On Friday night it was an usually English Premiership match between Aston Villa and Manchester United at the Villa Park. This was mainly due to the fact that the match was shifted to Friday on the advise of the West Midlands Police due to the Saturday match in Walsall..
Coming into the match, United looked so confident mainly due to their record of never having lost a game at Villa Park for 20 years. Adnan Janusaj was given a rare start in the central no10 position behind Wayne Rooney and ahead of Ashley Young. While Villa's new signing Adama Traore from Barcelona watched his new teammates from the stand.
The talk of the match centered on Juan Mata who bossed United's attack all through the 90 minutes. Mata at the end of the match proved Van Gaal wrong for playing him in the flank, instead of his natural no 10 possible. Mata created lots of chances and could have finished the match with much more assist, than the solitary one that he ended up with. Wayne Rooney was more of a passenger all through the match in what should be a concern for the manager. The problem for Van Gaal is that his team is yet to gel and that Wayne Rooney has not scored an away goal since November 2014. This is after Van Gaal offloaded both Radamel Falcao and Robin Van Persie this season respectively. That has left him short in attack with youngster James Wilson and Wayne Rooney the only senior strikers in the club. Rooney touched the ball less than all United players during the match and often played behind the no 10 Adnan Janusaj who scored the only goal of the match after receiving a defense splitting pass from Juan Mata, and taking his time and calmly finishinh via his weaker right foot.
Janusaj has been a subject of loan interest from several clubs recently and it was a surprise he started today's match, since his last start was in February 2015 and his last goal since April 2014. With his performance tonight, one might conclude that Janusaj has done enough to convince Van Gaal that he deserves more game time.
The main problem for Van Gaal is that his team has only three shots on target In two matches even though they have scored two goals. What this means is that , while they might appear good defensively, they are weak and incohesive attack wise. There is still time for him to buy players in the transfer market but that may not solve the problem. The solotion to the problem is that the likes of Schneiderlin, Memphis, Darmian all need time and patience to get to their peak, and this is something not so common in the EPL as David Moyes found out last season.
Tim Sherwood and his Villa team did not perform badly either but showed United so much respect , by allowing them time and space on the ball In the first half all too often . The form of Amavi and Gueye is impressing to say the least and it is clear Micah Richards may be the bargain of the season. Villa have done well to replace prominent players like Fabian Delph, Christian Benteke, Ron Vlaar and Tom Clevery with the likes of Richards , Ayew, Amavi and Traore to mention but a few. United should count themselves lucky that referee Mike Dean did not point to the spot in the first half when Darmian clearly fouled Richards during the tussle for a corner. It was a clear penalty that was turned down by Dean. That could have changed not only the game but score line completely if it was awarded to Villa.
It is clear from tonight's game that though United isn't playing well, they are gaining the three points required and Mata may be the new Top dog of the team ahead of Wayne Rooney.
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