And it could have been worse. Fulham opted not to defend, and against a Utd team full of quick, attacking players, this proved disasterous. Yesterday Aston Villa went to Highbury with a similar challenge, and lined up four defenders and four midfielders and packed the defensive third of the field. They harried the quicker and better Arsenal players, and came close to pulling off a major shock (they drew 1-1).
Fulham had a back four of Rosenior, Christenval, Pearce and Queudrue. This in itself was not the problem, although they didn’t help things with some awful positional play. What concerns me more is what lay in front, in that Brown, Bouba Diop, Bullard and Boa Morte really offered nothing to help. United simply cut Fulham apart, moving down the wings and into the channels with utter ease. The midfield played reasonably when in possession, but Coleman needs to do something about the defending and fast.
Oddly, the first few minutes were halfway encouraging, with Bouba Diop having a couple of half chances to make an impression. Then Giggs found a lot of space on the left, was hardly challenged, floated a ball onto the edge of the six yard box and celebrated as Saha’s glanced header bounced into the corner of the Fulham net. Saha had not been challenged in his approach, ghosting between Rosenior and Pierce to leave Niemi with little chance.
The second came on a quarter of an hour, as Ian Pearce was unfortunate to divert a low, fizzing Saha cross into his own net from the six yard line. The buildup was similar to the first goal, in that United had time to play and time to get wide and from there everything seemed a bit inevitable. Pearce had to go for the ball and the cross was good enough to force his error. Niemi looked to have saved it but the ball flew through his legs and the game already seemed lost.
The third came as an angled free kick somehow found its way past everyone and allowed Saha a free volley on goal. Niemi kept this out, but was unable to prevent Wayne Rooney from stroking the ball into the net. 3-0.
A minute later the game was definitely over, as again United found space on the left. A looping chip to the far post might have been dealt with by Queudrue, but the new left back waved his left leg at air as the ball dropped to Ronaldo, who scorched a half volley into the roof of the net from eight yards. Again, far too easy.
From here it all got a bit irrelevant. Helguson broke through the middle and scored via a deflection that looped over the ‘keeper, but, well, really, so what?
Scholes could have had a fifth, and later Rooney did. Again, irrelevant. Michael Brown may have been frustrated when he stamped on Ryan Giggs’ leg, but that’s no excuse and his yellow card seemed lenient. He may yet be punished, and deserves to be.
So… that was that. In truth, we can hardly have expected anything from the game, but the utter paucity of effort and the absolutely dire defending does not bode at all well for the season ahead.
On Wednesday Bolton come to Craven Cottage, and should present a different and more comfortable challenge. But Sam Allardyce will have been rubbing his hands with glee after watching this. It’s all very worrying.
