Dimitar left the stadium with a protective boot
When the draw for the Carling Cup Quarter Final was made, those associated with Manchester United may well have had reason to feel fairly confident at progression, and Crystal Palace a chance to cause an upset in a game where they had little to lose in a tie that would provide a welcome distraction from the Championship.
Sir Alex Ferguson opted for a side made up of players perhaps lacking game time in most respects but otherwise fairly experienced, 9 of which were internationals and a bench that was occupied almost exclusively by the youth talent coming through the ranks, save for Lindegaard. The likes of Rooney, Carrick, Nani and Hernandez were left out in favour of potentially giving the youngsters a run out, with Berbatov, Macheda, Valencia and Park all getting starting places.
The first half was a fairly uneventful affair, with both sides failing to register a shot on target for much of the proceedings, United struggling to find a way through a well organised Palace, who themselves were not afraid to get forward, with Zaha deserving particular mention. Early pressure from the visitors unsettled United in the early exchanges, as they struggled to organise themselves with a set plan of attack. Before half time, Fabio went off injured, replaced by Fryers, the first of the youngsters to get a chance to impress. Half time saw the introduction of the much-publicised Ravel Morrison, highly regarded at Old Trafford as one for the future, replacing Berbatov. Although Berbatov had been quiet in the first half, it was a surprise to see him taken off, but it later transpired that he left the stadium in a plastic protective boot suggesting a serious injury to the Bulgarian striker. United started brightly after the break, gelling nicely, maintaining pressure and beginning to find ways through the Palace defence, with Macheda beginning to look sharper than he had done in the first half, for example. However, with Palace still finding routes of attack themselves, their threat was still evident but the opening goal still came as a huge shock to the home support. Ambrose picked up the ball just inside the half taking a couple of touches and from approximately 40 yards out, lashed a rocket of a shot that kept accelerating as it smashed into the top corner. Perfectly hit, and leaving the home side stunned. A response was expected and within 3 minutes of Palace taking the lead, United had the chance to draw level when Macheda was dragged down inside the box. He slotted the resulting penalty home calmly. The remainder of the game looked to be heading to extra time, with play balanced as Palace refused to be broken down without sitting back. Extra time started with both sides continuing to struggle to break each other down effectively, until Palace struck a big blow, with a free kick from the left side of the box, whipped in by Ambrose finding the head of Murray heading powerfully to give his side a 2-1 lead and the potential for an upset. Although there were arguments of him being slightly offside, it will be felt that the defending failed to deal with a dangerous free kick that found it’s man. United responded into the second half, trying to break down a tiring but resilient opposition who did not allow many avenues through. Much of the attack was concentrated through Valencia and although there was a late surge, a clear cut chance failed to materialise as the final whistle came. Crystal Palace had done what many thought unlikely, taking a well deserved victory from Old Trafford, and considering the draw that followed, meant that a semi final clash with Cardiff would result in a Championship side being in the final for the Carling Cup. For United, a poor performance for most on a disappointing evening that saw another lacklustre performance in attack going punished, that led to an apology from Sir Alex Ferguson in his post match interview. With that here are five things that may be taken from the game.
1) Crystal Palace deserve to go through
First and foremost, it must be acknowledged that Crystal Palace were certainly worthy of their victory. They were organised defensively getting back in numbers and making life difficult for United in not allowing themselves to be broken down. As well as that they always looked dangerous on the attacking, in particular Zaha proving a particular threat, displaying pace and strong foot work in making United’s back line look nervous whenever he came forward. Even in the final stages of the game, they refused to back down and did not allow the home side through cutting out the possibility of a clear cut chance. As mentioned earlier, the second goal was arguably marginally offside, but the failure to deal with the free kick is the more important factor in what was a well taken set piece. A semi final clash with Cardiff awaits them and a trip to Wembley now looks a strong possibility.
2) Chris Smalling – United’s best player
In what was a poor performance all round, Chris Smalling could at least walk away from that game knowing he put in a good performance. Leading the back line and carrying out his defensive duties effectively he was easily the best player for United on the night, looking professional and showing why he has become a regular in being selected for a starting role recently. Valencia also had flashes of attacking threat, although this largely occurred during the latter stages of the game when United began to push forward more, but he struggled to get through on the right wing as Palace closed down effectively most of the time.
3) Certain players may be on borrowed time at Manchester United
With the emergence of highly rated young talent at Old Trafford and with some who were previously revered to such an extent having failed to establish themselves since coming to the fore at United, one might imagine that certain members of the squad may be on borrowed time and indeed may well have played their last game for the Champions. For example, Mame Biram Diouf, although believed to hold much potential when signed, is now 24 having failed to make himself a regular in the first team and is somewhere near the bottom of the pecking order in terms of forwards. Against Palace he had an occasional moment, but overall was ineffective out wide and now one may wonder if it is time he looked to pastures new for more opportunities of first team football. Macheda is younger but since his heroics against Villa a couple of years ago, he has failed to further develop into the quality striker as was hoped. This can be put down in part to injury, but over a couple of seasons one would have expected greater things from the young striker. He was by no mans terrible on Wednesday night, and got better as the game went on, but failed to find a way through a resistant Palace defence and seemed out of sorts out wide as he had started the game. Another loan spell may well do him some good, but with so much talent currently ahead of him, the future does not look too bright at Old Trafford for the Italian striker.
Continued on page two.
Ferguson’s done it before — against Coventry and Southend and others — it’s his fault — he never learns.
Agree…Not to mention Leeds a couple years back. He always gets over confident when facing opponents from lesser leagues and we wound up getting embarrassed AT Old Trafford AGAIN! Horrible team selection. SAF may be going senile.
fact and obvious to all utd fans but not our management as follows amos = prospect but will not get chance, rafael.fabio both headless and injury prone, evans,gibson = hopelessky out of their depth, smalling = has to be given time ,valencia = no confidence/pace/left foot does not score enough past it,park = championship standard now,macheda and diouff worse than evans and gibson no words to describe them , berbatov waste of talent not played enough,
5 things we learned:
we are sh1t
we are sh1t
we are sh1t
we are sh1t
we are sh1t
6. Evans,Gibson, Park are not Utd class players against any opposition. They should not wear the Red jersey and SAF is just deluded to still retain these guys. In case he wanted to showcase these fellows for January sale, it backfired spectacularly. Their respective prices, assuming there was any, must have nosedived. And yes, Da Silvas are neither good nor strong enough, sadly.
Berbatov, Valencia, Park, Evans and Smalling are the senior in the team vs Palace, considered how many matches they already played for first team, do they less experience ??? And with Gibson, Fabio + Rafael in the squad they should be able to control the match but they failed, this really unacceptable. These player can easily become key player for any championship team but still cant perform when given them chances, they should be sold (except Smalling). If they are not experience enought to control the match .. then i guess you need to look for Giggs or may be signed Sol Campbel to get the experience needed. Oh , get Scholes back , this should help.
Very worried about the twins – their constant injuries are making them liabilities. We need to find cover for both full back positions. The young Palace right back looked good to me.
I was very disappointed in Valencia and Evans I thought that they offered nothing for us, I also wondered when I saw the team sheet, where were the goals going to come from. I have always said that in this stage of the competition you can name a youthful line up but have a strong bench l(Chicharito, Nani, Rooney, Giggs, and Young) And it came back to haunt them
Nice article, well put on Pogba and Morrrison. No mention of Gibson though? – ineffectual for United as always. He has surely played his last game for Utd. He can still be a quality player for another team but not of the Utd standard.
You talk tosh mate, the team he picked should’ve been capable of winning. It was an ideal opportunity to give berba, valencia etc. some game time and give some of the youth a run. Nothing wrong in his team choice, palace played well and deserved to win…..we didn’t
I assume from your comment that you read absolutely nothing I wrote, all the way through I said Palace deserved the win and played extremely well, that doesn’t take away from their achievement when I say the team selection wasn’t ideal, because the fact is it simply wasn’t. Yes the talent in the starting line up should have sufficed but it does not mean they will be cohesive within minutes of playing together, nor does it justify the complete lack of experience on the bench. Yes palace deserved to win, that does not mean United did not get anything wrong either.
Time and again United fans are blind to the fact that when Fergie picks a team such as the one last night, it’s like throwing together a team of strangers who don’t play together, and it’s always a massive gamble.
You’ve got to remember that, despite it being classed as a first team match last night, it was a scratch together of side that took to the field, who aren’t regularly playing together as a unit.
You can’t say that, based on last nights performance, any of the players aren’t ready for the first team yet, aren’t a Untied type player, or are on borrowed time. The only way to gauge if they’re ready for the first team is to bleed them in smaller numbers in to the FIRST TEAM…one of our strong line ups, giving them decent game time alongside the likes of Rooney, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Nani etc.
When established players like Park and Valencia struggle because of the unfamiliar side they’re pitched in to, how can fans point out Gibbo and Macheda in the sense of not performing, even against lower opposition?
Macheda the poor bloke, he’s still a kid and people expect him to play like an established 27 year old. Yet, when he’s given a start in a mish mash, chucked together side – he’s played out of position!! For players like Macheda, Diouf, Morrison, Pogba – they need to be made comfortable, and in a side that they can learn from. Any one of them gets 20 minutes with the first team on Saturday gives them 10x more than what they got last night.
I’m shocked that a big section of our fan base struggle to look beyond how a fixture looks on paper, and how a team needs familiarity to build cohesion.
A friend of mine pointed out that modern day reds are like the line in ‘Sit Down’ by James: “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor”. The fans from not so long ago saw the bigger picture when it came to United. The ‘we’re great when we’re winning and shit when we’re not’ brigade are spoilt…and it’s a shame that they’re infesting the club.
While I agree with you to an extent that it was a scratch team, we ought too acknowledge that some simply haven’t come through in their time at the club, namely Diouf, at 24 on the reserves it’s probably time to move on to allow the other youngsters to come through who I believe should not simply be thrust into first team affairs.
I wasn’t having a pop at the article Zayd, it was reds in general and some comments on here.
Being fair to Diouf though, he hasn’t been given a chance – way down the pecking order, but we’ve never seen him have 3 or 4 games partnering Rooney. They way people chuck the wild comments around like they do is just awful.
I assure you I didn’t take your comment in the wrong way rather as an observation that it was intended. Indeed there is a propensity to write off some within the fringes rather quickly given the obvious lack of game time, and there is a culture of the best when winning, the worst when losing. The loss to Palace was a bad one, it doesn’t make united a bad side over night. With regard to Diouf, you may well be right, unfortunately though it’s unlikely he will see the game time required and as such may be better of searching for more regular opportunities.