1-1 Draw
A poor performance on the whole, although the second half was better than the first.
In the first half we were appalling tbh. Van Persie was sluggish and next to useless, and his lack of pace is really worrying. With him in the lineup, we're not going to get behind teams too often this season.
The midfield was lacklustre, with Rosicky his usual non existent self.
The biggest issue was, however, the defence. We played a high line, and were caught out with long balls quite often. Clearly we haven't learnt the lessons of last season. Moreover, we are really uncertain when clearing our lines, especially when it comes to aerial balls. While players like Vidic attack crosses and head the ball away confidently, we so often simply head the ball into the air, and keep the ball in the danger zone.
We looked more dangerous in the second half, but again, the same malaise that has affected us for the last 5-6 years was back with a vengeance. So often we simply passed the ball along the penalty area, then wide, then back inside, eventually ending with a lumbering oaf like Song trying to play a scripted one-two that gets intecepted.
Although Greentown posed very little threat in the second half, they did counter-attack quite effectively on a few ocassions, and probably should have scored with a header (which again showed our weaknesses aerially) Koscielny's position was suspect at times as well, being caught out of position or on the wrong side of the attacker, which against better opposition would have seen us punished.
Walcott was dangerous but some of his decision making and finishing was extremely poor. However, at least he was trying something, which is more than can be said for the useless turd Chamakh.
All in all, a poor performance against a team that Man Utd beat 8-2. The same deficiencies that have existed for the last 6 seasons are still with us, and shows no sign of being corrected.
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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
