Wayne Two-ooney

By Tom Bason
December 10 2011

Wolves today were handed a lesson at Old Trafford. First half goals from Nani and Wayne Rooney had fired Manchester United into a first half lead, before Steven Fletcher halved the deficit after the break. But, it was not to be and Nani and Rooney both scored again to give the Red Devils a deserved three points.

• This was my first trip to Old Trafford to watch a match, but I'm sure the atmosphere before the match is not normally as miserable as today. Three separate United fans each told me they thought Wolves would win.

• The line-up. As was to be expected, Roger Johnson and Karl Henry returned to the first team. The only question was who Henry would replace. As it was, it was Stephen Hunt, which wasn't a great surprise. Personally, I'd have gone into it with three in midfield. I think the centre of midfield is United's biggest weakness, and we could have tried to dominate there. As it was, we went 4-4-2, which I could understand; Basle successfully played this during the weak, and we would have been looking to capitalise on absence of Nemanja Vidić by directly pressuring their back-4. As it was, aside from an early Steven Fletcher shot, we weren't able to put anything like enough pressure on their back-4. If we're going to play two upfront, the strike partnership need to do a lot more in holding the ball up. The nature of 4-4-2 means that the strikers tend to get isolated, and neither did enough keep alleviate the pressure on the defence.

• Instead, Michael Carrick and Phil Jones were able to dominate the midfield. The large gaps in front of the defence that were evident against Sunderland were in place again. Unfortunately, United had a player to fill them. Even more unfortunately, this player was Wayne Rooney. United played split forwards with Rooney dropping off into the acres of space between our midfield and defence. With Henry and O'Hara occupied by Jones and Carrick, it was down to Christophe Berra or Johnson to follow Rooney, with both of them hesitant to do so. Rooney had all the time and space on the ball he required, and was able to pull United's strings.

• Speaking of Rooney, there was one moment which showed off his undoubted class. When you think of great first touches, you think Cruyff against ADO Den Haag, Roberto Baggio vs. Juventus and Steven Fletcher against Sunderland. All of those led to goals, but this was up there in the annals of time. It was a high ball fired in to him on the halfway line, and with one touch, he gently lofted it over Roger Johnson and span around the other side of him. Pure brilliance.

• Mick McCarthy isn't afraid of making a first half substitution, and they nearly always involve Nenad Milijaš, this time being introduced for David Edwards. While I'm a big Milijaš fan, I didn't really understand the change. It was clearly to re-enforce the midfield, with Doyle pulling wide right. I've long been calling for Doyle to be played on one of the flanks, but I wasn't sure why it was necessary to take Edwards off. Surely Edwards could have moved into the centre of midfield? Having said that, I thought Milijaš was excellent when coming on, distributing the ball well and adding a calming presence to the centre of the park.

• I didn't think Hennessey could do a huge amount with the first, third and fourth goals, but the second didn't appear to be right in the corner. Given his performances this season, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and, until I see a replay to prove otherwise, I'll assume he was unsighted. However his kicking was poor, with both his left and right. This is normally one of the strongest areas of his game, but today it was not up to scratch.

• In the second half, Stephen Hunt was introduced. This is nothing to get excited about, except he played in the centre of midfield. I've wanted him to be played here for a long time; I think his energy and spark could really add something to the team. When O'Hara had played in this role, he'd played very high up the pitch, virtually as a second striker, whereas Hunt sat a little deeper, getting through his fair share of defensive work. If we are going to play three in midfield, I think Hunt's best position is in the centre rather than on the flank.

• Perhaps one of the reasons why Hunt has looked poor when on the flank is that he's compared to Matt Jarvis. I thought Jarvis was excellent today, easily his best attacking performance of the season. While Chris Smalling is not a natural fullback, he is considered to be solidly defensively, but he won't have many tougher games than today. He's clearly been working on his crossing, actually getting the ball past the first man using both feet. He's finally learning to deal with being targeted by the opposition. Well played Jarvo, keep it up.

• Overall, we didn't deserve to get anything today. The attack didn't do enough early in the match, and both Doyle and Fletcher looked better when Doyle was pulled wide. The midfield and defence allowed United's attack players far too much space and at times they cut through us at will. But, someone was going to get a beating from them. There is work to be done through the week, but I don't think today's result has any relevance to next week's Staffordshire derby.