Full time: Man Utd 1-0 Spurs. As United win courtesy of Kyle Walker's own goal, on the day Bastian Schweinsteiger becomes the first German to play competitively for Manchester United.
�� The Rivals: Spurs were pretty much on top of things until that goal in the first half, but the goal gave Manchester United some momentum.
�� The Good: Sergio Romero was superb at goal while Chris Smalling was fantastic. However, I'd give Man of the Match to Matteo Darmian, who's moved miles ahead in the whole team and seems to operating on a world of his own.
�� The Bad: We have a striking and creativity problem, and it does not matter what the process or philosophy is because that is something even more worrisome when you consider how good Romero was.
�� The Issues: The substitutions, Darmian being subbed for Valencia, but it could be because it was his first game. However, Herrera did well for Depay and Basti did what Basti does. However, Young dived and that was poor and maybe next time, LVG should retain Depay and take off Young!
�� The 25-goal promise: Wayne Rooney was slow to react - he needs to do better than today.
�� The New Number 7: At times, Depay switched with Mata and you could see it was better. While this is a process, it seems to be more of a hinderance. His partnership with Wayne Rooney went missing.
�� The Sideshow: There is nice photo of 'rebel' goalkeepers in the executive box and for some time, fans looked at DDG with longings until Romero, my Sergio became the instant darling and I tell you - OT did not miss the Spaniard.
--- Did you watch the game? Who's your man of the match? How was the first game? Issues?
Smalling was absolutely vital today. Best
match I think I've ever seen him play.
Romero...he's a bit of a wildcard with the
ball at his feet and those parry's we're
about the most butt-puckering moments
of the entire match but, he did put in a
few decent saves and didn't look a
complete disaster.
Actually, I thought that we didn't put in
all too bad of a performance considering
it's the first match of the season.
I think Memphis needs to be put out on
the flank. He wasn't all that effective in
the role of number 10 and it was obvious
with Carrick and Schneiderlin playing
together that we lacked in our buildup
play through the middle of the pitch. We
can't keep playing through the wings
hoping to cross the ball into Rooney and
expecting the best results.
I guess my one complaint is in the
substitution area. I thought the Valencia<-
>Darmian substitution was odd. I'm
assuming that it was due to Matteo being
gassed? Considering we looked a bit more
disheveled and non-cohesive after the
subs...I'm kinda thinking bringing on
Schweinsteiger for Carrick was a mistake
and maybe we should have brought
Herrera on for possibly Young and
shunted Memphis out to the left? I don't
know.
Anyway...early days and we picked up a
victory on opening day, where we almost
always play like we just returned from
summer vacation.