After one of the worst weeks in our footballing history; a 4-1 loss to our great rivals Man City, we had to bounce back quickly, starting with our league fixture against West Brom on Saturday. It should have been a fairly straight-forward fixture to build us up for a real test in Ukraine on the Wednesday night against Shakhtar Donestk.
The Saturday did not go as planned. It went almost exactly the opposite. It should have been a simple victory against a mid-table side but instead we fell to a 2-1 defeat. The first goal was an atrocity; Morgan Amalfitano was allowed to carry the ball from inside his own half and then scoop over David De Gea from 8 yards out. Alexander Buttner decided that defending was no longer part of his job as a left-back as he watched Amalfitano jog towards goal from near the West Brom box. Why Buttner even started is beyond me; he looks like a Sunday League player, nowhere near the quality of a Champions League full back. The attempts to stop Amalfitano from our remaining defenders were shoddy at best; Ferdinand stuck a leg out without much effort but that was about it. Rio is normally one of my favourite players but at the moment he is looking every one of his 34 years; slow and sluggish.
We then somehow equalised through a floated free-kick from Wayne Rooney that everybody watched fly into the far corner. Following that, hotshot England Under 21 striker Saido Berahino scored his first Premier League goal with a fine strike to hand the lead back to the West Midlands outfit. This gave West Brom a well-deserved advantage. Marouane Fellaini did manage to get the ball in the net late on only for it to be ruled out correctly for offside. That loss left us with the miserly total of 7 points from 6 games resulting in 12th place in the table.
On Wednesday, we faced a tough Eastern European test against Shakhtar Donetsk. This was always going to be a tough game and there were chances galore for both sides before Danny Welbeck marked his return from injury with a goal 18 minutes in. We were holding on before Brazilian striker Taison snatched an equaliser to earn them a point. All in all, following recent results, I would have taken that point going into the game against tough opposition, at a ground no English team has ever won at.
Our performances need to pick up soon otherwise drastic changes need to be implemented. Players who do not give their all should be replaced by young stars like Adnan Januzaj, Jesse Lingard, Chris Smalling, Wilfred Zaha and Larnell Cole. Playing youngsters worked for Fergie, why not for Moyes? Hopefully it doesn’t get that bad though, although I can’t see us securing any major transfer targets in January again as we appear to be a club on the decline to most potential signings. I can quite easily see us doing a Liverpool and battling for a Europa League spot in years to come, a decline was always on its way as soon as Fegie announced his retirement, no matter who took his place. In Moyes We Trust. Who knows what the future may bring? In the short term hopefully three points against Sunderland.
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