Manchester United secured victory at Swansea without finding top gear at the Liberty Stadium.
Javier Hernandez's early goal proved the match-winner and the Reds stay five points behind leaders Manchester City.
Swansea might have levelled but Scott Sinclair somehow missed his kick with the goal gaping.
Although the Swans enjoyed spells of second-half possession they rarely threatened David de Gea in the United net.
Swansea's brightest moments had come during the early stages of the contest, with wingers Nathan Dyer and Sinclair proving their primary attacking threat with several raids down their respective flanks.
But all the promise of an energetic home start was undone when Rangel's lazy pass gave the ball away to Giggs and the Welshman had little trouble finding Hernandez, who beat Michel Vorm from close range.
The goal briefly rocked the hosts back on their heels but a wonderful jinking run from Dyer, which saw the winger beat Wayne Rooney, Giggs and Patrice Evra along the way, soon had the home crowd on their feet.
And Swansea should have been level after 22 minutes as a deflected shot from Wayne Routledge found Sinclair with the goal at his mercy, but the ex-Chelsea man badly missed his kick and the ball deflected to safety off his standing leg.
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Despite those bright moments Swansea were finding it difficult to get into their usual passing rhythm as United pressed high up the field and penned them in.
The champions' increasing comfort saw Rooney, who excelled playing just off Hernandez, flash a long-range drive wide, while Giggs curled a free-kick narrowly off target.
Hernandez should have doubled the lead to reflect the visitors' superiority right on half-time, but he opted to square the ball after Rooney's wonderful control and weighted pass had put him in on goal.
With United in such a position of control Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers summoned precocious midfield talent Joe Allen, who was nursing a calf problem, from the bench in place of Routledge in an effort to change the pattern of the game.
And Allen had an instant impact as he teed up Sinclair for a shot that David De Gea tipped round his post.
But United remained dangerous and Hernandez again failed to capitalise on more magic from Rooney as he miscontrolled his strike partner's superb ball towards the six-yard box.
But Swansea had started the second half with more verve and vigour and it took a brave defensive block from Nemanja Vidic to prevent Ashley Williams getting on the end of Garry Monk's goalbound header.
Michael Carrick and Rio Ferdinand blocked on-target efforts from Danny Graham and Williams as the hosts continued to push forward in search of a leveller.
But having weathered that brief storm United took a stranglehold on possession, with Carrick's assuredness on the ball taking the sting out of Swansea's attacking ambitions.
Rooney had a chance to cap a fine individual display late on but chipped over the bar after getting a lucky ricochet from a Williams block, before Phil Jones clipped the post and Nani fired wide as time ran out.
What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.
We apologise for the lack of pictures from the game. This is due to technical problems.
Swansea 0 Manchester United 1
November 19, 2011
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Another good defensive performance.. But NANI is out of form..
Good game at a good pace. I detected some improvement but still not the stuff of champions. Rooney was the best one out there for me and both sides could have used a bit more luck.
Once again, we score an early goal, and then we are as exciting as watching paint dry. One-nil seems to be the target every time we go out. There are no less than four of our “senior leadership” on this team that should seriously consider giving their entire paycheck to charity for the (lack of) effort they showed on the pitch today. On the other hand, there were a couple of pleasant surprises today, with the biggest being Carrick, who was very good holding and going forward, which he has never impressed me with. Please, hurry back, Tom and Ashley. This team needs your spark and creativity.
To think people paid money to watch that Rubbish,same old story same old culprits,just nothing there I thought we had wingers Giggs hopeless Where was Berbatov? Jones is a revelation but you know how low we have sunk when he beings on Fletcher.
Or simplyput: Swansea were crap and United were too..
Oh boy another one - nil game and against Swansea, another win, another three points and another clean sheet. This is beyond doubt the worst team in the universe.
Thats it , I'm jumping!!!!
See ya all,
r7
I agree with TimmyB, Carrick played well.
r7
I'm going to have lunch then I'm jumping....
A competent performance. Won't get the adrenalin flowing, but that's not important right now. We looked OK, but I still cannot understand why we need to invite the opposition onto us. We can keep the ball without doing that. Should have scored at least one more.
Carrick was my MoM. This will be a very unpopular opinion, but I think we've looked better with him in the midfield. There were a couple of fantastic blocks during Swansea's period of dominance which stood out for me.
Jones was very good. Vidic was at his best and Giggs had a good game as well. So did Chicharito.
By his very high standards, I thought Wayne Rooney had a poor game. Made the wrong decision a number of times; it was a bit like watching Nani before he started showing up. Which is funny, because Nani was poor as well. To be fair to him, he had a strong latter part of the second half, but sometimes his ball control is disappointing.
Another clean sheet for De Gea. Nice to see him come out for those balls coming in. He's certainly improved, as most of us expected.
Onwards and upwards.
watched the first half, couldn't bear to watch the second. 3 points is 3 points but from an entertainment perspective the only word I can think of is YAWN! Same old same old, slow, plodding, methodical, no creativity. I'm afraid the team that started the year for United was not the real deal. you have to long for the days of keane,Beckham,scholes, cantona Giggs in their youth and prime, think i'll go on YouTube or dig out some old DVD's to remind myself of how United used to play. And all this from the richest sports franchise in the world.............SAD!!
3 points towards the 20th enogh said.
I wonder if we can retain our league with this kind of mediocre CMF players,and time for great scot to see how lesser team gives us top term in the middle of the pack.we're the best club in the world but we have the worsed CMF players.wake up SAF. GGMU.
Still work in progress in the re building of confidence and form. Tricky fixture as Swansea at home are no mugs. The wingers seem afraid of taking people on,Nani elected for many a backward pass instead of taking his full back on and Park is nothing but a clockwork budgie! I would have thought Rooney would have been full of beans after a fortnight's rest but he took it easy,maybe because of the Benfica game.What a pity that young Jones hit the post instead of scoring.I feel that this kid has lots of goals in him. A cautious performance,once again,designed not to lose rather than get a boat load of goals but like I mentioned previously,slowly slowly and keep in touch. We will cut loose again eventually. Not pretty but three points are three points. Keep the faith!
A good defensive display but very poor attacking display, credit to Swansea for their possession play.
Positives im taking from this is its 4 away wins out of 6 with points taken at Stoke away and Liverpool away as well, we only won 5 away games last season so we have certainly improved our away form.
Going against popular sentiments, I liked the game. Rio and Vidic together both playing well just does wonders for my nerves. I thought Carrick played well and Giggs also for about a half. If I were to complain about anything it would be Rooney not being the difference. If he wants to be included in the Ronaldo and Messi discussion, he has to dominant this type of game. Both Ronaldo and Messi scores against Swansea, Rooney seems to be off his game. He has mature enough now that he should be making the difference in every game now.
For our fans who enjoy the Samba-Jubilee type of game I guess that not too much enjoyment was derived from it? Myself, I was enthralled by the whole 90+ minutes. TBH, I would prefer to watch what we usually call ‘the United Type of Play” but there are occasions when the sole object of the match is to gain three precious points, and today was one of those instances.
SAF chose a team with excellent tactics that were spot on for this particular game. All the players played their part admirably with not one of them letting their manager down. Perhaps there was one occasion when the plan might have gone wrong, and that is when our Phil completely lost his opposing player in the box, but fortunately that said player made a complete hash of his ‘open goal’ effort! The plus to that incident is that young Phil will definitely learn from that one mistake,
I would offer top plaudits to Michael Carrick, who hardly put a foot wrong. I wonder how many other fellow fans noticed his superb performance. This guy, with a few exceptions, receives far too much criticism for doing EXACTLY what his manager wants him to do. Good and solid displays by our veteran centre backs, and speaking of veterans – thanks once again, Giggsy.
I believe that we will play in a far different manner next Tuesday and Saturday and I look forward to both games, I am suffering from a throat infection at the moment so I hope it clears up enough for those two dates? Actually, fans who sit near me perhaps wish it would get worse!?
A two word summary of today’s game - mission accomplished!
United ‘til I die!
Nothing worth talking about in this match . May be one PLUS point was Carrick playing well and Evans staying away from the team . I still can not see why Berbatov is not used specially in a match like this . Hernandez can finish but he has NO skills whatsoever . Nani was hopeless but for once I thought Rooney MEANT not to pass the ball to him when he was in good positions . Would like to see the following team against Benfica . DeGea / Lidegaard . Rafael , Jones / Smalling , Vidic and Evra . Valencia , Rooney , Fletcher and Young . Berbatov and Hernandez .
When did George Graham take over at United! It's like a late 80's time warp to the chants of "boring boring Arsenal", except it's now boring boring United!!!
3 points, clean sheet. Happy with that! We'll kick in when it counts!
Slightly better (no Fletcher to bring them down to his level!) but a long way short of trophy winning performance.
Center of defence and goalie strong (I am curious as to why SAF has switched Vidic and Rio around), both full backs had tough time but they were against 2 tricky wide men.
Giggs apart from setting the goal up got in the way more than anything, I can't remember another pass to a United player of any meaning. Carrick MOM by a long way.
Parks did a lot of running but achieved nothing, Nani was much more efficient - he achieved the same without the running!!
Rooney a lot of effort but not a lot of success in anything but still needed watching. Chicarito - one ball in six yard box from flanks, one goal - enough said. He did put in a lot of effort but as most seem to agree he needs balls from the flanks into the 6 yaed box to be really effective. like Rooney, though, he needed watching.
Fabio, same problem of jumping in too much but did Ok in short time he was on.
Fletcher made 2 passes that caused defence problems - unfortunately it was the United defence. Tried 2 tackles, lost both and on one occasion ran at the side of Sinclair for about 20 yards - not sure why but you can't have everything. Other than that didn't do much right or wrong but there again he was only on for 10 minutes (being saved for tuesday no doubt).
Nani was my biggest disappointment, he is just way too inconsistant. frankly, although he can be the best United have, if someone was to offer 20 miilionplus for him I would do a 2 for1 with Fletcher and sell him. One good game in every 5 or 6 doesn't cut it to me and unfortunately he doesn't seem to have a middle ground - he's either very good or a waste of time.
Is it me or are we expecting too much from people who are earning between 80 -150,000 per week?
Now let's wait for 3 points brigade.
Desperate Play.Manchester no midfield, Carrick, the game as a monument in the park and Fletcher.JS Park is the worst thing in Manchester, the Defense De Gea OK Vidic and Ferdinand have jones.Realno worst midfield in EPL.Bolje to play Pogba and Morrison, but Carrick Fletcher Park .. they are already geniuses for this navedene.Hitno to sell Evans, Owen, a Carick, Park, Fletcher, Gibson, MB Diuf, Berbatov, Kuzchak, insert Zakiya young, Pogbu, Morrison
Ratings
De Gea 7
Vidic and Rio 7
Jones 6
Carrick 1
Giggs 5
Park 0.0001
Nani 5
Rooney 5
Cica 6
Another poor performance and 3 more pts. Can almost smell the Brasso !!!!
We never looked liked losing but also never looked like scoring more than 1.
Thought the back 4 was solid and that they got good cover from Carrick. That said the midfield and attack were awful. Nani is totally out of sorts at present and apart from laying on the goal, time is now calling on Giggs I'm afraid. Until we get a proper replacement for Scholes our best hope of rediscovering the early season form is for Carrick and Fletcher to keep things tight in midfield with Rooney playing just behind Hernandez and hoping that we can produce some dynamic wing play on both flanks, which is where we should not be short.
Carrick Uniteds best player today, showed he belongs in this team, pity Cleverley can't join him until next year.
Fergie closing in on the selection, will be nice to get Young in for Park though.
And I would like to see Valencia get the nod ahead of Nani, at least based on Nani's early season form.
And off course I would like to see Berbatov get a sniff.
Jones not tops today, but he is the future and will always have my backing.
I think from now on the team will improve, now as Fergie is starting to listen ;)
Is it me or is Nani just going through the motions? What happened to the menacing attack he brought to the corner of the penalty box? Like the attack in general he has no pop.
I'm praying for the return of inspiration.
OH! my God was'nt that bloody awful were getting worse,That mid-field played atrocious,Cant Chico see when he's offside he needs lessons, and the rest need lessons in passing..