CC - Kompany and Rooney
The decision to play Ji Sung Park will come under criticism, but the decision was actually to play Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes in tender. Two 37 year olds in the side are a liability even if one of them is your best player. And the decision to sacrifice Antonio Valencia and retain Nani was probably with the belief that Scholes and Giggs will achieve good ball retention.
Again, it looks awful when the whole plan failed. But United lost as a team- not the fault of individuals.
The alarming fact for United was that after flooding the midfield with five players, they primarily lost the midfield battle. But like with Park, not always those that look bad are the problem. United have no world class wing backs. Evra used to be one and Jones may be world class in other positions. This widens the field of play even beyond what a five man midfield can cover.
Any promising or expensive summer recruits will find it just as difficult with the flanks so badly exposed.
The winning and potentially championship winning goal fell to Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure was worthy of a second practically and symbolically. Without getting the mentioning in these ridiculous end of the season poles – these are the players who transformed a shaky superstar-project into championship material.
WHAT TO DO NOW?