Dusting Ourselves Down
Following the defeat to Fulham I was gobsmacked; pretty much incapable of reading about my beloved blues, let alone blogging. Last weekend's game was so uncharacteristic of our side under David Moyes that it really took me aback. After a solid first-half and with our noses in front, we fell apart; dropping deep and failing to defend as a unit - ok, when we went forward we did create a couple of chances but the frailty at the back was what concerned me. Upset, I ignored football for a week, stuck my MP3 player on and tried to forget. Until yesterday when I decided to prepare a blog in response to some of the postings on (un)fan sites about our starts to the season.
Then came last night's game and a much improved performance, albeit against a vastly weaker side, so I've decided to ditch my planned post and go through a couple of things I noticed last night.
Defending as a unit
Such an improvement on Sunday. We were positioned five yards further up the pitch, closer to the midfield and generally tighter, restricting them to shooting from range. We need this to continue against Blackburn, a side that found form last week.
Dan Gosling
Never really tested at right-back, but how nice was it to have someone in that position who was comfortable on the ball. Although, I'm not advocating him as a replacement for Tony Hibbert, just yet.
Jack Rodwell
I have been unrealistically disappointed by midfielder so far this season. With Phil Neville in the side, Rodwell had been thrust into a more forward looking role than he seemed comfortable with, but now the captain is injured he has a chance in what I think is his preferred position, sitting just in front of the back four. The youngster is laid back on the ball and encourages us to play the ball on the floor. The loss of Neville could force Rodwell to adopt more responsibility and begin to force his ability on the game.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov
How good is his left foot?
The Stupidity of UEFA
The European gate-keepers decided to re-brand the UEFA Cup as the Europa League, presumably to attract sponsors to narrow the funding gap with the Champions League - good idea. However, they then send out entirely the wrong signal by introducing a 'six officials' system into the competition. Using the UEFA cup as a laboratory rat shows that it is regarded as a second-class competition and that is hardly going to attract major brands. Imagine the uproar if they had done this in the Champions League.
Confidence
AEK Athens are not a top side, but I remember our last experience of the group stages of the UEFA Cup and the confidence that flowed through our side as a result.
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