Defence Spending

When I wrote my season's preview in August, I suggested that Man Utd would have the best chance of challenging Chelsea largely due to their devastating strike pairing of Rooney and van Nistelrooy. Unfortunately whilst we played reasonably well in the second half, and scored a stunning equaliser, we were ultimately undone just a few minutes later by the link-up between two of the best strikers in the world. It could be argued that Rooney should have been stopped well before he got into our penalty box but he left the Dutchman with plenty to do with an opportunistic flicked pass, and the finish was absolutely breathtaking. Whilst the goal again showed up the inadequacies of Chris Powell these days, you had to applaud its brilliance even though it killed us off.

For the first 30 minutes or so we were totally outclassed with United moving the ball around like a pinball, but ironically the best chance of the game fell to Darren Bent (who looks worryingly quiet right now) who failed to find the net when El Karkouri's kick ricocheted into his path. However few could have denied United deserved the lead they took, again some slick passing found Smith via Fletcher, and I perhaps wasn't alone in thinking another 4-0 drubbing could be on the cards.

However, Curbs had a few words and most importantly made an early change, bringing on Thomas for the largely ineffective Rommedahl, which allowed Ambrose a freer role which he used devastatingly just a few seconds later driving home from 20 yards after some slick passing of our own. At this point, one felt the confidence generated by the equaliser may lead to a concerted push for a winner, but football has an unfortunate habit of dashing hopes, and it only took five minutes for United to score the winner. The final nail in the coffin came with five minutes left and for the second game running, some blame must be given to Andersen who got down too slowly.

The second half should give fans hope that we can pull out of this mini-slump relatively quickly, but I sense that there is something wrong with the balance of our defence, and we will remain vulnerable there until sorted. We have now conceded 17 goals in 12 games (more than Birmingham and Everton) and this should be cause for concern. I can't quite put my finger on the problem, but certainly Powell isnt good enough, and his replacement in recent weeks Spector looked uncertain in that position also. Against a side like United who tend to use brain rather than brawn to break teams down, I was surprised to see Perry on the bench, and he will have watched with a degree of schadenfraude as the back four was caught too square on more than one occasion in the first period. In short, we need a new left-back (assuming the Herminator remains in the centre) and we need to work out which centre-back pairing is the most effective. (by the way, what happened to Jon Fortune?)

Certainly the return of Ambrose to the side has given us a new attacking option, and it is disappointing to see him stranded on the left since he is clearly one of those players who can make things happen. Perhaps he is best suited in a free role as a deep-lying second striker with Curbs sacrificing one of the midfielders to play a narrower 4-4-1-1? Either way, three defeats on the spin and all those goals conceded suggest some sorts of changes either to personnel or formation at Villa, a ground where our record is shocking.