Premiership has started again… but Manchester United didn’t get a happy start. The Red Devils only managed a 0-0 draw with Reading at Old Trafford on Sunday, despite playing with an extra man for a third of the game after Dave Kitson was sent off on the 58th minute.
To make it worse for United, star striker Wayne Rooney was injured in the 1st half, and it’s later confirmed that he suffered a hairline fracture, the exact time of recovery was not revealed but Rooney could be sidelined for up to 3 months.
With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Louis Saha already out… United will only have new signing Carlos Tevez available as natural striker for the next few weeks.
Reading deployed a man-to-man mark at the start of the match, and worked well to limit the mobility of United’s attacking force. United managed to create a few half chances… the closest was perhaps when Rooney steered a cross just over the bar. That was also when Rooney got injured after when Reading defender Michael Duberry accidentally landed on Rooney’s foot.
Rooney managed to hang on while limping until half time, but he was substituted by new signing Nani at the beginning of the 2nd half. Nani was the only new signings that played for United on their opening game.
Without a proper striker, Ronaldo had to play at an unfamiliar role up front… which didn’t work quite well.
John O’Shea was later brought in to play at the striker position… and came close to score just minutes after playing. Reading keeper Marcus Hahnemann did well to save that, or else it would be a splendid moment for O’Shea, who basically has played in every position in United’s game… including as goalkeeper once last season when Van der Sar was injured late in the match.
United were already dominating the game when Kitson was sent off, and I guess they were dominating some 80% possessions after playing with a man extra… but they just couldn’t find the net.
Credits to Reading’s determination and defence, and Hahnemann was superb to keep a clean sheet and deservingly claimed the Man of the Match honour.
United meanwhile found themselves already behind their fierce rivals in points… Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have all managed to claim full points from their opening matches.