The Deja vu that was felt when it was announced that United would be playing Palace for our first home game on return to the Premier League after three years away only went so far as exactly that with yesterday's game. The crowd was still eager, some of the players were the same (more from a United stand point than a Palace one) and the result was the same, just the opposite way round this time. After all the build up and, loose, excitement (think a lot of that died after this past week) United returned to the top flight with a result that we were familiar with the last time we were in the division. A narrow defeat. Let's have a look at how it all panned out.
Despite the loss of Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge in the past two weeks, Berge literally this past week. There was some buoyancy from United fans after the late night (for everyone's sake, we should never announce a signing at midnight again. Ever.) announcement of one of the Championship's top performers, Coventry City's Gustavo Hamer for a 'significant undisclosed fee'. Unfortunately, Hamer was only at The Lane to watch his new teammates and be paraded to the crowd as United started the new campaign with a starting line up that, being kind, wasn't exactly Premier League standard. The defence and goalkeeper spots were the same as last season, which is fine. The real problem was in midfield and attack with Hecky naming a midfield three of Norwood, Osborn and Chris Basham and an attack made up of 19 year old Will Osula and 20 year old Benie Traore. A lack of Slimane in the midfield was a little bit baffling but, and it's here where our recruitment has lacked during the summer, Traore and Osula really were our only options to start up top. Whichever way you look at it, no other Premier League team will have a forward line as young or inexperienced as the two that we picked yesterday afternoon. Despite the threadbare looking starting line up, there was a crackle of atmosphere around The Lane as we kicked off our 23/24 season with the fans heeding Hecky's call to be the twelth man just before the season began. United started the quicker of the two teams and kept Palace penned in for a large part of the opening exchanges with Benie, Will and Ben Osborn running themselves into the ground to keep the press on. The first chance of the contest would fall to United with Osula picking the ball up just inside the box. His curled effort took a nick off of a Palace defender and narrowly flew by Johnstone's post for a corner. It's safe to say the ground would have exploded had that chance sneaked in. Alas, Palace grew into the game as the half wore on with Eze beginning to pull the strings in the attack. It looked like Palace had opened the scoring just after the twenty minute mark when Wes palmed a strong effort from Andersen straight into the path of an onrushing Jordan Ayew. Not hesitating, the experienced forward nodded home first time past Wes with United being saved by a late offside flag from the John Street linesman. Palace continued to dominate the proceedings throughout the half as United struggled to find any cohesion without a link man between midfield and attack. We would have a shot on goal as the clock continued towards the 40 minute mark with Norwood blasting an effort towards goal from outside the area that Johnstone saved comfortably. Aside from that, there wasn't much else to report in a first period that started brightly for The Blades, but saw us hanging on a bit as the half continued. We didn't have to wait long for the opener to come after the half time break with four minutes gone, Palace had the ball in the back of the Kop end net. Good interplay down the left from Palace involving Lerma and Ayew saw the ex-Ghanaian international bypass Osborn and cross into the six yard area for Odsonne Edouard tapping home to get his, and Palace's, first goal of the season. The pressure continued from the visitors as United struggled to get a foothold back into the contest. Efforts became more frequent as Wes was kept much busier than he was in the first period. Palace would again have the ball in the back of the net with Edouard again rippling with Kop net with a sliding finish from a Tyreek Mitchell cross. The linesman again saved United's blushes as they raised the flag for offside. A rare break for United stuck with Traore and Osula connecting well after a punt for Foderingham with our new signing laying the ball on for Osula to whip a vicious effort towards goal that had Johnstone scrambling. Unfortunately, the effort was just wide of the post, kissing the side netting. After this, it was back to Palace domination with Wes repelling a variety of efforts as we wound down past the 80 minute mark. Subs would be introduced for United but it wasn't to be as the referee blew up to see a scratch United squad narrowly lose to Palace on the opening day. Not to sound defeatist, but I'm not sure what else could have been expected yesterday other than a loss with the line up we put out. Despite the signings of Hamer and Souza being exciting and what has been needed, it still doesn't excuse the lack of thought or forward planning that we have been told has been there all summer should we lose important players who are crucial to the way we play. We shouldn't be at the point where we are scrambling to replace key parts of our attacking repartee a week before the season starts because we can make a quick buck on players. That's not smart business sense, that's setting up a team and a manager for failure. The past two weeks as a United fan have been baffling to say the least. I struggle to think of a top level team in any country, let alone the Premier League, that has gone into the season looking weaker than they did when the previous season ended like we do currently. Signings are needed and they are needed now. The excuses are out of the window as far as we're concerned. We need bodies and quickly. Until next time, UTB.
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AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
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