No Carrick. No win.
Total bloody shambles. That’s probably the best way to describe the teams performance yesterday afternoon, it was by far the worst performance for weeks, even months. I know we haven’t played well most of the season but we still managed to get a good result or salvage one but at Goodison Park it looked like everything we had going for us just went. In short for me the whole game is simple as was last weeks, no Carrick, no win.
I think this weekends game is the first this season that I am saying the whole team played poorly from back to front. De Gea made some brilliant saves again but didn't look as solid or confident as he has for the majority of the season, a couple of times he chose not to come and collect the ball when asked by defenders and when passed to his touch seemed a bit heavy. The defence had a nightmare to be quite honest, Valencia will try his very hardest to play at right back but again we saw his inability to be a defender, leaving his hand up, stopping and allowing Mirallas to run straight past for the third goal was a big mistake but with Rafael confirmed as injured for the remainder of the season he will most likely carry on plying there. McNair looked the most vulnerable I have seen him and although he has been in and out of the first team we have to remember he is still young and inexperienced compared to other players playing with him and against him. Blind originally looked like a good stand in for Carrick at the beginning of the season with his good passing but it’s now pretty obvious that his best position is left back, although his passing is good it is not quick enough and doesn't have enough purpose to start attacks. Unfortunately we saw the old Fellaini back, clumsy challenges and not influential at all in the build up, had he not been taken off then he probably would have been sent off. After the blinding performances from Mata in recent weeks he seemed to disappear along with Young in this game, the tempo of our game may have influenced their performances but it just wasn't the ideal game for them to be off. Rooney was left up top waiting for service but ended up doing his usual frustrated play by dropping deeper and deeper to get the ball. Finally the two main subs used, Falcao and Di Maria, they have barely done anything all season and they haven’t looked like doing anything. Di Maria can’t cross or pass it would seem and Falcao runs around looking lost and is not getting anywhere nearer to scoring. It is frustrating not even having one thing that was positive about the game and it is the first time that has happened this season. Hopefully it won’t happen again.
There is no doubt that our start to the season was terrible, three wins in our opening ten games is not good enough for a club the size of Manchester United but we all accepted it due to the ‘transitional’ phase we were still in with our new manager. A few months later and although results had slightly improved we were still sat watching and thinking that something just wasn't right, the performances were not good, we didn't look in control of games and we weren't scoring enough goals but still we accepted that there had been injuries and our full strength team hadn't yet played. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when we faced Spurs and finally we got to see what we’d been waiting for, a fast paced United in full control of the game and we saw this for the next 4/5 weeks. Everyone was saying that we had hit our stride and it’s what we had been waiting for, every player was doing the job asked and there was no confusion over who was supposed to do what. It looked as though Champions League was pretty much certain and I was thinking if we continue like this we could seriously challenge next season. Then we go up against Chelsea, champions elect, which to be fair was never going to be easy and although we played well, we just didn't threaten enough and lost. Finally we come to yesterday and everything seems to have fallen apart again, no direction, no pace, nothing. I've spoken about it before but the big difference in all parts of this season seems to come down to one thing, the absence or presence of Michael Carrick. We have won 72.2% of games with him in the side and only 37.5% without him, it’s pretty clear that he is the game changer in terms of how our team fair against pretty much anyone. Although obviously we do win without Carrick, my view of the season is now no Carrick, no win, because more often than no we don’t win without him. We only missed two players yesterday from the XI that had been playing well and that change seems to screw the whole team up and honestly, that is not good enough.
We have four games left to play and by the time we face West Brom this weekend coming we could be only four points ahead of Liverpool in fifth. What should have been a comfortable run in for us has now turned into a battle for fourth again, had we won yesterday we would have been second and either seven or ten points clear of Liverpool by the weekend; quite obviously a much more comfortable position to be in. Two home games and two away games are what stand between us and Europe’s elite footballing competition. All we need to do is match Liverpool's results and we will be fine but a team of Manchester United’s size surely don’t just want to be fine. Finishing in fourth would mean having to play a qualifier for the Champions League, it would also mean that the seasons goal, to finish third, would not have been met so technically it would not be a successful season. So the goal I would think that has now been set would be to match Arsenals results at least and then beat them at Old Trafford in the second to last game meaning we would move above them into either second or third depending on City's results. There is no doubt that this fight for fourth is still happening and if we perform like we did against Everton then we could be chucked out of that spot.
Finally a small bit of good and hopeful news, we have been in talks with Dortmund about the possibilty of buying Gundogan. A quality player when he is fit and has had a lot of bad luck over the last year, I see him as someone who can step in and replace Carrick when he is not available, he plays the same kind of game and that is his natural position so hopefully we can make that happen. The other is that the club have spoken to PSV about buying Memphis Depay although Liverpool are also reportedly interesting in him, hopefully he chooses to work with his fellow Dutchman in Manchester rather than go to our rivals with the person who thinks there is no one better to manage Liverpool than him.
So West Brom at home next, hopefully a couple of our players return from injury, if only one comes back then we need it to be Carrick. A much better performance is needed and a decent win is necessary, the team need to make up for the Everton result and come out strong to show that is was a one week blip and that we haven’t returned to the toothless and vulnerable United we have watched all season.
Have a good week, as always we stand Forever United.