Yet another masterclass
Paul Scholes- Patrick Viera was right when he called the return of Paul Scholes “desperation”. United’s midfield lacked fluency and, with a purported move for Wesley Sneijder stalling, promotion from within was left as Ferguson’s solitary, and rather boring sounding, solution. For all the success of United’s academy system, many fans still prefer big money signings — especially with clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona poaching stars right and left.
Scholes’ return, however, captured the imaginations of United’s legions of “modern” supporters, the ones glued to their cell phones instead of the game. After all, Scholes is different, he conquers short attention spans. He combines the sparkle of Sneijder with the genuineness of John O’Shea. Scholes is the archetypal Ferguson player: magnificently talented, but modest and disciplined as well.
Those characteristics, among others, served him well against Queens Park Rangers. With a passing accuracy of 95%, Scholes controlled the game from the center of midfield, spraying ball after ball out to the dangerous Antonio Valencia. It took most of the first half before — succumbing to the crowd’s incessant pleas — Scholes finally took a shot from a distance, slashing the ball narrowly wide.
With twenty minutes to go, he finally found the target. After Adel Taarabt only half cleared a United corner, the ball fell to Scholes on the edge of the box. Poised as always, Scholes drove a low shot past Paddy Kenny’s dive and into the bottom corner. The goal was fitting reward for a performance of typical composure, a display reminiscent of bygone deeds and, hopefully, indicative of future successes.
United are eight points clear, the title within touching distance. Who is desperate now, Patrick?
Other Contenders:
Michael Carrick- Shook the bar with a rasping shot. As usual, the perfect complement for Paul Scholes.
Jonny Evans- A controlled, mature showing. Tackled, passed and dribbled very well. More of the same, please, Jonny.
Flop of the Match:
Rafael- A sloppy display. Missed an absolute sitter in the second half. Generally disappointing in the attacking third. We forgive you, though. CHAMP20NS (I can say that, right?).
Read more by David Yaffe-Bellany at In For The Hat Trick and follow him on Twitter @INFTH
“He combines the sparkle of Sneijder with the genuineness of John O’Shea” WHAT? O’Shea is a genius? I stopped reading after that line.
Genuineness. Being GENUINE. Authentic, real. Attributes that both fit John O’Shea. Read more carefully, please.
You’ve really made a fool of yourself with that comment… 🙂
I for one prefer to bring up our young talent. It’s one of the main things I take pride in as a United supporter, our youth system/academy. I’m sure when Scholes retired, Morrison and Pogba were licking their lips at the thought of getting more starts. But then we brought Scholes back…granted, he’s been HUGE in this season since he’s come back and integral to the title push, I’m just saying that everything has positive and negative points. I believe Morrison and Pogba became discouraged when Scholes came back since they new that was one more player in front of them in the pecking order. Morrison is gone and Pogba is still on the fence. I would really hate to lose Pogba, hopefully we can convince him he belongs at the club. I don’t like clubs like ManShitty and Real because all they do is buy their talent nowadays…even Barca has been buying more than developing, which is why my favorite club in Spain is Athletic Bilbao. I didn’t appreciate being knocked out of Europe by them, but I respect them more than most clubs since they ONLY sign players from their small part of Spain and they develop some amazing players from youth. We need to keep developing and bringing up the youth.
you and your bias welbeck was very poor i dont c y you say rafael was sloppy,he was good
Flop of the match? Really is there any need for that?
I agree with loso in that welbeck was probably the least impressive player on the night. Rafael had a good game and was terribly unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, if he had you’d be singing his praises…
You always hate Rafael. His not to score but to defend which he did very well.
Welbeck Was flop of the match.