United 2 - 0 Cardiff

DDG

Rafael Smalling Evans Evra

Valencia Giggs(Cleverley) Jones Young

Mata(Januzaj) RVP(Rooney)

Frightening Trio

I always get excited before a Man Utd game, no matter how bad they’re doing or how low they’re lying in the league table. It’s Man Utd, a large chunk of my life, and thus I look forward to every game. However, the excitement before yesterday’s game was at another level. This was not excitement that would normally precede a home game against lowly Cardiff, since I expect an easy win against such teams. The excitement I felt before the game was all due to the knowledge that I was going to witness the birth of something special.

I’ve said it time and again, the players Moyes has at his disposal are Fergie’s players. Some of them are average, at best, but Fergie managed to get the best out of them. Some of them should have moved on a couple of seasons ago but somehow they’re still there at our club. Moyes was ready to give them a chance but they’ve let him down. Anderson and Fabio have already been shipped out and I expect more to follow suit during the Summer. Moyes can only be judged once he has built his own team and, I believe, Mata is the first player in what will be a very strong squad.  That’s why I think the acquisition of Juan Mata is the first step towards having something special. Moyes has suggested that we’ll be buying players this summer and that underperforming players will be replaced. If that’s not enough motivation for our players to pull their socks up and work hard to keep playing for this football club, then I don’t know what is.

Man of the Match

The performance vs Cardiff wasn’t out of this world. We were good but nothing too special. However, the image of Mata spraying passes in the middle of the park was a joy to see. I still cannot believe Chelsea let a player of Mata’s quality join us. He had a say in both our goals and his presence seems to have affected the players around him as well. Young, the player we all love to bash, was excellent. He produced an assist for the first goal and fired a sublime effort into the back of the net to spare us some tense final minutes.

Another player who impressed me was Chris Smalling. When played in his natural position, this guy produces the goods. He put in a brilliant performance last week vs. Sunderland and had another good game vs Cardiff. It’s a shame that he had to play out of position so often this season. His performances at right back were dire and this has subsequently led to a lot of criticism from the United faithful.

With Roo and RVP back in the squad, we’ve got plenty to look forward to. Add that to the emergence of Januzaj and the arrival of Mata and we’ve got a menacing attacking department. All we need is a left back and a holding midfielder and we’ll have a team that will be back up there challenging for the league. Until then, all you ABUs should enjoy this moment in time because we’ll be back where we belong....and it’ll be sooner than you think :) 

Come on United!