Manchester United got their pre-seaon tour underway last night with a breezing 4-1 victory over the New England Revolution.
Obviously its pre-season and hence I'll try not to read much into it but I was chuffed to see the lads go out and put up a performance that had desire written all over it.
Player tend to give just the 50 percent for pre-seaon games but I thought the shift we put last night was excellent for a start. Had to wake up a 3a.m to catch the game so I was pleased at the pace at which the game was played lest I doubt I would have seen it through.
I thought Anderson seemed a tad lighter than we're used to seeing him. I think if he shades off more weight, he'll be more of a threat in terms of being a box to box midfielder. We usually forget that he's still yet to peak so here's to further progress from the lad.
Carrick got himself a couple of assists so no harm done there whilst I thought Ashley Young did so well that the left wing, for once was our main source of attack throughout the match. Unfortunately Nani didn't do as well the other side which he usually relishes patrolling. I just feel that now that we've got three of the best wingers in the league, our forwards and midfielders need to use pre-seaon to work out how they'll crowd the box to get on the end of those delicious deliveries that went begging last night.
Rafael seems to have learnt to defend better than Fabio but again Fabio seems to know when and how to drive forward better than his brother. The only reason our defending wasn't punished further was probably because of the opposition. Sterner tests will call for better. Meanwhile I thought Anders Lindegaard was sharp throughout the match last night. There was nothing he could do about the goal as it was a wicked deflection but he did pull off a couple of saves and was efficient in his distribution of the ball and coming off his line in time to cut out attacks. Compared to the cover we had for EVDS last season, he's a mile better. And I also think he'll challenge for that No.1 position seriously.
Finally I thought that it was ironic that we started with both Berba and Rooney and yet ended the half with a blank whilst Macheda and Owen seemed like they'd score at every attack. The goal of the game was however scored by Park Ji Sung. The move was sublime.
We take on the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday next week in what will be a slightly harder test.
Labels: PRE-SEASON
