Hard fought win at Ibrox (vs Rangers)

Hmm, not really that much to say about this game. It wasnt the most exciting to watch although it did mark the long awaited return of the Rooney/Berba partnership. Giggs in our starting 11 was also a welcome sight. As expected, Vidic and Rio were given the night off and we had Smalling and Evans at the back.
Due to its less than pulsating nature, Ill try to summarize everything in a couple of points:

1.Rooney looked rusty. Not surprisingly, he misplaced some passes and whiffed at balls in the box that he might normally connect on and test the keeper. Itll take some time for him to get back to the form he was in last year, but based on what we know about him, itll be well worth the wait.

2.Evans still looked uneasy at the back. A miscommunication between him and VDS in the 57th minute almost gifted Rangers a goal. He doesnt seem to project the calmness that we would like to see in our defenders. Smalling on the other hand, looked far more assured on the ball.

3.Nani played a little better than he had in his prior 2 outings. There was less dwelling on the ball and he was constantly looking to play the early ball into the middle. Unfortunately, with Rangers playing deep, anything that he put in was immediately cleared out.

4. Carrick looks more comfortable with each game that he gets to start. He sat comfortably in midfield playing the ball around in an effort to unlock the Rangers deep lying defense. He even had a great chance to score when being put through after some good play between Berba and Rooney. Unforunately, his shot was too close to McGregor and it was well pushed away.

5.Rangers defended deep leaving Kenny Miller isolated up front. Their game plan was to threaten on counters and set pieces. But despite his best efforts and getting into some space, he never really had the support he needed to really threaten VDS.

6.It looked lik! e the ma tch was headed down the exact same path as when the teams met a few weeks ago at OT. It was a mirror image with United dominating the ball, but finding no way past the Rangers wall. That is until

7.Fabio drifted into the box from the left and was picked out perfectly only to be fouled by Naismith with an accidental kick to the chest/face. There was clearly no malice intended as Naismith didnt see Fabio and was merely trying to clear it, but instead, connected with Fabio.

8.Rooney stepped up for the penalty and clinically slotted it into the bottom left corner. As he ran toward the corner flag to celebrate, it felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders. A fan from the stands joined in the celebration and piled on top of Rooney. No one seemed to mind.

We got the point we needed for qualification. Rooney grabbed a goal (albeit another penalty). Were slowly getting everyone back from injury. Were grinding out wins like this when we dont play particularly well.

Things could be a lot worseHappy Thanksgiving all!

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