David Moyes' difficult start to life at Manchester United continued at
Old Trafford as Sevilla spoiled Rio Ferdinand's testimonial with a 3-1
win.
On-loan Chelsea midfielder Marko Marin was among the scorers for the
Primera Division outfit, who were in Montenegro last night to complete a
comfortable Europa League victory over Mladost Podgorica.
While it was only a friendly and most of United's senior stars missed
out in readiness for Sunday's Community Shield encounter with Wigan at
Wembley, it does mean they have won just two of seven pre-season matches
since Moyes replaced Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer.
Following the failure to make any significant signings to date, and
the continued uncertainty over Wayne Rooney's future, the result is
hardly the ideal backdrop to a Premier League title defence that starts
at Swansea next Saturday.
Yet, speaking to "BT Sport" immediately before the game, Moyes insisted
he has had a "brilliant" five weeks in charge and he was only
encountering issues anyone would have come across, including his
predecessor.
"Everybody who takes over at Manchester United has testing times," he said.
"Even Sir Alex Ferguson had testing times. It is no different for David Moyes."
Nevertheless, Moyes could not be happy at the ease with which Vitolo
and Marin, the latter on a season-long loan from Stamford Bridge, got
their first-half goals.
Prior to the double blow, Chilean teenager Angelo Henriquez fired
straight at Beto after being sent clean through, while afterwards,
Shinji Kagawa should have found the net after being picked out at the
far post by Antonio Valencia, only to be thwarted by the visitors'
keeper.
Valencia blazed over in first-half stoppage time before Adnan Januzaj
was off target with a curling effort just after the break.
Januzaj's presence, along with that of Jesse Lingard, who was
introduced at half-time, was a reminder of two young stars that have
shone during pre-season.
And the pair combined as the Belgian forced another good save out of
Beto before nipping onto the rebound and crossing for Valencia to finish
off.
Lingard just failed to finish off Fabio's low cross as he slid in at
the far post, while a more experienced United outfit - bolstered by the
introductions of Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick, Phil Jones and Wilfired
Zaha - began to take control.
Zaha and Carrick both had opportunities to level near the end but were unable to take them.
Restored to England's senior squad for next week's friendly with
Scotland, Zaha almost brought United level three minutes from time, only
for Beto to make another smart save.
In the end, Bryan Rabello ensured there was no way back for United,
although if nothing else, Moyes was able to see the development of his
young players continue.
"It is good that we are giving young players a game," he said.
"It has always been part of the tradition of this club and I am looking forward to making that happen.
"There are one or two who make me think they are not far away.
"We will push them and see where we get to."
After the match, Ferdinand confirmed his desire for silverware extends to Sunday.
"We wanted to win tonight and we are not happy to lose," said Ferdinand.
"But on Sunday we will make sure we go down there to win.
"Not many players get to play 10 years at one club and I will be proud when I have finished.
"But before that I have got things to win."
Ferdinand also reserved special praise for Januzaj, who was awarded the man-of-the-match honour.
"Adnan was our best player tonight. That is fantastic for the
manager," he said, before offering his backing to Moyes ahead of the
acid test of his managerial credentials over the next few weeks.
"We have a new manager in place and everyone needs to get behind him."
No comments:
Post a Comment