every time he receives the ball because there is nothing superfluous about his touch or movement. His nature of play is to be incredibly direct whenever possible and he got the better of Calcido today down the right. His goal, while all down to Nani, was well deserved considering his injury plagued season and his return to form almost immediately after coming back into the team. It’s good to see him back and in fine form for squeaky bum time.

4.Playing one up front worked well today since our attack flowed so predominantly down our flanks. The issue with Berba as a lone forward has always been his tendency to drop too deep to receive the ball at his feet effectively giving us a more packed midfield, but without a target man further forward to keep the defense honest. With Nani and Valencia in such a rampant mood today, we were able to attack down the flanks repeatedly and reduce our need to run all our attacks through Berba.

5.Games like today will hopefully convince Scholes to come back next season. With Gibson and Ando (especially) providing him protection and muscle in midfield, he was free to move the ball around at will. If we can upgrade in the offseason with even more bite in the middle of the park, he would be free to contribute with what he does best without having to worry too much about having to cleanup in front of the back four.

6.It was weird to see Ando as the farthest forward of our midfielders at various points in the game since his composure and passing in the final third aren’t exactly top class. Considering some of the space in which he found himself today, you wonder what someone of Sneijder or Ozil’s quality/creativity could have conjured up. Ando is more the battering ram that puts his head down and runs through the crowd to create chances.

7.One of the biggest positive from today’s game was that we finished the 90 without picking up any injuries. That’s a big plus in light of our love affair with the treatment table recently.

berba evra 8.Evra didn’t grab any headlines today, but his overall defending, movement and distribution were outstanding. It’s taken a long time, but the debacle in South Africa looks to finally be off his shoulders and mind.

In other news, Chelsea won today thus keeping themselves in the hunt. We’re now 10 points clear of Arsenal although you feel like they will cut that back down to 7 after their game tomorrow against Blackpool.

Ultimately, we know that winning our remaining league fixtures will see the title return to OT regardless of how the other 2 teams perform. Squeaky bum time indeed.

Some Related Man United Posts:The Berba Show pt 2 (feat Blackburn)Supersub Berba (vs Bolton)Welcome back Nani (vs Stoke)Still undefeated (vs Arsenal)Not again?!?! (v West Brom)

Category: English Premier League, Manchester United, Match Reports, Nani

Tags: Anderson, Antonio Valencia, Berbatov, English Premier League, Manchester United, Match Reports, Nani, Old Trafford, Paul Scholes
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Saturday, 9 April 2011

A fine win against our bogey team (vs Fulham)

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