Yesterday started off well with a 2-0 Liverpool loss at the hands of bottom of the table Portsmouth. It didn’t carry on that way, a depleted Man United lost 3-0 to Fulham down at Craven Cottage.
Man United did have the chance to go level on points with Chelsea, who play West Ham today, but with a performance like we got, that was never going to happen.
Man United starting XI- Tomasz Kuszczak, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Ritchie De Laet, Antonio Valencia, Darron Gibson, Paul Scholes, Anderson, Patrice Evra, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.
Ever since having a makeshift defence, Fulham were the first team to put pressure and terrorise United’s defence. Kuszczak made a stunning save from Zoltan Gera’s powerful strike 17 minutes in. Five minutes later Fulham were ahead and Kuszczak should have really done better than he did and so should had Scholes. Danny Murphy took the ball easily off Scholes, strode forward a few yards and his low shot went straight past Kuszczak and into the bottom corner.
Second half and we were only 1-0 down, I believed that there was no way we could have played as poorly as we did in the first half. 20 seconds into the second half and we were 2-0 down. The ball was played into the penalty area, Clint Dempsey headed it to Bobby Zamora and he stuck it into the back of the net.
Man United did have one or two chances but to be honest, most of them never really looked like they were going to go past the keeper. Owen didn’t really do that much, one of his best shots was probably closer to the corner flag than the goal.
Fulham played with a lot of confidence and why would you when you were 2-0 up against the Champions? Gera and Zamora looked like they were going to shoot at every opportunity.
Fulham were awarded a fairly tame freekick. The ball was played into the penalty area to Zamora, he chested it down and then flicked it to Damian Duff, who stuck it past Kuszczak for Fulham’s third.
Fulham thoroughly deserved the win but Man United were really poor. I think that whilst we were without all these defenders there was always going to be a result like this. Fletcher and Carrick had done really well in defence but they aren’t defenders.
Man United’s defensive injuries showed yesterday, all I can really say is that the sooner our defenders are fit, the better. It is unlikely that the Hammers are going to take anything off Chelsea, which will take them six points clear but there is the African Cup Of Nations. Chelsea will lose some key players, especially Didier Drogba. There will be more points dropped by all teams, including United and Chelsea throughout the season, it isn’t over.
