Results aren’t everything

Plenty of positives from the United defeat

There’s an old saying, ‘may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.’ Well on Saturday we were treated to almost twice as long in pure elation before being dragged kicking and screaming back to the nether regions. There was nothing Machiavellian about that performance though, as by and large we outplayed Manchester United and despite an expletive laden rant around the 87 minute mark, that was a game with far more positives than negatives.

It was another case of our half time score line contrasting with the final result, but the performance level throughout was excellent and we lost that game through misfortune as much as anything. But of course this is just what United do, we all know that, they’ve done it time and time again. In fact just three days earlier they netted my household a fair few extra quid, after the three of us backed them to come from behind in their Champions League tie.

But this was a real glimpse into what football will be like when this squad and this manager familiarise themselves in B6, From the first whistle we looked confident in possession, we looked like we’d planned to exploit certain deficiencies in the United team and looked genuinely well organised and compact when we weren’t in possession. Considering the relative lack of experience in the team no one looked overawed – with the possible exception of Enda Stevens.

The most encouraging thing though was the fact that we set out to win that game. There was a level of insolence in Paul Lambert’s tactics that showed he genuinely thought we were capable of taking three points there, and that the name Manchester United has nothing in it to suggest we’re on a hiding to nothing before the game even starts.

Overall there was a belief that we were good enough, which is testament to Paul Lambert’s tactics and man management. Compare that to the protect the nil-nil mentality of our previous manager, who even had the gall to suggest his ‘appetite for attacking winning football is second to none’, and it makes for a much happier time.

consistency

The average age of the team was 24 meaning the majority of the players weren’t even born on the weekend 26 years ago – almost to the day – when Ferguson first took the helm at United. Lambert seems to have found a formation that suits the personnel in this young squad and as the players get more experienced they will grow together and the consistency will come. This isn’t necessarily a team for now, but a team that will improve over time and the signs are encouraging that if this potential is realised we could have a strong team for years to come. The signs were there.

Without seeming like I’m getting carried away with what still amounts to a point-free match, it was far from point-less. Losing is a lot easier to take when you’ve had a go and if the team plays like that every week, they’ll win far more than they lose. As I’ve mentioned, the consistency won’t be there yet, but it is a performance level we’re clearly capable of. That glimmer of hope just didn’t exist last year.

Pressing high up the pitch was clearly a tactic tailored for this match and the fact Paul Scholes was replaced demonstrates just how effective we were in cutting of his space to supply – bar one obvious exception. Christian Benteke’s use of the channels also opened up the centre of the pitch where United have looked vulnerable to pace and on more than one occasion, Agbonlahor and Wiemann had some joy copying Gareth Bale’s blueprint from a few weeks back.

Special praise has to go to the performances of Ashley Westwood and Barry Bannan in the centre of the park, as well as Christian Benteke and Andreas Wiemann up front. The maturity of their performances vindicated Lambert’s decision to start them, and in one case suggests he may have seen qualities that explain the recent exclusion of more illustrious team mates.

I said immediately before the game that the result was secondary to the performance on Saturday and while we felt short on the former we certainly delivered on the latter. There are signs that my prediction that we won’t gel until around Christmas is on course and hopefully we can maintain this development while picking up enough points to stop the natives becoming restless. One thing’s for sure, if we can replicate Saturday’s level of performance, before long we’ll be brushing teams aside as easily as a Belgium striker brushes off an England defender.