The Aftermath: Sunderland vs. United

Wha...

The Breakdown
Sunderland 0-0 United

Three words: what the fruck.

What exactly was he thinking tonight? What exactly did he tell the players to do? "Yeah, a point is good enough"? "Yeah, we don't have to play as if we wanted to win the game"?

A game which has left me incensed, even to the point where—based on the football played—I feel Sunderland should have won.

The first half was bossed by Sunderland. They had more of the possession and more chances - in fact, I think we got no shots on target in the first half.

The home team had a glorious opportunity when Steed Malbranque was fed in on goal, cutting the defence (contrary to what Rio said about the apparent 'defensive crisis') in two and Edwin rushed to effect a good save.

The Black Cats played a 4-5-1, with Bent leading the line on his own. It didn't make for an exciting match, necessarily, but when he got the ball, he was a menace for our defence.

Cue the second half. You'd think, "Surely Fergie's pulled out the hairdryer. Surely he would have had a tactic other than 'don't try'. Surely they'd come out and start playing FOOTBALL."

Nope.

It was contain, contain, contain with only the slight hint that we were able to come up with something that, in the smallest way possible, resembled the ability to counter-attack.

Seriously, he subs Owen off at half-time for Berbatov who seems to have made almost an instant, heroic impact. Side-foots a mis-hit shot by Scholes that ripples the back of the net...

... but he's offside. And the worst part is, that doesn't "sum up" the game. That's like just an irrelevant piece of nonsense that they worked into this football match. Shots on goal from either team became rare in the bulk of the second half.

After both sides had rung the changes: Owen, Macheda and Anderson (who, in my opinion, shouldn't have played at all) off and Berbatov, Chicharito and Bebe (should've started) on respectively and Zenden and Malbranque off for Reid and Ghanaian hero Asamoah Gyan, the game picked up again.

But, as so often has been the case this season, it comes to nothing. This time, for both teams. Brucey would be happy with this point gained, Fergie SHOULD be pissed about the points dropped - although based on what I saw, it seemed like it was his tactic all along.

Reaction
On the one hand, I suppose, we could look at it as a clean-sheet away from home. But on the other, it's ANOTHER F***ING DRAW. 4 draws. I talked to my dad while watching the game, and I said to him "4 draws loses 8 points. 3 losses loses 9. Who cares if we're unbeaten, we've drawn so many games it's almost as good as if we'd lost 3."

This, in the US, would also be 4 draws.

That's not the only bit of frustration I'm currently feeling about this game.

I posted "Two problems. Why are we deliberately not trying against Sunderland, and what's up with the 4-3-3. Is there a no-width policy? 0-0 HT" at half-time tonight on our Facebook page and really, it's Valencia all over again. Except, obviously, without the flourish at the end where we win and all I have are happy-ish thoughts about how it's three points.

Since I posted on the Valencia game, Darren Fletcher has come out saying that it was a definite tactic in Spain to:

"... be solid and hard to beat, and that was the plan. We wanted to hit quickly on the break..."

Thinking, I suppose, that the same tactic can be applied on Wearside to similar effect, Sir Alex played a 4-3-3—to my bewilderment, I must say; Fletcher, Scholes and Anderson the three in the middle to a forward line of Macheda, Owen and Nani—and in the first half it wasn't at all effective.

And adding to my head-scratching and general tense-ness were two more problems: O'Shea at left-back and starting Anderson. Historically, Sir Alex had tried to play 4-3-3 in Europe in the early '00s. Where did that get us? Nowhere quickly. Playing Anderson, with Scholes and Fletcher, leaves him doing what, exactly?

You'd assume, maybe, closing down and pressing Sunderland when they have the ball; putting pressure on their defence when they're trying to get out due to incessant United attacking.

Wrong. On both counts.

Anderson, to me, cut a forlorn figure tonight. He had maybe one or two good, strong runs—typical of him, and his "bullish" style—but other than that? Nothing to show for it.

So often I saw him just walking around... y'know, just happening to be in the middle of a football game. It took Fergie an eternity to sub him off. It didn't look like Anderson was fit to play past 55-60 minutes. But it took him 'til around the 80th minute to finally be subbed off. That's about 20 minutes too long.

What's all this, then?

And Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. I appreciate that John O'Shea has been a long-serving member of this United team, but his slow and laboured style of play—playing in Patrice "half-back-half-wing" Evra territory—just doesn't seem to work with our full-flowing-fullback strategies of the past 20 years.

Especially in a game where we only had one winger throughout the majority of the match, our threat from crosses was completely nullified by our own team.

What were the positives to take out of this game, exactly?

Maybe that Chicharito played excellently when he came on. Lively, pressing, looking for space, looking threatening. Everything we're hoping for from a young, eager striker to get his team winning the game.

Even Bebe's introduction late on was encouraging. He got on the ball a few times, some more effective than others, but it's his official debut in the Premier League. He would've been watching that when he was playing in the European Street Football Festival, not the um "Homeless World Cup", as we (and others) have previously alleged. So, no surprises that he didn't show off his skills straight away.

Best Player: Split the prize between Nemanja Vidic and Steed Malbranque.

Both were excellent for different reasons. One created chances and almost scored. One is a Frenchman.

But in all seriousness, Vidic was solid, alongside Rio, in defence and towards the end when he thought "right, enough's enough. Lemme show these guys how it's done" and he was up on the left wing winning free-kicks and corners, he was really leading by example. He almost won it in the end, too.

And Malbranque, well, he did similar tricks in Sunderland's midfield. I wouldn't say he was at the heart of their midfield - nor was the heart of everything Sunderland did - but he was a very good positive influence on their play. His endeavours led others like Henderson and Bent to craft themselves opportunities - they didn't take them, but hey, they had the chances.

Where We Stood, Where We Stand

This changes fuck all. Except Chelsea now have a real confidence boost - and don't forget Arsenal. If they win, sure it's good for us - but better for them. We can only pray the game between Chelsea and Arsenal tomorrow will result in the same kind of result as the one tonight.

1|Chelsea|6P|19GD|15PTS
2|UNITED|7P|7GD|13PTS
3|Arsenal|6P|9GD|11PTS
4|Man City|6P|5GD|11PTS
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5|Spurs|7P|1GD|11PTS

I'll be praying for a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. Mark my words.