Er... Strange rant, seeing as the post you were responding to wasn't trying to justify his place in our squad. I was simply pointing out the annoyance of a young player being consistently scape-goated whether or not the dropped points were anything to do with his own failings. He's being accused in this thread of creating nothing all game. This is patently bollox as he linked up nicely with Berbatov to create a goal. Something no other United player could manage on the night.
Gibson did ok last night but tired towards the end. That may be because, I dunno, he hasn't played a game of football in months? Unfortunately his midfield partner, who should be a lot fitter, got the hook half an hour before the end after a dire display and Fergue had no other midfielders on the bench. This is all Darron Gibson's fault, apparently. It's also his fault we dropped points. It's all Gibson's fault you see. It always is.
As for squad places, there will always be a place in our squad for one or two home-grown players who might or might not develop into a useful and loyal squad player, despite not being as talented as their more illustrious peers. I have no problem with this, although the lack of opportunities for Gibson this season would imply Gibson won't get a place next season. I've no problem with that either. I don't think he's good enough, personally, as I've always thought he only had an outside chance of a long career at United. I'm glad he's been given a fair crack of the whip though and got one more season on the back of some decent performances last season, while providing a goal threat from range that nobody else in our squad possesses.
He'll probably be off in the summer and the fans who love a scape-goat can get their knives out for another youngster instead. That's the way they roll. It's all about the blame game.
Have to agree with Pogue here, what frustrates people here is that Gibson yet again delivered at the
business end of things again yet his performance was "terrible". It's crank idealism to nitpick the absence of the effective out of the presence of aesthetics.
Let's talk about his involvement in the United goal.
The movement for the goal Darron Gibson was involved from start to finish:
Edwin took a short goal kick to Evra ... who passed to
Gibson in a deep position who played it wide to Rafael.... who passed it to Carrick who passed it to Giggs centrally who passed it to Berbatov who was just outside the centre circle who passed it to
Gibson just on the right side of the middle third of the pitch, who played it straight to Berbatov who got into the box and finished it.
The movement wasn't that great, indeed the movement for the Birmingham goal was fantastic by comparison ... yet it got the job done.
I won't say that Gibson wasn't beyond fault for the Birmingham goal but if you look logically at the movement, from flank to flank,
anyone from Fletcher, Gibson, Carrick, Giggs and the forward two who could've been back defending could've done better while Birmingham were passing left right and centre across midfield. A cross that Evra didn't stop and which Rafael didn't clear as Hleb and Bowyer were giving them the run around ... and perhaps Vida, Rio and Edwin could've done more to prevent Zigic and Bowyer doing the damage in the box ... even though they were offside and they did cheat a little. Basically United had been exposed in every area come the end, and were unlucky to conceed.
There was probably a level of fatigue, but Birmingham were allowed to keep the ball for a good spell of 2 minutes and they managed to punish United for it. The sad reality is that even the more favoured players are going to give the ball away after all that.
Part of the reason why people want to cynically attack Gibson for the Birmingham goal was because ironically he was the last United person to touch the ball before the goal, when his misplaced pass was claimed/saved by Ben Foster... but it's rather juvenile to blame him for a goal that happened
two minutes later particularly a move where the ball was played all the way back to Ben Foster half way through it.
The only United player who didn't have a bad pass or misplaced shot was Darren Fletcher. The other twelve players from Edwin to Chichorito
gave away possession, and often closer to their own goal than to the opposition's goal.
United do need to work on defending leads, you have three players in Gibson, Carrick and Fletcher all three of whom, are considered "defensive players" and all their attempts to pressurise the opposition counter-attack, which essentially this goal was appeared uneffective. Perhaps United do need a specialist/orthodox defensive midfielder rather than an intermediate, someone who can read when the game is swinging the other way and can make interventions and organise the midfield á lá Keane or Hargreaves.
The fact is attacking individuals for a team responsibility, is equally so.
