It's the end of an era, but it's not the end of an empire

_Friday, December 09, 2005_

Right I've just started on my holiday homework(hooray!), and I seriously doubt I can finish by the time school starts but who cares.

The reprecussions from the Benfica match is massive, United are OUT of the Champions League, and finished BOTTOM of Group D(raws). We only scored three goals v Benfica and drawn blanks in the other 4 games, that is just simply unacceptable going by the standards that United have set for the past 10 years. We have only won one one game, and lost two away.Now where is the problem? I think central midfield is the biggeset problem we've got, Scholes is doing ok now but Smith can't cut it at European level where the midfielders are of a higher quality, he dives in here and there but can't pass a ball for toffee. Rooney has disappointed, Ronaldo as well, but most of our attacking players just disappear on the European stage.

Onto last night's game, we got off to a good start, in fact excellent start, Scholes scoring inside 6 mins, everyone thoguht it would be a cakewalk but after that we lost ourshape, players began to roam for some reason, and Benfica domnioated. Massive gaps all over the pitch, the team was so long it was untrue, needed to be compact, and of course at european level we need to keep the ball, but we gave it away too cheaply too often, and couldn't find the killer pass. The first goal came from bad defending by Rio(cock), stick your head in there and get it away, he doesn't have the balls or the wnning mentaility which is vital, and questions NEED to be asked abouthim and Mickey. Ir ate Wesley and Itihnk he should be given more of a chance. Ronaldo tried to prove a point to the crowd, flicks and so on, didn;t work out, absolute shite, but questions also needs to be asked why he was cutting inside all the fuckingtime, the Benfica left back Leo was well dodgy and proper width owuldhave gotten us some rewards. Sir Alex also took cahnces on Gaz and gigsg who were obviously not match fit, and it didn;t work out, similar to the Ruud gamble last season, which ultimately fialed, and also Ruud has lost a couple yards of pace as well. What peeves me is that we did nto force Quim into making any saves at all in the second half, very disapppointing.

I guess the bright spot now is we can conccentrate on closing theg ap on ski, and at least we won't have to endure the UEFA cup. And GET BEHIND FERGIE, no fucking sack Fergie bring in Gatusso Torres Ballack Buffon Joaquin Nesta crap