Report: Fulham 3 – 0 Manchester United

Manchester United lost more ground in their race for the title today after slumping to a 3-0 away defeat to Fulham.

The Champions slipped to their 5th league defeat of the season in a somewhat pedestrian performance by the reds, who never really got out of 2nd gear.

United will point to their injury worries as a contributing factor to the loss, and they’ll have a point. Any team with Vidic, Ferdinand, Neville, Brown, Evans, O’Shea and Rafael missing from the defence would eventually come up against a side that would expose the weaknesses of the makeshift replacements. Unluckily for United, that side happened to be Fulham.

Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Richie De Laet made up United’s three man defence today as Sir Alex Ferguson chose to change his tactics. Patrice Evra and Antonio Valencia played as wing backs, Anderson, Darron Gibson and Paul Scholes formed the midfield with Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney up front.

It’s a formation that’s unfamiliar to the United players and it certainly showed. Paul Scholes left his radar at home as he misplaced pass after pass in the middle in dangerous areas. This led to pressure on the defence and eventually it told. Danny Murphy took the ball off Scholes just outside the centre circle, then ran unchallenged before striking a sweet shot into the corner of the net from 20 yards out. Michael Carrick will feel he should have closed him down quicker, and Tomasz Kuszczak probably should have done better, but in truth Fulham’s adventurous start to the game meant they were worthy of taking the lead.

United continued to be sloppy in midfield, Scholes and Anderson the worst offenders, while Gibson was wasteful with his shooting. The knock on effect meant that the pressure was always on the makeshift back three and at the other end of the pitch the strikers weren’t getting any service.

Bobby Zamora should have made it 2-0 after Zoltan Gera floated in a perfect cross, but the centre forward headed wide from 6 yards.

The half time whistle couldn’t have come soon enough for Sir Alex Ferguson who had seen his team put in their worst performance of the season. Nevertheless, he kept faith in his underperforming players and the same XI started the second half.

But whatever tactics Ferguson had set out to employ in the second half were dealt a blow almost instantly. Damien Duff crossed towards Clint Dempsey, who in turn knocked in down for Zamora who smashed it past Kuszczac from close range. Fulham had doubled their lead within 20 seconds of the second half.

Dimitar Barbatov came on for Darron Gibson and Fabio for De Laet as United attempted a late fightback. But the game was dead and buried in the 75th when Zamora set up Duff to score Fulham’s third from inside the area.

United stay three points behind league leaders Chelsea, having played a game more.

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