soccer

Chelsea, United pick up wins in Premier League

6 Comments
By STEVE DOUGLAS

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6 Comments
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Every side beneath Southampton, 11 of them, could get relegated. The teams in the top 7 are beating them almost without fail. The gap between the top teams and the rest who are equally poor isn't healthy. I've seen too many games this season where the top teams have beaten the rest at a canter.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

David Moyes! Give us a smile!

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United won this one despite Moyes, again. We had a dismal first half with something like two whole attempts on goal because why? Moyes the genius yet again starts Januzaj, a budding/talented winger who's good on his left foot but not good enough to be up top with a lazy Welbeck who tends to hang back, in center forward and starts Kagawa, a proven two-footed #10 and the only one really with the requisite creativity in yesterday's starting XI, on the left side. Why? Why? Why? I don't know if Moyes came to his senses during the break or someone clued him in but the second half started with Kagawa as CF and Januzaj as LF and lo and behold we have two goals in the first fifteen minutes with many closely missed opportunities in the rest of the half. It urks me to no end that I've seen this mid-match change written up this morning by some as a clever tactical move on Moyes' part when anyone with half a brain would have started Kagawa and Januzaj in their proper positions to begin with. He keeps doing this, playing Kagawa out of position if he plays him at all, then says that he still needs to prove himself for the squad. Then start him for heavens sake David and play him where he's best! My biggest gripe with Moyes is that he's utterly failed to employ Kagawa properly despite him being the most valuable addition last season after van Persie. It's like he's never heard of Kagawa and knew nothing of his capabilities until he came to United as the manager, which is ridiculous. Moyes' substitutions for this match also made no sense as usual. He took out Evra, who was doing fine, and replaced him with Buttner at 79', effectively creating a hole in the LB position before going on the attack with a change in strikers. And he has no sense of what his selections of, or failure to select, certain players are doing to their form and morale. What's the logic behind throwing Chicharito in at 85' minutes when we're up two nil? If he wants to go for additional goals to clinch the victory, which is certainly Chicharito's forte, then he needs to put him in earlier, around 65'-70', to give him time to get into the match and increase his chances of actually making a contribution instead of throwing him with barely enough time left on the clock to get a handful of touches on the ball. All he's assured by that move was another goal-less match for Chicharito and a continuation of his off-form streak due to inadequate playing time. I walked home from the pub this morning happy for the three points and the (rare) clean sheet but still feeling frustrated as hell at the manager and partly regretting that a loss would have been another nail in his coffin and perhaps a step closer to his replacement.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@Jimizo

You are right about the gap between the teams in the premier. This is mostly down to finances though, you can buy the league or at worst buy a place in Europe. Give a manager a big pot of dosh and away you go. Not going well, sack the manager, pay him off and get another. There are too many fans and not enough supporters now who follow a club because they think they are entitled to be part of the winning team. People like to feel like that, it's modern human nature, makes them feel like a winner and when things go sour they cannot cope. Just look at many Man Utd "fans" this season, many going into meltdown as if the club has gone into admin and is bottom of the league, laughable.

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@USN 'It's like he's never heard of Kagawa' It seems more like he doesn't rate him. By his own admission, Kagawa didn't set the Premiership alight last season. Man U need to spend serious cash on players of the quality of Hazard, Silva or Ozil to be challenging for the title. I like Kagawa and think he's decent but Man U need better.

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playing Kagawa in the right position occasionally would be a step in the right direction for Mr Moyes and then replacing some of the dead wood with better playerswould help , then who knows we might actually start looking like we can play foot ball again. Yes we won yesterday but when we are losing we are not even making a game of it as a long time supporter l am used to us losing matches but it does really gall when we are not even competing at times .

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