United 3 Everton 0

November 29, 2006

MUCH-CHANGED Manchester United took another stuttering step forward in their bid to land the Barclays Premiership title but the manner of their win over Everton left lingering question marks over the depth of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad.

Cristiano Ronaldo put the Red Devils in front before the break, before Patrice Evra, with his first for the club, and John O'Shea netted to maintain a three-point lead over Chelsea.

But the decisive scoreline could not mask the lacklustre nature of some of United's play and the imbalance in Ferguson's side at the final whistle only emphasised the desperate requirement for striking reinforcements in the January transfer window.

Not that Ferguson will be too bothered, getting the victory he wanted - in a fixture United have not won for the past two seasons - after being able to give some of his key men a rest ahead of Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough and next week's make-or-break Champions League encounter with Benfica.

With the Neville brothers lining up as opposing captains, Wayne Rooney playing against his old club for the first time since Everton manager David Moyes launched legal proceedings against the striker and Ferguson's numerous changes, there were plenty of sub-plots.

One more emerged in the build-up to kick-off as rumours circulated of a bust-up between Ryan Giggs and Ferguson, which was said to have been triggered by the Welshman's contribution to Chelsea's equaliser at Old Trafford on Sunday.

That Giggs did not even get to celebrate his 33rd birthday on the bench only fuelled the gossip, until that is, he emerged in the directors' box, laughing and joking, showing no sign of a recent hairdryer blast.

There was not too much for Giggs to giggle about in the opening stages as United struggled to impose themselves on the contest.

Fortunately, Ronaldo had identified himself as a man the Toffeemen needed to stick to, skimming one long range effort wide before uncharacteristically ballooning a free-kick so high it almost ended up in the second tier of the East Stand.

Deadlock

Rooney was not quite the same threat, although he was just off target with one header before Ronaldo finally broke the deadlock.

In keeping with the contest, it was a single moment of excellence rather than any sustained brilliance which brought the Portugal international his fifth goal of the season.

Having set up Michael Carrick in the first place, Ronaldo was then on hand when the midfielder's shot cannoned back off Nuno Valente, lashing a first-time effort into the corner of Richard Wright's goal.

Given his first start of the season because of the Premier League rules that prevented on-loan Tim Howard appearing against his own club, Wright enjoyed better luck when he kept out a Rooney shot that was heading towards the bottom corner just before half-time.

By then though, Everton should have been level but James Beattie inexplicably failed to control when completely free inside the United box.

Having been somewhat subdued by his own high standards during the opening period, Rooney was at the centre of everything at the start of the second.

His first touch let him down when Michael Carrick lofted a superb pass beyond the Everton defence, then he skied a volley over from Gary Neville's cross.

Rooney's next involvement with a Neville saw him beating the ground in anger at referee Mark Halsey's failure to punish Phil's forceful tackle with a free-kick.

The 21-year-old was still seething when Evra was booked for bringing down Mikel Arteta and quickly jogged over to offer his thoughts.

His presence brought an instant reaction from the Everton fans. Rooney's response to the predictable abuse was to turn in their direction and kiss the badge on his red United shirt.

The move sent the decibel levels soaring and, with the atmosphere between the supporters getting increasingly venomous, it needed something to get minds focused on the game again.

It duly arrived after 62 minutes when Evra sprang the Everton offside trap, racing onto Rooney's lay-off before drilling his first Red Devils goal through Wright's legs.

The goal killed Everton off long before O'Shea's audacious flick brought United their third.

But the sight of Rio Ferdinand limping towards the tunnel after the final whistle, coupled with the knowledge Wes Brown and Evra had finished the game in midfield, will do little to dispel genuine fears about United's ability to keep their noses in front of Chelsea until next spring.

What dd you think of United's performance against Everton? Have your say.

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Loyal to the End (30 years, City Fans, 30 years..), Malaysia (29/11/2006 at 23:16)

I felt this article was a bit harsh, of course we d bring brown and heinze on instead of scholes and saha, we didnt need to bring in the big guns being 2-0 up!! Must admit I got a scare though when I saw the starting line-up, on an unluckier day, we could ve easily drawn or lost.. Rooney's badge-kissing act was a neat move but one that hardly holds any value considering a few years ago he was kissing a badge of a different colour!! I hope that sends out a clear signal to everyone in the English game.. "Once a Blue, Anytime a Red", and that includes SWP..

NYXMC, New York (29/11/2006 at 23:18)

Scrappy game, but three points, and an extra two goal advantage over Chelsea. I was pretty horrified by the team sheet, but no complaints over the result. The whipping boys, Fletch, O'Shea, and Richardson, all did a good job. Best start to the season ever. Next: revenge against Boro.

Johnno, Sydney, ex-Ch Hill (29/11/2006 at 23:30)

A win is a win, but as the article states it is more than clear we need reinforcements, mostly in midfield but also in attack. We need that tackler in midfield, a winger to back up Ronaldo and/or Giggs and another striker, hopefully someone along the lines of Torres. I have no doubt if we reinforce our lines in the window in at these three areas, and also have Park, Solsjkaer adn Smith return from injury plus Bardsley, mayeb even Rossi return from loan spells then our squad will have enough verve to carry on and finish strongly and we will be crowned Champions again.

colin, canada (29/11/2006 at 23:31)

Does Fergie not get any credit for fielding a team that beat a top 10 team 3-0?
Giggs, Scholes and Saha all rested along with Vidic so good job all in all. Hope Rio's ok.
Another excellent effort from the much maligned Fletcher.

Ahsan, manchester (30/11/2006 at 00:28)

I dnt kno wat match he was watchin but a win is a win is a win. We arnt cheski and i dnt want us to be. yes our squad need a lil re-enforcement but cmon the boys who came on tonite did what they were asked to do and that was to get 3 points. forget abt any players who arnt here or we seem to be gettin in jan cos the boys who are here need our 100% support. The prem title has been on loan for too long time to bring it back home.

michael, london (30/11/2006 at 01:07)

A good win but a below par performance which should not be masked by the scoreline but we should not forgat that it was a much changed team a it is the result that counts.

TMUF, Manchester (30/11/2006 at 01:08)

It wouldnt surprise me if most would complain bout the performane but at the end of the day, nothing can be done till January. It was a great RESULT especially with valuable rest 2many of our players and they were all good goals. I no NOONE likes O'shea but I hope most can appreciate it was a good finish. Other then that January couldnt come sooner. Come on Arsenal...in their next game. Hope they can produce more performances like tonight after that. What a poor league with 2 teams so far away from the rest, still keeps it exciting for the like of Bolton and Portsmouth

clive, australia (30/11/2006 at 01:41)

Where do you get off, United win 3 to nil and you still say not good enough, god preserve us from arm chair critics, nothing is ever good enough!

Dean, Blackpool (30/11/2006 at 02:18)

Not the greatest of games but we still played more exciting stuff than chelski, Most importantly we got the three points and move on without anymore injury problems, And with park and 20Legend training again a little more depth is returning to our squad.

Bitter red, London (30/11/2006 at 03:01)

I fear that at the forthcoming derby match(not fulham,but man city,though not round our way),3000 or so City fans will easily out sing 70,000 Utd fans.But we will still focus on the quality of our prawn sandwiches,of this I have no doubt.

Crumpsall Man, USA (30/11/2006 at 03:10)

In the Chelsea match, what are they refering to about "Giggs contribution to the Chelsea equalizer"?? I don't have access to a replay?

Thanx

envious and bitter red, Surrey (30/11/2006 at 03:16)

At least I have my prawn sandwich with corporate sauce.Hhmmmmm ...g..rreat.Any chance of a monster trucks fest at McTraffords any time soon guys?That would be sssooo cool.

Aussie Dave, Sydney (30/11/2006 at 05:11)

Hopefully I am first on before any moaning starts. I know that we need additional resources, but well done to the lads for grafting the win.

Positives for me were Nev and Ronaldo along with Rio had really good games. Evra was lively and scored. JOS showed spirit, albeit at a snaills pace, and scored. Another goal for Ronaldo, we really have a lot of scorers this year.

Negatives for me were Silvestre, who I did not think was terrible but keeps playing back to VDS. Predictable play.
KR tried hard all game and had a few flashes of reasonable play but was muscled off the ball too often. I now reckon we can do without him but I think JOS should stay.
Forward Plan. By beating Boro, with whateve side SAF puts out we keep the pressure on Chelsea to not lose games. Then, a win against Benfica with our best, fit side takes the CL pressure off us until early next year.

After that, we should be ready to play City, but with a strong pep talk before hand and perhaps review our recent losses to them to pick out the moments that cost us in these derby games.

And finally, I think the Evra/Heinze selection dilemna is getting harder to decide. Evra scored and is better going forward, but Gaby takes no prisoners so I think who the oppposition is will determine who plays
Nearly Christmas. What will 'SAFta' Claus bring us for the new year? One striker striking,
two midfielders marshalling and recall all our good loanees!

You know the tune

Davey Boy, Kuwait (30/11/2006 at 05:34)

Anyone else have the Copenhagen/Southend feeling upon seeing that line up....really no point harping on about the distinct lack of quality in the squad as it really is getting boring now!
Not sure how we managed to win 3-0 but there you go I guess last season we would have dropped points last night with that sort of performance! MOM Rio can't really give it to anyone alse...although not stretched was solid and didn't put a foot wrong, yet again another chance for fringe players to shine and yet again words fail me! Carrick missed his partner and there is something not quite right with my favourite rooney he is definitely missing something, I believe in trying to curb his temper he has lost that explosive nasty edge....I am totally baffled this is not the player I watched last season!
Anyway the glazers were there last night maybe they have brought the cheque book ....and please SAF do not try this lineup next week or at the council house thankfully everton were pants also!

Thomas, Norway (30/11/2006 at 07:26)

I liked the idea of playing Brown in the midfield. He could be have that holding role in there instead of splashing alot of cash on a new one, like Hargreaves. Instead we could put more money in a striker and a flanker. Brown is a decent player with good tackling abilities.

Alias Smith, over the moon (30/11/2006 at 07:28)

No doubt there will be complaints about tinkering and it can't be denied that Fergie made more changes than he needed to. However, when you here his explanation for that, you can see the logic of it even if we don't like it very much. Scholes, Giggs, Saha, Vidic all given the night off and we still managed a comfortable win. Can't be bad. Biggest disappointment for me last night was Bolton's failure to get a result.

Frank, Old Trafford (30/11/2006 at 07:38)

First of all, Phew! And secondly, Pheeew!!It was risky but it paid off, let's hope we don't see that too often. the fact that we finished with 7 defenders on the pitch surely reiterates the need for at least 2 midfielders in Jan. Ole and smith are back in training, without Saha we scored 3, surely midfielders have to be the priority!

T, Lancs (30/11/2006 at 08:17)

A little harsh, Everton played well, but they were kept at arms length. Some of our play was sloppy at times, but industrious nevertheless

Gaz, North Stand (30/11/2006 at 08:20)

Was really scared when i heard the team last night a midfield of fletcher, o'shea, carrick and richardson looked like a disaster waiting to happen add on top of that silvestre for some bizare reason is getting the nod in front of brown and it looked like we would really struggle to win and to be fair even though it looks like we walked it on paper we did struggle. The pace, movement and passing that we have been playing with all season was not there as the midfield sqaundered possesion time after time and gave rooney and ronaldo little to feed on but when we did get the break we never looked in serious danger of losing even though silvestre had his ussual few lapses including ducking out of a header and inexplicably letting the ball drop in his own penalty area. Evra put in another good performance though and deserved his goal but if the team that started the game looked strange the one that finished it was surreal with seven defenders three of which were playing in midfield, two midfielders and a striker making up a strange patchwork of a team.

Khaled Mahmood, Bangladesh (30/11/2006 at 08:24)

Khaled was correct AGAIN!. I predicted Kieran Superstarchardson, Oshea and The SCottish Player would start. I also predicted they would all be RUBBISH, and they were. If ever a team was pathetic and won 3-0 it was last night. Ofshea was hopeless, Fletcher worse and Richardson rank. If we give these second rate, substandard, notgoodenoughforUnited players a game away at Boro, our title challenge is over. The team had no pace no cohesion, not enough quality and a finishing central midfield of Brown and Oshea. Everton never had a better chance to win at OT, but they were even worse than us, and thats the only thing that saved us.

Pedro, Espa¿¿a (30/11/2006 at 08:33)

Bad performance if we want to win the title.

The reason of that, we have a short squad.

We need another striker, for example Rossi.

IDDY M, TANZANIA (30/11/2006 at 08:52)

UTD PLAYED WELL DURING THE GAME,THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO WIN AS THEY DO,ALTHOUGH THE PROBLEM WAS IN FINISHING,THEIR SRTIKERS HAS TO WATCH OUT IN THE COMING MIDDLE GAME

barry, manchester (30/11/2006 at 09:01)

when will fergie realise that darren fletcher is not even good enough to play in a sunday league team!!

bobbydazzler, lowton (30/11/2006 at 09:16)

The game last night was an absoloute joke, and we beat the worst team to play at ot this season, at one stage we had 3 current left backs and 2 other players who had played left back all on the pitch at the same time. The midfield quartet who started the game last night was probably the most inept i have had the displeasure to see for many a long year at united.Just when carrick was starting to win some of the doubters over he is stuck with the 3 stooges and at times he was dragged down to their level thankfully as the game progressed he rose above the dross and normal service was resumed credit to the lad big time.This was an absoloutley awful game to attend and i hope its the last i have to endure this season. Ok we won and we deserved to but we should not have to witness such a poor standard of play.

bobbydazzler, lowton (30/11/2006 at 09:25)

michael london i will give you 115 reasons why last night was not good enough, thats what it cost me in pounds last night to attend the game.I must have a reasonable chance of taking united to our local trading standards office to task for playing a counterfeit team. The performance last night was a shambles.

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