Preview

Match Date: 20 August 2012

Robin van Persie starts on the bench as Manchester United open their season against Everton at Goodison Park. Everton put out a line-up close to what you can expect from David Moyes throughout the season, but Manchester United have to field Antonio Valencia at right back and Michael Carrick at centre back as they deal with injuries to Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Rio Ferdinand, and Johnny Evans.

Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Distin, Jagielka, Baines, Neville, Fellaini, Gibson, Pienaar, Osman, Jelavic

Manchester United: De Gea, Valenica, Carrick, Vidic, Evra, Cleverly, Scholes, Nani, Rooney, Kagawa, Welbeck

1st Half

The game started really well in terms of end to end football, neither team were really able to get control of the ball for a decent length of time, with a lot of this coming down to how well Everton’s midfield were pressing United’s midfield three making them make mistakes. Everton were able to keep the ball well, but it was very deep and weren’t finding themselves in the final third of the field. United tried to press like Everton, but were a lot less disciplined in their tackles, highlighted by a needless sliding tackle by Paul Scholes on Darron Gibson at the edge of Everton’s eighteen yard box and a late sliding tackle by Nani on Leighton Baines, both receiving yellow cards for their troubles. The first really good chance came from Marouane Fellaini after he skipped past Michael Carrick, the make shift centre back, only to take one too many touches, closing his angle before getting his shot off and hitting the outside of the post while trying to just lift the ball over David De Gea.

Throughout the match, Fellaini played very well in the advanced role behind the striker, winning just about every aerial dual by heading to a teammate, chesting it into the path of a teammate or chesting it down to his feet and holding the ball up well. This allowed Everton two options, they could either play down the sides, mostly the left side as Nani was not too helpful in tracking Baines as he made his way up the pitch, which allowed some good play from Everton in the 24th minute which resulted in a corner and a good chance for Fellaini to find Steven Pienaar at the edge of the box only to choose to shoot off target. Their other option was to play through the middle with long balls to Fellaini, knowing that he’d win the ball and keep possession by laying it back to either Gibson or Phil Neville.

United had their own chances through good play between Rooney, Kagawa, and Welbeck, but the next best chance came to Everton when Pienaar tried to place one into the opposite corner forcing a save from De Gea. As the game was flowing, it was only fair that United had another opportunity as well as Rooney hit a shot from about 10 yards out right at Howard. Shinji Kagawa continued to look good and played some good through balls in the match, one being to Danny Welbeck who saw his shot go wide right. The next two chances of the match came to Everton, one through a knock down by Fellaini to Leon Osman who struck the ball well on the turn only for De Gea to make a really good save, followed by another good save from a Leighton Baines free kick.

The end of the half closed a really good 45 minutes. A very entertaining match that saw both sides creating chances, but Everton looked like they might be the ones that were going to create something.

2nd Half

Everton continued to play well in the second half, pressing and winning the ball back well as Paul Scholes and Tom Cleverly looked a little unsettled. Fellaini continued to have one of the best games he’s had in an Everton shirt. He controlled the ball well again out of the air to Leon Osman who found Tony Hibbert down the right hand side, this time free due to lack of covering from Kagawa. Hibbert was able to put in a good cross which Fellaini met and got a good header down to Steven Pienaar who hit the half volley into the underside of the cross bar and United were lucky to scramble the ball out. The next two United attacks, both involving Kagawa, one a through ball to Welbeck and one with the new signing linking up with Rooney, saw Phil Jagielka make two really good tackles.

It was only right that Everton’s goal came through Marouane Fellaini. Everton had been putting a lot of dangerous crosses into the box throughout the game and this time through a corner, Fellaini was able to rise above Michael Carrick to head past De Gea into the bottom right hand side of the goal. Fellaini had another chance after a Leighton Baines cross was won by Jagielka at the far post with Fellaini winning the second ball but headed his effort right to De Gea. After this though, United settled down a little bit and as possession stats show, Everton really started to drop deep allowing Untied to play in their half. United had some good interplay again on the edge of the box.

Though Nani’s play down the right was poor, Antonio Valencia was able to find some joy and put a good cross into the Everton box which fell to Cleverly only for his effort to be cleared off the line by Jagielka. United had another good chance when Rooney squared a ball to Nani, but Baines was able to get in front of him and knock the ball out for a corner. Before the resulting corner, Ferguson was able to bring on Robin van Persie for Danny Welbeck, who wasn’t Untied’s worst player, but was mostly out of the game.

The rest of the game saw United pushing higher and Everton dropping even deeper, allowing United to try to find a way through, but most of their play was side to side and resulted in poor crosses that either fell right into Howard’s hands or were blocked by Everton players.

What Manchester United Did Wrong

Nani had a very, very poor game for anyone standards. He was dispossessed far too many times, couldn’t put a cross in and didn’t get involved with the other players up front. Kagawa, Welbeck, and Rooney had some good interplay, but Nani was anonymous in every good spell of United play. He also failed to track Leighton Baines back which allowed Everton another outlet in attack, one that is well known for providing a good ball in and contributing a number of assists per season. It was surprising that Ferguson’s first substitution did not see Nani off and Young on, though it did happen much later than it should have. They also didn’t have much creativity in midfield with Scholes and Cleverly, which is another criticism that even United fans have pointed out and Ferguson might have to think about bringing someone in.

Conclusion

It was never suppose to be an easy game for Manchester United, but I’m sure most supporters expected a win out of it. Everton played well though, especially Marouane Fellaini, who won 9 aerial duals, not counting the times where he was able to easily bring the ball down to his feet with his chest. Undoubtedly the man of the match, Fellaini won just about everything in the air and setup his teammates well. Defensively, he tracked back to give Everton three in central midfield and this allowed Everton to really disrupt United’s flow of play. United will obviously have better days in the future, it isn’t often that the team with 70% possession fails to win, and they’ll have more creativity when van Persie is in the team and linking up well with Kagawa and Rooney.