Lots of hands on hips. Lots of rueful expressions.
The Breakdown
United 0-0 Rangers
Another just frustrating result.
Sir Alex Ferguson plays a strange team - none, bar Fletcher, played against Everton on Saturday, and it was awfully frustrating to sit through.
After half an hour, United didn't break the solid Rangers defence at all. Rangers playing a 5-4-1 formation probably got more shots on target than we did in the first half...
To add injury to insult, nasty, nasty injury for Valencia. Not great for those of us who are squeamish... Unfortunately, I don't think he'll be playing for a while. Shiieeeeet.
Much of the same in the second half, although we started brightly. Gibson was probably the most potent United player, getting off a few of his trademark shots - but none really troubling the keeper.
First time we haven't scored at home since Leeds in January.
Reaction
Rangers took "parking the bus" to a whole new level. A bank of 4 in midfield supported by a bank of 5 in defence, they really made it difficult for us. They were organised, they were compact and they were disciplined. It's credit to them for pulling it off, really.
No pace. There was no gusto in our play today. None!
Gibson and Fletcher are work-horses, but don't have that Scholes-esque ability to pick out that pass to the free-flowing winger, or just to up the tempo generally. I reckon that's what we lacked. We had Rooney and Chicharito and to be honest, I don't remember that many times that the commentators mentioned their names tonight.
But when he was on the ball, I think Rooney lacked that match sharpness - it was reminiscent of his games for England in South Africa. Played a pass when we expect him to shoot, held onto the ball when we expected a pass... We're not clicking seamlessly into gear—yet.
Horrible for Valencia... that was a career threatening injury if I've ever seen one. But I'll rest assured that the medical staff attending to his ankle (pretty sure it's his ankle) will be doing their darndest.
Rio skippered us tonight (to answer that question on our Gameday post!), in a re-shaped back four who didn't have much to do... but when they had something to do, defensively, they did it well.
Not convinced Fergie played the right team tonight. Not in the great scheme of things, not for the result... I can't make sense of why he played the team he played.
For the record:
GK Kuszczak
RB Brown
CB Smalling
CB Ferdinand
LB Fabio
RM Valencia
CM Gibson
CM Fletcher
LM Park
CF Chicharito
CF Rooney
What do you reckon? Would you have played this team against a Rangers who would've either brought it big-time against us or did as they did and shut up shop with 9 at the back, soaking up all the pressure?
I wouldn't have.
Best Player
I prayed that I'd find a gem, amongst the 22 on the field, who was wearing red tonight, but I'm not too sure. Saša Papac, one of the 3 centre-backs, played well—I noticed that it was he who'd close down whichever striker was on the ball in and around the 18 yard box. But Darron Gibson gets a worthy mention - the ball fell to him countless times for him to whack it towards Allan McGregor in the Rangers goal. However, his slow-paced nature on the ball probably showed in this game moreso than in others, the pace needed to be injected through the centre of midfield for us and it wasn't.
Group C standings
I'd usually do a Where We Stood, Where We Stand segment here! But I have no idea what I'd do for our first European night of the season so... here's an elephant!
But really, 1 point each for Rangers and United, Valencia beat Bursaspor 4-0 away from home... so they top. I guess the table would look something like this:
1|Valencia|1|3|+4
2|Glasgow Rangers|1|1|0
3|UNITED|1|1|0
4|Bursaspor|1|0|-4
Third in both tables. Disappointing.
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