Manchester United kicked off the year with a hard fought for draw at Stoke, continuing their below par away form, with their second draw in five days. Redly United looks at five talking points of the game from a Manchester United perspective.
1. United’s defence remains fragile: the defence has always been United’s weak point this season, and unfortunately this continued into the New Year. United conceded the first goal of the year in less than two minutes into the game. The team throughout the game couldn’t cope with Peter Crouch’s height, set-pieces and crosses. And for a top four challenging team, that wasn’t good enough. The defence lacked steel, stability and communication and had to thank the Stoke attackers for not being clincal in the final third.
2. Jonny Evans the suspect: it was another shambolic performance form the Irish man, playing at the left side of the back three, Evans showed again why he is not that top notch reliable defender. With a lot of games under his belt, experience at United and having played with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, much is expected from him. But he has done little to justify his long stay and constant starts in the team. He was shaky on several occasions, and was lucky former United striker, Diouf was not clinical enough to fully capitalize on his school boy defensive error.
3. Falcao blending in real good: it was another fine display from the Colombian that was handsomely rewarded with a goal. His goal showed his predatory movement in the box. He was no doubt United’s best player on the pitch, with his runs, and hassles. He showed his physical presence with his ability to shield the ball and hold off defenders on a couple of occasions. It was a bizarre surprise to see him substituted when statistically he had about forty touches before being substituted compared to Van Persie’s seventeen touches in the whole game.
4. Van Gaal tinkering too much - strange substitution: with the game balanced at 1 – 1, Van Gaal took of Falcao who was arguably United best player on the field for Ander Herrera. While Robin Van Persie was having little or no effect on the game. After his substitution, united lacked the strength on attack and didn’t offer much going forward. The fans and Falcao himself were surprised with the substitution. This is not the first time Van Gaal is making such substitution this season.
5. The sorry injury run continues: With Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo , Adnan Januzaj and Daley Blind back, United had only Angel Di Maria and Marouane Fellaini as the team’s main injured absentees. But in the first game of the year, winger turned defender Ashley Young came off injured. Van Gaal confirmed in his post match conference that Young had suffered a hamstring injury. The English man has been in fine form for United and could be out for a month. Fellow wing back Antonio Valencia also missed the game due to injury.
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