I think you could tell from my pre-match post that I had a feeling that something like this would happen here, however, I would just like to clear up my clumsy choice of words when I said “if it goes wrong then it wont be viewed with enormous disappointment.”

Of course, getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool at Anfield is almost as bad as it gets and it was enormously disappointing that this is exactly what happened but with the injury list we were carrying into this game I just felt that even Fergie had to accept that it would be a big ask to expect a win… hope, yes… expectation, not really.

As it turned out, we put up a tremendous fight and it has to be said that we were enormously unlucky to come out as the losers here. The stats I have in front of me say that we had 62% of the possession which sounds about right. For long spells of this game, our midfield was passing the ball around whilst Liverpool were chasing shadows.

However, we didn’t actually do a great deal with the possession whereas Liverpool were much more direct when on the ball.

Scholes gave his usual masterclass in midfield seeing a lot of the ball, exhibiting a pass-completion rate which must have been in the high nineties but a lot of it was sideways and backwards. It’s the type of thing I would love to see us pull off when we’re winning a game with five minutes to play but we were never in the lead in this match and I just felt that we could have been a bit more aggressive on the ball.

It did seem as though Scholes was always the “out” for any player with the ball. Scholes always finds space, the other player sees him and gives him the ball and it just pings backwards and forwards like this. In the meantime, Liverpool were able to get themselves set in position with their two banks of four behind the ball and seemed almost happy with this situation because we were rarely threatening their goal (we actually only had two attempts on target throughout the whole game although Valencia struck a terrific drive which came off the post in the first half).

As a result of all this, there was the impression that both of Liverpool’s goals “came against the run of play” but for me, they just did more in possession than we did and basically showed that you don’t get points for pretty possession, it’s all about sticking the ball in the net more times than your opponents.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. There were lots of positives to take from the game. Rafael was mostly excellent today and it was his tenacity and superb ball in which led to Park’s perfectly struck goal. Valencia continues to impress although he didn’t get a great deal of success in terms of getting in behind the Liverpool full-backs today and he was marshalled well but was unlucky not to get his name on the scoresheet again.

On the downside, De Gea still cuts a worrying figure in goal. He looks like his confidence is shot to pieces at times and he was probably culpable for Liverpool’s first goal as he became more interested in Andy Carroll than the ball and knew next to nothing about it as it flew over his head into the goal. One or two other nervy moments didn’t inspire confidence either and it has to be said, again, that Lindegaard’s claim for the Number One shirt only seems to strengthen every time De Gea plays.

At the end of the day though, we’re out of the FA Cup (again) and whilst the headlines last weekend were saying Manchester 2 – 0 London, this week they are saying Liverpool 2 – 0 Manchester and King Kenny now looks set to end Liverpool’s six year trophy drought.

As for us, we finally seemed to come through a game without adding to the injury list and a few of the injured will surely now be in a position to return against Stoke tomorrow.

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For reasons best known to themselves, a significant portion of the press chose to use the run-up to this game reporting stories of disharmony, “strained relations” and unrest between Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex. Both before and after games, both parties were at pains to deny any such thing was going on. Rooney himself said that he was still very happy at United and “wants to stay here for years to come”.

I don’t know if there’s any truth in the reports but a day like today shows that, if the press would just be a little patient, there’s absolutely no need whatsoever to report “non stories” because just a few hours on this day provided enough meat to fill the back pages for weeks to come – and, whilst some of it was even more unbelievable than the Rooney story, it was all absolutely true.

Around an hour before kick-off, there was the amazing news that Paul Scholes had answered the SOS call and, not only had he come out of retirement, he was going to be on the bench against City!

At first, I had to check the calendar to make sure that I hadn’t spent a few months in a coma or something and that it wasn’t actually April 1st but when the team sheet was announced, there he was – named as a substitute. Incredible!

That, in itself, can give the press stories to tell for the rest of the season.

And then the actual game began and it was to prove to have talking points aplenty – more than enough to keep idle journalists in articles for the next week and beyond.

First of all, it’s worth mentioning our line-up for this one. Lindegaard was given the nod ahead of De Gea in goal, Jones was switched to right-back, Evra on the left with Rio and Smalling making the central partnership. There was some doubt over Smalling’s fitness coming into the game but he came through the test with flying colours and I believe that the future of one of our central defensive positions could well be sorted for the next ten years.

I felt that Jones might have been used in midfield but Fergie chose to play him at right-back. I think that the Newcastle game exposed his deficiencies in central defence so I was just pleased to not see him played there against the trickier City players such as Silva and Aguero.

Fergie went with a four-man midfield of Nani, Carrick, Giggs and Valencia and I was just pleased to see Valencia on the right. Whilst it has been a case of “needs must”, Valencia is totally wasted in the right-back position. He has been superb on the right wing whenever utilised there this season and this game was no different and it was his run and excellent cross that led to our first goal.

Up front, Fergie went with Rooney and Welbeck. I’m afraid that I completely over-looked Welbeck in my pre-match article and I went with Hernandez but the Rooney/Welbeck partnership is actually probably our best at the moment. Hernandez may well be the best poacher we have at the club but there are areas he could improve on – namely his first touch and ball control but these are two things that Danny Welbeck has no issues with and he was able to demonstrate this to great effect on numerous occasions this afternoon.

Oh, and he can score, too. I was raving about Demba Ba’s goal against us in midweek but Welbeck’s goal here this afternoon was similar in some respects but, technically, it was probably even better as the ball was going away from goal (and Welbeck) but he showed tremendous technique and agility to put it away.

Anyway. The match itself started with City having plenty of the ball and put us under some pressure in the opening exchanges and in some ways, it was similar to the game we played against them at Old Trafford but in reverse. In that game, we were pretty dominant for the opening twenty minutes and City’s first goal came largely against the run of play. On this occasion, it was perhaps our goal that was against the run of play as Rooney headed brilliantly from Valencia’s cross to put us 1-0 ahead after just ten minutes to stun the home crowd.

Just a couple of minutes later, City were in turmoil as Kompany was shown a red card for a two footed challenge on Nani.

At first, I thought it was extremely harsh and, in some ways, I was disappointed because I would have preferred to have beaten City with eleven men – City down to ten men with eighty minutes still to play provided City with every excuse they would have needed no matter what score this one had ended. However, after seeing several replays, the red card was deserved. Kompany went in two footed with studs up. It was reckless, it was dangerous and, had Nani not been able to take evasive action, he would undoubtedly have had to leave the field with a nasty injury.

Basically, players know that this type of tackle is no longer allowed and so why such an excellent player as Kompany chose to attempt it is quite baffling.

At this point, we had City where we wanted them and drove home our advantage thanks largely to great work from Welbeck with his goal that I’ve already mentioned and a run he made into the box which drew another foul and a penalty. Rooney took the penalty but, whilst it was saved, Rooney nodded home the rebound to make it 3-0 with five minutes of the first half remaining.

At this point, the United support were chanting “we want seven!” and it really didn’t seem beyond us at that point. City were like a boxer who has been hit and whose legs have gone. As the boxer tries to hold on desperately until the bell, City seemed to want to hold on for the half-time whistle.

When it arrived, most people were wondering what the hell would happen in the second half. Would City come out fighting or would they accept that today wasn’t to be their day and go for damage limitation.

A couple of substitutes from Mancini during the break suggested the latter to me as he brought off Johnson (who had been giving Evra a pretty torrid time on our left flank) and Silva (who remains one of their most potent attacking forces) in exchange for Zabaleta and Savic.

Now, I don’t presume to know what Fergie said at half-time to our own players but, no matter who or where we are playing, we should not be throwing a 3-0 half-time lead away and so I guess that part of the message was that whilst we could still get more goals from the game, the highest priority, especially for the opening five or ten minutes of the second half, had to be to give nothing away. Give City no encouragement. Keep the ball. Pass the ball.

So, when Nani tried some kind of stupid back-heeled flick after just a couple of minutes of the restart which was easily intercepted by Richards who drove towards our box, putting Evra under such pressure that he eventually conceded a free-kick just outside the area, Fergie must have been livid.

Up stepped the lethal set-piece specialist Kolorov to unleash an excellent free-kick to make it 3-1 with just three minutes played of the second half.

Again, I don’t presume to know Fergie’s thoughts but the fact that Nani was subbed within ten minutes of this came as no surprise (although the reason could just have been that Nani had picked up a silly yellow card by this stage and with the referee – Chris Foy – having his usual game i.e. poor and baffling, it might have just been a decision made to protect Nani from picking up a second yellow).

The substitution resulted in a sight no Manchester United supporter ever thought they would see again as Paul Scholes trotted onto the  pitch.

The substitution was probably made with thoughts of retaining possession in mind and, for the most part, Scholes’ passing was of the highest quality (97% pass completion ratio, apparently) but, incredibly, it was a bad pass by Scholes which led to City’s second goal.

As Aguero slotted home their second on the rebound after Lindegaard had spilled his initial shot, all eyes went to the clock which confirmed that the score was indeed 3-2 and that there was still the best part of half an hour still to be played.

Whatever advantage we had enjoyed going into the half-time break had now been completely reversed. The momentum was now with City and I must admit that I felt it inevitable that they would score the equaliser.

However, it never came, despite us enduring some extremely anxious moments towards the end of the game (no more so than when Kolorov had another free kick from a similar position to the one which resulted in their first goal right at the death but on this occasion, Lindegaard saved it well).

And so the final whistle blew to bring the curtain down on a fantastically entertaining Cup-tie which saw United fans, as per usual, put through the wringer when we should have been sitting with our feet up, smoking cigars for the final ten minutes.

The drama wasn’t to end there though as a few hours later, the draw for the fourth round was made and, somewhat predictably, we were drawn away against Liverpool. But that’s a story for another day… right now, I need a lie down.

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I jokingly referred to the 5-0 defeat we suffered at the hands of Newcastle all those years ago in my pre-match write-up but this one was, in many ways, a very similar game.

The match was not as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest (don’t get me wrong, Newcastle were better and thoroughly deserved their win) but so much of what we tried to do failed by small margins whilst Newcastle could hardly do no wrong.

Their first two goals in this game were as stunning as anything scored in that 5-0 win (and there were some beauties in that game, too) and were good enough to win any game.

Demba Ba is looking like the signing of the century as Alan Pardew got him on a free-transfer (I believe most clubs were wary of taking a chance on him because of his injury record) but I don’t think you’d be able to sign him for less than £30million at the moment and his opener is already a contender for goal of the month, if not the whole season.

Their second, scored from a superb free-kick by Cabaye was as good as any free-kick you’ll see and it was no fluke – I seem to remember him scoring an almost identical free-kick in another of Newcastle’s games earlier in the season.

Their third… well… the least said about that the better. Phil Jones made an absolute mess as he tried to head back to Lindegaard (despite the ball being about two feet off the ground) but the keeper had already positioned himself to scoop up the ball so Jones’ header merely bobbled into our own net.

For our own part, Berbatov saw a header deflected onto the post early on and then another Rooney shot from point-blank-range late on was cleared off the line and I cannot really remember much more from us than that.

What was noticable about this one was how much harder Newcastle were working, especially in the midfield areas, as they harried and hassled us into making mistakes with our passing and just generally made us look like we were doing everything at half-speed. Worryingly, Newcastle just generally looked “hungrier” than we did and that’s not something you’d have been able to say many times over the last ten years or so.

There must be a reason for it but I was also surprised that Rafael wasn’t given then right-back slot in order to allow Valencia (who has been excellent in recent games) the right-wing but Fergie opted to put Valencia in the right-back slot and Nani and Park on the wings.

All in all, whilst Fergie is urging everyone not to panic, this was a pretty disastrous result and coming on the back of the Blackburn defeat, it cannot really be described as a “blip” – especially when taken into context with our early Champions League exit – trying to pretend that all is rosy at Manchester United smacks of ostrich-like behaviour.

However, if anyone can pull this round, Fergie can. He’s done it before and I have every confidence that he’ll do it again.

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Once again, Fergie had no choice but to ring the changes for this one as Phil Jones either failed to recover from the facial injury received in the last game or he was just rested as a matter of course but Michael Carrick, who has been in peak form of late in the middle of the park was brought back into central defence – and continued to show that he’s not too shabby in there either.

To be fair, United largely dominated this match and our defence had very little to do so it was a good time to have defensive problems, I suppose.

Park put us 1-0 ahead after just around eight minutes and a cricket score looked likely but the score remained that way until almost half time when Wigan had a player sent off and Berbatov got the first of three goals just moments later.

In the second half, Berba grabbed himself another with an excellent turn and shot (the kind of thing we all saw him doing for Spurs all the time a few years ago), the excellent Valencia scored a screamer into the bottom corner and Berbatov was able to seal his hat-trick and make it a 5-0 romp with a late penalty.

In fairness, Wigan should not have found themselves down to ten men – the sending off was extremely harsh (I’m sure Wigan could appeal the decision successfully). It also should not have been a penalty towards the end of the game – Park was clearly tripped outside the box but that probably balanced out an earlier penalty appeal when I thought Hernandez was clearly tripped around the twenty minute mark only for the ref to wave it away.

However, we were streets ahead of Wigan today and I do think that we would have won the game even without the decisions going our way. We were supposed to be the team with the defensive crisis but Wigan appeared very open at the back at times and with players like Rooney, Hernandez, Berbatov, Macheda, Nani, Park, Valencia and Giggs ploughing into them, it was always going to be just a matter of time before we got the breakthroughs.

The good news was to get even better after this one as Manchester City were held to a highly unusual (for them) 0-0 draw against West Brom which meant that we finished the day level on points and even that goal difference which at one point looked unassailable (and growing) is now down to just five – not bad considering the injury list we have been carrying almost from the first day of the season.

Incidentally, the injury list took another addition during this game as Jonny Evans limped off with a leg injury which is likely to see him sidelined for a couple of weeks or so and it looks vital that we get Rio and/or Jones back in time for the next game or we’re going to be playing with a defensive line-up of midfielders again.

For now though, the good times are back with us. Everyone is scoring goals. Everyone is reaching peak form (I thought Evra, who has been quick to “talk the talk” a lot of late, was finally seen “walking the walk” in this game and he was excellent) and we still had the chance to give young Zeke Fryers a run-out for the second half here – and again, he had a solid game.

Fergie said before the games kicked off today that City were favourites and he’s been saying for the last week or two that he’d be happy if we’re thereabouts come the New Year.

Mind games? Probably. They seem to be working though and City who probably felt that they would be over the hill and far away by now are suddenly feeling the pressure of leading from the front, it seems and Fergie will continue to turn the screw from here til May.

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Well, I got this one wrong but on occasions such as this, I don’t mind too much.

Fergie did make a few changes but not really what I’d expected. Rio was rested so Jones pulled back into the centre-back position with Giggs taking Jones’ place in the midfield. Lindegaard came in for De Gea. Basically, the changes weren’t particularly drastic and I think it showed in yet another very impressive performance, particularly in the first half where Fulham barely got a sniff of the ball and found themselves 3-0 down by the time the half-time whistle blew.

In the second half, Fulham finally came alive and put us under some pressure but couldn’t grab a goal despite a few close efforts and eventually, they ran out of steam which allowed us to grab another couple late on to make the scoreline so emphatic.

However, yet again, victory came at a cost. Phil Jones went off in the first half after getting a knock in the face – the seriousness of which has yet to be revealed but some reports are suggesting it could be a fractured cheekbone which could mean 4-6 weeks on the sidelines. If that is the case then it shows what a tough nut he is because he did actually play on for a while (and made a great tackle in his own box to deny Fulham a decent chance after the clash) but it was clear he was still suffering the effects and had to make way for Ashley Young to come on.

This meant that Smalling went into the centre, Valencia took the right-back slot and Young went to the right of midfield.

However, Young himself got involved in a collision which meant that he had to limp off and make way for Park and early reports suggest he will be out for 2-3 weeks.

I don’t quite know what we’ve done to deserve all of this bad luck with injuries but it is now getting beyond ridiculous and during this period where fixtures come thick and fast, we can scarcely afford to have so many players out injured. However, whilst these words might come back to bite me, I think we have been a little fortunate with the fixture list in that we seem to be playing a lot of teams that are towards the foot of the table and our next two matches are against Wigan and Blackburn – two teams currently in the relegation zone.

In any case, we keep up the pressure on City at the top and have even started to make a little bit of inroads into the goal difference and this probably bodes well for when the pendulum of luck swings our way.

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Fergie did something that has become increasingly rare for this one and kept the same line-up that played so well against Wolves in our last match and any doubts that that might have been a one-off were quickly erased as we tore into QPR from the off and went ahead through Wayne Rooney after just around 54 seconds.

With it being vital that we took the three points here, it could have become “one of those games” had we not taken the early lead as the pressure on us would have mounted but that early gift allowed us to relax a little although it could be argued that we may have relaxed a little too much as the first half ended 1-0 to us when it really could and probably should have been more like 3-0.

Fortunately, Carrick, clearly playing with a lot more confidence of late, went on a ridiculous run from the halfway line just ten minutes into the second half and slotted home neatly. Carrick has come in for a bit of stick down the years for being too negative and I did say in my last review that I expected him to provide the defensive cover so that Jones could get forward but there was nothing negative about his run and shot here and it was great to see. If anything, he was probably helped by his reputation for being a bit negative and goal-shy (this was his first since February 2010) as everyone expected him to pass towards Rooney who had taken a decent position in the area and this did seem to wrong-foot Cerny a bit who had started to move towards Rooney, leaving the gap to his right which Carrick found.

That’s not to say that Jones didn’t bomb forward on occasion and one time in the first half, he was played clean through by Rooney with only the keeper to beat but a mixture of a good save from Cerny and perhaps Jones showing why he isn’t a centre-forward saw his efforts thwarted.

Welbeck did manage to put the ball in the net but it was ruled offside although replays showed that he was probably level and the goal could well have stood.

Valencia has looked back to his best in recent games and he was fantastic again in this match and was only denied the goal his all-round performance deserved by another super-save from Cerny.

Jonny Evans, who has never scored for United, really should have broken his duck with a free-header directly in front of goal with Cerny totally out of position but he could only manage to hit the crossbar from a few yards out.

Rio Ferdinand had one of his best games for quite some time with a commanding performance in the centre of defence and, if he can keep it up, then we might not miss Vidic quite as much as we all fear.

Another bit of good news was the return of Chicharito who came on for Welbeck after an hour. I didn’t realise that he had recovered from his recent injury but clearly he is and will likely take Welbeck’s place when we take on Fulham on Wednesday evening.

Again, like against Wolves, I think we do have to keep things in perspective about the quality of opponent we were dealing with here and the number of chances we failed to put away but this was quite possibly our best all-round performance of the season.

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Ever since it was confirmed that we were out of the Champions League and into the Europa League, I have been trying to decide what it all means and I have been watching the reaction of other teams in the competition and doing a bit of research into the competition. Most of this was because that idiot Platini decided to take exception to the way he (mis)interpreted Fergie’s words that Europa League football is our “punishment” for not progressing further in the Champions League.

Fergie was basically saying that the preparations and approach will now all have to be changed because we will now have to play on a Thursday as opposed to a Tuesday or Wednesday which affects our preparations for a Saturday/Sunday fixture before and after.

Failing to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League was undesirable for more than the obvious reasons.

Platini seemed to take umbrage with this because he seems to believe that the Europa League is a tournament which is highly regarded and this despite all the evidence on the contrary. For a start, if that were so, why not have the matches on Tuesday and Wednesday along with the Champions League? Answer: because it can’t compete. If that were so, why does the winner of the Champions League win around 9 million Euro whilst the winner of the Europa receives only 3 million Euro? And that is just the prize money, the difference in television and gate receipts are harder to calculate but it is fair to say that we’re probably talking of around two thirds the difference again – I know many people won’t even be bothering to turn up for the Europa League matches – especially after the club announced that it won’t be made part of the ACS scheme (a great move by the club, by the way, and could actually result in higher attendances, if not more revenue).

The problem with the Europa League is that it is a tournament for failures.

The teams in it have either failed to qualify for the Champions League or they have been given their chance in the Europa League … by failing in the Champions League.

It just smacks of being a tournament where the winner is the best of a second-rate bunch.

Yes, I know… this is obviously unfair comment. Finishing fifth in the English Premier League is clearly a position hundreds of teams in England and Wales would dream of but let’s keep this in context. Hundreds of teams in England and Wales don’t have wage bills like teams like Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham etc have. Nor do they have the pre-season expectations.

I saw Tottenham go out of the competition last night where it would seem that they did just enough to make it look like they gave it a good go but ultimately failed to progress. Harry Redknapp then said that whilst they might have done better in the earlier stages of their group phase, they might not have done so well as they have been doing in the Premier League had they done so – his priorities were clear. As he now knows that Manchester United and Manchester City are now in the tournament (the two teams that have handed his team a hiding in the Premier League), it was almost an admission that he knew his team wouldn’t be winning the Europa League and so he decided to bow out now, save himself and his players a load of agro and concentrate on the more lucrative Premier League and Champions League qualification.

I doubt very much that many Tottenham fans were lamenting their team’s exit from the Europa League in the same way that United and City fans were lamenting just over a week ago when we went out of the Champions League. And therein lies the difference.

It just isn’t the same. It never will be. The Europa League is a second-rate tournament and it should remain that way. Teams that are eliminated from the Champions League shouldn’t be entered into it. It feels like the relegation that it is. It should be a scrap between the also-rans with the promise of Champions League football for the winner. At least they will enter the misnomered Champions League as some sort of Champions.

Later this morning, we will discover who we will play in the last sixteen of this competition but it just feels like a party which we weren’t invited to but have gate-crashed at an advanced stage. The other party-goers don’t want us there, we don’t want to be there but we’re going to be drawn a hiding to nothing regardless.

Personally I hope that Fergie gives this tournament the respect it deserves. It will be great experience for Pogba, Keane, Morrison et al.

Indeed, if Fergie decided to play those players, I would be watching it all avidly and supporting them all the way.

I’d just rather see our “first teamers” challenge for something that means more now, though… like the English Premier League.

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It would probably be an over-statement to suggest that this win made up for the midweek disappointment but it was a great start.

After our early season scoring spree which came at the expense of looking vulnerable at the back in every game until we eventually got found out in the 6-1 mauling by City, we have looked a lot tighter in defence but this came at the expense of goals at the other end.

A balance needed to be found and I think we found it in this match. Clean sheets are great but give me a 3-1 or a 4-1 any day of the week.

The team looked nicely balanced for this one, especially in midfield and I think that what we saw today could well be our best set-up. Nani took the left, Valencia took the right and Carrick and Jones took the centre.

Nani hasn’t been hitting the heights of early season recently but he looked back to his best in this one, grabbed himself two goals and looked a constant threat all afternoon. Valencia played really positively and looked a lot more like his old self. However, the midfield pairing of Carrick and Jones is still relatively untried but it does make a lot of sense.

Carrick comes in for some stick from many United fans and I think that his confidence has perhaps been hit at times during his United career but when in this kind of form, he can produce some fantastic passes and is arguably our best defensive midfielder.

Jones is supposed to be a defender but his attacking instincts are there for all to see and we might just have found that reliable, all-action box-to-box midfielder we haven’t really had since Keane (hey, some people have been comparing him to Duncan Edwards – I think I’m ok to compare him to Keane!). I just think the two balanced each other out very well in this match but, with all due respect to Wolves, perhaps tougher opposition will provide the acid test.

Defensively, it was as expected with Rio and Evans taking the centre and it has to be hoped that Rio can now put a string of appearances together without succumbing to injury because that could well be our partnership for the season now Vidic is unavailable. Smalling and Evra took the full-back positions and did what they had to do (which was mostly just get the ball to Valencia and, perhaps more so, Nani as soon as possible).

Up-front, Fergie went with Rooney and Welbeck and clearly, this is one area of the pitch that still has to be decided upon but with so many of our strikers injured at the moment, Fergie’s decision was probably made for him here.

There will obviously be changes as the season progresses but I just hope that from here on in, the changes will be fewer – perhaps two or at most three per game and that this general line-up is what we see more of.

In any case, if this heralds the start of another goal-spree for Nani and Rooney then the future of the season looks a lot more promising than it did last Wednesday night. Let’s hope we can keep it up.

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for us, Sir Alex has confirmed that the injury Vidic picked up during our Champions League match against Basle is as bad as it first appeared – he’s ruptured his cruciate ligament, will need an operation and that’s his season over.

It’s another massive blow for us as we do look a lot more solid with Vida in the defence – and stats suggest that this is the case too. He has played in ten games this season and we conceded just three goals in those games. In the thirteen games which he didn’t play, we conceded nineteen goals.

With Rio not getting any younger (and becoming more and more injury prone himself) it is going to be interesting to see what Fergie does about the defence from here on in.

In terms of experience, Rio and Evans is the best option but the Smalling/Jones partnership is seen by many as being the future so perhaps it is as good a time as any to give those two a run in there?

The slight problem, of course, is that Fergie has employed both Jones and Smalling in the full-back position on occasion and, in the case of Jones, he is even being used as a midfielder at times.

Personally, I think that a lot of our problems this season are down to too much tinkering on Fergie’s part. Sometimes, due to injuries, his hand has been forced but that hasn’t always been the case – sometimes he just seems to do it for the sake of it.

I think now is the time for a big decision and, once made, stick with it and see if we cannot turn this massive set-back into a positive.

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Well, it doesn’t seem like five minutes since I was sitting here writing about our masterplan for winning this group with a couple of games to spare which would render this one all but irrelevant but we’ve hit a couple of bogeys in this competitions since then and suddenly a result from this, our last game of the group stage, becomes crucial.

A draw tonight will see us through. A win tonight could see us win the group – but not if Benfica win against Otelul at home. Basically, it is looking very much like we’ll be playing to finish second in the group which really isn’t great for a team that is as experienced as us in Europe after being given what looked like a “dream group” at the start.

I saw the interview a couple of weeks ago where Fergie stormed out after a journalist suggested that the English clubs had “struggled” in Europe this season and I could see both points of view. The English teams have struggled by our standards so far this season but I could also see why Fergie was disgusted by the comment because there is an insinuation that English clubs only have to turn up and take their three points without the 90 minutes battle on the pitch in between.

Of course there is a “struggle” in that respect and if people expect to go into a Champions League game (the cream of Europe, let it not be forgotten) and have an “easy” game then they are underestimating and being completely disrespectful of the achievements of the teams that have qualified for the competition. No one gets into the Champions League by being a useless side and none are pushovers.

I made the point in a recent post that perhaps some of the players couldn’t get their juices flowing for these “lowly” group games anymore but my view has changed somewhat of late and I do wonder if it is the fans who don’t get going of late. These are massive, massive footballing occasions. Perhaps not Champions League semi-finals but there are plenty of teams that dream of getting into the Champions League whilst us Man Utd fans perhaps take it all for granted these days.

We turn up, we qualify and then we play against the glamour clubs in the latter stages – that’s the way it has been for several years now but I think we take it for granted that the players don’t actually need our support to do so anymore.

Of course, this is an away tie and Basel’s crowd will be outnumbering our own by a considerable amount anyway – we had our chance at OT and we blew it. We now do have to hope that the players give their all where perhaps we have not but should the worst happen, I hope that fans will not totally exonerate themselves from blame.

Ok. Rant over.

In this game, we have a bit of a striker dilemma which I actually believe will help us. Chicharito is injured, Berba is injured, Owen is injured. That leaves Rooney and Welbeck and I hope that Fergie just goes with Wayne right in front of goal – where he should be all the time as far as I am concerned.

Forget Rooney the midfielder, Rooney in behind, Rooney out on the wings, Rooney starting from defence – just stick him up front – right in that 20 yard square area directly in front of goal – that is how he had his record-breaking scoring run a couple of seasons ago and is the way to go as far as I am concerned.

Played there, Rooney will score the goals required – it is then up to what has become once again a pretty miserly defence to keep Basel out at the other end.

So, I’m not going to go overboard on our scoring this evening but I’m going to rely on us keeping Basel out and doing what need to be done at the other end.

I think this bet will win.

The bet is UNDER 2.5 goals @ 2.00 with Victor Chandler.

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