Manchester Utd vs Sunderland

Manchester Utd vs Sunderland

3-0

Sat 26th August - 3pm
Barclays Premier League

Firstly, apologies for the gap since my last blog, I have been on holiday to Orlando, Florida visiting Disney & Universal and generally relaxing after a hard few months. I missed a few of the games whilst I was away but the biggest news from the past few weeks was that Luke Shaw horrifically broke his leg during the match against PSV Eindhoven. I genuinely feel gutted for him. He had a really difficult season last year and for him to start this season the way he has is such bad luck. I wish him the best and I hope he will be back as strong as has been over the past few months. Get well soon Luke!

Now onto yesterday's game against Sunderland. This was a chance for us to show everyone a classy performance but I can't help but feel the same as I have for every other game we have won this season..massively underwhelmed. I am really glad that we are producing the results and lets be honest, that is the most important thing, but I can't help but want a brilliant performance to go with it and I just felt that the scoreline made it out that we were brilliant and in my opinion, we weren't as good as the scoreline suggests.

Individually, a lot of the players had solid games and this is a good sign but creatively I want more from them in terms of producing the beautiful football everyone talks about. Maybe I am asking too much, but I guess that is what United fans are used to over the past 20 odd years.

Defensively this season, I have actually been pleasantly surprised. 

Yesterday I thought all 4 of the defence were solid, nothing to shout about, but then again when you're playing a team like Sunderland, you can't really expect anything spectacular. 

Valencia hasn't played much this season but when he has come in he looks strong and capable. Yesterday he put in a solid performance again.

Now for me, Darmian has been the signing of the Premier League so far this season. He is brilliant defensively and has really impressed me when on the attack. Probably his greatest asset is his positioning. He knows where to position himself defensively and he seems to have great decision making skills when it comes to when to overlap and attack and when to stay back. The shock came yesterday when he was put at left back. He seemed to fit into it perfectly and this makes me a little calmer when it comes to Shaw being out for 6 months.

When it comes to 'Mike' Smalling, I have never been a huge fan. I always thought his passing was atrocious and he just looked so vulnerable at making huge mistakes at exactly the wrong time. His biggest mistake was probably against Man City last season when he had just been given a yellow card and then he goes and launches himself at James Milner. Of course, he missed the ball, took out the midfielder, got his second yellow and was sent packing. At that point, I would have quite happily given him away for free, but no one saw what was coming next. Shockingly, he has slowly improved in all aspects of his game and has become the main piece of our defence this season. His performances have been brilliant so far this season and long may it continue. His injury problems seem to be behind him and he is really becoming the defender most thought he would never become. Lets hope Phil Jones follows in his footsteps and becomes the defender Sir Alex thought he was going to be (the greatest player that United have ever had).

His partner in the centre of defence Daley Blind has also shocked me. I honestly thought LVG's decision to put his trust in Blind rather than spending money on Hummels or Otamendi was going to be a stupid one but its turned out that he's putting in a great performance game after game. Long may it continue but if I am honest, I can't help but worry he may be caught out when he is against players like Aguero & Costa but we shall see.

For the past 5 or 6 years, all United fans have complained that we have missed a world class centre midfielder in the ranks but I feel that in purchasing Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlein, we have brought in experience and talent that I felt we have long needed. They may not be a Paul Pogba or Yaya Toure but Bastian Schweinsteiger seems to control the game exactly the way he wants (in the style of a certain Paul Scholes), and in Morgan Schneiderlin we have got someone who can match Carrick in protecting the back four. I would happily play any of the three of them in those centre midfield roles and wouldn't be worried at all. My only complaint is that Schneiderlin seems to always pass backwards but I have seen some improvement over that last few weeks so I am trusting he will develop that in his game.

Yesterday, Memphis Depay disappointed me even if he scored. He has not caught up with the pace, strength and quality of the Premier League so far. He seemed lost against Sunderland and seems far far away from the Memphis we've seen in the Champions League and also for PSV last season. I do believe he is a quality signing and he will continue to improve as his United career continues.

If I am honest I was a little disappointed with Juan Mata yesterday. Maybe this is due to his brilliant performances of late but I just felt that he wasn't as good as I have seen him. Saying that, he pulled out a brilliantly unselfish assist for Depay and put away a lovely goal so I can't say he was bad because that would be unfair. I just have high standards for a player that has been a vital part of so many great performances so far this season.

Now comes Wayne Rooney....yesterday I had a long debate with a close friend of mine over what is Rooney's best position. He feels that up top in the number 9 position is by far his best position. I disagree, he does it well and the proof for that is scoring 30 goals a few years ago when that was his main position, but for me the number 10 role has always been his best position. When he plays the number 10 role, he gets less goals but his assists improve so you can;t really compare with the stats. The number 10 role is a position that links the midfield and striker role and somewhere that Rooney can influence the play. His creativity is just too good to ignore and isolate him up front where he can;t affect the play as much. Rooney is physical, he's got good pace and a great range of passes, which is why his best position is behind the striker. Don't get me wrong, when he is on his game, he is brilliant at both but would I rather have him as a lone striker as a part of a 4-5-1 or have him just behind a world class striker like Lewandowski or Van Persie of old then I know which way I would go. Yesterday he did play in that role and he was probably the most disappointing of everyone and I think the reason for this was because he can't control his want to come deep and get the ball. He needs to occupy the hole between the midfield and the defence and I just felt that yesterday he was way too deep and got lost. I do hope his form starts to improve and he gets back to his best because I still feel he hasn't been great so far.

Finally we come to Anthony Martial. I have come under a bit of stick recently because I have been quite critical of Ed Woodward & LVG when it comes to the Martial deal and I stand by my thoughts even after his blistering start. 

To go back to deadline day, when I heard we were about to sign this kid I immediately did some research and watched a lot of videos of his best bits. If I'm honest, I really wasn't impressed. He looked clumsy on the ball and although he has come up with quite a few nice bits of play, there was nothing in there that made me jump up off my seat like I did with players like Lucas Moura, Odegaard or James Rodriguez. Once I dug deeper, I found out that the striker scored only 12 goals in all competitions last season and even worse only played 4 full 90 minutes in the whole season. To then hear that we were signing him for £36m (around the same amount as Aguero, Mata, Pastore, Benzema, Lucas Moura, Modric, Hazard, Costa, Fabregas, Sanchez, Thiago Silva), my response was one of utter shock. Even worse was when the news came out that the deal could rise to £60m. Now I am sorry, but any idiot that says that this is due to potential or due to inflation is talking utter crap. When Chelsea signed Hazard, they were signing potential. Potential that had scored 50 goals and looked like a brilliant prospect for a big team. "but that was back in 2012! prices have gone up since then!" I can hear you saying....well how about when Real Madrid bought James Rodriguez only a year ago. He was bought for £38m and his stats were that he had scored 63 goals and honestly looks to be a huge talent and has the potential to reach the heights of his current teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. That is what it costs for potential! Not £60m for an unproven kid whose position is striker and has only scored 15 goals in 4 seasons!!!

Now, the start of his United career couldn't have got off to a better start and it looks like I am eating my words but I can't eat my words because that is irrelevant to my point. I want to make it very clear....he could turn out to be the next Messi and I would still look back and say it was too much money. It is not about what he COULD be, its looking at the facts on paper at the time of the deal and saying its a crazy amount of money to be gambling on hoping that he fulfils the potential that he has. I really hope that he turns out to be the next Thierry Henry because that will mean great things for Man United but I feel that we would have been very lucky in the business we will have done. It will also become the deal people will revert to when dealing with United in the future. For example, "Hi Southampton, we would like to buy the next Gareth Bale off you?"....."Ok well if you're willing to pay £60m for a 19 year old unproven Anthony Martial, then we think this kid is worth £80m and won't accept anything less". Its just a silly deal!

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I am sure there will be some who will disagree with me but that is what I love about football.

Hope you all have an amazing week and I look forward to watching United's midweek game against Wolfsburg!

Come on you Reds!!

Over & Out!