This is a new 'corner' I have added to the blog that will be devoted to my first passion in life, Manchester United. I will publish this, on most occasions, on a Sunday evening where I will look back at the previous week, giving my take on results and upcoming fixtures.
All views expressed will be my own.
It has been eight days or so since I last wrote down anything to do with Manchester United, but it has been a successful eight days in terms of results even if the performances are not up to scratch.
It all began against Galatasaray last Wednesday night in the Champions League as they became the latest European side to come to Old Trafford and perhaps feel they deserved more than what they got from the game. Granted United had chances to kill the game off in the second half, but it was only when I got home to see the highlights of the game that I appreciated how good their chances were.
On another day, Galatasaray would have had an early penalty and that really would have tested our mettle. There was just nothing outstanding in the way we performed and it was a far 'flatter' performance than I expected considering the way we exited the competition.
Personally I put down the lack of urgency and emotion in the game due to the fact that Liverpool were next on the fixture list and at the end of the day the 3 points was all that mattered. Coming home I also heard that Cluj had beating Braga in Portugal so United should be looking to book their place, and hopefully top spot, by the time Match Day 4 is completed out in Braga.
As I said, I thought the lack of urgency was down to the fact we had Liverpool next on deck, but the performance was terrible in that game, even if the result was great.
I have been saying for a while that I wouldn't have been at all surprised if Brendan Rodgers had recorded his first win of the season against United- in fact, I woke up on Sunday morning with this terrible dawning that we were going to be beaten.
After a lively 5 minutes to open the game, we descended into a team that couldn't hold onto the ball and it seemed only a matter of time that Liverpool were going to get in front.. And then Jonjo Shelvey lost his mind!
In hindsight and after seeing countless replays, I realised that it was a harsh red card, but watching in live time it looked a nailed on red. He had already gone in pretty hard on Ryan Giggs and you could just see him throwing himself into the ball as Jonny Evans moved forward to get it.
The performance didn't pick up much in the second half, but we did very well to turn the result around and it's a big one so we can't complain too much- I think tactically we made a mistake by playing Giggs in centre midfield (gives away far too much possession for my liking and positionally is awkward at times, sitting far too far ahead of Michael Carrick and letting their midfield have too much room behind him to run into). Nani had another forgettable game and is fast running out of chances with injuries potentially clearing up in the forward areas.
I have also finally made my mind up about Shinji Kagawa and I know most won't like it at all- I think he is an extremely clever player and he knows in his mind exactly what to do at the right time so all the decision making is generally good.
However, I think he definitely has a lack of pace for the position of the field he is expecting to occupy and he doesn't quite have the ability to beat a man- he would still be effective around better players (Nani being in idiot mode really isn't helping), but Kagawa doesn't address the need for someone to get the ball and move with it through the middle of the park, something I truly felt Moussa Dembele could have offered us.
At Dortmund, having someone like Mario Gotze alongside him would have got the best out of his game- I am not being critical of Kagawa, I am just not sure he has enough about to him to be playing in the role that United want him to although will be hoping he proves me wrong going forward.
The United end at Anfield covered themselves wonderfully well during the game, even if some Scousers were moaning about a rendition of 'Where's Your Famous Munich Song?'. Later we did hear reports that United were chanting 'Always the Victim', but surprisingly there was little coverage of the fact that 'aeroplane gestures' had begun the issue- I know you should be the bigger man when someone is taunting you, but it does seem to me that a lot of people in the media have an agenda about the United fans.
I even heard someone on the radio (think it was that idiot Danny Kelly from TalkShite) saying that he thinks the 'You Know What You Are' chant about Luis Suarez shouldn't be sung at grounds and people should be ejected for that from games- Funny thing though, no one mentioned the fact that Paddy Evra was loudly booed throughout the game when he had the ball for the horrible crime of reporting racism!!
I thought it was absolutely crazy that Fergie had decided to 'rest' Nemanja Vidic on Sunday... OK, I'll admit it, my first thought was 'I wonder what Vidic has done'.
It later transpired that the Captain will be ruled out for a couple of months with knee surgery- I know there were rumours that Vidic would have left Old Trafford this Summer just gone if he hadn't done his knee in last December, so now I have got to wondering whether United want to get him in tip top shape, give him six months of continuous playing time and then unload him next Summer.
Maybe Vidic himself feels he needs to get himself back to 100% to revitalise the interest that Barcelona and Real Madrid have had in him or maybe it is just simply that he really needed the surgery.
I don't know too much about all that, but I do know he will be a miss as Fergie wanted to get him and Ferdinand back together to provide some consistency for our defence after we have conceded far too many goals to open the season. Now Jonny Evans will get that opportunity to put a stamp on one of the centre half positions as he won't be under a lot of pressure from injured competition in the coming weeks.
Talking about injuries, wonder if the rumours about Antonio Valencia walking around in a protective boot are true?
The next few days will see United have a couple of home games in the Capital One Cup and the Premier League. Obviously we have had a good record in the League Cup in recent seasons, but we will be blooding some of the youngsters and also giving the fringe players a chance. Newcastle United should give us a tough test, especially if they play some of their stronger players, while a small crowd at Old Trafford that is expected don't really 'get up for' a League Cup game as they would for other evening kick offs.
We'll then have the much more important home game against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday where we could have the chance to take over at the top of the very early Premier League table. While they have regularly been three points at Old Trafford, we'll once again get to see Dembele against us and I hope we do a much better job shackling him than we did when he played us with Fulham earlier this season.
The Spurs game will really give us an indication of where we are as a football team as they are another with a midfield that could pose plenty of problems while Jermaine Defoe isn't missing chances. It will be a really tough game, but one that I would be pencilling in three points when it is all said and done.
Team I expect against Newcastle: De Gea, Michael Keane, Evans, Wooton, Buttner, Fletcher, Anderson, Powell, Welbeck, Hernandez and Henrique.
Team I expect against Tottenham: Lindegaard, Rafael, Evra, Ferdinand, Evans, Carrick, Scholes, Cleverley, Nani, Kagawa and Van Persie
