Suffice it is to say that at the moment, it can't get any worse---or could it?
This late review is brought to you by the failure of a bus to hit me on my way home after the match and a couple of other failed suicide attempts.
It wasn't supposed to be like this but we made it be like this. Manchester United have the habit of doing things the hard way, but that comes with the danger that in the event those heroic stunts fail to come off, the disaster is as great as the success in times when they do come off.
Thursday morning's papers could easily have been filled with the great escape of United going two goals down but rallying late on to equalise, but it wasn't to be and as such, the club's name and reputation has taken a pummeling.
The Europa league is a competition that in the past we've taunted Liverpool fans about; Now we have to eat humble pie.
In truth, our only failure on the night was that we couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. But the one aspect of the game that I thought angered me most was the way we stood off Basel when they had the ball. It speaks volumes that both crosses into the box that resulted into goals against us, the crosser had all the time and space to pick out his man. None of our defenders made effort to close him down. We might be getting away with it at home but in Europe, against top class opposition, we've been punished heavily for it. That is as far as I'm getting into the game;
Moving on; it will be interesting to see the response that the players put up over the nest month as we have some winnable league games coming up. At the moment our season's saving grace is just the league title so you hope that now that our players have been given a harsh lesson, they'll be up for it. The one factor however that is determined to undo our season are the injuries that we're picking up. It's really bemusing that we went to America for pre-season, played six games, won all six games, with no player injured and then picked up a knock from the Community Shield right through to Wednesday. The Captain's season is now done with that Basel injury so we now have Mr. Evans and co to look to to keep our young goalkeeper sound. I think now is the time for Evans to show what he's made of---starting Wolves this Saturday.
Labels: UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
