Capital One Cup – Manchester United 1 0 Liverpool: This is more United-like!

Convincing? Not entirely but one thing for sure, this is the way Manchester United should be playing. Despite the scoreline it is United that is showing more hunger and wanted the win more. The thumping by neighbor City did help but the hurt from the derby loss continues.
David Moyes did put out a strong enough team for this fixture while Brendan Rodgers basically fielded his strongest available starting XI. With the exception of Wayne Rooney and David De Gea this Manchester United team comprises of first team players who had been lacking games and true to United (or rather Alex Ferguson) style, the starting XI was rotated.

 

With Wayne Rooney captaining Manchester United (ahead of Ryan Giggs), this team performs admirably. Ball retention was good but more importantly going forward United was a better team than Liverpool with counter attacking the moment opportunity present. There were hardly moments of hesitations which were obvious in the Manchester derby game. It is also good to see the return of Rafael da Silva and Phil Jones and both did well in this fixture. Javier Hernandez for once is the outstanding figure with his astonishing goal – one which reminded fans of Sergio Aguero’s first goal in the Manchester derby. The defense of Chris Smallling and Jonny Evans were equally impressive against a strong Liverpool side while Rafael and Alexander Buttner were just as strong in their positions. One not so positive note from this game is the non-appearance of highly rated Wilfred Zaha and he would be in danger of ending up as another Bebe if David Moyes continues to sideline him.

 

The reward for this win – another home fixture against Norwich City end of October. But David Moyes cannot allow his team to get complacent. This Saturday’s home fixture against West Bromwich Albion should see Manchester United grabbing the opportunity to close the gaps with teams above in the table having tricker games. The rotation for this game bring cheers to United supporters and let’s hope that David Moyes would continue to rotate his squad and maintains the momentum from this win.