A LOOK BACK AT MY SUNDAY, RUINED BY UNITED’S POOR SHOW AND THEN CROWD SEXISM AT CITY!

As a massive Manchester United fan since being a small boy, I had been looking forward all week to watching them play on the telly on Sunday afternoon, away at newly promoted Leicester City. I woke up on Sunday morning feeling all excited like a big kid, full of nervous anticipation at the prospect of seeing all our new galaticos signings play again. Afterall, we beat QPR 4-0 at home last game and it seemed the good old days were finally back again. Under Moyes we never once played with the swagger that we did against QPR under Louis Van Gaal. Granted we’d had a bad first three games this season but now he had dispensed with the unsuited 3-5-2 formation, then things definitely seemed on the up. By nature though I’m a rather cautious person and so very rarely do I boastfully declare beforehand that I think United will win comfortably. I suppose I’m wary if I do indeed exude utter confidence in United before they play, then this might jinx it or put the mockers on it so to speak. Nevertheless, with the the glorious win from last week still shinning brightly in the back of my mind, I did what I don’t do much……..namely I boldly predicted an easy win for us when replying to fellow red on twitter. After what the result was(we got hammered),  lets just say I’m going back to being ‘overtly cautious Andy’ for the time being.

United started the game like the Harlem Globetrotters, it seemed like ‘sexy football’ to coin a well known football phrase. They were superb with Falcao majestically setting up Van Persie’s first goal and D Maria scoring an outstanding second. There was the blip  of  Leceister then going down the other end straight after and scoring their first goal(bad marking by Rafael), but as we went 3-1 up the game seemed dead and we looked in total control.

Disaster then struck which led to the game completely turning on its head. The infamous some might say, Referee Mark Clattenburg, failed to give a free kick to United after Jamie Vardy blatantly fouled Rafael. To not blow his whistle and give this as a foul is truly one of the worst bits of football refereeing I think I’ve ever seen. Vardy nearly shoulder charged Rafael all the way to bloody Greenland it was that strong a push, it was outrageous. To make matters worse then, Rafael gets up and makes the slightest of contacts with Varney to give away a penalty. It was a very soft penalty, very harsh, and I reckon nine times out of ten it wouldn’t have been given. Varney went down like he’d been hit by a car however and this overreacting worked unbelievably. I felt for Rafael but at the same time he should not have got so close to Varney and given him the opportunity to do his dying swan act. In my opinion Rafael is great going forward but is very poor defensively. He’s too rash, too impetuous, and does not seem to be learning from past mistakes. For me, he isn’t improving as a player. I can still remember that European game where he cost us the game by again acting too rashly. He is not good enough in my opinion and we should buy another right-back in the next few transfer windows.

After Leicester scored the penalty the crowd was up again, the home team were rejuvenated, and quite simply United crumbled.  We looked a complete mess defensively and I felt sorry for Tyler Blackett(19yrs old) because clearly he is being exposed at this level far too much and soon in my opinion. This climaxed in Blackett giving a penalty away and deservedly being sent-off. Again all this started with Clattenburg turning the game on it’s head by not penalising Varney for his foul on Rafael. That said, we should never have capitulated so easily like we did. We had no Keane there calming things down and more importantly we had no commanding centre-half there refusing to be bullied. That game was crying out for a Vidic type figure, we lacked a strong physical presence and leader at the heart of our defence. I’m a chuffed we bought the likes of Di Maria and Falcao in the transfer window, we lacked having truly world class players in our team last season and these two are certainly world class talents. Nevertheless, I agree with the point that Jamie Carragher made on Sky Sports post-match. How can we/United have spent all that money over the Summer yet not have bought any central defenders in to replace the departed Vidic and Ferdinand? This is especially staggering given how injury prone Jonny Evans and Phil Jones are. It is a major flaw of Van Gaal and the rest of United’s coaching staff not to have seen we are short in this department.  Our great attacking play is being completely undermined by our weak defence. The most frustrating part of this is that we cannot remedy this either until the January window opens again, so somehow we’re just going to have to soldier on until then. Pray that Jones recovers from his injury asap and that we don’t suffer many more major injuries to our defenders. The fact that Evans limped off injured in this game adds further to my worries about how many central defenders we’ll have fit for our next game. I also thought new signing Rojo was pretty poor against Leicester. Again, seems great going forward but bit suspect defensively. I really hope Van Gaal starts Luke Shaw at left back in next game.

As you’ll have gathered by now after I’d just watched United get beat 5-3, I wasn’t having a brilliant day. I then decide my lazy Sunday would continue a bit more by watching the first thirty minutes of the Man City vs Chelsea FC game.  I was watching it but my mind had gone elsewhere, that was until I heard something that truly disgusted me…..namely SEXISM BEING CHANTED BY THE CROWD. There had been an injury to a Chelsea player and so as is the norm a Doctor and Physiotherapist ran on to the field of play to attend to the player in question.  Now I’m not going to lie here and try to appear all holier-than-thou, in the past I have noticed Chelsea have a  female physio who is extremely pretty.  I have seen this physio before on the TV in matches and thought to myself, “phwoar, she’s fit”……..but that is where it has ended. What truly appalled and angered me was when after she’d attended to the player and was running back to the bench to sit down, it was clear to hear what sexist stuff was being chanted at her by some of the crowd. “GET YOUR TITS OUT, GET YOUR TITS OUT, GET OUR TITS OUT FOR THE LADS, GET TITS OUT FOR THE LADS“.  I felt sick to my stomach upon hearing this, I could not believe that in this day and age such stuff would be sung.  I felt of how that female physio must have heard that and how she shouldn’t have to put up with such sexist behaviour in this day and age.  Yet I’ve heard nothing of this chant aimed at her being reported in the media? No reports of any Football Association investigation into this sexist crowd chanting. Sexism is a bad as racism in my opinion yet can you imagine the media reaction if they’d have been chanting racist songs to this physio. I have no doubts the media, FA and whole of our society would have quite rightly thrown the book at City if that had been the case. Therefore, why is this awful, archaic, downright disgusting chanting just being allowed to continue? At what point do you come to in your own mind where you think, I know, lets have a laugh by shouting “GET YOUR TITS OUT” to this woman? You wouldn’t dare shout it, let alone get away with it by shouting it to a woman in the street, so why should it be OK to do this at a football match? I’m heterosexual and get turned on when I see attractive women, but I then don’t feel the necessity to behave like a dog-on-heat. I have more manners and more respect for not only women, but also myself than that. I hate this laddish vulgar element of football crowds.  Can you imagine the reaction if at the Male Wimbledon Tennis Final suddenly all the females in the crowd together started chanting, “GET YOUR COCK OUT” to the male umpire, or Line Judge, or worse still, a ball boy? There again quite rightly would be outrage but yet such stuff is just ignored in football. I just hate women being referred to in such a manner and it’s about time the football authorities did too. That chant on Sunday wasn’t ‘just banter’, it was idiotic uneducated nonsense that belongs to a bygone age!