Manchester United 4 Bayer Leverkusen 2: This is more like it…almost!

All the ‘first’ – David Moyes first Champions League game for Manchester United, first Champions League wins for United and himself, first Champions League win ever for United under someone other than the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, and the list would go on but United fans would take this result. It is comfortable but not entirely convincing – for the soft goals that Bayer Leverkusen managed to scored.
Shinji Kagawa makes his season debut – at the left wing, along with fellow season debutant Chris Smalling at rightback and new signing Maroune Fellaini. David Moyes who had been under criticism for not fielding someone with Kagawa’s creativity nous finally gave the Japanese ace his first start but the lack of match sharpness is rather evident. Kagawa on his part did well and was rather unlucky not to get on the scoresheet but seemed to be running out of steam early in the second half.

 

But the stories of the night belong to the two ‘R’s – Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney. For all his sagas during the summer, Rooney seems to have rediscovered his form and is the stand out player in United team with two goals and an assist. The two goals put him at 200 goals for Manchester United and closing in on United’s legend Bobby Charlton’s all time goal scoring record. The red hot Rooney now has three goals in two games and going into the weekend’s Manchester derby in good form. Robin Van Persie meanwhile did score and brought his tally for the season to four in five games. But he grabbed the headline when he missed an absolute sitter, a cross right into his path with no one else in front! The other goal scorer on the night – Antonio Valencia also had a good game, providing quality crosses into the box and scoring one himself.

 

Meanwhile the midfield combination of Michael Carrick and new signing Maroune Fellaini did reasonably well although not entirely convincing, bearing in mind that the next opposition is Manchester City – a totally different opponent to Bayer Leverkusen. Fellaini on his part seems hesitant to commit to harassing opponents the way he did during his Everton’s day, maybe due to his inexperience at the Champions League level but did reasonably well holding the midfield play but generally lacking the key passing movement. However one could not help but make comparison to the days of Carrick and Owen Hargreaves combination – strong, controlled but lack that final decisive pass. Further to that the creative source – Shinji Kagawa is being played to the left making the left flank expose should Kagawa drift in the middle.

 

In the defense Rio Ferdinand under David Moyes has seen him playing up to two games per week, something that did not happened in Alex Ferguson’s time. This is due to the need to manage Ferdinand’s ‘chronic’ back injuries given his advance age. Moyes on his part may prefer experience during the start of his reign at Old Trafford and especially given the ‘tough’ fixture handed to United, hence the need for the pairing of Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic week in and week out. Somehow the extra games played will catch up with Ferdinand and against Leverkusen, there is a slight indication of this. Both goals from Leverkusen, especially the second is the example of losing focus and could have been avoided had Ferdinand being able to marshal the defense better.

 

Nevertheless this is an important win, for David Moyes and especially for Manchester United’s fans. The next Champions League match – away against Shakhtar Donesk would be the real test for United’s European pedigree. Donesk, the Ukrainian champion is the one team in this group that on paper will present the biggest threat to United’s progressing to the next stage of the competition. There will be a host of ‘first’ too for this match but for now, it is on to the Manchester derby this Sunday.