Manchester United suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of West Brom yesterday. The worrying thing from a Red point of view is the fact that when we went 2-1 down, the team didn’t seem to have that urgency to move the ball forward and get back on level terms. Fair play to Steve Clarke’s men, as they fully deserved the three points.
The first half was a drab affair. Both sides defended well and limited the amount of chances created. Wayne Rooney once again was proving to be the driving force behind our side, and early on he looked the only one showing any real intent. As the game grew, Nani started coming into his own – he began to beat his man and put some decent crosses into the box, one of which narrowly missed the outstretched leg of Javier Hernandez. Any contact at all would’ve earned United a 1-0 lead.
West Brom always looked threatening on the break though. Their speed and sharpness in their forward play was excellent, and an ageing Rio Ferdinand simply couldn’t keep up with the pace. The visitors were forced into an early substitute due to a Scott Sinclair injury, and on came the youngster Berahino who had been scoring goals for fun whilst with the England U21 squad.
Just before half-time, Man of the Match Stephane Sessengon had a glorious chance which he fired over David de Gea’s goal – a warning sign for Manchester United.
The second half of football was a much more lively one, but its 45 minutes Manchester United fans will want to forget rather quickly. The calamitous defending which was a regular feature last season was back – Morgan Amalfitano single-handedly carved open our defence before cooly placing the ball over the onrushing David de Gea, giving West Brom a deserved 1-0 lead.
Their lead didn’t last long though, as a Wayne Rooney free-kick drifted past everyone in the box and nestled into the bottom corner bringing United level. Its worth pointing out that the Reds still haven’t scored a league goal from open play since the opening day of the season…
West Brom took just ten minutes to restore their lead when Berahino fired an excellently driven shot from outside the box into the bottom right hand corner of the goal, sending the travelling West Brom fans into pandemonium.
United tried to press on and grab an equaliser but it never looked like coming. The urgency wasn’t there, and it looked as if United were trying to protect a 2-1 lead rather than come from behind and grab a goal. All in all the performance wasn’t good enough from United today, and Moyes needs to go back to the drawing board, keep working hard and turn things around rather quickly.
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