Following our total humiliation at the hands of City, Sir Alex had some thinking to do and he obviously read my blog of the game because Rio Ferdinand and Anderson were singled out and dropped.
As Ashley Young and Chris Smalling are injured, and Wayne Rooney has a continued loss of form (I know there are some of you who think one decent pass a game shows he is class but frankly its not enough), the team had attacking potential but a defensive formation for the trip to Everton.
Frankly I’d have dropped Patrice Evra too but we don’t have another left back, and reinstating Jonny Evans had to be to prop up his fragile confidence. It was a way of showing Rio that his loss of form and pace are such that Evans ‘accident waiting to happen’ is better than Rio’s ‘can’t tackle, can’t run, won’t put head in where it hurts’ style.
That Rooney tweeted that noon kick-offs mean pasta for breakfast which he dislikes (prefer sausages and a pint of bitter then Wayne?) shows what a primadonna he has become, Rio’s tweet last week about flying to an NFL game as soon as City was over (he mentally left at halftime) supports this.
Get players who care Sir Alex!
Anyway, Everton were without Tim Cahill and so no threat, cannon fodder as usual. 1-0 after 20 minutes, when would the floodgates open?
Cleverley played well for half an hour, Welbeck is willing, Evra did ok and Nemanja Vidic looked safe again, Javier Hernandez knows where the net is as ever.
After that, it was the usual boring, boring United. Err sorry? Isn’t that Arsenal putting 5 past Chelski?
Am I in a parallel universe?
What happened?
United shut up shop. Rooney tackling back, Henandez off for ….is that Dimitar Berbatov?
What a nutty season. 8 goals against Arsenal and now 10 men behind the ball against Everton.
Meanwhile Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City have been setting new standards in their leagues.
What shall we do?
Well for me it remains simple enough.
Play the kids, get Fabio and Rafael back, pick Cleverley when he is fit, play Nani on the right, let Michael Carrick and Rio go, buy an attacking midfielder from Italy or Spain, get Wayne some help to make sense of his game.
I feel that it’s a transition year for us, I’m certain of it, and its only because Chelski, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool are so bad that we hope to win the league.
We might be better letting it go and focussing on the new standard set by Barca, Bayern and City and building a team that will win the Champions League.
When we are defending against a poor Everton team like it’s the Alamo, we have to know that the magic isn’t there.
City might well collapse after Christmas but is that really what we want to rely on?
Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve