It didn’t get off to a great start before the game had kicked off. Nemanja Vidic was in the starting XI but he was injured in the warm up. That meant that Wes Brown had to come in as a replacement.
Man United starting XI- Kuszczak, Neville, Evans, Brown, Fabio, Obertan, Gibson, Anderson, Welbeck, Rooney and Berbatov.
I honestly don’t know where to start Gary Neville had a forgettable game, Wes Brown was lucky to be on the pitch at fulltime, Danny Welbeck seemed to give the ball away at most opportunities. Darron Gibson had a fairly anonymous game, I forgot quite a few times who was pairing up with Anderson in the midfield.
Anderson didn’t have a bad game, he wasn’t fantastic and didn’t have his shooting boots on but he wasn’t one of the poorer players. Wayne Rooney was his normal self, running around the pitch trying to get hold of the ball. When it came to the final third of the pitch and him having to stick the ball into the back of the net, that’s where it all went wrong.
Jonny Evans was a surprise starter for me but it was great to see him back in central defence. Evans was another one of the very few who didn’t have a bad game. Brown was so lucky to be on the pitch, I don’t know how many chances he was given when he was already on a yellow card. Him and Tomasz Kuszczak should have done better with the goal but fair play to Jermaine Beckford, he did well.
Dimitar Berbatov, where do I start with him? He had one glorious opportunity in the first half, if only he had moved towards the goal and not just stand there. In one way, he is like Cristiano Ronaldo. Sometimes he is fantastic but at other times he is so frustrating.
When United had a corner, we just don’t look the same threat as we do when Rio Ferdinand and Vidic are in the team. I also don’t know why we continue to try and play the short corners, they don’t work.
On the hour mark, the cavalry was on. Ryan Giggs and Antonio Valencia were brought on for Obertan and Welbeck. Valencia ran at the defenders, got a few balls into the box but nothing really changed.
Michael Owen came on with around 20 minutes to go. His only real contribution to the game that I can remember was to miss a brilliant opportunity. The ball was played to him inside the penalty area and he just missed it. If he had got anything on that ball it would have gone past the keeper.
Don’t get me wrong, we were poor but we did get chances to score. I still don’t know how we didn’t score in the final few minutes. There were a couple of balls cleared off the line and goal mouth scrambles but it finished 1-0 to Leeds.
This result is unacceptable; it wasn’t as if it was a weak Man United side. This was a fairly strong (not the strongest) Premier League side wanting to retain the title, playing against a League 3 side. We were second to the ball most of the time, sloppy and just didn’t look up for it. That is what let the fans down.
It pains me to say it but Leeds did deserve it. They turned up and embarrassed us. Hopefully this result will give the players a very much needed kick up the backside for the next game against another one of our fierce rivals- Manchester City.
One word- Disgrace.
They were terrible yesterday.