Like Shelling Peas for the Little Pea

I was on holiday when we played Rangers in our first Champions League game and completely missed it and only got to hear of the score when I got chatting to a couple of Rangers fans who were staying at the same hotel.

They were understandably delighted with a point picked up at Old Trafford as it was probably, on paper, the toughest fixture in the group.

I wasn’t quite so happy with it though. 0-0 at home against any opposition just felt like two points dropped to me and given that our next fixture was away to Valencia, there was a real worry that we could find ourselves with just a point or two from our opening two fixtures – especially given our recent away record, general record against Spanish teams in Spain and injury problems.

However, last night’s 1-0 win over Valencia has put us right back on track and four points from the opening two fixtures is more like what I would have hoped for – even if the source of those points was a bit unexpected.

As I have said, I have been away recently and have missed a total of four games whilst away so I have been a bit out of touch with who has been playing but it did seem to me that we had four players on the pitch last night who have not played very much football recently (Rafael, Carrick, Anderson and Ferdinand). It is common for a player coming back from injury to be a bit rusty so to have four players who were coming back from a mixture of injury and bad form all starting in such an important game was hardly ideal.

The overall performance by United wasn’t particularly sparkling last night but I do think that when you consider the above, it was largely to be expected.

Fergie decided to go with Berbatov alone upfront and despite working hard, he didn’t really get too much in the way of opportunities and the one shot he did manage was saved quite easily.

Rafael came back into the side for O’Shea and I was pleased to see this. There was a suspicion that Rafael was still being made to pay for his mistake against Bayern last season which would seem a little harsh but, by all accounts, O’Shea hasn’t exactly been setting the world alight with his displays so far this season. I certainly saw very little wrong with Rafael’s performance last night and I hope he gets another run of games again now.

The performances of Carrick and Anderson in midfield were always going to come in for a lot of scrutiny and I suspect the jury will still be out on both of them. A lot of the work Carrick does goes largely unnoticed – he never stops working to shield the back four and prevents a lot of the opponent’s attacking moves from going anywhere – it is a lesson in how to play the game without ever touching the ball. The problem is, of course, that when he does touch the ball, he doesn’t exactly come across as the greatest exponent of the art of passing – which was supposedly one his main assets when he came to the club!

Anderson was quite impressive without doing a great deal either. His position last night appeared to be slightly more advanced than Carrick or Fletcher’s which is fine except we all know that Anderson and goals are two words rarely mentioned in the same sentence.

The name on everyone’s lips at the end though, was of course, Hernandez (or Chicharito) who scored our late winner with a two-touch, left-footed control and shot which show that he is a natural born goalscorer – he had so little time to sort his feet out and put the ball away that he was surely acting purely on his striking instincts.

He had been scoring for fun over the Summer during the World Cup and our pre-season but this was his first goal since the Community Shield and hopefully will be the first of many more.

One thing that did annoy me about the TV commentary last night is how our win was refered to as a “smash & grab raid” as though we had been under the cosh for 90 minutes but somehow had managed to sneak a goal to win it. We rode our luck on a couple of occasions but you can’t expect to go to the ground of any half decent side in Europe and dominate proceedings. Overall, we contained Valencia pretty well but in the end, our extra quality made the difference.

Valencia’s defense had also been made to work pretty hard during the game and bringing on the youthful Macheda and the pacey Hernandez towards the end of the match was something of a masterstroke by Fergie – it was the last thing the tiring Valencia defense would have needed.

A 1-1 draw might have been a fair result but I felt we showed our vast European experience here – we kept them out and then applied the killer blow almost at the end of the game when there was little time for them to get back into the game. It was almost the perfect away performance by a below-strength team against an in-form team.

We now have two games against Bursaspor and I can see no reason why we shouldn’t be looking to take maximum points from those two games. Should we succeed in doing this then we will find ourselves on ten points with two games still to play and our place in the next stage of the competition virtually assured.

For now though, we’re back on track.

Our away form has been a cause for concern so far this season and a trip to Valencia in the Champions League isn’t exactly the type of fixture you would expect to produce a turn-around but having drawn our opening game at home to Rangers, it would appear to be quite important that we take at least a point home from this one.

A slight concern for us going into this one is that we seem to have a few injuries in midfield and both Scholes and Giggs have stayed at home with the likes of Carrick and Anderson making the trip – as both of these are themselves on the comeback from injury and poor form, it is very difficult to assess just what kind of performance we will get from them tonight, should they play.

Another player who is also being lined up to make his comeback from injury is Rio Ferdinand and this is another one which could go either way but if he is in any way fit to start then I would expect him to – defensive errors have been largely to blame for the points dropped in our away fixtures so far this season and a resumption of the Vidic/Ferdinand partnership will go a long way to easing the minds of United supporters concerned at the sloppiness of some of the goals we’ve conceded recently.

The one player who won’t be making an appearance of any kind tonight is Wayne Rooney, of course and this is going to make things interesting because Fergie has largely liked to employ the 4-5-1 type of formation in big away games – especially in Europe.

Berbatov alone upfront isn’t appealing but he has been providing the goals so far this season. Michael Owen continues to do the business when called upon though and a Berby/Owen partnership would seem logical but where does this leave the formation?

It’s a tricky task for Fergie here and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Owen alone upfront and a packed midfield in an attempt to contain Valencia and come away with a draw.

Valencia themselves were supposed to be less of a team than they used to be and the summer sales of Villa and Silva only seemed to re-inforce this view but the fact of the matter is that they currently lead La Liga, won their opening Champions League fixture 4-0 and have been unbeaten at home in Europe in their last eleven games.

All things considered, this is likely to be a tough game for United. Our defence will have to be fully concentrated tonight and any chances that come our way will have to be taken.

I can see a pretty cagey affair with United trying to hold out for a draw with possibly a late goal coming to settle the issue. I don’t think there will be many goals though.

The bet is going to be 4 points UNDER 2.5 goals @ 1.75 with Canbet.

After some rather unnecessary and derogatory articles in some sections of the press a few weeks ago about our new signing, Bebe, it was good to see that he got on the plane with the first team squad jetting off for Spain to meet Valencia tomorrow night.

Being a complete unknown and with Alex Ferguson admitting that he had never even seen him play at the time he signed him, it was an open invitation for some reporters to have a dig at both Fergie and the player and with him not even making the Reserve line-ups on his arrival, some were suggesting that Fergie had been sold a pup.

However, whilst I doubt Bebe will get any match time tomorrow, the fact that he is being taken along shows how highly Fergie now rates him and clearly wants to give him the experience of travelling to a European away fixture as he perhaps feels like the lad will have many more to come during his career with us.

Other interesting inclusions are Anderson, Carrick, Smalling and Hernandez.

As already widely reported in the press Rooney hasn’t travelled and neither have Giggs, Scholes and Neville.

With both Chelsea and Arsenal losing yesterday, this game represents a fantastic opportunity for us to go clear second in the league, just one point behind Chelsea and surely after some of the points we have thrown away in recent games, concentration and focus will be on doing exactly that with no more slip-ups.

Valencia apart, Fergie does now seem to have an almost fully fit squad to pick from and there are reports that even Owen Hargreaves is nearing fitness again which is obviously great news.

Despite picking up just six points from their opening five games, Bolton have not started this season too badly overall and have only been beaten once (4-1 away to Arsenal) and have picked up creditable draws against Birmingham, Fulham and Villa with their solitary win coming against struggling West Ham.

Our record against Bolton in recent years has been pretty much one-way traffic and you have to go all the way back to 2004 for the last time they picked up a point against us in the league. In this fixture last season (played in March) we won 4-0.

What is going to be interesting to see today is who Fergie goes with up front. Dimitar Berbatov has got off to an absolute flyer this season and Michael Owen did himself no harm with a brace against Scunthorpe in midweek. Rooney, on the other hand, continues to struggle to score although he does have a record of scoring against Bolton for some reason (six goals in his last four matches against Bolton).

I can see us scoring goals in this game but I am sure that Fergie will be happier with a clean sheet and an end to the lack of concentration at the back rather than a sackful of goals scored and a 2-0 win would be considered a great result and this is something which I think we are perfectly capable of achieving.

The bet is going to be 3 points Manchester United -1.5 AH @ 2.31 with Canbet.

The draw for the fourth round of the Carling Cup took place this morning and we have been drawn at home against Wolves which perhaps isn’t the kind of tie to get too many pulses racing but could represent something of a banana-skin if the “kids” don’t go into it fully focused.

Arsenal have been handed a tricky tie away to Newcastle while Villa, Wigan and Birmingham have all been handed home ties against lower league opposition so it looks increasingly likely that, should we get past Wolves, Premier League opposition in some form will await us in the next round.

No. The site hasn’t been abandoned – I have just been away for a two week vacation. I decided that during this family holiday, I would not take my laptop and football would be completely off the agenda too (although I did manage to discover the scores of the three games we have played whilst away – it isn’t too difficult to find a United fan – even in America!)

So, I now have a bit of updating to do but rest assured, the site will be running as usual from now on (or until I take a holiday again at least!).

Rio Ferdinand complete 45 minutes for the Reserves this evening when they took on Oldham in the Manchester Senior Cup and has surely put himself back into contention for a start against Everton in ten days’ time.

It has come as a bit of a surprise this one as the news was that he was still a couple of weeks away from fitness but with Anderson suddenly appearing in a reserve fixture last week it seems to be the way at United at the moment – give absolutely nothing away!

On a related note, Owen Hargreaves fans will be interested to see that he has been included in United’s 25 man Premier League squad for the current season. With the transfer window closing yesterday, Premier League clubs had to send in their final squads for the current campaign and Hargo’s inclusion had been subject of some debate but he is there and that may mean that Fergie sees him playing some kind of role over the next few months.

It isn’t a guarantee though – it does appear that we were easily able to accomodate our players into the restrictions of the new ruling and many clubs appear to have actually put forward a squad list of less than 25 players – even with Hargo, we have only submitted 24.

In other news of the last few days, Tom Cleverley went out on loan to Wigan which, I must admit, I found strange. I really thought he would be brought through into the first team this season but Fergie has clearly decided that he has enough options in midfield at the moment and a loan to a Premier League side will be a good experience for Cleverley.

Let’s hope he does for Wigan what Mame Biram Diouf has done for Blackburn so far!