“I like the way the backs are looking forward,” said the England football manager Roy Hodgson at halftime during the Preston v Manchester United 5th Round FA Cup tie tonight. I do dislike the jargonised crap that surrounds football today: you would, let’s face it, be a pretty hopeless defender if you looked back at the crowd behind the goal as hordes of forwards descended upon your goal.
The teams came out for the second half, and within three minutes Preston scored a goal of elegant simplicity to go 1-0 into the lead. One of the commentators remarked that United’s right back had left the right channel open, although he had nothing to say about which way he’d been facing. The goalkeeper also, it seemed, hadn’t closed it down: had he done so – and let’s be clear about this – it wouldn’t have been a goal. Oh no.
But as the expert analyst voices over predicted an amazing upset and-this-is-what-the-Cup’s-all-about, United equalised. And then seven minutes later, they took the lead. And so the commentators turned to criticising United manager Van Gaal for not playing this formation in the first half. “Teams of United’s class must stamp their authority on the game from the outset, like they used to in the old days” opined one pundit who probably wasn’t even born when the great United teams of the 50s and 60s were at their peak. Any veteran Reds supporter will tell you that MUFC’s speciality has always been doing things the hard way.
At which point, the Preston keeper brought Rooney down, who then converted the penalty. 3-1.
Later the Preston manager said they’d been comfortable with the 2-3-6, but United’s substitution followed by 4-4-3 had been just too good for them. United’s manager said that the first goal had been devi-hated and thus unlucky. Another pundit said the wide channels had favoured United.
The whole thing was complete rubbish from start to finish.
The Slog 