Game in a sentence
Though it was hardly convincing, Manchester United’s quest to amend last year’s disastrous performance begins on a positive note at Old Trafford.
Observations
- In what was a harrowing opening to the match, United managed to avoid a penalty against and take the lead just four minutes apart. Burak Yilmaz was clumsily cut down by Nemanja Vidic in the third minute. Referee Wolfgang Stark decided to let play continue, even though the defender’s challenge was nowhere near the ball.
- It became a double blow for the visitors minutes later after an excellent combination of passes between Robin Van Persie, Nani and Shinji Kagawa resulted in Michael Carrick’s 7th minute strike. Credit goes to Carrick, who could’ve easily gone down after Galatasaray’s keeper Fernando Muslera clipped his feet. Sidenote: can defenders stop putting their arms up for offside and play the damn ball?! How many times does this need to happen before the farce ends – seriously.
- Kagawa was special on this night, controlling play and displaying the vision that made him a star in Germany. United directed play through the Japanese international throughout the match and struggled to maintain possession when he was overlooked by his teammates.
- Galatasaray lost their leading man, Umut Bulut, in the tenth minute. He was replaced by former Bolton striker – shout out to all you wanderers – Johan Elmander. Though Bulut was missed, the visitors’ attacked with unabated tenacity. Hamit Altintop was the Turkish club’s best player on this day. The midfielder was brought down by a clumsy Carrick challenge in the box that once again went unpunished by Stark. The whistle blew with United on their back foot and troubling memories of those games against Benfica and FC Basel on full blast at Old Trafford.
- It must’ve been an enchanting pep talk from Sir Alex at the half. Once again Kagawa and Nani combined to threaten the Galatasaray goal in the early stages of the second half. Rafael would draw a penalty minutes later. Up to take the kick was Nani – wait, what? – who proceeded to do that terrible stutter step move and push the ball into the relieved hands of Muslera. Was Van Persie’s miss against Southampton – remember he scored a hat-trick in the game – really enough to take him out of consideration? Very strange.
- Speaking of Van Persie, the Dutchman had a night to forget, which was capped by a hilariously bad challenge in his own half that drew a yellow card and his substitution.
- Galatasaray’s best chance to equalize came in the 72nd minute. David de Gea made a spectacular double save on Yilmaz and then Colak to keep United ahead by one. Altintop continued to buzz but his efforts went for naught. To be fair Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck had several – and I mean several – chances to put the game out of reach in the final ten minutes.
- It wasn’t pretty, but that was to be expected. Galatasaray is Manchester United’s toughest foe in group H, thus the home side did well to collect all three points and move forward. Anyone else looking forward to that fixture in Istanbul?
Three stars
1. Shinji Kagawa
2. Hamit Altintop
3. Nani
That was poor viewing from a United perspective from about the 7th minute onward, with some positive moments throughout. I thought the wing play was all right in the build up at least with Valencia ending most of his runs with uncharacteristically poor crosses.
United’s passing was slow beyond the opening few minutes and there was little movement off the ball. I read somewhere that sometimes, United go out and seem like they just expect the opposition to let them play and let them cruise to victory. I usually rubbish that stuff off, but tonight, at times the players looked like they didn’t want to work against high pressuring opposition.
As mentioned above, Kagawa was quite good, kept the ball well and was always available. United’s midfield needs to look for him more instead of going to the flanks so much, I feel that is how you get the best out of Van Persie, rather than swinging in crosses.
All in all, fair play to Galatasaray, they played well and hounded the ball at times and were unlucky on more than one occasion. At times, they let United walk through their defence, but because United couldn’t do anything with that opening, they stayed in the match and played well.
United’s defending was pretty good but most of this performance in the CL looked familiar to last season and the team needs to pick up the tempo.
Oh and the penalty taking has been so bad so far that I expected Nani to miss, while it didn’t come back to haunt United, that needs to be sorted quickly.
We need some Rooney penalties I say!
Agree With everything you said.
Nani needs to go; All the talent in the world but nothing else…
United Lack an engine in Midfield…..
I don’t think he needs to go, he was poor in the first half (really poor) but made some very good plays in the second half, setting up some good chances for Hernandez.
He is frustrating though, mostly in when he messes up the more simple things yet later in the game will set up his teammates. He gave away possession very cheaply at times. And again, that penalty was shit.
As an aside, it would have been interesting had Lucas been brought in if that would have meant Nani being sold this past transfer window.
Nani is your 3rd star?
Did we watch the same match??
Another terrible performance by a player with so much in his arsenal
It always seems like stutter step PKs have a lower % in scoring.
Are there any penalty stats (any league, any competition), for different types of penalties?
Like stutter step, panenka, and aim of the shot? I doubt there’d be sidefooted vs laces or something that indepth however.
Fergie said post match RVP was supposed to take penalties, and he didn’t know why Nani took it.
I’d put Carrick’s name forward before Nani as far as stars go. He was steady and his goal was well taken. The one that had a surprising shocker was Paul Scholes, who misplaced more passes in the first 20 minutes than he misplaced since he returned from retirement. Just a one-off I suspect, but when you’re playing at his age, you always half fear that it might be more than a one-off.
SB