CSKA Moscow vs. Manchester United

Van Der Sar's awareness is fecking incredible. That the difference between a good keeper and a great one, he watches the game and he understands the game. He only acts when he needs to, and when he does, he does it without any hesitation.

Great to have him back.
 
Nani choose poorly again rather than passing it to Berbatov and looses possession. Scholes cleans up the mess.
 
Expected that ball to stick to his foot when he turns like that
 
Everyone complaining about O'Shea in the middle look a bit silly now, considering he's been one of our better players alongside Scholes and Fabio...
 
HT. 0-0

Firstly this pitch is not helping us.

A few positives so far. Fabio-Nani on the left flank have been a big threat. Not too much from the right yet. Berbatov hasnt got into the game enough. Vidic looks rusty in defence. Apart from that we have been decent and need to create more opportunities. Must do even better in the second half.
 
Nani and Fabio are linking up well. We're doing OK, but just need a bit more penetration. Maybe Owen will come on.

I'm worried about Vidic, he doesn't look match fit - really struggling with Krasic and the other attackers.
 
Valencia has been poor.

He nearly set up the goal there with a very intelligent run in behind the defence and an intelligent pass, it was just unlucky/poor control from Berbatov.

He's done alright, and if that'd ended up being a goal I'd have been very happy with his contribution.
 
Not sure we could have put any less pressure on their backline in that half. Our delivery into the box hasnt been good, but its made harder by having 1 target in there and that target being a striker who isnt exactly renown for his aggressive and quick reactions in the box, looking to get on the end of things. The one time we've come close to finding Berbatov in the box his control let him down.

I think if we got Owen in to partner him, we could put a lot more pressure on the backline. Give them more things to think about and someone who is likely to get on the end of something. Because right now we're playing into CSKA's hands by posing very little threat from crossed balls.
 
But why?

We're often better with 4-3-3 rather than a 4-4-2 in Europe, it's more suited to the pace of the game and it's more adaptable which suits different conditions.

Because, like our previous away European game, it often results in a God awful, boring game of football.

These arent up to much, why not just kill them rather than doing great work down both wings then having just Berbatov in the box.
 
The biggest problem with Valencia is how he goes missing too much. I think he's touched the ball around 5 times, compared to Nani's 200.
 
Nani has been good .His work rate has been superb.Scholes is good.

Berbatov is doing the usual slowin gdown the game act.Valencia is average as ever.
 
Considering they're at home they haven't really threatened apart from one or two moments.

Valencia needs to stay on, even if he is frustrating the feck out of me by refusing to cut inside.

We haven't got the options on the bench to make a dramatic improvement and i think what we've got on the pitch is enough to pull out a 1-0 win.