Mail 20/9/11
Leeds 0 Manchester United 3: Owen at the double as Reds ease past old rivals
By Ian Ladyman
They still do what they always did at Leeds United. They still come to Elland Road in droves and they still back their team with the gusto they did when they were winning league
championships.
These days, though, it’s all a bit of a struggle on the field.
In 11th place in the Championship, a return to the top division still seems a little way off for Simon Grayson and his team. Leeds were left confused and humbled by a Manchester United reserve team they couldn’t really live with.
United made 11 changes from the team that beat Chelsea at the weekend and, once again, they led 3-0 at half-time. This time they deserved it, too, as two goals from Michael Owen and one from Ryan Giggs served to illustrate how far Leeds have fallen behind their great rivals from Lancashire.
By the end, Leeds could reflect on some decent spells in the game. United goalkeeper Ben Amos, though, could reflect on just one save. It had been a hard night for the home team.
Grayson said: ‘There is a big gulf between us. They are where we want to get to and it looked a long way off. But we didn’t perform like we can. We wanted to give United a game and we didn’t do that.’
Grayson has done a fine job in dragging this great club from the nowhere land of League One to a position where they could yet have an impact on the upper echelons of English football’s second tier this season.
Leeds do try to play decent football, too. This is not a team that resorts to kick-it-and-chase-it tactics when things aren’t going their way.
Nevertheless, they currently look some way short of a team that could handle life in the Premier League, and here — in the areas where it mattered —United were far too good for them.
On this occasion, as before in this competition, it was Owen who inflicted the damage. This was the former England player’s first start of the season but you really couldn’t tell.
United may have fielded a peculiar team with midfielders Antonio Valencia and Michael Carrick in the defence and 19-year-old debutant Ezekiel Fryers alongside them. This may have been a team with two central strikers — Federico Macheda and Mame Biram Diouf — operating as wide players. But when you have genuine quality in key positions, anomalies such as these don’t always matter.
Leeds actually created the night’s first chance when a Tom Lees header from a corner was cleared from the line by Giggs in the fifth minute. That, though, was as good as it got for Grayson’s team and United went on to win the game with three goals in half an hour.
Ji-sung Park and Dimitar Berbatov led the United charge as they broke through the centre on the quarter-hour to feed Owen in a position he loves. Moving into the penalty area with only Lees to beat, he shifted the ball to the left to give himself a yard of space and struck a rather scuffed shot that ambled its way across the goalkeeper and inside the far post.
Owen’s first goal of the season perhaps wasn’t the sweetest he will ever strike, even if it was illustrative of his enduring sharpness. The one that followed 20 minutes later was a belter, though.
The 31-year-old had barely a yard in which to function when Diouf passed to him inside the right side of the penalty area but a touch on the outside of the right foot stopped the ball and a second with the instep of the same boot sent it fizzing across Andrew Lonergan and into the goalkeeper’s top, right-hand corner.
It was a fantastic goal, reminiscent of Owen’s salad days.
Given that he still has so much to offer, one wonders why he doesn’t seek a club where he can play more often. No matter, this was a good night for him, as indeed it was for Giggs, who supplemented last week’s Champions League goal in Lisbon with another here.
A nutmeg of Aidan White by the left touchline and a shot with the outside of the left foot was all it took to kill the game.
It looked easy but only because Giggs made it appear so.
‘We will never play you again,’ sang the United fans.
It certainly may be a while until they do.
Leeds 0 Manchester United 3: Owen at the double as Reds ease past old rivals
By Ian Ladyman
They still do what they always did at Leeds United. They still come to Elland Road in droves and they still back their team with the gusto they did when they were winning league
championships.These days, though, it’s all a bit of a struggle on the field.
In 11th place in the Championship, a return to the top division still seems a little way off for Simon Grayson and his team. Leeds were left confused and humbled by a Manchester United reserve team they couldn’t really live with.
United made 11 changes from the team that beat Chelsea at the weekend and, once again, they led 3-0 at half-time. This time they deserved it, too, as two goals from Michael Owen and one from Ryan Giggs served to illustrate how far Leeds have fallen behind their great rivals from Lancashire.
By the end, Leeds could reflect on some decent spells in the game. United goalkeeper Ben Amos, though, could reflect on just one save. It had been a hard night for the home team.
Grayson said: ‘There is a big gulf between us. They are where we want to get to and it looked a long way off. But we didn’t perform like we can. We wanted to give United a game and we didn’t do that.’
Grayson has done a fine job in dragging this great club from the nowhere land of League One to a position where they could yet have an impact on the upper echelons of English football’s second tier this season.
Leeds do try to play decent football, too. This is not a team that resorts to kick-it-and-chase-it tactics when things aren’t going their way.
Nevertheless, they currently look some way short of a team that could handle life in the Premier League, and here — in the areas where it mattered —United were far too good for them.
On this occasion, as before in this competition, it was Owen who inflicted the damage. This was the former England player’s first start of the season but you really couldn’t tell.
United may have fielded a peculiar team with midfielders Antonio Valencia and Michael Carrick in the defence and 19-year-old debutant Ezekiel Fryers alongside them. This may have been a team with two central strikers — Federico Macheda and Mame Biram Diouf — operating as wide players. But when you have genuine quality in key positions, anomalies such as these don’t always matter.
Leeds actually created the night’s first chance when a Tom Lees header from a corner was cleared from the line by Giggs in the fifth minute. That, though, was as good as it got for Grayson’s team and United went on to win the game with three goals in half an hour.
Ji-sung Park and Dimitar Berbatov led the United charge as they broke through the centre on the quarter-hour to feed Owen in a position he loves. Moving into the penalty area with only Lees to beat, he shifted the ball to the left to give himself a yard of space and struck a rather scuffed shot that ambled its way across the goalkeeper and inside the far post.
Owen’s first goal of the season perhaps wasn’t the sweetest he will ever strike, even if it was illustrative of his enduring sharpness. The one that followed 20 minutes later was a belter, though.
The 31-year-old had barely a yard in which to function when Diouf passed to him inside the right side of the penalty area but a touch on the outside of the right foot stopped the ball and a second with the instep of the same boot sent it fizzing across Andrew Lonergan and into the goalkeeper’s top, right-hand corner.
It was a fantastic goal, reminiscent of Owen’s salad days.
Given that he still has so much to offer, one wonders why he doesn’t seek a club where he can play more often. No matter, this was a good night for him, as indeed it was for Giggs, who supplemented last week’s Champions League goal in Lisbon with another here.
A nutmeg of Aidan White by the left touchline and a shot with the outside of the left foot was all it took to kill the game.
It looked easy but only because Giggs made it appear so.
‘We will never play you again,’ sang the United fans.
It certainly may be a while until they do.