Hello,
Sorry about the late post again.
Up 1-0, Manchester United came home to face rivals Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League. While a week earlier, I was nervous, those feeling were not there this week. United played well at Stamford Bridge and got their first victory at Chelsea since 2002. I also felt, as I posted below, that not only did Chelsea throw everything (or 95%) of their attacking and defensive formations at us, they did it with multiple players as well. United saw Torres/Anelka and then Torres/Drogba and even Essien in a defensive position after he was playing clean-up as well as attacking. This, to me, gave United an advantage.
The soon-to-be-gone Chelsea manager Carlos Ancelotti made two mistakes: the first was starting Torres. Over the last five years, the Drogba/Anelka duo has dominated United. Anelka, in my opinion, also allows Lampard to move around for freely. Lampard, to me, is the key player on the team. If he is playing well, watch out as the goals are coming. Not necessarily from him by the goals are coming. This brings me to the second mistake: not finding a way to get Lampard in the game. Lampard was completely out of both games. United controlled (I would not say dominated) the mid-field and Frank was out of the game. He did have two good chances across both games but could not finish. Now, in the second game, Anelka did start but the circumstances were different. Away and down a goal.
As for United, they played well again save the defensive shut-down which led to Drogba's goal. Park was, for most, the man of the match. While I disagree with some pundits who say he "scores goals in big games" (check the numbers, he has never scored against European opposition, only Arsenal and Liverpool), what he does is play a role. He runs for 70 minutes, tires out a man or tracks a threatening player. In this game, he played the whole 90 minutes because he scored. Nine of ten times, he will be substituted around the 70th minute after tiring his opponent out or forcing teams to change tactics after marking a threatening player. He did his job. I do not think he should start every game and I am very vocal about this.
Hernendez had another great game for what he is good at. He cannot seem to hold up the ball nor set much up but he is brilliant as the poacher and striker, playing off the shoulders of defenders. He has great speed and a nose for goal. I do not think he would be as effective without another man. He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney. Rooney ran and worked for 90 minutes. He was everywhere. Some people worry about replacing Scholes when you might just have to look across the dressing room and there he is. While Wayne was technically the guy who coughed up the ball before the Drobga goal (people do not seem to realize this), he movement off the ball is unreal and he broke up so many Chelsea attacks. His vision for attack and cross-balls are unreal. He also showed in today's game that he came run down the line and cross.
Overall, a great effort and is the monkey that is Chelsea off their backs?
We shall see in May in the Premier League.
Derek
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