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| Photo by neoliminal on Flickr |
Just One of Those Days – Sometimes you can do everything right and it just doesn’t work out in the end. I’m not saying United did everything right yesterday – far from it, in fact – but the game had the feel about it that United could have played another 90 minutes and not breached the goal mouth. Off the line, off the bar, off Tim Krul’s hands, offside – every chance denied, every opportunity thwarted.
It seems as if the team is stuck in neutral at the moment – not bad enough to fall off the chase, but not good enough to stay in it. Saturday’s problems can’t really be blamed on midfield creativity – there was plenty evident in the persons of Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick. And United created plenty of chances -- more so than in most games the team has recently played. No, Saturday just has to be laid off at the feet of “Just One of Those Days" – you can’t win them all.
Tim Krul was Outstanding – A flying Dutchman back in between the sticks at Old Trafford? Too bad he was on the wrong team.... What can you say about the Magpies Dutch ‘keeper except that he’s at the top of his game right now? Krul singlehandedly kept Newcastle in the game yesterday, especially during United’s late second half onslaught, denying United on more than one occasion from all angles and distances. And when Krul was finally beaten, there was Danny Simpson on the line in the 86th minute to save his bacon. Several United shots could have tested Krul a bit more -- I'm thinking of Vida's point blank second half header -- but the game had about it the feel all along that it would take a special effort to beat the Dutchman. And the Reds didn't create anything nearly special enough.
Where Have You Gone, Ashley Young? Where are the early season goals? What's happened to the threat from the left flank? Where did the inch perfect left- AND right-footed crosses go? Instead, what we’re left with is exactly what I feared when Manchester United signed him – a decent but ultimately not great player who drifts in and out of form from game to game – sometimes hot, sometimes not, sometimes not even present. I lost track yesterday of the number of times that Young missed a shot, took one too many dribbles in the box, failed to deliver a quality ball, or just helped fizzle out the final attack. He’s become the Dead Zone, the walking dead of the United offense, having taken over the mantle from Patrice Evra: any chance Young takes turns into nothing.
