Any positives from the Leeds defeat?

After such a shocking performance yesterday, I don’t really know where to begin. We were so poor all over the pitch that I’m struggling to see any positives.

It’s embarrassing to us fans to have been knocked out of the FA Cup to a League One team, but when that team is Leeds United it gets all the more unbearable. We’ve been knocked out by a few lower league teams under Sir Alex Ferguson, but this is the one that’ll hurt more than any other.

It’s not even like we can say we played a weak side that were beaten by experienced players. The manager put enough Premier League regulars out there to win a game against a team two divisions below us quite easily. The team selection was fine. It’s the players who need to have a long hard look at themselves, particularly the local lads Wes Brown and Gary Neville who should know the levels of passion and commitment needed in a game against Leeds.

But there was no passion. No drive. No determination. We were sloppy in many areas of the pitch and there’s no excuse for it.

Gary Neville is making it harder and harder to justify his place in the squad. Captain or not, he’s become a liability by constantly giving the ball away in dangerous positions and putting the rest of the defence under pressure.

Fabio put in a good shift on the opposite wing. His final delivery wasn’t great, but the rest of his game was fine and he showed more determination than most.

Danny Welbeck showed why he’s not a first team regular yet. His touch is far too heavy and it cost us possession a few times yesterday, not to mention the times he received the ball in good attacking positions only to lose it before getting it under control.

Gibson started well in the middle alongside Anderson, but faded pretty quickly and wasn’t seen much after the opening 10 minutes. Anderson was much better, but he offers very little threat to any opponents goal.

Rooney put himself about a bit, got stuck in and his general play was excellent, until it came to the most important part of his job, scoring goals. He wasted numerous chances to level the score with poor finishing. He created space for himself time and time again, as well as finding himself in fantastic goal scoring positions, but when you can’t hit the target from 6 yards out there’s something wrong.

Berbatov sparked to life in the last 10 – 15 minutes, but it was too little too late. He should have been ready from kick off, not wait 75 minutes before he starts playing.

We like to complain when teams stick every man behind the ball because it makes them hard to break down. Leeds did what we usually prefer and actually tried to attack us. That should have made it easier for us to find gaps in their defence, but in truth there was very little creativity from us in the final third and it’s been a common theme in all of our defeats this season.

Fergie needs to sit the players down and remind them what it means to play for Manchester United. There are certain levels of commitment required to play for this great club and we’re just not seeing it at the moment.

My only hope is that we bounce back with a win against City in the Carling Cup on Wednesday. Losing to two bitter rivals in the same week would be very hard to take!

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