United found themselves down against Southampton today during the F.A. Cup 4th Round. This is the second time this week that United were losing at half time, the first one against Blackpool, where they were down by two, but came back to win the game 3-2. United found themselves in a bit of déjà vu in this match. The game started of pretty slow and United started off pretty sloppy. In this match they found themselves down by one as the man with the golden boots, Richard Chaplow drilled one into the back of the net in the 45th minute.
The lineup for Manchester was as follows; Lindegaard, O’Shea, Smallings, Evans, Fabio, Anderson, Scholes, Gibson, Oberton, Owen and Hernandez. It’s obvious that this isn’t their best lineup, but frankly, an undefeated side from the Premier League shouldn’t have to play their best lineup against a fourth place League 1 team. The problem with this lineup wasn’t any of the players, but rather the combination of players. First of all, we had O’Shea, Smallings, Evans and Fabio as the defense, four players that don’t start for United. There really should have been a starting defender in the line of defenders. Other than that, I didn’t really have a problem with their lineup. We shouldn’t be wasting the like of Berbatov and Rooney up top for a game like this. Also, I thought it was the perfect game for Lindegaard to make his debut for United. Southampton looked much calmer when attacking against such a major club. There was a nothing to lose approach, so they focused on getting around United with nice passing. They also made sure to intercept a lot of the opposition’s passes. Richard Chaplow, took the ball past Johnny Evans after there was a slight mix up and smashed it passed Lindengaard and to the back of the net with only injury time left in the first half.
After halftime, Fabio was subbed off for Wes Brown. Taking off Fabio was a good decision, because he didn’t seem to get past the defense when he took on a slight attacking role. In the 58th minute, Sir Alex Ferguson had enough and subbed on Ryan Giggs, who took over central midfield and Nani who became the new left winger. Immediately the game had changed. United were the new attacking force. Nani and Giggs set up almost every attacking opportunity. United were looking much better but Southampton wasn’t calling quits. They were attacking just as intensely and Chaplow was all over the place, playing a great game for his team. Oberton then crossed it to Owen who scored United opening goal. Now level, United put way more pressure while attacking which allowed them to catch their second goal. Giggs had a perfect pass to Hernandez, and the young Mexican forward got passed his man. United got by with a win, but could have easily been knocked out of the F.A. Cup.
Javier Hernández scores his 11th goal of the season and Manchester United's winner at Southampton. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA
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