Reflecting several hours later however, I am still heartened that we could go at the team that are on the verge of cantering to the league title, and making them look utterly, utterly ordinary. All this season I've been hearing about how their back 4 have been awesome, but we made Evra and Vidic look absolutely terrible.
When the dust finally settles, however, this is exactly the kind of game that tells us about where we are and what we need to do next to bring the title back home.
One thing we definitely need is to get on the training field and put in day after day practising corners. Our set piece delivery has been woeful for far too long now, and in the end today it added up to the difference between the two sides. With the height we've got in the side, we should be good for a goal every other game from corners, but it just doesn't look like happening.
Perfect example: we had 12 corners today to Man U's 2, but we didn't look remotely threatening with any of them. At the death, with the ref allowing time for 1 more corner before blowing for full time, Aurelio didn't even clear their man on the near post. If the shoe had have been on the other foot, I bet Man U would have at least made Reina work to keep us out of the game.
Similarly, we each had a dead ball from the edge of the opposing box. To be fair, Riise couldn't have hit his better. However, they had one from our right back position, and they made it count.
THAT is why they're going to be champions. Getting a sniff and taking it. They're well drilled into making things happen when they seemingly have no right to, and unfortunately that's where we're falling short.
The good news is that we clearly have players that are capable of making these things happen. Quite why they're not making use of set-pieces as a valuable resource I just can't understand.
The left still looks like a problem position, although I thought Gonzalez had one of his brighter halves for us in the first 45. Would have loved to have seen him go at Neville though, instead of constantly trying to string together one-twos to get him into space near the byline. Someone needs to take him to one side and explain that he's no good to us unless he's dominating the full back. He's clearly got energy to burn that he's not tapping into, and every time you see him retreat with the ball you pine for a fit Kewell.
On the right we got joy all afternoon however, and Gerrard and Bellamy were beating Evra for fun. Pennant for Bellamy was a terrible substitution however, and we looked a lot less dynamic without him. Gerrard needs to do his work further up the field however - in recent games he almost looks like he doesn't trust himself to attack at times. In the long run I think we need another signing here, but for now Stevie just needs to watch tapes of himself in that position from this time last year.
Defensively I thought we were excellent today, and even Riise emerged with credit to that end against one of his biggest tests of the season in Ronaldo. He's still not bossing the position in the same way Finnan does, and now that Aurelio's back I think Rafa may bench him at some point.
The central mid question still comes up whenever we see a poor Sissoko performance. It was Alonso that bossed the midfield today, but now that Mascherano's at the club, I think the question of whether Sissoko should start is one that can be resolved by switching him out like for like with the Argentinian as opposed to constantly moving Gerrard around.
And finally we come to the strikers. Bellamy was excellent, Kuyt worked hard, and Crouch always seemed involved whenever we were marauding towards the Man U box. All for naught though. I don't think there's anyone on the board here that doesn't think we're going to spend big on a striker in summer now, and today was a plain-as-day illustration of why it simply has to happen.
It all added up to 90 minutes of an incredibly enjoyable display of the team I love crushing our fiercest rivals all over the pitch. Unfortunately, with 4 minutes of absolute agony tagged on the end as a PS, reminding us that however good we played, we don't look like champions yet.
In short, three signings can bring us the title next season. In the meantime, we really need to get those f*cking corners sorted out.
Walk on, red men and women. It was a defeat that will be avenged, all in good time.
Barcelona - we've got a point to prove, and you have my condolences that you're going to suffer as a result.
off about the result but we have to be able to finish games if we have any chance next year of landing the title,man utd in tru champs style sneaked one and we need to be able to do that aswell,we need to be able to sneak games that are not ours if we want to win the league.We must be able to turn our possesion into goals and our domination into goals,which we didnt do,and we were punished.
