VIEW: United vs Wigan. 5-0

The best thing about being pessimistic in football, or
realistic as I would obviously call it, is that if you’re right, then you’re
right; but if you’re wrong, then, well, you’re right!

Last night United casually saw off Wigan
in a brilliantly convincing manner, knocking 3 past Kirkland
in the first-half and 2 past Pollitt in the second, as we performed with the nostalgic
excellence of old. From the start, the passing, movement, ambition and finishing
was superb; a rare and dangerously fading sight from the majority of United’s performances
this season. 

I have previously lambasted nearly every United display - regardless of whether we leave the match with 3 points or not, as was the case with the last match against Hull - as sloppy and generally, for the overall talent and potential still well and truly inert in our team, well below par...so when we DO play with a modicum of perfection, I am all open to 'I told you so'-style criticism, as above all, I f**king love my team!

Yesterday, before the game, I highlighted 3 areas that needed
improving from our last League game against Hull, so I’ll look at back at each
one and establish whether Sir Alex read my blog before the game or not…

Midfield pairing.

Well it remained untouched from the Hull
game, however Fletcher and, more importantly, Carrick were far more in the game
than they were last Sunday. They linked up well to break down the Wigan
possession – of which they granted the opposition a miserly 32% after 90
minutes – and pass it into the strikers and wide-men in order to create an
attack. The pair were utterly composed and, other than a miniscule amount of
wayward passes that I noticed from Carrick, regularly attentive to each others
movement and distribution.

Berbatov.

To up his game, I suggested he needs to be more involved in
the game, including acting as a more available option for the creative players.
He did this to great effect yesterday, as he narrowly yet intelligently broke the
offside trap to find himself in a goalscoring position on numerous occasinos. His
brilliant positioning was in-turn granted with a large amount of possession, which
was regularly useful and effective; however if I have to be overly critical, his
finishing was at times not massively up to scratch. He probably had about 5/6
decent goalscoring opportunities yet ‘only’ scored the one, however for a
player who is still trying to settle back from injury, as well as one who is
constantly scrutinised for his dubious £30 million price-tag, his contribution
and instinctive finish last night was more than sufficient.

Restriction and over-reliance of the
'wing system'.

Well, we were neither restricted nor
over-reliant on the wide men last night; with Fletcher and Carrick performing
superbly in the centre as they acted not only as a first-line of defence (mainly,
of course, in Fletcher’s case) however progressed the play excellently.

Undoubtedly the star of the show last night however
was Wigan old-boy Valencia, who’s precise pass played Rafael in to set-up the
first, played in Carrick and Berb’s for the 2nd and 4th respectively,
and deservedly got a goal himself to make it 5. his distribution and general work
rate; constantly threatening and bombarding his old team-mates with pace and typically
brilliant passing, was immense all night.

Rafael’s contribution on the right was also heavily
felt, as he not only provided handy back-up for Valencia – sprinting 70 yards
to overlap Antonio as he set-up Rooney’s opener – but drifted effectively into
the centre when he picked up Fletcher’s throughball to score the 3rd;
arguably the best goal of the night.

Good.

• An, at times, beautiful footballing display…a
  sign of things to come? Did this new look and non-Ronaldo-reliant side simply just
  need time to settle, combine and correlate? Well our next 3 games – Leeds in the FA Cup, City in the Carling Cup and away to in-form Birmingham in the League will hopefully answer that question more
  accurately.


• 3 points and 5 goals; 2 points behind
  leaders Chelsea and only 2 goals behind on goal-difference.


• The Brazil ‘70/Holland ‘74/Barcalona ’09 style
  build-up play when, after a number of back-heels finally played in Berbatov,
  his chip-cross was met by the head of Rooney, who unluckily headed against the
  cross-bar. World-class from the lads.


• Rooney’s Ruud vs. Basle work on the left, as
  he nutmegged Figuereoa en-route to squeeze an acute shot agonisingly wide.

Bad.

It’s rather bloody annoying that, when we play THIS well
and Chelsea luckily get a narrow win at home to Fulham, we’re still off the
pace and, assuming Arsenal win their game in hand, this effort and quality will
see us ironically drop a place.

{pictures courtesy of ManUtd.com}