Disappointing performance, but happy to be through
12 March 09 by Bill
A sentiment echoed by the boss himself. Alex Ferguson is understandably happy with a two nil victory over reigning Italian Champions Inter Milan. But ask him about the performance and you’ll get a different response.
“It was the type of match where we had to play a different type of football” Ferguson said. “The end result was very good. Good result, not a great performance.
“We started very well and I thought it could be one of those nights when we are going to score a few goals. But then we started doing flicks and passing balls into space where no one was and back heels – it was practice football.”
I can’t disagree with Ferguson and find myself wondering what on earth the players were doing. Or was it the players, perhaps it was the tactics.
Did Fergie get the tactics wrong?
Rooney started up front and it was clear from the start United wanted to exploit the lack of pace in Inter’s defence. 17 hoofs up field in Ronaldo’s general direction later and yes, United were up, but in control they were not.
The long balls to Ronaldo were coming thick and fast but surely it was Fergie who had given the instruction? Was his plan to give it to Ronaldo and run boy run?
Anyway, it wasn’t working and Ferguson didn’t even wait until half time before deploying Rooney out on the left to shore up an uncharacteristically shaky midfield. Scholes in particular will be disappointed with his performance.
The team’s performance didn’t improve much but there were a couple of individual performances that did stand out. Ryan Giggs looked 10 years younger at times and you can see the confidence growing with each game. It’s like he wants to be Ronaldo and he’s still got the skills. If he carries on as he is we could be seeing some more classic Giggsy moments before the season is over.
Wayne Rooney was his usual work horse self and his assist for Ronaldo’s goal was beautifully crafted.
Inter improved slightly on their zero shots on target from the first leg managing just three from 14 attempts and that accuracy is the only reason we are through to the next round. Imbrahimovic should have scored and Adriano was very unlucky not to; the bar and the post stopping both respectively. Had they gone in, bye bye quintuple and bye bye European crown.
Ferguson is confident United will improve on their performance in the next round and when you consider our potential opponents, you have to hope he’s right.
“To get through that is a big plus because we will be better in the next round. We can be better” he said.
The gloves are off and domestic restrictions are lifted meaning we could meet any of the other English clubs after all progressed to the last eight (again). Bayern Munich smashed Sporting to book their place in the quarterfinals and they’ll be joined by Villarreal, Barcelona and Porto.
UEFA will be desperate for the English clubs to draw each other to avoid yet another season of English dominance. I hope that doesn’t happen although I’ll take any of the English clubs over Barcelona. Perhaps not Chelsea; Drogba is scoring again and they’re starting to look a bit of alright again under Hiddink. But Arsenal or Liverpool, bring it on!
In fact, Liverpool would be a good draw. Gerrard and Mascherano are both suspended for the first leg and if that happened to be at Old Trafford, we could kill the tie early. Everyone knows they’re a far different team without their talisman.
What do you think, who do you fancy in the quarterfinals?
5 Comments already, join the discussion
Discussion, what's your opinion?
5 people have said their bit on “Disappointing performance, but happy to be through”
Over to you ...
Still want more?
Here are some related posts you may enjoy
- Rooney Pencilled In For Central Role- Three Trophies Should Be an Achievement
- Ronny: We CAN win the lot
- Vidic: We Won’t Be Happy Unless We Win
i think that man utd didn’t play all that badly last night and think we just about deserved to go through.Inter are a very good side and posed quite a few threats to the utd goal but overall i think utd were just about the better team over the two legs.
Overall performance was really poor in fact, losing too many balls unnecessarily, and had we not been lucky and saved by the woodwork twice, it would have spelt elimination for us.
hav to wait for the draw on the 20th
If we play like this against liverpool tomorrow am sure we’ll lose, simple as that.
I have a feeling that may be for the quarter we’ll be facing either an english team or Porto
i think when rooney moved from up front to the left flank 5 mins before half time was the turning point, inter could and should have at least got a goal but saf moved the rooney into midfield and thwarted most of inter’s plays
Couldn’t beleive that the team wasn’t closing down liverpool, you give gerrard and torres space and they score goals.
A very bitter defeat on Saturday vs the scousers, but all credit to them for taking the game to United and scoring when they were given chances. United’s display was very poor, and apart from Ronaldo trying to score from a couple of freekicks, he only had that penalty as an only scoring chance in truth. Rooney is only a big mouth, and it was confirmed by his display in that game, not even one shot on goal!