Red Rants |
- Rooney rejects Bayern’s accuses
- Faltering Fellani Fails To Impress, Again
- Fellaini, buses and Moyes: 5 things we have learnt from United vs Bayern
| Rooney rejects Bayern’s accuses Posted: 02 Apr 2014 11:52 PM PDT
The Munich midfield, who had scored his side’s equaliser eight minutes after Nemanja Vidic had put United ahead, earned himself a second yellow card when he lunged at Rooney only a couple of yards outside the Reds’ penalty box, prompting referee Carlos Velasco to send him off.
Schweinsteiger will now miss the second leg through suspension, like his team-mate Javi Martinez, and wasn’t happy about Rooney’s behaviour, but the United number 10 has defended his actions. “I don’t really want to say what he said but I think it’s a foul,” said Rooney. “It could have gone either way. He could have hurt me, he’s gone in with his studs and the referee has booked him, so it’s not my decision. “It’s not nice to see anyone sent off and I didn’t try to get him sent off. The referee has made a decision. I’ve tried to stop myself getting hurt and the referee has had a decision to make.” Rooney also admitted that while Bayern remain favourites to progress, United have got a chance to cause a huge upset next week. “They are favourites for the tournament and it will be a tough ask but we needed to give ourselves a chance and we have done that,” he said. “We have to go and score and [we are] disappointed to have conceded but we defended really well as a team and probably had the better chances and [are] probably disappointed we didn’t win. “To go there with the chance to knock them out, with them being the holders of the competition, it’s a massive incentive for us and we are looking forward to it.” Arjen Robben accused United of being a hand-ball team, as he lamented Moyes’ decision to leave 10 men behind the ball at all times to deny space to Bayern’s midfielders, but Rooney feels United had the better chances on Tuesday night and perhaps should have even won the game, had it not been for some errors in front of goal. “If we were a bit more composed in front of goal maybe we could have won the game,” said Rooney “Danny had a good chance. We have watched videos of their goalkeeper and he’s a bit like Peter Schmeichel, that he likes to come out of his goal, so it’s a bit disappointing that he tried to dink him and didn’t score but he will learn from that. I am sure if he gets a chance over there he won’t do that. “We had the better chances and are disappointed we didn’t take at least one more but they are the European champions and we have seen them go to Arsenal and win 2-0 there [so] it’s a decent result. We have to focus and make sure we put everything into it. It’s a massive game for our season, so we have to make sure we are ready.”
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| Faltering Fellani Fails To Impress, Again Posted: 02 Apr 2014 12:31 PM PDT
With a huge rice tag to live up to and even bigger voids to fill Marouane Fellani was never going to find it easy going at Old Trafford. Injuries made his daunting task even tougher. His first Premier League appearance in a Manchester United jersey came away against Norwich. He looked lethargic and failed to impose himself on the game. To put it in short, he failed to impress.
In fact, that phrase can be used to describe most of his performances in a Manchester United jersey. He has yet to scores and yet to assist in the Red Of Manchester, in the Premier League. That is unacceptable for any Manchester United midfielder, specially one that we payed £27.5 million for! Against Bayern Munich, many thought he could have his chance to shine. Against world class opposition many hoped Fellani would step up to the plate and help us combat the opposition. Unfortunately for us, he failed to impress again. Alongside Carrick and Giggs for the first half, his main task was to win the second balls and break up play. He failed to do either. He only managed to win 1/7 aeriel duels. That for the tallest man on the pitch (keepers aside), is unacceptable. Contrary to popular belief he also failed to break up play and won none of his attempted tackles. With only a 75% pass accuracy he wasn’t exactly controlling possession for us either! So how did he contribute to our memorable display against the Bayern? That is the very question I am mulling over Throughout the game he acted as a physical presence for us. That simply isn’t good enough for a midfielder playing in the UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals! For me Marouane Fellani just has not done enough to warrant a place in the starting line-up for Manchester United. I would much rather prefer Fletcher play instead who would at least add a bit more dynamism and experience in the middle of the park. Many fans and pundits questioned the transfer even before a ball had been kicked. No one doubted his pedigree as a Premier League player however as a ‘Manchester United’ player, huge doubts have been and are continuously being raised and Fellani has done nothing on the pitch to quell them. It has been, as expected a tough start for him at Old Trafford and despite everything, I would love to see Fellani succeed as his success would result in Manchester United’s success however with each passing performance the chances of that happening are getting increasingly slim, This post was written by Rafae Qazi and you can follow his Man Utd Blog here. |
| Fellaini, buses and Moyes: 5 things we have learnt from United vs Bayern Posted: 02 Apr 2014 06:54 AM PDT
Here’s five things we have learnt last night.
1) United are fully Evertonised When David Moyes was unveiled as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor one of the main question marks over his appointment was whether he’d be able to abandon his “David vs Goliath” approach and get his team to play attractive football, rather than simply try to stifle other teams’ attacking instincts. Having known the answer for almost eight months, last night we had laid it in front of our very eyes. United did not attempt to go at Bayern, preferring instead to defend incredibly deep and bypass the midfield with a barrage of long balls for Welbeck and Rooney to feed onto.
While Inter Milan and Chelsea have won the Champions League by adopting the same approach and, given the plethora of opportunities at Pep Guardiola’s disposal, going toe-to-toe with the Bavarians would have probably been self-destructive, the thought of United willing relinquishing any sort of initiative was hard to take. Of course, it wasn’t the first time United’s rearguard had resembled a trench, but it wasn’t a coincidence that Moyes got his tactics spot on for the first time this season in a game his team approached as the underdogs: this had Everton vs a top four side written all over it. 2) Defence is the best form of attack Or so it seemed last night, as United defended with dogged resilience and limited Bayern to only three clear chances. On two of those chances Arjen Robben was denied – first by David De Gea’s save, then by his own right foot – while the other led to Bastian Schweinsteiger’s equaliser. Defensive though Moyes’ approach was, Phil Jones, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and even Alex Buttner deserve credit for keeping their composure and focus throughout the game and keeping the likes of Robben, Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller at bay.
Even Buttner, who many expected to be the weak link in United’s back four, did reasonably well for a player of his – rather limited – talent, while Ferdinand and Vidic might be a fading force, but on their night they’re still capable of producing the sort of performance we had come accustomed to a couple of years ago. 3) Marouane Fellaini just isn’t good enough Moyes’ decision to start Fellaini was bizarre, given the Belgian had gone missing in all the big games he had featured in this season before last night and that he lacks the physical attributes needed to cope with a midfield such as Bayern’s, whose foundations are built on a combination of quick, sharp, passes. With United’s midfield already desperately lacking dynamism, a luxury neither Michael Carrick nor Ryan Giggs have that in their locker, deploying Fellaini alongside them was asking for troubles. Troubles duly arrived, as Mr £27m showed yet again he remains hopelessly out of his depth at this level. Too casual in possession, useless when it came to keep pace with the deluge of one-two passes Bayern’s midfielders knitted around him for the whole game, Fellaini wasn’t even able to impose his size in the box and was repeatedly beaten to headers by players smaller than him. That he forgot to track Schweinsteiger’s run just before Bayern’s equaliser surprised absolutely no one. Those £27m have been well and truly flushed down the bog. 4) Oh Danny boy Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. Danny Welbeck should have leathered the ball past Manuel Neuer, rather than attempt a cheeky chip over the Bayern keeper and United might well live to regret that missed chance. That, however, was the only thing that Welbeck could be criticised for last night. He stretched Bayern’s defence like none of our other players did, he had a goal unjustly ruled out, he ran himself into the ground to help his team defensively and, most importantly, he didn’t shy away from his responsibilities. On a night when United midfielders looked scared of even looking at the ball, Danny demanded it and looked menacing throughout the game. In a season of bad news, Welbeck’s development has been an extremely positive note. 5) We’ll miss these nights You know United fans have been great this season, when we receive widespread praise in the media for the atmosphere we generate at Old Trafford. We’ve often been rightly criticised for the lack of atmosphere that has characterised our games at home in the last decade, but the fans have stood up admirably this season.
The games against Olympiakos and Bayern Munich were a great reminder of what Old Trafford is like on big European nights when the fans get behind the players and roar them on and the supporters were superb again last night. The noise and real sense of occasion were only enhanced by the sight of United finally putting a solid shift this season. Unfortunately, last night also highlighted how much we’re going to miss this sort of occasions, for there’s absolutely nothing that guarantees that United will be back in the Champions League in the 2015-16 season. |
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