How Soon is Now?

By: Simon James | September 18th, 2008

No matter where Cristiano Ronaldo looked, there were no answers United’s season continued to splutter along blinking and a little confused last night as they were held 0-0 by an organised and well drilled Villarreal side. United and Fergie can be happy with the way the game was played as the disappointing final balls were getting fewer and far between and chances were created as the game went on. But for Villarreal’s determined defending and the foot of the post, United would have come out looking comfortable 2-0 winners.

On the positive side I was impressed with Jonny Evans who surprisingly started, as he will probably on Sunday now with Wes Brown maybe on the right, even though he had little real threat to deal with. Rooney and Tevez buzzed and fizzed and sparked off each other all night but I’m getting the impression that unless Rooney’s role changes somewhat, they may be to United what Gerrard and Lampard are to England, great on paper, not so great on grass. Good to see Gary Nev back and he provided good channel overlap all night but with mostly disappointing final balls. Evra’s pace was consistently threatening and his overlaps and crosses were showing good penetration. Great to see Ronaldo back and his class is there for all to see. I hope he manages to keep a lid on his ego though, he lost the ball a few times last through over elaboration when a simple lay off was all that was needed.

On the flip side, I was hugely disappointed with Park who passed the ball dreadfully and managed to dampen any forward play with dithering and getting easily herded down rabbit holes by the experienced opposition full back. Also, whilst Nani looked fantastic for his two or three touchs at pace, you could predict every time that he would overextend his final touch and get easily swept up. At times though, it was looking like Ronaldo a couple of years ago, so let’s be patient. United’s first half performance was at times disappointing but you felt like they were gingerly finding their feet. Going forward for Europe and the League however, goals are the remedy, and the remedy is needed now.

Overall, if United has scored from either Tevez’s effort cleared from the line or Evans’ header hitting the post and they had gone on to win, I don’t think anyone would have begrudged them the points. The performance, whilst not hitting the heights of last season’s free flowing pomp, was at least progress from the last few games. It was clear that they needed step up a gear in the second half, and they did. However, whilst finding that gear they forced it in, crunching and scraping it into position without the clutch fully engaged. And whilst they bunny hopped down the street, beeping the horn with the windscreen wipers on , the radio blared out a tune that no-one could really recognise.

Van der Sar,
Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra,
Nani, Hargreaves (Anderson 62), Fletcher, Park (Ronaldo 62),
Rooney, Tevez (Giggs 81).
Subs Not Used: Foster, Brown, Vidic, O’Shea.