We’re consistent if nothing else I suppose. I mean why round off a rubbish pre-season with anything other than a defeat to United? We might as well set our stall out before the season starts eh?
Seriously, are we planning to compete this season or is Ancelotti happy with just the one title? Because him and Wilkins might think what we want to hear is the usual post-defeat blurb about ‘no need for panic’ and ‘taking the positives’ but realistically, who felt positive after that? We might have started and finished well enough (Berbatov’s goal aside) but it was the lack on energy in between that worried me. Isn’t it a little worrying when the MOTM award not only goes to an opposition player but an opposition player who’s older than anyone we could field?
United looked younger, fresher, and generally more up for it and if our players can’t motivate themselves for a game against the main challengers to our crown (whether it’s for the Community Shield or a bloody egg cup), then it’s a poor show really. And whilst I’m not suggesting there weren’t glimpses of what we can do, because we were pretty much all over them towards the end and 3-1 could easily have been 2-2 if Kalou was up to it, but ‘glimpses’ are what worry me when the opposition look like they’d happily run all night.
What pleased me? Well, we didn’t lose 6-0 so that was a bonus and better still, we didn’t actually look like losing by any great margin either – and considering these truly wonderful, young, creative, attacking (journo’s feel free to continue to add as many gushing adjectives as necessary) players of theirs were up against such a poor defence on the day, we can only hope they’ll struggle a bit against any backlines that actually put in the effort.
I know a lot of you still think otherwise but John Terry really isn’t cutting it, either as a captain or a central defender. He’s never been known for his pace anyway but if his reactions get any slower now, he’ll be lucky to have his boots laced before kick-off. Our captain never looks anywhere near the self-assured rock in defence we believe he is unless he has Carvalho or Alex for back-up. Ok, less so Carvalho of late because he forgot what it felt like to get off the physio’s couch but you get my point. Because as much as I rate him, Ivanovic isn’t best placed centrally for us, he’s much more effective on the wing. Having said that, fair play again to Ferreira who, despite barely getting his boots dirty season after season, still managed a fairly disciplined display yesterday albeit lacking a bit going forward. And the less said about Ashley Cole the better.
Our midfield looked about as sharp as Avram Grant in a tracksuit, with more rust than my back gate. Essien was guilty of giving United’s midfield an easy time, Mikel did ok and Lampard – well he just didn’t. As ever Malouda worked his arse off with very little help from his team-mates so his efforts went unrewarded.
Our frontline didn’t exactly fill me with joy either – we really do rely on Drogba to be on form, particularly when Anelka is having one of those games where his role is a source of confusion and whilst Kalou may well have looked lively, for me, he continues to lack the physical presence and final ball.
So, very little to draw positives from but I’ll give it a go anyway. We looked good at the start and finished strong, so if we can sort out the hour in between we’ll be fine. Statistically, we edged possession, had more shots on target and more success with our passing than the opposition. I thought Benayoun actually looked ok for the time he got, so there’s hope there. Malouda continues to look one of our better players and if the rest of the team wake up at the same time as him as the season goes on, he could really be the key to our attacking play. But the highlight for me had to be the irony of Ancelotti bringing on 18 year old Bruma when Fergie was bringing on Giggs at twice his age – and they still call us the ‘old’ side!
Blue is the colour
