Manchester United 1 v 2 Blackburn Rovers
Old Trafford, Manchester
24th September 2005
Manchester United rounded off what has been a bad last 10 days with a devastating defeat that leaves them 7 points behind Chelsea, assuming they win their game in hand, which isn't looking too promising on current form.
Gone is the optimism of the first few games, when Ronaldo, Rooney ad Ruud linked up so well against Debrecen in the first competitive match of the season,and now all we seem to have left is confusion, poor form, and inconsistency.
Van Nistelrooy continues to bring home a goal a game, but the strike rate of Rooney, Park and Ronaldo leaves a lot to be desired. Scholes had more than enough chances on the day, and would normally have banged at least one of them home, but his shooting boots had quite clearly been left in the changing room.
With the near misses came frustration, and players slashed at their shots even more, rushing them in the hope that that may solve the striking crisis. It didn't.
As the game went on Blackburn grew in confidence as chance after chance went begging at the other end, and United suddenly lost their dominance.
Blackburn hit them on the break, and suddenly Pedersen had scored to take the lead for Blackburn.
Half-time saw some tough words, and the boys came out fighting. Rooney came on for Fletcher, and United had more menace to them.
It was a Rooney strike that led to the goal. Hit forceful shot was parried by Friedel, and the ball fell to Ruud's feet, who put away with time to spare.
United were in the ascendancy, and as with last season, found themselves needing a goal, and creating chance after chance but not scoring.
And just like last season, a sneaky attack, based on poor United defending, saw Pedersen sneak through again and hit United for all three points.
Carlos Queiroz said after the game "We were punished for missing chances. It was a nightmare. We created so many opportunities and produced some great attacking moves in the first half. The important thing is that the chances are there. We will not play another game like this and not score three or four goals." But this is exactly the same script as last year, where we had the most shots in the league, but could do nothing to stop scrappy teams from taking points off us.
Is a switch back to the 4-4-2 the answer? Who can say, but Ronaldo and Rooney appear to be under-used at present, so any system that gives them more of the ball can only be a good thing.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, O'Shea (Bardsley 57), Ferdinand, Silvestre, Richardson, Fletcher (Rooney 55), Smith, Scholes, Ronaldo, van Nistelrooy, Park (Giggs 69).
