How United dropped points against Cardiff

United dropped the ball at Cardiff

If the games against Man City and Swansea were any indication, United visiting Cardiff was bound to be a mega event for the Cardiff City faithful. A cup knock-out game like atmosphere and Cardiff’s 12^th man – the supporters were going to ensure their team would never find themselves short of motivation.

And true to the expectations it did start noisy. Became even more intense when Rooney got a yellow when probably he should have got a red (let’s not get into that) and reached a whole new level when quite inevitably Rooney scored the opener. For all the pressure Cardiff were applying, United were defending quite ably. It took a genius of a through-ball by Jordan Mutch to carve out United’s defense which former United player Campbell slotted coolly past De Gea.

United had benefited from some poor set piece defending by Arsenal in their last match and they did again when Medel gave up on Evra who rose above all from a corner to head United back into the lead just before the half-time whistle. Evra, though returned the favour later in the match.

But as the game progressed on it started becoming clear how much United are going to miss Carrick in the coming weeks. Without his usual calmness and vision United’s midfield slowly but surely started losing the battle. Gary Medel continuing on his impressive showing for Chile against England started dominating. Cleverley was almost absent as he didn’t complete a single tackle nor won any headed duel. His solitary shot missed the mark and he was not able to add much quality wise.

For once Fellaini cannot be criticized. He perhaps had his best game in an United shirt while playing deep in the midfield. He was close to scoring once, only to Cardiff keeper keeping out his header at the back post. Although not quite the Fellaini we knew from his Everton days, but it was still an improved performance.

Cardiff came close to leveling the match when Campbell chipped De Gea but the ball rebounded of the crossbar. Cleverley almost headed in an own goal before the ineluctable happened. Kim Bo-kyung scored from a corner in stoppage time and United had dropped points again in the final minutes. That is seven points dropped including the three against West Brom and two against Southampton.

The most happening place to be during and just after the match is twitter. The wide range of reactions, analysis and pure emotions one can find is amazing. And as expected the ‘Moyes Out’ camp was back in full voice after the final whistle. But to be entirely true this time around Moyes or his tactics cannot be directly blamed. Although one might argue about his substitutions or rather the lack of them as he again didn’t not utilize the full quota of three available substitutes.

It actually came down to three incidents – mistakes by United’s players that eventually led to dropping two points. Firstly with United still leading in the dying minutes Welbeck having played a classy one –two with Rooney had clear shot but blazed his effort over the top of the cross-bar from 18 yards out. Then while defending the corner from which Cardiff scored, Evra made a grave mistake by standing still. He didn’t move at all even as the corner came in giving Kim easy access to the ball.

Thirdly, as the game restarted with just about a couple of added minutes remaining, Giggs made a brilliant diagonal lob pass and Rooney found himself in the clear. Although his attempted pass to Welbeck rather than an attempt at goal was fully justified, the lack of weight on the pass meant United lost a golden chance of snatching another of the signature stoppage time winner. And thus, although United remained unbeaten for the 10^th straight game, they lost the chance to go into the top 4 and more importantly lost out on two very valuable points.