Everton make Manchester United pay for woeful defending

iSporter and Manchester United fan Ankit Sharma completes our double header coverage of United's loss at Goodison Park.

United celebrate their Goal

Everton punished a tired-looking Manchester United and recorded a 3-1 victory over the League title contenders. Dimitar Berbatov opened the scoring for United with a cracking finish but Dinyar Beliyaletdinov equalised for Everton soon. Dan Gosling then gave Everton the lead in the 76th minute. Jack Rodwell then rubbed it in with a glorious run and finish towards the end.

The match started the way it ended. Louis Saha made a darting run into the United half and United’s central defenders, Wes Brown and Johny Evans, were terrorised. The United mid field however was not going to sit back and once again, Darren Fletcher motored the mid field with Antonio Valencia and Gary Neville providing good attacking options on the right flank. The first goal came in the 15th minute when Antonio Valencia provided a flat cross into the box. Dimitar Berbatov had enough time to first control the ball and then powerfully drill the ball into the back of the net.

The lead however did not last long. A long ball was partially covered by Johny Evans and fell kindly in the path of Everton’s number 7. Bilyaletdinov scored a scorcher from outside the box as Edwin Van der Saar just watched the ball rocket into the net. Wes Brown neither attempted to attack Bilyaletdinov nor block his effort and in the end he only managed to block Van der Saar’s view of the ball as Everton equalised. The match became a feisty affair as both sides fought for every ball. However, the United mid-field and defence was surprisingly short of ideas even though Everton were playing with two of their best mid fielders, Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini.

The second half continued to be a well fought match but United’s tiredness after their gruelling win against AC Milan in the mid week was visible. Sir Alex surprisingly substituted Dimitar Berbatov with Paul Scholes as Berbatov was the only Red Devil who looked like creating something to bother Everton. Ji Sung Park was also subbed for the French youngster, Gabriel Obertan. The substitutions however, had little effect on the game as Everton kept pressing forward and the United defence kept looking more and more vulnerable with every passing minute.

David Moyes then brought on Gosling and he had an immediate impact. The tiring United defence just could not deal with the pace and energy of the Everton players. Wayne Rooney, who looked rather subdued throughout the match, lost the ball and Everton players drove forward. A terrible communications gap followed between the United defenders and Gosling scored by getting to the end of Pienaar’s cross. The game was sealed when another substitute, the 18 years old promising Jack Rodwell, came all the way into the United box and drilled the ball across Van der Saar. Brown and Evans again, made to look like schoolboy defenders.

Manchester United now have many questions to answer. The mid field looked very thin and Michael Carrick seemed disoriented for most of the match. Rooney was a shadow of a man who has been in such breath taking form. It would however, be unfair to blame Rooney as he is allowed an off day once in a while.

The biggest question however is for the United defence. Are the glory days of Rio Ferdinand and Nemnja Vidic over? The backup defenders looked totally out of sorts. Gary Neville, at 35, ran better and with more purpose than Brown and Evans. For Everton, who have now beaten Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United in successive matches, the biggest questions is; What if they did not have all those problems at the start of the season. They probably would have been fighting for a top 4 finish right now.