DDG pulls off another 'worldy' against Athletic Bilbao
Last nights’ performance against the Spanish side Bilbao was yet another that raised serious questions about United in Europe this season. It seems the Reds just don’t have the strength-in-depth anymore to fully cope fighting for two major trophies.
Ajax, Bilbao, Benfica and even Basle have all proved too difficult for United to defeat at home which is sickening considering how much of a fortress Old Trafford used to be in European competitions.
Let’s not take anything away from the Spaniards though, they came to Old Trafford and gave it a proper go, never giving up -even after Rooney’s opener and always seeming to be more willing to fight for every ball than some of their Red counterparts. Herrera Ander and Javi Martinez caused United all sorts of problems while Muniain had the sort of game, you’d love to see from someone in a United shirt.
Bilbao may even be somewhat disappointed to only be taking a one-goal lead back to San Mamés and for that United are indebted to David De Gea who was the only United player to emerge with any real credit on a miserable night at Old Trafford. DDG is putting in quality performance after quality performance and last night was no different.
The former Athletic Madrid man, produced some truly world-class saves in the Europa League tie last night, particularly in the second-half and if it wasn’t for him then the score could have been a complete embarrassment to United. De Marcos and Muniain both saw decent efforts saved by the Spaniard who must’ve been as angry as the rest of us were with some of his team-mates lack of effort in preventing the Bibao onslaught. Rafael in particular was very cumbersome in preventing the third goal after De Gea had pulled of yet another magnificent stop from De Marcos.
There weren’t many reasons to be cheerful for United fans last night, but De Gea’s performance was one of them- arguably the only one- and there’s no denying that he’s fast living up to his price-tag andy silencing all the critics who were desperate to see him fail.
Outstanding performance by DDG. Hopefully all the doubters will contine to eat their words. I mean it was the lads first season at such a young age at a massive club in the Premiership. What did they expect an immediate clone of Peter Smiechael? On a side note, it was absolutely shocking how Bilbao rang rings around our midfield. I cant remember the any other time where Utd were so overun, except maybe against Barcelona. Until the midfield gets sorted out (and I dont mean Cleverly coning back – again far too much expectation) much of the same can be expected in Europe.
5 things from our season so far
ddg:proving to be best buy this year for us
our defence sucks especially fullbacks
pogba wouldn’t be as worse as our current midfield
wingers are like power failure during exam days
hernandez should find his form fast welbeck is keen on squandering chances