There are so many topics that could be written about the great community shield match between Manchester United and Chelsea. But one subject which has been bothering me is Sir Alex Ferguson’s penalty taker selection.
First he sent up Giggs with his years of experience, and having won the community shield 7 times already; you can’t fault that decision. Giggs uncharacteristically missed, but these things happen some times.
Next he sent up Carrick; not a striker, but he can put the ball just about anywhere he wants. Carrick stuck the penalty away well.
This is where SAF lost me; his third penalty taker was Patrice Evra?? At which point I assumed Evra was in fact a secret master of penalties, which he had proved to Ferguson on the training ground. But his penalty was predictably terrible; not sure he was trying to score or warm up the keeper.
Why when you have players such as Rooney, Owen, Scholes, would you pick Evra to take a penalty? He really has got me baffled.
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Yesterdays penalty shoot-out took me very quickly back to the 2008/09 FA CUP semi-final in which United went to penalties with Everton. Again a questionable line-up sent United out of the cup with Berbs, Ferdinand, Vidic and Anderson all taking shots. Tevez, Carrick, Scholes and Fletcher were unused! If we had managed to take a fifth penalty in the game against Everton last season, it wouldn’t have surprised me to have see Foster step up!!! It’s not particulary difficult to stick the ball in the net from 12 yards, so why cant Uniteds £100,000 a week midfield/strikers step-up and do it!