John Evans
I am starting to come to the sad conclusion that some of our so called supporters are possibly the most fickle in the country. The reaction to the Newcastle result has been nothing short of embarrassing in my eyes with some people claiming that the result was proof enough that AW’s time at the helm of the club should be at an end. How short sighted can anyone get?
We currently sit four points off the summit of the Premier League with thirteen games to go. We have undoubtedly played our toughest games of the season on paper and have the easiest run-in out of all our main rivals. We are in the final of the League Cup and we are also still in the FA Cup with a great opportunity to progress to the Quarter finals stage and have an exciting tie to come against the best team in Europe in the knockout phases of the Champions League. All this has been achieved with major members of our first team squad being injured for long spells and on a fraction of the budget of our main rivals.
What have we really got to moan about as a set of supporters? Sure we didn’t buy anyone in the transfer window, but how many centre backs does any one team need? Why should that number be higher than a four? Why should we need a world class player to warm the bench every week when players we already have will be fit in the near future? Sure we have deadwood in our squad and we all know who they are but so does every other team on the planet. If AW had gone out and bought a further CB as cover and then that player got injured would everybody blame him for not buying cover for the cover? If most of the current players that are either injured or suspended come back within the next couple of weeks as they should then we should have enough to beat the teams we are going to come up against over the next couple of months. Even with missing a couple of names we should still pick up more points than our rivals over that period of time so where would that leave us come April? Pretty bloody close to the top that’s where.
United are no better than us this season, I have seen enough of them to make that assumption and I feel the league table will back that up come May, which is the only time you can make a true comparison as at the moment the games we have played make the league table a bit of a farce in my eyes. We are stronger than Chelsea even taking into account the £75m they splashed out last week and when you look at the tactics City recently employed against us then that gives you some indication of the levels of respect other teams including the top ones have for our side. I wont even mention the other team in North London as I for one cant see them finishing in the top five come May. The way Liverpool seem to be coming into form I can see them overtaking our soon to be East London rivals.
The weekend, regardless of what all the doom merchants would have us believe, was a very successful one with us edging a point closer to the top of the league and getting one of the more tricky games out of the way. Newcastle away or Wolves away? I know what one I would rather play on a regular basis. If we had drawn Saturday’s game 0-0 would people now be calling for the manager’s head? We played some of the best stuff we have produced in years in the first 25 minutes at Newcastle. It brought back great memories of us going away to teams like City and Middlesboro and being four up inside half an hour and I for one enjoyed that a lot. Yes we fell apart when down to 10 men but come on, some of the decisions taken by the referee were verging on criminal. The second award of a penalty was embarrassing, if that is a penalty then there would have to be ten a game as a minimum.
We don’t seem to be getting the rub of the green at the moment in terms of refereeing decisions and that needs to change for us to get the points our play deserves. And we also can’t afford too many first teamers to get injured as our back up isn’t as strong but that is the same at every other club. Earlier on in the season Chelsea were without their two first choice centre backs at home to Sunderland and they went on to lose 3-0. Where was their strength in depth then? Ferdinand gets injured in the warm up against Wolves on Saturday, Evans replaces him in the United starting line up, United lose the game 2-1. Where is the fourth and fifth choice centre back quality there?
We should get a reality check and wake up to the simple fact that our squad players are not as good as the first choice XI and that is why they are warming the bench when everyone is fit instead of being out there playing. No team in the world has top class players in reserve en masse. If Messi gets injured at Barcelona who comes on to replace him? Pedro anyone?
Talking about Barcelona who on here seems to give us a hope in hell against them? It doesn’t seem to be too many judging the comments that are being made. We should remember that the league they ply their trade in makes Scotland look competitive. Messi seems to score hat-tricks every week and sure enough he is top quality but that does seem to suggest that the opposition aren’t up to much. We got well beaten last season in the last 60 minutes of the second leg but we were 3-2 up in the tie after 20 minutes there and that feat was achieved with a largely reserve team side. If we can manage to get Song, Djourou and possibly even Nasri fit for the second leg I wouldn’t mind suggesting we finish much closer this time round after the full 180 minutes.
Just what would all the negative vibes have to say about that if we managed to knock out the best team in Europe, and get some silverware on the sideboard on the 27th?
