Manchester United 2 Crystal Palace 0: Young gets the attention..again!!

The scoreline reads: Manchester United 2 Crystal Palace 0. Behind this scoreline is another fact – Crystal Palace had a player sent off at the 45 minutes mark, that lead to United’s taking a 1-0 lead through Robin Van Persie’s penalty. To simplify, United played against 10 men Crystal Palace for another 45 minutes and the scoreline in the end was 2-0. Convincing? How about the Ashley Young issue?
Honestly most Manchester United’s fans will agree this is not the United team in form. Inability to break down a team with 10 men for 45 minutes does not give United the reason to be satisfied with their performance. Adding to that Ashley Young seems to be courting yet another diving controversy, to a point where David Moyes has to openly defend the winger while at the same time condemns the act of diving in football. Moyes must have a lot of faith in the over-rated Young, selecting him ahead of others for two games in a row. To be fair, if Young turns out a good performance it would be easier for United’s fans to digest his inclusion in the starting XI.

 

Elsewhere David Moyes has to come out and defend himself on why creative midfielder Shinji Kagawa has not been selected – yet again after four games. If Kagawa was really unavailable through illness then Tuesday’s Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen would be an indication of whether there is problem between the manager and the Japanese ace.With the exclusion of Shinji Kagawa, Manchester United’s fans were also hopeful to catch glimpses of highly rated youngster such as Adnan Januzaj and former Crystal Palace’s star – Wilfred Zaha. Zaha did not make his debut but Januzaj did. Coming in for Ashley Young the highly rated Belgium’s youngster did well in his league debut. With David Moyes hesitating on whether to give Januzaj the starting debut, he (Januzaj) certainly did not disappoint (barring some novice finishing) and gave United’s fans enough reason to be optimistic for this season. The down side here is United and Januzaj have yet to agree to a new contract and with less than a year to go in his contract, United is in danger of repeating another ‘Paul Pogba mistake’. Already, it is reported that Manchester City and Barcelona have been taking serious note on this youngster.

 

On the plus side, the (surprise) inclusion of Wayne Rooney and his performance on the day would be a welcome relief for Manchester United’s fans. The combination of Rooney and Van Persie, if on form is one of the most potent in European football and for them to play well together is a good sign if United is to challenge for trophies on four front.

 

Aside from Rooney-Van Persie as well as Adnan Januzaj, the game against Crystal Palace is a letdown. Let’s hope that this is early days and with time, the overall performance would click but Premier League is not an easy league and with unconvincing performance from title contenders like Chelsea and Manchester City, United cannot afford to have too many bad games.