The Blame Game

Another record crowd for a Premiership game at Old Trafford. The novelty of virtually the whole nation willing them to win. An infinitely superior team. And a recent run of victories that would frighten anyone. There’s not a shadow of doubt that Manchester United ran out for their game against doomed Sunderland holding all the aces. So why didn’t they win?

They failed for precisely the same reason that Arsenal had failed against Portsmouth at Fratton Park - they just couldn’t take their chances. And make no mistake, there were plenty of them – enough to ensure that in ‘normal circumstances’ they would have run out winners by at least four clear goals.

So why were the circumstances ‘not normal’? Well to begin with, Sunderland surprised practically everyone (perhaps even themselves) by the courageous and resolute way they defended throughout the game against wave after wave of United attacks. And at the back of that defence, their goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis had the game of his life. The rest is down to United’s poor finishing, for which several players must bear responsibility.

That last point is important. In the immediate aftermath of the game, there was a tendency, even on behalf of the United manager, to steer the blame towards Rooney and Ronaldo, on the grounds that they lack consistency and on this occasion had produced arguably their poorest performances ever for United.

If that’s the case, why stop at the youngsters? Ruud Van Nistelrooy, in particular, had several good chances which on almost any other occasion he would be expected to take. He could, and by his standards should, have finished the game with a hat-trick. Ryan Giggs had chances. Park had chances. The list goes on.

What it all amounts to is this. There is no mileage in castigating outstanding talents like Rooney and Ronaldo for performances that might have been a little off colour technically, but were certainly no more so than the displays of the rest of the team.

Manchester United dominated the game, they deserved to win it and they should have won it. If their finishing had matched the quality of their approach play, they most certainly would have won it. Now they must win all their remaining games and pray that Chelsea’s luck runs out. It just might – Mourinho’s team are already overdrawn in the luck department.