I'm back again (for a cameo appearance! hahaha.)! Three months is quite a long time and really, I must cultivate the habit of having at least a post per week. Haiz. My determination is really damn weak.
So what should I write after such a long absence? Hmm... talking about three months ago, Man Utd celebrated its 16th English title won after Man Utd won at Man City. Those were the times. Fast forward to three months later, Man Utd just lost to Man City and remained winless after three games into the new season. In fact, to make things worse, Man Utd has not won in their last seven competitive matches (counting in the community shield and FA Cup final plus the final two games of last season where they drew 0-0 against Chelsea and lost 1-0 against West Ham)!
I really hate to talk about soccer in the blog (even though I love the sport) since I'm having the blog with Baby but I really can't tahan le!! The first three matches saw Man Utd garnered a miserly two points, where in truth it should have been nine. With due respect to Reading, Portsmouth and Man City, they weren't exactly the top dogs in the league. Also, Man Utd had 22 and 16 goal attempts against Reading and Man City respectively, enough attempts to even win five matches in a row! So what's the problem?
The sale of Alan Smith to Newcastle, on hindsight, seems a bad decision. Selling Smith, together with Giuseppe Rossi, meant Man Utd had to start the campaign with Wayne Rooney as the only recognised and experienced striker, as the Carlos Tevez affair was still hanging in the air and Saha, who always seems to get injured whenever he pulls on a Man Utd jersey, and Solskjaer were out with injuries. Interestingly, Sir Alex Ferguson pointed out before that the key to the Treble success in 1999 was having four strikers (Yorke, Cole, Solskjaer and Sheringham) challenging for the position of the front two. I think he forgot to add the word "fit".
If selling Alan Smith wasn't bad enough, the decision not to buy a target man was worst. Don't get me wrong. Tevez is a world class player who can work magic on the field. But like Rooney, he must be given the space and freedom to work his magic and like Rooney, their magic works best when they play behind the front man and not as the front man. Rooney was not at his best against Reading and Tevez was slightly better against Portsmouth, and simply horrendous against Man City. The three matches had only highlight a stinging problem for Man Utd - they need a target man upfront, in order for Tevez / Rooney to showcase what are they made of. Now I miss a certain Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
Last and the most important factor, luck. If not, how do you explain Rooney's injury in the first game and Ronaldo's sending-off in the second game? If not, how do you explain 38 goal attempts in 2 matches and yet, Man Utd managed to grab only a point out of a possible six? If not, how do you explain that in the above-mentioned two games, the Man-of-the-Match awards went to Michael Duberry and Micah Richards, both defenders? The commentator for the Man Utd-Man City game pointed out that how ironic it can be when Man Utd bought in new players during off-season, people were wondering how Ferguson would accomodate Hargreaves, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Nani, Anderson, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez in one team!
I hope by the time I post again, Man Utd would have gotten their first win of the season and start chasing the early leaders before it's too late. Haiz.
