I was fortunate enough to be at Old Trafford on Saturday for Manchester United's 3-2 victory over Stoke City in what was a great game to watch from my perspective, but a frustrating one for both Mark Hughes and David Moyes. Stoke were the better team, not by much, but deserved in my opinion to win the game and were robbed of a victory. The one thing that changed the game was the introduction of Adnan Januzaj. I was one that was sceptical of him not justifying the media hype after his impressive display against Sunderland, but he gave United the impetus that they desperately needed. He came on for Nani who had the worst game I've ever seen an individual have, and was booed off by the majority of the 75,274 strong crowd. The cacophony of boos suddenly erupted into cheers when his replacement, Adnan Januzaj, was announced over the tannoy.
He provided United with a different approach. Sure, he may not have scored any of the goals, or even assisted any of them. But what he did do was run directly at the Stoke players and didn't hesitate, something Nani was guilty of for his involvement in the game, and usually made the right decision. He managed to get both Stephen Ireland and Wilson Palacios booked for fouls against him, showing his obvious threat. The rest of the United players were given a lift every time he touched the ball, and looked like they wanted to win the game.
The one thing United lacked throughout the game however was leadership. You could tell that the lack of Ferdinand and Vidic played a big part defensively, especially for the first Stoke goal. Patrice Evra for me isn't the most vocal of captains or leaders, but I can understand why he has been tasked with captaining the side, because Moyes feels that his side needs their captain to be a defender to organise. But Evra isn't the answer. It has to be Vidic or Ferdinand. A team of Manchester United's calibre cannot afford to make as many mistakes as they have been in recent games, especially at home. Sort it out Moyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment