Originally Posted by
Metal Warrior
See, I don't buy this. If you're putting out 11 individuals and play the game on paper, we'd have won comfortably against Norwich as well. The problem is, that's exactly what we're doing, putting out a group of individuals without actually thinking about how it'll all work together. More often than not, our midfield pairings in particular have been a recipe for disaster, and yesterday was a perfect example of that.
You don't have to be a genius to predict that a Darren Fletcher who'se clearly lacking energy to play to his full potential and an aging Paul Scholes means we'll lack any sort of mobility or pressing in midfield. And even against cannon fodder, that will hurt your chances, as we've seen against QPR, Norwich, Aston Villa and many matches before it, even if we eventually got a result on most of those occasions. You can stick your head in the sand and say "we've got enough quality out there to win those games", or you can start to realise that without a proper game plan and compatible players on the pitch, all that quality doesn't matter so much. Tactics matter, and we need to improve in that area to maximize our chances to win each game.