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I'm probably too cynical a person to be writing this particular match report but I've got atleast twenty minutes before my beer is cold enough. If I write it after a beer I might offend a few, so here goes.
It was simply a sloppy performance by Villa in the first half that lost this game. We might have won the second, and the travelling support were singing it, but all at Old Trafford today know that in the second half United didn't move out of first gear, let along get to second or third.
It was nice to Thomas Sorensen back and after five minutes he made a fine save from a Henke Larsson header and I thought we might have had a chance today but ten minutes later we were two down.
I'll tell you this now as I've not written it down and I might forget; the Villa support was amazing, yet again. Too many '**** on the City' for my liking but it gets them going.
Back to the match. At ten minutes the possession read 76% to United. They made it count with two goals in quick succession. The first was sloppy defending by Cahill who failed to clear and mis-kicked the ball straight to Park who slotted home from ten yards.
The second, a few minutes later was Carrick. In the second half we saw a better performance, because we were given more time but based on the first half performance I doubt many of the Villa players could keep a cold let alone the ball. It was quite embarrassing at times.
In the fifteenth minute a stat came up which just about sums up the game; United had eight goal attempts to our none. Half an hour gone and the possession was 71% to United. Five minutes later and more sloppy play, this time from Smiler and United go three nil up when Ronaldo scores a header from close range.
A minute later we have our first corner of the game and Barry fails to get it past the first man. Does he practice these in training?
With half time quickly approaching I was looking forward to a beer. I'd forgotten to put them in the fridge which made the second half coming up a daunting prospect.
In the second half Davis and Samuel came on for Hughes and Bouma with Barry fitting into left back. Hughes had been playing on the right side of midfield today and he looked lost. He's lucky there is a team coach to take him home otherwise we might not see him again; which might not be such a bad thing.
Live I've said; we played better in the second half but that was mainly down to United and Baros. Baros was everywhere today, dropping deep to pick up the ball, wide on the left and wide on the right. He set up the Gabby goal simply because he refused to give up in getting the ball as far as he could before crossing for Gabby to slot home.
This is where the cynic comes out. Why can't Baros play like he did today in every game. He didn't fall over as often, he ran and ran and created opportunities. If I had had my half time beer or two I'd be writing now that he was performing for his future employer and not Aston Villa but seeing as I'm stone cold sober I won't be suggesting that for a minute.
On his performance today it's clear we can't let a player like Baros go and we need to get players in to suit his style of play; which is basically skillful, intelligent attacking players.
After the Gabby goal the Villa support started singing 'we're going to win 4-3'. For a brief moment the United fans started singing 'we're going to win 4-1'. That's all we heard from them today.
I could complain about Sorensen today but I'm not going to. If you've read anything about what I've written about Kirįly in the past you'll know that I liked his quick distribution. Sorensen doesn't know what quick distribution is. This was summed up in the 65th minute when he could have picked up the ball as it was going out, off a United player, and thrown or passed to at least three Villa players.
Instead he let it roll out and from the resulting goal kick it went to a United player. I won't moan about him as it was his first match back but we do need a new keeper in my opinion. That was blunt, I know but it's just my opinion.
On 85 minutes the possession for the second half came up and 61% to United didn't seem right but I guess it was and sums up the game. We had better control than the first but we are still a long way off. United had 25 goal attempts today to our 7. The stats speak for themselves.
Next week is bottom of the table Watford at home. If we don't win that match we could see ourselves dragged somewhere that I'm not even going to write, let alone mention.
Hopefully Mr O'Neill will have made a signing or two by then and along with Bardsley we should see a better team playing because on the performance today a couple more could go and I wouldn't be that bothered at the moment.
Nobody won the St Martin t-shirt with their prediction but you can order one here if you like.
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