The Bigger Picture... (vs Sunderland)

...I hate writing this stupid section, as it addresses the worrying questions and problems of the day. Hopefully this'll be the last as we suddenly hit a ridiculous run of form where we comfortably and regularly slot 4/5 past teams and Nani finally proves he is the new Ronaldo...yeh.

Foster. After his 2 mistakes against City and arguably 2 yesterday, serious questions now need to be raised about his ability and genuine capacity to be United no.1. For Bent's goal, he was off his line and probably mis-read his positioning, as his post was comletely uncovered and Bent was allowed to score a fairly soft passing shot - hardly a screamer - from a good 25 yards. And as for the second, he showed further immaturity, lack of assurance and confidence...essential traits that need to be sky high if you want to keep goal at United. Schmeical lacking confidence or showing hesitancy? Don't be silly.

How often are we going to rely on Ferguson’s hairdryer to get things going? In the last 5 home games – Arsenal (2-1), City (4-3), Wolves (1-0), Wolfsburg (2-1) and now Sunderland (2-1) – we have scored 11 goals…10 of them have been scored in the second half (which pisses me right off, as I don’t sit at the Stretford End!). We were obviously better in the second, as we have been in each of these games, yet how often – without coming unstuck – are we going to rely on a late impetus and late goals? Even Nani yesterday was actually alright after half-time – not half as wasteful or generally useless – but is this really enough? Game of two-halves and all that.

Vidic = rock. I was watching with a speculative and critical eye how Vidic would fair today after being torn apart by Wolfsburg on Wednesday, yet he was awesome and won every battle with the tricky Jones. We still love you Nemanja.

Backs to the wall. The problem with Berbatov, Rooney, and especially the wide men for almost the entirety of the game, was that their backs were facing the opposition goal far too frequently. We do not really have a Torres; someone quick on the turn who can afford to be facing away from the attack yet still manage to unleash a ball/spurt of pace that gets the game moving. Rooney in this way was largely ineffective and marked out of the game; and Nani, who should be constantly facing the attack so he is able to find his man up the field, was out-muscled by the Sunderland defence who had an easy job of snatching it off him. Valencia on the other hand is a proper winger; so with his arrival came a more attacking, flowing breed of football. His pace, ball control, possession and end product is superior to Nani’s, so why pay £17 million for a half-decent winger that’s supposed to be Ronaldo’s replacement and not even play him? On that note…

Ferguson’s team/tactics. Although I well and truly messed up my prediction after the first 10 minutes - as GoonerPaps so nicely pointed out - at least I was right about one thing: the kids were given a go. I suppose Evans was as reliable as ever, deputising for Ferdinand without any issues or disruptions to the defence, yet Wellbeck was out of sorts on the wing and largely ineffective. In the end therefore, my pathetic little plea to give the youngsters a run-out against an 'easier' side appears in hindsight that me and Ferguson (amazingly) underestimated his ex-captain's side. Steve Bruce's men put out a surprisingly confident, assured display - lining up with intent in an attacking 4-4-2 - and so our line-up; with Carrick, Ferdinand and Anderson on the bench, and Giggs not even in the squad, was a little embarrassing as it appeared to disrespect and deride Sunderland. Yet fair play to them, as in the end, the joke was proper on us...God, I hope Wolfsburg's positive display mid-week hasn't started a horrible trend of weaker opposition thriving at Old Trafford.