Former Manchester United defender David May previews the Norwich game at the weekend.
The Basel game was crazy!!!! It’s not very often we go two goals up and then look like we might lose a game. Like the Gaffer said in his post match interview the lads have got to treat this as a wake up call. We got away with it against Chelsea and Arsenal but we can’t keep being this open at the back.
People have criticised Rio and the other defenders but the midfielders have to offer more protection. It’s great seeing Anderson bomb forward and he really has come on this season but he has to remember his defensive duties as well. I also love watching our full backs go forward, it’s like we have two sets of wingers at times but if we are 2-0 up there is no need for them to be as gung-ho, players like Nani and Young can cause the opposition enough trouble, especially with the likes of Welbeck scoring goals for fun.
Don’t get me wrong – I do love the way we play and I would always rather see a 3-3 than a 0-0 but I just think we have to be careful at times, I would expect to see us concentrate really hard to keep our clean sheet against the Canaries on Saturday!
I have got to be honest, I don’t know the Norwich squad that well, it may be because two years ago they were in League one. Back to back promotions and within a blink of an eye they are back in the big time. Paul Lambert has done an incredible job with limited resources and Delia must be over the moon.
They have a few decent looking players that deserve a chance in the top division. I will be interested to see Grant Holt, Bradley Johnson and Wes Hoolahan throughout the season. They also have Ritchie De Laet on loan from us and although he can’t play on Saturday it’s nice to see our reserve lads performing at a club like Norwich. I can remember when the Premiership first began, the Canaries were one of the top teams, they had good players like Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox and Bryan Gunn. On their day they could give anyone a game, it was exciting times down at Carrow Road. I am not sure exactly what went wrong, they have been a bit of a yo-yo club the last ten years but hopefully they can establish themselves back in the big league.
Dangerman: Wes Hoolahan
I have only seen him play a handful of times but he looks like a decent attacking midfielder. He scored goals at the lower levels, was off the mark with the equaliser against Wigan on the opening day of the season and was probably their best player against Sunderland last week. It’s sometimes a difficult choice for their manager to always pick him in the Premier League because he must think, “am I better off playing with a more defensive midfield?” But as Blackpool showed last season, if you’re going to go down you might as well go down fighting and I think if they have any chance of staying up this season Wes Hoolahan will have a big part to play in that.
Prediction : United are gonna win 5-0 against with a hat-trick from Danny Welbeck!!!
