Boring, Boring United... And Villarreal

Oh dear. United are clearly still suffering from a Moscow hangover. We are just poor, almost everyone in the team. We do not have one in-form player, with the possible exception of Mr. Darren Fletcher.

Fergie omitted Carlos Tevez from the starting line-up despite Berbatov's injury and opted for a 4-2-3-1, with Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani supporting Wayne Rooney. It worked well for about 15 minutes in the first half then for about three attacks in the second. Otherwise...

We had a goal rightly chalked off for offside but that was at least a great move in a game which was notable only because of the startling lack of quality displayed. United and Villarreal played out three 0-0 draws before and it never looked like ending differently.

True, we hit the bar with a ferocious Ronaldo shot and had a deflected cross headed off the line but on the whole we were indecisive in midfield and toothless up front. Wayne Rooney was isolated, Nani was simply poor while Anderson faded after a very good start. He hit the target twice though - must be some sort of record for him!

I know we are spoiled, that the team's success has been so great in the past two seasons that these dire games come somewhat unexpected. But really I'm struggling to find any positive in these last two games, apart from the performance of Jonny Evans who once again proved we can rely on him. But otherwise...

At least we are through, we'll probably win the group and certainly kept our unbeaten record intact - it's now 18 Champions League games, only two behind Ajax's record of 20. There's plenty of room for improvement, we have great players and there's everything to play for still.

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