United's only defeats since the summer break had come via penalties (Chelsea in the Community Shield, Bayern Munich in the Audi Cup) – otherwise, Sir Alex's men had won their six other pre-season friendlies. Birmingham, meanwhile, had not enjoyed too much success. Alex McLeish’s men defeated Cheltenham and Dagenham & Redbridge but lost all three games in Austria on their pre-season tour, as well as matches to Nottingham Forest and Crewe Alexandra. Most recently, the Blues had drawn 0-0 with Spanish side Sporting Gijon.
After keeping clear of injuries for much of pre-season, the Red Devils had picked up a few niggles in recent weeks. It was at the back where most of Sir Alex's concerns still lay: Nemanja Vidic (calf), Wes Brown (thigh), Gary Neville (groin) and Jonny Evans (ankle) were all doubts, while Rafael (shoulder) and Edwin van der Sar (hand/finger) were sure to miss the match. Elsewhere in the side, Nani (shoulder) could have been rested after coming off against Chelsea last Sunday, although he did play 17 minutes for Portugal on Wednesday night. Worse, Rio Ferdinand picked up a thigh strain that might keep him out for almost 2 week!!
As for Birmingham, they had injury problems of their own, certainly not the best time to visit the champions.
Lee Mason was in charge of the game, which saw a lot of missed chances from United and Brimingham's failure to capitalise on those.
In the end it was Rooney's 34th minute pouncher that did the job for United. Sir Alex was forced to make big changes in the defence, O'Shea started with Evans as the central defensive pair and Fabio and Evra took their usual positions.
Sir Alex gave Valencia his debut in the flanks, with Nani shedding off his injury to play his part. Fletcher joined the experieced Paul Scholes in the middle. Rooney and Berbatov were the striker for the game.
The game could have ended 5-1, had Owen, Rooney, Berbatov not missed sitters. Evra and Carsley both made goal-line saves to contribute and Hart and Foster were both brilliant to thwart the strikers.
In the end, it was 1-0, a good start compared to the last 2 seasons when we could only manage draws!
The big question through the game was, did we miss rony and tevez? No we didn't. We managed better if you talk of stats and compare the seasons starters with those 2 in the team. We created as many chances as we normally do and in the end, United has shown signs of the capability to rise above the shadows of the departure of 2 star players.
Next game is away to Burnsley on 19th August.
Manchester United are going great guns and have coped up quite well after the initial setback at the hands(or better to say legs) of Burnley. The latest Manchester Derby was one of the most exciting ever. A review of this "classic" match is awaited ...
ReplyDelete