Without Wayne Rooney, Manchester United were a very different team against Wolves. The performance was not pretty but the three points are all that matters here. The match was one of the dullest I’ve seen all season. With United creating very little and Wolves unable to capitalize on any mistakes that the United back four made. The game had nil-nil written all over it. That was until Paul Scholes took advantage of a few Wolves errors and put the ball into the back of the net for his 100th goal in the Premier League.
Paul Scholes has been having a fantastic season this year for Manchester United, and to see him reach this milestone with such a key goal was great. I still believe Paul Scholes has been the best English player of the past decade and continues to be massively underrated. Aside from the goal Scholes put together another solid performance. He was one of United’s few inventive players and his passing was spot on as ever.
The biggest problem from United came up top. Berbatov was playing up front by himself and actually put together a good performance, but he just isn’t suited to play up front by himself. Berbatov likes to drop deep into the midfield and lay the ball off for on rushing players. He likes to move to the outside and play the ball back into the centre. The problem is when he is the only forward there is no one to lay the ball off to play or play off of in the centre of the park. This just slowed down Manchester United’s attack and really left them without any hope of creating something in the final third.
Antonio Valencia was making positive runs and trying to force the issue, but he was met with the same problem. There was no one in the middle to finish off the chances. With Rooney out, the season ending injury to Michael Owen looks even more damaging. With only nine Premier League games remaining hopefully Rooney can stay fit and keep United in with a chance at the title.
The other main positive from this game was the return of the Rio Ferdinand – Nemanja Vidic partnership. If the two of them can stay injury/suspension free for the rest of the season, Manchester United’s title hopes would increase exponentially. They were key to the title in the 2008-2009 season and they could be again this year.
If United are forced to play without Rooney against Milan this week I would suggest a new approach. Maybe playing Valencia through the centre with Berbatov as a supporting forward. If Kiko Macheda can make a quick recovery he may even join into the fray over the next few weeks.
The performance without Rooney was very worrying for Manchester United, if they put in similar performances over the next few weeks they may not be as lucky.
