United 2 - 3 Blackburn

de Gea

Rafael(Keane) Carrick Jones Evra

Valencia Park Nani Welbeck

Berbatov Hernandez(Anderson)

United have been scoring goals for fun lately so if I'm honest I'd have to admit that I expected a big win today. When I looked at the starting line-up, although I was disappointed Rooney wasn't in the squad, I didn't see any reasons why we shouldn't come out of this fixture with the three points. We started brightly but a needless penalty by Berbatov after a needless foul by Evra, made life difficult for ourselves. Blackburn parked a 9 man bus in their area and anything that we put their way, was either saved or blocked easily. Life was made even harder when Yakubu scored another goal and I thought that was it. 

We played very well for 15 minutes and Berbatov managed to bring us level with two fine goals which, in some way, made up for his poor defending that lead to the penalty. I've got that feeling that if Blackburn didn't get that early goal, we wouldn't have lost today. But anyway, I'm not blaming Berbatov for today's loss, definitely not, but I've got to put some degree of fault on our goalie. I have always defended de Gea, even when he committed stupid mistakes, but you just cannot defend his goalkeeping in the action that lead to the 3rd goal. What on earth was he thinking? I expect a high quality goalie to be confident enough to punch or clutch the ball in that area. Poor goalkeeping. Lindegaard has showed great promise in the games he played and I think he should be picked for the forthcoming games. If anything it should teach de Gea a lesson; you don't perform, we've got a very good goalie on the bench waiting to get his chance. I must also stress out my increasing dislike towards Evra. He's not performing and today he put one wayward pass after the other, one of which eventually resulted in the penalty. 

Unfortunate Berba had his Brace Forgotten

Nani worked very hard but his contribution yielded very little while Valencia was probably our best player on the pitch. Our central midfielders were inexistent simply because they are not central midfielders. At one point we had Rafael as a central midfielder. Bloody hell. The introduction of a half fit Anderson showed what difference a proper midfielder does to our side. Berbatov scored two while Welbeck showed glimpses of potential and Chichartio did nothing. The defence was terrible today. Jones and Carrick were given a very hard time by Yakubu and the goalie, well, he could have saved 2 of the 3 goals. 

Now I NEVER, or let's say rarely, doubt Fergie but his decision to leave Rooney out of the squad backfired spectacularly. He did so to preserve Roo's fitness so we have a better chance of beating Newcastle and City in the upcoming games but in doing so he sacrificed three points that should have been won easily. Rooney is the fulcrum of our side. Even the constant rotation of the goalies might be doing some harm. Blackburn only had 3 shots on target and they scored every shot, so they were anything but brilliant. Resolute, yes, but definitely not brilliant. 

We've covered so much ground to get to where we are and then we throw away 3 points just like that. That was very disappointing and although the mounting injury problems have cornered Fergie, I believe that he has to take a bit of the blame for today's loss. Obviously this is just my opinion. I still believe he's the best manager to have walked the face of earth and nothing will make me change my mind! A home loss to a side anchored at the bottom of the table is hard to take but we'll never die and we'll come back stronger vs Newcastle.

Oh, and I hope you have a happy new year, if you're a United fan may it be as red as possible and if you're not I pray that you see the light.