No we didn't play fantastic football, we weren't as woeful as people make out either though - it wasn't the worst or best i've seen this season from us.
Exactly, people seem to be making it out like it was either comparible with the games against Arsenal or Spurs at the start of the season or Norwich and Fulham in recent weeks. It wasn't comparible to either, it was just solid.
And let us not forget, Blackburn were playing for a draw from the first minute and their efforts were either from range or set-pieces. It's always hard to break down a team who primarily aren't focussed on scoring. Once we got that first goal you could see their players very noticeably deflate, their heads dropped and it was over.
It's either one extreme or another on this place, it's ever so frustrating and you usually can't have a good conversation, Nokkon seems to be able to talk sense rather than babble back and forwards constantly over the same arguments, finally!
Haha, give me time!
I became most frustrated with the fact we constantly used the same tactic of pass it out to Valencia, he puts in a cross, no one wants it or they get it too easily. That was annoying as heck and wasn't getting us anywhere, things started to get better once we had Giggs/Young on and we could actually play it elsewhere.
By 70 minutes or something Valencia had swung in 20+ crosses I think the commentators said, they weren't terrible crosses but it was either just Welbeck or Hernandez in there and it wasn't working, this is where the issue was.
Exactly, on a better day, or one with more balance without worrying about being overloaded it wouldn't take that many crosses. Sadly the instinct of Jones wasn't to get in the box and attack these crosses, but then why would it be, he's a CB and it's hard to blame him for that, but Welbeck and Hernandez aren't exactly imposing. Someone like Nistelrooy back in the day would have been on those crosses, of which half were very good and quite possibly have bagged a couple.
We're just as likely to score from 1 or 2 crosses in another game.
Plus, at least Fergie is finally realising again that Rafael is our best RB. It's been such a shame that he's hardly played there this season, despite his injuries.
Yes! I understand that at the start of the season it was necessity and Smalling/Jones did quite well, but after their first injuries they were clearly not the same. Valencia tries valiantly but ultimately he's a wide man. Supporting a RB he's excellent, but his reading of the game when playing at RB shows. The only player he did a really good job on was Downing against Liverpool because he knew Downing had to try and beat him on the outside (often giving him a good 5 yards to sling a cross in with his right foot - he never did.)
Rafael when playing with Valencia is transformed, he knows when he runs the overlap that if it doesn't come to anything he will have Valencia busting a gut to get back and Evans coming across, he'll then come back and fill the gap Evans left or, if back in time, take the RW/RB spot. This falls apart with Nani, but that's Nani's game and that's not going to change but it definitely impacts what Rafael can do. He made 116 touches last night, the highest on the pitch and had one of the highest pass completions in the match. This was also true of the game against Fulham where he also made 100+ touches. In his last 3 games playing with Valencia he's been able to come inside for a 1-2 (something he only does with Valencia) and get a shot on goal (albeit they were tame efforts against Wolves and Fulham with the left.)
Interestingly in recent years Rafael has been swapped out for the likes of Brown, O'Shea and even Smalling due to his height against taller teams, but he doesn't get enough credit for his quality in the air. His tenacious attitude means he never gives up on things and much like Evra, tends to do quite well in aerial battles. His weakness of course is diving in and selling himself. Cutting this out would be a big improvement on his game, but people tend to forget that he's still one of the youngest players in the squad.
Carroll's dive from another angle...
That's a horse, not a Donkey.
note: I don't think Carroll has done *that* badly recently. The weekend he made a mistake and the team didn't play to his strengths. Square peg, round hole, but in recent weeks he's worked his socks off.
That's the thing though, an average performance isn't the same thing for Utd and Wigan, Wigan *****ing a draw at Blackburn would be a decent result, for Utd it would be woeful. Wigan beating Blackburn 2-0 would be a fantastic result, for Utd, its an expected result.
You also need to remember that when Wigan play Blackburn, Blackburn will try and get a result themselves, open up and as a result, leave bigger gaps. When they play us they play for a draw and make it hard to break down. Of course, we should be able to open them up, that's what you have those kinds of players for, but it's also not the same kind of match.
