United Has Only Themselves To Blame

Probably our biggest game of the season so far, yet we only have ourselves to blame for losing 2-1 at home to Chelsea. Now the title initiative lies with Chelsea, and we need a favour from Liverpool or Spurs in beating Chelsea, for us to catch up. Who is to blame? Is it Berbatov? Is it Gary Neville for letting Malouda slip past him? Is it Ferguson for his tactical decisions?

I believe, it’s every single one who belongs to the Manchester United family.

Don’t get me wrong, I will never turn against my own club that I supported for 12 years now. But, I was really gutted to see that display we put on last night, where was the passion? Where was the desire to beat the rentboys? How I wished Roy Keane was around.

The Berbatov Factor

Berbatov, or Berbaflop, they are calling him on various Manchester United blogs, is someone I have always defended when people slagged him off, saying he’s not worthy of being a Manchester United player. His finishing is far from Rooney’s, but he makes it up with his great setup play. But his performance last night, has cemented the idea in my head that, he is a flop at Manchester United.

While some would argue that Berbatov had very limited chances, thanks to our non-existent midfield, I say, for a striker who we paid 30 million pounds for, shouldn’t you convert chances, even if you had only 1 or 2 in the game? That’s the mark of a real great striker isn’t it?

Rooney showed that attribute in the Bayern game, when he scored against the flow of the game. Berbatov?

In the dying stages of the game, Gary Neville’s cross from the right found Berbatov open, and he attempted a volley that went straight at Cech. We were only a goal behind, and if that would have went in, it would have galvanised the team, and our charge for the title will still be in our hands. For a 30 million striker, you would expect him to make such an impact.

Berbatov had another chance in the game when he was through on goal, but as he lazily dragged the ball across his feet in the box, he allowed Lampard to track back and nip the ball away from him. Should he have hit the ball first time, Lampard would never have made it in time for the tackle.

Berbatov better put up one hell of a display against Bayern on Wednesday, or I fear, even Ferguson would lose his faith in him.

Gary Neville

I have been a Manchester United fan for 12 years, and I respect Gary Neville and his contributions to the team. I will never forget the days he combined with Beckham down the right flank to put crosses into the box. But he was not the player he used to be last night, Malouda simply got past him too easily. Furthermore, Gary Neville has already played 2 games in a row prior to the Chelsea game, and he is not exactly 20 is he?

Why wasn’t the speedier Rafael picked to counter Malouda, left me and a few friends puzzled.

The Non-existent Midfield

Was it fatigue? I don’t know. True we played against Bayern in midweek and might be tired as a result, but there’s a saying that goes “Mind over matter”. I hardly saw any drive in the midfield at all. Park was non-existent, perhaps due to his defensive duties on the flank, Scholes was unimaginative, he was closed down too quickly for him to play any decent passes, and Fletcher huff and puffed ineffectively.

You would really expect a player like Fletcher to excel in such a game. This is the kind of game that he used to dominate in the pass. I remember in the tie at the Bridge, he had Deco and Ballack in his pockets the whole day.

Why wasn’t Carrick playing. If you took a look at the first half, you would realised that Chelsea was controlling the tempo of the game, and hence the match. We needed a player like Carrick to slow play down if needed and spray the ball around calmly.

Giggs behind Berbatov in the AMC role? He looked terribly rusty, I had questions about him playing in such a crunch game straight after his injury, but to be fair to us, our squad had no more depth to cover for the loss of Heagreaves and Anderson. Perhaps if we did spend a little of the Ronaldo warchest last summer, we would not be in this plight right now?

The Media

I was a little irritated reading the papers today.

The media was pointing out the mistakes in Ferguson’s tactical decision, and etc. A local newspaper was even claiming that Ferguson should have started 4-4-2 with Macheda alongside Berbatov, and Ferguson’s biggest mistake was to play Berbatov 4-5-1 upfront.

So you are telling me, you are confident, Macheda after his long-term injury, can come in straight away and play 90mins of intensive high-tempo football against one of the top teams in the Premier League at the tender age of 17? Get your tactical facts right.

If we play Berbatov upfront alone, and lose, Ferguson is senile and has lost his mind, and made a BIG mistake. Why is it when we played Berbatov upfront alone against Bolton, you were the same group of journalist singing praises of how wise Ferguson is tactically and what a great decision it is to play Berbatov upfront alone?

Should we have beaten Chelsea at OT yesterday, I bet my life, not a single journalist will be mentioning how bad Ferguson’s decision to play Berbatov upfront alone was.

What’s Next?

Where can we go from here on? To be honest, I am still very much gutted by our loss to Chelsea.

Our only thing to do right now, is to pick ourselves off the ground, regroup and put up a great display on Wednesday at Old Trafford and remind everyone we still got every reason to be cheering for the team in the next few months.

Put up a magnificent display at home, and then we will see where we can go from there.