What Manchester United Were Lacking vs Portsmouth

In what has so far been an FA Cup full of shocks, Manchester United were knocked out against Portsmouth on Saturday, losing 1-0 at Old Trafford. It was not meant to be for the Premiership champions as a mixture of bad luck, shocking refereeing decisions and poor finishing cost United a place in the semi-finals.

With Louis Saha injuring himself in the warmup (yet again), it left just Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez as attacking options, and neither really performed to a great standard on the day. Rooney was lacklustre in front of goal and missed a golden opportunity when clean through on goal, while Tevez is beginning to look jaded after missing pre-season due to the long drawn out transfer saga between the Red Devils and West Ham United back in the summer. With two of United’s other young strikers Frazier Campbell and Febien Brandy both out on loan, next in line for an attacking berth is Danny Welbeck, an untested 17-year old from the club’s Academy.

United missed chance after chance against Portsmouth. Shots either hit the post, sneaked wide or were thwarted by the excellent David James. What Sir Alex Ferguson’s side really lacked was a goal poacher. Someone to make something out of all the nice build up play. Someone to put the ball in the net. With that, perhaps attentions should turn to Greece, where a relatively low-profile January signing did this on his Panathinaikos debut against Larissa:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PK96b5Tsds]

How Sir Alex would have liked one of his players to do what Manucho managed here.

FA Cup, Manchester United, Manucho, Portsmouth, Sir Alex Ferguson