They say the night is darkest just before the dawn.
Harvey Dent, in the film The Dark Knight, says as much. And for Manchester United this past week, nothing could have been more true. Art imitating sport, or sport imitating art. A turbulent week commenced with the rumours of a new rift between the manager and Wayne Rooney resulting in the Englishman’s removal from the team against Blackburn Rovers, and on, and on.
As most of you well know, United fell to Rovers 3-2 at home. The starting eleven was less than encouraging, featuring a central midfielder in central defense and a winger and a fullback in the centre of the United midfield. And while Blackburn were bottom feeders, they are still a Premier League team and proved as much on the day.
Rooney’s absence clearly had an affect on the match as United were uncharacteristically sloppy in attack and failed to make their early possession count. Complacency was the word of the day as it looked like the team assembled believed they could walk out of the tunnel at Old Trafford and in doing so win the three points. Credit to Blackburn for punching above their weight, but it has to be said that United could not have looked more uninterested.
Perhaps when many thought the night was as dark as it could have gotten, it grew blacker. United’s trip to the northeast was as far from pleasant as being an extra on Geordie Shore. Once again United were too complacent and Newcastle looked more like the team that is challenging for the league championship. United’s issues at the back were brought into the broadest of daylights especially following the Phil Jones own goal in which goalkeeper on the day Anders Lindegaard failed to direct Jones to clear or to call for the ball himself. For every person that was calling for Lindegaard to be our permanent keeper after de Gea’s stutters this term, the end of the Newcastle match as well as the derby at the weekend have put paid to such claims.