Manchester United Kicked off their 2012 – 13 Campaign yesterday with a defeat at Goodison Park against the ever so gritty and lively Everton Team. Though it is well known that Everton fixture away from home was going to be a tricky one, with all the big name signings made a lot of expectations was placed on the Red devils for a win. With Manchester City and Chelsea both Winning their opening games United are now left to play catch up early in the season.
The Toffees started the game on high spirits and were constantly asking Questions of United second line defence. The Aerial balls were an added advantage to the Everton side and Fellaini in the middle ensured that the aerial passes were successfully executed. Even with all that threat and penetration into the box, Everton just couldn’t finish what they started and mainly due to the brilliant acrobatic efforts of De Gea. The young Goalkeeper who was often criticized for not living up to the price paid surely silenced his critics with his performance yesterday. The frustration of not having enough of the ball though clearly showed on United as Nani and Scholes got themselves booked early in the first half.
It was only at the mark of 20 minutes did United begin win some ball back from the Everton Players and started Building some forward runs. Though not highly threatening, united kept showing signs of their silky smooth passing play whenever they had the ball. A real positive from the game for united was the Beautiful partnership strike up by Kagawa and Rooney at times. With kagawa constant run through the middle, Welbeck was forced to play up wide. This was United’s Real problem; Nani on the Right wing, Welbeck wide didn’t look that comfortable.
Everton looked to have had their homework done, even with united getting into the Box every now and then the Defenders looked Composed and capable of removing the threat with some inch perfect tackles. Their Solid Defending was backed up with some great runs forward and every time Fellaini was in the box he looked like he was going to score. Everton looked a more complete Team and even with a lot of shot saved & hitting the bar, there was always a Feeling a goal was inevitable. The Constant pressure and hard work of the Moyes’s men paid off when Fellaini met the ball from a corner with his head and put it at the back of the net. The Clock read 57 minutes and much to the disappointment of united fans, the Red Devils trailed.Sir Alex didn’t have much choice left but to unleash Robin Van Persie. The Big Moment had finally come, but was it really going to work out? The answer was no. Though RVP didn’t have bad game, he wasn’t really able to do a lot also. With only twenty minutes of gameplay it was perhaps to short a time to make an impact for person who had worn the United jersey for the first time.
With just About 10 min left and no signs of goal, Sir Alex further made two more changes Anderson came in For Cleverley and a Less than impressive Nani was replaced by Ashley young. The last ten minutes looked more promising for United with lot of chances created but lack of finishing putting it all to waste. No matter how hard they tried, “Ferguson’s Faithful’s “were unable to overturn the Deficit and game ended with United staring at a defeat.
Not a great start to the Campaign, but if any team knows how to make a comeback it would be united. The Team performs better under pressure and United Wave of attack may be on the way for the next game.
Line ups & formation:
Manchester United: De Gea, Valencia, Carrick, Vidic, Evra, Nani (Young 78’), Cleverley (Anderson 85’), Scholes, Kagawa, Welbeck (Van Persie 68’), Rooney.
Subs not used- Lindegaard, Berbatov, Wootton, Rafael.
Formation: 4-4-2
Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Jagielka, Distin, Gibson, Osman (Coleman 80’), Neville, Pienaar, Fellaini (Heitinga 90+2 ‘), Jelavic (Naismith 89’)
Subs not used- Mucha, Barkley, Gueye, Anichebe.
Formation: 4-4-1-1
Next Game: Fulham (H)
Top Performers:
Everton-
Fellaini (9/10)
Osman (7.5/10)
Manchester United-
David De Gea (7.5/10)
Kagawa (6.5/10)
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