It's a pity Markus Liebherr was not around to see the game yesterday. Saints gave an excellent account of themselves and were the dominant side for 70 minutes. They were not over-awed but stuck to their game plan and it worked. It was I guess inevitable that the fire-power and never-say-die mental toughness of one of the world's top teams would prevail.
For me, the man of the match was Morgan Schneiderlin who orchestrated the mid-field with a maturity beyond his years and in a style reminiscent of Paul Scholes whom he was playing opposite - quite a tribute. There were 4000 empty seats! Perhaps the Saints hierarchy will ask themselves why and see that it was their ticketing policy that led directly to the lack of a full house.
Potentially there could have been a huge gulf in class. Between the teams there wasn't. Several Man U players did not acquit themselves well and showed poorly: Evans, Gibson, O'Shea and Anderson among them. Obertan will come good - watch his progress. For me, the only gulf in class was between the sheer professionalism and hard work of Michael Owen and the playground baby antics of Nani. Owen as a striker expects to come up against a degree of physical resistance. He's not the biggest on the pitch, but after each battering he picked himself up and got on with the game. Nani on the other hand is more concerned with looking cool and dancing than playing for the team and getting stuck in. Somebody needs to tell him football is a contact sport and he cannot continue to feign life-threatening injury every time he gets tackled. Perhaps he should have done ballet instead.
Well done Saints - proud to be one of your supporters. Now we can concentrate on the League - second place would suit me fine!
