Still Following the Trawler

Players.  Neville. A truly inspired, if all too rare, captain’s performance. In the second half his work down the right, in defence and coming so productively on the attack, was brilliant. It’s a dying side to his ageing game, but he proved that he is still a reliable skipper who wants nothing more than United to win.  Evans. Possibly at fault for their first goal, as similar to Rio against Torres, he gave the defender too much space as he was able to move past him and force a shot at a tight angle. However in the second half he was solid, careful on the ball and made a number of vital, mature challenges; showing the developing and constantly learning side to his game.  Macheda. A decent first half but he looked a bit lost as the game went on; and unfortunately that was when we needed him the most. To be fair though, he was unlucky not to score as he did everything right for his post-bound header. However his key strength – his awesome turn on the ball – needs to be jo...

First things first, congrats to Wayne and Colleen for finally popping out baby Kai. Hopefully the kid will be able to look after himself by the weekend so that Wazza doesn’t have to miss the Chelsea game (well, we’re all thinking it aren’t we!?). Thankfully, due to the circumstances surrounding tonight’s game, his absence shouldn’t really leave us into too much of a Russian pickle. We beat them in Moscow without Rooney and without moving into an untouchable gear (a common occurrence this season), so I can’t quite see them suddenly replacing their players, playing-style and manager – ok, manager maybe – by tonight to dominate at Old Trafford...although I seem to remember Wolfsburg not doing too badly when they turned up. Surely another formulaic, modest encounter is on the cards tonight, but still, here are a few key bits to be aware of: We could qualify… If we beat CSKA and Wolfsburg fail to beat Besiktas, our 12 points from 4 games will be enough to see us top the group. Luverly. …or ...

Valencia's goal, after a great counter-attacking move, is celebrated by the players. On a night that saw us equal Ajax's long unbeaten 14 away European matches without defeat, we witnessed another convincing show from Valencia, as well as a suprisingly rare contribution from Nani, who's decent diving header in the second was only kept out from a genius save by CSKA's keeper. Good - 9 points in the first 3 games should hopefully see us through into the knock out stages; allowing us a fairly simple and not too strenuous route through. Terrific, terrific. - Clean sheet...it's been a while! - The win today was achieved with a large number of regulars either left at home or on the bench. With Evra, Carrick, Giggs, Fletcher and Rooney all left out, it not only shows our capability to compete at the top with depth and range of squad members at our disposal, it also gives us the freshest team possible for Sunday (with Ferdinand taken off for precautionary measures as we...