RedsUnite: a man utd blog

(Newcastle supporters: I’m sorry. I fully appreciate your plight. As a Chicago Cubs baseball fan I’m fully aware of what it’s like to support a side that does nothing but disappoint you so profoundly on an annual basis. Please take no offense to the following.)

What a sorry side Newcastle is. They truly owe their supporters an apology. Seldom does a side capitulate so willingly in the face of the slightest difficulty. They play with the kind of resignation only seen in sides destined for relegation. It is as if they fully anticipate the worst, then actively court it once they fall behind. I couldn’t imagine supporting a side like Newcastle; they are truly undeserving of support.

It isn’t as though they are a small club; 14th in the Football Money League at £129.4m. What have they done with their riches? Fielded a side of players whose goal differential against the top half of the EPL table is -26. In their last four matches against Arsenal and Manchester United they have been defeated by an aggregate total of 17-1. They will have taken 2 points from their last nine matches and they have only come from behind to win once all season. It’s one thing to be a poor side, but to quit is unforgivable.

The brass gave Sam Allardyce, a manager whose reputation should surely have granted him at least one full season, 24 games before they sent him packing. They were unable to find a top-class replacement, so they reinstalled a face from a decade ago, Kevin Keegan. Keegan has yet to win a match since his arrival and has only proven that Newcastle’s failures were certainly not Allardyce’s fault. This Newcastle side has no spine and to expect great success from them is unrealistic. Manager’s can teach many things, but they can’t teach backbone. You either have it or you don’t.

Manchester United walked all over Newcastle in the same manner they did in the first match. These matches are so lopsided they barely deserve discussion. The scoreline reads 5-1, but it is always much worse than that. The way that Newcastle lose is horribly undignified: Newcastle has conceded 5 goals beyond the 80th minute in the past two matches against Manchester United. What more do you have to know about a club?

What should Manchester United take away from this game? Nothing, I hope. I hope we don’t read anything into this performance. All matches like this do is artificially inflate our confidence and make us overestimate our abilities. Of course we annihilate sides like Newcastle; they are pathetic. We should treat this match as though it was a scrimmage against a non-league team: good practice but nothing more.