A great win against a very poor Man Utd. Lost the €20 bet on my 11pts or less for season. No worries, it's a gamble. Shame about all the empty seats in the home sections. Can we build on this win? Let's hope so.
Ok, we got lucky we played the OGS United, but the way we outplayed them for large parts of the match, is highly encouraging. That first was about as perfect as you could get, if you ignore the penalty misses. Second half was always going to be tougher, and Ronnie caused us some problems. During that period we did ride our luck, but we deserved it. It's Man Utd after all. How much did they spend putting that team together? Before today I was convinced we'd improve under Ranieri, but I didn't think we'd have enough about us to stay up. After seeing how good we can be, we certainly do have a have enough. More than enough. I've seen how potent our forward line can be against Villa, Norwich, Everton and now United. We have a lot of firepower, but we don't see it often enough over a string of consecutive games. It just pops up every now and then. I give Ranieri a free hit against Liverpool, but we played well at Everton which included that amazing finale. Very poor at home to Southampton, improved at Arsenal and were right on it today. So there's a lot more good than bad to consider, and these are progressive steps forward. Nkoulou does make a big difference in the heart of the defence. The two full backs had very good games, although Masina got away with giving away a penalty by an offside decision. He's got to cut out that reckless side of his game. Dennis was amazing. He's an incredible player. Runs for fun, always positive, chases lost causes and has pace and skill. A lot of credit must go to the club for signing him for only £3.6m. That's just bonkers. He could well turn out to be one of the Pozzo's best ever signings. Sarr......hmmm......I was bloody frustrated with him, and his poor form continues. No way should he be taking penalties and hopefully King or someone else will get a chance now. But, his goal was a great strike. He's such a confidence player. Sad to see him limp off though, as even an off form Sarr, makes an impact. I hope his injury is not a bad one. Foster, so pleased for him. As a lot of fans were giving him underserved stick (IMO), but he had some really important saves at crucial times. Had that Ronaldo 1 v 1 gone in, we probably would be having a different story of how we threw away a 2 goal lead and missed opportunities. Everyone played a part today. There were no lame ducks. Louza was terrific in the first half. I can see why we signed him. Great quality on the ball and can spot a pass. I think we'll be using him a lot more from now on. King really runs the channels well and is another who chases a lot of lost causes. He's a very good striker, although missed an easy header today. Cleverley was everywhere today, and his energy really set the tempo early on. Today is the type of game which reminds you why you go to matches. An unexpected slaying of a giant. It's what makes it all worthwhile.
I’ve only seen one instance of a goal being disallowed for encroachment - actually during this old obscure game down in the depths of League 1 I mentioned recently (go to 8:16). But it’s not clear which player is committing the encroachment.
That’s not very ladylike of them, or do you mean their dads like the obnoxious over-competitive ones you get at kids’ matches?
Newcastle was a bit of an outlier in that in one game we saw both the good and bad (largely the latter, bearing in mind Newcastle are bottom and have the joint worst defence) of our attacking play. In the first half in particular we barely created anything after a bright start and they were still able to attack us with embarrassing frequency. Sarr’s goal came after we belatedly managed to put them under sustained pressure and we nearly undeservedly won as a result.
I agree with all that you said about Big Ben except the bit about RIGHTLY GIVING HIM STICK!!! He's actually been mostly very good on the pitch all season and has only been getting stick from some because of his off pitch activities.
Fabrizio Romano is a noted journalist with a proven track record of reporting/confirming football news - he's reporting this, and it's simultaneously been reported by The Athletic's Laurie Whitwell and Adam Crafton.
Not true in the slightest, but it's good that he played well and avoided his customary howler today - long may it continue!
What I make of it is that every time we don't lose the oppositions manager has a 4 out of 5 chance of being sacked in the coming weeks! Villa, Norwich, Newcastle, and now Man U, Rafa Benitez is a worried Man!
The Femenia encroachment incident was just bizarre, obviously we have VAR now which can spot these things, but when was the last time we saw someone get pulled up for that? That said, once the goal did get chalked off, it's wild that we got to take the penalty again, surely the defending side should have a free kick or something?
I don't know this, I am only guessing but in his early days when he was introduced into the first team as a 17 year old under Dave Bassett, he received some of the most vile & twisted abuse from a section of the crowd. He was a kid coming into a team playing awful football and losing every week. Maybe he remembers this?
Good luck, I hope you are able to take it easy and enjoy Saturday afternoons (or whenever we happen to be playing) and continue to enlighten us with your Vic memories!
I believe it's because VAR also spotted encroachment by Man Utd Players in the area too. They may even have declared two Utd players had a foot in the box
It was a great honour to be in the presence of arguably the GOAT Ronaldo.... ...as he whined and cried throughout the match about how those nasty big boys from Watford didn't let him score and kept taking the ball off him. Poor baby.
