To be fair guys SAF knew well before kickoff that Chelsea were out, so Utd now have four tough away games in a row (Marseille, Wigan, Chelsea & Liverpool) - Admittedly Wigan shouldnt be tough but with our away form its likely to be, therefore we probably couldnt have risked different players.
Saying that - Utd played ********** terrible (and no discredit to Crawley who challanged for every ball and were up for it for the whole 90+ mins), but the looping header right near the end was the only thing that came close to challanging Lindegaard.
Bebe and Obertan were pretty terrible, Gibson controlled the match.....for about 5 minutes around the time of the goal - but otherwise was **** (was a good cross for the goal, and he gave Chicarito a great pass which should have been No 2 but got stuck under his feet).
Hernandez tried hard but was otherwise going everywhere he shouldnt really need to to just get the ball, Rafael and Fabio played ok but were pretty restricted by how **** those just ahead of them where
Good goal by Brown - thought it came off the top of his shoulder more than a header, but it was still a good one. Ref was a bit weak both ways but nothing major that I saw (little things here and there, like there was a foul on a Utd player in the box in the first half - but wasnt given ...commentary even picked it out)
Hoopefully we can get a EPL side next to put out a decent side - otherwise we will go out in the 1/4's lol
(At least we didnt go out as early as Chelsea lol - well chuffed for Everton)
I dont usually criticise SAF but you do wonder how did he get some of his bad signings just so wrong, Bellion, Miller, Djemba-Djemba are previous United players yet today where are any of them? I
think Bellion is still playing in France somewhere, Miller is at some Scottish mid table club and Djemba-Djemba is in Qatar I think
Speculate to accumalate.
All clubs do it - some maybe more successful at that than others, at the end of the day very few clubs can afford to spend £20m+ on every player so sometimes you have to go through a few young duffs to find the odd gem. Bellion and Miller looked decent for other clubs in the UK before coming to Utd but couldnt handle the pressure of OT , D-D wasnt very good but was probably at the same kind of ability /level as Smalling was @Fulham , just couldnt push on more). Occasionally scouts find gems like Evra and Vidic for £6m a pop (or thereabouts) but thats always going to be a rarity.
I dont like it at all (the manner in which its done these days by most clubs) but best chance these days is getting a kid out of nowhere and allowing him to grow within the club