The whole weight of the world on your shoulders David??? Unless he improves, the pressure will only increase on you
There has certainly been more than plenty to talk about in the first full weekend of the new football season, especially from my perspective with the games of both Manchester United and the mighty Woking.Firstly I'll start with United and their first league game against West Brom on Sunday.
The Hawthorns has always been a difficult ground for United to come to in recent years, you only have to look at last years 1-1 draw. And then it drew the centre of attention with regards to the back page tabloids, if not for James Morrison's stunning goal scoring volley. And again this year it would be another West Brom goal that would prove to be main talking point with this season's encounter, and it would be David De Gea, yet again already this season, that would be at the centre of attention. If his mistakes in the Community Shield wasn't bad enough, his stint between the sticks at times was as equally bad. Defence of performances is one thing, to do it time and time again can only be affective for a very short time. To put De Gea at fault for West Brom's goal is a certainty. As a United supporter, even I cant defend him for it. In short, he should of reacted a lot quicker and dived earlier than he did. End of. At least he made Shane Long's day by handing him a debut to remember, but his fumble couldn't have happened at a worse time for him. Manchester City and now calamity at the Hawthorns. No wonder every non Manchester United fan was having a field day with this.
I can only imagine how shot his confidence must be right now, and you can tell by his body language whilst on the pitch. Some may unfairly compare him to a rabbit caught in the headlights, unable to cope already the demands of the fast paced Premier League. Or it could just expectation getting the better of him. After all, just look at who he's replaced. To my horror, I already found comparison’s in the tabloids of De Gea with the dreaded Massimo Taibi. Already????? After Two Games??? Saying that though, look at how many games did Taibi play for United, only four appearances. I still think its unfair to judge him in that respect, and believe it or not I'm going to defend him again. It is a question of time and adjusting before we do get to see the real David De Gea. The biggest problem I feel is quite a simple one, his lack of English. Once he's fully grasped and learn't English, his communication with his defence will be much better. And with this, stablity and the trust seen between defence and goalkeeper will improve. With injuries to Ferdinand, Vidic and Raphael at the back, it opens the door up for Jones, Smalling and Evans to able to play together and potentially build a future partnership at the back. I'm certain that De Gea will be part of that as well, but it has to be sooner rather than later. If not, we'll be revisiting scenes and story lines that we've all seen and suffered before. And no United fans wants that to happen again.
Every keeper's nightmare.
Nevertheless, we grabbed the three points and despite everything we got off to a winning start. Rooney looked extremely sharp, as did Cleverley and Young throughout the game. I'm excited for this season that despite all the “De Gea” baiting that the media is obsessed with at the moment, I really feel we are still a force to be reckoned with this year.
As for Woking.......word's escape me!! I was (and even more so now) really excited for this season with the Cards, but nothing could prepare me for the scoreline on Saturday. Thanks to the brilliance of Twitter, I was able to head out photographing AND keep tabs of the Woking scoreline all on my HTC. Or so I thought. Shock horror when I wanted to find out at the critical time, I had NO SIGNAL.....AT ALL.....FOR THREE HOURS!!!! Just my luck. It was only on my train journey home and long after the game had finished that I was able to find what Woking's fate had been that day. And then it become clear. Woking had run out 5-0 winners against Sutton United. A 5-0 win on the opening day of the season, and also top of the league......outstanding!!! I was seriously lost for words and delighted with the result.It seemed that all the expectation and pre season performance had been justified after all.
That's the way to do it!
It was also great to see the expectation return about Woking from our fans. We've been through a really torrid time in the past couple of years (especially with seeing Aldershot and Stevenage progress out of the Conference and into the football league, along with our relegation into Blue Square South in 2009) it's about time that fortune smiled on us for a change rather than kicking us while we're down. The biggest factor has been the management we have , and their ability to retain key members of the squad as well as bringing in decent replacements for those who have departed. This in my view, is THE key element for building success at any level. The spine of the team has been kept at Woking this season and impressively for lesser money than the previous season before. We finally have players who want to play and succeed for the club, and we have a vision of moving forward rather than staying put unlike in previous seasons. Like most things its all about a question of time and luck.
Lets hope to see more of the same like this down at Kingfield this year!!
On evidence from Tuesday night's performance against Hampton & Richmond, sign's of the previous Woking of old were admittedly still evident for all to see. However, the positives certainly outweighed the negative. In particular a number of players, Elvis Hammond, Moses Adelmola,Jack King and Dale Binns all looked superb, especially Hammond and King who looked a different class compared to the other's around them. The atmosphere for a weekday game was brilliant, 1,467 in comparison to previous years is an outstanding turnout by a fan base richly invigorated by the prospect of success and decently played football week in, week out. And their was most importantly the result. It ended in a 2-1 win for the Cards, although it wasn't without some questionable moments at times. However the character and resilience of this rejuvenated Woking side showed that even under pressure, they are able to grind out a result and grab the points needed to push for promotion. It looked as if Woking had goals in them throughout the game. Despite chances not being taken, and even at 1-1, I firmly believed that Woking would be able to grab a second goal and win the game. That is most certainly something I haven't felt watching Woking play for many years. Now that feeling has returned, and long may it stay! 2nd place in the league so far is something I'm really happy with, especially with some of the competition that we will be up against this year, and goes to show why people are labeling Woking as one of the favorites to go up this season. Agreed there is a long way to go still with this season, and more than likely some difficult days to come, but nothing is going to stop me being as excited as I am for Woking this season and for the all the weekends and weekday matches to come. C'MON YOU CARDS!!!
James Cummins
Doing the business for the Cards: Jack King's scores the winning penalty for Woking against Hampton & Richmond.
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