24 Oct 2013 01:57:58
I actually thought we played brilliantly tonight. We were unlucky not to have been 3-0 up by half time, and could have scored at least another 2 in the second half.

Im going to go through the team and rate them what I would rate them out of 10.

De Gea
Even though he didn't have much to do, he was alert when called upon, and inspired confidence in goal. 7/10

Rafeal
He was very good defensively tonight, his close control and first touch let him down a bit tonight, but its not long since he came back from injury so I would say again 7/10

Evans
Excellent tonight our best defender by far, he inspires confidence and has become braver and more willing to get stuck in recently. 8/10

Jones
Solid and did what needed to be done, not spectacular but didn't let us down either. 6/10

Evra
Did well tonight, always a threat going forward, and even though caught out of position a few times, it seemed like he was more willing to get back. 7/10

Valencia
First half was brilliant, he was constantly giving their fullback problems, not sure what happened second half he seemed to have dropped back a bit, and all our attacks were focused down the left through Kagawa. Anyway a solid 7/10

Carrick was awesome all night, and time and time again showed why he's our most consistent player. His reading of the game is outstanding and his technical ability is widely underestimated. 8/10

Giggs
He was unbelievable tonight, and if he could play like that for the rest of the season, then we could easily make it through till the summer without another midfielder. 9/10

Rooney and Kagawas link up play was outstanding, the way they terrorized the sociadad defence time after time was fantastic. There close quaters interplay was breathtaking at times. If there combined finishing was better then we would have killed the game off by half time. Both 8/10

Hernandez played well, I think his passing and build up play was better than RVPs this season so far, and he made a big difference up front. Even though he didn't score, his work rate and overall play made up for it. 7/10

1.) 24 Oct 2013
Wow I thought I had rose tinted glasses, we were good, better than Saturday and seemed to be focused on attack a lot more, but we were still overrun in midfield at times and the game was wide open. I thought giggs played well but Rooney and kagawa were a class above him last night and kagawa showed when he cut inside that he should be playing in a 4-2-3-1 and not as an out and out winger.

2.) 24 Oct 2013
Jase - I thought Jones played very well indeed, he and Evans looked quality together.

I know the commentators were having a Carrick & Giggs love-in as usual, but I think that they were average at best. Yes there were a few nice touches and a couple of runs forward from Giggs (it's still more than we are used to from our CM but how bad is that), but they gave the ball away loads. They looked weak in any challenge and they were playing against very poor opposition. They couldn't turn and were saved by Jones 7 Evans on countless occasions. If Rio and Vidic were back there is would have been even more blatant how poor they were in the midfield. I honestly think against any prem team we would get destroyed in the centre of midfield the way those two played last night.

Hernandez did very little again, he hasn't the touch/pass that is needed and yet again he is nowhere near the pull backs in the box, he isn't there poaching goals and if he is close he always misses by a small amount to make contact. I don't know what he gives us to be honest, anyway one can chase down a goalkeeper.

I agree with the rest of your synopsis. Swap Hernandez for RVP, Valencia for Juanjuz. Then replace Giggs with Clevs/Anderson and we have our best team until the end of the season for me.

3.) 24 Oct 2013
We were better last night for sure. I do admire your positive outlook, but I think you use words like "unbelievable", "breathtaking" and "brilliant" a little too loosely. Just my opinion anyway.

4.) 24 Oct 2013
Janusaj for Valencia is a defensive compromise and not sure always the best way to go.

5.) 24 Oct 2013
OK guys maybe I was looking too much on the bright side. Maybe I am a little blinded by my love for the club, but come on guys.
GDS2 you say we were overrun in midfield at times and the game was wide open. So that one clear chance that Sociadad created all night must be what your referring to? I can't really remember another time where the managed to bypass Carrick in midfield and actually played football in our half. The first half we absolutely played them off the park, then the second half they came at us a bit more, but we nullified them and countered extremely well, and created chance after chance. As I said in the OP, we were unlucky not to have won by at least 3-0.
Sween you say they gave the ball away loads. I personally can't remember either midfielders being inefficient with the ball at all. In fact I think Giggs pass completion was at 87%, and the amount of times all of our midfield tracked back to win the ball back (even kagawa), and the amount of interceptions they made showed real determination last night.
Betty, just my opinion but Giggs at nearly 40 years old playing a full CL game at the level he did last night was unbelievable. And yes compared to what we've seen recently Kagawas link up play with Rooney I would describe as breathtaking at times.
Anyway maybe I am wearing my Manchester United goggles, but at least i'm staying positive and will not panic depsite what gets written on here most days.

6.) 24 Oct 2013
Not sure what game u were watching but last night was another average performance.
evra, rafael, valencia (after 1st 10mins) were poor. giggs was ok but he is 40 so not going to slate him. Carrick doesn't create anything, all passes are back or to the side.
rooney/evans/ddg were good.
kagawa still don't know where the love-in for him comes from on this site. misses 2 easy chances, caught in possession, easily pushed off the ball and gives the ball away. not what I call a world class player.
also real were crap

7.) 24 Oct 2013
Jase,
Don't worry mate, I'm only bantering with you. I love your positive outlook. Its far better than all the doom and gloom we've been getting recently. Next time though, I think you could squeeze in the odd "amazing" or "sensational". lol

8.) 24 Oct 2013
Jase - Stats lie. Do ineffective flicks, half hearted interception attempts, half tackles, count as passes? The two of them were very static, especially when defending as usual. 87% pass completion, what does that mean? If I made 87 passes to my mate Carrick no more than 5 yards in the space of 20 minutes, then made 13 punishable poor errors, it's pretty appalling if you ask me. Especially considering how much time he had and how much movement was happening in front of him for once.

Another little stat is the old, worked hard "he ran 11km, team average 10km". Doesn't the keeper count toward that team average, thus bringing down the figure by 10% ish - again pretty persuasive otherwise!

I'm not saying we weren't very good. We were far better than against Southampton, but we weren't playing Southampton. We were playing a very poor, inexperienced Spanish team - I genuinely don't think the news of our fall from grace had reached them in the Basque Country, so they came out with the fear we used to see in most teams pre 2012 - that is the key difference!

9.) 24 Oct 2013
Jase,

I admire the positivity mate, it is something that is lacking from a lot of posts on here who seem to forget that supporting a football team is a hobby and should be enjoyed win, lose or draw.

We were overrun at times, just because they didn't create a chance, the game was wide open at times. I have posted above that maybe this was deliberate as we had scouted Sociedad and knew they would not cause us too many problems, so making the game stretched and open allowed us to get in behind them more often.

Giggs played well, think that has been agreed on here, and we definitely could have won 3-0 maybe more and I think we will on Saturday, I just felt Kagawa and Rooney were a class above the rest and therefore should have had higher marks out of 10 (marks out of 10 is a bit of a flawed system anyway).

Great to see some positivity though mate and in good English, you should post more often.

10.) 24 Oct 2013
Betty ill certainly try next time ill bear those words in mind lol.
GDS2 thanks pal, I've noticed recently youve been one of the few posters on here who have showed some positivity too, and its good to see. i'm very bored of all the negativity and we need to combat it with a bit of positivity. As I said I may be wearing my united goggles, but I refuse to be drawn into the negativity.

11.) 25 Oct 2013
Non-sense. Only players I thought they were at close to Utd standards were Smalling, Giggs, Rooney, Kagawa, De Gea and Evans.

Carrick, Raphael, loose and seemed not focused at all. Hernandez seemed weak to keep the ball, Valencia slowed down the pace. With his form in old days would have actually delivered critical crosses and chances. Jones didn't look comfi on the ball. Evra was defensively ok, actually stopped couple of critical counter, but crosses were just aweful. it's better to pass back, at least keep the bloody ball possession for a better chance.