The Berba Show pt 2 (feat Blackburn)

What a funny player that Berbatov is. Scores a brilliant hattrick against Liverpool, then decides not to show up on the score sheet again for months. Finally decides that enough is enough and knocks in 5 against Blackburn. Hopefully, we wont have to wait another few months before his next goal. But before getting to the good (and there was plenty), lets get the bad out of the way:

1.Rooney didnt score. Despite our highest scoring output in years, our golden boy failed to find the back of the net. Aside from that however, I thought he was in excellent form with a couple of assists and generally just being involved in every area of the pitch. He found himself at left back toward the end of the game with Evra in an advanced position. The week in the US looks to have done him a world of good in terms of his conditioning and hopefully, his goalscoring will return as he gets more gametime under his belt.

2.Evans came on with around 30 minutes to go so that Vidic could get some rest. Despite his own admission this week of having lost some confidence earlier in the season, it doesnt look like his play has improved that much. I thought that he was to blame for the Blackburn goal when he allowed Samba to outjump him relatively unchallenged and head it in. Vidic would have jumped and challenged Samba in the air. It looked lazy on his part and continues to demonstrate why he isnt close to dislodging either Rio or Vida from the starting 11.

Aside from those 2 blemishes, everything else went Uniteds way. It was a top-notch performance, the kind that United fans have been craving for.

Starting with the obvious, this was the Berba show from start to end. However, everyone (with the exception of Evans) put in a very outstanding shift. Carrick and Anderson! started in midfield for the injured first choice pairing of Scholes and Fletcher. Carrick was simply masterful knocking the ball around and generally dominating everything around the center circle. Ando was a willing runner and constantly looked to get into the mix. His surging runs forward from deep started some of our best moves and led to a few of our goals. It was his challenge on Robinson in the very first minute of the game that partially disoriented the keeper and allowed Berbatov to flick in a knock down from Rooney for our early lead.

Nani showed signs early on of repeating his poor decision making of the past 2 games, but that went away quickly as the team performed today with a spring in their step and a constant theme of pass and move. There was no standing around the way its been in some of our poorer performances from weeks past. Rooney dropped deep repeatedly to play one touch passes only to sprint forward again into space. If Blackburn were guilty of one thing, it would be the ball watching they were doing. This allowed long/diagonal balls to be hit into the open space with Park and Nani being willing runners. Blackburn in general looked poor, but it will be Chimbonda undoubtedly who will receive a brunt of the blame with the kind of performance he would want to forget. His poor back pass in the 27th minute was done blindly without noticing that Berba was lurking. With all the time in the world, the Bulgarian simply could not miss in a one on one with Robinson.

5 minutes before that, Ando picked up the ball in midfield and played it to Park who passed it onto Rooney before continuing his forward run. As was the case all evening, the Blackburn defenders froze and zeroed in on Rooney who played a simple pass back to Park inside the box. The South Korean easily clipped it over Robinson and when Berba scored in the 27th, it effectively ended this match as a contest.

It didnt take long how! ever for Berba to complete his hattrick once the second half resumed. In a peach of a move, Berba started the ball rolling in his own half with a deft backheel to Evra who immediately played it back to Berba. He then perfectly picked out Nani on the right wing who was enjoying his evening against Chimbonda. Nani turned him inside out before squaring the ball back to Berba around the penalty spot to blast in for Uniteds fourth. Before the celebrations had even finished, United got their fifth with Nani once again turning Chimbonda every which way before curling in a left foot shot from inside the box.

In the 54th minute, Nani found himself marauding forward again on a 2 on 2 with Rooney alongside him. However, he took too long to play it across to Rooney who was in a great position to test Robinson. In fairness to Nani, it appeared like he was trying to make it as easy as possible of a chance for Rooney instead of playing it too early. That decision allowed Robinson the time to come out and block Nanis cross. No goal for Rooney.

Rafael decided to start venturing forward more aggressively in the final half hour and we were rewarded in the 62nd minute. He received the ball back after a quick pass and found himself inside the box before rolling it into Parks path. His shot was blocked well, but the ball landed right at the Berbas feet who rifled in. Berba was clearly having fun out there and was doing his best to make up for the lengthy dry spell.

Ando continued to surge forward at every opportunity and looked especially threatening anytime space opened up in front of him. In the 69th minute this type of run gave him the room to pick out Berba who in turn, tried to get his striking partner on the score sheet. When its your day however, it seems like everything falls your way. His attempted cross was blocked and landed right back at his feet and he scored a remarkable 5th goal from an acute angle.

7-0 and we were cruising clearly hungry for more. Blackburn finally gained their first decent! spell o f possession around the 75th minute mark with their first real shot on goal coming a few minutes later from Samba. Barely 3 minutes after that, Samba rose unchallenged to give Blackburn their consolation goal. Its a shame that VDS didnt get the clean sheet because of the poor effort by Evans.

United finally took their foot off the pedal and cruised toward the final whistle with Rooney finishing a very good evening in a defensive position in midfield. It symbolized the effort he put in today on every inch of the field and represented a glimpse of form for not just himself, Berba or Nani, but the team in general. This display was vintage United and we now find ourselves level on goal difference with Chelsea. If at least for a day.

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