Jan 05
Aston Villa 0-2 Manchester United: Ronaldo and Rooney complete a late win
Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney (latching on to a rebound from a Ronaldo shot at goal) in the last 10 minutes saw Manchester United win their 3rd FA Cup tie against Aston Villa.
Good to see United win (as always) and there’s no reason to complain, but this was one of those days where United played averagely and still got through thanks to Ronaldo. The defending was good, not that Aston Villa threatened much (at least not in the second half, where they mounted a siege but rarely troubled the goalkeeper) and with Fabio Capello sitting in the stands Wes Brown and Michael Carrick did fairly little to enhance their chances for a long-term England career.
One incident for me, defined the game far more than the goals – it was Carrick’s double-attempt at the Villa goal after he’d broken through (after the first goal, before the second). He shot from some distance and Carson parried it away – Carrick got to the rebound but with time (a second, but that’s time in football) and space on his side, he shot straight at the keeper. If Michael Carrick ever needed a chance to boost his confidence this was it, but nerves got the better of him.
Carrick’s biggest strength is supposed to be his decision-making – it helps him be such a good passer and it helps him play an anchoring role in midfield despite the fact that he rarely tackles. His decision-making has let him down this season, and it let him down in this game as well. That’s not to say that Anderson is automatically a better choice than Carrick, but Carrick has the experience at the top level to pull himself through his rough patch, he needs to do it this season otherwise there’s a chance he could be shipped out (and I’ll miss him more than most).
Other than that – Brown was average but solid, Park was OK considering he had returned after a long time and Saha was average too. Several fouls on Ronaldo that we didn’t get free kicks for, but that’s par for the course.
Your thoughts on the game? Discuss away folks.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Manchester United v Aston Villa Preview – Tougher than it looks
- Aston Villa v Manchester United: Preview/Match thread
- Aston Villa vs Man United: Preview
- PFA Players Shortlist: Where’s Anderson, Rooney and Rio
- Aston Villa v Man Utd: Preview
Tags: Match Reports
January 5th, 2008 at 20:33
Btw, RR is out of town (rumours persist that he’s getting married), so I’m covering today. I’m out of town tomorrow as well
, but you guys will see an article on Monday and hopefully RR will be back by Tuesday to do something. If not, feel free to head over to Scott’s ROM blog and Soccerlens for the latest news.
January 5th, 2008 at 20:35
Glad we’re through, but it was a much less entertaining game than I expected. As always Ronaldo came up with the goods, but this only enhances the idea that we are over-reliant on Rooney and Ronaldo. Even more so regarding Ronney as he is the one who creates more, with Ronaldo being the better finisher. If RR is getting married, then i take it as quite an insult we weren’t invited!
January 5th, 2008 at 20:46
Solid defending by Rio and Vida..that was the highlight of the game! Evra is simply awesome, hes become better at defending than he was last season. Anderson had some exciting runs at the Villa defence but to no avail. His passing and playmaking is unquestionable, but his shots towards the goal are below average! Saha in my opinion did work hard and was impressive with the ball at his feet
January 5th, 2008 at 20:52
Boring game until the last quarter of the game, but thankfully were through. Rooney changed the game. Great finish and what a pass for Ronaldo before the second goal! Villa played well, but again the two R`s proved the difference. The first run from Anderson was amazing, but second he should have passed in the end. Difficult to pick the best player because Rooney came in late, but I though Vidic and Andy was our best players. I understand if u disagree, but it wasnt an easy pick today. Ronaldo seemed to be frustrated and always trying to get a free kick(he should have gotten many!), so he wasnt so good as usual. Great goals though. I hope we meet Man City or West Ham at home next round, because…..I WANT REVENGE!!!!!!
If Red Ranter is gettin married I just have to say: CONGRATULATIONS
January 5th, 2008 at 20:54
saying carrick was poor today would be a complement, anderson had a great game. saha was a bit below average, we looked better when roo came on and made chances with giggs on the wing then we look like a threat when hargo came on and tightend har midfield. carrick needs to improve or go.
January 5th, 2008 at 20:54
when i said evra’s got better at defending, i mean that going forward hes brilliant, but hes a more complete left back this season..
January 5th, 2008 at 21:00
I think Carrick had a decent game. At least he managed to make passes that reached United players! Far away from his best, and lacks confidence. Wonder how he will play when Scholes comes back, cause he seems to need someone that dictates the tempo next to him.
January 5th, 2008 at 21:11
ah yes rr, congrats on the marriage if true, make sure you get a bit of you know what and make the next wayne rooney. speaking of rooney, ive been thinking of the england sitiuation, and i now know england cant win jack until we get players. we’re like the international version of newcastle, in england we have in all honesty 1 star player in rooney(gerrard isnt really that big across the world), compared to a team like spain, where they have torres, puyol, villa, ramos, fabregas. all world stars. portugal, well they have a player who has been quoted the best in the world and other stars. then you have the likes of italy and brazil, where there all fucking stars, i mean, how are we going to defeat teams like brazil when we’re playing players like barry, joe and ashley cole, emile heskey, wayne bridge, david bentley and micheal ‘im fucking shit’ carrick, we need to make stars and fast or we have no chance at the WC.
January 5th, 2008 at 21:18
Was a hard day! Whew
Still I had the feeling we would win;)
The overall performance was low, especially Carrick and Saha.
The striker situation made it even harder.
Saha’s form was frustrating since he couldn’t even hold the ball
and kept losing posession.
With Tevez out, Saha being low my question is when is the Angolan
striker available? If he can’t play this season it would be a good
idea to get somebody through loan.
Anyway a change was desperate and SAF put in
Rooney&Hargreaves and it changed the game.
It’s funny how the product still came through Giggs&Ronaldo:)
Giggsy&Ronaldo didn’t have a good game still they made one good
chance and scored. Guess that’s why they are great players.
Cheers for the team and cheers for RedRanter’s marriage!
January 5th, 2008 at 22:29
We need a striker! I wonder when Manucho will be available to play for us. If we could take Rossi or somone experienced on loan until the summer. Then we sell Saha and buy Berba, Villa or Huntelaar, or whoever Fergie wants. Awful performance from Saha today, just proved he has lost interesse and ability.
January 5th, 2008 at 22:55
Come on…Ronaldo’s dives were pathetic today. I can’t beleive you all thought he should have won a lot of free kicks. Nae chance
January 5th, 2008 at 22:59
Ronaldo looked exhausted today, but he is still valuable and he showed it during the final minutes. Villa played well but they lacked chances because of our solid defence. And Rooney… what a player!
January 6th, 2008 at 0:20
James, Ronnie really looked exhausted. I hope we’ll be able to give him some rest..
oh wait, Newcastle is the 12th so he should be getting enough rest:)
Hope Tevez is back also by the time.
BTW anybody know when the Game in the middle-east is?:(
January 6th, 2008 at 0:38
when is the next draw?
January 6th, 2008 at 0:43
Very true what reddevil said about Carrick needing someone to dictate the tempo next to him. I admire Carrick a lot but i must admit that i may be prejudiced because i often try too hard to sing the song of the unsung hero and will find such a protagonist wherever i look.
Carrick’s play reminds me of a Golden Retriever, and not just because he’s mostly docile on the pitch. He doesn’t give the orders. He doesn’t take the shot, but he assuradly trots about and collects the dead ducks, dropping them gently at his master’s feet. Not the most glamorous job; but not entirely useless. After all, Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t trudge through the muck after fallen fowl. It’d mess up his hair-gel.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:12
Agree on the Carrick comments. He’s best with Scholes. Same way Anderson is best with Hargreaves.
I maintain that for us Roooney is the key player. He may not be as consistent as Ronaldo and misses a lot of games with injuries, but in the big games he is invariably the match winner. Although Ferguson maintains Tevez has been our best player so far, for me he is more of a team player right now.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:26
Millz: That is a very good analysis of Carrick. I thought that he would get the usual abuse when he misplaced two passes in quick succession early on and I wasn’t disappointed. I thought he had a reasonable game and in the second half he was well on top of Villa’s midfield. I agree with you that he doesn’t take the game by the scruff of the enough. It is doubly frustrating because he has the ability to do so and has put in dominant performances on occasion in the past. I don’t know if it’s a consistency problem, his temperament or the setup and role that the manager asks him to play him. But regardless there is still a place for the ‘water carrier’ type player, and no doubt if Hargreaves had put in the same performance we would be praising the defensive cover he provided rather than bemoaning a couple of miss hit passes.
Ollie Y: Draw is on Monday (around 1.30pm GMT I believe).
Dan: Do you not consider Ferdinand a ‘star’ player for England? As for Spain, despite all their star players, they are the very definition of bottlers at international level. Finally a major criticism of Brazil at the last WC was that they were trying to wedge too many star players into their team and it showed. Keep in mind the saying “too many cooks spoil the brothâ€.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:29
Hey Ollie, The draw is 1-30pm on a monday
January 6th, 2008 at 10:12
The away United fans were tremendous yesterday… They were really lound, especially after the goal… SAF got what he wanted
Cheers!!
January 6th, 2008 at 10:57
jb on millz:hargreaves dosent mishit passes.
jb on me: fine, ferdinand is a star, but do you think we’ll win with players like bentley on the wing? the senior national players wont be at the next world cup, so do you think playing SWP and cole on the wings and barry in the center will beat the leading teams of the world, fuck sake we couldnt beat russia or croatia who are both ranked below us last time i checked, and they both finished above us, we need REAL stars and not fringe players who had a good match and stay in the starting line-up.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:42
saha looks completely disinterested and his attitude is not right..and if carrick was bad against villa..how would u describe his performance against birmingham..?
January 6th, 2008 at 12:07
how the hell was Carrick bad yesterday? from what I saw he did more than Anderson who looked worse than I’ve ever seen him. I mean Anderson is a fantastic-going on world class player but people, give credit where credit is due. The team couldn’t keep the ball for more than 20 seconds yesterday but Carrick was picking up the pieces from all of Villa’s long balls and almost always found his own man. Also he was making the type of blocks that you expect a DM to do. Carrick is not Ronaldo, he is not going to run the full length of the pitch and score but then again neither did Roy Keane and did that make him any less of a player?
January 6th, 2008 at 12:32
TBH anderson was one of the best players on the pitch, carrick was poor yesterday but was better yesterday than against brum, but carrick was still shite, what i saw for the hole match was carrick eventualy getting the ball and then he tryed to run past defenders and lost it, the same with saha, they both got the ball ran with it and got tackled.
January 6th, 2008 at 14:05
thanks you guys for telling me when the draw is! Really hope that for once we get a non-prem team!
January 6th, 2008 at 14:29
Dan: Pull up Hargreaves passing completion rates and you will see they are comparable to Carrick and Anderson despite the fact he is the most conservative passer of the three.
With regards to the national team, yes it has underperformed. However there is a good foundation for Cappello to build on with Foster, Richards, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole, Hargreaves and Barry/Carrick. In the past two tournaments (Euro 04 and WC 06) neither Greece nor Italy had many major stars going forward. They both had a solid basis, were well organised, had a bit of luck and they nicked goals here and there. I’m not saying England will win the next WC, but by the same token a team doesn’t need to be loaded down with stars to make good progress in an international tournament.
On Anderson he still has someway to go for me. He has vastly exceeded expectations since he has arrived but I feel he still has some development to do as a CM. He has a tendency to drift out of the games at times and IMO he is still trying a few too many Hollywood balls at times. I’ve noticed it when he plays with Hargreaves (he is more destroyer than passer) and as a result the team tends to have problems getting a hold of possession for any length of time. That’s not to say I don’t rate the partnership, I think it is particularly useful in cases where we a deliberately attempting to soak up pressure and hit the opposition on the break (i.e. at the Emirates). However when we are playing a game where we should be exerting control, I’m not sure the Hargreaves/Anderson combo is the answer (at least that is until Anderson develops and refines his game a bit more).
January 6th, 2008 at 14:44
im not saying are team should be loaded with stars, just we need mor than 1 or 2, and better players than barry and bentley and others.
January 7th, 2008 at 3:31
i think manchester united suppose to make many scores because the team have great players.2-0 is not enough and bad.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:45
I thought Carrick did pretty good. He isnt a flashy player or tough but as the the commentators mentioned he was regularly in the right position to make blocks and interceptions which is important.
Saha for me is becoming a problem. Everyone was raving about Rooney changing the game but imho it wasnt Rooney introduction but Saha’s removal that did that. Rooney was on the pitch for 10 mins and was pretty much as none existent as the rest of the forward line. The minute Saha left the pitch the attacking players sparked into life. I don’t know if its a lack of confidence (Although how often he decided he was Ronnie and run with the ball at a group of 3 or 4 villa players only to have the first of them easierly take it off him it wouldnt seem to be the case) or just the style he plays doesnt fit in anymore but he seems to be a problem rather than an asset for most of the minutes hes been on the pitch this season
January 8th, 2008 at 9:44
Wakey: That is a good point about Saha, he was getting dispossessed very easily at time. I was very surprised at how little he was running the channels during the game.
February 22nd, 2008 at 21:13
I think the end for Saha is near. The funny thing is, whenever he comes on he seems to have the right attitude.
Yet he doesn’t deliver and it seemed he only did briefly after he arrived. It’s a bit like Andy Cole – really like the guy but probably not good enough – and Cole was twice as good as Saha is.